Spell Cards: Featherweight, Light

A while back I posted about the idea to use spellbooks from the defunct collectible card game Zatch Bell as a lodging for players' spell cards. It required a little resizing to the skinny card sleeves they have but I'm now proud to say that the player of Sivir the Elf now carries her four spells in a little gray book. And will never again forget how Sleep works ... right?

Two years ago I posted a long series reworking the standard spell lists that had remained much the same across editions of D&D. Later, I tried boiling the spell list down to the most essential spells and stating them as single cards. This time around the spell list is expanded, some of the dog spells thrown out (Temptation/Fortitude anyone?) and I think it's a good time to go two by two through the card-based spells I use in my current games.

The one thing I'm missing, I think, is crazy-ass spells. Stuff like Tobias' Obeisant Simian Valet from the New York Red Box campaigns, or Matt Finch's Strange Waters spell that got into Flame Princess. Always looking for the good suggestions on those. But now, on to the mundane stuff...

The number in parentheses is the caster level required to cast the spell; the range of both of these is sight, 30' and they represent the Yellow School of Change and the Red School of Energy.

Featherweight is the ultimate repurposing of the Feather Fall spell. Brendan on Untimately has recently posted some good insights about how OD&D spells can be understood like equipment, solutions for specific exploration problems like locked doors and illegible inscriptions. Well, if that approach to spells is Phillips-head screwdriver for Phillips-head screw, I want spells to be more like Swiss Army knives with strange emergent properties.

Players in my games have used Featherlight to cross a pit in the course of escaping a troll - who nonetheless batted them around like a party balloon - and to make opening a secret door that much easier. Nobody's yet had the chance to use the Wiley Coyote gambit ... cast it on the big bad monster, push it back with a pole over the cliff edge until 10' has passed, and then bye-bye. By the way, it's "weightless" in the sense of  "zero gravity," so that monster will still exert force and do damage as normal. (Even more devious, find yourself a 300 lb weight in the dungeon, go stand by it and yell until something comes along; then toss it up until it has flown 10' in the air, and run like hell.)

With Light, I cut to the chase and make provisions for its offensive use. Straightforward enough, but both of these spells with a little luck and ingenuity can get even a beginning party out of an out-of-level monster encounter in a jiffy. I guess if you see spells-as-equipment, then these represent the kind of creative uses of equipment that are the pinnacle of Old School play style.

Cleanup on One Page Spells

I guess I should also summarize my commenters' opinions on the higher spell levels, even though they're not going to get the one-page treatment (maybe Advanced One Page Rules will handle them):

Level 4: Polymorph is a big hit, with the suggestion that Self and Other applications be combined into one super-versatile spell. Charm Monster and Dimension Door were the other ones that got multiple votes.

Level 5: Teleport was unanimously chosen, and Animate Dead got multiple votes. I'm not super big on any of the alternatives - Conjure Elemental seems to outclass Animate Dead, although it might be a good substitution if I give necromancy exclusively to evil clerics. Cloudkill, Contact Other Plane, and Transmute Rock to Mud ... The spells get less iconic as the levels rise.

Level 6: As I've said before, this is the last level I'll seriously consider. Stone to Flesh and its reversal were unanimously chosen. Geas was also popular (even if I consider it more of an NPC spell). The rest were singletons, showing the fraying of consensus at these high levels that characters rarely reach.

Oh, and here are the 6 more low level spells I mentioned last time. Lots of spells at level 1 is a good idea, but after that, my brotha, you have to find your own...

Three Spell Rhumba: Level 1

So ... the 49 Page Rules will be a "Basic D&D" - like product, with rules for player character levels 1-3 but allowing for NPC foes up to level 6. This means I get to focus on only the first three levels.

Four of you weighed in redoubtably on my three-spell challenge: Courtney of Hack & Slash, Changeling Bob, the Rubber Duck and Paul. There was actually quite a bit of consensus, so that I could pick six spells at first level and three at first that had all gathered multiple votes, and very few multiply-endorsed spells were left on the floor. This was as I had suspected; with the classic spell lists and even up through 3rd Edition, some spells clearly stand out as winners.

Here's the first level. You get to pick one each of a spell that takes the whole night to recover, a spell that takes a ten-minute turn to recover, and a spell you can cast at will. At character level 2 a wizard gets to pick another spell. Spells can get easier to recover as you gain levels; I put these power-ups on the even numbered levels because you get new spell levels on the odd-numbered ones.

Spell Recovery: Charm Person Night L1 Turn L4 Feather Fall At Will L1 Light At Will L1 Magic Missile Turn L1 At Will L6 Shield Turn L1 At Will L4 Sleep Night L1 Turn L6

I like to tweak spells to make them maximally useful. So yes, Light can be cast on someone's eyes, but they get a save to see if it lands on their hair instead, and let's also say you can only have one Light on at any given time. Shield basically creates a disk shaped force field no more than a yard off the ground that can be used to haul treasure, block a door, and thousands of other uses. Feather Fall can make you feather light for six seconds, enough to be hurled by the party strongman up onto that remote ledge.

Well, this is a minimal wizard. But she's guaranteed to get two out of three of the Most Useful Spells at first level, and has the weaker powers compensated by at-will use. It's a way of smoothing out the magic-user power curve by boosting first level powers, while making the higher-level powers not multiply so dramatically.

I'll do levels 2 and 3 next post, and I'm also thinking about splitting the spell lists into, for want of a better word, Day and Night paths. Where, for example, Day = Light, Feather Fall, Shield, Magic Missile, Create Rock, and Grease/Glue ... and Night = Ventriloquism, Unseen Servant, Summon 1 HD Monster, Comprehend Languages, Charm Person and Sleep. That gives a little more choice but doubles the spell list's size.

Brown Magic Supplement

Turns out Brown Magic really needs 4 spells/level at the high levels.

So here are the 4th spells for the first three levels.

All three of these, in my view, really add to the problem solving and creative use potential of this magic school.

Level 1

4	Heat Metal	Brown	30’	6 rounds	None
Metal weapon does 1d3 extra damage; metal armor burns wearer in 1 round for 1d3 damage/round; metal held objects dropped

Level 2

4	Command Wood	Brown	30’	Perm.	None
A non-magical section or piece of wood up to 3’ square is bent or reshaped

Level 3

4	Aid of the Waters	Brown	90’	3 hours	None
Water in 10’ radius rises or recedes up to 10’, supports walking, or becomes breathable

Brown Magic: Levels 1-3

"A strange race of  people ... the Druids ..." Although some of these spells also show up in the clerical lists. The main theme is somewhat different from the other color schools - it is the realm of what is affected, rather than functionally what is done, that unites these spells. This sets up Brown magic to be the primal, original, shamanic form of nature magic, and represent the control over natural forces that's present in many conceptions of magic - from Merlin's ravens to Elisha's bears.

As with sacred magic, the Brown spells are only a core for any possible druid, nature cleric, or hedge witch character class. Certainly there are forms of healing, protective, charm, attack, etc. magic that fit very well into those classes.

Yes, Brown's better in the outdoors ... but I've tried to include more spells of general utility and jettison some of the more notorious clunkers (um ... Shillelagh anyone?)

LEVEL 1

               Name                                Color           Range      Duration       Save

1	Animal Friends	Brown	30’	1 hr	Will (Wis)
Calms 1d6 HD of animals, +1 HD/ level; keep 1 with HD <= level as pet
2	Aid of the Earth	Brown	90’	3 min	None
Plants and earth hide or halve move along 100’ x 10’ trail
3	Speak with Animal	Brown	30’	3 min	None
Hold conversation with normal animal

LEVEL 2

1	Aid of the Meek	Brown	90’	12 hrs	None
Up to 6 tiny animals appear in 1-3 rounds and act as familiars
2	Aid of the Trees	Brown	0	1 hr	None
Caster can merge with a tree, remaining aware, and talk with it
3	Call Animals	Brown	30’	1 hr	None
4 HD of friendly animals appear in 1d20 rounds and follow commands

LEVEL 3

1	Aid of the Sky	Brown	90’	Special	Speed (Dex)
Only open sky, 1 minute to summon clouds if needed, then 1 bolt / round for rounds = caster level strikes for 6d6 damage, save for half
2	Aid of the Stones	Brown	30’	30 min	None
Rock underfoot ensnares or damages (1d4/round of travelling) beings travelling on foot over it in 30’ square area
3	Insect Cloud	Brown	90’	30 min	Body (Con)
Stinging insects make all in 30’ square area take 2 hp damage/round, -2 to hit rolls and no casting, save or flee.

Sacred Magic: Level 1 Spell List

Spells are grouped together to show parallels and symmetries in form.

Gold is the more valuable school with fewer effects, just because I think access to healing magic is one of the most sought-after things out there and players would run a cleric class with no armor, no turning, and no spells other than healing, strictly to min-max the party, even if it would get boring after a while (cleric henchmen would be ideal). I have, however, buffed up a number of things I always have considered weak, like bless.

Yep, turning is a spell (series of spells, really) without a wonky table. Raggi's Flame Princess rules also handle things this way, but of course worldmakers are free to include any spell as an inherent class ability. Bless and Consecrate don't stack with themselves.

Also, some of my cleric class options include spells from other schools, so they can do divinations, Bible-style miracles, and the like. These three schools' spells are very tightly focused on what they do.

I like the idea of Black magicians and priests being scary in the same way a Rust Monster is scary, hence the  spell Defilement.

Is the White School monster-huntery enough for ya?

#	Name	School	Rge	Dur	Save
W1	Consecration	White	0	3 hrs	None
Imbues object or 1’ cube of substance with holy essence that does 2d4 damage (substance) or +1d4 damage (object) vs. unholy; protects it from physical corruption
B1	Defilement	Black	0	Perm	None
Physically corrupts object or 1’ cube of substance (rusts metal, rots wood, fouls food and drink) [or makes it unholy, with effects as Consecration but against holy beings]
G1	Purification	Gold	3’	Perm	None
Frees object or 1’ cube of substance from unholy influence and physical corruption
W2	Protection From Light Wounds	White	0	30 min	(Con)
Protects from 1d6+1 hp damage, plus a like amount from unholy beings or Black magic
B2	Cause Light Wounds	Black	30’	None	(Con)
Harms for 1d6+1 hp
G2	Cure Light Wounds	Gold	0	None	None
Heals 1d6+1 hp
W3	Turn Unholy	White	30’	1 hour	(No stat)
Repels 1d8HD + 2HD/ caster level unholy beings in 120 degree arc; affected beings group save, at +/-2 per point difference between group HD and caster level
B3	Command Unholy	Black	30’	1 hour	(No stat)
Charms 1d4HD + 1HD/ caster level unholy beings in 120 degree arc; affected beings group save, at +/-2 per point difference between group HD and caster level
G3	Banish Unholy	Gold	30’	1 hour	(No stat)
Destroys 1d4HD + 1HD/ caster level unholy beings in 120 degree arc; affected beings group save, at +/-2 per point difference between group HD and caster level
W4	Holy Light	White	0	3 hours	None
60’ radius light in air or nonliving object, brightens when unholy beings or objects are in 60.’
B4	Unholy Darkness	Black	0	3 hours	None
20’ radius magical darkness on air or nonliving object, [darkens when holy beings or objects are in 60’]
W5	Bless	White	3’	1 hour	None
Up to 6 beings get +1 on hit, damage, save rolls, and armor improves by 1, double effect fighting unholy beings.
B5	Curse	Black	3’	1 hour	(Wis)
Up to 6 beings get -1 on hit, damage, save rolls and armor worsens by 1, [double effect fighting holy beings]