The 32-page d20 Fantasy Spellbook

[w_earle_wheeler]

I would suggest keeping the 1 round casting time, and just listing it as an exception in the header. Otherwise, if the casting time is not listed, it's assumed to be a standard action.

Yes! Let's do it that way.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Dimensional Anchor
Abjuration, Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect: Ray
Duration: 1 min./level
Spell Resistance: Yes (object)

Any creature or object struck by the ray is unable to extradimensionally travel. This includes blink, dimension door, ethereal jaunt and gate, among others. It does not interfere with the movement of creatures already in ethereal or astral form, nor does it block extradimensional perception or attack forms. Also, dimensional anchor does not prevent summoned creatures from disappearing at the end of a summoning spell.


Something like this?

Yes. I would cut it down to this:

Dimensional Anchor
Abjuration, Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Ray, Medium Range, 1 min./level
Save: None SR: Yes (object)

The target is unable to use any mode of extradimensional travel, including: blink, teleport, ethereal jaunt, gate and others. Creatures already in ethereal or astral form are unaffected. Extradimensional perception and attacks are not blocked. Dimensional anchor does not prevent summoned creatures from disappearing at the end of a summoning spell.



A header like this one will only work if all ranges are universal (ie, a range of medium always means 100 ft. + 10/level) which they might be, I haven't checked yet.

In a project like this, two people editing each spell will probably work nicely. Mordenkainen can eat no fat and Bigby eats no lean (or, in this case, gristle).

 

[der_kluge]

A header like this one will only work if all ranges are universal (ie, a range of medium always means 100 ft. + 10/level) which they might be, I haven't checked yet.

Yes, I believe so. There are typically 5 ranges - self, touch, short, medium, and long. There are a few variations, but not many - exceptions to the rules.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm a little late to the madness but why are you changing how the spells work when D20 Modern solves the "headers take up so much room" problem thusly:

Wall Walk (Transmutation)
Level: Arcane 3, Divine 4; Components: V, S, M; Casting Time: Attack action; Range: Touch; Target: Creature touched; Duration: 10 minutes/ level; Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

An improved version of the spider climb spell, wall walk allows for faster, easier movement. The subject can travel on vertical surfaces or ceilings as well as they can walk on the ground. No matter how smooth the wall, the subject of a wall walk spell can run up it or even fight from a sideways position, never needing to make Climb checks to do so. The subject can switch from floor to walls to ceilings as many times as his speed allows.
Unlike the spider climb spell, wall walk doesn’t require the subject to use his hands to climb, so the subject can hold items and wield weapons normally.
Material Component: A black strip of Velcro.

You could pare that down even further with ruthless abbreviations: casting time = CT (and only include it if not 1 standard action), Range = R, Duration = D, 1 round per level = 1 r/cl, 1 round plus 1 round per three levels = 1r + 1r/3cl, Target = T, Area = A, Saving Throw = ST, Spell Resistance = SR, (harmless) = (h), etc. And for range close is good enough, eliminate the (25 ft. + 5 ft/2 levels) stuff.

In fact, there should only be 3 lines before the description (include merciless abbreviations):
Spell name (school [modifiers])
Std Stats
Target/Effect/Area
Description

Here are some samples. I'm too lazy to put the bolding back in so these may be hard to read. But with the headers bolded, it isn't so bad. (More ruthless abbrevs: Level = (gone), (object) = (o) thus (harmless, object) = (h,o), Ranges are "P, T, C, M, L", Durations can have r, m, h, days; saving throws can be f, r, w with 1/2, neg (h), (o) or (h,o)

Acid Arrow (Conjuration (Creation) [Acid])
Sor/Wiz 2; Comp: VSMF; R: L; D: 1r + 1r / 3cl; ST: None; SR: No
Effect: One arrow of acid

Acid Fog (Conjuration (Creation) [Acid])
Sor/Wiz 6, Water 7; Comp: VS,M/DF; R: M; D: 1r / cl; ST: None; SR: No
Effect: Fog spreads in 20-ft. radius, 20 ft. high

Acid Splash (Conjuration (Creation) [Acid])
Sor/Wiz 0; Comp: VS; R: C; D: Inst; ST: None; SR: No
Effect: One missile of acid

Aid (Enchantment (Comp) [MA])
Clr 2, Good 2, Luck 2; Comp: VS,DF; R: T; Duration: 1 m/cl; ST: None; SR: Yes (h)
Target: Living creature touched

Air Walk (Transmutation [Air])
Air 4, Clr 4, Drd 4; Comp: VS,DF; R: T; D: 10 m/cl; ST: None; SR: Yes (h)
Target: Creature (Gargantuan or smaller) touched

Alarm (Abjuration)
Brd 1, Rgr 1, Sor/Wiz 1; Comp: VSF/DF; R: C; D: 2 h/cl (D); ST: None; SR: No
Area: 20-ft.-radius emanation centered on a point in space

Align Weapon (Transmutation [see text])
Clr 2; Comp: VS,DF; R: T; D: 1 m/cl; ST: W neg (h,o); SR: Yes (h,o)
Target: Weapon touched or fifty projectiles (all of which must be in contact with each other at the time of casting)

Alter Self (Transmutation)
Brd 2, Sor/Wiz 2; Comp: VS; R: P; D: 10m / cl (D)
(this line blank since Target: you is assumed by Range: Personal)

Antilife Shell (Abjuration)
Animal 6, Clr 6, Drd 6; Components: VS,DF; CT: 1r; R: 10 ft.; D: 10m / cl (D); ST: None; SR: Yes
Area: 10-ft.-radius emanation, centered on you

 

[JoeyD473]

I'm not sure which way I want wish to go, but from the description, it just seems to be three things rolled into one: the ability to cast another spell that the wizard might not normally be able to cast (such as resurrection or that super teleport), the ability to cast a high-level heal/remove curse/restoration, and the ability to create or modify a magic item.

Wish also has the able to raise ability scores permanently, raise hitpoints as well as other things

 

[JoeyD473]

I'm not sure which way I want wish to go, but from the description, it just seems to be three things rolled into one: the ability to cast another spell that the wizard might not normally be able to cast (such as resurrection or that super teleport), the ability to cast a high-level heal/remove curse/restoration, and the ability to create or modify a magic item.

Wish also has the able to raise ability scores permanently, raise hitpoints as well as other things

I'm a little late to the madness but why are you changing how the spells work when D20 Modern solves the "headers take up so much room" problem thusly:

Wall Walk (Transmutation)
Level: Arcane 3, Divine 4; Components: V, S, M; Casting Time: Attack action; Range: Touch; Target: Creature touched; Duration: 10 minutes/ level; Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

I think the first step is to come up with a header style for this redo. Then we can go on to limiting the actual spell descriptions

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I'm a little late to the madness but why are you changing how the spells work when D20 Modern solves the "headers take up so much room" problem thusly:

Those headers look good. Just remember that when they're put in a two-column format that they'll take up more room. However, that's not something we really need to worry about now. We'll see how many pages the spells take up with edited descriptions, and once nothing more can be cut, we can consider using abbreviations in the header block and so forth.

Great work, BTW.

 

[jmucchiello]

My books are known for cramming stuff onto the page because I like to print my own PDFs and I'm always annoyed when something doesn't fit onto a minimal number of pages. My first decree if I were your layout guy would be 3 columns .1" gutters, 8pt text (10 pt titles), .75 top/bottom margins, .5 left/right margins, all paragraphs have .1" indent except the spell names.

When I load SpellsA-B.rtf into Word it reports it as 17 pages (with the default 10 point text, 12 point spell names, 1 column) Making the above formatting changes alone brings it down to 7 pages plus 1.5 columns.

That is before cutting the size of the header blocks. Transforming the header blocks by just replacing the paragraph marks with "semi-colon space", and moving the school and descriptors to the same line as spell name cut a whole page.

With some abbreviations (not as harsh as I posted above), I got that file down to 6 pages plus half a column on page 7. That's 61 spells. And there are some really wordy spells in the A's: Atonement, analyze dweomer, alarm!, alter self, animal growth, antimagic shell, etc.

I've attached two files. See how the harsher abbreviations actually save half a column. We could probably fit the whole SRD without changing the rules into 48 pages. 32 would require some rewriting, but again, changing the rules is unnecessary.

And this is my point (in case I'm unclear). Why make a short spell resource that isn't for the popular game most people play? Because the more it deviates from the standard, the less useful it is for most folks. I'd much rather have "detailed" and "official" descriptions and lots of abbreviations than less-detailed descriptions.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

And this is my point (in case I'm unclear). Why make a short spell resource that isn't for the popular game most people play? Because the more it deviates from the standard, the less useful it is for most folks. I'd much rather have "detailed" and "official" descriptions and lots of abbreviations than less-detailed descriptions.

Oh -- I totally agree. For this project, I wanted to make as few changes to the rules as possible, BUT I was prepared to make them in order to make it fit. If we don't have to make those changes, then that's great.

As for your layout specs: I can't get my file to open right now (the one with the details of the C&C and D&D PHB layout specs), but the two column layout actually saved more space than the three column layout. This surprised me, because when I used to do layout for a newspaper, it seemed to be the opposite. However, Switching from 2 to 3 columns is a breeze in all layout programs so we'll see what we end up with.

 

[JDJblatherings]

Beefing up the the spell list descriptions could do the trick.

I was workign on a "basic-d20" a coupel of year back and reworked soem spells by using the list descriptions,expanding and simplfying at the same time.

here are a couple of examples-

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance: Hear or see at a distance of up to 480 feet away through an invisible magic sensor for 1 min./level. You use your normal senses through the sensor, which can't move.

Displacement: With a touch an illusion of the subject appears and shifts within 2 feet of the subject, attacks miss subject 50% of the time. The spell lasts 1 round/level.

Fireball: A bead of flame streaks up to 480 feet away to inflict 1d6 damage per level in a 20-ft. radius at the point of detonation. Reflex save for half damage.