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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CanadienneBacon" data-source="post: 2853355" data-attributes="member: 11146">While I can create a setting and items, I'm not that great at ruling on or creating new spells. I have a player, a good player, who has a wizard in my tabletop game. The player wants to do original spell research. No problem there; in fact, I commend him for the effort and interest. He wants to create an improved version of the standard 1st-level wizard/sorcerer shield spell. Again, no problem there. My problem is deciding what level to assign the spell and/or adjusting the spell to make it the level he desires. I'll start by detailing the original version of the spell crafted by the player, which he has named improved shield: As DM, my immediate thoughts on this new spell were that while it functions EXACTLY like the 1st-level shield spell in all aspects save for it being +7 to AC and 1 hr/lvl vice +4 to AC and 1 min/lvl, it seems like an awfully powerful 3rd level spell. While at the table, I therefore asked the player to locate and show to me a v3.5 PHB 3rd-lvl Sor/Wiz spell equivalent in defensive capability. The best either he or I could come up with was magic circle against evil, which for Sor/Wizards is a 3rd-level spell that offers +2 to saves and AC vs evil, and comes with a 10 minute per level duration and a 10-foot radius that works on others inside the radius...and other benefits as well...particularly, that it hedges out outsiders, domination, etc, etc. Still, the player and I agreed that, comparatively, for a 3rd-level spell, perhaps a +7 shield bonus to AC with a duration of one hour per level is too uber. I told the player that I needed to digest his idea and that by next week we would have it worked out. For last night's session, I said that my gut feeling was that +7 to AC and a duration of an hour per level was too much. I therefore offered him a choice of one of the following three compromises so that he could put his new creation in play for last night's session:Choice A: +7 shield bonus to AC, duration 1 min/levelChoice B: +6 shield bonus to AC, duration 10 min/levelChoice C: +4 shield bonus to AC, duration 1 hour/levelThe player said he thought Choice B was his best bet, so that's what we agreed could be used in the interim until I finalize my thoughts on the issue. For what it's worth, he never actually had to cast the new spell last night because most of the session was devoted to social roleplay.My questions to you all are:1.) At what level should his original version of improved shield be set?2.) For a 3rd-level spell, which choice among Choices A, B, or C do you find most viable?3.) If you find you don't care for either his original version or my compromise Choices, how would you do up an improved shield spell?4.) Does improved shield already exist in a published sourcebook? If it does, what is the sourcebook name and who publishes it?Thank you for your kind help. Any off-the-cuff suggestions or ideas would be most welcome.</blockquote>

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