Unoriginal Spells for Fantastic Adventures in Dungeons

I’ve gone ahead and uploaded my eighteen-page spells document to Google Docs: Thunderhall Spells. As mentioned previously I’ve not introduced many new spells, but here are a couple that made the cut:

Monstrous Chill
Type: Magic-user 4
Duration: Instant (but see below)
Effect: 1 target
Range: 30’

This spell releases a burst of freezing air that does 4d6 damage. Targets who make a successful save suffer only half damage. Victims reduced to 0 HP do not die but instead remain in a magically enforced cryogenic state. Dispel Magic and Resist Cold will break the cryogenic state only if the victim makes a successful saving throw (+2).  A Fireball will also break the state, but the target will not have a save against it (i.e., will have to take the full resulting damage). If not broken after seven days, the cryogenic state will be permanent.

Glancing Blow

Type: Cleric 3

Duration: 6 turns

Effect: 1 object

Range: 30’

This spell reduces any damage resulting from the target weapon by 1–6 points. It does not affect attack rolls, but one odd side effect is that it does allow for the possibility of damage against creatures that could otherwise only be hit by magical weapons. Dispel Magic and Remove Curse will break the spell.

URFAD: Move Object and Repair Object

I haven’t inserted too many new spells into my spell list, but here are a couple of simple first level ones. The first is the light telekinesis spell I mentioned previously, Move Object. The other is inspired by, gasp, the Harry Potter novels: Repair Object.
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Move Object
Type: Magic-User 1
Duration: 6 turns
Effect: 1 object
Range: 60’

By means of this spell, inanimate objects, think bed-sized or smaller, may be moved at will.

Repair Object
Type: Magic-User 1
Duration: Permanent
Effect: 1 object
Range: 30’

This spell will repair one hand-held or smaller object that has been broken or damaged no more than 24 hours past. The spell restores the object to its previous state, not its original state. So a rusted item that breaks will retain its rust (and likely suffer its same fate before too long). The repaired object cannot be dispelled. It can be broken again in the same way it had been before.

URFAD: Suggestion and Urge

Here is my take on another spell, like Magic Missiles, that debuted in Greyhawk: Suggestion. To me this is very much a These-are-not-the-Dwarves-you-are-looking-for kind of spell. It is magic most likely to be used to get out of a sticky situation, perhaps during an urban encounter between dungeon delves, not something likely to be cast in combat. For that kind of power, which the original spell description certainly suggests, with its comment that “Self-destruction is 99% unlikely,” I have instead inserted a new spell, Urge.
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Suggestion
Type: Magic-User 3
Duration: 3 rounds
Effect: 1 target
Range: 10’

This spell will make its targets think that something is the case that is not, i.e., that some event has or hasn’t taken place or that they have or have not carried out something they were or weren’t intending to do, or the result of some action was its opposite.

Urge
Type: Magic-User 3
Duration: 3 rounds
Effect: 1 target
Range: 10’

This spell fills the target with an irresistible urge to carry out an action of the caster’s devising. The action must be a simple one to understand and must not take more than a few rounds to accomplish.

URFAD: Magic Missiles

As a followup to my recent post on spells, here is my entry for the iconic Magic Missiles spell that originally appeared in the Greyhawk supplement. The spell is cleaned up of any level-based effect. It grants three attacks even to first-level casters, but it follows Holmes in requiring an attack roll (in this case, one roll for each missile).
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Magic Missiles
Type: Magic-User 1
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Up to 3 targets
Range: 150’

This spell conjures three glowing arrow-like missiles and hurls them at a chosen target. An attack roll, using the caster’s level as bonus, is made, and each hit will deal 2–7 points of damage (the target may not make a saving throw). The three missiles may be sent at the same target or two or three different targets, but they must always be sent at the same time.

Toward One Understanding of Spellcraft

The magic system in my Thunderhall/URFAD rules is not straying too far from by-the-book, especially taking the Holmes Basic Set into account. I’m particularly interested to see how my new rules for spell book sizes and costs work out:

There are two types of codices commonly used for spells. The first is the daybook, which is about 5.5” x 8” and costs 5 gp per 16 pages. A spell in one of these will occupy 4 pages per level. Above 128 pages these get less and less durable and 320 pages is the max. The second type is the tome. These run from 9” to 12” wide by 12” to 16” high. The cost is 20 gp per 16 pages, and a spell will occupy 1 page per level.

Will this be a fun little resource-management quirk, or will it be a fiddly impediment to getting on with things?

But with the spells themselves I think I’ve changed things up quite a bit more. I hadn’t any idea of posting this stuff online so I kept no records of changes I was making, but I do know that I went through and tweaked most, and completely rewrote some, of the spell descriptions.

One of the main things I worked to avoid was caster level increasing the power of the spell. While there is an argument to be made that the magic-user’s level may represent a better ability to control or efficiently wield a given spell, that is trumped by the idea that the spells themselves are entities. Call it an essentialist view of spellcraft: Spells have their own natures, beyond whatever caster has evoked them, they exist in-and-of-themselves outside of the constraints of anyone’s or anything’s capabilities.

The result, if I recall correctly, is three spells with effects that vary based on caster level: Animate Dead, which may affect more targets for Necromancers (thematic tie-in) and Wizards (and really there is a dice-determined variable effect anyway, so this isn’t so different); Charm Person, which has different durations (in-game I think I’d interpret this as the subjects of more power magic-users being less likely to mentally break free from the charm); and Charm Monster.

Beyond that I’ve added a few spells, nerfed or slightly beefed up others, and eliminated some. Anyone familiar with modern implementations of OD&D may recognize a Dan Collins/Original Edition Delta influence in my rule set—Target 20 system used for combat with same attack bonuses as his three classes, also using it for saves (but in a different way), and a general tendency for easy-to-remember rules over tables and matrices (e.g., my thieves abilities, in spirit, since the dice, chances, and progression are all quite different).  And the point of that last sentence is that many of the spell changes are indebted to Delta’s “Spells Through the Ages” research. The great example of that is the “elimination” of ESP, and the introduction/revision of Move Object (a lesser Telekinesis, which, and I believe this is in true OD&D fashion, I decided I must have after watching an episode of Merlin), Telepathy, Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, and Telekinesis. Similar is my revised Suggestion spell (still underpowered as a third-level spell, but I’m fine with that: magic is not linear!) and its introduced cousin Urge (corresponding more to later interpretations of Suggestion as a powerful brief-duration spell).

URFAD: The Magic-User

From reading the various OD&D blogs, lurking in the forums or searching through their archives, and recalling how we played the game throughout the 80’s, there is one rule that seems to be frequently worked around: the power of first-level magic-users. I believe I even read somewhere that Gygax suggested starting MUs at third level. In addition, you see bonus spells for high Intelligence, memorizing spells per day rather than adventure, allowing (per Holmes) early-level MUs to make their own scrolls, cantrips that don’t require memorization, spell point systems, and so on.

My contribution is to combine the first two levels (Medium and Seer) into one (Spellbinder), while also following the Holmesian scroll-making rules. A Spellbinder is able to memorize up to three spells per adventure or outing; this assumes at least two full days of rest between outings. All of the other level titles remain the same as do their corresponding spell totals, but now they are one level higher. The XP needed to advance is adjusted to match the fighter’s, which I am using for all classes. Anyway, here is my house Magic-User.
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Magic-User Level Progression
Level	Title	XP	HD	Atk	Spells
					1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Spellbinder	0	1	–	3	–	–	–	–	–
2	Conjurer	2,000	2	–	3	1	–	–	–	–
3	Theurgist	4,000	3	+1	4	2	–	–	–	–
4	Thaumaturge	8,000	4	+1	4	2	1	–	–	–
5	Mage	16,000	5	+1	4	2	2	–	–	–
6	Enchanter	32,000	6	+2	4	3	2	1	–	–
7	Warlock	64,000	6+1	+2	4	3	3	2	–	–
8	Sorcerer	120,000	6+2	+2	4	3	3	2	1	–
9	Necromancer	240,000	6+3	+3	4	4	3	3	2	–
10	Wizard	360,000	6+4	+3	4	4	4	3	2	1

Armor: None. • Weapons: Dagger, staff.

1. To start, magic-users check to see which spells they know (these will be in their spell book, which all beginning MU’s must purchase). Other spells will be acquired through adventuring or research. 
2. First-level magic-users may memorize up to three first level spells per outing (assuming spell book is kept safely at home). They may not memorize multiple “copies” of the same spell.
3. Magic-Users may create magic items (scrolls, potions, enchanted jewelry or weapons). Typical scroll cost is 100 gp and 1 week per spell level. Typical potion cost is 200 gp and 1 week per spell level. Enchanting 10 arrows is 500 gp and 2 weeks, armor to +1 is 2000 gp and 2 months. A Wand of Fear is 10,000 gp and 6 months. A ring with a rare, powerful effect is 50,000 gp and 1 year.
4. Immediately after a scroll spell is cast, the ink disappears (although multiple copies of the same spell may appear on a scroll). Read Magic is not necessary for casting from a scroll.
5. Read Magic is needed in order to recognize command words on magical items that require them. It cannot be used to transcribe a spell from a scroll, which is impossible to do.
6. Magic-users casting from scrolls always act after magic-users casting normally, and when casting unfamiliar spells from scrolls they must make a successful check using the above Chance of Learning Spell +/– levels they are above/below the spell level.
7. Research to add a spell from the rulebooks is 1000 gp and 1 week per level, after which time a spell check is made; after three failed attempts the spell may not be learned. Working from another magic-user’s spell book decreases the cost to 500 gp and adds +1 to the spell check. To discover an entirely new spell it’s 2000 gp and 2 weeks per level, and at the referee’s discretion the spell check may be waived.