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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6078549" data-attributes="member: 6680772">Spells, Part 2Now we move to magic-user spells.  Moldvay uses a system unlike any other edition.  As near as the OD&D rules make it, magic-users are like clerics: they have all the spells listed to choose from, they simply have to choose which ones they memorize before adventuring.  They get one spell book per level.  This may have been different in actual play, but I could find no place where it mentioned where magic-users acquire spells.  Maximum/minimum level and Chance to Know are in the Greyhawk rules and Holmes Basic.  Again, Greyhawk makes no mention of how they acquire new spells, so Holmes assumes says they can choose from the spells on the lists, rolling to see if they can learn them, keeping in mind maximums and minimums.  In AD&D Gygax would finally expand on spell acquisition, noting that they came from scrolls and captured spellbooks.  Mentzer notes that magic-users have more spells to choose from than they can cast, and the DM gives them a new one with each level, plus whatever scrolls or capture spellbooks they find (no Chance to Know roll).With Moldvay, it's dirt simple.  The number of spells you can cast in a day is the number of spells you know.  Go up in level, choose a spell.  This in essence removes much of the "rock-scissors-paper" aspect of magic-user play.  Instead players are implicitly encouraged to create generalists so that the spells they know can be applicable in broad applications.  In essence, a much simpler magic-user than the AD&D magic-user, not unlike say, a 4e Essentials Fighter and PHB1 Fighter.  Magic-users can still double-prepare spells, so it doesn't remove all choice, but much more than Mentzer or AD&D.  Another effect is that suddenly Read Magic becomes very important!  In effect, Mentzer and Gygax (in AD&D) kill the need for Read Magic.  They give it to magic-users automatically, which insures that any scrolls found can be read, if only after the party returns to home base/finds a place to rest.  Really, the only use for it becomes if reading magic runes is necessary to find a clue, or if a party wants the option to use found scrolls right away.  In B/X, however, a magic-user needs to eventually burn one of his 1st level slots on Read Magic if he wants to use scrolls!Some notes on spells -Hold Portal - A creature 3 or more HD greater than the caster's level can break open a held door in one round.Magic Missile - Does 2-7 points of damage.  Magic-users get an extra 2 missiles every five levels.  There's no limit, so a 14th level magic-user can cast 5 magic missiles, for 10-35 guaranteed damage.  If he used all 4 of his 1st level slots on magic missile, that's 40-140 points of damage.  Pretty unbalanced.  It's even worse in Mentzer, where the spell remains the same, but magic-users can go up to 36th level, and eventually memorize 9 1st level spells.  Did this ever come up in anyone's game?  It didn't in ours, and I never even realized it or heard about it until quite recently.  Interestingly enough, the spell was nerfed in AD&D, doing only 2-5 points of damage, but wasn't capped until 2e.Sleep - No saving throw!  Another thing I never noticed.  I always just assumed that affected creatures had to save vs spells.  But, a nice subtle limitation.  Rather than a save, it only effects creatures with 4+1 HD or less, and for multiple enemies it's 2-16 HD worth.  This makes it a nice Big Gun when you're low level, but less universally useful at higher levels.  I get a certain fantasy novel vibe from that.Invisibility - Attacking or casting a spell makes you visible.  A necessary restriction.Levitate - I don't like the duration of this spell: 6+level, and since it's a 2nd level spell, that means a minimum of 90 minutes (9 turns).Here's Holmes on Phantasmal ForceThese are just what occur to me during a cursory reading.  If you want to know about a spell, but don't have the book, feel free to ask, and I'll take a look at it!The last page of the Spells section contains higher level spells for DM use: Bless, Hold Person, and Silence 15' Radius for clerics, and Dispel Magic, Fireball, and Fly for magic-users.  Unlike in the Mentzer book, where this was in the DM's book, in Moldvay this was out for all players to see.  And my first real character was a magic-user.  No advertisement ever made me want to get the Expert Book as much as that little taste of next level spells!</blockquote>

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