I was rejected by Dragon. Tell me what you think.

[RangerWickett]

The following was a proposal I sent into Dragon magazine, which was then rejected for a reasonable reason. I'd like to know what you think about the idea, and whether I should bother writing it anyway and selling it as a pdf.

“Trilla’s Dreams” would be a 2000-word article for Spellcraft. The spellbook presented in this article is not a book, though, but rather the skull of a mind flayer wizard, which contains the psychic impressions of several spells it developed to help fight against drow.

The background of the spellbook is that Castann, a mind flayer wizard, succeeded in dominating Trilla, a wounded dragon which possessed psionic powers Castann was interested in. Over the course of its examinations, Castann listened to the tales of a dying dragon, stories which resonated with psionic power. Intrigued, Castann crafted spells around these tales, designing five unique dream spells.

Each of the five dream spells – broodborn agony, the world falls upon itself, fiery indomitability, callow leech, and ecliptic wyrm – has its normal effect when you cast it. However, if when you cast the spell you also expend a prepared enchantment spell, or a spontaneous spell slot that could cast an enchanment spell, or if you are a telepath and you expend power points of a certain amount, these spells are enhanced.

Broodborn agony is a conjuration spell that causes spiders to claw out of a creature’s body, but if you expend an enchantment spell or telepathic power points, the spiders deal additional damage based on how much damage the targeted creature has dealt to you.

The world falls upon itself is a divination spell that gives you insight into a creature's fears, so you can better combat it, granting you various insight bonuses. If you pay the additional expense, you use this knowledge of the creature’s fears to burrow into its mind, allowing your future enchantment spells against that creature to bypass spell resistance.

Fiery indomitability is an abjuration spell that can be cast as an immediate action, granting you a bonus to a save against a spell that targets you directly. If you pay the additional expense, the caster of the spell that targeted you takes damage.

Callow leech is a necromancy spell that causes a target to lose access to a feat, but if you pay the additional expense, you gain the feat yourself.

Eclitpic wyrm is an illusion (shadow) spell that creates a shadow creature to attack, with DR that can only be bypassed in areas of bright light. Normally you have to concentrate to control it, but if you pay the additional expense, the illusion acts of its own free will.

 

[kroh]

Man that freaky cool...Sure...WHy not trasmogrify it into a pdf. Get the right feel to it and some scary cool cover art and you have yourself a party ( or a really cool conversation peice for the party wizard).

...Alas...I knew him well...

Regards,
Walt

 

[RisnDevil]

The idea sounds really good. I say you should go ahead and write it, partially because you seem to have the bulk of the creative process done, and sell it. (The new ENWorld store should be good for that!)

 

[Stormborn]

Dragon's reasons for not accepting something are often pretty... well, arcane for lack of a better word. Its an intersting idea. For a PDF I would want a few more spells, some back ground maybe, an adventure hook or two - and you do have to deal with the OGL implications of "mind flayer." But as a seed for a PDF I think its a good idea.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, the reason they gave was that WotC had recently vetoed a similar mechanic. So it wasn't Paizo's choice, but WotC's.

 

[Frostmane]

RW, PLEASE write this and market it as a PDF..my gaming group will love it!
I do agree, a few more spells might be nice...perhaps items if you can think of any? Details on dream magic? Anything to pad it out and give that feeling of completion.

 

[Hammerhead]

Besides, everyone gets rejected by Dragon. I mean, it's nothing to feel bad about.

 

[Zakath429]

I think you premise was good and creative. But I agree with some of the others and you would need to flesh it out some more before you publish it in .pdf format, and maybe include some art and adventure hooks.

 

[jdrakeh]

you would need to flesh it out some more before you publish it in .pdf format, and maybe include some art and adventure hooks.

It would definitely need art, and as for adventure hooks - well, I'd just go with a full-blown adventure instead, as the write up in the original posts reminds me of an item description from an adventure. It is a really neat premise, but I probably wouldn't buy it on its own - the adventure would really be the key selling point for me.

 

[Garboshnik]

I'm not really sure there's a need to create a whole alternate mechanic for the sake of a handful of spells. It seems like you could squeeze the extra effects into existing systems somehow.