What ever happened to spell research?

[Baron Opal]

Wow, the wizards in my group back in the 1e days did this all the time. I had my specialized spells for my character involving metal and blades (Rain of Daggers was my favorite). Another made power words, at least one for each level.

It's the plethora of spells that are available now, I think is the killer. You have some inspiration and can find it in a book already statted and balanced if you look hard enough.

 

[RedFox]

I'm just dumb or something, cause I can't find rules for spell research in the DMG. The closest I can find is the spell design guidelines on page 35. While those are useful for introducing spells into a campaign, they don't tell you how a PC researches them.

Where's the goods?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It's the plethora of spells that are available now, I think is the killer. You have some inspiration and can find it in a book already statted and balanced if you look hard enough.

While you're right about the sheer number of spells available in WotC & 3rd Party publisher's products having an adverse effect on creativity, some people might disagree with the boldfaced phrase...

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Researching new spells has been, and continues to be, one of my favorite ways of customizing my wizard character or leaving his mark on the campaign world...

One wizardess that I played was all about being airy and ephemeral, so I developed several [air] spells for her to use.

Another wizard I played was in a campaign beset by various Ethereal threats, so he developed, and made public, several spells to deal with those threats.

Later
silver

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There is also the factor of D20's metamagic feat system to consider- its definitely has a deleterious effect on players making their own spells.

Let's face it, there's no need to research a cold version of the Fireball spell when you can simply take Energy Substitution. You don't need to research a more powerful version of Fireball if you know Empower Spell. As I recall, there are metamagic feats that let you affect ethereal targets, turn touch spells into ranged spells, make certain spells into ray spells, etc.

 

[Baron Opal]

While you're right about the sheer number of spells available in WotC & 3rd Party publisher's products having an adverse effect on creativity, some people might disagree with the boldfaced phrase...

Well... yeah...

Good point on the metamagic feats, too. Energy Substitution and Sculpt Spell pretty much take out half of the spells I ever submitted.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Were I a betting man, I'd say that the majority of spell research in D20 campaigns (and its 3rd party offshoots) is used for:

1) Learning spells from other class lists.

2) Learning uncommon and rare spells where spell rarity is an issue.

 

[Sammael]

The wizard PC in my campaign has successfully researched 5 unique new spells over the course of his career:

• Phantasmal Cage (Illusion; 6th level; targets believe they are caged and must spend time trying to escape)
• Surge of Discord (Enchantment; 6th level; targets enter rage and are compelled to attack their nearest ally)
• Inevitable Slip (Transmutation; 8th level; surface becomes incredibly slippery)
• Incredibly Adhesive Multicomponent Admixture (Transmutation; 8th level; surface becomes incredibly sticky)
• Nightmare Replacements (Illusion; 8th level; target sees every creature around it as a mocking copy of itself and feels compelled to destroy the impostor)

 

[Pbartender]

I'm just dumb or something, cause I can't find rules for spell research in the DMG. The closest I can find is the spell design guidelines on page 35. While those are useful for introducing spells into a campaign, they don't tell you how a PC researches them.

Where's the goods?

The SRD simply states:

Independent Research
A wizard also can research a spell independently, duplicating an existing spell or creating an entirely new one.

There is also the factor of D20's metamagic feat system to consider- its definitely has a deleterious effect on players making their own spells.

Let's face it, there's no need to research a cold version of the Fireball spell when you can simply take Energy Substitution. You don't need to research a more powerful version of Fireball if you know Empower Spell. As I recall, there are metamagic feats that let you affect ethereal targets, turn touch spells into ranged spells, make certain spells into ray spells, etc.

But why waste a precious feat on metamagic, when you can spend a little bit of time and money to get the metamagic version of a spell without it?... It's just different costs to achieve the same ends.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'm just dumb or something, cause I can't find rules for spell research in the DMG. The closest I can find is the spell design guidelines on page 35. While those are useful for introducing spells into a campaign, they don't tell you how a PC researches them.

Where's the goods?

They aren't in the DMG. The first place I know of them to be published was in Tome & Blood, I don't know if they have been reprinted.

The gist of it is that it takes a personal library/laboratory (costing at least 10,000 GP), and one week of level per level of the spell, 1000 GP per week, and a Spellcraft check of 10 + Spell level to create a new spell.

Another thought, in AD&D characters weren't very customizable. You had your WP's/NWP's, and you had spells if you were a caster. Having "Ice Lattice", "Shrapnel", "Adhesive Energy" or another flashy and unique spell, it's what made you different from the other mages in the party. Now, with Feats, PrC's, Templates and such gives you a lot more options and a mage is more than just his spellbook.