Thursday, 27 February 2014

Make All Spells At-Will

What are you afraid of? It makes magic too powerful?

Sounds like you're using lame Spells. They shouldn't be safe and reliable. Unleashing one should be a terrifying moment for all involved.

It doesn't have to involve horrible miscast tables and tacked-on Sanity systems.

Start with the Spells.

Sleep is one of the worst. Have it force everyone in range to save or sleep, including the caster!

Fireballs should engulf an explosively unpredictable area. Use it in open fields, or stand well back.

Magic Missile is might not give up after striking one target. It might fly around the room like a piranha, snapping at everyone it can reach before fizzling away.

Or better yet, throw away that d&d Spell list and imagine some uniquely magical creations.

1 comment:

  1. I really like the "magic for a price" concept... I prefer predictable magic + unpredictable side effects, though (as in Dungeon Crawl Classics). The idea of totally new spells is really intriguing - I believe one can't do this without any references to well-known spells and magic concepts, though.

    Perhaps something like pact magic or truenaming (3.5) works better because of the different flavor.

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