                                HANDLING SPELLS

                                       by
                                 Thomas Weigel
                             <nsbos0230@nsula.edu>


This is a supplementary idea on how to handle spells in any given campaign to make them perhaps a bit more interesting.  I'm not sure that it would work for all games, but it has been fun in a game I recently began to run, so I decided to pass it on to the great Net in the Sky.

The basic idea is:
1) to individualize spells, making them more interesting to use and discover.
2) to give players a prop to play with, and a small degree of sense of "being there".
3) to give the Game Master a bit more control over the world.

There are a few parts to this idea, and most of them are not central to the main gist (that is, throw it out if you like the basics, but not the frills ;).

The main idea is that of the spells themselves.  In the game I am running, I use the extenisve AD&D spell lists as a base to work from, not the actuality. For example, the following is a spell in my campaign:

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(ALENMAN'S RITUAL OF) MINOR BURNING HANDS (WIZARD)

Level: 1                                Components: V, S (see below)
Range: 0                                Casting Time: 1
Duration: 1 round                       Saving Throw: None
Components: Verbal (syllables of power), Somatic (touching thumbs and spreading the fingers of each hand)

Once cast, a fan of flame shoots from the mage's touching thumbs and outstretched hands.  The fan reaches three feet forward from the thumbs, and extends 60 degrees to the right and left, gradually shortening until the fan slopes into the wrists.  The flames change color depending on the power the mage is able to put into them, and follow this chart:

     Level of    Color of
     Mage        Flames       Damage       Will Ignite
     1-2         Yellow       1/level      easily flammables (paper, thin cloth)
     3-5         Orange       1.5/level    flammables (cloth, hair, kindling)
     6-8         Red          2/level      difficult flammables (wood)
     9-12        Violet       3/level      semi-flammables (wet wood)
     13+         Blue         5/level      many non-flammables (flesh)

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The mage who's master taught him this has a very individual spell.  There are several versions of Burning Hands assumed to exist in the world, although I have not written any of them other than this one and (Imri's Ritual of) Searing Fingers.  Nor is it necessary to do so.
     Keep in mind that while supplements and such that are produced for others to use as a reference have to be at least somewhat comprehensive.  Hence the large number of spells that AD&D has produced for GMs to use.  However, in your own campaign, you can make the blanket statement that "there are several billion spells" and not have to make them all up.  You only have to make the ones your players are currently interacting with, and will interact with in the near future.  Taking existing spells and modifying them with clever twists and such, even making them somewhat more powerful (as in this case) is perfectly acceptable.  Burning Hands, for example, should not become a second level spell if it is made more powerful - the above example is STILL weaker than Magic Missile!  Once started, since you will not need to generate many spells in this manner to set the tone, you will find that creating entirely new spells is also much easier than suspected.  Since you only have to focus on a few groups of spells at a time, fleshing out the Diviner specialist mage becomes only a minor problem.


The second part of the idea is the "spell book prop".  The Minor Burning Hands spell I gave above is currently written in my somewhat unsteady hand on a single sheet of notebook paper.  There are three other spells as well, each with their own sheets of paper.  Once I finished scribbling out the spell as nicely and clearly as I could, I gave the spell sheets to the player who's mage possesses them.  Since there are two mages in the party, I ended up writing eight spells total, each individual.  With those eight spells created or modified, I managed to create the impression of singular, individual spells in the AD&D's somewhat generic universe, and also gave my players a spellbook to work with.  One of my players, Billy, has been referring to his "spell book" often as he assesses the situation.


A third part is the idea of spell scarcity.  Not that spells themselves are scarce, quite the opposite!  But written copies of any given spell are extremely rare.  There may be a grand total of seven copies of (Alenman's Ritual of) Minor Burning Hands.  And without a Write spell, there will be no more copies coming anytime soon.  Casters cannot copy spells from one spell book to another without Write, although two *very* close friends may allow one another to study the copy they have.  Nor will memorizing a spell and then writing it down work - the manifest copy (written), and the memorized energy pattern which allows you to cast a spell are two very different things.
     With the usage of this idea, I would suggest that their be a sort of group monopoly on the Write spell.  Perhaps only a very few wizards have the spell, and they jealously guard it (and the wealth it generates for them - since they are the only ones who can do so, it demands a high price).  Or perhaps it is a spell owned by "the state" in some manner.  In Krynn, for example, the idea could be adapted as something possessed by each Order.
     The primary effect of this is to make the spells (and the sheets you gave the players) very precious indeed!  If two players want to trade spells, allow them to trade the actual sheets of paper with the spells on them.  Finding a spell book wil be a very rich find, and salvaging pages of a spell book a cause for the mage to follow.
     Something else I just thought of is the once humorous effects of the Bookworm become very deadly!  A mage under siege by the pale little parasite might be tempted to measures as extreme as Finger of Death to kill the pest ;).

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Anyway, I have little else that I know of to say.. send me comments :)
Thom(as)
nsbos0230@nsula.edu

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