Random Spell Targets

Since I’ve been using random targeting tricks lately, for example in yesterday’s ranged attacks post, I’ve been thinking about where else I can apply that trick. One possibility: spells.

Take Sleep. for example. There have been many variants of the Sleep spell, even just in official D&D versions. Sometimes it affects everyone in the area. Sometimes, only enemies. Sometimes, the caster can select which people are targeted. More than one person is affected, but how many are affected changes from version to version. I’m considering this approach:

Sleep (1st Level Mind Spell)
Up to 3d6 random living creatures within 4 paces of caster fall asleep. 2 dice creatures count as two targets, 3 dice creatures as 3 targets.

A standard option for all spells that would work like this would be that the caster can grab one or two creatures simultaneously, one per hand, to affect those specific targets. I’m thinking of applying this to spells that aren’t traditionally used that way.

Cure Light Wounds (1st Level Healing Spell)
Up to 1d6 random living creatures within 4 paces of the cleric recover 1 point of damage. If the cleric touches two targets, they are each healed 1d6/2 points. A single target is healed 1d6+1 points.

The only real reasons why I’d do this is to standardize spell casting a little and to give casters more options (touching targets becomes a way to control who is affected.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

More
Magic Users
and Magic
Discussion