Critical magic?

[CharlesRyan]

I'm looking at making some pretty substantial changes to how magic is used in my next campaign. In particular, I'm ditching the D&D spell list and building spellcasting capabilities more or less from scratch. Which naturally has me thinking about the following:

What are the most critical spells for adventuring? By this, I don't so much mean "what are the most important D&D spells?" as "what are the key capabilities for a fantasy adventuring party provided by magic?" What are the most useful things magic does for the party; what spells or magical abilities are most important?

Examples that seem pretty obvious to me include:

The ability to become invisible
The ability to fly
The ability to deliver damage (direct and area effect)
The ability to heal
The ability to control or charm someone

I could go on (and I have), but I'd like to gather other people's opinions.

As an ancillary question, what do you suppose are some of the most important uses of magic for non-adventurers? Put another way, aside from waging war, what would the king or a wealthy benefactor most likely ask of magic practitioner in his employ, "realistically" speaking? Examples that I can think of include:

Tell me the future
Make so-and-so fall in love with me
Make me some gold

Thoughts?

 

[isoChron]

Magic: Battlefield control spells like the various wall spells. To shape a battlefield and to divide the troups is often very important.

Non-magic: What do you know of King xyz? Who is allied with ABC ? So information about people, their motivations and intrigues are very important to a ruler.

 

[hong]

Battlefield control spells like the various wall spells. To shape a battlefield and to divide the troups is often very important.

That isn't so critical, as much as the ability to _overcome_ battlefield control spells. Not good to get trapped behind a wall of force.

 

[isoChron]

Well, right. Add dispelling magic (in every form) to the list. To undo something can be more important than to do something.

 

[Doug McCrae]

aside from waging war, what would the king or a wealthy benefactor most likely ask of magic practitioner in his employ, "realistically" speaking?

Improve harvests. This would be done by means of the 3rd level spell Plant Growth. That alone could have a huge effect on a medieval world.

Cure diseases and other ailments.

 

[diaglo]

Thoughts?

research magic.

i always throw this back on the players. just like they do in the OD&D(1974) booklet Men & Magic.

what magic do the players and therefore their PCs feel is necessary for the campaign or their style of adventuring.

have them research that magic. have them design it. and then have them present the magic to the referee.

 

[Tonguez]

Adventuring
Buffs (Bulls Strength, Haste, Rage, shapechange)
Puffs (spells that go bang eg fireball, lightning)
Muffs (spells that protect eg sheild, heal) and
Ruffs (Battle feild control/entanglements)
Stuffs (other useful stuff includes Flight, Invisibility, Info/Recon, movement spells (breath underwater, dimension door))

Non-Adventure
Harvest
Weather Control
Water Control
ie Most Druid Stuff

Things to drop/ban
Teleport w.o.e
Utility belt spells (ie spells that replace skills - boosting skills is fine but when skills aren't required, that sux)
Save or Die

 

[DaveyJones]

Thoughts?

why not just look at the schools of magic as they are presented in some games.

in D&D you have necromancy, illusion, divination, conjuration, evocation, transmutation, abjuration, etc...

make each of these schools your base magic "spells"

and strengthen those spells as levels are gained.

so at first level say the magic user has 1 spell. say she chooses necromancy. now let her cast that spell and shape it as she likes within the parameters of the school.

by the time she reaches say 3rd lvl she has mastered the spell more. so when she casts "necromancy" again this time she can shape it more.

 

[DaveyJones]

more to the point. her spell components or the focus of the magic help shape the spell too.
this will still mean needing to find the right components or foci. so adventuring is needed.

edit: and this still makes it the players responsibilty to make up the magic ... use her imagination

 

[DaveMage]

What are the most critical spells for adventuring?

As an ancillary question, what do you suppose are some of the most important uses of magic for non-adventurers?

Protection.