Spells: The Yellow School (Level 1)

Yellow magic resolves the conflict between the blue magic of creation, and the red of destruction, by producing transformation from one state to another, altering the properties of things and creatures. The Yellow insight is a gateway between the higher Blue and Red schools, which concern reality, and the three lower, more human-oriented schools, which concern the subjectivities of the mind. Yellow spell effects tend to be ambiguously helpful and harmful, and often work better on living things, which are more amenable to change in general.

The reputation of Yellow wizards is for great subtlety, ambiguity, a certain looseness of morals, and a conviction that nothing is permanent or ordained. On a university campus, they would be the postmodern scholars. Their celestial body is the Sun, in particular the cycle of its movement that represents the cycle of changes, and their preferred shape is the hexagon.

Enlarge/Reduce

Level 1 Magic Spell (Minor)

School: Yellow

Range: 30’

Duration: 3 hours

Alters the size, but not the weight, of a single living being and anything it is wearing, or of a free-standing nonliving object up to 3’ in each dimension. Reduction can be by up to 50% and enlargement can be by up to 150%. Hit points and strength are not affected, but move of a legged creature is; damage of natural weapons is +1 per die if enlarged and -1 per die if reduced. If the affected being is unwilling, there is a save (Con).

Harden/Soften

Level 1 Magic Spell (Minor)

School: Yellow

Range: 30’

Duration: 30 minutes

Alters the consistency of a living being’s skin, or of a nonliving object with at least one dimension of 1 inch or less. Skin or worn cloth can become softer (natural AC gets worse by 3 points, up to unarmored state), tougher (natural AC improves by 3 points, or by 1 if wearing armor already), or rigid (natural AC improves by 5 points, or by 3 if wearing armor, but all physical actions are -3 on d20, and movement is halved). If the affected being is unwilling, there is a save (Con). The spell can also give a nonliving object a consistency ranging from rubber (damage is -2 and nonlethal) to steel.

Lightness/Heaviness

Level 1 Magic Spell (Minor)

School: Yellow

Range: 30’

Duration: 3 hours (special)

Alters the weight of a living being, or of an object or objects originally weighing up to 200 pounds. Weight can be reduced to that of a feather or increased by 150%. The spell only affects the pull of gravity on the target, not its mass. No damage is taken from falling in a reduced-weight state, and jumps up to 30’ vertically and 60’ horizontally (with a 10’ arc) are possible. However, the lightness ends after its target touches ground having fallen more than 5 feet. Effects of increased weight are slowness (2/3 move), +1 to each die of falling damage, and a -2 penalty on d20 to perform any physical action. The spell may be activated with a single word if the caster, or a person they are watching with intent to cast the spell, falls suddenly.