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New Divine Spells for v4


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This topic will be dedicated to discuss which spells deserve to be added and what they'll do. Which of the following spells would you add? How would you implement them?

 

Cleric Spells

 

1st Level Spells

Clerics already have a good amount of useful spells at this level (10), I'm simply going to add 2 very classic "reverse" spells.

 

Bane

The reverse of Bless. It was called Curse within AD&D, but I think 3E name is much better because this is neither a true curse spell, nor is removable with Remove Curse/Break Enchantment.

 

If we can assing it a custom secondary type Bane and Bless should cancel each other.

 

Cause Light Wounds

See the relative topic.

 

 

2nd Level Spells

Once again, clerics already have enough spells (11), and may even get Gust of Wind here. I only have one obvious addition, and another possible one, but I'm not sure of the latter.

 

Cause Moderate Wounds

Nuff said.

 

Soundburst

3E assigns this spell to clerics too, but I'm not convinced. I looks more like an arcane spell imo, if not bard-only.

 

 

3rd Level Spells

Clerics are already fine, with plenty of pre-existing spells (13) I only have a couple of suggestions.

 

Bestow Curse

A classic spell (reverse form of Remove Curse within AD&D). The only way Bestow Curse could look unique (and not just another Doom spell) is giving it multiple choices (and not random), allowing the caster to chose between at least 3 different curses. I've looked at the entire AD&D list of minor curses but many of them ends up doing the same thing despite different concept. Fortunately, PnP itself says that as long as the effects are similar in power to the ones suggested, casters are allowed to create new curses, so using PnP ones and adding a bunch of my own ideas I think we could have things like:

* target is unable to sleep well and is always fatigued (PnP Insomnia or Lethargy)

* target loses 1 spell ever x time (my take on PnP Forgetfulness which instead works via spell failure)

* target suffer additional x bleeding dmg when struck and/or cannot be cured (Cursed Wounds?)

* target permanently suffer -1 (or -2?) penalty to luck (Bad Luck - this is an Improved Doom)

* ...

The problem is that implementing such spell would be extremely time consuming, and the end result would be really appealing only if used by the AI against players, and not vice versa.

 

Searing Light

As some of you might already know, I'm suggesting this classic 3E spell for a simple reason, I want a good aligned spell to make up for Animate Dead being restricted to evil priests. Note that it would not be limited to be used against undead creatures (though it deals more dmg to them), but it would be a kinda useful fast casting, single target, ray spell which inflicts damage (up to 5d8 within PnP) without allowing a save. My only real doubt is that I don't have a perfect animation for it, and that it looks too much similar to druid's Sunscorch.

 

 

4th Level Spells

Clerics already have TONS of spells here (14, 13 if we merge NPP with Death Ward), so we are not forced to add any.

 

Cloak of Bravery

The reverse of Cloak of Fear. As we discussed elsewhere, within AD&D CoB grants only immunity to fear, making it kinda pointless imo considering a 1st lvl spell can counter fear effects for the whole party. I suggest to make it works as a sort of hope/heroism spell. For example it could grant immunity to fear and +2 to hit/dmg rolls to nearby creatures, while Cloak of Fear would cause instead -2 penalty (no save?) and fear (on a failed save).

 

Alternatively we could replace Defensive Harmony with this spell. DH currently share the same role and same spell slot of Magic Circle against Evil (the former grants +4 AC for 1 turn, the latter +2 AC and +2 to saves for 1 hour), thus replacing the less "classic" of the two with something a little more unique seems a good idea.

 

Dimensional Anchor

This is a very situational spell, and I'm not 100% sure we need it, but as long as spells such as Teleport Field and Imprisonment (especially the latter) don't allow a save granting at least one spell to protect from them may not be a bad idea. For completeness I might say that Imprisonment do have an incredibly expensive counter, Freedom, and TF is great but not game breaking even if you can't protect from it, that's why I'm not sure the spell is a true must have.

 

What do you think? Do we need it?

 

 

5th Level Spells

Guess what? Clerics already have quite a few spells (11), and I'm simply going to suggest an obvious but very useful spell, plus a very daring addition that I only mention for completeness and will almost surely get discarded for various reasons.

 

Mass Cause Wounds

I've seen it also named Circle of Doom, which is a much cooler name, but it's too misleading imo (it's not a Mass Doom spell).

 

Shield of Lathander

Aka, priest version of PwfW, which lasts even less. SCS would surely love this spell, but we have various reasons to not add it. This spell was probably supposed to be limited to Morninglords, and with such a name it would surely not be available to evil aligned priests. Furthermore I'm not sure I like clerics to start behaving like mages and cast tons of PfMW-like spells. Long story short, the usefulness of this spell is obvious, but I'd probably vote to not implement it.

 

 

6th Level Spells

Clerics don't have their usual abundance of spells at this level, but moving here Symbol of Fear will make it almost enough (10).

 

Banishment

Well, not really a new spell because it's pretty much vanilla's Death Spell, but it's a new spell for clerics, and a very formidable one!

 

Bestow Greater Curse

See Bestow Curse, for similar reasons I'm not sure going for it is a good idea.

 

Forbiddance/Repulsion

One between these two PnP spells could replace vanilla's Repulse Undead. The latter would more easily replace it, because it's the very same spell, just not limited to undead.

 

Greater Glyph of Warding

Not much unique, though in PnP even its lesser version isn't necessarily limited to do electrical damage, but I guess it's better to not complicate our life, isn't it?

 

 

7th Level Spells

Clerics already have plenty of spells here (11), so we don't necessarily need to add any unless it adds something new/unique.

 

Destruction

This is the reverse spell of Resurrection, much like Slay Living is supposed to be the reverse of Raise Dead. It's an almost perfect copy of Finger of Death, but it works on undead creatures. It may actually replace Finger of Death, as the latter is not supposed to be available to clerics.

 

Repulsion

I'd implement either this or 6th lvl Forbiddance, not both. Role wise, both spells are supposed to offer clerics something similar to mage's Teleport Field. Concept wise, Forbiddance seems much more appropriate as a cleric spell imo (in fact it's cleric only in PnP), whereas Repulsion doesn't feel/look so appropriate (both mages and clerics get it in 3E, and I think only mages had it within AD&D), but implementig the latter is easy (wing buffet opcode), while implementing the former is kinda complicated.

 

Protection from the Elements

Not really a new spell. I really don't know if this kind of spells is more appropriate for clerics (abjurations, wards) or druids (elements). Should clerics and/or druids get this spell?

 

 

 

Druid Spells

 

1st Level Spells

Druids have very few spells here (8) because it seems we agree on removing Armor of Faith, Bless and Doom from their spellbook. Within NWN they granted druids both Grease and Sleep, but while acceptable they never were druid's spells within PnP, and I'd not use them unless really necessary. Anyway, we need at least 3 new spells imo.

 

Animal Summoning I

Same story of mage's MS spells: within AD&D these spells were limited to few selected levels, whereas 3E extended their use to each and every spell lvl. Furthermore, 3E renamed AS into Summon Nature's Ally, which allows a wider selection of creatures (e.g. pixies, elementals, etc.), but considering we already have Call Woodland Beings for feys (Dryads will be added) and Conjure Elementals for elementals I think I'd vote to keep this spell "animal only".

 

In general we don't have much choices when it comes to animals (magical beasts such as a Winter Wolf cannot be used imo), but at this level we have almost no choice. If we agree adding this spell I'd say to make it summon 1rat (or dire rat?) per caster level, up to 5 rats. The disease on hit can be really nasty early on, when the incredibly useless thac0 of these poor creatures can still hit something...but if we then agree to add Animal Growth this spell might actually find some use within BG2 too.

 

Fog Cloud/Obscuring Mist

If we implement it for mages, then druids will get it too.

 

Frost Fingers

Pretty much a cold version of SR's Burning Hands. Not my favourite pick, but druids are supposed to be more "damage dealers" than clerics, and right now they only have Sunscorch at this lvl, thus it may still prove itself useful, especially considering that, unlike mages, druids don't have much competion here in terms of offensive options.

It has been suggested to lower its PnP damage in favor of a secondary slow effect, and I'm tempted to agree.

 

Longstrider

I wasn't thinking to add it, but Ardanis made me re-think about it and I guess it can be handy, especially for rangers. Long story short, it would be something like +2 to caster's movement rate for 8 hours.

 

 

2nd Level Spells

Thanks to Fire Trap and other improvements, 2nd lvl druid spells are not so few and so bad as they used to be in vanilla. We may also be moving here Gust of Wind, thus we only need a couple of additions to match the usual amount of spells per level (12).

 

Alicorn Lance

A rather classic spell. A half damaging half debuffing single target spell. With a fast casting time (I'd say 2 is fine) it can be a quite appealing single target spell, something druids currently don't have at this lvl. This spell is one of the reasons for which I'm not going to suggest moving Summon Insect at 2nd lvl as per 3E.

 

Animal Summoning II

As you probably expected. :)

 

 

3rd Level Spells

Druids currently have very few spells here (8) thus they need 3 or 4 new ones. Fortunately, we have tons of classic and useful spells we might implement.

 

Animal Summoning III

Nuff said.

 

(Greater) Magic Fang

This is clearly on top of my wish list for this lvl. A buff which affects all your summoned animals at once, granting their attacks a higher enchantment lvl (not just +1 to hit/dmg, but actual enchantment lvl!) is a real must-have imo.

 

Within PnP it either grants +1 to all summons or up to +5 to a single creature. I'll surely opt for the first, but I'm tempted to make it grant +2 to all summons at higher levels. What do you think?

 

Spike Growth

This is really a classic. A sort of Entangle-like spell which slows anyone in the area (keeping them slowed even after leaving it) and inflicts low damage. I'm not in love with IWD's animation, thus it may end up using a recolored entangle animation (not sure if BG's one or IWD's one).

 

Icelance

This spell from Player's Guide to Faerun isn't mage only in PnP, though druids get it at 4th lvl there. I'm not sure about it only because I fear it would overlap and outshine Hold Person or Animal (the latter has a small AoE, but Icelance's damage output makes it more appealing imo), but adding a cold based damaging spell would be good imo.

 

Quillfire

This comes from Magic of Faerun's book. I wasn't too much into it (at all actually) because within PnP this is pretty much a Lesser Poison spell, but Ardanis suggests to make it the druid version of Melf's Minute Meteors, with poison instead of fire. I'm not sure I'll add this spell, but at least with Arda's idea it would perform well.

 

 

4th Level Spells

Druids have a good amount of spells here (10), though not nearly as much as clerics. I have the following suggestions, but I'd pick only two of them.

 

Striking/Smashing Wave

It's called Striking Wave within PnP, but for some reason it got renamed Smashing Wave by IWD. It's 4th lvl within AD&D and IWD, 5th lvl within IWDII. Regardless, I will borrow IWD's animation and make it a single target spell which inflicts crushing damage and knocks target back unconscious for a small time. We can easily tweak damage and knockback duration to fit both spell levels.

 

Poison Vines

I'm not 100% sure of it because it's 3E only. In terms of gameplay it would be the ultimate entangle spell, working as a party friendly Entangle + Spike Growth, with the added poison effect. Not extremely unique, but surely effective.

 

Spike Stone

It's 5th lvl within AD&D, and 4th lvl within 3E. I would actually vote to not implement it at all because it really isn't enough different from Spike Growth (same spell, higher damage), and its IWD animation is horrible imo.

 

Thorns Spray

Pretty much a party friendly Cone of Cold which inflicts piercing damage. Not the best spell ever, but kinda unique at least. I have to see if I can implement it with a decent animation.

 

Blood Rage

Within IWD there were both Blood Rage at 4th lvl and Animal Rage at 5th. Ironically, the former is the only one I could find within PnP, though the latter's name is much more appropriate imo. I think adding both spells would be redundant, but one of them could be a good addition to druids, as they lack offensive buffs (unlike clerics who get tons of Divine Might, Divine Power, Divine Fury and similar spells), and a rage-like ability could even make up for the lack of Chaotic Commands.

 

Giant Vermin

It's 3E only, and it would be pretty much a copy of the current Spider Spawn. I mention it for completeness, but I would not implement it because we already have Animal Summoning and Call Woodland Beings at this level. Spiders wouldn't add much imo.

 

 

5th Level Spells

Druids have few spells here (9), so I'd like to add 2-3 new ones.

 

Animal Growth

This is a classic druid spell, kinda unique and very useful. As discussed within the forum this will more or less work as a thac0 and hit points buff for all your summoned animals (and eventual KR's animal companions). I think something like +4 thaco and +20 hp should be fine, and I'm also tempted to add 3E physical resistance buff (e.g. +20% res), but I'm open to suggestions.

 

Conjure Lesser Elemental

A must have for druids imo.

 

Rejuvenation Cocoon

This is a 3E only spell, introduced by Complete Divine but used by both IWD and NWN. It would be a short lasting Resilient Sphere which completely heals the protected creature. I'm not sure I have an animation for it though, probably not.

 

Animal Rage

As discussed before, I'd go with either 4th lvl Blood Rage or 5th lvl Animal Rage. I thought to use the latter name in either case, but saying within spell's description that Blood Rage is somewhat feral, or animal-related could be enough.

 

Which one of the two spells would you prefer?

 

(Call) Lightning Storm

Within PnP this is just a more damaging Call Lightning. I'd make it more similar to "storm" spells instead (druids already have Ice Storm and Fire Storm), making it strike every opponent in the area once per round for 4 rounds, but inflicting no more than 3d6 damage per bolt.

 

6th Level Spells

This is the most problematic spell lvl to handle by far. Vanilla's spells are few, some of them are not much appealing (Searing Orb), or overlaps with each other (Sol's Searing Orb and False Dawn), and even looking into PnP we don't have so many great picks. Anyway, druids have very few spells here (8) so I'd like to add at least 3 new spells.

 

Whirlwind

This is a true must have imo. One of the most unique and iconic druid spell.

 

Tortoise Shell

Very simple, a MASSIVE armor class boost (it's up to +9 AC within 3E). Within PnP it can be cast on others, but I'd instead opt to make it caster only, especially because that would allow us to make it really powerful without worrying about balance issues (a Barkskin-like spell granting +9 AC to your best tanks? No way). Furthermore, while in PnP it doesn't stack with Barkskin I think instead it should, because the latter makes your skin harder, while TS gives you an external protective armor/shell. Anyway, do you think the concept is worth to be used? If yes, we'll find a way to make it shine. :)

 

Drown

In theory I like it (in vanilla we had a bunch of cold-based spells and no real water-based ones), but I find hard to make it perform a different role from Dolorous Decay, as they both are single target, save or be screwed spells. PnP Drown is pretty much a save or die spell, with the only difference that the target doesn't immediately die, it lies unconscious and then dies if not helped (relatively easy heal check, or any healing spell) within a round. In our case an almost identical effect could be achieved using "stunning damage", but we could partially tweak it (e.g. the drowning may not be instantaneous) if it serves to make it better.

 

Stonehold

Its PnP version would be cool, a more powerful and party friendly entangle (stone hands try to grapple and constrict opponents entering the area), but unfortunately I don't have any animation for it (Bibgy's one doesn't really suits it imo). NWN changed it into a paralyzing cloud spell, but I'm not sure how much I'd like it, and concept wise it would probably have to be non-friendly.

 

At first sight I thought NWN version was an OP spell, because it looked like a Mass Flesh to Stone using the same spell level (though with short duration), but comparing Stonehold to Web the former doesn't seem to offer much more than the latter...

 

Anyway, I'm not in love with this spell, thus I'd like to know your opinions.

 

Crumble

This is my least favourite suggestion, as this spell is absurdly limited in scope. It's a pure anti-golem spell, and as such I fear it would only look as a very convenient mod-added spell.

 

 

7th Level Spells

Druids have almost no spells here (7 or 8 if they'll have Heal), so we need to add at least 3 new ones. I'm not 100% sure of most of the following suggestions, thus if you have any other spell in mind let me know!

 

Conjure Greater Elemental

Nuff said. V3 Elemental Swarm and Elemental Princes HLAs will work as innates.

 

Mist of Eldath

Within both PnP and IWD this spell had no duration (more precisely it lasts only 1 round), making it kinda weak imo (just a small healing effect plus cure poison/disease). I suggest instead to make this cloud-like spell last 1 turn as all other clouds, turning it into druid's variant to Mass Cure. What do you think?

 

Protection from the Elements

See clerics.

 

Tsunami

I mention it because it's really cool, but I really don't think I can implement it unless we think a sort of Mass Striking Wave looks good (SW's animation wouldn't be perfect imo).

 

Edited by Demivrgvs
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First! :D

 

Clerics

Bane

This seems to be an obvious choice. There are many reversible divine spells and I like that aspect of divine magic. Not only 3E's name is better imo, I hope you go for 3e's standard action instead of AD&D's 1 round casting time too. Needless to say that Bane should dispel and counter Bless, vice versa.

 

Cause/Inflict Light Wounds

Yay. Again an obvious choice. On a side note, I'd like to see all spells of this series as touch spells (like Vampiric Touch) and not as "on next hit effect", because this should be the right behaviour for a reversed cure spell.

 

Druids

1) Obscuring Mist/Fog Cloud

Wasn't that a cleric spell too? Anyway, it may fit better to druids. They deserve a defensive tool here, since we all agreed that Armor of Faith should be restricted to Clerics only. Should be very handy for rangers too.

 

2) Animal Summoning I

I opt for 1 Dire Rat per caster lvl.

 

if we then agree to add Animal Growth this spell might actually find some use within BG2 too.

That'd be so cool and should help Animal Summoning spells in general to be more useful later on. It could be also a nice feature for KR's Animal Companions. Misk could use it for Boo too and kick some evil asses. :p

 

3) Frost Fingers

Well, I think offensive power is quite welcome. I'd go for a slightly lesser damage progression compared to Burning Hands in favour for a small slow.

 

Suggestion:

Magic Fang

It's like a single target Bless (+1 bonus on attack and damage rolls) for all summons which use natural weapons. There is a Greater Magic Fang spell for higher levels too. A scaleable version could be a possible candidate for spell lvl 3. Since summons are an elemental aspect of the class this should be very appealing.

Edited by Lawlight
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I wrote a long response and it got deleted somehow, so here is a paraphrase:

 

Animal Summoning I

Make it summon a large group of rats at higher levels. This would at least be useful as a distraction.

 

Frost Fingers

This is a legitimate alternative to Sunschorch if it has a casting time of 1. It might need a small something extra since it can't kill trolls like Burning Hands can.

 

Longstrider

This would be very useful, especially with Armor Revisions.

 

​Camouflage

Don't think I would use this. Is there a way to make it allow allies to hide-in-plain-sight?

 

Animal Growth

If you aren't going to make the animals actually look larger, then this would feel mod-added in my opinion.

 

Magic Fang

This would be a good alternative to Animal Growth without the obvious lack of visual effects. However, +1/+1 is laughable: I would not even use it to fight wolves outside of Candlekeep. Consider that you could just take another summoning spell of the same level (whatever level it ends up bring) instead. I think it should at minimum give +3/+1 with an additional +1/+1 every 4-5 caster levels. Basically, summon + Magic Fang must be equal to or greater than summon + summon.

If you want to include Animal Growth as well as Magic Fang, Animal Growth could be more defensive, adding HP and some small damage bonus.

Edited by Kalindor
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Spells I'd like to see (in order of preference):

 

Animal Summoning I

Frost Fingers

Obscuring Mist

Long Strider

Bane

 

About Cure/Cause wounds, instead of making them separate I would just change the effect depending on the target: if hostile, damage; if allied, healing.

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Bane

I hope you go for 3e's standard action instead of AD&D's 1 round casting time too. Needless to say that Bane should dispel and counter Bless, vice versa.
Yes and yes. Casting time will be 5 as I did for Bless, and the two spells should indeed counter each other.

 

Cause/Inflict Light Wounds

I'd like to see all spells of this series as touch spells (like Vampiric Touch) and not as "on next hit effect"...
That's the plan yes. :)

 

...instead of making them separate I would just change the effect depending on the target: if hostile, damage; if allied, healing.
Interesting idea, but the two spells are two different spells imo (much like Bless and Bane).

 

Obscuring Mist/Fog Cloud

Wasn't that a cleric spell too? Anyway, it may fit better to druids. They deserve a defensive tool here, since we all agreed that Armor of Faith should be restricted to Clerics only. Should be very handy for rangers too.
Yes, 3E gives this to clerics too, but I think the "fog" theme fits druids and rangers a lot more. This spell doesn't fit clerics imo, and they don't even need it, unlike druids with their very limited spellbook, thus I'd vote to not give this spell to them (much like I wouldn't give insect spells to conjurers even if 3E did).

 

Frost Fingers

Well, I think offensive power is quite welcome. I'd go for a slightly lesser damage progression compared to Burning Hands in favour for a small slow.
This is a legitimate alternative to Sunschorch if it has a casting time of 1. It might need a small something extra since it can't kill trolls like Burning Hands can.
I'd surely give it casting time 1 as I did for Burning Hands. I can probably agree to give it slightly less damage output and add a secondary slow effect.

 

Longstrider

This would be very useful, especially with Armor Revisions.
Are you Ardanis in disguise? :D

 

Camouflage

Don't think I would use this. Is there a way to make it allow allies to hide-in-plain-sight?
Afaik no.

 

As expected this is the least favored suggested addition, but considering most of you seems to really like Frost Fingers (I wasn't expecting this instead) we should have enough 1st lvl spells for druids.

 

Magic Fang

It's like a single target Bless (+1 bonus on attack and damage rolls) for all summons which use natural weapons. There is a Greater Magic Fang spell for higher levels too. A scaleable version could be a possible candidate for spell lvl 3. Since summons are an elemental aspect of the class this should be very appealing.
I discussed this spell with Arda before posting my suggestions, as he wanted to suggest it, but I feel it is either almost impossible to implement as I'd like to (making it truly add enchantment lvl to summon's pre-exisiting attacks) or a non-PnP, very weak, single target Bless-like spell limited to animal summons.

 

Animal Growth

If you aren't going to make the animals actually look larger, then this would feel mod-added in my opinion.
Is it really a problem? :( I not even thought about it because I consider the "growth" something not necessarily related to size. It can be seen as growth in terms of raw power, xp, HD, etc. Am I wrong?

 

Animal Growth could be more defensive, adding HP and some small damage bonus.
I was thinking to make it add the equivalent of +xHD or something similar. Within 3E it boosts STR (thus hit and dmg rolls), CON (aka more hit points), saves and natural armor (better AC), while within AD&D it doubled HDs (thus increasing hit points, thac0 and saves) and damage dealt (insane imo when applied to high lvl summons such as bears). 3E version also grants a useful physical damage resistance.

 

Making it detect target's HD and assign bonuses accordingly is doable (though very time consuming to code), but balance wise I actually think a fixed amount of bonuses (e.g. the equivalent of +4HD) is much better, as it prevents mid-high lvl summons to go "over the top" (e.g. a 9HD grizzly turned into a monstrous 18HD animal) while allowing it to boost low level summons much more (tough you may as well say a 5HD dire rat is insane :D ).

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Cause Wounds

I vote no to the idea of combo cause/cure wounds.

 

Animal Growth

Extra hit dice sounds fine. I still think there is room for an offensively oriented Magic Fang spell if you were willing to take liberties with its implementation. A few summon-bolstering spells would definitely add a different dimension to the druid.

 

Longstrider

Are you Ardanis in disguise? :D

Not to my knowledge, although Mental Domination is not out of the question I suppose...

Maybe as a flavor effect add some sort of fatigue reduction?

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Animal Growth & Magic Fang

Extra hit dice sounds fine. I still think there is room for an offensively oriented Magic Fang spell if you were willing to take liberties with its implementation. A few summon-bolstering spells would definitely add a different dimension to the druid.
Rejoice, I realized that we may actually make Magic Fang work exactly as per PnP via scripts. As a Bless-like spell I woud never add this spell spell, but if I can make it work as per PnP I'll surely add it considering all summoned animals will have non-magical attacks (even those summoned by 6th and 7th lvl spells).

 

Anyway, the single target 1st lvl version is pointless imo, and thus I'd implement the 3rd lvl one, which in PnP can give +1 enchantment lvl to all summoned animals. We'll see.

 

That being said, I'd like to point out that if we insist in keeping Death Spell/Banishment as per vanilla, high lvl summons and summon buffs (in particular) will always be kinda lame, as a single 6th lvl spell would make short work of an Animal Summoning VII + Animal Growth + (Greater) Magic Fang combo, without allowing any save! Despite what DavidW said, I do think Banishment absolutely needs to allow a save as per PnP (though I'd assign it at least -4 penalty).

 

Longstrider

Maybe as a flavor effect add some sort of fatigue reduction?
I cannot do it in a proper way imo. I could only make it work as something like "cure 1 point of fatigue every x time", but I don't know how much it takes to get 1 point of fatigue in the first place, and it could cause a strange case where you are fatigued and then "cured" by this spell. Long story short, considering it's not a necessary add, I would not invest much time and work on it.

 

Btw, I think I'm going to make each Goodberry "cure" 1 point of fatigue (from fatigue 7 you start to suffer luck penalties). ;)

 

Just that I'm here and there's not much to say about them...

 

2nd Level Cleric Spells

Once again, clerics are fine as they are. I only have one obvious addition, and another possible one, but I'm not sure of the latter.

 

Cause Moderate Wounds

Nuff said.

 

Soundburst

3E assigns this spell to clerics too, but I'm not sure, I would would probably leave it as a Bard-only spell.

 

2nd Level Druid Spells

Thanks to Fire Trap and Know Opponent 2nd, not to mention 3E Barkskin, lvl druid spells are not so few and so bad as they used to be in vanilla, but they still need a couple of additions imo.

 

Alicorn Lance

A classic I guess. A half damaging half debuffing spell. With a fast casting time (I'd say 2 is fine) it can be a quite appealing single target spell, something druids currently don't have at this lvl. This spell is one of the reasons for which I'm not going to suggest moving Summon Insect at 2nd lvl as per 3E.

 

Animal Summoning II

As you probably expected. :)

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Rejoice, I realized that we may actually make Magic Fang work exactly as per PnP via scripts. As a Bless-like spell I woud never add this spell spell, but if I can make it work as per PnP I'll surely add it considering all summoned animals will have non-magical attacks (even those summoned by 6th and 7th lvl spells).

 

Are you sure about giving animal summons non magical weapons? The damage reduction system of 3rd ed would make it at least possible for a powerful animal to harm a creature with DR, also in 2nd ed where the "plus" of a creature's attack was tied to HD, whereas in BG2 terms a strong animal with a non magical attack could never damage even a weak shadow. It might also make the summoned animals rather ineffective when used by enemy casters, who won't know that they need to cast Magic Fang on them - although I'm not against the idea of Magic Fang spell.

 

It might even be possible to avoid scripting the effect it if you use .eff files to specifically target bears, wolves, cats etc. with the "create magic item" opcode, since the stronger creatures (bears) are higher level the .eff could have a min level cutoff to create the +1 "bear paw" item or whatever.

 

That being said, I'd like to point out that if we insist in keeping Death Spell/Banishment as per vanilla, high lvl summons and summon buffs (in particular) will always be kinda lame, as a single 6th lvl spell would make short work of an Animal Summoning VII + Animal Growth + (Greater) Magic Fang combo, without allowing any save! Despite what DavidW said, I do think Banishment absolutely needs to allow a save as per PnP (though I'd assign it at least -4 penalty).

 

I think a save for Banishment is fine, so long as the penalty is greater than the minimum saving throw the summons could have (if buffed with Luck, Spirit Armor, Aid, Chant etc.), thus a mage would never waste time casting it on a creature who is sure to make their save.

Edited by polytope
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Summoned Animals

Are you sure about giving animal summons non magical weapons?
Well, I ignore the rule before, though I used "dire" animals to at least give a sort of justification to that, but if I use normal animals I think we should not give them +1/+2 fangs/bites for conceptual and consistency reasons, especially now that we've found a cool way to make up for that weakness adding Magic Fang.

 

The damage reduction system of 3rd ed would make it at least possible for a powerful animal to harm a creature with DR, also in 2nd ed where the "plus" of a creature's attack was tied to HD, whereas in BG2 terms a strong animal with a non magical attack could never damage even a weak shadow.
Are you sure about that? I have to look into it (I'm not a veteran AD&D player), but afaik a normal animal could not harm indeed creatures such as elementals and shadows.

 

It might also make the summoned animals rather ineffective when used by enemy casters, who won't know that they need to cast Magic Fang on them - although I'm not against the idea of Magic Fang spell.
Well, it's not like the AI loves to use animal summons. If DavidW will decide to use them more often because SR makes them good, then he will surely be able to code Magic Fang too. That being said, unlike AI monsters, the party is not immune to non-magical weapons (even later on the immunity is neither easy to get nor cheap), so the AI can probably ingore MF anyway.

 

It might even be possible to avoid scripting the effect it if you use .eff files to specifically target bears, wolves, cats etc. with the "create magic item" opcode, since the stronger creatures (bears) are higher level the .eff could have a min level cutoff to create the +1 "bear paw" item or whatever.
That was my first solution, but it actually isn't easier as it might seem. For example if we have two types of bears with different attack stats I would have problems targeting the spell, though checking the HD value might be enough in most circumstances. Anyway, one way or the other, let's be glad such a unique spell can be implemented as it should! :)
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3rd Level Cleric Spells

Clerics are already fine (strange eh? :D ), I only have a couple of suggestions.

 

Bestow Curse

A classic spell (reverse form of Remove Curse within AD&D). My main doubt about it is that I don't know how to make it different from just an Improved Doom. What do you think?

 

Searing Light

As some of you might already know, I'm suggesting this classic 3E spell for a simple reason, I want a good aligned spell to make up for Animate Dead being restricted to evil priests. Note that it would not be limited to be used against undead creatures (though it deals more dmg to them), but it would be a kinda useful fast casting, single target, ray spell which inflicts damage (up to 5d8 within PnP) without allowing a save.

 

3rd Level Druid Spells

Druids instead needs at least 3-4 new spells. Fortunately, we actually have tons of classic and useful spells we might implement.

 

Greater Magic Fang

This is clearly on top of my wish list for this lvl, shortly followed by ASIII. A buff which affects all your summoned animals at once, granting their attacks a higher enchantment lvl (not just +1 to hit/dmg, but actual enchantment lvl!), a must imo.

 

Animal Summoning III

Nuff said.

 

Spike Growth

This is really a classic. A rather unique variant to Entangle, which slows anyone in the area (keeping them slowed even after leaving it) and inflicts moderate damage. I'm not in love with IWD's animation, but unless we think it can have "no animation" I'll have to use it.

 

Icelance

This spell from Player's Guide to Faerun isn't mage only in PnP, though druids get it at 4th lvl there. I'm not sure about it only because I fear it would overlap and outshine Hold Person or Animal (the latter has a small AoE, but Icelance's damage output makes it more appealing imo), but adding a cold based damaging spell would be good imo.

 

Quillfire

This comes from Magic of Faerun's book. I wasn't too much into it (at all actually) because within PnP this is pretty much a Lesser Poison spell. Ardanis suggests to make it the druid version of Melf's Minute Meteors, with poison instead of fire.

Edited by Demivrgvs
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Searing Light

As some of you might already know, I'm suggesting this classic 3E spell for a simple reason, I want a good aligned spell to make up for Animate Dead being restricted to evil priests. Note that it would not be limited to be used against undead creatures (though it deals more dmg to them), but it would be a kinda useful fast casting, single target, ray spell which inflicts damage (up to 5d8 within PnP) without allowing a save.

The more I think of this spell the more I can see it in BG, I'd rather avoid Bestow Curse though, mostly due to it's similarity with Doom.

 

Greater Magic Fang

This is clearly on top of my wish list for this lvl, shortly followed by ASIII. A buff which affects all your summoned animals at once, granting their attacks a higher enchantment lvl (not just +1 to hit/dmg, but actual enchantment lvl!) really is a must imo.

I'd like to see it, though I'd like Spike Growth and Icelance more

 

Spike Growth

This is really a classic. A rather unique variant to Entangle, which slows anyone in the area (keeping them slowed even after leaving it) and inflicts moderate damage. I'm not in love with IWD's animation, but unless we think it can have "no animation" I'll have to use it.

I do think it needs an animation, and the red(?) one from IWD wasn't very good, can't you just change the colour of Entangle and use that?

 

Icelance

This spell from Player's Guide to Faerun isn't mage only in PnP, though druids get it at 4th lvl there. I'm not sure about it only because I fear it would overlap and outshine Hold Person or Animal (the latter has a small AoE, but Icelance's damage output makes it more appealing imo), but adding a cold based damaging spell would be good imo.

Modify the hold ability and violá, the ice damage is needed, and the spell is great.

 

Quillfire

This comes from Magic of Faerun's book. I wasn't too much into it (at all actually) because within PnP this is pretty much a Lesser Poison spell. Ardanis suggests to make it the druid version of Melf's Minote Meteors, with poison instead of fire.

Sounds cool, but I don't recall the spell.
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Icelance

This spell from Player's Guide to Faerun isn't mage only in PnP, though druids get it at 4th lvl there. I'm not sure about it only because I fear it would overlap and outshine Hold Person or Animal (the latter has a small AoE, but Icelance's damage output makes it more appealing imo), but adding a cold based damaging spell would be good imo.

 

If it's single-target, it should be fine.

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