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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 6025646" data-attributes="member: 87">Today I'll be looking at some spells, starting by their format.  I want to have cleaner spell descriptions to work with and only list statistics for a spell when they vary from the norm.AlignmentSpells have an alignment as has been discussed previously.  The alignment of a spell is its thematic purpose and goal, as opposed to its mechanical outcome. Each color reflects the two classes that use that color, so Valra has excellent healing and protection (cleric/druid), Balcra has illusions, air/water elemental spells and divinations (bard/wizard), Sodra has death magic, necromantic and psionic attack magic (sorcerer/cleric), Shunra blasts stuff with fire and earth magic (sorcerer/wizard) and Abora has nature spells and restorative magic (bard/druid).  The exact spells that fall on the lists will make this more clear.  Spells can be gold, but for simplicity the first setting book will stay away from gold spells and effects.SchoolFor tradition the eight schools of magic remain, evocation, divination, transmutation, illusion, enchantment, conjuration, abjuration and necromancy.  I will make some attempts to cull the breadth of transmutation effects - in previous editions the school had more spells than some pairs of schools combined.DescriptorsEven more specific than school are the descriptors. These determine in general what affects the spell and what is affected by it. All fire spells will have common rules on their side effects, just as in 3e.Minimum LevelIn this new system spells have a minimum level at which they can be cast.  As they go up in level they add extra damage dice.ComponentsThis entry will no longer be present on any spell.  Instead, components is part of the casting class.  Clerics must mutter holy incantations and present their holy symbol when casting, druids will use salves and reagents from nature, bards sing or play an instrument, wizards use wands or staves and sorcerers usually have no props and are essentially verbal and somatic.  Specific spells might have props called out in their spell descriptions.Casting TimeHere's an area where 3e started simple and got complex - swift action, immediate action, standard action, and so on. Rather than have a casting time line the spell's type determines it's casting speed.  Most spells can be cast on a character's turn in combat, whereas a ritual spell must be cast outside of combat.  A character's movement distance is reduced by the minimum level of the spell, so if you choose to use a fireball you can only move 9 squares on the turn you do that.  Weapon speed works the same way.RangeThis will be simplified down to personal (obvious), 'touch' (also obvious), close (12 squares), encounter (around 100 yards, the area covered by most groups battle mats) or line of sight (which could be miles if your on top of a mountain.Area/Effect:Targets will called out on the range line. Only spells with an area will have this entry.DurationIn my experience counting down durations is a formality - few fights rarely run more than 5 rounds.  So, as in 4e, a spell will have durations of Instant, 1 round, 1 encounter, 1 hour and then up according to increments we are familiar with.  This line will be omitted when it is instant or 1 encounter, the spell's description should make it clear as to which duration applies.DefenseThe ability score that defends against the spell - this is what was called saving throw.  If there is no defense this line will be omitted.  Dexterity, Constitution and Wisdom will be the most frequent entries substituting in for will, fortitude and reflex.  Strength may defend against a spell that can be parried (one of the powers of shields in general is they allow strength to defend in place of dexterity), intelligence will defend against mental attacks that are wit based rather than will based.Spell ResistanceThis entry will be gone.  How spell resistance works will be reworked.So with that out of the way, here are some spell drafts - one for each color. Also, these spells will help to illustrate other mechanics I've been working on.Infusion Valran Conjuration [Healing] Range: Touch The touched creature recovers stamina equal to 1 hit die / spell level. Ritual: The touched creature recovers all their stamina. Our first example will be a stock cleric and druid spell.  A character has a pool of health and stamina equal to their hit points.  A character's stamina are what we currently use as hit points - as long as a character has any stamina he can act.  At half stamina a character is staggered.  Health replaces 'negative hit points'.  As long as you have stamina, you lose stamina when attacked.  When you've been reduced to health only every attack that hits you can knock you out and does real, lasting damage.  Most characters have ways to recover stamina without a cleric or druid's help, but health is harder to recover once lost.This spell gives an example of a modal spell that has two choices depending on how fast it is cast.  Its more effective between combats, but situations may demand its use in combat.One interesting new wrinkle is the effectiveness of the spell is tied somewhat to the target character class.  A dwarf barbarian gains more stamina from this spell than an elven wizard would.Magic Missile Shunran Evocation [Force] Range: Encounter This spell conjures 1 missile per spell level which strikes living or animated targets unerringly for 1d4+1 hit points of damage. Each missile may be assigned to different targets, but all targets chosen must be in the same direction from the caster.+0: The spell isn't unerring, but may damage non-living objects. The defense becomes Dexterity, and the damage increases to 1d6 +1: Change the spell descriptor from force to cold, fire, or electricity. While 9d4+9 doesn't seem like a lot for a 9th level spell, call back to previous hit point discussions to see that characters do not have as many hit points as in editions past.  9d4+9 is 31.5 average damage.  This is from a 24th level character. A 24th level dwarf barbarian's hit points will be 79, so 31.5 is about 40% of that, and the max roll of 45 is over half damage.  So the spell remains a constant threat.Magic Missile also presents our first spell with level options. Each option may change the level of the spell.  A +1 option means the spell must be prepared or cast 1 level higher, and that level doesn't count towards the spell level.  So if you take the +1 option above and prepare magic missile at 2nd level it would still deal 1d4+1 damage, but it will be fire damage.  This is still edge useful against creatures that take double damage from fire attacks.  There are global options that can be applied to any spell that I'll discuss in a future post.Bolster 1st level Aboran Enchantment [Enhancement] Range: Touch You bolster a touched creature's physical attributes for an encounter by +1 / spell level, divided however you choose. No attribute may receive more than a +5 bonus.+2: The spell's range becomes close and you may divide the effect among the creatures in range. +2: You may bolster yourself for a day. So at 9th level a +5 / Strength, +4 to Constitution is possible. Or you can do without a 9th level slot to have a +5 to strength +2 to con. Fair?  At this point it should be clear how multiple spells are going to be subsumed into one flexible entry.Clairvoyance 1st level Balcran Ritual Divination [Scrying] Duration: 1 round You may see from any point as if you where standing there at a distance of 10 ^ (spell level - 1) miles. (So, 1 mile at first, 10 miles at 2nd, 100 at 3rd and so on). +1: You may smell as well +2: You may hear as well This spell gets better by orders of magnitude, becoming planetary in scale around 6th level when the characters are 15th level.  Still, it's a six second vision barring other metamagic feats.This is also the first ritual spell that doesn't have a combat mode associated with it as infusion did.Infliction 1st level Sodran Necromancy Range: Touch Defense: Constitution 1/2 The touched creature is dealt 1d8 damage / spell level, you gain half that amount as stamina (Stamina gained beyond your maximum disappears at the end of the encounter). Finally Sodra.  While unable to heal, its willing to steal.Hopefully this first crop will make clear where I'm planning to go.</blockquote>

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