Background Magic

[Greenfield]

This is a discussion of proposed spells that one would think should exist in the game world, but aren't documented.

Simple things like a Cantrip or Orison that keeps you dry in the rain, that sort of thing. Spells that create something like an Everburning Torch that flares when someone tries to steal from a shop.

On the larger scale, there would almost certainly be extended magical rituals to protect buildings and/or ships from certain magical attacks.

Right now there is Forbiddence that prevents people from beaming into a "forbidden" area, but that has its drawbacks: Anyone not of the exact same alignment as the caster takes damage when they enter, enough to kill servants and most common folk. It would seem like there should be a way to permanently obstruct magical transport into the throne room without killing the emissaries from foreign lands or servants of visitors. Dimensional Lock works, but has a duration.

So let's fill in some blanks. What sort of spells or rituals do you think should be in the game world, to help maintain the fantasy that castles are worth building, and mighty warships aren't simply expensive targets for low level spell casters.

Let me get the ball rolling:

Royal Ground
Evocation
Sor/Wiz (5), Clr/Drd (4)
Components ; V, S, M , DF/AF
Casting Time: 24 Hours
Range: Touch
Area : One structure or enclosed area, up to 2,000 square feet per caster level
Duration: 1 year or Permanent (See Text)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None

A Royal Ground spell raises magical protection on a structure, building or compound.

The spell is centered upon a designated "Heart stone", part of the construction at or near the center of the area, and has several distinct zones.

Zone 1: The immediate area around this stone is warded against Scrying spells, covering a single room or chamber up to an area of 1,000 square feet.

Zone 2: The area around the Heartstone, up to half the total area of the spell, is warded against extra- dimensional travel. Spells such as Teleport, Dimension Door, Plane Shift and Gate simply fail when the start or destination is within this zone. The caster of the spell may create charms that bypass this, up to one per caster level. These are typically given to the royal family and/or their staff, and are closely guarded.

Zone 3: The outer areas of the spell, outside of Zones 1 and 2, are protected from magical effects such as Disintegrate, or Passwall, or spells that disrupt or undermine structures, such as Move Earth, Crumble, Soften Earth and stone, or Transmute Rock to Mud. Attempts to enter via magical flight are subject to a 50% failure, meaning that the creature or item may be rebuffed and turned away.

The protections afforded by each zone also carry over to the inner zones.

If the spell is cast as the building or compound is being constructed, the duration is Permanent, and can not be Dispelled. Attempts to Dispell the Royal Ground, if successful, will merely suppress the effects for a D4 rounds, and only for the area covered by the Dispell.

The Focus for this spell is the Heartstone, which must be hand carved by the caster themselves (Craft: Stonemason DC 20) from stone native to the area, and inscribed and infused using powdered gemstones and rare oils worth 5,000 gp. Additionally, this infusion must include the blood of the royal family commissioning it.

If the family is not of royal blood, or the spell is not cast during the building's construction, the duration of the spell is 1 year. The spell may be renewed each year using the same prepared focus, though the family blood must be reapplied.

Removing or destroying this Heartstone ends the spell immediately.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?

 

[Dandu]

The spell evokes a sense of abjuration.

 

[Greenfield]

I think you're right. I was reviewing Hallow[/I, as a guideline, while I wrote it up, and that spell is listed as an Evocation. You're right though, it's an Abjuration.

 

[Dioltach]

I've often thought that wizards should have permanent metamagic effects in their towers.

 

[Celebrim]

I agree that there is quite a bit of magic which D&D has not traditionally concerned itself with since the original magical spell lists were focused pretty narrowly on, "Things that might be useful for adventurers in a dungeon.", and IMO worse, balanced on the assumption that a spells level was more or less directly related to its utility in that circumstance.

But keeping oneself dry in a light rain with a magical umbrella of force seems to me to be a perfectly valid use of the prestidigitation cantrip and therefore requires no special spell. I suppose, "Keeps you dry in a hurricane.", might be beyond its ability but I don't think the world demands such spell exist, as you could just stay indoors and powerful mages have access to things like telekinetic sphere if they really need it.

And the example spell to me nears and blurs the line between 'best implemented as a spell' and 'best implemented as an unusual magical item'. There is after all no real limitation on what a miscellaneous magical item can do except the DM's judgment.

There is therefore a bit of necessary metagaming going on here on the part of the GM. You are in essence asking, "What permanent effects do I need to discount the cost of sufficiently so that these effects could be more ubiquitous and counteract the effects of the ubiquitous short term magic that I desire to have in the game for the sake of adventuring play?" In the case of someone with the resources of a King, potentially fortifying his residence for generation after generation, it's not clear that this qualifies as an area where logic necessitates that you have to do this. Even if spells with royal blood as components don't exist, the King can afford to create some defenses. It's not his royal palace that is really the concern here, but the home of the average middle class merchant, a coastal patrol boat, or a remote border fort. Is magic available to protect them, and if so from what?

The biggest problem is spells that make life very problematic if ubiquitous counter-measures don't exist. High on the list are:

1) Invisibility: There are insufficient means of security against this spell.
2) Fireball and Wall of Fire: The damage of these spells isn't particularly import, but the ability of a spell to start fires has a huge importance in a world were wood is the primary and always necessary building material. Additionally, fireball raises questions about the ability of heavy infantry units like the Phalanx or Maniple to function unless the rules actually provide such formations protection from such spells.
3) Fool's Gold and economically impacting illusion magic generally

Less impactful but still important spells to think about:

4) Teleport. Import is huge, but spell is rare and those likely to need to have counters could find ways.
5) Charm Person and mind control magic generally. Import is huge, but spell is detectable through ordinary application of skill and some counter magic exists.
6) Create and fabricate spells, including wall spells with permanent duration. Less an example of a spell that needs a counter measure as spells where the non-dungeon impact wasn't well considered when balancing them. As written these can become economy breaking unless care is taken, particularly if turned into magical items, which they can at quite low level. A good example of an item whose importance in your game world can't be underestimated is a Lyre of Building, which is vastly undercosted relative to its economic impact. In general, magic items based on these spells and possibly the spells themselves are probably too available if you want to maintain a low magic feel.
7) Teleport Circle: Yes, it's a 9th level spell, but as written this spell completely changes the foundation of your world, permanently making points an arbitrary distance apart adjacent and rendering geography as such irrelevant.

For items #1-#3 particularly, my approach is append defensive spells with a note indicating that the duration of the spell is permanent if a small amount of XP is invested at the time of the spells casting. There are precedents. Magic Mouth provides a good template for what defensive magic should look like, and earlier versions of the spell allowed them to be cast with a 'Detect' spell that allowed them to trigger on detect (think detect charm, detect evil, detect invisibility, etc.) and Continual Flame which allows for a permanent effect that is much cheaper than normal for creating a permanent effect through magic items of the permanency spell. Note the Continual Flame is probably the most impactful spell in the SRD in terms of how it changes the world, as it makes light cheap enough that street lamps are available to any city and any member of the middle class could light their study or workshop to allow for working at night.

So high on my list would be:

1) Improved magic mouth that is permanent (for a small XP cost) and not merely permanent until discharged, and which can be given sensory ability by casting a 'detect' spell on it. These produce very high quality magical alarms and are particularly effective against otherwise difficult problems for low level characters like shapechanged foes, illusions and invisibility. One can easily imagine scales enspelled with such a spell and 'detect magic' or 'detect illusion' as rather ubiquitous trade items produced in mass quantity and owned by any self-respecting merchant. The applications of such a spell are almost infinite, the spell reasonably is 3rd level based on existing effects, and so guarantees that however common low level magic is, the counter to such magic is equally common.
2) A permanent ward that protects an object from burning available as a 3rd level spell or lower.
3) A permanent means of increasing an objects hardness and hit points available as a 3rd level spell or lower.
4) A permanent version of the alarm spell.
5) An improved version of arcane lock with a programmable bypass (only opens for those that say a certain word, only opens for those carrying a specific item, etc.)

Some of the above could potentially be implemented as magic items (particularly the permanent alarm) and perhaps some are to increase durability, but I don't think that such spells are really beyond what existing spells suggest is possible.

It should be noted that the most powerful defensive spell in the game is glyph of warding, as it has pretty much all the features we'd want in a defensive spell. It's permanent, it is available at relatively low level, it has a programmable trigger, and it has a customizable effect. Any defensive magic lacking these features is basically unusable, as offensive magic will always be cheaper and more effective. (If you don't have such effects, all you can manage for defense is a rapid reaction force armed with offensive magic.) The only problem with glyph of warding is that there is no arcane equivalent.