What follows is a rough draft for categorizing all of the spells that exist in OD&D according to Men & Magic. The spell level is listed after the spell name with Magic Users spells in ( ) and Cleric Spells in [ ]. I am assuming that shorter lists will be easier to break down mechanically, so some of these lists (Change Environment, for example) may have to be revised. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
BARRIER
Hold Portal (1)
Wizard Lock (2)
Wall of Fire (4)
Wall of Ice (4)
Wall of Stone (5)
Wall of Iron (5)
BUFF
Protection from Evil (1)[1]
Bless [2]
Haste/Slow (3)
Protection from Evil 10'r. (3)[3]
Protection from Normal Missiles (3)
CHANGE ENVIRONMENT
Light (1)[1]
Purify Food & Water [1]
Continual Light (2)[3]
Water Breathing (3)
Create Water [4]
Create Food [5]
Transmute Rock to Mud (5)
Cloudkill (5)
Lower Water (6)
Part Water (6)
Move Earth (6)
Control Weather (6)
COMMUNICATION
Read Magic (1)
Read Languages (1)
ESP (2)
Speak with Animals [2]
Speak with Plants [4]
Commune [5]
Contact Higher Plane (5)
CONJURE/SUMMON
Conjure Elemental (5)
Insect Plague [5]
Invisible Stalker (6)
DAMAGE
Fireball (3)
Lightning Bolt (3)
DETECTION
Detect Magic (1) [1]
Detect Invisible (2)
Locate Object (2) [3]
Detect Evil (2) [1]
Find Traps [2]
Clairvoyance (3)
Clairaudience (3)
Infravision (3)
Wizard Eye (4)
DISPEL
Knock (2)
Dispel Magic (3)
Dispel Evil [5]
Anti-Magic Shell (6)
ENCHANT
Charm Person (1)
Confusion (4)
Charm Monster (4)
Feeblemind (5)
Quest [5]
Geas (6)
HEAL
Cure Light Wounds [1]
Remove Curse (4)[3]
Cure Disease [3]
Neutralize Poison [4]
Cure Serious Wounds [4]
Raise Dead [5]
ILLUSION
Phantasmal Forces (2)
Invisibility (2)
Invisibility 10'r. (3)
Massmorph (4)
Hallucinatory Terrain (4)
Projected Image (6)
INCAPACITATE
Sleep (1)
Hold Person (3)[2]
Hold Monster (5)
NECROMANCY
Animate Dead (5)
Magic Jar (5)
Reincarnation (6)
Death Spell (6)
TELEKINESIS
Levitate (2)
Fly (3)
Telekinesis (5)
TELEPORT
DImension Door (4)
Teleport (5)
Pass-Wall (5)
TRANSFORM
Polymorph Self (4)
Polymorph Other (4)
Plant Growth (4)
Turn Sticks to Snakes [4]
Animal Growth (5)
Stone to Flesh (6)
Disintegrate (6)
5 comments:
Just a few things that jump out at me, mostly with the aim of reducing the number of categories with small numbers of spells:
1. I see incapacitation as a weaker form of charm effect, both affecting the ability of a whole creature to act in its interests. It's a fairly linear ramping up of power from robbing a monster of action (hold/sleep), to having it act randomly (confusion), to having it act for you (charm). Your putting the incapacitating spell Feeblemind under enchantment seems to speak to this basic identity.
2. Likewise I see the function of fly and levitate as similar to the teleport spell, all allowing improved travel and movement, and varying as to whether gravity, inertia, and/or solid barriers are ignored. Telekinesis makes more sense as a way to affect the environment.
3. Necromancy is a thematic category, but for your purposes I think you want to focus on the function of each spell. In that case animate dead works as a summoning, magic jar and death spell are incapacitation/enchantment, and reincarnation is maybe a combination of healing and transformation.
what edition are you using?
Roger,
Thanks for the suggestions. As I said, this is a rough draft.
Rob,
Mainly for personal reasons, I want to stick to OD&D Men & Magic. I am interested as to how far I can push that particular ruleset in this direction.
Sorry I meant what edition of champions are you getting the rules from.
Rob,
All my experience with Champions is with 1st-3rd edition; however, I don't really intend to borrow a whole lot mechanically from Champions. I am interested in using their approach to superpowers. I have long admired how Champions uses a simple game mechanic to represent a huge variety of special effects. Using the OD&D spell list as a starting point, I want to do the same thing with magic in D&D.
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