New Common Magic Spells

[Prime_Evil]

Hey...I'm finally back online after a dead motherboard killed my PC...

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!
Sam / Bifford

I think that's the point. None of the spells presented here are fully worked examples - they are rough sketches that individual GMs can modify to suit their own needs.

Personally, I'm interested that there seems to be an emerging consensus that Common Magic should simulate a slightly different range of effects than the spells provided in the core rulebook. I'm getting the feeling that many people agree that common magic should be about utility spells rather than combat-oriented spells. People seem to favor a solution where the availability of the combat-oriented spells are restricted on the basis of faction (guild, cult, or sorcerous order).

 

[Bifford]

Personally, I'm interested that there seems to be an emerging consensus that Common Magic should simulate a slightly different range of effects than the spells provided in the core rulebook. I'm getting the feeling that many people agree that common magic should be about utility spells rather than combat-oriented spells. People seem to favor a solution where the availability of the combat-oriented spells are restricted on the basis of faction (guild, cult, or sorcerous order).

Most certainly.

Or to put it more simply:

"Magic for the Common People"

Every day magic for aiding in every day tasks, rather than the elite tasks of a warrior.
So while some of those tasks may well have warrior bases such as using spears, or bows the original purpose of those spells is for hunter-gathers.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Been reading this for a long time and loving it.

Here are my spells:

Stitch Witch
Instant, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Touch
This spell allows the caster to duplicate stitching and other needlework. The caster must create the first stitch and have all materials necessary to create all other desired stitches. The spell duplicates the caster’s manually created stitch. Each level of magnitude allows up to 10 cm of stitching to be duplicated. Small changes in direction of the stitching are possible, but this spell cannot be used to produce complex patterns.

This spell is commonly used by tailors where they spend extra effort to create a “perfect” stitch and then duplicate it along a garment (a Critical Success with his Craft/Skill check). It is also commonly used by adventurers and housewives to repair damaged clothing quickly. This spell cannot be used to repair magical items, nor can it be used to sew up injuries on a living creature.

Hunter’s Boon (Weapon)
Duration (1 round), Instant, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Touch
This spell grants the caster the same effects as if he had spent a Combat Action to aim; each Magnitude of the spell acts as if the hunter had been aiming for an additional Combat Action, thus a Magnitude 3 spell would provide the same benefit as if the caster had spent 3 Combat Actions aiming. The caster must be touching the weapon at the time the spell is cast and if the weapon is not used by the end of the next combat round, the effects are lost. Variations of this spell exist for each ranged weapon.

Tracker’s Boon
Duration (60), Magnitude 1, Progressive
This spell provides the caster with a +10% bonus per level of Magnitude to his Track skill checks for one hour (the normal time between skill checks).

 

[Prime_Evil]

Very nice! Tracker's boon fills a gap in the system.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I debated with myself about Hunter's Boon. At first I was going to use a standard +10%, but thought that using the "aiming" rules would make it a more personal spell. The better you are at ranged combat, the better your bonus, but it keeps it tied to the person.

Also, the Stitch Witch spell is from a book by Harry Turtledove.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Another quick idea...

Fortification
Duration 5, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Touch

This spell temporarily strengthens a single inanimate object, increasing its HP (but not AP) by an amount equal to the 2 x Magnitude of the spell. The spell can affect an object whose SIZ does not exceed the spell's Magnitude. For example, if an adventurer casts this spell on a wooden door at Magnitude 4, he would temporarily increase its hit points by +8 but its Armour Points would remain the same. As mentioned previously, this spell only affects inanimate objects - it has no effect on living creatures, elementals, or animate constructs such as golems. If the object drops to negative HP when the temporary hit points granted by this spell dissipate, it is destroyed as soon as the duration of the spell expires.

 

[rust]

Most of the Common Magic spells for my Phalanos setting
are low magic and very setting specific, but this one could
perhaps be useful in other settings, too. It is somewhat si-
milar to the Camera Obscura spell already described in this
thread by Alex Greene, but less powerful.

Recall
Instant, Magnitude 1
The spell stores one detailed sensory impression (e.g. sight,
sound, smell, etc.) the caster has at the moment of casting
the spell in the caster's memory, from where it can be recal-
led with a moment of silent concentration whenever he wish-
es. Heralds use it to remember the precise wording of a mes-
sage, musicians to remember a tune, painters to remember
a face or landscape, and so on.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

A variation on Rust's Recall Spell:

Instant Recall (Also called Tip of the Tongue)
Duration 5, Magnitude 1, Progressive
This spell allows the caster to summon a past memory with total clarity. Each level of Magnitude allows the caster to recall a memory from one year in the past, thus at Magnitude 1 a memory within the last year can be recalled, at Magnitude 2 a memory within the last two years can be recalled. The caster must have some residual memory of the event before casting this spell (either roleplayed or by making a successful Perception check). Once cast, the memory become vivid and the caster has a full detailed sensory impression for the duration of the spell. After the duration has expired, the memory fades quickly back to it's normal level of perception.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Carrion Stench
Area (Special), Duration 5, Magnitude 2, Ranged, Resist (Resilience)
This spell creates a foul odour similar to the stench of rotting carrion that fills an area with a radius equal to the caster's POW in metres. All living creatures within the area must make a Resilience roll or be overwhelmed with nausea. Those who fail this roll retch uncontrollably, suffering a -20% penalty to all physical actions. In addition, any who succumb to the nauseating stench must make a Persistence roll to perform actions that require concentration (such as casting spells).The nausea fades after 1d3 rounds after victims leave the zone or when the spell's duration expires (whichever happens first). The caster is immune to the effects of the spell and may act freely within the area of effect. A potentially hazardous side-effect of this spell is that it attracts any ghouls within a radius equal to the caster's POW x 10.

Deflection
Duration 5, Magnitude 1, Progressive, Touch
The subject of this spell gains +1 AP to all hit locations per point of Magnitude invested in the spell (up to a maximum of AP 4). However, this protection vanishes as soon as the subject is struck by a blow powerful enough to penetrate the magical protection (even if the subject is wearing armour that would otherwise absorbs the force of the blow). In any case, the subject must spend 1 Magic Point for each point of damage that the spell absorbs - regardless of whether they penetrate the magical protection or not.

 

[rust]

An idea for a common magic spell from my Kerumar setting -
just the basic idea, I leave the details to you:

Slip
Area (Special), Duration 5, Magnitude 1
This spell makes one side of a specific object slippery. The Keru
use it for example to move their fishing boats into the sea or on-
to the beach or to move other objects which are too heavy to lift,
but it can also be used to make an area difficult to move through.

 

[Naym]

Deflection

Thank you for this one ! I was attempting to lower the effects of Protection and my shots were far too weak, this is perfect! (Though I may rule that the subject must spend 1 magic point on each successful attack rather than each point of dammage).


Here is my contribution(perhaps too porwerful?) :

Ward*
Concentration, Magnitude 1, Progressive,
This spell allows the caster to create a magical barrier whose size depends on the spell's Magnitude. At magnitude 1, its size is small (S), magnitude 2 a Medium (M) size and so on. As long as the caster concentrates on the spell he can make pary roll, using his Common Magic skill in place of his Combat Style. The caster can ward an aditional adjacent character(distance less than 1 meter) per point of magnitude above 5 and a such powerful ward could deflect larger threat (like dragon breath) if it is large enough.
Ward can be cast reactively, by using the Cast Spell Combat Action.



*Language(English) isn't my native language and I doubt I have more than 50% in this skill, please forgive my mistake. Also, I'm not sure if the terme "ward" is right here, could you confirm?

 

[Mixster]

Deflection

Thank you for this one ! I was attempting to lower the effects of Protection and my shots were far too weak, this is perfect! (Though I may rule that the subject must spend 1 magic point on each successful attack rather than each point of dammage).


Here is my contribution(perhaps too porwerful?) :

Ward*
Concentration, Magnitude 1, Progressive,
This spell allows the caster to create a magical barrier whose size depends on the spell's Magnitude. At magnitude 1, its size is small (S), magnitude 2 a Medium (M) size and so on. As long as the caster concentrates on the spell he can make pary roll, using his Common Magic skill in place of his Combat Style. The caster can ward an aditional character per point of magnitude above 5 and a such powerful ward could deflect larger threat (like dragon breath) if it is large enough.
Ward can be cast reactively, by using the Cast Spell Combat Action.



*Language(English) isn't my native language and I doubt I have more than 50% in this skill, please forgive my mistake. Also, I'm not sure if the terme "ward" is right here, could you confirm?

I like it, as long as he's still spending CAs to parry it's hardly overpowered to be able to use magic points to get a shield you could just have brought along with you.

It only gets out of hand with the amplify divine magic spell. But all progressive spells do.

 

[Naym]

You're right about the parry and using the spell as the shield. My concern about this spell's power is more the second effect: the caster can create some kind of a wall (he must still do a skill test but its powerful, though I am vague on purpose to let the MD decide what effect it should have).

By the way, there is mistake in my translation, I forgot some word and an additional restriction:

The caster can ward an aditional character per point of magnitude above 5 [...]

should be read as it follow:

The caster can ward an aditional adjacent character(distance less than 1 meter) per point of magnitude above 5[...]

(I've changed the original post.)

 

[Prime_Evil]

Deflection was designed to be used in those situations where you don't have a shield handy. It is also useful for those crazy folks who want to play traditional wizards who never wear armour. The maximum amount of protection provided by the spell at AP 4 to limit abuse when stacking it with other forms of protection - this might also stop people from using Amplify to make themselves invulnerable. I decided the spell should cost 1 Magic Point for each point of damage that the spell absorbs because it has a couple of minor advantages over a physical shield - it has no ENC and you don't need to spend any CAs to gain protection from it.

 

[Naym]

I understand that and I totally agree- I find Protection to be like a bit cheated (especially in the game I run)- with you about the limit of 4 Ap (+6 from plate armore, it's a 10 damage point réduction, that's already huge). But since the spell wear off if the target is hit for 5 damage point (and I do not know any of your game experiences but in mine 5 damage is very common), I find it a bit hard for the caster if he have to spend additional MP on a spell which will likely vanish after two or three attacks.
However, note that I ran only a few RQ games (4 exactly) and perhaps we were luky on the damage roll. I would be happy to know your experience on this point.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

An idea for a common magic spell from my Kerumar setting -
just the basic idea, I leave the details to you:

Slip
Area (Special), Duration 5, Magnitude 1
This spell makes one side of a specific object slippery. The Keru
use it for example to move their fishing boats into the sea or on-
to the beach or to move other objects which are too heavy to lift,
but it can also be used to make an area difficult to move through.

I like this spell, but I think there needs to be a SIZ limit per Magnitude of the spell and then it becomes Progressive.

Maybe something like 10 or 15 SIZ points per Magnitude?

As written, the spell could be used to turn the entire side of a mountain SLIPpery... (you know some player will try to do that!)

 

[rust]

I like this spell, but I think there needs to be a SIZ limit per Magnitude ...

Yes, indeed. In the Kerumar setting the area of the spell is
limited to the size of an average fishing boat, because this
is what the spell was developed for. Unfortunately I did not
yet make up my mind how big such a boat should be, and I
do not like the SIZ scale for objects very much. A Harnmas-
ter fishing boat of the type I have in mind is ca. 24 feet long
and ca. 8 feet wide, so 25 feet x 10 feet would probably be a
standard area for this spell - at least in this setting.

 

[daxos232]

With how many ideas that this topic has generated, I'm debating on just switching my games to only using common magic. It can cover pretty much anything, and still give a lot of variety.

Does anyone else do this? How did it go?

I also wrote up some really good spells of my own some time ago. I will have to see if I can dig them up.

 

[rust]

With how many ideas that this topic has generated, I'm debating on just switching my games to only using common magic. It can cover pretty much anything, and still give a lot of variety.

As I see it and use it in my current settings, Common Magic is the
equivalent of folk magic, a collection of comparatively easy to learn
traditional spells used to make a culture's everyday life a bit easier.

Beyond this is High Magic (or whatever system and term you prefer),
the kind of more powerful magic and metamagic which requires long
years of study and research to open the way for the development of
new spells, the enchantment of items and all that.

In my view one could of course use Common Magic only in a campaign,
for example if all the player characters are warriors or other non-magi-
cians, but I see High Magic as necessary for campaigns where the player
characters can be magicians, because otherwise there would no longer
be any meaningful difference between non-magicians and magicians.

 

[daxos232]

Although common magic is considered "folk magic" by many people, it still has quite a few combat spells. I was thnking that the simple utility spells may be more prevalent among the populace,and more impressive spells like skybolt would be availabe only to members of sorcery/spirit/divine cults.

Martial orders and such would teach CMs and heroic abilities. That's my idea to have differences between dedicated magic users and regular people.

I haven't put this into practice yet though. And I still can't seem to find those spells I wanted to post!