4 YEARS

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Back to the Ol' Magic Word Rodeo

I've been thinking some more about magic words.

Over at d4 Caltrops there are a couple of lists of words - one from standard spell lists and one list of "weird" words.  Adding the weird word list is a really nice touch.  I like how one word like "Fungal" can tilt a Magic-Users spellbook in a whole new direction.

LS's idea to incorporate these magic word combinations by allowing a M-U PC to propose one new spell at the end of each session is pretty much perfect as is.  At character generation you can choose or roll up spells however you normally would so as to not slow down the char-gen process. The DM can then use the magic words from the d4 Caltrop lists as treasure to add to a wizards repertoire after the game is kicked off.

The level One spells listed as magic words could look like this:

1	Charm	Person
2	Detect	Magic
3	Floating	Force
4	Hold	Portal
5	Magic	Light
6	Magic	Missile
7	Protect (ion from)	Evil
8	Read	Language
9	Read	Magic
10	Person (al)	Force
11	Magic	Sleep
12	Unseen	Voice

I took Parker's suggestion to make "Ventriloquism" "Unseen Voice" instead, and changed "Disc" to the more generic "Force". The Shield spell is now "Personal Force" (I like this because it draws a connection between those two spells which really seem like the same spell just cast vertically or horizontally and also kinda explains why they are two different spells)

If you did want to give beginning M-U characters the option to use Magic Words in a more free form style but still be limited to the first level spell list you could do it like this:

1	Charm
2	Detect
3	Floating
4	Hold
5	Magic
6	Force
7	Protect (from)
8	Read
9	Portal
10	Person
11	Light
12	Unseen
13	Missile
14	Evil
15	Language
16	Sleep
17	Voice
18	Phantasm
19	Fire
20	Ride

The Moldvay Basic level one spell list has 17 words in it.  I added the last three words based on what I thought looked good from the AD&D and 3e spell lists.  "Ride Phantasm" is what I've renamed the Mount spell. I never really liked the Mount spell, but Ride Phantasm sounds awesome: 

Alternately you could break the words down by the part of speech:

VERB
1	Charm
2	Detect
3	Hold
4	Protection from
5	Read
6	Ride

ADJECTIVE
1	Floating
2	Magic
3	Unseen
4	Phantasmal

NOUN
1	Magic
2	Force
3	Portal
4	Person
5	Light
6	Missile
7	Evil
8	Language
9	Sleep
10	Voice
11	Phantasm
12	Fire

Are magic words hiding in your crappy spell lists?

"Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically"
-Sol Lewitt

LS had a cool idea. I liked it enough that I took the spell list for first level Magic-Users from Moldvay and started rearranging. Then today he said magic words are hiding in the dictionary. Of course they are!

But back to Moldvay:

These are color coded:

green = The ones that I think are the most promising, or in other words, that I could actually think of a spell for.

grey = In the book!

Are there great spells in here that I'm missing?

charm	person	In the book!
charm	magic	Counterspell – cast as a quick reaction against an attack spell.  Time slows for the Caster and the spell only. The Caster has 5 seconds to convince the spell to do what he wants, then the DM makes a reaction roll to see what it does.
charm	disc
charm	portal	A door that this spell is cast on will open,shut,lock, or unlock anytime in the future in the presence of the caster or one other person. Permanent.
charm	light
charm	missile
charm	evil
charm	languages	I want this to do something cool but I’m not sure what yet.
charm	shield
charm	sleep	When cast on a person as they go to sleep they will sleep incredibly soundly and either: not wake up until forcibly shaken no matter how long they lay there, or in the morning they’ll gain 1d6 HP.
charm	ventriloquism
detect	person	Caster knows the direction of the target for the duration of the spell.  Must have a personal item of the target.
detect	magic	In the book!
detect	disc	Those wily discs can be hard to find. Maybe this could be used to find coins?
detect	portal	Find secret doors.
detect	light	If cast while lost in a cave this spell will whisper the direction of the above ground world until the caster finds it.
detect	missile	Caster cannot be surprised attacked with missile weapons. Is dispelled after the first time anyone does try to ambush them.
detect	evil	Caster knows who the bad guys are.
detect	languages
detect	shield
detect	sleep
detect	ventriloquism
floating	person	Kind of a lame levitate spell?
floating	magic	This spell needs a random table to see what it does.
floating	disc	In the book!
floating	portal	This is where the floating magic comes from.
floating	light
floating	missile	The summoned “missile” hovers at the Magic-User’s shoulder and will strike back at any creature that attacks and hits the magic-user with an equivalent attack. (both roll and damage)
floating	evil	Summons a bad feeling that hangs in the air. A dark cloud. Demon whispers. 120’ range. 30’ diameter area of effect. Everyone effected must make a reaction roll -1 and will be at best grouchy and at worst argumentative or outright physically combative.
floating	languages
floating	shield
floating	sleep
floating	ventriloquism	Like regular ventriloquism, but better because it can move around?
hold	person	In a book, but not the one I used to make this list.
hold	magic	Counterspell - cast as a quick reaction against an attack spell. Both casters are locked in concentration. Neither the attacker nor the caster can move or take any other action until the attacker concedes and cancels the original spell.  Each round both casters can attempt to throw another spell by successfully saving vs. magic - the opponents level.
hold	disc
hold	portal	In the book!
hold	light
hold	missile	Freeze an arrow, spear, etc. in mid-air.
hold	evil
hold	languages
hold	shield
hold	sleep	Target of the spell does not require sleep for a number of days equal to the Caster’s current Hit Points.
hold	ventriloquism
magic	person	Target of spell can punch or otherwise physically interact with creatures that can only be hit by magic weapons, incorporeal creatures, etc.
magic	magic	Yes.
magic	disc
magic	portal
magic	light
magic	missile	In the book!
magic	evil
magic	languages
magic	shield	Ensorcels a mundane shield. +1 per caster level for 1 turn or +1 for number of turns equal to caster level. It’s a tough call for the Level 1 Magic-User.
magic	sleep
magic	ventriloquism
protection from	person	Creates a magic barrier that prevents any one person from touching or attacking the Caster.
protection from	magic	Sounds handy.
protection from	disc
protection from	portal
protection from	light	The target of this spell may Hide in Shadows as a 9th level Thief (4/6 chance of success) until the next sunset or sunrise.
protection from	missile
protection from	evil	In the book!
protection from	languages	Renders any one intelligent creature dumb as an animal. Make a reaction roll to see if they are helpful, peaceful, skittish, defensive, or aggressive.
protection from	shield
protection from	sleep
protection from	ventriloquism	This spell shouldn’t be allowed because it will encourage power gaming.
read	person
read	disc
read	portal	This spell will provide the Caster with a detailed description of what is on the other side of a magic portal.
read	light
read	missile
read	evil
read	languages	In the book!
read	magic	In the book!
read	shield
read	sleep	Allows you to see what someone is dreaming?
read	ventriloquism

"Ventriloquism" and "Disc" are reeeeally hard to combine with other words to make cool spells. No disrespect to Floating Disc at all, I love that spell, but I just can't fathom how or why you would charm, detect, read or really do any thing to or with a disc.

"Charm", "Magic", "Person", "Protection from", those are way easy to combine with other words and come up with good spells.

This was a fun experiment and in my mind worth it for the counterspells Charm Magic and Hold Magic alone. I would not have thought of those with out this kind of process.