Spell Compendium - Spell Name Changes

[Testament]

Good. Wish I could remove Bigby, Tenser, Mordekainenr, Otiluke, Melf, Rary, and Tasha from my PHB as well.

They SO ruin the flavor of my Eberron game...

And FRealms. And IK. And Arcanis. And any homebrew.

Jeez people, so fruggin' what? You know the names, you can keep using them if you want! I don't see anything in the book saying that the WotC IP Gestapo is gonna smash down your door if you continue to use the old name.

 

[MerricB]

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!

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

And FRealms. And IK. And Arcanis. And any homebrew.

Jeez people, so fruggin' what? You know the names, you can keep using them if you want! I don't see anything in the book saying that the WotC IP Gestapo is gonna smash down your door if you continue to use the old name.

Perhaps, but in 3.0 they suggested that you make up creative new names for your skills. Lidda the rogue got rid of plain old Move Silently in favour of "footpaddin'". History witnesses the popularity of that option. If you're playing out of the PHB, the spell has a name, and the name stays the same no matter what you want it to be called. Of course, I get enough use out of the SRD that I've started calling spells by their SRD names half the time. At least, I do it with the spells I never cast in earlier editions. Melf's Acid Arrow will always be Melf's Acid Arrow to me.

 

[Glyfair]

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.

Would that apply to Tenser's Floating Disk, Mordenkainen's Sword or Leomund's Tiny Hut if you were playing in a non-Greyhawk game (perhaps Forgotten Realms or Eberron)?

 

[Glyfair]

Maybe, just maybe, they plan to add the whole kit-n-kaboodle to the SRD, and this was just a means of making that easier?

One thought that crossed my mind is maybe, sometime in the development stage, they were contemplating doing just that and instructed the designers to do that (of course, that doesn't explain "Clutch of Orcus"). However, I strongly doubt that a list of spells this large is something that WotC would release as Open Content.

The suggestion in another thread that the names at the beginning of spells was removed so finding them would be easier sounds more plausible. I disagree with the reasoning. If I'm looking for the advanced Tenser's Floating Disk I'm unlikely to start looking under "F."

 

[Blaque]

I personally think the renaming is for ease of organizing. Instead of six spells you ahve to remember had Bigby in the name, you have six spells. I am not much of a veteran of D&D, so not having to remember things like Bigby, Tenser, and whatnot makes thinks simply easier.

I'm finding it helps when I'm trying to find thing son the SRD. Mainly 'cause its less likely I'm going to deal with weird mage spellings.

Stuff.

 

[Mouseferatu]

One thought that crossed my mind is maybe, sometime in the development stage, they were contemplating doing just that and instructed the designers to do that (of course, that doesn't explain "Clutch of Orcus"). However, I strongly doubt that a list of spells this large is something that WotC would release as Open Content.

Well, unlike the other names in question, "Orcus" isn't D&D-original IP. They couldn't claim that name as intellectual property if they wanted to.

But no, I don't honestly expect they're releasing the entire bok to the SRD. I'm just hoping they are.

 

[Bagpuss]

Sure they didn't just copy and paste from the SRD then couldn't be bothered to change them?

 

[Henry]

Ladies and gents, let's not make this an opportunity to dump on your least favorite setting.

Otherwise, carry on.

 

[Blaque]

According to the coypright section of the book in the front, under the credits, none of the book is OGL.

I'm going to stick with the whole 'Its annoying ot have vageuly related spells alphebetized together.)

Stuff.