Thursday, September 27, 2018

8 Weird low level spells

Roll 1d4 to generate a 1st level spell
Roll 1d4+4 to generate a 2nd level spell
Roll 1d8 for a totally random low level spell

[1] Spirit of Bones - 1st level
Conjure's forth a copy of the spell caster's grand father's skeleton. It is not animated, and acts exactly the same as regular bones. Those with magic powers often have grandfather's who were actually unicorns, dragons, or kitsune tricksters in human guises; don't be surprised if the skeleton you get it huge or strange. The bones are exactly the same as normal bones, but degrade after one day. Could be used as a makeshift weapon, thrown to sate dogs, etc.

[2] Killjoy - 1st level
Instantly stops people who are laughing. If they're laughing because of magic, it stops that spell. The effect ends any laughter, normal or otherwise, and prevents the targets from laughing for another 1d4 turns. Hits everybody in a room. Use on a jester to ruin their career.

[3] Lock the Look - 1st level
Allows for ridiculous hair styles, outfits, and intricately tied and organized special effects to be put together without succumbing to gravity, the motion of basic actions like walking and motioning, or common sense. Allows for crazy hairstyles shaped like castles, balancing several keys around the collar without them falling down, sustaining enchantments to cloth, etc. Effect ends when target wearing outfit is hit by an attack or makes one. Cast before Wizard fashion shows, as disguise, etc.

[4] Excising Whistle - 1st level
In order to cast this spell, the caster must make a very loud and sharp whistle. The whistle “cuts out” something from something else, and the “something” else must either be visible or known to the caster. For example, the caster could remove an obvious bulge of a gem inside a coinpurse, or could remove the venom glands that would exist in the corpse of a venomous snake, but could not remove a magical hidden secret extra heart within the mutant's body. The whistle can also be used to do things like cut people trapped in webs, remove something tangled within roots, etc. The whistle can only do a maximum of 1 damage, so it could not remove a vital organ from a living being unless they were already almost dead or were a tiny, insignificant creature that lacks even a single hit dice.

[5] Puerile Polymorph - 2nd level
This spell transforms the caster into a small, miniaturized, cartoonish form of a creature at home in the environment the caster is in. For example; in a swamp, the caster may become a very large dragonfly with human-like eyes, their clothes and accessories shrinking and fitting around their new forms, with wings that can let them hover as fast as they could walk in their natural form. These forms are not very dangerous and gain no special advantages in combat beyond what they could naturally have, and the innate resistances they have to the environment. They do 1d4 damage unless the form is innately known for a strong attack or ability. Forms include humanized stereotypes in cities, miniature monsters in dungeons, silly skeletons in graveyards or crypts, etc. 

All forms taken by this spell are considered to have 1 HD for the purposes of creature abilities and spell-resistances. Casters get to keep their normal AC and hit points while transformed, and can also communicate with creatures of their new type as long as those creatures have the capability for communication among their own kind. The caster does not get special advantages or bonuses on their reaction check, however.

[6] Sight Before the Living - 2nd level
The caster smears dirt, clay, or oil from their fingers into their eyes. As they blink; they can now see the world without seeing anything that is alive. All creatures appear invisible, and are almost impossible to hit with ranged weapons or spells. Plants, moss, and other things also appear invisible, meaning you can see behind walls made of roots or find treasure chests hidden under blankets of moss, see tracks left in grassy mud flats easily, etc. This spell can be cast on other creatures, willing or not, but you must smear the clay into their eyes for the spell to work.

[7] Makeshift Ioun-Stone - 2nd level
The selected object which can fit in a human palm will begin to orbit the caster in circles. It orbits for 2d6 exploration turns, and automatically avoids terrain and such. Selecting a shard of metal would cause 1 damage to anything that gets within melee range of you once every other round as it spins, selecting an ember could be used as a short lived hands-free light source, etc. Something actually magical might grant a bonus to your spells or spell saves.

[8] Whispering Walls - 2nd level
By pressing your ear against a wall, you can hear it whisper secrets. The wall can reveal a rough approximation of the location, in feet distance from the caster, of doors, niches, levers, hidden compartments set in the wall, wall zombies hiding in wait, and wall-mounted traps. You can ask the wall up to 3 questions, and it can't tell you anything about the floor or ceiling because it hates them. Only applies to that wall;  walls talk to each other lengthwise. The wall on the opposite end of the corridor would be as far away as the entire perimeter of the dungeon to a wall.

2 comments:

  1. I really like these spells, especially number 6! I have a little bit of feedback if you're looking for any.

    The first three spells restate their introductory sentence unnecessarily.
    Excising Whistle seems like it didn't see as much editing as the others. it's unclear if the thing removed goes, is it gone forever? is it in the casters hand?
    Puerile Polymorph claims the caster becomes a miniature version of the creature, but your example dragonfly is "very large".
    For Whispering Walls I'm not sure what you mean by "the wall on the opposite end of the corridor would be as far away as the entire perimeter of the dungeon."

    All that being said I think that the spell casting rules/descriptions in Knave might fit your sensibilities well. They can be seen in the free preview on DriveThru RPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/250888/Knave). The descriptions are very short, but there's no reason they couldn't be longer like the spells here.

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    1. I'd been interested in checking out Knave a few times.

      As for your questions; The Puerile Polymorph is very large for a dragonfly. The direct inspiration for that spell is the transformations from Banjo Kazooie. It's a cartoon creature. As for Whispering Walls; I forgot the passage about you speaking to "one wall" means a continuous piece.

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