Lanefan
Victoria Rules
With Fire Shield it seems the "flames" are just a visual warning to attackers that something weird is going on, and the cold flames in particular would come as a surprise! I'm not sure I've ever seen this one cast in play.I don't know, AD&D magical fire from the 1e PHB can be weird.
Fire Shield (Evocation-Alteration)
Level: 4 Components: V, S, M
Range: 0 Casting Time: 4 segments
Duration: 2 rounds + 1 round/level Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: Personal
Explanation/Description: By casting this spell the magic-user appears to immolate himself or herself, but the flames are thin and wispy, shedding light equal only to half that of a normal torch (15’ radius of dim light), and colored blue or green if variation A is cast, violet or blue if variation B is employed.
Any creature striking the spell caster with body or hand-held weapons will inflict normal damage upon the magic-user, but the attacker will take double the amount of damage so inflicted! The other spell powers depend on the variation of the spell used:
A) The flames are hot, and any cold-based attacks will be saved against at +2 on the dice, and either half normal damage or no damage will be sustained; fire-based attacks are normal, but if the magic-user fails to make the required saving throw (if any) against them, he or she will sustain double normal damage. The material component for this variation is a bit of phosphorous.
B) The flames are cold, and any fire-based attack will be saved against at +2 on the dice, and either half normal damage or no damage will be sustained; cold-based attacks are normal, but if the magic-user fails to make the required saving throw (if any) against them, he or she will sustain double normal damage. The material component for this variation is a live firefly or glow worm or the tail portions of 4 dead ones.
Fire Trap (Evocation)
Level: 4 Components: V, S, M
Range: Touch Casting Time: 3 rounds
Duration: Permanent until Saving Throw: ½
discharged
Area of Effect: Object touched
Explanation/Description: Any closable item (book, box, bottle, chest, coffer, coffin, door, drawer, and so forth) is affected by a fire trap spell, but the item so trapped cannot have a second spell such as hold portal or wizard lock placed upon it except as follows: if a fire trap/hold portal is attempted, only the spell first cast will work, and the other will be negated (both negated if cast simultaneously). If a fire trap is cast after a wizard lock, the former is negated, if both are cast simultaneously both are negated, and if a wizard lock is cast after placement of a fire trap there is a 50% chance that both spells will be negated. A knock spell will not affect a fire trap in any way — as soon as the offending party enters/touches, the trap will discharge. The caster can use the trapped object without discharging it. When the trap is discharged there will be an explosion of 5’ radius, and all creatures within this area must make saving throws versus magic. Damage is 1-4 hit points plus 1 hit point per level of the magic-user who cast the spell, or one-half the total amount for creatures successfully saving versus magic. The item trapped is NOT harmed by this explosion. There is only 50% of the normal chance to detect a fire trap, and failure to remove it when such action is attempted detonates it immediately. To place this spell, the caster must trace the outline of the closure with a bit of sulphur or saltpeter.
Wall Of Fire (Evocation)
Level: 4 Components: V, S, M
Range: 6” Casting Time: 4 segments
Duration: Special Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: Special
Explanation/Description: This spell differs from the fifth level druid spell, wall of fire (q.v.) only as indicated above and as stated below: the flame color is either violet or reddish blue, base damage is 2-12 hit points (plus 1 hit point per level), the radius of the ring-shaped wall of fire is 1” + ¼” per level of experience of the magic user casting it, and the material component of the spell is phosphorus.
Fire Trap we've kept for legacy reasons, but I've never really bought into it not harming the item being protected. That said, it is a 4th-level spell which otherwise does pathetic damage for its level (it could be a 1st or 2nd-level spell just by damage) and so I can see the does-not-harm-item piece being a decent trade-off. Making something blasty like Fireball work using the same trade-off, however, would IMO bump it up to being an 8th or 9th level spell meaning it'd almost never see play. Fire Trap rarely if ever gets cast by the PCs in any case; it's most often seen as something the opposition has set up, and even then it's very uncommon.
And today I learned something. I've never read Wall of Fire closely enough to see that the flames are coloured like that - both as player and DM I've always visualized the flames as being normal fire colour both in the Druid and MU versions - and this is one that gets cast (relatively speaking) all the time. As I've been narrating it as normal fire colour all this time I guess I'd better update my spell description to suit.
