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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 269439" data-attributes="member: 1645">Well said.  Given that the entire magic system is completely made-up, it's odd how many people think the way it's done is the natural way magic should work -- when countless other equally arbitrary systems could work just as well, but with a different flavor.You may not have to ban spells or increase their level drastically (e.g. +4) to make them less effective than "cheaper" alternatives.  And when people still want a spell that's been bumped up a level or two, that says something about the current level choice...You can bump those spells up a level or two, and you can drop other spells down a level or two.If you want classic, subtle magic, you naturally want curses and the like.  Bestow Curse is currently a 3rd- or 4th-level spell -- with a range of "touch".  Giving it "close" range and dropping it to 1st level might lead to spellcasters actually using it...Actually, Ravenloft has lots of interesting ideas on curses, including the notion of different severity-levels of curses, from Embarrassing (e.g. hair turns white), up to dangerous (e.g. -6 to an Ability score, blindness, lycanthropy), and even to lethal (tranformed into monster).  Since "dangerous" is the fourth severity level, and since it matches the default Bestow Curse spell, we can easily introduce curses from 0-/1st- up to 4th-/5th-level (for Clerics/Wizards).Ravenloft also gives bonuses and penalties for Justification, Drama, Escape Clause, etc.</blockquote>

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