Variant spell descriptions

[sckeener]

Does anyone know of a site or thread where alternative spell descriptions are discussed? I'm looking for spell descriptions where the fluff of the spell has been changed but not the effects. If not, feel free to add your own fluff changes to this thread.

Such as in one game I had an enlarge person spell cause the user to shed his skin like a reptile. The skin flaked away into nothing as it hit the ground.

or for Orb of Acid, Lesser, I had a yellow slimy orb with what appears to be a tadpole in it appear in my open palm facing my target.

One problem I'd had in changing spell descriptions is being careful to not change the effect....i.e. can't be flashing with invisible or mage armor or charm person...without changing the spell in a fundamental way.

 

[Lockridge]

That would be an imaginative discussion.
The closest thing I know of is not d20. Savage Worlds is a system in which all the fluff is completely stripped from the spell in the rules and the player must apply his own fluff based on what kind of a spellcaster he or she is.
For example, the spell "bolt" is either described as a magic missle that does 2d6 damage (just guessing on the damage) or a swarm of bees that does 2d6 damage.

I usually allow players to use their imagination in the way you describe unless it upsets game balance.

 

[JustKim]

Every spell I cast is thematic or otherwise altered. If I play an Asiatic wizard, her shield spell is a parasol made of force. If I play a regal sorcerer, her mage armor spell is assembled and maintained by illusory squires. I like to make my spells flashy and, I hope, memorable.

 

[Koewn]

True Sorcery is the same way; you create an effect; the description is up to you. Your Create Energy, 20ft Burst, 100 ft away, 5d6 Fire Damage could be a fireball, it could be a small flower growing, blooming, and shooting out firey pollen all in a microsecond.

I think Mutants & Masterminds is the same deal. You have a power that has an effect, the description is up to you.

So, yea, it's doable. I've done it as a DM for a few special NPC casters just to liven things up. Shadow Tentacle, with just a description change, becomes a horrific spell that rends reality, allowing some psuedonatural monstrosity to reach in, ever grasping and pulling you to your doom in the Far Realms.

 

[sckeener]

Shadow Tentacle, with just a description change, becomes a horrific spell that rends reality, allowing some psuedonatural monstrosity to reach in, ever grasping and pulling you to your doom in the Far Realms.

I like!

another I had
Sleep Tapping into the Far Realm for magic, those that fall under the spell of sleep have nightmares of things that should not be. Waking with a start, they rouse with no ill effect as the kaleidoscope of images were too brief.

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm strongly of the opinion that this practice should just be standard, for both spells and magic items. I've got one low-level Wizard in a forum-based game whose eyes go solid black when he casts detect magic, and players in the game I'm running tonight have recently run into scrolls of animate dead that are strips of paper covered in prayers to ancestor spirits, inserted into the mouths of the corpses they animated. Tonight, they'll probably run into something that's mechanically an augment crystal, but in the form of a similar strip of prayer-scribed paper, tied around a weapon. Soon, they'll be facing a Sorcerer whose summon monster I involves him transforming live rats and weasels (pulled from a sack at his side) into horrible little mutations which die when the spell's duration ends. I don't want to bother with the disease rules, so the things he creates won't even be fiendish dire rats, mechanically, but probably celestial dogs (Smite Good? Hell, I don't even use alignment, and who notices an extra +1, anyway?).

 

[Warren Okuma]

Magic missile will look like you are spraying people with a submachine gun. Fireball looks like you are using a bazooka. Bored Flak did this.

 

[00Machado]

I'm strongly of the opinion that this practice should just be standard, for both spells and magic items.

I've been thinking along these lines for a while, but as the original poster noted, having a list of descriptions to pull from would be great. I know collectively the ideas will be more enthralling than if I relied on only my ideas.

Related to your point about magic items though, can you give a few examples? Is this like taking a flame tongue and now making it a dagger, or a staff? Or is it different than that?

 

[Pale]

I require my players to do just what you describe (GreatLemur and I seem to be on the same wavelength here). There have been a few players that I had to nudge (talk to them about what their theme would be, give a few helpful suggestions and then they run with it).

It also helps greatly with narration and storytelling: When a small, laughing skull with purple flames surrounding it (magic missile) comes out of nowhere and tags your fighter in the back of the head, you know that Sinnark the Snide was behind it! (for example )

My in-game reasoning for this phenomenon is quite simple: Everyone's magic is "tainted" by who they are... culturally, psychologically, where and who you learned the spell from and so forth.

This also opens up opportunities for feats that mask your personal motif or copy someone else's.

 

[the Jester]

One thematic but non-rules-effecting thing I've done since at least the 2e days (and maybe 1e, not sure when I started) is this:

When a good caster (or a neutral caster serving a good god) casts flame strike, it looks just like it's described in the PH; however, an evil caster/neutral caster serving an evil god generates a blast of flame that comes up from below the target.