So I've tried discussing the do's and don'ts of spell construction for 5e a couple of times on reddit where I frequent more often and haven't gotten any participation other than the occasional "That would be cool" or "We don't need that." So this time I thought maybe I should go to a more gaming focused community that might be a little more helpful with this idea.
The basic background, I love mages and the whole spell concept and have put together an excel document of roughly 12000 spells (all 2nd and 3rd edition spells i can find). I'd like to convert them but WotC's "Go With Your Gut" instructions in the DMG is effectively useless at that scale.
So I wanted to examine and discuss how the spells are actually built in 5e. Finding people to do that with has been trying so I'm here looking for them. Anyway I started dissecting spells to look at their construction and would like input on what I missed and what parts relate to each other. Here is a bunch of cobbled together observations that make a set of real advice on how 5th edition spells are built so tell me what people think.
Casting Time Guidelines
Casting times should be restricted to 1 action.
Lower level spells (0-4) with longer casting times generally don’t require Concentration and usually may be cast as Rituals. Higher level spells (5-9) with longer casting times are rarely require Concentration or cast as rituals Rituals. (20% are concentration, 15% are rituals, no pattern in these decisions)
Longer casting times step up by 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours.
Casting times which require interrupting the actions of others may have their casting time set to 1 Bonus Action.
Casting times may be assigned to a Reaction provided their utility is isolated to a single specific event occurring. Usually an event that can occur multiple times a day in essentially the same way. This is essentially a more specific Bonus Action.
Range Guidelines
Basic ranges (listed in feet or squares) should be converted to the nearest 30 foot increment. This should be handled in the same range zones as weapons, 10ft, 30ft, 60ft, 90ft, 120ft, 150ft. Ranged touch spells should be converted to a raw range, the touch effect roll dealt with by the spell description generally requiring a spell attack roll.
Spell ranges should be Touch if the spell effects only a target object or creature requiring proximal contact. Spell ranges should be Self if the spell effects only you or activates an effect triggered by your action.
A spell with the Self range can have an Area of Effect IE Self (100-Foot Line) modifier if the spells effect can be effected by intervening terrain or if the spell’s effect is centered on the caster but effects a zone near the caster IE Self (10-foot radius). Note that an AoE self-effect range spell precludes an AoE on target effect range IE you can’t have a spell centered on you that targets everything in an area centered on target.
Auras should be described as a radius around caster or target IE 30-foot radius. Radius is only used in range in relation to caster. Radius’s on target are generally found in the description in the form of No 2 of Which can be more than XX apart.
Emanations should be described as a Fan or Cone starting from a specified location IE 15-foot cone. Generally this location will be Self.
Beams and Rays should be described a line originating from a specific location IE 100-foot line. Again this is usually expressed from the caster.
Component Guidelines
Spells should begin with Verbal, Somatic, and Material (V, S, M) component requirements.
Spells with weak utility or situational use can lose one component, generally Material.
Spells with special effects, most commonly Sonic or Language based effects (commands), may lose all components but Verbal.
Material components follow the Material designator in parenthesis where available, if a material component is costly its GP value should be listed. If a material is not costly it should be considered specialized and not easy to come by IE not found in most stores. If a costly component is used its value should be higher with its spell level.
A spell with an XP cost should be converted to have a costly material component.
Duration Guidelines
Damage or Recovery spells should be kept to Instantaneous duration when the effect occurs immediately and then leaves play or is permanent.
Spells that Buff or Debuff should be defaulted to Concentration, up to 1 minute.
Utility spells and spells designed for out of combat use should be set to the lowest useful increment. IE an overnight spell should be set to an 8 hour duration, an observation spell should be set to up to 10 minutes, etc. This can be modified by Concentration when the spell Buff’s or Debuffs.
Common Durations: 1 round, 1 minute, 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours, 10 days,
Spells that are effectively permanent until their use should be set to Until Dispelled.
Note: a spell’s duration should not be set so high that it does not need to be recast. Usually this means it should be useful only once during its duration. Thus if it’s only likely to be used once a month setting it to 10 days makes sense, if it is useful for every combat a 10 day duration is wasteful overkill and should be set to 1 minute at the most.
Ritual guidelines
Spells that are more useful out of combat should carry the Ritual tag. Most ritual spells fall into the Divination or Conjuration schools.
Description Guidelines
When converting spells the existing description should be merged with the Target, Effect, Area proprieties and simplified as much as possible.
Area of Effect in Description
Area of effects in descriptions should generally described in the same way a range.
Area of Effects describing a zone or aura should be described as a radius around caster or target IE 30-foot radius. Radius is only used in range in relation to caster. Radius’s on target are generally found in the description in the form of No 2 of Which can be more than XX apart.
Multiple Targets in Description
Targets in descriptions should be detailed as a number followed by the specifics of the target and the range targets can be together. IE 2 target creatures no 2 of which can be more than 10-feet apart or 4 target objects within range.
Damage
Damage spells that allow a save average 6.5 points of damage.
Damage spells without a save average 5.5 points of damage.
Spells that can cast using higher level slots average an increase of 4.5 points of damage per slot. Giving an average increase of 27 points of damage to these spells.
Over all spells have an average maximum damage of 34 points. A number of spells without secondary effects exceed this by double. Exceedingly rare spells can triple or quadruple this amount if they start at 8th or 9th level.
Spell saves are generally Half or Partial and a super majority of spells allow a save.
Spells that require a spell to hit, melee or ranged generally don’t allow a save but target armor class.
Cantrips have a set progression of 1dx 1st, 2dx 5th, 3dx 11th, and 4dx 17th. Cantrip damage types are unrestricted but secondary effects are extremely rare.
Most save able damage spells are area of effect, sticking to a 30ft or 60ft radius.
The Most common secondary effects include the following Disadvantage, Fear, Blindness, Immobilization, secondary damage.
Damage Types
Slashing – used for cutting blades
Piercing – projectiles, arrows, bullets, spears, pointy things hitting point first
Bludgeoning – blunt weapons, wind and water force, falling, etc.
Fire – lights things on fire
Cold – freezes things makes things slippery
Acid – chemically burns things, usually deals damage the following round
Poison – functionally the same as acid, presumably doesn’t effect the living or inanimate, often coupled with lowered ability scores
Force – magical force field energy, concussive.
Thunder – sonic damage, sound, can deafen
Radiant – light and good damage, can blind
Necrotic – decay, death and evil damage often coupled with fear effects and lowered ability scores
Psychic – mental damage, brain freeze, often caused by mind effecting spells and abilities
Healing
Healing spells that focus on one target average 9.5 points of damage per level of the spell. NOTE: the low number of healing spells drags this amount down and high level healing spells will tend to have an average closer to 15.
Healing spells that focus on multiple targets average 5.5 points of damage per level of the spell and generally start at higher levels (+2 lvls min).
Spells that recover other effects than damage tend to equate 1 recovered effect to roughly 8 hp.
Utility
Buff spells for skill or atk bonus value max at +3 and follow a basic pattern, grant advantage on 1 specific atk or skill, +1 to atk or skill, grant advantage on a broad range of rolls, +2 to atk or skill, grant advantage on all attribute roles, +3 to atk or skill. The pattern is not tied to the level of a spell but goes in order as spell lines increase in strength. It may skep parts of the chain leaving level gaps usually jumping over the advantage section.
In addition to a skill or atk bonus a high level spell can apply secondary effects, most commonly resistance to a type of damage but may also include, movement bonuses, special vision, and negative effect immunity.
Debuff spells for skill or atk bonus don’t generally apply a numeric penalty, instead they inflict disadvantage or weaknesses. Disadvantage on skill or atk, disadvantage with attribute, lose an action, 1d4 penalty on specific roll, etc
Armor Effects
For Armor Effects spells either apply a flat bonus between +1 and +5 to AC, or it sets AC to a minimum value IE: “Can’t be less than 16”
Armor effects generally have a 1 round duration or a concentration up to 1 minute duration.
Armor effects may also apply a resistance or immunity effect at higher levels.
Saves
Con, Paralyzation, Poison, or Death Magic turn to Constitution
Will, Rod, Staff, Wand turn to Wisdom (dex if location appropriate ie targeting a square)
Petrification or Polymorph turn to Constitution (Wis if mind effecting)
Reflex, Breath Weapon turn to Dexterity (con if non-damage effect)
Spell turn to Wisdom (intelligence for illusions)
DC
Spell save DC is 8 + proficiency + attribute mod
The basic background, I love mages and the whole spell concept and have put together an excel document of roughly 12000 spells (all 2nd and 3rd edition spells i can find). I'd like to convert them but WotC's "Go With Your Gut" instructions in the DMG is effectively useless at that scale.
So I wanted to examine and discuss how the spells are actually built in 5e. Finding people to do that with has been trying so I'm here looking for them. Anyway I started dissecting spells to look at their construction and would like input on what I missed and what parts relate to each other. Here is a bunch of cobbled together observations that make a set of real advice on how 5th edition spells are built so tell me what people think.
Casting Time Guidelines
Casting times should be restricted to 1 action.
Lower level spells (0-4) with longer casting times generally don’t require Concentration and usually may be cast as Rituals. Higher level spells (5-9) with longer casting times are rarely require Concentration or cast as rituals Rituals. (20% are concentration, 15% are rituals, no pattern in these decisions)
Longer casting times step up by 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours.
Casting times which require interrupting the actions of others may have their casting time set to 1 Bonus Action.
Casting times may be assigned to a Reaction provided their utility is isolated to a single specific event occurring. Usually an event that can occur multiple times a day in essentially the same way. This is essentially a more specific Bonus Action.
Range Guidelines
Basic ranges (listed in feet or squares) should be converted to the nearest 30 foot increment. This should be handled in the same range zones as weapons, 10ft, 30ft, 60ft, 90ft, 120ft, 150ft. Ranged touch spells should be converted to a raw range, the touch effect roll dealt with by the spell description generally requiring a spell attack roll.
Spell ranges should be Touch if the spell effects only a target object or creature requiring proximal contact. Spell ranges should be Self if the spell effects only you or activates an effect triggered by your action.
A spell with the Self range can have an Area of Effect IE Self (100-Foot Line) modifier if the spells effect can be effected by intervening terrain or if the spell’s effect is centered on the caster but effects a zone near the caster IE Self (10-foot radius). Note that an AoE self-effect range spell precludes an AoE on target effect range IE you can’t have a spell centered on you that targets everything in an area centered on target.
Auras should be described as a radius around caster or target IE 30-foot radius. Radius is only used in range in relation to caster. Radius’s on target are generally found in the description in the form of No 2 of Which can be more than XX apart.
Emanations should be described as a Fan or Cone starting from a specified location IE 15-foot cone. Generally this location will be Self.
Beams and Rays should be described a line originating from a specific location IE 100-foot line. Again this is usually expressed from the caster.
Component Guidelines
Spells should begin with Verbal, Somatic, and Material (V, S, M) component requirements.
Spells with weak utility or situational use can lose one component, generally Material.
Spells with special effects, most commonly Sonic or Language based effects (commands), may lose all components but Verbal.
Material components follow the Material designator in parenthesis where available, if a material component is costly its GP value should be listed. If a material is not costly it should be considered specialized and not easy to come by IE not found in most stores. If a costly component is used its value should be higher with its spell level.
A spell with an XP cost should be converted to have a costly material component.
Duration Guidelines
Damage or Recovery spells should be kept to Instantaneous duration when the effect occurs immediately and then leaves play or is permanent.
Spells that Buff or Debuff should be defaulted to Concentration, up to 1 minute.
Utility spells and spells designed for out of combat use should be set to the lowest useful increment. IE an overnight spell should be set to an 8 hour duration, an observation spell should be set to up to 10 minutes, etc. This can be modified by Concentration when the spell Buff’s or Debuffs.
Common Durations: 1 round, 1 minute, 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours, 10 days,
Spells that are effectively permanent until their use should be set to Until Dispelled.
Note: a spell’s duration should not be set so high that it does not need to be recast. Usually this means it should be useful only once during its duration. Thus if it’s only likely to be used once a month setting it to 10 days makes sense, if it is useful for every combat a 10 day duration is wasteful overkill and should be set to 1 minute at the most.
Ritual guidelines
Spells that are more useful out of combat should carry the Ritual tag. Most ritual spells fall into the Divination or Conjuration schools.
Description Guidelines
When converting spells the existing description should be merged with the Target, Effect, Area proprieties and simplified as much as possible.
Area of Effect in Description
Area of effects in descriptions should generally described in the same way a range.
Area of Effects describing a zone or aura should be described as a radius around caster or target IE 30-foot radius. Radius is only used in range in relation to caster. Radius’s on target are generally found in the description in the form of No 2 of Which can be more than XX apart.
Multiple Targets in Description
Targets in descriptions should be detailed as a number followed by the specifics of the target and the range targets can be together. IE 2 target creatures no 2 of which can be more than 10-feet apart or 4 target objects within range.
Damage
Damage spells that allow a save average 6.5 points of damage.
Damage spells without a save average 5.5 points of damage.
Spells that can cast using higher level slots average an increase of 4.5 points of damage per slot. Giving an average increase of 27 points of damage to these spells.
Over all spells have an average maximum damage of 34 points. A number of spells without secondary effects exceed this by double. Exceedingly rare spells can triple or quadruple this amount if they start at 8th or 9th level.
Spell saves are generally Half or Partial and a super majority of spells allow a save.
Spells that require a spell to hit, melee or ranged generally don’t allow a save but target armor class.
Cantrips have a set progression of 1dx 1st, 2dx 5th, 3dx 11th, and 4dx 17th. Cantrip damage types are unrestricted but secondary effects are extremely rare.
Most save able damage spells are area of effect, sticking to a 30ft or 60ft radius.
The Most common secondary effects include the following Disadvantage, Fear, Blindness, Immobilization, secondary damage.
Damage Types
Slashing – used for cutting blades
Piercing – projectiles, arrows, bullets, spears, pointy things hitting point first
Bludgeoning – blunt weapons, wind and water force, falling, etc.
Fire – lights things on fire
Cold – freezes things makes things slippery
Acid – chemically burns things, usually deals damage the following round
Poison – functionally the same as acid, presumably doesn’t effect the living or inanimate, often coupled with lowered ability scores
Force – magical force field energy, concussive.
Thunder – sonic damage, sound, can deafen
Radiant – light and good damage, can blind
Necrotic – decay, death and evil damage often coupled with fear effects and lowered ability scores
Psychic – mental damage, brain freeze, often caused by mind effecting spells and abilities
Healing
Healing spells that focus on one target average 9.5 points of damage per level of the spell. NOTE: the low number of healing spells drags this amount down and high level healing spells will tend to have an average closer to 15.
Healing spells that focus on multiple targets average 5.5 points of damage per level of the spell and generally start at higher levels (+2 lvls min).
Spells that recover other effects than damage tend to equate 1 recovered effect to roughly 8 hp.
Utility
Buff spells for skill or atk bonus value max at +3 and follow a basic pattern, grant advantage on 1 specific atk or skill, +1 to atk or skill, grant advantage on a broad range of rolls, +2 to atk or skill, grant advantage on all attribute roles, +3 to atk or skill. The pattern is not tied to the level of a spell but goes in order as spell lines increase in strength. It may skep parts of the chain leaving level gaps usually jumping over the advantage section.
In addition to a skill or atk bonus a high level spell can apply secondary effects, most commonly resistance to a type of damage but may also include, movement bonuses, special vision, and negative effect immunity.
Debuff spells for skill or atk bonus don’t generally apply a numeric penalty, instead they inflict disadvantage or weaknesses. Disadvantage on skill or atk, disadvantage with attribute, lose an action, 1d4 penalty on specific roll, etc
Armor Effects
For Armor Effects spells either apply a flat bonus between +1 and +5 to AC, or it sets AC to a minimum value IE: “Can’t be less than 16”
Armor effects generally have a 1 round duration or a concentration up to 1 minute duration.
Armor effects may also apply a resistance or immunity effect at higher levels.
Saves
Con, Paralyzation, Poison, or Death Magic turn to Constitution
Will, Rod, Staff, Wand turn to Wisdom (dex if location appropriate ie targeting a square)
Petrification or Polymorph turn to Constitution (Wis if mind effecting)
Reflex, Breath Weapon turn to Dexterity (con if non-damage effect)
Spell turn to Wisdom (intelligence for illusions)
DC
Spell save DC is 8 + proficiency + attribute mod
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