DFRPG Spell Charts

[Michael Thayne]

I know I'm not the first person to bring this up, but I find creating wizards in GURPS extremely painful without help from GURPS Magic: Spell Charts. I recently sat down to try to figure out how many places there are where DFRPG's prerequisite chains deviate from GURPS Magic, and the number not only appears to be non-trivial, and there's not a clear pattern to them. There are cases where a spell's prerequisites changed because one of the prerequisites was dropped AFAICT for just not being that useful—but these often leave me wondering why the spell further down the chain was kept (for example, why was Copy kept but not Dye?) There are also cases where spells were made cleric and/or druid only, but again without a clear pattern. Notably, these cases don't match the suggestions in the old "Wizardry Refined" Pyramid article.

So I'm left wondering if anyone ever got around to making a version of Spell Charts for DFRPG, or at least a list of cases where prerequisites have been changed. I've started work on such a project but it looks rather daunting honestly. (I've been going alphabetically and I've gotten as far as "ethereal body".)

[Michael Thayne]

Occurred to me that it would be at least a start if I posted my notes on differences between standard magic and "Wizardry Refined":

• I count seven spells that have multiple prerequisite paths in standard magic, but get narrowed down to a single path in wizardy refined: alter visage, beacon, control creation, fear, lend energy, sense danger, and teleport shield.
• I count eight spells that needed prerequisites changed because there was no path to them that didn't pass through a forbidden spell: atmosphere dome, blink, divination (astrology and extispicy only), geyser, hide object, sanctuary, steal energy, and zombie.
• Finally, "Wizardry Refined" omits Magery 1 as a prerequisite for Recover Energy—though I wonder if this was a mistake, since this change was not carried over into DFRPG.

I put this list together by looking at the principles that are supposed to underly "Wizardry Refined" and skimming Spell Charts for cases I knew would require changed prerequisites. It's possible I missed some stuff, especially if Kromm failed to follow his own rules, but I've made a few wizards using Spell Charts and "Wizardry Refined" side-by-side and changed prerequisites honestly seem pretty uncommon, so sixteen total changes feels plausible.

[Michael Thayne]

Found a small handful of other cases where "Wizardry Refined" differs from standard magic. Reshape (edit: also lend language and possession) falls into the "fewer options, but no new ones" category, while frost, ice slick, rain of ice daggers, and vigor all got new methods for meeting their prerequisites.

[prospero]

Thanks for bringing this up again! I'd enjoy working on DFRPG spell charts, but I have no idea when I'd get the time.

[Michael Thayne]

I haven't managed to do a comprehensive review of DFRPG vs. Wizardry Refined yet, but my impression is that the differences between DFRPG and Wizardry Refined are greater than the differences between Wizardry Refined and Standard Magic. I think the reason is that Wizardry Refined was uninterested in removing spells from the game, just clarifying what spells are exclusively for various other types fo casters, DFRPG cut massive numbers of spells on the grounds of being unbalanced or irrelevant. It's been a long time since I've used GCA (I'm primarily a Mac user), but maybe I can do something clever with GCA files and a Python script? I'm not sure.

[Michael Thayne]

Update: I've successfully done some data munging on GCA files, though initially I decided to focus on identifying spells that remain the exclusive domain of mana-based casters at least as of "Wizardry Refined". I'm pretty confident I can extract prerequisites, but the regex will be hairier, so it might take me awhile.

[Michael Thayne]

I have been successful at extracting prerequisites from GURPS: Magic. I haven't been so successful at extracting them from the unofficial DFRPG GCA files. Here's the regex I'm using, if any fellow coders want to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong:

r'.+,\n\tcat.+(?:\n.+)+Prerequisites: .+'

Edit: FWIW, that regex seems to be successfully getting the first spell, alphabetically, from each college. I have no idea why.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

I have been successful at extracting prerequisites from GURPS: Magic. I haven't been so successful at extracting them from the unofficial DFRPG GCA files. Here's the regex I'm using, if any fellow coders want to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong:

r'.+,\n\tcat.+(?:\n.+)+Prerequisites: .+'

Edit: FWIW, that regex seems to be successfully getting the first spell, alphabetically, from each college. I have no idea why.

I expect it's doing a greedy match and thus finding the last instance of Prerequisites.

[Michael Thayne]

Ah, thanks, was able to fix the issue. Okay, here's a hopefully-complete list of spells whose prerequisites changed between GURPS: Magic and DFRPG. I have put a * by spells that merely lost one of several ways of qualifying for them:

• Create Air*
• Nauseate
• Vigor
• Lend Language*
• Possession*
• Purify Earth
• Resist Fire*
• Far-Tasting*
• Phase*
• Trace Teleport
• Lend Energy*
• Simple Illusion
• Blur*
• Copy
• Mapmaker
• Fear*
• Sickness
• Blink
• Blink Other
• Ethereal Body*
• Entrap Spirit
• Bladeturning*
• Sense Danger*
• Teleport Shield*
• Message
• Silver Tongue
• Frostbite

In a few cases, changes to prerequisites are very minor, e.g. Simple Illusion losing "no blindness" as a prereq. Also, I'm unsure how to classify Gift of Letters and Gift of Tongues—in both cases "three languages at Accented" was changed to "three languages", but then in DFRPG characters are essentially required to take languages at Native if they take them at all.

I like a lot of the changes DFRPG makes to GURPS, but in this case, I'm not sure I would want to port a lot of these changes back to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. A lot of the changes seem driven by the imperative to cut spells for space. Given that I own GURPS Magic, I don't see a compelling reason not to use it in full in my games.

[sjmdw45]

A list of spell changes for wizards.

Example: Vigor [Frailty] +[Might] -[Lend Vitality]

This means Vigor used to be available either by having Frailty OR Lend Vitality, and now it is available via Frailty OR Might.

Affect Spirits: [Removed from wizards]
Animal Control: [Removed from wizards]
Arboreal Immurement: [Removed from wizards]
Awaken: [Removed from wizards]
Beast Link: [Removed from wizards]
Beast Possession: [Removed from wizards]
Beast Seeker: [Removed from wizards]
Beast Speech: [Removed from wizards]
Beast Summoning: [Removed from wizards]
Beast-Rouser: [Removed from wizards]
Beast-Soother: [Removed from wizards]
Bladeturning [Shield] -[Turn Blade]
Bless: [Removed from wizards]
Blink +[M3, IQ 13+, 1 spell from 10 colleges] -[Teleport] // this means M2 can no longer get Blink
Blur [Darkness] -[Gloom]
Cleansing: [Removed from wizards]
Climbing [+M0] -[None]
Conceal: [Removed from wizards]
Copy [+5 M&B spells including Restore, no Illiteracy] -[Dye, 1 Accented language]
Create Air [Purify Air] -[Seek Air]
Create Animal: [Removed from wizards]
Create Plant: [Removed from wizards]
Cure Disease: [Removed from wizards]
Curse: [Removed from wizards]
Debility [+M0] -[None]
Detect Poison: [Removed from wizards]
Dispel Possession: [Removed from wizards]
Dull Sense [+M0/BT1] -[None]
Earthquake: [Removed from wizards]
Entrap Spirit +[M1, 7 Necromantic spells including Turn Spirit] -[M1, Soul Jar, Turn Spirit]
Ethereal Body [M3, 6 Movement spells] -[M3 and Body of Air]
Far-Tasting [M1, Seek Food] -[M1, Seek Air]
Fear [Sense Emotion] -[Empathy]
Final Rest: [Removed from wizards]
Fog: [Removed from wizards]
Foolishness +[M0/BT1, IQ 12+] -[IQ 12+]
Forest Warning: [Removed from wizards]
Frostbite +[Cold, Freeze] -[Frost, Freeze]
Geyser: [Removed from wizards]
Gift of Letters +[Borrow Language, 3 written languages] -[Borrow Language, 3 languages at Accented]
Gift of Tongues [Borrow Language, 3 spoken languages] -[Borrow Language, 3 languages at Accented]
Great Healing: [Removed from wizards]
Hail: [Removed from wizards]
Haste +[M0] -[None]
Healing Slumber: [Removed from wizards]
Hide Path: [Removed from wizards]
Hybrid Control: [Removed from wizards]
Identify Plant: [Removed from wizards]
Ignite Fire +[M0] -[None]
Instant Neutralize Poison: [Removed from wizards]
Itch +[M0] -[None]
Keen (Sense) +[M0/BT1] -[None]
Lend Energy [M1] -[Empathy advantage]
Lend Language [3 C&E spells] -[Beast Speech]
Lend Vitality: [Removed from wizards]
Light Jet [Continual Light] -[Shape Light]
Light either +[M0] -[None]
Major Healing: [Removed from wizards]
Mapmaker +[Copy, Measurement] -[Inscribe, Measurement]
Master: [Removed from wizards]
Measurement +[M0/BT1] -[None]
Minor Healing: [Removed from wizards]
Monk’s Banquet: [Removed from wizards]
Nauseate +[5 Body Control spells] -[2 Body spells inc. Perfume]
Neutralize Poison: [Removed from wizards]
Phase [M3, Ethereal Body] -[Plane Shift]
Plant Control: [Removed from wizards]
Plant Sense: [Removed from wizards]
Plant Speech: [Removed from wizards]
Plant Vision: [Removed from wizards]
Pollen Cloud: [Removed from wizards]
Protect Animal: [Removed from wizards]
Protection from Evil +[M3/BT3, Sense Evil] // new spell!
Purify Air +[M0] -[None]
Purify Earth +[6 Earth spells including Create Earth] -[Create Earth, Plant Growth]
Regeneration: [Removed from wizards]
Relieve Paralysis: [Removed from wizards]
Relieve Sickness: [Removed from wizards]
Remember Path: [Removed from wizards]
Remove Curse: [Removed from wizards]
Repel Animal: [Removed from wizards]
Repel Hybrids: [Removed from wizards]
Resist Acid: [Removed from wizards]
Resist Disease: [Removed from wizards]
Resist Poison: [Removed from wizards]
Restoration: [Removed from wizards]
Restore Hearing: [Removed from wizards]
Restore Memory: [Removed from wizards]
Restore Sight: [Removed from wizards]
Restore Speech: [Removed from wizards]
Rider Within: [Removed from wizards]
Rider: [Removed from wizards]
Sanctuary: [Removed from wizards]
Seek Earth +[M0] -[None]
Seek Fire +[M0] -[None]
Seek Food +[M0] -[None]
Seek Plant: [Removed from wizards]
Seek Water +[M0] -[None]
Sense Danger [Sense Foes] -[Danger Sense]
Sense Evil either [PI1] or [PI1] or [M2/BT2] // new spell!
Sense Foes +[M0/BT1] -[None]
Sense Life +[M0/BT1] -[None]
Shape Plant: [Removed from wizards]
Share Vitality: [Removed from wizards]
Sickness [Drunkenness] -[Pestilence]
Silver Tongue +[Voices, 5 Mind Control spells] -[Voices, Emotion Control]
Simple Illusion +[M0, IQ 11+, no Blindness] -[IQ 11+, no Blindness]
Sound [M0/BT1] -[None]
Stop Bleeding: [Removed from wizards]
Stop Paralysis: [Removed from wizards]
Stop Spasm: [Removed from wizards]
Suspended Animation: [Removed from wizards]
Tangle Growth: [Removed from wizards]
Teleport Shield [Spell Shield, Watchdog] -[Spell Shield, Teleport]
Test Food [M0] -[None]
Trace Teleport +[M2, IQ 13+, 1 spell from 10 colleges] -[Teleport] -[Timeport] -[Plane Shift]
Turn Zombie: [Removed from wizards]
Vigil: [Removed from wizards]
Vigor [Frailty] +[Might] -[Lend Vitality]
Walk Through Plants: [Removed from wizards]
Walk Through Wood: [Removed from wizards]
Weather Dome: [Removed from wizards]
Wither Plant: [Removed from wizards]

Changes for clerics and druids are omitted because they're obvious (no prereqs except PI now). I didn't generally note changes from M1 to BT1, but for spells that have changed in other ways I noted BT.