[Magic] Most interesting/balanced standard-magic spells for a modern game

[Michael Thayne]

Sure, the standard magic system has a bunch of shortcomings that lead people to prefer either RPM or magic-as-powers. But those are a lot of work, whereas standard magic has lots of spells just ready to go. The problem is, most of them are designed with low-tech fantasy in mind, and run into serious balance issues at high TLs.

On the one hand, there are a bunch of spells that have not been properly "4e-ified", a problem which is often exacerbated at high TLs. 4e makes it impossible to get absolute protection vs. damage using advantages, but a number of spells, such as Missile Shield and Force Wall, effectively offer infinite DR. This is not a complete disaster at low TLs, where ranged attacks play a secondary role and a normal soldier (with ST in the 10-13 range) has no hope of penetrating DR 14, but it's a lot harder to defend once rifles (not to mention grenade launchers and anti-tank weapons) are part of the setting. But on the other hand, many spells become almost useless at high TLs because technology renders them obsolete (think all those missile spells that struggle to compete with firearms).

So my question is: what spells are good for building interesting, balanced characters at high TLs, characters who will neither totally outshine nor be useless in comparison to gunslingers, psis, and so on? Bonus points if the character concept works well in a high-powered game like Monster Hunters or Supers.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

On the one hand, there are a bunch of spells that have not been properly "4e-ified", a problem which is often exacerbated at high TLs. 4e makes it impossible to get absolute protection vs. damage using advantages, but a number of spells, such as Missile Shield and Force Wall, effectively offer infinite DR. This is not a complete disaster at low TLs, where ranged attacks play a secondary role and a normal soldier (with ST in the 10-13 range) has no hope of penetrating DR 14, but it's a lot harder to defend once rifles (not to mention grenade launchers and anti-tank weapons) are part of the setting. But on the other hand, many spells become almost useless at high TLs because technology renders them obsolete (think all those missile spells that struggle to compete with firearms).

This doesn't make the spell list geared toward low-tech settings; it just means the application of spells changes as you change tech level.

Missile spells might have trouble competing with firearms in a straight-out, blast-for-blast fight, but you (usually) can't take away someone missile spell while you can take away a gun.

As for Missile Shield and Force Wall, people have problems with those regardless of the TL. I personally don't — I don't see any mandate that spells have to follow the same guidelines as advantages — but people who do have problems with them can just remove them from the list of spells available in the game.

So my question is: what spells are good for building interesting, balanced characters at high TLs, characters who will neither totally outshine nor be useless in comparison to gunslingers, psis, and so on? Bonus points if the character concept works well in a high-powered game like Monster Hunters or Supers.

You seem to be implicitly asking for spells that are good at attacking for the most damage possible. Otherwise, I could come up with good, modern uses of almost any spell. Sporting events would have wizards controlling the weather. Police detectives would use Knowledge spells to solve crimes. Directors would use Illusion and Creation spells instead of special effects. Battlefield soldiers? Knowledge spells for tactical advantages, Protection spells for, well, protection... pretty much what a low-tech warrior-wizard would do, just substituting bullets for arrows and riot gear for armor.

[Willy]

The healing spells are worth a look, unless you are in TL 9 and up, healing magic is at par or better than standard medicine in most cases. The movement spells especially like haste, great hast are very useful. There are supplements for artillery and death spells but they are still mediocre against TL 8 weapons. Once you reconsider from dishing out direct damage and go for a supportive role you can do a lot with standard spells. A BIG surprise to every emeny with distance weapons are reflect energy / reverse missile, put this spells on somebody, use him as decoy and the emeny reveals not only his position, but has also a good chance to kill themself. Zombies, summoned servants and Golems are again a way to be useful in battle. Teleport and Gate spells are also a area which is hard to cover or beaten by normal TLs, they are short of superscience.

[Gnome]

The Mind Control College is effective at any TL; unlike the advantage Mind Control, the spell Charm doesn't offer any additional opportunities to resist for being forced to act against one's nature. It's hard to maintain, though...that's what Enslave is for!
Panic is very powerful for group management. Suppose your party of 4 is outnumbered by a party of 6. Cast Panic on 3 of the 6, dismantle the 3 remaining while the others run away, then be ready for them by the time they return (if they're foolish enough to return). In fact, this spell is so good that my group has house-ruled it to be a Regular spell (affecting one foe) instead of an Area spell. It's still pretty useful.

There are really very few spells that are useful at low TL but become obsolete at high TL. Missile spells are certainly weak compared with firearms, though they do offer some useful special effects (Lightning for stunning, elemental damage for monsters with vulnerabilities, etc.). Long-range communication spells aren't that impressive when you have communication technology. Armor only provides a few points of DR relative to the high damage of firearms, but it's still not a useless spell as it does stack with body armor.

And of course some spells are better at high TL! Technological spells of course can only make sense with technology. But also spells that can bypass security (like Lockmaster, Create Door/Teleport, Shape Earth, etc.) are more impressive in a world where security is more impressive. Most low TL doors can be bashed down, low TL locks are easy to pick, etc. At high TL, there's really no way to get past certain levels of security without magic (or trickery I suppose--which can be greatly aided by magic!).

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

You seem to be implicitly asking for spells that are good at attacking for the most damage possible. Otherwise, I could come up with good, modern uses of almost any spell. Sporting events would have wizards controlling the weather. Police detectives would use Knowledge spells to solve crimes. Directors would use Illusion and Creation spells instead of special effects. Battlefield soldiers? Knowledge spells for tactical advantages, Protection spells for, well, protection... pretty much what a low-tech warrior-wizard would do, just substituting bullets for arrows and riot gear for armor.

I did not in any way mean to limit my question to attack spells, though I did have in mind spells for adventurers, so the police and soldier examples you gabe are helpful.

[ericthered]

steelwraith is a short term and expensive spell, but its very useful in high tech combat.

[Michael Thayne]

I just realized the Forgotten Wisdom style from Magical Styles: Horror Magic actually provides a pretty good list of the kinds of spells I'm looking for. Though it's hardly exhaustive.

Edit: I would love to see a follow-up to Horror Magic that's a bit broader in concept, something like Urban Fantasy Magic.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

e Urban Fantasy Magic.

If you're tryiing to keep your magic secret then in any area with effective 911 you can get by with Stop Bleeding and have that look just like a really good HT roll rather than using high powered Healing magic and having it be blatant. Maybe Cleansing or Sterilze too to prevent infections too.

Trauma victims in a modern ER who aren't bleeding out or having their wounds get infected have pretty good chances.

[Gef]

Information spells are fairly TL-independent, like Divination and especially History. Don't need a key logger, don't care if you have encryption, if I can use some sort of postcognition spell to see what you typed. Illusions can fool info spells and cameras too.

Any spells that work with spirits are fantastic, assuming spirits can't be detected or blocked by any high-tech security measures until they manifest. Mileage varies according to how you as GM write up spirits, though. [Once in Houston, I saw the decommissioned WWI-era battleship Texas moored near the San Jacinto monument, and ever since I've wished to run a scenario where a magician brings it back to life with a ghost crew.]

Armor scales with TL, because it increases DR by up to 50%. That's maybe DR+3 at TL3 but DR+500 on a tank with DR 1000. This might be enough to make a TL7 tank stand up to a TL8 version.

The higher th TL, the more important IQ-based skills are to adventurers, and the spell Wisdom grants a bonus to all of them.

Gate is cool, especially if it leads to worlds where hi-tech doesn't work. That can be a variant laws of physics, or it can just be lack of infrastructure.