More Than Magic
Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting edition of Obscure Arcana, where each week we bring you new spells to satisfy your craving for the unusual and interesting. Here at Necromancers of the Northwest, we think a lot about the art of spellcasting. While some would argue that wizards and sorcerers aren’t the ones who need help making the game more dynamic, one of our claims to fame is the Advanced Arcana series, and anyone who has read any of those books knows that we like to add little mechanical twists and create novel approaches to spellcraft as a whole.
Metamagic is an important aspect of spellcraft that can make casting spells more interesting and flavorful. Sometimes, it feels like certain metamagic feats were practically written with specific spells in mind, but rarely do certain spells feel like they had metamagic in mind. It’s sort of a one-way process: metamagic affects spells, but spells don’t affect metamagic. In a way, that makes sense, but to me, it feels like there should be some spells that have a sort of “catalyst” in them that responds specifically to metamagic effects, and produces greater and unusual results. I’ve made several such spells, some of which are fairly straightforward, and the some of which serve more as puzzles or challenges, that, when solved, allow the caster to use them to much greater effect. Along the way, I come across a couple of other interesting metamagic-related spells, which you’ll find below, as well.
ARCANUM BOLT
School evocation; Level magus 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You focus your will into a bolt of pure magic. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to hit the target. The bolt deals 2d6 points of damage on a successful hit. Unlike normal spells, you can apply the following metamagic feats without casting arcanum bolt with a higher-level spell slot: Bouncing Spell, Dazing Spell, Disrupting Spell, Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Maximize Spell, Merciful Spell, Quicken Spell, Sickening Spell, and Thundering Spell. You can only apply up to three effective spell levels worth of metamagic to any given arcanum bolt in this way, beyond which you must cast it from a higher-level spell slot, as normal (for example, a quickened arcanum bolt would take up a 4th-level spell slot, while a silent still arcanum bolt would still only take up a 3rd-level spell slot).
HERIDUS’S SPELL SIMPLIFIER
School abjuration; Level cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close 25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
You surround the target in glowing white runes, which hamper his ability to cast complex, modified spells. For the spell’s duration, any spells that the target casts that have been altered by metamagic do not gain the benefits of the metamagic feats used to alter them. The target can still cast those spells, but any metamagic applied to them has no effect. Such spells are still cast from a higher-level spell slot, as normal (for example, a wizard could still cast a silent magic missile, and it would still use up the 2nd-level spell slot that he prepared it in, but he would have to use verbal components to do so).
REACTIVE ERUPTION
School evocation; Level sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range medium (100 ft. +10 ft./level)
Area 20-ft.-radius
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Reflex half; Spell Resistance yes
You create a massive combustion of magical energy, which draws its power from the potential energy of those trapped within the spell’s area. Reactive eruption deals damage to each creature caught within the blast equal to 2d6 per creature caught within the spell’s area (for example, if there are 3 creatures in the spell’s area, each creature suffers 6d6 points of fire damage). Reactive eruption has no effect on objects in the spell’s area.
REACTIVE FLAME
School evocation [fire]; Level magus 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You unleash a bolt of fire whose intensity is directly proportionate to the amount of spellpower involved in casting reactive flame. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to hit the target. If the attack hits, reactive flame inflicts a number of d6 points of fire damage equal to twice the spell level at which it was prepared, or twice the spell slot from which it was cast, for spontaneous casters. Unlike most spells whose effects vary based on the level of the spell slot they are cast from, any adjustments to spell level as a result of metamagic spells count towards this purpose for reactive flame (for example, an enlarged quickened reactive flame would deal 12d6 points of fire damage on a successful hit, while an echoing reactive flame would deal 8d6 points of fire damage on a successful hit, and so on).
REACTIVE PROTECTION
School abjuration; Level bard 2, cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target one living creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You imbue the target with a seed of magical power, which protects them from harm, and continues to grow in him over time, increasing its protection as it does so. For the first 5 rounds of this spell’s duration, the target gains a +2 morale bonus to AC, CMD, and each of his saving throws. For the following five rounds (rounds 6 to 10), these bonuses improve to +4. For the following ten rounds (rounds 11 to 20), these bonuses improve further, to +6. If the spell’s duration exceeds 20 rounds, then for the remainder of the spell’s duration, the bonuses increase to +8 for the rest of the spell’s duration.
REACTIVE TERROR
School necromancy [fear]; Level cleric 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
You create a potent emotion of fear from pure spellcraft and lay it onto another creature’s senses. The target is shaken for the spell’s duration. If the target fails the saving throw to resist reactive terror by 5 or more, he is frightened, instead. If the target fails the saving throw by 10 or more, he is panicked for the spell’s duration, and then shaken for 1 minute thereafter, instead. For every metamagic feat applied to this spell, its saving throw DC increases by +2 (for example, a silent still artistic terror would have its DC increased by +4). Heighten Spell cannot be applied to reactive terror.