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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 3707869" data-attributes="member: 20854">(Talking about 1E/2E/OD&D, not 3E/4E)I've recently been experimenting with "special effects" for magic users. These are basically very minor magical effects that a MU can "have going" at will while he as an appropriate spell memorized. For example, a MU that has fireball memorized might be able to make smoke come from his ears when he's annoyed, or light his pipe with a small flame from his thumb. A MU with gust of wind memorized might have her hair constantly blowing, as if in an unseen breeze. Et cetera. Using the special effects doesn't use up the spell -- it's still memorized.Right now, I don't have formal rules for this. The players just know I allow such things, ask, "hey, can I do such-and-such as a special effect?" and we go from there. So far, there's been nothing outlandish (i.e. they're not abusing it) and they players think it's cool.I could see making this a more formal and defined system, but I'm not sure if I want to. I could give each spell a minor special effect or two that doesn't "use up" the memorized spell. It could even be a really low-powered variant of the spell. For example, a sleep spell could have a special effect of "daze one target" (give him a -1, or whatever) of appropriate HD for 1 rnd. This would let low-level MUs do some magic stuff in multiple encounters, and still have the full spell for situations where they really need it. At higher levels, MUs probably wouldn't bother with such special effects, but it might be useful for the low-level guys.I have mixed feelings about it, so I'm throwing it out here to solicit some opinions.</blockquote>

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