What is a Spell List?

[Tequila Sunrise]

Fluff-wise, what do you think a spell list is?

1. Spells that your particular PC is familiar with, thanks to his or her particular mentor.

2. The spells that are frequently used by members of your PC's class.

3. A representative selection of spells that members of your PC's class are able to master.

4. A comprehensive list of spells that members of your PC's class are able to master.

5. Something else.

And what does this imply about off-list spells that your character may find or research?


A. Your spell list is not comprehensive or even representative of everything your character may master. Your PC may find or learn pretty much any unique spell, or any spell from any other spell list.


B. Your spell list is not comprehensive, but it is representative of the kind of spells your character can master. Your PC may find or research unique spells, but not spells that radically depart from what your spell list includes, or common spells that are conspicuously absent from your spell list.


C. Your spell list is comprehensive. It represents the full extent of everything your PC can hope to master.


D. Something else.



And finally, would your responses change if I asked you the same of powers, vestiges, utterances, soul-binds, maneuvers, and whatever other class-based lists of quasi-magical widgets we could think of?

 

[Nagol]

4 B

The provided spell list is comprehensive in terms of what spells are commonly known and available.

The PC can decide to strike out and break new ground. New spells that are similar to those already on the list are likely to be about as powerful. Non-representative spells are possible, but are likely to suffer in power comparison or from secondary effects not present in the other spell lists.

No.

 

[diaglo]

spell list in the phb or dmg are just guidelines.
the character can research whatever they can imagine. it will cost them appropriately. and they may not be able to cast it due to their lvl. but that won't stop them from trying.

edit: as for other powers, abilities, or vestiges. similarly they need to tell me as the referee what they are doing. i will make a ruling based on their argument or presentation

 

[howandwhy99]

Fluff-wise, what do you think a spell list is?
There are a few different lists.
1. M-U character-specific lists defining the spells he or she has learned well enough to cast.

2. Ditto for Cleric spells, but learning occurs by wisdom rather than intelligence.

3. Group lists defining the current limits the group as a whole has spells.
A. Class groups like Magic, Divine, even subclasses like Druidic, Paladin
B. Culture groups like Goblin Mysticism, Elf Magic, Gnome Illusions, etc.
C. Religion/Deity groups like Hextor or Hieroneous
-For a lot of Monsters these are the same list. Fewer factions exist within the Monster type due to lack of civilization.

And what does this imply about off-list spells that your character may find or research?
Off-list spells can be attempted to be cast depending on how similar their design is to the caster's proficiency. Magic-Users might successfully cast from arcane scrolls, Clerics from Divine, both from Mystical, etc.

M-U's discover and create their own spells throughout the game. Clerics too. Each are restricted in scope, subclasses more so. Both begin and gain levels in the game by selecting from their mentor's (or trainer's) list of offered spells or create their own custom spells.

Learning a spell outside your group's list can increase the knowledge of the group, but only if shared. Also, no listing of spells is complete or ever could be. Spells are particular configurations of an extraordinarily variable game system, magic or divine depending. Like recipes they are designed for reliably serving up the same dish, but their limit is in how many are currently around. Not a limit on potential growth.

And finally, would your responses change if I asked you the same of powers, vestiges, utterances, soul-binds, maneuvers, and whatever other class-based lists of quasi-magical widgets we could think of?
Spells are one-offs. So may be these, but they are each their own type. My answers above wouldn't change, but I couldn't say for these others. In general I would try and avoid unnecessary complicating of the game. I'd rather start with a manageable game and let players customize like this while inspiring their own ingenuity during play. Make it personal IOW.

 

[Ahnehnois]

3. A representative selection of spells that members of your PC's class are able to master.
...
B. Your spell list is not comprehensive, but it is representative of the kind of spells your character can master. Your PC may find or research unique spells, but not spells that radically depart from what your spell list includes, or common spells that are conspicuously absent from your spell list.

I'd go with this. To me, a spell list is sort of like a pharmacopeia. It's a fairly wide-reaching text, one that has a lot of information that is of no relevance to the person reading it. That said, it is not, and never could be a comprehensive list of all possible chemical formulas. But it is the definitive listing of what's happening right now.

And finally, would your responses change if I asked you the same of powers, vestiges, utterances, soul-binds, maneuvers, and whatever other class-based lists of quasi-magical widgets we could think of?

Conceivably. For a very specialized class, I might consider the list to represent something more comprehensive and use it more strongly to define boundaries.

For a nonmagical character (including psionic) I would only ever use any such list as a sampler; those characters should only be limited by their imagination or by the laws of the world they live in, not by some other set of strictures imposed on them by an external entity.

 

[WayneLigon]

With the fragmented, non-systemic approach D&D/Pathfinder takes to magic, I don't think that spell lists represent much of anything, fluff-wise. At best they might represent the most common spells that wizards can learn.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I assigned each spell a rarity, which mostly governs the chance a NSC wizard might have it in his spellbook or it is found on a scroll.

As default, PHB spells were common, spells from secondary core books (Tome of Magic in 2e, e.g.) and setting books of the used campaign world uncommon, other spells rare or - named spells from different worlds - unique.

With this information I created (rolled up) the spell canon of a wizard's college. If a PC wizard became on good terms with the masters of this college, he'd gain access to this list.

Technically, a spell list is a list of spells with assigned rarities.

Fluff-wise, a spell list is the corpus of spells known by a specific group of wizards or wizard. There's no complete spell list in my fluff.

 

[delericho]

Fluff-wise, what do you think a spell list is?

It depends on the class.

2. The spells that are frequently used by members of your PC's class.

3. A representative selection of spells that members of your PC's class are able to master.

For Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, Clerics, and the like, it's a combination of these two.

In particular, in each of these cases there is a set of underlying principles, that overlaps across the class boundaries, allowing the character to figure out scrolls (and similar) of spells on the list that he doesn't personally know, and that allow for spell research in related areas.

The exact details of those "underlying principles" are intentionally vague, of course!

4. A comprehensive list of spells that members of your PC's class are able to master.

For Warmages, Beguilers, and the like, it's this. These classes have a fixed spell list with little, or no, ability to expand the list.

And what does this imply about off-list spells that your character may find or research?

The first group I mentioned can add new found or researched spells to the list, subject to them fitting the theme. The second group generally can't.

And finally, would your responses change if I asked you the same of powers, vestiges, utterances, soul-binds, maneuvers, and whatever other class-based lists of quasi-magical widgets we could think of?

Yes, on a case-by-case basis.