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Playtest 6: Spells
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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9065597" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>According to Tashas, your character can reflavor any spell thematically. You absolutely can have spectral wings or channel winds. According to the rules, the thematics can only alter the appearance, but cannot alter the mechanics. Most of the time that is sufficient.</p><p></p><p>However, my DM style adjudicates narratively. So whether the <em>Fly</em> spell has spectral wings or elemental air, might actually matter in certain scenarios that happen during the storytelling. Because of this, when my players tweak a spell, I ask them to rewrite the spell for me, according to how they want it. For example, if this <em>Fly</em> spell evokes an encircling of elemental Air, I would want it to be the Evocation school. (Currently, the official spell is Transmutation. Which I find unhelpful for organizational purposes.) There might even be "spell stunts" because of this shift in flavor. For example, a player might make an Arcane check to keep breathable air around oneself, despite poison gas, being underwater, or in vacuum. Most of the time, the change of spell flavor doenst matter. But sometimes it does matter.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Players can do what they want. But as DM, I need to understand what that is, exactly.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think so too.</p><p></p><p>Then it becomes the dilemma of "lumping versus splitting", and deciding on what amount of granularity is as useful as possible to the most players possible.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>If a player wants to be a "illusionist", they would first look at the Illusion spell school list, no?</p><p></p><p>If a player wants to be a "healer", they would first look at the Healing spell school list. Etcetera.</p><p></p><p>They might have an idea of how to blend the themes of two schools together as a single concept. Well organized spell lists help here too.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Elementalism" would be useful. And "Evocation" as elemental "energies" is useful enough.</p><p></p><p>Dunomancy to mean force aka ether would be useful.</p><p></p><p>Divination as spacetime is useful.</p><p></p><p>Conjuration as astral planeshifting and summoning is useful.</p><p></p><p>Etcetera.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In a revamping of the spell schools that becomes actually useful:</p><p></p><p>Every spell that most prominently features Fire and Radiant damage, as well as mundane fire, light, and darkness, becomes the Fire (or Pyromantic subset) of the Evocation spell school.</p><p></p><p>The Evocation spell school happens to divide neatly into subsets: Air (Lightning-Thunder), Water (Cold), and Fire (Fire, Radiance, light, darkness). I also add the "Primordial" subset. This is for the surprisingly many spells that feature some or all of the elemental energies, where these amalgamating themes correspond to the cosmological Elemental Chaos, rather than a particular Elemental Plane. These subsets can be "tags". These tags are there for convenience to help find the related spells.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fire Shield</em> actually is an Evocation spell, slot 4.</p><p></p><p>As spell that flies by evoking oneself into a Fire Elemental or to be carried aloft by Elemental Fire seems like a new spell that might be popular. One would look for such as spell in the Evocation school, perhaps with the Pyromancy tag.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Marshalcy would be a spell tag, paralleling the Abjuration tag. Marshalcy would correspond to any spell that emphasizes mobility, whether heightening it or hindering it. This tag would help narrow down the search for flight by various means, whether wings, elemental air, rocket propulsion, telekinetic flight, spacetime distortion, or whatever.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I ask players what kind of characters from tv shows, movies, or books might you want to play. When they decide on one, I help them build it. So knowing where to find the relevant spell concept helps.</p><p></p><p>For your process. Any spell that has the Abjuration tag would be "defensive" or "healing, any spell with the Execration tag would be "offensive", any spell with the Marshalcy or Apparence tag would be "utility".</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It seems like these tags − Abjuration, Execration, Marshalcy, and Apparence − or something like those, would help alot.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 9065597, member: 58172"] According to Tashas, your character can reflavor any spell thematically. You absolutely can have spectral wings or channel winds. According to the rules, the thematics can only alter the appearance, but cannot alter the mechanics. Most of the time that is sufficient. However, my DM style adjudicates narratively. So whether the [I]Fly[/I] spell has spectral wings or elemental air, might actually matter in certain scenarios that happen during the storytelling. Because of this, when my players tweak a spell, I ask them to rewrite the spell for me, according to how they want it. For example, if this [I]Fly[/I] spell evokes an encircling of elemental Air, I would want it to be the Evocation school. (Currently, the official spell is Transmutation. Which I find unhelpful for organizational purposes.) There might even be "spell stunts" because of this shift in flavor. For example, a player might make an Arcane check to keep breathable air around oneself, despite poison gas, being underwater, or in vacuum. Most of the time, the change of spell flavor doenst matter. But sometimes it does matter. Players can do what they want. But as DM, I need to understand what that is, exactly. I think so too. Then it becomes the dilemma of "lumping versus splitting", and deciding on what amount of granularity is as useful as possible to the most players possible. If a player wants to be a "illusionist", they would first look at the Illusion spell school list, no? If a player wants to be a "healer", they would first look at the Healing spell school list. Etcetera. They might have an idea of how to blend the themes of two schools together as a single concept. Well organized spell lists help here too. "Elementalism" would be useful. And "Evocation" as elemental "energies" is useful enough. Dunomancy to mean force aka ether would be useful. Divination as spacetime is useful. Conjuration as astral planeshifting and summoning is useful. Etcetera. In a revamping of the spell schools that becomes actually useful: Every spell that most prominently features Fire and Radiant damage, as well as mundane fire, light, and darkness, becomes the Fire (or Pyromantic subset) of the Evocation spell school. The Evocation spell school happens to divide neatly into subsets: Air (Lightning-Thunder), Water (Cold), and Fire (Fire, Radiance, light, darkness). I also add the "Primordial" subset. This is for the surprisingly many spells that feature some or all of the elemental energies, where these amalgamating themes correspond to the cosmological Elemental Chaos, rather than a particular Elemental Plane. These subsets can be "tags". These tags are there for convenience to help find the related spells. [I]Fire Shield[/I] actually is an Evocation spell, slot 4. As spell that flies by evoking oneself into a Fire Elemental or to be carried aloft by Elemental Fire seems like a new spell that might be popular. One would look for such as spell in the Evocation school, perhaps with the Pyromancy tag. Marshalcy would be a spell tag, paralleling the Abjuration tag. Marshalcy would correspond to any spell that emphasizes mobility, whether heightening it or hindering it. This tag would help narrow down the search for flight by various means, whether wings, elemental air, rocket propulsion, telekinetic flight, spacetime distortion, or whatever. I ask players what kind of characters from tv shows, movies, or books might you want to play. When they decide on one, I help them build it. So knowing where to find the relevant spell concept helps. For your process. Any spell that has the Abjuration tag would be "defensive" or "healing, any spell with the Execration tag would be "offensive", any spell with the Marshalcy or Apparence tag would be "utility". It seems like these tags − Abjuration, Execration, Marshalcy, and Apparence − or something like those, would help alot. [/QUOTE]
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