I really love the idea of swift spells from the new minatures book. For those of you not familiar with this concept: Swift spells are spells cast as free actions (similar to feather fall). However, all swift spells have a duration of 1 round, and you cannot cast more than one in a round (just as quickened spells).
I like them for several reasons:
1) Its great for mage/fighter types: Bards, paladins, rangers because you can augment your own fighter prowess in combat without wasting time in combat.
2) It’s a cool way to set sorc types from wizards: Sorcs are supposed to treat magic as second nature, but one could see how their undisciplined minds could not sustain magic as long as trained wizards could. Hence, swift spells are a good choice for sorcs, who would use them several times a day.
3) It’s a new way to balance spells: Allowing a spell to work instantaneously means I can make spell effects that would have been too weak before, but with a 1 round duration they don’t become too powerful otherwise.
4) I think it could be a neat way to create new oth level spells. Most of these spells blow, and for good reason. But it’s a simple rationale: its such a simple magic one can create it easily, but so weak it doesn’t last very long.
So with that I thought of a few new spells to see how they would fair.
Swift Bull’s Str/Cat’s Grace/….
Basically most people feel the buff spells are too weak as they are, but as a swift spell they could become useful. Wizards and sorcs could use them for a quick little bump to their spell power for one spell, fighters to gain +2 to damage and attack for a single round of attacking, etc.
But would they be too weak as a 2nd level spell? Should they instead be a 1st level spell? Should instead of 1 round, they last for 1d4 rounds, or just 2 rounds or something to make them more balanced, or would it be fine as is?
Critical Strike
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Clr/Pal/Ran 1
Duration: 1 round
The target of this spell gains insight to his attacks. His critical multiplier is increase by 1.
Normally, a spell like this would be a waste of casting, as with the new crit rules the best you can get is 15-20 crit range most of the time. However, since its swift all you sacrifice is the spell slot, and esp for pal and rang, it might be worth it for a shot at nailing a BBEG or something. And the 1 round duration prevents it from being an extremely powerful spell.
Slip [Teleportation]
Sor/Wiz 2
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Target: Personal
Duration: 1 round
The target is transported as greater teleport, but only moved 5 ft. At the end of the duration, the target is returned to his original position.
Quick Peak: Undead/evil/good…etc.
Sor/Wiz/Clr 0
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell functions as detect undead/evil… etc except it only determines the prescence of auras in the range, not number or direction.
Basically this is a good 0th level spell for being aware of enemies, but not necessarily scanning for them as the 1st level version of the spells are.
I’ll add more to the list later, but what do you think of these so far?
I like them for several reasons:
1) Its great for mage/fighter types: Bards, paladins, rangers because you can augment your own fighter prowess in combat without wasting time in combat.
2) It’s a cool way to set sorc types from wizards: Sorcs are supposed to treat magic as second nature, but one could see how their undisciplined minds could not sustain magic as long as trained wizards could. Hence, swift spells are a good choice for sorcs, who would use them several times a day.
3) It’s a new way to balance spells: Allowing a spell to work instantaneously means I can make spell effects that would have been too weak before, but with a 1 round duration they don’t become too powerful otherwise.
4) I think it could be a neat way to create new oth level spells. Most of these spells blow, and for good reason. But it’s a simple rationale: its such a simple magic one can create it easily, but so weak it doesn’t last very long.
So with that I thought of a few new spells to see how they would fair.
Swift Bull’s Str/Cat’s Grace/….
Basically most people feel the buff spells are too weak as they are, but as a swift spell they could become useful. Wizards and sorcs could use them for a quick little bump to their spell power for one spell, fighters to gain +2 to damage and attack for a single round of attacking, etc.
But would they be too weak as a 2nd level spell? Should they instead be a 1st level spell? Should instead of 1 round, they last for 1d4 rounds, or just 2 rounds or something to make them more balanced, or would it be fine as is?
Critical Strike
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Clr/Pal/Ran 1
Duration: 1 round
The target of this spell gains insight to his attacks. His critical multiplier is increase by 1.
Normally, a spell like this would be a waste of casting, as with the new crit rules the best you can get is 15-20 crit range most of the time. However, since its swift all you sacrifice is the spell slot, and esp for pal and rang, it might be worth it for a shot at nailing a BBEG or something. And the 1 round duration prevents it from being an extremely powerful spell.
Slip [Teleportation]
Sor/Wiz 2
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Target: Personal
Duration: 1 round
The target is transported as greater teleport, but only moved 5 ft. At the end of the duration, the target is returned to his original position.
Quick Peak: Undead/evil/good…etc.
Sor/Wiz/Clr 0
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell functions as detect undead/evil… etc except it only determines the prescence of auras in the range, not number or direction.
Basically this is a good 0th level spell for being aware of enemies, but not necessarily scanning for them as the 1st level version of the spells are.
I’ll add more to the list later, but what do you think of these so far?
