What is your favorite spell for Urban magic?

[RenleyRenfield]

Urban magic in this context means "a setting of modern era" which can be in about the past 100 years to to today - and set in the real world.
I know there are others, but I keeping this narrow for now...

What is your favorite spell?

What system did it come from?

Why was it so much fun to use?

And if you want a bonus questions: What is the most useful spell for this urban setting? (not necessarily your fav)

 

[DrunkonDuty]

My current campaign is a modern(ish) urban fantasy. London, 1986.

We have a wizard. She has a few favourite spells. Her favourite is Death Touch, or as we're calling it Bad Touch.

The spells they actually use the most are stealth spells. We're using the "secret magic world" trope so avoiding attention from the normies is important.

edited to add: It's Hero System. So the spells are all bespoke.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We have a wizard. She has a few favourite spells. Her favourite is Death Touch, or as we're calling it Bad Touch.

 

[aramis erak]

Urban magic in this context means "a setting of modern era" which can be in about the past 100 years to to today - and set in the real world.
I know there are others, but I keeping this narrow for now...

What is your favorite spell?

What system did it come from?

Why was it so much fun to use?

And if you want a bonus questions: What is the most useful spell for this urban setting? (not necessarily your fav)

Affect Mind, Star Wars 1st Edition (WEG).
It's the ultimate weapon... when it works.
"You don't need to open that door..."
(groan as player rolls to resist, and sees way too many 1's)
"No, I don't need to open that door."
"Move along"
"Moving along..."

 

[BigJackBrass]

What is your favorite spell?

What system did it come from?

Why was it so much fun to use?

Summon.

Call of Cthulhu.

Because the players didn't realise that there was an associated Bind spell…

 

[John Dallman]

Fail-Weapons

GURPS Monster Hunters, using the Ritual Path Magic system

This is named after a spell in Mary Gentle's fantasy parody novel, Grunts! It was invented on-the-fly in the first scenario of our Florida! campaign, which was Monster Hunters in the Florida of Tim Dorsey's and Carl Hiaasen's fiction. It deactivates the primers of modern ammunition, rendering the guns our opponents were so fond of waving around useless.

The first casting was: Lesser Destroy Matter (5), weight 10lb (0), 3 yards radius (2), range 7 yards (3) duration 1 hour (3), no Greater effects, total 13 energy points. That was used on two idiots who turned up in loud shirts and expensive sports cars, waving sub-machine guns. Judging by the amount of powder cocaine on the inside of their cars, they must have been wholesalers.

A charm to take out all the ammunition on a housing estate populated by a blood-sacrifice cult was: Lesser Destroy Matter (5), weight 100lb (2), 800 yards radius (14), duration 3 hours (4), total 25, add Lesser Control Magic for the charm enchantment (5), no Greater effects, total 30 energy points. We dropped it in the centre of the estate from a small drone and it activated on impact.

Note this is not selective: catching the party in it deactivates their ammunition too. We didn't mind that so much: we had guns, but they were secondary to our main weapon, a were-tiger.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I like that!

Kinda goes along with a "EMP" kinda spell. Render computers and other electronic devices inert

 

[RenleyRenfield]

My current campaign is a modern(ish) urban fantasy. London, 1986.

We have a wizard. She has a few favourite spells. Her favourite is Death Touch, or as we're calling it Bad Touch.

Deadlands (classic) has this too. Touch o' Death.
"This hex allows a hexslinger to magically
squeeze some poor sod’s heart and give him an
old-fashioned heart attack..."

I love "old-fashioned" like.... what the new way? hehehe

 

[John Dallman]

Kinda goes along with a "EMP" kinda spell. Render computers and other electronic devices inert

We never hit the need for that one, because we had a techie to whom surveillance systems were friends. Getting data off them, and making sure we didn't show up on them was one of our main investigative tools.

 

[GMMichael]

What is your favorite spell?

Mute 2.

What system did it come from?

Modos 2.

Why was it so much fun to use?

Excellent spell for interrogating, Agent Smith-style. Here's the effect text:

"the target has difficulty speaking, and takes a -8 difficulty penalty to Magic contests."