Iconic Forgotten Realms Spells - As Powers and/or New Skill-based Spells

[Icelander]

I've had a long-standing campaign set in the Forgotten Realms setting for D&D, but using GURPS rules. In fact, this campaign was campaign I started when the 4e GURPS Basic Set came out.

At the beginning, no PC was a spellcaster and I just winged it when spells came up. When PC spellcasters appeared, they were low-level and the feel of their spells was adequately matched by using GURPS Magic, with just a few headaches caused by that tome's poor relation with the rest of the system. Most of the 1st through 3rd level D&D spells could be modelled easily enough with Magic*.

I basically ruled that each level of GURPS Magery was equal to a spell level in D&D and that 1st-2nd level wizards or priests thus needed Magery or Power Investiture 1, 3rd-4th level needed Magery 2 and so on.

No PC has reached more than Magery 3, the equivalent of about a 4th-5th level wizard or priest in D&D. This is, however, mostly because the longest living PCs were a rogue who branched out into a merchant prince with some powers granted by a guild of thieves dedicated to Mask, the God of Shadows, and a pure warrior type. They were joined by a varied cast, but no long-standing PC was a pure spellcaster, so I didn't really have to work out the cost of high-level magic. I could easily enough figure out what effects it ought to have and bugger the cost.

In addition to the Magery or Power Investiture = Spell level that the character can cast rule, I introduced a few other benchmarks that have more or less held true. For each level of Magery, spellcasters needed about 10 points of Energy Reserve. This is true for the first few levels, but I suspect that it breaks down around Magery 3 and I need to push it up for higher level casters.

Finally, to fit with the Vancian memorisation scheme, characters could either know a spell permanently under the normal rules or they could memorise it in the morning using a Modular Ability: Cosmic Power [Accessibility: Must be well rested, total peace and quiet, has to have spellbook and be able to read** (-20%), Preparation Required: 1 hour (-50%), Spells Only -20%***]. High-level wizards need hundreds of points in this, how many hundreds I haven't quite determined. The PC with the highest in this has maybe 20 points, but he's a petty mage indeed.

Spells of the higher levels will mostly be built as powers. Of course, if some of the spells in Magic fit, I won't go to the trouble for that particular spell and if I can modify a spell in Magic, the same applies. But the cold hard fact of it is that at a certain point, the spells in Magic just aren't enough to model the awesome magical power that high-level D&D mages have to throw around. Nor should they, really, since 1 point per spell is a bit cheap for Meteor Swarm and suchlike.

Now, the Vancian 'forget spells once cast' is an important part. I have no wish to emulate that for minor spells and, indeed, much of the fluff appears to assume that wizards know a lot of useful lower level spells more or less permanently. Hence, there is no need to introduce any new mechanisms for the GURPS Magic spells. On the other hand, it would be perfect for the high-level spells. A caster who can only use Meteor Swarm once per day is a lot less trouble than one who can use it every turn for that day.

But the Modular Ability already comes out to -90% in modifiers, for a modified cost of 2 CP per point of the pool. Adding Limited Use wouldn't make it any cheaper. Which is nonsense, because, as noted, a spell that you can cast once and then can't use again until you can memorise again the next day is much less useful than one that you can use all day after you memorise it. Fortunately, in GURPS Supers, I came across a cost modifier that suited me perfectly. It was One Use Only, something which you could use only once and was then lost forever. That reduced cost by 1/5.

This seemed perfect. Granted, the use I was contemplating for it was not the same as the one Bill had in mind when he wrote it, but 1/5 price for a spell that disappears for memory when cast sounded about right. By a strict reading of the rules, this might or might not be legal, but frankly, no PC would have taken single-use spells in preference to 'use them all day spell' if they didn't come at a significant price break.

For people skimming, I shall make the questions I have for forumites easy to spot by high-lighting them in red.

Question the First. Does this use of the cost modifier from GURPS Supers sound kosher? Am I far too lenient in my interpretation? Ought I let spells that work once cost the same as spells that work all day?

My ad hoc system has worked well so far, but I've decided that now I'm defining how a lot of the iconic higher spells actually work. This will help if a new PC who is a battlemage ever emerges and/or if the magically inclined PCs grow in power and gain access to some of these. I plan to post them here, for review.

Question the Second. Apart from Magic Missile, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, Lance of Disruption, Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, Stoneskin, Cone of Cold, Chain Lightning, Mordenkainen's Sword, Prismatic Spray, Prismatic [other] and Meteor Swarm; what iconic spells of the Forgotten Realms and D&D in general are not well modelled in GURPS Magic and I should focus on presenting? Does anyone have ideas for modelling some of them that at first would appear difficult to do?

Question the Third, are there any iconic D&D spells of 1st through 3rd level that are obviously not suitable for modelling by the spells already in GURPS Magic?

*And if some can't, I'd welcome people pointing this out to me and naming certain spells that I need to create as powers or make a new Magic spell to cover. Hell, I need to make this easy to spot for skimmers too, don't I?
**Practically speaking, this limits adventuring wizards to doing this in the mornings and they require a lot of nuisance to avoid being disturbed during it.
***A spell is anything listed as such in GURPS Magic and any GM-created spell-as-power that I say is a spell. This is still worth -20% because it rules out taking just any ability that you'd like, which normal and unmodified Modular Ability: Cosmic Power would allow.

[Icelander]

First, obviously, the biggest difference between GURPS Magic and D&D magic is that GURPS assumes that spells mostly just take a second to cast and are very short ranged. D&D assumes that wizards may take a few seconds per spell, unless it is specifically meant for close-range defence or is very simple, but that spells easily reach bow range and even further.

To address this systemic concern, I added a few spells to the Metamagic College. Also there is a spell to make explosions bigger and the ubitiqious Magic Missile.

Meta-Spells

Far Reaching I
Regular
This spell is cast on another spell, replacing the range penalty of -1 for every yard to the target with a penalty from the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. B550). The spells are cast one after the other, with no delays between castings. Far Reaching I is cast first, and counts as a spell on for the purposes of the determining the effective skill for the second spell (p. 10).
The main use of this spell is to allow spells to be used at a greater distance than is normally possible. In some cases, it is more effective than Throw Spell, but it is less versatile than that spell in that only Regular and Area spells can be affected. Even then, the GM is the final judge as to what spells can be affected by this spell and each combination is a seperate familitarity (p. B169).

Duration: Until the second spell expires.
Cost: 5. The subject spell may be maintained normally.
The caster may also expend up to his Magery level of extra FP to gain a +2 per point bonus to the second spell skill, usable only to offset distance penalties.
Prerequisites: Delay, Keen Vision and Throw Spell.

Item
Staff, wand or gemstone. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,000.

Far Reaching II (VH)
Regular
This spell is cast on another spell, enabling the caster to use the long--distance modifiers (p. 14) for range instead of the -1 for every yard to the target. The spells are cast one after the other, with no delays between castings. Far Reaching II is cast first, and counts as a spell on for the purposes of the determining the effective skill for the second spell (p. 10).
Unlike normal Regular or Area spells, spells subject to this enchancement cannot be cast unless there is a line of sight to the target. Rumours speak of ways to affect an enemy from a safe distance with his true name or a piece of his body, but no wizard has managed to do so with this spell.
Familitarity works the same way with this spell as Far Reaching I and the GM is encouraged to be conservative when it comes to judging which spells can be affected by this spell.

Duration: Until the second spell expires.
Cost: 10.
Time to cast: 3 seconds.
Prerequisites: Far Reaching I, Seeker and Teleport.

Item
Staff, wand or gemstone. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 2,500.


Distant Missile
Regular
This spell is cast on a Missile spell, granting it Increased Range (p. B106) and Accurate (p. B102). The spells are cast one after the other, with no delays between castings. Distant Missile is cast first, and counts as a spell on for the purposes of the determining the effective skill for the second spell (p. 10).
The incantation for using this spell with each individual Missile spell is different and the caster must be familiar with it. If he has access to notes or a teacher, it takes him about 8 hours to achieve familitarity (see p. B169) with the incantation for a given spell, but the GM is the final arbiter as to which Missile spells are available to use with this spell. Using it with Throw Spell is not possible, use Far Reaching II for that.

Duration: Until the second spell expires.
Cost: See table below.

Range Acc Cost
x2 +1 2
x5 +2 4
x10 +3 6

For doubled cost, the affected spell can be made Guided (p. B105) as well.
Prerequisites: Delay, Tell Position, Hawk Vision and Distant Blow.

Item
Staff, wand or gemstone. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,000.

Explosive Missile
Regular
This spell is cast on a Missile spell that causes explosive damage, granting it an improved Explosive Damage Modifier (p. B104). The spells are cast one after the other, with no delays between castings. Explosive Missile is cast first, and counts as a spell on for the purposes of the determining the effective skill for the second spell (p. 10).
The effect of this spell is to create a blast that is less affected by distance than normal. Move the Explosion modifier on the attack up one level. For a normal explosion, instead of dividing damage by 3 times the distance in yards from the explosion, spells affected with Explosive Missile cause damage to be divided by 2 times the distance.
Familitarity rules apply with this spell as well as the other Metaspells where the subjct is another spell. It cannot be used on spells that do not already cause explosive damage. Those spells include Concussion, Explosive Fireball and Explosive Lightning.

Duration: Until the second spell expires.
Cost: 2. For doubled cost, divide the explosive damage of the affected spell by the range in yards from the explosion.
Time to cast: 3 seconds.
Prerequisites: Concussion, Delay and Repel.

Item
Staff, wand or gemstone. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 800.

Magic Missile
Special; Resisted by IQ-10
A useful duelling spell that is often the first piece of offensive magic apprentices learn. It creates one or more missiles (any amount up to Magery of caster) of pure magical energy that unerringly seek out targets on whose consciousness they have locked. The caster may direct them against one or more targets, as long as they are within a 30° arc. Each target gets a resistance roll to prevent the caster from achieving a fix on him and if successful, suffers no damage.
The missiles have no effect on objects or equipment or anything without an animating force of some kind. The missiles cannot penetrate the Shield spell or effects that duplicate it.
This spell uses the range penalties from the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. B550) rather than those for Regular spell.

Cost: 1 per missile. Each missile does 1d-1 cr.
Prerequisites: Magery 1

Item
Wand. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 800.

Edit: Special note about Magic Missile. This spell works out to a cost of 9 CPs + 7.5 CPs per extra missile if worked up as a Power (ignoring FP cost as a limitation, as FP cost I work out based on the effectiveness of this spell compared to others). Given that Stone Missile works out to 8 CPs per FP spent and Lightning works out to 6 per FP spent before we account for the ability to reduce all metal armour to DR 1*, I think I can safely say that the power level is on par with other attack spells where you spend 1 FP per die of damage. Repeat, this spell is not overpowered and unless someone has good reasons for why not, I can use it with no fear in my campaigns.

*Which I don't know how to do in Powers, but would certainly come out expensive enough to make Lighting more expensive than Stone Missile.

Question the Fourth. Are there any concerns with the way these spells work or with their Cost?

[Polydamas]

Is magic powered by ER only, or by ER + FP? My 3e books are on the wrong side of the Rockies, or I might have thoughts about spells. The various Wall spells come to mind as hard to represent in Magic.

How do you represent Armour/(Mage) Armour? Or the various spells that create a rune which has nasty effects when viewed? Sleep and Hold Person seem a bit tricky, because they breaks the GURPS Magic principle "any spell that can disable an opponent instantly is heavily limited, and none can instantly disable more than one" and the common sense "paralyzing opponents is usually better than killing them". The GURPS MAgic version of Hold Person requires a touch to the victim's head.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Question the Second. Apart from Magic Missile, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, Lance of Disruption, Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, Stoneskin, Cone of Cold, Chain Lightning, Mordenkainen's Sword, Prismatic Spray, Prismatic [other] and Meteor Swarm; what iconic spells of the Forgotten Realms and D&D in general are not well modelled in GURPS Magic and I should focus on presenting? Does anyone have ideas for modelling some of them that at first would appear difficult to do?

The Power Word and Monster summoning spells.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Is magic powered by ER only, or by ER + FP?

ER + FP. As a special effect, critical failures while using ER usually have fairly modest effects. As in, usually nothing much happens, except that the spell fizzles and the wizard might be confused for a few seconds or lose some extra ER. Critical failures while using FP, however...

Originally Posted by Polydamas

My 3e books are on the wrong side of the Rockies, or I might have thoughts about spells. The various Wall spells come to mind as hard to represent in Magic.

True, I'll need them.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

How do you represent Armour/(Mage) Armour?

I had been using the Armour spell unmodified. I see that I need to add a few lines to it and come up with some related magic. Hmmm, I wonder if Armor from GURPS Magic would be fairly modified by saying that it lasted 10 minutes, not 1 minute and that it was not cumulative with actual armour? Sounds fair to me, in Basic Set terms we are adding a +40% enhancement and a -40% limitation.

For magical items, I have preserved some aspects of what is cumulative with each other. Some items add to Natural DR, which is cumulative with everything, but others add 'Armor DR', which is not cumulative with actual armour, whether magical or otherwise.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Or the various spells that create a rune which has nasty effects when viewed?

Hadn't thought about it.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Sleep and Hold Person seem a bit tricky, because they breaks the GURPS Magic principle "any spell that can disable an opponent instantly is heavily limited, and none can instantly disable more than one" and the common sense "paralyzing opponents is usually better than killing them".

I'm not wedded to things that are clearly balance mistakes, of course. On the other hand, the long casting time of the GURPS 'Mass [something]' spells means that they are essentially useless in combat. This is a problem. I'm going to have to review them somewhat.

Edit:
Question the Fifth, what about that?

Mage Sleep
Regular; Resisted by Will
The pinnacle of centuries of spell refinement, this highly efficient spell puts to sleep everyone within a 10' diameter area. They can be awakened by the same methods as victims of the Sleep spell (p. 135), but will otherwise sleep for 2 minutes per level of Magery of the caster. At the GM's option, tired subjects in peaceful surroundings may sleep longer.
As the result of certain mystical shortcuts, however, Mage Sleep will not affect all targets. All animals and monsters larger or more dangerous than a leopard will be immune, as will any character built on more than 150 points (at the GM's option, these points must increase the character's personal power and not just be in Wealth or social Advantages).

Cost: 5.
Prerequisites: Magery 1 and Daze.

Item
Wand. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 800.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The GURPS MAgic version of Hold Person requires a touch to the victim's head.

I suppose I'll come up with an advanced spell that does the same at range.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Refplace

The Power Word and Monster summoning spells.

I haven't thought about how to model the former at all. Spellcasters with that kind of power just haven't been around much.

I wonder how I'd do it in GURPS without costing more than it's worth. The 'no save, but only affects certain enemies' aspect would normally call for a combination of Cosmic +300% and Accessibility -10% or so that is monstrously inefficient and not at all useful. Much cheaper to use Malediction, but doesn't fit the 'feel'. Hmmm... all or nothing Innate Attack? I seem to recall seeing such a Limitation somewhere, but I can't recall where. What's a fair modifier to Innate Attack if the attack does no damage at all if it does not kill the target outright? It would seem like a hefty limitation.

Yes, that sounds more reasonable for Power Word Kill, but it doesn't work for the others...

As for Summon Monster, that's fairly easy:

Summon Monster I
Ally (5% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic* +50%, Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Acessability** (-30%), Costs Fatigue 4 (-20%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%)***, Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common**** (-10%)].
Total cost 2 points.

Summon Monster II
Ally (25% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic (+50%), Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Accessibility (-30%), Costs Fatigue 6 (-30%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%), Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common (-10%)]. Cost 6 points.
+Alternate Ability Ally x2***** (5% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic (+50%), Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Accessibility (-30%), Costs Fatigue 6 (-30%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%)*, Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common (-10%)]. +1 point.
Total cost 7 points.

Summon Monster III
Ally (50% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic (+50%), Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Accessibility (-30%), Costs Fatigue 10 (-50%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%), Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common (-10%)]. Cost 11 points.
+Alternate Ability Ally x2***** (25% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic (+50%), Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Accessibility (-30%), Costs Fatigue 10 (-50%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%)*, Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common (-10%)]. +2 points.
+Alternate Ability Ally x4****** (5% or less, All the time x4) [Cosmic (+50%), Minion (+50%), Summonable (+100%), Accessibility (-30%), Costs Fatigue 10 (-50%), Magical (-10%), Maximum Duration: 10 minutes (-50%)*, Requires Gestures (-10%), Requires Words (-10%), Trigger: Common (-10%)]. +1 point.
Total cost 14 points.

This is assuming a 200 point mage. As higher level mages will usually be more than that, the cost of Summon Monster II and III may be reduced.

For a more powerful summoning spell, simply raise the value of the Ally, add more Allies or an Ally Group or increase the Maximum Duration for wizards with Magery 5 or more. Also remember to raise the Costs Fatigue.

*To represent being allowed to choose the type of Ally at the casting of the spell.
**To represent being restricted to creatures from the small list given per Summon Monster spell.
***Actually 2 minutes per level of Magery.
****An empty bag and piece of candle.
*****Actually, 1d3.
******Actually, 1d4+1

[Blind Mapmaker]

Interesting way of doing this. Personally, I'm using Restructurable Magery (F 129) for wizards and divine casters, regular GURPS magic for bards and spell levels for divine casters and sorcerors. I don't like building advantages, but that's probably the best way for some spells including the Summon Monster ones you presented. I would reduce or eliminate that one's Accessibility modifier, though. The Cosmic modifier just about fits the bill without any discounts.

For the Iconic spells I would add Agannazar's Scorcher (basically a higher range Flame Jet), Chain Lightning, Dimension Door, Disintegrate, Faerie Fire, Leomund's Secure Shelter, Mage Armor, Sanctuary, the Protection from Alignment spells (you can use the versions from DF), the various divine buffs/debuffs (Bane, Bless, Prayer...)

Apart from Mage Armor which has to be nerfed most of these shouldn't disrupt a game too much. Dimension Door is a nice option if you want to give players some party teleportation, but don't want to short-circuit all travel.

[Gorkamorka]

Magic missile should just be an 1d innate attack with cosmic so it always hits. Then just give it a "number of times per day" modifier. Higher RoF when you gain gain "levels"

'm using Restructurable Magery (F 129) for wizards and divine casters

Sorry, what book?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Gorkamorka

Sorry, what book?

Fantasy, page 129.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Gorkamorka

Magic missile should just be an 1d innate attack with cosmic so it always hits. Then just give it a "number of times per day" modifier. Higher RoF when you gain gain "levels"

Eh, I tried that. Cosmic No Die Roll, Cosmic No DR, Cosmic No Defence is +900%.

It ended up costing far too much compared to the utility. No player would spend 50 points on something that inflicts a major wound on 16% of ordinary foes and a mere annoying wound to ánything worth fighting.