A few new cantrips

[Li Shenron]

Would it be appropriate to have the following added to the Sor/Wiz list?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Defense
Abjuration

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Personal

Duration: 1 round/level

You are imbued with sudden ability to defend yourself in battle, receiving a +1 dodge bonus to AC.

Arcane Material Component: A pinch of cat fur.

Insight
Divination

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Personal

Duration: 10 minutes or until discharged

You can focus yourself on the surrounding environment, receiving a +1 insight bonus to a single attack, saving throw, ability check or skill check. Alternatively, you can get a +1 insight bonus on AC against a single attack.
Activating the bonus is not an action.
You cannot have more than one Insight spell cast on you at the same time.

Arcane Material Component: A lentil.

Quick Biopsy
Necromancy

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Medium

Target: One creature

Duration: Instantaneous

Saving Throw: -

Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You immediately know the current Hp of the target creature, and the amount of subdual damage it has currently sustained.

Arcane Material Component: A strip of corn leaf.

Instant Karma
Enchantment

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Personal

Duration: 1 minute

Your self esteem in enhanced to the point that it help you interact well with other people. You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Gather Information and Handle Animal checks, as well as Diguise checks to act in character.

Arcane Material Component: A tiny mirror.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was wondering if...

- Defense bonus should be different than dodge, for example circumstance, enhancement or deflection (not armor or shield, I want the cantrip stack with Mage Armor and Shield spells), and if the duration should be fixed instead of variable

- Instant Karma would be better if it affected the target you are speaking to instead of you and if in that case 1 single target would be fine (also the bonus type should change)

Overall the bonus from these cantrips are very small, therefore they seem quite balanced to me. I'd like to have a few more cantrips on the list, especially for those schools that have only 1/2. Silent Portal from FRCS is a good Illusion to add, then I would need one more conjuration at least, but I have no idea yet.

 

[Ferret]

Defense
Abjuration
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 round/level
You are imbued with sudden ability to defend yourself in battle, receiving a +1 dodge bonus to AC.
Arcane Material Component: A pinch of cat fur.

Perhaps slightly overpowered, It is better then the feat, and all wizards and some sorcerers can use it.

Insight
Divination
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Duration: 10 minutes or until discharged

You can focus yourself on the surrounding environment, receiving a +1 insight bonus to a single attack, saving throw, ability check or skill check. Alternatively, you can get a +1 insight bonus on AC against a single attack.
Activating the bonus is not an action.
You cannot have more than one Insight spell cast on you at the same time.

Arcane Material Component: A lentil.

Definetly overpowered, it does practicly the same as above, but more and for longer

Quick Biopsy
Necromancy
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: -
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You immediately know the current Hp of the target creature, and the amount of subdual damage it has currently sustained.

Arcane Material Component: A strip of corn leaf.

Look at death watch, it does something vaguer then this and is much higher level

Instant Karma
Enchantment
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 minute

Your self esteem in enhanced to the point that it help you interact well with other people. You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Gather Information and Handle Animal checks, as well as Diguise checks to act in character.

Arcane Material Component: A tiny mirror.

This might not be so bad, It only give a minor bonus to not so vital

 

[Li Shenron]

Perhaps slightly overpowered, It is better then the feat, and all wizards and some sorcerers can use it.

It is in fact better because it works vs anyone. But it takes a standard action to activate and at low levels it lasts only a few rounds. Perhaps the duration could be shortened even more, such as 1 round + 1 round/2 levels above the first?

Definetly overpowered, it does practicly the same as above, but more and for longer

There is however the very important part that it works only once, then it is automatically discharged. In other words, it gives you a +1 bonus for a single check of your choice before 10min, or a +1 to AC against a single attack before 10 min. I think it's not powerful at all, and the slightly good thing is that you can choose when and to which roll to get the +1 as long as you don't wait too long...

Look at death watch, it does something vaguer then this and is much higher level

The cantrip is in fact inspired by Deathwatch, which gives vague info at 1st level, but however (1) lasts long and affects an area, so potentially you can "check" many creatures with a single casting and (2) as an extra is able to detect which creatures are undead or constructs, although in that case it won't tell you about the HP.

The idea of the cantrip is to give Wiz/Sor a similar ability, and since it works on a single target and is instantaneous, if you want to check more creatures or if you want to continuously monitor the same creature, you would need to cast it over and over.

 

[JimAde]

I thought the Defense cantrip a little overpowered, too. To check, I looked at the costs for a Ring of Protection +1 and a +1 armor bonus. They are just about right for a continuous-use item with a cantrip on it. Also, I think this power level compares favorably with Mage Armor.

Questions:
Does Insight stack with True Strike? As written I think it doesn't, because it's the same type of bonus. Was that intentional?

Quick Biopsy has a dash under Saving Throw. I think it should allow a Will Negates save, since it is actually cast on the target (not on the caster).

For Instant Karma, the flavor text sounds more like a Morale bonus. Is there any reason you didn't use that?

 

[Li Shenron]

Questions:
Does Insight stack with True Strike? As written I think it doesn't, because it's the same type of bonus. Was that intentional?

Quick Biopsy has a dash under Saving Throw. I think it should allow a Will Negates save, since it is actually cast on the target (not on the caster).

For Instant Karma, the flavor text sounds more like a Morale bonus. Is there any reason you didn't use that?

Effectively I didn't think too much about the bonus types I have chosen them more because of flavor than because of the consequences, so I didn't considered if Insight stacked with True Strike (it's probably not a problem if it would). Morale seems to fit much better than enhancement anyway!

The missing saving throw for Quick Biopsy was instead intended. Again not because of a balance reason, but rather for flavor: I was thinking that even if it's a necromancy, the spell is on the boundary with divination, and a creature doesn't have much chance or reason to resist being checked - something that could be probably done with the Heal skill to get less precise info in longer time. Actually, I thought that the spell was so weak that giving a chance of failure could have made the spell of almost no interest, which is in fact a balance reason as well. I rather left SR both for flavor again and to give instead a small failure chance with greater monsters at later levels.

edit: bad explanation

 

[Kyamsil]

Defense: +1 dodge bonus is a bit unbalanced even with so short duration. Take into account that dodge bonuses stack with everything (even other dodge bonuses) and their only drawback is that you lose them if you lose your dex bonus to AC (flatfooted, unbalanced, feint, ...) Perhaps, make duration 1 minute or 5 rounds (fixed duration). It could be more helpful at lower levels, but will lose interest on later levels.

Insight: sounds cool. It's like an arcane version of guidance, but it's better because: it has a longer time before discharging and you can apply it to AC. But Insight is only applied to the caster and insight bonus instead of circumstance. Still, I think that dropping duration to 1 minute or until discharged (like guidance) would make it better balanced.

Quick Biopsy: definitively unbalanced. As has been said, deathwatch is higher level and while it doesn't allow for spell resistance or saving throw it gives the caster a special sense. This one is cast on the subject you want to know something from. It is too precise to be a cantrip (make it give information like on deathwatch) and give it a saving throw of Will negates (harmless).

Instant Karma: As has been said, a morale bonus seems better than an ehnacement bonus.

 

[Li Shenron]

Defense: ... It could be more helpful at lower levels, but will lose interest on later levels.

Insight: ... Still, I think that dropping duration to 1 minute or until discharged (like guidance) would make it better balanced.

Quick Biopsy: definitively unbalanced.

I am not sure if I want the cantrip to become useless at higher levels. Basically that was the point of making it a dodge bonus, because there's no problem in stacking with something else. However, deflection would have sounded more appropriate for flavor.
On basic points of cantrips is that they don't scale with caster level (except for range). When duration scales, it is usually a divination-like effect. Therefore, my first idea was to make Defense last 1 minute, but that would have been pretty good at low levels; making it last 1-3 round would have made it almost useless at higher levels; therefore I opted for a variable duration, but still very short.
I agree that if you compare it with the Dodge feat, you can think the spell is broken. But if you compare it with Mage Armor I think it's not. The point is that this cantrip gives a dodge bonus, and therefore is compared to whatever else gives dodge bonuses, while Mage Armor gives an armor bonus (which is generally slightly less valuable) and therefore is compared with mundane armor. But the basic fact is that a bonus is a bonus, and a +1 is one quarter of a +4, doesn't sound overpowered to me.

Insight was in fact 1 minute in the draft. I changed it to 10 minutes because I was thinking of the option of taking the +1 to AC, and if the duration was less than the Defense cantrip, there would be no reason to cast Insight (apart that you may NOT be attacked, and use the bonus to something else). However, I could have just added Guidance to the Sor/Wiz list

Last, Quick Biopsy... I understand your points but still I cannot think of this spell as something that I would ever cast. To me it actually seems underpowered. How often do you really need to know the HP of your opponent? Deathwatch is one IMXP one of the least useful spells, except when used in the appropriate way (as a detect undead or detect enemies), and it could have been a cantrip itself.

 

[Sigurd]

I'd say they are too powerful for cantrips.

Sigurd

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

I would make Defense a +1 AC vs the next single attack that targets you. Balance this vs Flare, which places a -1 one someone else. Effectivly the same thing, Flare could affect more rolls overall, but Defense would be certain to affect the roll that is directed twards you.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

Instant Karma
Enchantment

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Personal

Duration: 1 minute

Your self esteem in enhanced to the point that it help you interact well with other people. You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Gather Information and Handle Animal checks, as well as Diguise checks to act in character.

Arcane Material Component: A tiny mirror.

Instant karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

Instant karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on