Tag: spells (Page 4 of 5)

Some Houserules About Magic

December 27, 2013 / Bear

Here are some things that will appear in the Next Big Project. Specifically, this information covers altering the Intelligence attribute table and moving one thing to the character sheet. Once that information is on the character sheet, there are ways to use the Saving Throw mechanic to cover learning new spells, creating scrolls and more.

On the Intelligence table in S&W, there are columns for maximum spell level, chance to understand a new spell, and min/max spells understandable per spell level. At first, it may seem odd to move the maximum spell level from Intelligence Table and move it to the Magic-User advancement table, but we'll see more about that in the Spell Points system in a future post. In theory, the min/max spells understandable column, a magic-user with INT 15 has a cap on the number of 1st level spells that can be understood. His or her spellbook will never have more than 10 different 1st level spells. In game play, though, I never remember to check this table. So, I removed it entirely.

The big change is making the chance to understand a spell a saving throw.

What are the odds of understanding a new spell on the spot, while in a dungeon and spending very little time studying it? Roll 1d20 greater than or equal to your Saving Throw + Spell Level. For example, a 4th level magic-user attempting to learn a third level spell spontaneously has to beat 15. But wait, 4th level magic-user cannot cast a third level spell! Understanding, in my sense of the game, is different than casting. Once a spell is understood, it can be copied into the magic-user's spellbook and kept for study. Casting the spell requires a certain amount of skill and determination.

My analogy for this is being able to understand a blueprint for building a dog house. I can understand what is required, I know how big the pieces need to be and how all the pieces fit together. The thing keeping me back from building the doghouse is a lack of skill with the tools to cut, measure and align the pieces. I'll get there one day, but right now, I am limited as a carpenter.

Take the same situation and allow the player to spend money on materials and time on study and the bonuses add up. Spending 1000gp or 1 day's time will add +1 to the roll. Regardless of the money spent, the amount of time spent in study is a minimum of one day. This means our 4th level magic-user can spend any combination of money and time that add up to +14 to gain an automatic success. At lower levels, the magic-user will require more time than money, but at higher levels, the magic-user will be able to pay the money. It may not seem like it, but the money adds up at higher levels.

The effect of all of this is that a magic-user may have an extensive library, yet be able to cast a limited number of the spells. Even if the spells is successfully understood, the maximum spell level that can be cast (remember that I moved this to the Magic-User advancement table) limits what he or she can actually cast.

Now Add Emphasis

The emphases system that I mention quite a bit around here, adds more variety. Remember from my previous post, that the spells listed in S&W Complete are considered Eldritch Magic. Anyone with an Intelligence from 13 to 16 will automatically have an Eldritch Magic emphasis of +1. For an Intelligence score of 17, the magic-user has an Eldritch Magic emphases of +2. For a score of 18, an emphasis with a +3 bonus.

Taking our 4th level magic-user with an INT of 15 that is attempting to understand Darkvision (a third level spell), he or she gets a +1 emphasis bonus for attempting to understand an Eldritch Magic spell. The bonus also applies for time and/or money spent . In other words, if the magic-user decides to wait until out of the dungeon to understand a spell, the bonuses stack from the Eldritch Magic emphases, the money spent (if any), and the time spent.

Now let's say that our 4th level magic-user has an emphasis of +2 on Darkness based spells. The magic-user gains the +1 bonus from the Eldritch Magic emphasis and the +2 bonus from the Darkness emphasis. Just like before, the combined +3 bonus also applies to spending time and/or money to understand a spell. The same magic-user attempting to understand a Fireball spell, however, would only gain the +1 bonus from the Eldritch Magic emphasis. Fireball can be creatively described in a lot of way, but not as a darkness type of spell.

To make this even more interesting, let us say that a GM adopts the Max Spell Level numbers I place on the Magic-User Advancement table.

Level	Max Spell Level
1	0
2	0
3	1
4	1
5	1
6	2
7	2
8	2
9	3
10	3
11	3
12	4
13	4
14	4
15	5
16	5
17	5
18	6
19	6
20	6

Created with the HTML Table Generator

Using an emphasis bonus to the Max Spell Level value of this table determines the highest level spell a Magic-User can cast. Going back to our 4th level Magic-User, he or she can actually cast the Darkness spell, but not the Fireball spell. The Max Spell level for a 4th level Magic-User is 1. With an INT of 15, the bonus allows him or her to cast 2nd level Eldritch Magic spells, but up to 4th level Eldritch spells that deal with Darkness. Unless the GM adds custom spells, there are no 4th level Darkness type Eldritch spells.

Next time, the spell point system.

Using the Emphasis System for Priests

October 8, 2013 / Bear

There can be all sorts of fun with Clerics and emphases as well. Going back to 2e, the PHB mentions priests of different mythoi. The idea was that priests could be good/okay/poor at combat, have other major and minor powers different from Turn Undead, and have access to spells broken up into spheres of influence. The idea of spheres survived into 3.x and Pathfinder as Domains. I mention this because I'm going to use Domains later as a source of building interesting clerics.

Back to the 2e world for a minute, let's generate a list of spheres. Most of them are from the Priest's Handbook. I broke up Elemental into six different elements because I don't have elemental planes in my house rules. I also added the Moon as a counter to the Sun. Here's the final list:

Air, Animal, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Earth, Fire, Guardian, Healing, Metal, Moon, Necromancy, Plant, Protection, Summoning, Sun, and Void, War, Water, Wood, Weather.

With this list, we can generate some pretty interesting priests. Whereas the handbook talked about major and minor access to spells, we are going to use +3 and +1 bonuses. Each priesthood would have four high emphases with a +3 bonus and four low emphases with a bonus of +1. Using an example from the Priest's Handbook again, let's have a Cleric that is a protector of animals. They're emphases would be:

Animal +3, Charm +3, Divination +3, Protection +3, Creation +1, Healing +1, Plant +1, War +1

In Swords and Wizardry, some spells are quite obvious for this priest;

Cure Light Wounds
Light
Protection from Evil
Snake Charm
Speak with Animals
Cure Disease
Locate Object
Prayer
Cure Serious Wounds
Neutralize Poison
Protection from Evil 10' radius
Speak with Plants
Sticks to Snakes
Insect Plague
Quest
Conjure Animals
Find the Path
Speak with Monsters
Restoration
Resurrection
Symbol

Going deeper, though, some new spells make sense for this priest. Charm Animals, for instance, a lesser Charm Monster spell. Protection from Plants (for wild vines, jungle crawls and/or plant-based creatures. There's also spells for learning about an animal through divination. This translates to spells that reveal weaknesses in an opponent. The War aspect could be used for Summoning War Dogs, or possibly an ability of the priest to call Divine Hounds to his aid.

For busy people like me, I can also build on other OGL work to come up with some really cool spells options. Here are some links to the Grand OGL Wiki:

Animal Domain, Nine spells are listed because it is based on 3.x games, but it's easy to use these as a source to build seven S&W type spells. My favorite is beastshape.

Charm Domain, Again nine spells that can be easily modified. There's quite a bit here including insanity, suggestion and calm emotions.

Protection Domain, Well looky here, Spell Immunity and Protection from Energy. Very handy spells that also fit the War aspect as well. With choices like these, this could because a popular priest already.

There was an Oracle Domain at some point that functioned like a Divination Domain. The spells for it were: 1st level - identify; 2nd level - augury; 3rd level - divination; 4th level - scrying; 5th level - commune; 6th level - legend lore; 7th level - greater scrying; 8th level - discern location; 9th level - foresight.

Greater Scrying is out just because I don't do Greater Spells. Identify is interesting as well as legend lore and discern location. Foresight can be used for all sorts of things, but I imagine most character would use it for, shall we say, war-like purposes. For this priest that fits just fine. It will take a bit more work, but considering how easy the first three were, it will be worth it.

So here in about 15 minutes, I've sketched out an interesting priest using a random reference to one of my books and the Grand OGL wiki.

It's true, this takes a bit of work, but like the mages under the emphasis system, it creates something unique about each character in a meaningful way.

Now, add in the ability to make Cleric scrolls, and now we have the interesting variations that the mages have. This example priest has a +1 for Healing, which helps, but if he incorporates Animal somehow, it can be interesting. Yes, you could say that humans are animals, so Cure Light Wounds wouldn't be much different. Let's just say, though, that the emblem of the deity is a fox. A scroll could be something like The Healing Fox or The Vulpine Cure. You could describe the spell as forming a mist in the shape of a fox that is inhaled and exhaled. The effect is that the target is healed 2-7 points of damage. Like the mages, the effect is the same, but the description makes in more fun.

Hopefully there will be more tomorrow. This time using the psionic guys.

Creation Spell System

June 12, 2013 / Bear

This post is designed to better explain the Create and Object family of spells as well as provide some of the ways this family of spells is affected by spell research. Spontaneously generating an object is supposed to be a quick, but risky process whereas the prepared magic-user can reliably generate specific objects in the same way he or she can cast any other spell. Researching specific Create an Object spells are much cheaper and faster than researching other spells. The rationale is that the fundamentals of the spell are exactly the same, but the specific execution is different. The foundation of the spell is already there, what is left is the part of the spell that sits on this foundation.

One thing that I left out of my previous post was that spontaneous Create an Object spells have a set duration and range, regardless of the object created. The only way to alter the range and duration is through spell research. In other words, no one will be able to spontaneously generate a suit of armor and it last for several days. The default range is ten feet and the default duration is 6 minutes. Unlike the Monster Summoning spells, there is no 1 Turn delay in the object appearing.

I have a pretty extensive equipment list that I use. It includes types of wood, metal, textiles, bulk food items and various pieces of random equipment. Extensive equipment lists are not to everyone's liking, so I also included guildelines for creating objects that do not appear in the standard equipment list. The guildelines do not exactly corresponded with standard equipment lists. In other words, if an item is on an equipment list, it is always better to use the price from the equipment list. This is especially true for arrows. The standard S&W Equipment list has 20 arrows for 2 gp. Using the Create an Object guidelines, a powerful archmage might only be able to create ten arrows at the most.

So here are the revised and condensed rules for Create and Object spells. Note: I made one change. I found that there are a lot of items priced between six and twenty-five gold pieces and I didn't want many of those items to require a 3rd Level Spell to create them.

Creating Items with a Known Price

Cost (GP)	Adjustment
0	1
up to 1	2
1 – 25	3
26 – 100	4
101 – 500	5
501 – 2,500	6
2,501 – 10,000	7
10,001 – 50,000	8
50,001 – 200,000	9
200,001 - 1,000,000	10
Anything over 1,000,000	11

Creating Items without a Price

Start with a +2 adjustment for most things, +3 for items made of stone and a +4 adjustment for anything made of metal. If your campaign makes use of mithril or other fantastic metals, start with +6. After that, based on the dimensions of the object, use the table below, courtesy of the d20srd. Use either Height/Length or Weight, but not both.

Height/Length	Weight	Volume (cu. ft.)	Modifier
6 in. or less	1/8 lb. or less	n/a	-2
6 in. to 1 ft.	1/8 lb. to 1 lb.	n/a	-1
1 ft. to 2 ft.	1 lb. to 8 lb.	Less than 1	0
2 ft. to 4 ft.	8 lb. to 60 lb.	1 to 8	1
4 ft. to 8 ft.	60 lb. to 500 lb.	8 to 64	2
8 ft. to 16 ft.	500 lb. to 2 tons	64 to 500	3
16 ft. to 32 ft.	2 tons to 16 tons	500 to 4000	4
32 ft. to 64 ft.	16 tons to 125 tons	4000 to 32000	6
64 ft. or more	125 tons or more	over 32000 cu. ft.	8

It is important that only *one* column is used in calculating modifiers. Some things are easier to measure by Height or Length (whichever is larger), Weight or Volume. The Volume column is useful for summoning novel objects like metal spheres or stone walls.

What about elemental materials like fire, air, sound and other things? I start with an adjustment of +1 for those types of things. If the element is created as part of an attack, the spell will do 1d6 points of damage. For an additional +1 adjustment, it will do 1d6/level points of damage.

Converting Saving Throw Adjustments to Leveled Spells

Calculate the Saving Throw Adjustment per the rules above and multiply the result by 2/3. Round the result.

With all of that said, here are some practical examples of the Create and Object spell. The spell will be given in a one line format similar to spell listings in the S&W Complete Rules book. The only addition will be the ST Adj: field that appears before the description.

Summon Shield
Level: 2, Range: 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +3, Description: This spell creates a normal shield for the purposes of AC adjustment and Shields Shall Be Splintered rules. Although the shield is detected as a magic shield by a Detect Magic spell, it does not function any differently from a normal shield.

A shield is listed as 15gp in S&W, so looking at the Creating Items with a Known Price table, the ST. Adjustment would by +3.

Summon Sword
Level: 2, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +3, Description: This spell creates any type human-sized sword or smaller. Although the sword is considered magical for the purposes of the Detect Magic spell, it does not offer any to hit or damage bonuses. A sword created in this way does not have the ability to hit creatures that can only be hit by magical weapons.

This is just like the Summon Shield spell. Any sword listed in the Equipment list is between 6 and 25 gp.

Summon Fire
Level: 1, Range: 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +1, Description: This spells creates a normal fire useful for lighting a torch or campfire. It acts as normal fire for all purposes. Anyone touching the flames suffers 1d6 damage. If the fire is cast on a target, it will suffer 1d6 points of damage per round until it is extinguished.

Summon Stone Cage (Take that Rust Monsters!)
Level: 3, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +5, Description: This spell creates a stone cage that measures just large enough to imprison one rust monster (6 ft x 4 ft x 4 ft). Although a Detect Magic spell will register the cage as magical, its only magical power is giving you enough time to safely run away from a rust monster.

A stone cage starts with a +3 modifier because it is made out of stone. The cage measures 6 ft by 4 ft by 4 ft. The longest measurement is 6 ft, which adds a +2 modifier. (A stone cage is not going to weigh less than 60 lbs.)

Summon Siege Engine
Level: 4, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +6, Description: This spell creates an onager.

I have an equipment list with the price of an onager, trebuchet and other siege enginers included. For the purposes of this spell, however, I am assuming that there is no handy listing. It is made out of wood and metal, so there is a +4 modifier to start. (You may decide to handle mixed materials differently.) The longest part of an onager is the arm which measures anywhere between 6 and 8 feet long. This adds a +2 modifier providing a total modifer of +6.

Summon Small Galley
Level: 5, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +8, Description: This spell creates a small galley that can hold up to 20 people including the 15 sailors required to operate the ship.

You never know when you will need a ship for only six minutes when you just so happen to have 15 sailors handy while standing at the edge of a dock, but it is important to be prepared. In all seriousness, this is the type of spell that can be improved by Spell Research. Through research, the duration could be extended to a few days or a month, depending on the length of the journey. In the next section, I'll deal with customizing the spell.

Customization

Range	Duration	Adj.
up to 10 ft.	up to 6 min	0
30 ft.	1 hour	1
60 ft.	12 hours	2
240 ft.	1 day	3
½ mile	1 week	4
2 miles (LOS)	2 weeks	5
	1 month	6
	2 months	7
	4 months	8
	1 year	9

Looking at the Summon Small Gallery spell again, let's say that we need a boat for a short journey, maybe a week with extra time in case of bad weather. The magic-user successfully researches the spell to create a small galley for two weeks. The standard spell had a ST Adj of +8. Looking at the customization chart, a duration of 2 weeks adds an additional +5 to the adjustment for a total of +13 ST Adj. This would translate to an 8th level spell.

FWIW, it would be an eighth level regardless of the size of the ship. Also note that this creates the ship with sails and rigging, but it does not include cannon, ammunition, or provisions.

Summon Small Galley (Improved)
Level: 8, Range 10', Duration: 2 weeks, ST Adj: +13, Description: This spell creates a small galley that can hold up to 20 people, including the 15 required to operate the ship. This spell does not create balista or other weapons on the ship. It also does not create any provisions. The ship last for two weeks after which time it will dissipate into the nothingness from whence it came.

Here's another spell based on Summon Fire:

Summon Fireball
Level: 3, Range: 240', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +4, Description: This spell creates a ball of fire about the size of a small campfire at a selected target. Anyone hit by the fire suffers 1d6 damage/level of the magic-user. A Saving Throw negates all damage. Any other object hit by the fireball will be set on fire until extinguished or the spell expires.

It's just GM Fiat that says that anyone hit by the fireball doesn't take 1d6/level damage per round. Notice that this is not as powerful as the Fireball spell. It doesn't fill an area of 33000 cubic feet and there is no explosion. The ball is fairly small in size and can be entirely avoided. Being normal fire, however, it will ignite any combustible materials for the duration of the spell. What follows is a more typical use of summoning fire.

Summon Firewall
Level: 4, Range 30', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +6, Description: This spell creates a wall of fire 10' high and 30' wide. Any creature attempting to pass through the fire will suffer 1d6 damage and may ignite flammable items that they are carrying. At the end of the spell, the fire will immediately go out.

Building this one was Fire +1, 30' longest dimension +4, Range 30' +1 for a total of +6.

Limitations of Create an Object

Even though livestock have a price, Create and Object cannot be create or summon living creatures. I allow this system to create rations, but that is up to the individual GM.

An item created by a Create an Object spell cannot be made permanent by the Permanence spell. The only way to make an item created by this spell into a permanent item is my performing rituals usually associated with the traditional method of making magic items.

It cannot be used to create magic items, with a few specific exceptions. Those exceptions are unintelligent magic weapons that do nothing more than offer a simple bonus on attack rolls and damage. I also allow normal weapons created by the Create and Object spell to be turned into any type of magic weapon, even those with intelligence and other powers. The rationale is that a wizards, especially enemies of the party, may not always have access to a blacksmith to make a sword. Despite bypassing the need for a blacksmith, there is extra cost associated with making the weapon a permanent item.

When the magic-user that casts the Create an Object spell dies, any object he or she created with the Create an Object spell at any point in his or her life will immediately dissipate.

For the next post, I'll talk about the Summoner Class that uses this magic system.

Tag: spells (Page 4 of 5)