[CONAN] I need a spell...

[Supplement Four]

I have only a very basic understanding of the sorcery rules in the game as my campaign has not touched on magic yet. As my PCs encounter their bit of sorcerery, I'm looking for a way to put it in the game mechanically.

One or Two PCs will be walking down a trail when they will encounter a man, leaning up against a rock, with a spear. Next to him is a huge wolf with a white strip of hair running down its head and snout.

This NPC will cast a spell that will cause one or both of the PCs to see a cryptic vision. I won't go into details because the vision is pretty sick (as I'm making sorcery in my game mysterious, gritty, dark, evil-feeling, a perversion of nature), but I want experiencing the vision to be akin to a dream--except this man on the rock caused it to happen.

The dude on the rock is low level--probably a 1st level Scholar. So, I need a low level spell that can be cast without preparation.

Scanning through the rulebook, I've spied a spell that would work...but, it seems a little low powered for what I want to do.

Prestidigitation - Conjuring.

I need something low powered and quick to use.

It's OK if there is a save involved.

Illusion, Conjuration, Hyptnotism, maybe even Divination.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ichabod]

By RAW, not a whole lot a 1st level scholar can do since they don't cast advanced spells. What you are describing is similar to Visions of Torment and Enlightenment, but that's a 10th level scholar thing.

If you really want some low level dude, using mechanics easily found in a book, have a low level guy with a Demonic Pact using his demon master to cause the effect.

Alternatively, can scour books I don't readily have at hand, like Scrolls of Skelos, and probably find something that can be cast by somebody below 10th level that does what you are looking for.

 

[Supplement Four]

If you really want some low level dude, using mechanics easily found in a book, have a low level guy with a Demonic Pact using his demon master to cause the effect.

I was thinking about that. Ollam-Onga is corrupting this poor dude, so the Conjuring spell could work the way I want it to...with a little help from Ollam.

I wonder why they call the spell "Conjuring", as it really isn't about gating in a beastie as much as it is doing some levitation or illusion stuff. Seems like a strange title for that spell.

Is there a Conan RPG answer to Audible Glamor + Illusion from normal D&D? That's basically what I need--sight and sound, and possibly enthralling the target to be taken in by what they see.

 

[Mach5RR]

Scrolls of Skelos has what you're looking for with Illusion (pg 30). Creates in a single targets mind a visual, auditory, olfactory, etc illusion. Casting time is 1 action, with a PP cost of 9. Requires a magic attack bonus of +5, entrance, dread serpent, and conjuring. Lasts 1 round for every 3 levels and target gets a will save.

But honestly, just wing that mother. Create him as your low-level scholar, given a one-shot item by his master (adjust saving throws as necessary). That way, you don't have to kill the mood by explaining the mechanic used to create it.

 

[Spectator]

I agree with Mach.
The bummer about being a 1 lvl scholar, means it that you are a pimply faced 16 yr-old apprentice who just ran away from sotha's school of sorcery.
Not much you can do.
If you have a 1-shot thingy from your boy Ollam-onga, that's a different matter.

 

[Supplement Four]

If you have a 1-shot thingy from your boy Ollam-onga, that's a different matter.

That's where I'm leaning. I'm thinking about showing in the pimply faced 16 year old, too--that he doesn't know what the heck is happening to him when it occurs.

 

[kintire]

I wonder why they call the spell "Conjuring", as it really isn't about gating in a beastie as much as it is doing some levitation or illusion stuff. Seems like a strange title for that spell.

I think they are referring to real world conjuring: sleight of hand artists.

I would recommend an artifact, especially if you want it to be out of the scholar's control. There's solid Lovecraft precedent for crystals that give strange visions.

 

[Supplement Four]

I wonder why they call the spell "Conjuring", as it really isn't about gating in a beastie as much as it is doing some levitation or illusion stuff. Seems like a strange title for that spell.

I think they are referring to real world conjuring: sleight of hand artists.

I would recommend an artifact, especially if you want it to be out of the scholar's control. There's solid Lovecraft precedent for crystals that give strange visions.

That's a neat idea. How would you link a crystal and Ollam-Onga in Cimmeria?

 

[rabindranath72]

That's a neat idea. How would you link a crystal and Ollam-Onga in Cimmeria?

A lost caravan?

 

[kintire]

An ancient Atlantean Wizard who hid the Shining Trapezohedron before the cataclysm in a tomb that no one would ever find, only for the passing millenia to wear away at his hiding place until erosion revealed it, and a flood washed it into a stream from which a (semi) innocent Cimmerian retrieved it. Ollam Onga, with his intuitive connection to the Crawling Chaos, was probably the poor fool's first vision.

 

[Supplement Four]

I like!