New Common Magic Spells

I like Conjuration. I just felt the need to put in a Common Magic spell that basically emulated stage magic, in all its glory, from pulling a wand out of thin air to making a hat suddenly belch forth a stream of candies in front of a crowd of kids, through to making the lady vanish out of one locked cabinet and appear in the identical cabinet on the other side of the room.

Bright, gaudy, but still recognisably Common Magic - and probably one of the most versatile little spells your character can ever learn. Those keys to your character's prison cell on the table across the room? Zip. In your character's hand. A present for that farmer's daughter that put your character up overnight from the storm? Boom. Puppy. Or maybe candies. They'll last longer.

Also, Down Time would be very lucrative indeed, what with all the fun shows your character could organise for the masses.
 
Cook
Instant, Magnitude 1, Ranged

This spell will completely cook one item: a pot of stew, a piece of meat, a block of risen dough. The item is placed within a container, closed off and sealed. This spell is cast over the container, and the item is cooked and ready within one minute of casting. The item will be as hot as if it had been cooked in a proper oven or pot. This spell has no effect on non-food items or small living creatures.


Preserve
Instant, Magnitude 1, Touch, Progressive, Trigger
This spell maintains the freshness of perishable supplies, as long as they remain wrapped and sealed somehow - liquids in a sealed barrel, bottle, keg or cottrell, bread wrapped in waxed paper, eggs in a box, filled with straw packing.
No matter how long the journey, as long as the item remains sealed, it will remain as fresh as the exact moment it was sealed up; it will never spoil or break, nor be distorted or squashed. As soon as the seal is broken, the spell ends. Each point of Magnitude can preserve one adventurer's stash of supplies, or enough to feed one person for a day during Down Time.
Irina casts this spell on three loaves of fresh bread to give to her adventurer husband Ivan. Ivan has to trek for seventeen days without stopping for supplies. After two days, Ivan breaks open the first seal. The bread smells as fresh as if it had just popped out of the oven. Three days later, and he is eating bread that is only three days old, not five days old. After two weeks on the road, Ivan breaks open the seal on the last loaf of bread. It smells as fresh as the first two did. By the time he gets to Leningrad, the remains of his last loaf are only three days old.
 
OK...it's my turn again! :twisted:

Beggar's Feast
Duration 10, Magnitude 2, Touch, Resist (Special)
This minor illusion makes any collection of organic materials with an ENC of 2 or less look, smell, and taste like a sumptuous feast. It can be used to make rotting garbage look edible, but can also be used to make dangerous substances (such as poisonous mushrooms) seem harmless. It does not add any nutritional value to the disguised materials, nor does it prevent any adverse consequences from ingesting them. Each person who observes the beggar's feast will experience a slightly different selection of foods based upon their personal tastes - and this may be sufficient to alert astute observers that something is awry. Spells such as Second Sight will automatically see through the illusion, and suspicious observers may voluntarily attempt an opposed test of their Persistence against the caster’s Common Magic skill to discern the true nature of the "feast". This is a free action and does not require the expenditure of a Combat Action.

Blather
Concentration, Magnitude 1, Progressive
This spell makes anything the caster says sound extremely reasonable - but only while the caster continues speaking. The instant that the caster stops talking, it becomes glaringly obvious to all listeners that his speech was full of flaws and contradiction. The spell briefly grants the caster a +10% per Magnitude to and Commerce, Influence, or Oratory skill tests. This bonus persists for as long as the caster keep speaking or a maximum duration of 1 minute per Magnitude (whichever comes first). When the effect ends, listeners will realise that the caster is is speaking nonsense and are likely to conclude that they have been hoodwinked. Individual listeners will react to this realisation in accordance with their own nature, so the outcome may be unpredictable.

Sample Enchanted Item: Ring of Blathering
Any person who wears this ring gains the benefit of the Blather spell whenever they speak. The drawback of the item is that the wearer cannot speak at all without blathering, producing a continuous babble of nonsense.

Lassitude
Duration 5, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Ranged, Resist (Persistence)
This spell weakens the willpower of a single living target, temporarily reducing their Persistence by -10% per Magnitude. When this spell is cast, the target feels his vitality melting away and a languid weakness stealing over him. The target may attempt to resist the sapping of his will by making an opposed Persistence test against the caster’s Common Magic skill. If successful, the target manages to shakes off the enchantment and may act normally. However, if the Persistence roll fails, the target will stand motionless as though in a stupour for the duration of the spell. However, any sharp physical pain (such as a slap across the face) will instantly snap the target out of the entrancement. Note that multiple castings of this spell do not stack - you cannot cast it on a single target repeatedly in order to reduce them to a mindless automaton.

Sample Enchanted Item: Collar of Lassitude
When this plain metal collar is locked around the throat of a humanoid target, the wearer is subjected the a continuous lassitude spell. The wearer can resist the insidious effects of the collar for as long as she keeps making successful Persistence rolls. Once the wearer fails a roll, she will wander around in a daze, overwhelmed by a dreamlike sense of languor. The wearer remains in this state until the collar is removed and can only attempt to resist skills such as Influence or Seduction using her reduced Persistence rating. Some evil slavers have this device welded onto their favourite captives, rendering it almost impossible to remove.

Sobriety
Instant, Magnitude 1, Ranged
This spell neutralizes the intoxicating effects of alcohol, instantly rendering the recipient stone cold sober. The target of the spell must make a resilience roll or suffer nausea for 1d4 rounds due to the abrupt end to their intoxicated state. During the period of nausea, the target suffers a -10% penalty to all actions involving physical coordination or concentration. If the target of this spell does not wish to "sober up", they may attempt to resist it by making an opposed Resilience roll against the caster's Common Magic skill. Note that a drunk adventurer may have great difficulty casting this spell upon himself!

Sample Enchanted Item: Tankard of Sobriety
This is a tankard that has been enchanted with the sobriety spell. Any character who attempts to drink any alcoholoc beverage from this tankard will be the target of a Sobriety spell cast with a skill of 80%

Susurrus
Duration 10, Magnitude 2, Ranged, Resist (Persistence)
This spell produces a soothing droning sound that causes all who hear it to become drowsy. All living creatures within a 10 meter radius (possibly including the caster) must make a Persistence roll or lose one Combat Action for the duration of the spell due to the effects of this drowsiness. Affected creatures who fumble the Persistence roll fall asleep for the duration of the spell. They may be awakened by normal means, but might immediately succumb to the effects of the spell again on the following round if they can still hear the droning sound. This spell has no effect on creatures who are deaf or who have blocked their ears.

Possible Enchanted Item: Susurrus Stone
This is a small pebble that has been enchanted with the sussurus spell. It is kept in a soundproof container until it is needed, at which point it is thrown into the midst of a group of opponents.

Telekinetic Slam
Instant, Ranged, Magnitude 1, Progressive
With a gesture, the caster can inflict knockback on a single opponent from a distance. This inflicts no damage on the target, but may cause them to fall prone. For each point of Magnitude that the caster invests in this spell, roll 1d6. The total rolled determines how much telekinetic force the spell generates. Compare this to the target's SIZ to determine whether knockback occurs. If the total amount rolled is greater than the target's SIZ, they must immediately make an Athletics test to avoid falling prone. In addition, the target is also shoved backwards by one metre also for each five points (or fraction thereof ) exceeding the target’s SIZ.

Water Walking
Duration 5, Magnitude 2
For the duration of the spell, the caster can walk on water or other liquids at her normal Movement. The caster can walk across the surface of the liquid as though it were soft turf, unless she is carrying a load whose ENC is greater than half her STR+SIZ. If the caster is carrying a heavier load, she will slowly sink into the liquid as though it were molasses. This spell does not provide protection from adverse effects associated with exposure to unusual liquid. For example, a foolish character who uses this spell to walk on molten lava will suffer damage from radiant heat, although this might be slightly less harmful than total immersion. The caster may need to make an Athletics roll to traverse areas dominated by swift currents while under the effects of this spell. Turbulent water should otherwise be treated as rough terrain.
 
I think these are great, and what Common Magic should be about

Cook and Preserve both need a limit to the quantity affected, like 1 ENC per magnitude. If I could cast it on the entire cargo of a 500 ton grain ship, so there's no spoilage, it would make me rich, unless everyone is using it so it merely depresses the value of the goods at their destination. Or use it to preserve the contents of a sealed tomb? Sounds like Divine Magic in those cases.
 
Simulacrum said:
I think these are great, and what Common Magic should be about

Cook and Preserve both need a limit to the quantity affected, like 1 ENC per magnitude. If I could cast it on the entire cargo of a 500 ton grain ship, so there's no spoilage, it would make me rich, unless everyone is using it so it merely depresses the value of the goods at their destination. Or use it to preserve the contents of a sealed tomb? Sounds like Divine Magic in those cases.
You balance the power against rarity.

And economics.

Cook only does the equivalent of a microwave load of food. It can't be expanded - it's deliberately not Progressive.

And Preserve ... I can see it being the province of a thoroughly unscrupulous baker who keeps a whole bunch of loaves in his storage shed, thinking they'll be safe there forever so he can foist six-month-old loaves that "still smell fresh" on an unsuspecting market that doesn't have Mystic Vision and Detect Magic to smell the stale spell clinging to the provender like motor oil.

Only, some passing sorcerer might cast Neutralise Magic on the place; or one harsh winter, and some Awakened mice break in to the storage area, evolved to crave the taste of active magic as much as material sustenance. It only takes one tiny little break in the seal ... so tiny, you'd never notice ...

Ah. Awakened mice. Time for a Bestiary thread ...
 
I like the Camera Obscura entry (but then I would, I'm a photographer!)

Some of the others I think are too powerful or "wooly" but the great thing is its a damn fine start and people can change/use/not use them as they want and see fit! :D

Sam / Bifford
 
If you don't like any particular Common Magic spells, you as Games Master can decree that they don't exist.

Or that they only exist in one form - as a Spell Matrix (see Arms of Legend) that cannot be learned from. A good way of restricting access to Disruption and Hand of Death, by putting them in some sort of spell matrix fastened to an artifact gauntlet worn by the bad guy cult's assassins.
 
Trigger
Instant, Ranged, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Resist (Resilience), Trigger
This spell activates a trap from a safe distance. The caster must be aware that the device is a trap - through Detect Trap or Sense Trap, or success with a Mechanisms skill roll to identify something as the trigger of a trap. A mundane trap is triggered with a Magnitude 1 effect; magical traps, or traps warded by spells against magical interference, resist the Magnitude of this spell with the Magnitude of the protective magical effect placed on the trap. Mechanisms such as golems or constructs which possess a Resilience skill may resist this spell with their Resilience instead.
 
I deliberately made no reference to the possibility of the character wielding Trigger happening to be a certain Admiral Ackbar ...
 
alex_greene said:
Trigger
Instant, Ranged, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Resist (Resilience), Trigger
This spell activates a trap from a safe distance. The caster must be aware that the device is a trap - through Detect Trap or Sense Trap, or success with a Mechanisms skill roll to identify something as the trigger of a trap. A mundane trap is triggered with a Magnitude 1 effect; magical traps, or traps warded by spells against magical interference, resist the Magnitude of this spell with the Magnitude of the protective magical effect placed on the trap. Mechanisms such as golems or constructs which possess a Resilience skill may resist this spell with their Resilience instead.
I'm not keen on the "trapness" of a mechanism being an objectivce, detectable property. Detect Gold, fine. Detect Enemies, not too bad, you're detecting active, present, conscious intent. Detect Traps though? What are you detecting? The residual intent of the trap maker? How long does that psychic residue remain for? For ever? Is the physical substance of the trap imbued with this magically-detectable residue, and if that residue can be detected, then surely it can be removed as well? Would that make the trap into not-a-trap, or simply render it undetectable?

Does it detect alarms as well as harmful traps? Would it affect a bucket of water over a door? What if the trap is assembled by someone who is unaware that what they are building is suposed to be a trap?

Too many questions, too D&Dish in my opinion. Sorry to invoke the D100 version of Godwin's Law there... :P
 
I've seen spells described here and there such as Detect Slippers and Dominate (Servant), so I guess Detect Trap would not seem too big a leap.

In the games I set up, Detect and Sense (X) come from the same part of the brain as Perception and Insight skills; the spell is cast, and if the desired object is present the mind just gets drawn to all the signs and traces that show where it is, or the general direction of where it might be.

The same might go for a Detect Trap spell: the character sees the panel on the floor, but notes that the flagstone has no pointing around it where all the other stones have pointing flush with the floor, a setup that screams "pressure pad" to his trained eye; or the lockpick makes an unusual pinging sound when it is moved in the lock like a pin moving into place that should not be there, giving the caster a sudden misgiving that there may be a hidden mechanism within the door or chest.

But that's Detect Traps. What did you think of the spell that sets the off from a safe distance? Any use, or should it be as rare as rocking horse manure in your game?
 
PhilHibbs said:
I'm not keen on the "trapness" of a mechanism being an objectivce, detectable property. [...] What are you detecting? The residual intent of the trap maker? How long does that psychic residue remain for? For ever? Is the physical substance of the trap imbued with this magically-detectable residue, and if that residue can be detected, then surely it can be removed as well? Would that make the trap into not-a-trap, or simply render it undetectable?
I think the (admittedly somewhat trite) answer to this question is: "because it's magic." The philosophy being that magic is not a fantasy tricorder, allowing players to do amazing things... magic allows players to do impossible things... like detecting traps by their 'trapness.'

Full disclosure: I actually kind of agree with you Phil on this one, and would probably not allow this spell based on it being too 'meta-gamey'...

There is a precedent for this kind of spell though (in Glorantha): doesn't Humakt teach Detect Assassin? What if I assassinated someone 15 years ago? Do I still 'ping'?

Responding to alex: I don't see "Trigger" as being of any use to anyone in the game world except for the most specialised of 'professions' (ie professional thieves, tomb robbers). Perhaps it is taught only to high-ranking members of the Thieves Guild?
 
RangerDan said:
There is a precedent for this kind of spell though (in Glorantha): doesn't Humakt teach Detect Assassin? What if I assassinated someone 15 years ago? Do I still 'ping'?
Yes, assassinating someone is a permanent stain on your soul, and the spell detects that. Unless you are Illuminated, probably.

Digging deeper into the "Trigger" thing... and with tongue firmly in chek... what if the trigering of a trap requires the presence of an elephant? Does the spell cause an elephant to appear, albeit briefly? A more sensible version of this question: bucket propped on door - does it cause the door to move, or the bucket to fall off? If a trap is set up so that it can only be triggered after a door is unlocked, can this spell be used to unlock the door? Or, does the spell break the trap by forcing it to do something that is otherwise physically impossible? Can that be abused to achieve an outcome that would otherwise be difficult - e.g. a trap that can be set off by either unlocking the door or by solving a 9-dimensional Rubiks Cube?
 
RangerDan said:
PhilHibbs said:
Responding to alex: I don't see "Trigger" as being of any use to anyone in the game world except for the most specialised of 'professions' (ie professional thieves, tomb robbers). Perhaps it is taught only to high-ranking members of the Thieves Guild?
Why does everyone assume that only thieves might want to know this spell? Locksmiths, clockmakers, tinkerers with strange devices, crafters of automata and anyone with Mechanisms skill would probably want to learn this spell, if only to enable them to render a trapped item safe from a distance. Probably most commonplace in a setting where treason and betrayal are rife, and any old object, particularly offered as a gift, could trigger a lethal surprise - poison darts, a spring loaded circular blade that cuts off the hand that reaches into the hole, a deadfall released by stepping on a given flagstone,

Also, adventurers could use the spell in an encounter - the villain takes a step back, under the unsprung deadfall; the character sees his chance, casts Trigger, and ... boom. No more villain.

I envisage the spell as being a limited, specialised version of Push/Pull that does just one thing: it pushes that button, pulls that switch, depresses that false tile, whatever the action is that triggers the mechanism.

Perhaps "trap" was too specific a term - it could open secret doors, spring open a hidden compartment in a trinket box or whatever. The intent behind the concealed mechanism need not be hostile - just unknown to the caster, and therefore automatically suspect as a possible trap.

Hard to imagine a trap set for an elephant. How many player characters come from the elephant species?
 
No, I see it as something an NPC artificer might have. The artificer looks over the looted treasure box, spots something hinky, sets the box down very carefully, steps back, casts this spell. The trap unfolds, blades come out which would have cut off fingers had they been present, and the artificer looks to the characters and says "I'll have my money, now."
 
alex_greene said:
Hard to imagine a trap set for an elephant. How many player characters come from the elephant species?
No elephant hunters in your world? Is ivory of no value? Also, clearly you never read any "Middle-aged Radioactive Karate Elephant" comics when you were a kid,
 
:P No, that's facetious. As well as not thinking about what Trigger is supposed to be about: springing hidden mechanisms harmlessly, by means of a limited form of Push/Pull that just amounts to a single press of the hidden panel or pull of the switch or release mechanism with sufficient strength to trigger it.

It has a number of limitations - the spell won't trigger a trap that is not mechanical, but magical, such as a room filled with alchemically-treated wax candles that emit poisonous vapours into the room, or some other form of hidden mechanism or device not based on mechanical principles such as gears, springs or hydraulics.

But if it's a simple thing like a bucket of cold water propped up over a doorway, this'll push the door open just enough to trip the deadfall, or apply just enough telekinetic weight over the fragile cover of the pitfall trap to cause the cover to fall into the pit.
 
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