Stories and Spells
November 15th, 2010
Hello everybody. As you may be aware, we recently released a super-awesome book of cool and innovative spells and magic called Advanced Arcana. For today’s article, I thought I’d go through some of the more interesting spells and talk about how they came to be (in case you can’t tell already, I really hope you all go out and pick up a copy of Advanced Arcana. Not just because I get paid, or because I put a lot of work into it and want to see it do well, but because I think it does some really fun and exciting things that can really put some kick into your game, and keep things fresh and exciting.).
Ardesalf’s Graceful Step: For those of you who are looking to amass Necromancers of the Northwest trivia before we explode into an overnight sensation (we’re hard at work researching a segmented spell powerful enough to accomplish just that), Ardesalf was one of Justin’s characters in an old campaign. One of the things he was known for was some feat or ability he had which let him float above the ground. I’m told that it was from Dragon Magazine somewhere, but I’m not sure. Once it became clear that Ardesalf was going to be a recurring name in this book, it seemed natural to update that feat to Pathfinder and, of course, turn it into a spell.
As a quick aside, to those of you who are wondering why we included all those wizard names in our book: we think that stuff’s cool. One of the most disappointing things about Pathfinder (and other 3rd-party books), in our opinion, was that spells like Bigby’s grasping hand get metamorphosed into grasping hand or mage’s grasping hand. At some point I remember complaining aloud, wondering why Paizo hadn’t simply substituted their own mage names (in fairness, that might have been in bad taste), and swore that if we ever made such a book, we would use our own wizard names. If you don’t like the name additions to spells, well, sorry. I figure you’ll be bothered less by their presence than those who appreciate them will be happy to see them (it is, of course, my goal to ensure that our products provide the greatest amount of enjoyment possible to the largest number of people). As for why these wizards: well, no reason, really. Two of them were made up for this book, simply as flavorful names which later evolved into characters with some amount of story and personality. The other two got included largely because we had a spell or two that seemed right up that old favorite’s alley, and so attributed it to them for the playtest names. And then they stuck.
Ardesalf’s Safer Contact: I discovered, while looking through existing spells for inspiration to work from, that contact other plane is a terrible, terrible spell. Someone apparently really doesn’t want wizards and sorcerers to be able to do any kind of serious divining. I figured I’d do my best to fix that, and this was the result. If nothing else, it certainly lives up to its name, proving much safer than contact other plane, and I think that the kicker of getting a 5th-level spell makes up for the two-level bump (besides, I couldn’t make it obviously better than the other spell). My favorite part of this spell is that the spell you get back is determined randomly (or by the DM), which allows for some fun opportunities (and also provides a safety mechanism in case the player starts abusing the “fountain” aspect of the spell).
Create Replicant: Every time I see the spell clone I get a little disappointed (this goes for both the D&D spell and the Magic card. As much as I love Clone, I can’t help but think every time I see it that it could be Vesuvan Doppelganger instead. Man I’d love to get my hands on one of those one day!), because it represents so much wasted potential. Clone doesn’t really create a clone at all, it’s really just a pre-emptive raise dead, with some maintenance baggage to boot. This is nice and all, and I’m sure that every wizard who didn’t want to have to rely on some goody-two-shoes cleric to resurrect him in an emergency is glad that he got access to the spell, but what if I wanted to actually, I don’t know, make a bloody clone of someone? You’d think that perhaps clone would be the go-to spell for that. In fact, naming this spell turned out to be a bit of a problem. I suppose clone, true might have worked. Originally it was create duplicant, until someone pointed out that duplicant isn’t a word one really ever sees outside of Magic, at which point we changed it to replicant, which actually fits better, considering that the replicant is noticeably less powerful than the original, making duplicant kind of an odd choice.
Detect Construct: I don’t have a lot to say about this one, really. Justin made it, I remember. I just wanted to point out another spell that arose from what seemed like an obvious omission in the existing ranks of spellcraft. Justin came up with a few of these, including all the vermin shape spells. Speaking of which, our plan at the moment is to include a new –shape spell series with each volume of Advanced Arcana, and probably a new detect spell as well, since they can be very handy, and seem like the sort of thing that’d be developed pretty quickly in any setting where you can magically detect stuff. I can say I’m not relishing the idea of trying to properly template a spell like detect intruder or detect necromancer, though.
Dread Summons: Dread summons was one of the initial poster-children of the segmented spell mechanic, as it’s exactly the sort of thing that one thinks of when one thinks of big, ritualistic spells which are cast by multiple people (or by one person for a really, really long time). The spell just begs to be cast by a group of cultists or a trio of witches or the like. Obviously it’s designed to allow you to summon a more powerful outsider than you would be able to get with a 6th-level spell normally (if you roll well, you can even summon a demon prince. I’d name some, but, in the D&D context, anyway, they’re mostly Wizards’ intellectual property, and I don’t want to accidentally summon, for example, Orcus, to serve me with court papers. You can always make up your own demon lords.), but it’s also designed to keep the game from flying apart at the seams, mostly through the fact that, at the end of the spell, the demon might decide to stick around, which could make for some interesting situations for would-be demoniacs.
Dread summons was actually very similar to another segmented spell which didn’t make the cut for Advanced Arcana. Not because it wasn’t good enough, but because it took segmented spells in a new (and very cool) direction which I felt was too radical for their debut, so we’re saving it for Advanced Arcana, volume II, where we’ll have the room and the familiarity to tweak the mechanic in that way. What way, you ask? I’m afraid that’s a secret, so, you’ll just have to wait for the sequel.
Eyelight: I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for eyelight, because it was one of my favorite designs. When I sat down to write eyelight, I was looking for a “fountain” spell (then cantrip or cascade spell, from the Magic mechanics. To be honest I don’t really even like “fountain” as a name, it’s just the best thing that stuck.) that was first level, and wasn’t bah-roken. Why? Mostly because it seemed like a fun challenge. The resulting spell… well… I’ll be the second person to admit that it’s not the most powerful spell in existence (the first is my own personal Gottlieb, Joshua Zaback, who takes a perverse delight in shutting down my more out-of-the-box ideas. Like, fishnet stockings and mustard perverse. No, actually, in all seriousness, he’s a great guy, but eyelight rubbed him the wrong way, or something). In retrospect, I suppose it might have been a more interesting design if it had been a first-level spell which did something detrimental (perhaps stunning you for 10 minutes, or dealing some damage to you, or something) and then allowed you to prepare a higher level spell-slot. It certainly would have been more powerful, anyway.
Fate Spin: Originally, this spell would let you choose the result of any d20 roll, including saving throws. I’m sure you can see why that had to change, though I can’t help but feel that it’s a little underwhelming now.
Incite Monster/Incite Person: These are another Justin design, very much his style: it doesn’t really venture off into strange or unusual territory, but it’s simple and elegant in it’s approach, turning an existing spell on its head or tweaking it slightly to get something that, once you see it, you can’t help but wonder why it wasn’t in there in the first place. It may not be the kind of design that attracts all the glory, but it still has a potent effect, and really helps balance out my own wild and crazy tendencies, and Josh’s typically wilder and crazier tendencies (at least, according to me, his archnemesis). For those of you who can’t tell, incite monster and incite person are basically the inverses of charm monster and charm person, allowing you to make someone dislike someone else intensely.
Life Siphon: At the risk of betraying a certain pattern in my go-to inspiration for designing things, this spell was originally called siphon life, and was part of a sort of vertical cycle (3rd-, 6th-, and 9th-level spells) of siphon spells, including siphon mind and siphon soul. Though I fought long and hard to point out that these three were clearly very different from the Magic cards of the same name (in fact, they weren’t really even inspired by them, either, except for those playtest names), and pointed out that it’s a lot harder to see the cycle if they get split up, I was eventually strong-armed into flipping the names around, which is as they appear today.
Locate Treasure: This is another spell I’m particularly proud of. Incredibly flavorful, it can serve as either an adventure’s hook (especially in more sandboxy campaigns where the players take the initiative and drive the action), or it can serve as its solution, allowing players to quickly and easily track down the treasure that they have been hired to find (or whatever). It does admittedly leave a lot in the hands of the DM, but I think that this is very necessary for a spell like this, both because it’s the only way to keep it flexible enough to work in any campaign, and because, frankly, the DM should be allowed to thwart the players with this spell. After all, he’s the one (or she, in some cases) who has to provide the adventure for the players once they decide they want to make that super fancy magic map, or else he’s the one whose adventure is being shot all to hell when the PCs take the magical shortcut. I’m not saying that DMs shouldn’t try to accommodate players who want to use the spell (I do think it’s a neat spell, after all), but I am saying that if your DM says you can’t find the 300-year-old coin to serve as a focus, well, maybe you should just accept that and move on for now.
Malanis’ Missile Barrage: Okay, okay, you got me. This spell would not exist if not for Neverwinter Nights and the spell Isaac’s greater missile storm, which I (and, I think, everyone else who ever cast it) absolutely love. As a player, I’d tried numerous times to find similar spells, assuming for the longest while thatIsaac’s spell must have been included in some splat-book somewhere. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t, and the closest thing was a handful of not-so-interesting-or-fun spells from Spell Compendium, which I tried and was largely disappointed with. Faced with the opportunity to make whatever spells I wanted, well… the temptation was too hard to resist. Actually, the first version of this spell, was, well, how should I put it? Let’s just say that it made blaster mages a much more viable option than they have been since 2nd edition.
Then, of course, I started thinking about how many missiles that really is, and how hard it must be to control all of them. I vividly remember, for the final version, making a huge spreadsheet which showed the highest possible Concentration bonus you could have at a given level (here’s a hint: as far as I can tell, those Ioun stones stack), to demonstrate that it wasn’t as broken as it looked.
Originally, of course, I had hoped that the uncontrolled missiles could have their target assigned randomly, but, ultimately, that proved to be way too much of a hassle at the table. And since the spell was already kind of pushing the limits as it was, it seemed like a little disincentive for not controlling it wouldn’t be the end of the world, so we just handed it off to the DM, letting him (or her, again) decide what happened to the rest. This, of course, gives players who use this powerful spell an incentive to not abuse it, because, if they do… it’s gonna sting.
Minor Glamer: Another Justin spell, though I had more influence on it than I did on a lot of his spells. Simple, fun, flavorful, and to the point. Really, all that I did was add the part about using it to make a drow look like an elf, or similar, as it occurred to me that that could theoretically become a problem (since it would allow you, with a 0-level spell, to essentially accomplish the purpose of the 1st-level spell disguise self). This is the sort of spell that I imagine lots of people simply declare that their character can do. I know that, I, at least, have specifically bought a hat of disguise in the past for no reason other than to make cosmetic changes to my character’s appearance at will (isn’t that why everyone buys a hat of disguise? I guess not… at least one guy I used to play with always bought one so that no one would ever know what his character really looked like, which only seemed to result in awkward conversations when he eventually walked into an anti-magic zone or similar and the party started wondering why he’d been in disguise the whole time…). In short, it’s just one of those spells that seems like it should have been there from the beginning.
Quick Gate: Now here’s a Justin spell that gets a little more adventurous. It started with such a simple idea: what if we made a spell that, as a swift action, allowed you to open up a pair of portals around you to shield you from a line attack? That was it, just line attacks. When he handed the spell off to be cleaned up and tweaked in development, that’s all it did (I mean, it could still be cast as a standard action instead for the longer duration). But the more I tried to describe what it was doing in the context of game mechanics, the more I found myself wondering: why doesn’t it stop melee attacks? Why doesn’t it let creatures charge through it? By the time I was done, the initial effect was something like half of the spell, with the rest of the mechanics growing up around it to fully cover the flavor of the spell. This is almost certainly in my top 10 favorite spells in Advanced Arcana, and I’m really happy with the final version.
Shadow Transmutation: I bet you were thinking that this was a Justin spell, weren’t you? It’s not. The spell was my idea (my own boundary-pushing take on Justin’s “why haven’t they done something like this before?”-style of spell design), though Joshua Zaback did about as much of the designing as I did. Ultimately, it was included to fill a hole at 7th level (we were initially very top-heavy in spells, and as we filled out the book we found ourselves with a lot of holes at 1st-, 2nd-, 6th-, and 7th-level as we tried to ensure a roughly even amount of spells of each level. Next time I think we’re going to plan the whole thing in advance, with a skeleton listing how many spells of each school we want at each level, for sorcerer/wizards at least).
Shadowfriends: I know what you’re thinking, and I swear that this isn’t based on Naruto. Well, at least not very much. Actually, it mostly came from the fact that mirror image was always a bit of a disappointment for me, as the images could never act on their own (and now they’re all in the same square, which was a real disappointment for me. It was so much cooler the other way. Ah well…). Of course, if they were going to act on their own, and we needed another 8th-level spell anyway, why not let them fight for you? Originally the spell had a complicated method of basing their attack and damage, etc., on your own stats, but eventually we decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle it would cause at the table, and instead gave the creatures uniform stats. Besides, now you can’t use shadowfriends to get free spells.
Spirit Twin: I had to go ask Joshua Zaback, who created this spell, what his inspiration was, because I certainly had no idea. Apparently it came from a mix of the mirror of opposition and the ending of the book Alara Unbroken (which is amusing, considering how he usually fights so hard against any Magic-inspired design). Originally, there was a 50% chance that the creature served the caster or served the creature it was a copy of, but eventually I stumbled onto the fact this would allow you to cast spirit twin on yourself or an ally and have a 100% chance of having them serve you. Since this was a bit of a problem (or, in other words, completely game-wrecking), I had to tweak it. I thought that giving the twin itself a Will save was a pretty elegant solution to the problem, and I stand by that now.
Xelar’s Prismatic Cascade: This was my attempt to create a spell which contained seven different spells. I stumbled onto the cascade mechanic (different from the fountain mechanic, which was originally called “cascading” in homage to a certain card game) pretty late in Advanced Arcana’s design, and I think it got kind of overshadowed by the “fountain” spells (those would be the ones we originally called “cascading.” Are you confused yet?), so I wanted to make at least one really splashy one. I was worried that it was going to wind up being really powerful, which you may pick up on if you manage to read all the way to the last few effects, which can have some pretty nasty backlash on an unprepared caster. Still, if you like high stakes and making things go “boom!” I think you’ll love Xelar’s prismatic cascade.
Well, that’s it for today. Join me next week, when it’ll be Thanksgiving Week. In the meantime, if you play spellcasters, and enjoy new and interesting things, I strongly urge you to pick up a copy of Advanced Arcana. It’s more fun, and more flavor, than a cup of coffee, and at $4.99, it’s probably cheaper, to boot.