Spell Compendium - Spell Name Changes

[Davelozzi]

I'd be in support of getting rid of the proper names on spells too. However for those of you that want to see the history reflected, perhaps a good compromise would be to list spells like this:

Grasping Hand, Bigby's

Then at least you'll be looking in the right place when you refer to the core rules for details on spells referenced in 3rd party materials or other campaign settings.

 

[PaulKemp]

I agree about the name changes. I think it's silly to change Bigby's slapping hand to slapping hand when there are about a half-dozen Bigby's spells in the Player Handbook.

Of course, if they'd have changed it to "Bitchslappin' Hand," that would have been something else again.

 

[el-remmen]

The only problem with dropping the proper names is that old skool hardcore gamers like me will end up looking for the spell in the wrong place every time. . .

Otherwise, call the spell whatever you like. . . for my setting I made up famous NPC wizards and applied their names to those "named" spells.

 

[BOZ]

my DM always refers to Harm as "Reverse Heal"

 

[Belen]

Seriously, having a spell named "Agannazhar's Scorcher" will cause me not to include it in my Greyhawk game. Although named spells are great for imbuing flavour in a particular world, at the point that they are reprinted in a generic resource, the names really become a hindrance.

Cheers!

Why? Spell descriptions rarely carry any historical description to them. So why does a named spell cause an hindrance. It is just a reference to who created the spell. It is just a name and most players may not even know that the original reference was gleaned from GH. I used the named spells without worry. No one ever asks about them, but it would not be a problem to write up a short description of a "Bigby" that fit my world.

 

[lukelightning]

Right. So Elminster somehow travels to Greyhawk and convinces Mordenkainen to teach him one of them most powerful/broken spells in all of D&D; M's disjunction, a spell which, if I had created, would do everything in my power to avoid letting anyone else learn, particularly some mysterious rival archmage with some hokey story about being from some other universe. Then Elminster brings this supremely powerful spell back to FR and what, teaches everyone? Even his enemies?

It's an established fact that FR folks have access to "Greyhawk" spells, at least the ones in the PHB. I'd rather include these spells because they are generic, rather than from some weird interplanetary travel.

back in the day, they used to explain it by saying that people like Elminster and Mordenkained knew how to travel to each other's worlds, and that they shared magical knowledge.

 

[Odhanan]

I suppose this is for those who don't like references to a world they don't use, but I personally like the sound of Aganazzar's Scorcher better than just scorch. It just gives the spell more style.

Thoughts?

Yes. It kind of sucks. I like the "D&D history names" such as Tenser, Bigby and Mordenkainen.

 

[lukelightning]

Despite my anti-name stance, I do have a nostalgic fondness for the old names, since I've been playing with them for so long. However I find it egotistical to design games based on ones own nostalgia.... "well back in the 80's I loved to cast Tenser's Floating Disk so that's the way it's going to be in future editions of D&D..." I never played in FR, so all those Elminster, Snilloc etc. names mean nothing to me and are only a detriment.

Yes. It kind of sucks. I like the "D&D history names" such as Tenser, Bigby and Mordenkainen.

 

[Estlor]

And then there were those of us who graduated from OD&D and wondered why they had to slap "Tenser's" in front of the Foating Disk spell. Made no sense, I tell you.

Personally, I'm in favor of lopping off the spurious wizard names and calling the spell by just what it is. I like to think, for the most part, that's how it really was before AD&D forcibly imposed Greyhawk on those of us that had nothing to do with it before.

 

[lukelightning]

Besides, having to pay Tenser and Mordenkainen all those licensing fees to cast their spells really sucks. And the spells keep freezing up and you have to put a patch in your spellbook. And I thought upgrading from Bigby's Interposing Hand to Bigby's Forceful Hand was a good idea but for some reason it keeps crashing and let me tell you it is impossible to get Bigby on the phone for tech support.