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General Tabletop Discussion
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Why are spells grouped into "levels"?
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<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 7982004" data-attributes="member: 21169"><p>The following is all from Jon Peterson's Playing at the World.</p><p></p><p>Spells with levels that are different from character levels originated in Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign (Peterson considers this to probably begin in the winter of 1971/72), which preceded 1974 OD&D. In the wargame Chainmail (March 1971), which was a major source for Blackmoor's rules, spell casters have four different power categories, though they are distinguished by titles not levels. There is one spell, Moving Terrain, that can only be cast by a Wizard (the most powerful category). All other spells can be cast by any spell caster. Peterson speculates that this led to the idea of out of synch spell levels and caster levels.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">By the time he brought his Blackmoor campaign to Gygax's attention, Arneson had introduced a number of innovations in the <em>Chainmail </em>magic system... Blackmoor wizards were ranked by numerical level rather than by hierarchical titles... In addition to levels of Wizards, spells themselves were sorted into ranks representing difficulty or power--in Blackmoor, these were confusingly named spell "levels"... the [D&D spell level system] is probably best understood as an extension of the concept in <em>Chainmail </em>that the spell "Moving Terrain" could not be cast by lesser magicians but only by full Wizards</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 7982004, member: 21169"] The following is all from Jon Peterson's Playing at the World. Spells with levels that are different from character levels originated in Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign (Peterson considers this to probably begin in the winter of 1971/72), which preceded 1974 OD&D. In the wargame Chainmail (March 1971), which was a major source for Blackmoor's rules, spell casters have four different power categories, though they are distinguished by titles not levels. There is one spell, Moving Terrain, that can only be cast by a Wizard (the most powerful category). All other spells can be cast by any spell caster. Peterson speculates that this led to the idea of out of synch spell levels and caster levels. [INDENT]By the time he brought his Blackmoor campaign to Gygax's attention, Arneson had introduced a number of innovations in the [I]Chainmail [/I]magic system... Blackmoor wizards were ranked by numerical level rather than by hierarchical titles... In addition to levels of Wizards, spells themselves were sorted into ranks representing difficulty or power--in Blackmoor, these were confusingly named spell "levels"... the [D&D spell level system] is probably best understood as an extension of the concept in [I]Chainmail [/I]that the spell "Moving Terrain" could not be cast by lesser magicians but only by full Wizards[/INDENT] [/QUOTE]
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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
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Why are spells grouped into "levels"?
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