Ethereal Components

The way I run magic in D&D, M-Us use common, easy-to-get “material components” as spell ingredients during their spell prep (not during spell casting.) This helps explain why there is even a need for spell prep and why it is usually done between adventures rather than during them.

But one particular idea I’ve had about this spell prep is: some spell prep involves using a material object to make a temporary ethereal duplicate of that object that the spell caster “carries” with them, as if it were equipment. Examples of this for 1st level spells:

Hold Portal (object: iron spike)

Casting the spell wedges an invisible spike under the door, preventing the door from moving for a short period of time.

Shield (object: wooden shield)

Summons an invisible shield between the caster and opponents the caster is facing at the time of casting.

Magic Missile (object: arrow)

Summons an invisible arrow or large dart into the caster’s hand that can be thrown immediately at an opponent.

Light (object: lit candle)

When prepped, the light from the candle is “stored” ethereally, attached to whatever is holding the lit candle (M-U’s hand, end of a staff, etc.) When cast, the light becomes visible above the attachment point and moves with it. Max duration = max burn time for a candle.

1st level spells would only be able to bring back one quality of the object used (like the light of a candle, or the obstruction ability of an iron spike.) The object itself would not appear (not a conjuration, in other words,) so you couldn’t use Hold Portal to summon spikes to use as climbing gear, for example. The effect is short-lived.

3rd level spells would allow actual items or material to be stored ethereally and conjured when needed.

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

Re-Vamped Spells: Invisibility

Another spell altered to fit in better with ideas about conceptual magic: invisibility.

Invisibility
Causes light to pass through the spellcaster to conceal their position until some action reveals it.

Thoughts:

• This is similar to but not quite an illusion. As long as there is no physical contact or visible movement, the caster can remain invisible for a long time.
• If the caster touches or attacks someone, throws a dagger, or even bumps into a chair or opens a door, this reveals the caster’s position and ends the spell.
• Anything worn or carried when the spell is cast is also made invisible, but only as long as the caster continues to wear or carry it. Throwing, dropping, or putting down an item makes the item and the caster visible.
• Other actions can reveal the caster’s location as well. For example, lighting a torch. flapping a fan to create a gust of air. Basically, anything that alters light or the environment around the caster ends the effect.
• Following from that principle: Food carried at the time the spell is cast becomes invisible, but eating it and causing it to be digested alters the food and the spellcaster, ending the spell.
• Sound, smell, or vibrations don’t automatically reveal location, but high Intelligence or Wisdom characters have a 5+ on 1d6 chance of figuring out a location and can try to grab or attack the caster. Creatures with sharp senses also get a chance to find invisible targets, or automatically spot them if their hit dice are higher than the caster’s level.
• Creatures that don’t use vision at all, or can operate completely without vision, ignore invisibility. However, there may be alternative ways to conceal odor or sound, eliminating that as a means of detection.
• A successful attack on an invisible being, even one that does no damage like throwing a bucket of water in their direction, will end the invisibility.

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

Re-Vamped Spells: Phantasmal Forces

This is the first in what may become an irregular series on altering spells, possibly for use with the ideas I had about conceptual magic. I want to start with illusions, and in particular Phantasmal Forces.

Phantasmal Forces
Causes insubstantial smoke, mist, light, or shadow to appear as any physical object or being the spellcaster can imagine, for as long as they can see and focus on it. The primary illusion can indirectly harm intelligent beings as long as they believe it, but touching it reveals the trick.

Some thoughts here:

• Instead of this being a form of mental domination, this spell makes something real appear as something else. Some other class like Mesmerist or Psychic might be able to create illusions purely with their mind.
• There has to be a target to transform visually, and it should be something that’s indistinct or even amorphous, even chaotic. When that target is somehow eliminated (wind blows away the smoke) or when the magician can no longer see the target, the illusion ends.
• Magicians can create this target in a couple ways, if they can’t find a viable target that already exists. In particular, they could burn something to create smoke, or use mirrors to direct a beam of light on the floor.
• There’s a primary illusion (the imaginary brick wall, a unit of illusory archers, an imaginary dragon) and incidental effects (dust and debris falling off the wall when it is hit by a catapult, arrows fired by the archers, flames flickering from the dragon’s nostrils.) The incidental effects can cause damage as long as the victim believes the illusion. Contact with the the primary illusion, however, does no damage, and the victim will feel that it’s not really there.
• If a player says “I don’t believe this!” or mentions something they notice about the situation that doesn’t make sense, compare their character’s Intelligence or Wisdom to the caster’s. If the player’s score is 2+ points higher, they automatically disbelieve. If it’s equal or within 1 point, roll 5+ on 1d6 to disbelieve.
• If something unexpected happens that could reveal the illusion, below average intellect spellcasters have to roll 5+ on 1d6 to adjust their illusion’s behavior quick enough to avoid an obvious inconsistency.
• Incidental effects that cause damage are risky because they may reveal flaws in the illusion. If a victim is hit by an arrow that does damage, and the victim tries to pull out the arrow afterwards, the arrow won’t be there, prompting disbelief. Fire, similarly, won’t burn anything but a living victim with at least animal intelligence, which causes disbelief. It’s better for a spellcaster to create a slinger throwing sling bullets than an archer, since it’s harder to spot flaws in the illusion.
• Melee attacks on illusory targets automatically reveal the illusion, but ranged attacks don’t. Use the spellcaster’s level as the creature’s hit points, but each successful attack does only 1 point unless the attack is a critical hit, in which case the illusion is revealed.
• Once one person disbelieves an illusion, they can reveal the illusion to all other observers. However, the caster can still maintain the illusion as a mere image. It will no longer cause damage or conceal anything, but for as long as the underlying target persists, the caster can maintain it. This could be used to entertain people, for example.

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

Spells to Detect or Sense Evil

Tim at Gothridge Manor has started going through the D&D spells one spell at a time and has made it to Detect Evil. Rob at Bat in the Attic has also commented on this. I’ve said some things about Detect Evil before, but I figured now is a good opportunity to comment on why I’m changing the spell in Liber Zero.

Tim likes the absence of subjectivity in the GURPS spell Sense Foes more than the vagueness of the B/X version. Rob points out that the original version in Men & Magic is in a way closer to the GURPS spell:

A spell to detect evil thought or intent in any creature or evilly enchanted object. Note that poison, for example, is neither good nor evil.

I interpret the original spell the same way: the spell detects a plan to do harm, either within a person in the caster’s presence or within an active spell or enchantment placed by someone planning harm. I link it to the ESP spell, which detects all thoughts, not just thoughts of harming the caster. Enchanted objects are an exception to the rule that poison, traps, and other mindless things or substances have no thoughts and thus cannot be detected as “evil”. Enchantments, the way I see them, contain part of the enchanter’s thoughts and desires, as opposed to a mundane bear trap or covered pit.

So, in the LZ Hybrid Class pamphlet, I listed the spell as Sense Evil, and was tempted to rename it completely to Sense Enemy. I haven’t written spell descriptions yet (working on a huge spell database as prep for that…) but it will be something like:

Sense Evil (Short Perception Spell)
Senses beings and enchantments that plan to harm the caster.

Note that this would not detect beings planning harm against someone other than the caster. This is what an ESP (or Sense Thoughts) spell would do.

    

About
Liber Zero
material

    

More
Magic Users
and Magic
Discussion

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

Spell Keywords for One-Liner/Two-Liner Descriptions

For quite a long while now, I’ve been talking about creating a keyword system for spell descriptions, similar to the way I used keywords for monster descriptions. So, for example, I may have a monster listing that begins:

Tentacle Rat (Fantastic Aggressive Monstrous Vermin)

… And I’d like a spell listing like:

Enraged Finger (2nd Level Delusion Spell)

… or something like that.

I’ve also been working on a universal table of spell stats, but I’m constantly needing to tweak things, especially the ranged stat. But it just now occurred to me that I could use range keywords and stick those in the one-liner name, thus eliminating at least a few table look-ups.

Keywords I’m thinking of:

• Melee: 12 paces (30 feet)
• Short-Range: 24 paces (60 feet)
• Mid-Range: 48 paces (120 feet)
• Long-Range: 96 paces (240 feet)

And, if it really looks necessary, Touch could be a range, although I have some different ideas about handling that.

Similarly, Area would specify an area with the same width as Melee range, and Wide Area would be the same width as Short-Range (twice the width of Area.) If necessary, there could be a Terrain area keyword that matched the dimensions of Long-Range. Different range/area keywords would be accessible at different levels for different spell-casters, perhaps even for different spell-types, but this would help compress spell design tables, when I get around to those again.

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

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

Delusions and Illusions

Before continuing the exploration of mystical states of matter I started in this post, I wanted to say a little more about the old mystical states of astral and ethereal matter and how they affect spell-casting.

I believe I mentioned a long while ago that illusions have a special relationship to astral matter. An illusion spell cast while the spell-caster is astral takes on its own semi-permanent reality. Hallucinatory Terrain creates a sort of pocket astral realm, while Phantasmal Forces can make self-willed astral beings. Conjuration takes this one step further, causing these astral beings created from pure thought to physically materialize for a while.

Similarly, ethereal matter is affected by desire and emotion and can be used to transfer these to another being. Call it “delusion” in contrast to “illusion”. The simplest delusion spells would transfer simple physical sensations, like sleep and hunger. Charm spells would also depend on ethereal matter.

The way I’m imagining it: spell-casters during their spell prep would imagine themselves feeling sleepy, hungry, or loyal, basically practicing self-hypnosis, while chanting magical phrases, scribing symbols, and burning incense or other ingredients, impressing their desires on etheric material and binding it to some trigger phrases and gestures so they can recall and direct it later.

Since Sleep and Charm Person are 1st level spells, while the first illusion (Phantasmal Forces) is 2nd level, I’m thinking astral equivalents of ethereal manipulations are all basically one level higher. For example, Invisibility (2nd level) transforms light that reaches the target into ethereal light, so that those unable to see ethereal things would be unable (or barely able) to see the target. An astral equivalent that is harder to detect and is more like an illusion, able to be turned on or off with a thought, would be 3rd level. Detect Evil and ESP are ethereal-based, Clairvoyance and Clairaudience are astral-based and one level higher.

Extrapolating further: Dimension Door (4th level) relies on astral distortions of distance (I know AD&D says its a form of ethereal travel, rather than astral, but I don’t see it that way…) What would the 3rd level ethereal equivalent be? No spatial distortion, but temporary intangibility. This is pretty close to Phase Door, although that is rated as 7th level. I think it should definitely be lowered in spell level, although the multiple use version could be set at 5th level (and the caster should be allowed to take up to two others through the phase door.)

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

Decode Arcana, Scrolls, and Learning Spells

Sebastian DM had some questions in a comment on yesterday’s Liber Zero Magic Class pamphlet. The answers are related and worth some discussion, so I’m answering in a full post.

I have two questions. First, Why require time and cost to learn spells if Decode Arcana will do it free and instantly? It is a first level spell so I would guess a player would learn it fast. And second, how come a MU must learn a spell before they can utilize it from a scroll? Did you figure they would want to learn it first anyway?

Before I get started, let me make clear, for anyone who didn’t know, that the Decode Arcana spell is meant to replace Read Magic. A lot of my previous posts on Read Magic went into the thinking behind the spell.

Originally, Read Magic seems to have been a gatekeeper for using scrolls and magic items. There weren’t a lot of predefined details about the way spellbooks and learning spells worked in early games, so its only real effect was to restrict how many scrolls found in a dungeon could be used immediately. It’s limited to the number of Read Magic spells memorized.

Decode Arcana inherits this function. The way I’m imagining the spell working: a magician finds a scroll, which is written in some ancient wizard’s uniquely personal magical code. The magician doesn’t have time to decode the symbols, so they use Decode Arcana to immediately decode it. They now know what the scroll says and can use it.

That’s pretty much identical to the way most GMs use Read Magic. It’s just a different backstory of how it works.

What I changed, though, was: magicians can automatically recognize and use scrolls for spells they already know. Decode Arcana isn’t necessary. Limiting scroll use to spells the magician already knows sounds like a limitation, but it is actually a boost to ability: instead of a 1st Level Magician only being able to use one scroll max, assuming they’ve prepared Decode Arcana, they can use any scrolls of known spells they find, plus one scroll of an unknown spell per Decode Arcana spell used. Once Decode Arcana is cast to learn an unknown spell, that spell is known and the magician never needs to cast Decode Arcana to read a scroll with that spell on it.

This is a very complicated way to explain what’s ultimately a simplification.

That basically answers the second question. But why require time and cost to learn spells, if Decode Arcana does it for free? The magician might not know Decode Arcana. Without the spell, they will need to take the slow, costly way of learning new spells. But on the other hand, they aren’t completely locked out of learning new spells or even using scrolls, just because they don’t know Decode Arcana. They always have a way around it. However, they have a strong incentive to find and learn Decode Arcana as quickly as possible.

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

    

About
Liber Zero
material

    

More
Magic Users
and Magic
Discussion

Hallucination Spell

The [Confusion][] spell makes me think of Hallucination, even though there is no such spell in the original books. So of course I have to make one.

Hallucination (5th Level Mind Spell)
Similar to Confusion, but randomizes the appearance of any creature or object as well.

The way I would randomize appearances: replace any noun with another noun that starts with a random letter. At the beginning of the spell, roll 1d6 three times, once for each category: people, monsters, objects. Find the indicated letter in the nouns being replaced.

1d6 Roll	Letter to Use
1	first letter of word
2 or 4	second letter of word
3 or 5	2nd letter from end
6	last letter of word

Example: You roll 1, 2, and 1. For any PC or NPC, such as “Bob the Warrior”, take the first letter of their name (B) and think of a noun that starts with that letter (say, “bear”.) For any monster, such as “goblin”, take the second letter of the word (O) and think of a noun that starts with that letter (say, “owl”.) For any object, such as “sword”, take the first letter of the word (S) and think of another noun that starts with that letter (say, “salami”.)

So, if an adventurer is hallucinating and their comrade Bob is swinging a sword at a goblin, the adventurer sees a bear attacking an owl with a salami. You only roll the dice once, to basically “pick a secret code to use”, then convert nouns on the fly using that code. You use three dice just to make it less obvious which letter you are using, making it harder for the players to “crack the code”… but you could just roll the dice once and always use that letter.

For simplicity’s sake, all hallucinating PCs see the same thing: they all see Bob as a bear wielding a salami.

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

Confusion Spell: Simplified

Some people prefer spell descriptions to be as short as possible. One-liners, even. The Confusion spell is certainly one that could use a rewrite that would simplify it, since the by-the-book version has the GM rolling for number of confused creatures, delay until confusion takes effect, and what confused creatures do, which is rolled every turn for 12 turns, as are all the saving throws. It’s a monstrosity.

How about this instead?

Confusion (4th Level Mind Spell)
Randomizes the target of any action taken by confused victims. 3 HD victims save on first turn, 4+ HD victims save every turn to escape confusion for 1 turn.

Any action – helpful or harmful, performed on oneself or another person – affects a random target. Everyone a victim could reasonably perform the action on, including themselves, rolls dice, and the target with the lowest roll becomes the actual target for the action. So, confused victims can attack a friend, heal an enemy, try to take the helmet off of a wolf, or any number of confused actions.

Players have an advantage in that they can choose to take no actions at all until the confusion goes away. But this seems like a reasonable advantage.

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

Spell Stat Table

Wait, did I not do a table for spell stats? I’m finding some, but none seem complete.

Level	Range	Missile	Duration	Diameter
1	10 ft	120 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
2	20 ft	120 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
3	30 ft	240 feet	4d6 turns	30 feet
4	40 ft	240 feet	4d6 turns	60 feet
5	50 ft	360 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet
6	60 ft	360 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet

First two columns are for range. For missile spells, use the second column, obviously. Also use this for feet/turn for movement spells like Fly, or for the distance limit for a spell already in effect (Levitation thus has a 20 foot range, but target can be levitated 120 feet above the caster.)

Duration time units depend on nature of spell. Turns are combat turns (rounds) or ten-minute turns, depending on whether spell is intended for combat. Some effects that make more sense if they last hours or days would use those time units instead.

Diameter is used for area of effect, for example Fireball.

You can use this plus a basic concept of what the spell is supposed to do to improvise the vast majority of spells.

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

Limited Light Magic

Was reading a blog post about Continual Light spells and how to fit them into a campaign world. I’ve posted briefly about Light/Continual Light before, but haven’t worried too much about it in play. I just assume that, despite the name, Continual Light doesn’t last forever, just such a long time that PCs don’t need to worry about it. But thinking about it more, I realized “Hey! I could just use my old standby, the situation roll, to take care of it!”

Here are my simple readings of Light vs. Continual Light:

Light
Everything within a 30-foot circle glows, illuminating the area for an hour + 10 minutes per caster level. Objects removed from the target area stop glowing, so the light is non-mobile. Since everything in the area glows, the light cannot be blocked, nor are there any shadows, but it’s only as bright as a candle.

Continual Light
Everything within a 240-foot circle glows, illuminating the area indefinitely. Every day at sunrise and sunset, there is a 5+ on 1d6 chance the spell effect ends. Otherwise, it lasts until dispelled. The light is as bright as daylight. It is otherwise identical to Light.

Since neither Light nor Continual Light are mobile, other spells would fill that role.

Magic Candle (2nd Level)
Creates a light as bright as a candle that floats in air and last as long as the caster maintains it, up to 10 x 2d6 minutes. The light only moves when the caster concentrates on it, but when it is stationary, the caster is free to do other things.

Enchanted Light (2nd Level)
Causes an object to emit light as bright as a torch for 10 x 2d6 minutes. It can’t be used to burn things or start fires, but on the other hand, it can’t be extinguished by water and can be covered up like a lantern.

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

One List, Two List, Red List, Blue List

About a week or two ago, when I wrote up a spell building table, JDJarvis asked how specific spells would be implemented. I answered, but I admitted, “There’s always the possibility that I stripped too many keywords out of earlier versions of the list”. Because it does kind of seem that way, and I’ve been worrying about it.

See, the original spell building lists I did arranged spell effects by level this way:

1. mind, detect, protect, restrict, scale
2. movement, control, combat ability
3. dispel, cause or avoid (ranged) damage

...Etc.

These were based on examining what the standard spells were able to do at each level. But each time I redid the list, I tried to simplify what was listed for each level, to make it quicker to look stuff up:

1. generic change/sense
2. control
3. dispel

... Etc.

And a side effect was that the clone versions of some spells might wind up at a lower spell level than the original spell, simply because there are no rules in place to force Fireball (for example) to be a 3rd-level spell. I did have some old, tentative rules for increasing the spell level of some spells, where you add +1 to spell level for each of the following conditions:

1. Spell fits two categories of the same level;
2. Fits three or more categories;
3. Adds an additional effect;
4. Removes a limitation or otherwise improves an existing spell.

But that sort of undoes the simplicity I was aiming for.

What I’m thinking I’m going to have to do is more or less add the missing keywords back in, but perhaps as separate spell lists covering broad ranges of effects. I’m thinking Combat, Pre-Combat, Transformed State, and Aid.

But I have to think of this further.

Liber Zero Spell Build Table: Magician

So, after the post about spell durations, I was planning on doing a follow-up on spell ranges. But then I thought: "It's probably easier to display this information as a table, which I have to do eventually, anyways."

So I made a table.

M-U Spell Types and Details

Level	Type	Range	Duration	Area
1	generic change/sense	10 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
2	control	20 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
3	dispel	30 feet	4d6 turns	30 feet
4	create	40 feet	4d6 turns	60 feet
5	soul	50 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet
6	death/major change	60 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet
Exclude	Cure spells	n/a	n/a	n/a

Combat Spells are Line of Sight, minimum 120 feet/2 spell levels. Also applies to distance/speed limits for movement spells.

Spell-Caster Level adds 10 feet/level to range of "pre-combat" spells and 1 turn/level to physical effect durations.

There's probably a few notes I need to add. Certainly, I need to explain the six types, and I have to dig up the info on creature levels. But basically, with this, you can improvise stats for any spell, based solely on the one-line concept.

The spell creates a wall of thorns? "Create" is a 4th level effect, the wall will be 60 feet wide; right now, the duration would be 4d6 turns. If it made existing thorns grow into a wall, it's a change of state spell, which is essentially permanent until something else changes the state again.

The spell swaps the soul of the target with the soul of the caster? 5th level, 50 foot range, lasts as long as the caster concentrates or 6d6 turns.

Because of the simplification of the spell patterns, many spells will change, but there will be some notable dead-on copies of spells from the original game, because that's how I derived the simplified rules.

Still need to do the cleric version, and maybe the druid and illusionist versions as examples of custom spell lists.

Suggestion

I wanted to take a look at the Suggestion spell from Supplement I (Greyhawk.) Here's the text of the spell:

Suggestion: A spell which works on the principle of hypnosis. If the creature which it is thrown at fails to make its saving throw vs. magic it will carry out the suggestion, immediately or deferred according to the wish of the magic-user. Self-destruction is 99% unlikely, but carefully worded suggestions can, at the referee's option, alter this probability. Suggestions must be simple and relatively short, i.e. a sentence or two. Duration: 1 game week.

The first thing that occurs to me is that Suggestion spell is yet more proof that Charm Person is not mind control. If a charmed person does exactly what you want, then Charm Person is better than Suggestion: it's 1st level instead of 3rd level, it lasts longer, it covers more than a single command. The only benefit of Suggestion would be that it can affect any kind of thinking creature, not just those covered by a Charm Person spell. But if Charm Person is not re-interpreted as mind control, the only "mind control" spells are Suggestion (one command) and Magic Jar (unlimited control.)

The other thing that occurred to me was the bit about saving throws. We usually read the words "saving throw" without thinking about it much. But consider this: when is the saving throw for the Suggestion spell made? At the time the spell is cast, or at the time the suggestion is triggered? And does the magic-user know the target's saving throw failed?

Pyrotechnics

I don't think I've written about the Pyrotechnics spell before. It seems innocuous enough: 2nd level spell, requires some form of fire as a source, which is extinguished by the spell, creates either a fireworks-like display OR an area of thick smoke. But what's it good for?

Before you answer, consider this: Phantasmal Forces is also a 2nd level spell. It can also create a fireworks display or an area of (illusory) thick smoke -- and a whole lot more. It does not require a fire source. It can potentially last longer. My reasoning is that Pyrotechnics has to be more than a mere pretty display, distraction, or obscuring cloud to be worth the effort of making a separate spell just for fireworks.

My theory is that there's a chance that a fireworks display could set fire to flammable material. Not a huge chance, maybe not over a large area if your fire source is a candle. Maybe have the caster make an attack roll against AC 9 for dry, highly flammable materials, AC 5 for large chunks of wood, AC 3 for stuff that can burn, but is hard to light. If the caster scores a hit, roll for "damage"; on 5+, a significant flame starts burning, otherwise it just smolders a little. Adjust this roll up or down based on conditions.

Also, there's a chance that a bright flash can blind onlookers. Have anyone with Con 3 to 12 roll a d6; they are blinded on a 5+.

A smoke cloud, similarly, should have a choking effect in addition to obscuring vision. The caster can roll 1d6, or 2d6 for large fire sources; everyone in the affected area whose Con is 3 to 12 rolls 1d6, and those whose score matches one of the caster's dice cough while in the cloud and are at half Move.

Oh, and let's not neglect the fact that there's no rule that says the caster must be holding the fire source, so it's a great way to extinguish the enemy's light source. In fact, it seems to be the only low-level spell that can extinguish a fire.

Magic Missile

There was a recent forum discussion about the Magic Missile spell, so I was forced to think about it a bit. I'm still very attached to the idea of ranged damage spells being restricted to 3rd level or higher, so that has always peeved me about Magic Missile being first level. But the original Greyhawk version of the spell at least keeps the number of missiles down; it's one missile to start with, + two missiles every 5 levels, with each missile doing the same damage as a magic arrow (1d6+1) and presumably being equivalent to a +1 arrow in terms of what creatures it can hit.

Greyhawk doesn't mention an attack roll for the arrow. Later versions of the spell went either way; Holmes I believe was the first to mention an attack roll, while AD&D turns the spell into an automatic hit weapon. There's an argument that requiring an attack roll punishes 1st level magic users who take this as their one and only spell; cast the spell, roll badly, and your spell is a waste. Of course, the same thing could happen if you take Charm Person as your one and only spell, but at least your odds are better. I suggest the spell should be auto hit, but a clever reaction from the victim allows a saving throw for half damage; this keeps it only a tiny bit better than Fireball or Lightning Bolt.

I'd make one other change, though: when the caster's level is high enough to create multiple missiles, I think I would restrict them to one attack per round, rather than having a machine-gun effect. This is to help distinguish it from those third-level ranged attacks already mentioned; instead of doing all its damage at once, it doles it out in small bits.

Read 1d6 Languages?

I was thinking a little bit about the Read Languages spell, and what it covers. It was meant primarily for reading treasure maps, as you can see from the description in Men & Magic:

Read Languages: The means by which directions and the like are read, particularly on treasure maps. It is otherwise like the Read Magic spell above.

Naturally, you can toss in graffiti or clues in books. That's not a problem. However, when you compare it to Read Magic, as the description suggests, you notice this:

The spell is of short duration (one or two readings being the usual limit).

I decided in a previous post that my ruling on Read Magic would be: 1d6 spell levels per casting, with each command word on a magic item counting as one spell level. But how would this work for Read Languages?

We could take the word "directions" as being the equivalent to "incantations" in Read Magic. But restricting the spell to 1d6 directions seems unusually strict and difficult to manage. Are you honestly going to list every direction given on a treasure map and count the number of directions that can be read?

On the other hand, changing it to 1d6 pages seems too generous. It means an M-U could decipher 3 or 4 maps with one spell. It also means that, for mysterious tomes, you'd have to assign clues or information to individual pages. Too much work!

The compromise: Assume a caster can always decipher one complete map or page with the spell. When they try to read a second map, roll a d6: on 5+, they can completely decipher it and can try another map. If the roll is 4 or less, though, they can decipher most of a map, but the spell fades as they get to the last bit of information. So, you the GM describe all directions or instructions relevant to the goal listed on the map except for the last one. Tell the player that there's one line that couldn't be translated. They can choose to cast a second spell, or go with what they were able to decipher.

For books, I might need some other rules. I want to think about this a while.

Rope Trick

I've been meaning to take a closer look at some Supplement I (Greyhawk) spells for a while, starting with Rope Trick. A number of Greyhawk spells have features I'd want to change or remove, and a handful of them I dislike completely, but Rope Trick, which seems to trigger anger in some people, doesn't bother me much, if at all. The Greyhawk explanation is pretty simple:

This spell enables the user to cause a length of rope (6' to 24') to stand upright by itself, and when he (and up to three others) climbs to its summit, disappears into another dimension. The rope is simply tossed into the air and climbed. If undisturbed the rope remains in place for the duration of the spell, but it can be removed, and if it is the persons coming back from the other dimension will fall the distance they climbed to the top of the rope.

The first thing to address is this concept of dimension. As I've said before, I prefer a "no planes" cosmology: there's one huge universe, but matter in the ethereal and astral states cannot be perceived by beings in the "real" state, and beings in these higher states of matter can pass through matter in the lower states. So, my interpretation of the way Rope Trick works is that the caster climbs the rope first, becomes ethereal, and creates a 30-foot diameter sphere of ethereality around the point of entry, sustained by the caster's presence.

There are some consequences to this interpretation. First, there's no "window", as some later descriptions of the spell state. The occupants of the ethereal region can see in any direction, subject to normal limits of vision. They are still in the physical location indicated by the top of the rope, just in a different state. They are invisible to those who cannot see ethereal matter.

Second, there are no hard boundaries to this area of ethereality. If the caster's colleagues try to explore the area around the top of the rope, they materialize when they pass beyond the edge of the spell's effect. This may mean being embedded in stone or falling from a height.

Third, the spell's ethereal effect is sustained by the caster, so when the caster leaves the area of effect, everything in it materializes. The caster can re-enter the ethereal state, re-creating the sphere of effect, but effectively the caster must be first in, last out.

The height of the ethereal region is based on the length of the rope. The spell mentions a 6-foot length of rope as the lower limit of the rope's length; this would be used to remove the risk of damage from a fall. Using a longer rope gives the opportunity of using the Rope Trick as a way to reach a ledge when a grappling hook won't work.

Under my interpretation, the spell can potentially be used to pass through physical obstacles. Say you know there's a room a short ways beyond a wall, but can't enter it. Use Rope Trick with a short rope, right next to the wall. People climb the rope, become ethereal, move 10 to 15 feet in the appropriate direction, and materialize on the other side of the wall.

I'll have to cover the topic of wandering monsters and the Rope Trick in a second post.

Simulacrum

When I was doing my spell study series, I skipped the Greyhawk supplement and didn't get to Level 6 spells or higher anyways. So, I didn't look at Simulacrum. Because of a recent forum discussion, I decided to look at it more closely.

Simulacrum: A spell which creates the duplicate (form only) of any person the Magic-User desires to duplicate.

It's a sort of golem, really, made out of snow. But what exactly does the spell do. It says it creates a form that duplicates another being. Given that other spells must be used to animate it, it's possible that it is literally just a non-mobile form. The later AD&D version of the spell specifies that it is essentially a zombie; that's probably a better approach than a truly immobile duplicate, because otherwise Polymorph Other might seem to be an easier way to accomplish the effect.

In order to make a complete Simulacrum several other spells are necessary. If snow is not available the user must cause an Ice Storm from which to fashion the form. When the form is completed he must then use a spell to Animate it.

What spell is used to Animate the simulacrum, and what does that even mean? The only M-U animation spell listed is Animate Dead, which is plainly not was intended. Again, the AD&D version changes this to Reincarnate, and it suggests what "animation" means in this context: "A reincarnation spell must be used to give the duplicate a vital force". In other words, to make a simulacrum mildly self-controlled and not just a manually-controlled robot, it has to be invested with a soul.

Finally, a Limited Wish must be used to give the form a personality and knowledge similar to the real person which it imitates. In no event will the Simulacrum have the full-abilities (knowledge, level, etc.) of what it imitates, but it will range from 30% to 60% of them.

This became a topic of debate in the forum thread. Someone interpreted the AD&D version of the spell as allowing the creation of any kind of monster, including dragons, complete with special abilities. This is probably based on too broad an interpretation of the AD&D wording, which says "a limited wish spell must be used to empower the duplicate with 40% to 65% (35% + 5% to 30%) of the knowledge and personality of the original". That "empower" suggests to some people that all "powers" are covered, although it's pretty clear it doesn't even include magic, only skill and personality. At best, a simulacrum of a wizard would be able to read a scroll or use a wand, but a simulacrum of a dragon, assuming that is possible, can't breath fire or casts spells.

Now, a simulacrum could be transformed from an ersatz red dragon into a real red dragon via the Polymorph Any Object spell. Assuming it's already been endowed with a soul (via Reincarnate,) the effect should be permanent, and the newly-created dragon would be able to breath fire regardless of whether a Limited Wish has been used. That would be a way to create your own monsters. The Greyhawk spell does not require a piece of the creature to be duplicated. Does this mean that a wizard could duplicate made-up creatures? Could this be a source of the monsters in the world?

It is possible to detect a Simulacrum with a Detect Magic spell, close association, and so forth. If the real person confronts the Simulacrum the real person will be easily identifiable. If, however, the real person is dead the Simulacrum will slowly gain the abilities of the former person (1%/week) until it reaches 90% similarity in all respects; beyond this it cannot go. At all times it remains the thing of its creator, and whatever its creator tells it to do it will comply.

Unlike the AD&D version, the Greyhawk Simulacrum spell allows the simulacrum to improve beyond its starting limits if the original dies. This raises the question: can you skip the Limited Wish if you just kill the original, or does killing the original only work if the two are linked via the Limited Wish?