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Calling all grognards, flavorful spell side effects.
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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5518663" data-attributes="member: 6669384"><p>A few additional notes: </p><p></p><p>Haste: According to the rules on "Unnatural Aging", a System Shock roll is required any time a character experiences unnatural aging. Failure means death. Haste gets a lot more dangerous.</p><p>Fireball: In 1st Ed, scale changed when outdoors. A "square" on the map represented 10 feet indoors, or 10 yards outdoors. Fireball is one of those rare spells that specified that it's scale also changed. The original spell description was "33,000 cubic feet (or yards)". </p><p>Raise Dead: Elves couldn't be raised.</p><p>Cure Light/Moderate/Serious/Critical and Heal: Creatures that couldn't be hit without magic, silver or cold iron weapons could be neither healed nor harmed using these spells. It was listed in "Cure Light", and all the others referenced that spell. </p><p>Lightning Bolt: Yes, it bounced. Many people tried to play pinball with it, bouncing it around the room. That isn't what it said though. It bounced directly back at the caster, no matter what angle it hit the wall or ground at.</p><p>Lightning Bolt: The bolt was always the same length, no matter what level the caster was. The range increased because the bolt didn't start at your finger. Instead it started at some distance from the caster and went in a straight line away from them. This means the caster could be in the back of the party and still fire it forward safely, since it wouldn't begin the actual lightning for some distance. Some tried to use this to shoot around corners, having it start, say, 20 feet from them and then trace a straight line, but have that straight line run left or right. Not legal. Also, you could decide if you wanted the single 100 foot long bolt, or the "Forking bolt" that was double wide and only 50 feet in length.</p><p>Reduction, or Shrink (I don't recall) and Growth: You could change the target's size by 10% per caster level. Taken literally, a 10th level caster could shrink a target by 100%, meaning that they'd be of 0 height. We never figured out what happens at 11th level, when you get reduced by 110%. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p>Rock to Mud: The volume was written as <em>2" Cube/Level</em>. That could be taken as one 20 foot cube per level, or a cube that's 20 feet per level on a side. The Sage once clarified this to mean 2 10 foot cubes per level, which is the one measure that couldn't possibly be gotten from the description. In the huge form, it's "Slay Castle". That reading is a stretch, of course.</p><p></p><p>Time: Rounds were 1 minute long. Some tried to claim that a "Combat round" was 10 seconds, or 6 seconds, but that was a house rule.</p><p>Initiative: Under the rules for "spellcasting in combat", when a melee fighter type was facing a spell caster, the fighter used his own initiative, or the spell caster's, whichever was "appropriate". Their version of spell casting provoking an Attack of Opportunity, I suppose. </p><p></p><p>Spellcasting in combat: If the caster took any damage in the round when a spell was cast, the spell was lost. Period. No save, no resistance, even if the damage technically took place after the spell caster's Initiative.</p><p></p><p>Languages: "Alignment Tongue" was in the rules, meaning that any two creatures of the same alignment could communicate. There was also a 10% chance that anything you encountered could speak common. Taking that literally, it meant any horse or pig, rock, tree or door might be able to talk. </p><p></p><p>Distance: This is of specific interest when trying to translate or convert modules between 1st/2nd and 3.0 or later: Earlier editions were mapped at 10 feet per square, not 5 feet.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 5518663, member: 6669384"] A few additional notes: Haste: According to the rules on "Unnatural Aging", a System Shock roll is required any time a character experiences unnatural aging. Failure means death. Haste gets a lot more dangerous. Fireball: In 1st Ed, scale changed when outdoors. A "square" on the map represented 10 feet indoors, or 10 yards outdoors. Fireball is one of those rare spells that specified that it's scale also changed. The original spell description was "33,000 cubic feet (or yards)". Raise Dead: Elves couldn't be raised. Cure Light/Moderate/Serious/Critical and Heal: Creatures that couldn't be hit without magic, silver or cold iron weapons could be neither healed nor harmed using these spells. It was listed in "Cure Light", and all the others referenced that spell. Lightning Bolt: Yes, it bounced. Many people tried to play pinball with it, bouncing it around the room. That isn't what it said though. It bounced directly back at the caster, no matter what angle it hit the wall or ground at. Lightning Bolt: The bolt was always the same length, no matter what level the caster was. The range increased because the bolt didn't start at your finger. Instead it started at some distance from the caster and went in a straight line away from them. This means the caster could be in the back of the party and still fire it forward safely, since it wouldn't begin the actual lightning for some distance. Some tried to use this to shoot around corners, having it start, say, 20 feet from them and then trace a straight line, but have that straight line run left or right. Not legal. Also, you could decide if you wanted the single 100 foot long bolt, or the "Forking bolt" that was double wide and only 50 feet in length. Reduction, or Shrink (I don't recall) and Growth: You could change the target's size by 10% per caster level. Taken literally, a 10th level caster could shrink a target by 100%, meaning that they'd be of 0 height. We never figured out what happens at 11th level, when you get reduced by 110%. :) Rock to Mud: The volume was written as [I]2" Cube/Level[/I]. That could be taken as one 20 foot cube per level, or a cube that's 20 feet per level on a side. The Sage once clarified this to mean 2 10 foot cubes per level, which is the one measure that couldn't possibly be gotten from the description. In the huge form, it's "Slay Castle". That reading is a stretch, of course. Time: Rounds were 1 minute long. Some tried to claim that a "Combat round" was 10 seconds, or 6 seconds, but that was a house rule. Initiative: Under the rules for "spellcasting in combat", when a melee fighter type was facing a spell caster, the fighter used his own initiative, or the spell caster's, whichever was "appropriate". Their version of spell casting provoking an Attack of Opportunity, I suppose. Spellcasting in combat: If the caster took any damage in the round when a spell was cast, the spell was lost. Period. No save, no resistance, even if the damage technically took place after the spell caster's Initiative. Languages: "Alignment Tongue" was in the rules, meaning that any two creatures of the same alignment could communicate. There was also a 10% chance that anything you encountered could speak common. Taking that literally, it meant any horse or pig, rock, tree or door might be able to talk. Distance: This is of specific interest when trying to translate or convert modules between 1st/2nd and 3.0 or later: Earlier editions were mapped at 10 feet per square, not 5 feet. [/QUOTE]
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