SPELLING BEE
by Frank Mentzer
| Polyhedron | - | 1st Ed. AD&D | - | Polyhedron #22 |
Hope you liked the Tomb (issue #20).
Any
survivors?
It's been a while since I had time to rattle
on about spells, so let's stick to miscellaneous
notes on magic-user spells for now.
These comments are more for DMs than
players, though both can profit.
Take a few minutes and copy the notes from
the DMG (pp 41-47) into your Players'
Handbook. At the very least, footnote each
spell affected. These modifications to spells
are often overlooked, even by good DMs.
Some of the most influential.
Detect Magic: Magic-users, note
the
chance of determining the type of magic: a
hefty 10% per level of the character. This
can be an important clue to guessing what
an unknown but detected magical effect will
do. If you know it's an Evocatoin, avoid it;
it'll probably blow up. Magic items bear
Enchantments; their effects may be otherwise,
but the item is what's detected, not its
capabilities.
Unseen servant: Though the force
has
no shpae, it can hold a reasonable 20
pounds. Try using it as a "pincushion" to
keep daggers, arrows, potions, etc. handy
for fast use. Note, however, that it's a force,
not a creature, and thus cannot be harmed
by magic missile or other spells affecting
creatures only. (With thanks ot Skip Williams,
who plays in my weekly campaign.)
Minor Globe of Invulnerability:
You can
see this effect when it's up. Enemy magic-users
will watch for and recognize it. It
cannot be made invisible.
Cloudkill: The PH says that this
has no
effect on creaetures of over 6 Hit DIce, but
note this amendment (damage 1d10 per
round while within the cloud). This can be
alleviated by an iridescent ioun stone (no air
needed), but not by much else.
Wall of iron: The PH says 15 square
feet
per level of the caster, but note that 30
square feet per level can be obtained by
halving the thickness.
Stone to flesh: Though a cylindrical
block of flesh can be created in solid stone,
the flesh is not a creature (for purposes of
various spell applications) and is not living
matter.
Phase door: Note that this is not
detectable
by detect invisibility or any normal vision.
Other Notes:
Comprehend Languages: Put
this up,
touch a creature, and you can underdstand
it. You can't speak its language. The helm
with this asset works in the same way.
Coping with glyphs. Any decent
level
cleric can cast glyphs of warding all over the
place; it only takes time (but minimal to no
expense as long as the glyph covers less then
50 square feet). These things can be quite a
nuisance, especially in a largish dungeon or
castle where a few hundred of them could
lie waiting around for intruders. (The
inhabitants talk a lot as they walk around,
but that's life in a magic world.)
An erase spell can sometimes work on a
cleric's glyph of warding -- but who carries
an erase spell when there's all those other
wonderful first level spells? With detect
invisibility, glyphs are obvious; the mage
can describe the glyph to a cleric in the
party, who might recognize it and know the
right word. This should always succeed if
the caster of the glyph is of the same alignment
as your cleric and of the same or lesser
level. The DM should decide chances otherwise,
based on similarity of alignment,
difference in levels, etc. And if all that still
doesn't produce success, a dispel magic
could work. At worst put up a polymorph
self and go; if the glyphs casue damage,
that's repaired easily enough by a few
"shifts". (Then again, if they're more
powerful, you're in trouble...it depends on
where you find them).
Enlarge: Can't get through a one-way
door? Out of knock spells? Toss an enlarge
or reduce on the problem. If size is
increased, it'll splinter out, make a lot of
noise, and block a lot of space. If the size is
reduced, it (and probably its hinges) will
make a little noise, fall, and can probably
be caught-- and possibly carried away.
Lightning Bolt: Unless used in
a
remarkably sturdy dungeon, adjudicate
rebounds cearfully. The spell notes specifically
that it "will set fire to combustibles,
sunder wooden doors, splinter up to 1'
thickness of stone and melt metals...(lead,
gold, copper, silver, bronze)."
This is one of the nastiest things you can
throw at a party, even if the damage is
minimal; most items don't save very well
against lightning. Even my high level campaign
characters dread the prospect of
electrical attack, for this very reason.
Unfortunately, only a behir or a storm
giant (or a magic-user or druid) can
produce lightning magically; however, any
creature able to use magic-users spells can
use a wand of lightning.
If you're feeling nasty, use lightning as a
follow-up attack after engaging the party
with a creature immune to it--like an
algoid, boggart, galeb duhr, gelatinous
cube, grell, groaning spirit, mihstu, olive
slime, roper, shocker, umpleby; or use
something else that actually benefits from
lightning, like a black pudding, flesh golen,
iron golem, mustard jelly, ochre jelly, or
shambling mounf. And remember : a
demon, vampire, xaren, or xorn only takes
1/2 damage from lightning.
No nukes: Your high-level mage casts
two 7th level spells--a delayed
blast fireball
followed by a vanish -- and blows up
the
library of his arch-enemy, right? Wrong.
Once cast, the d.b.f. is magic no matter
(although it seems to be a gem-like pebble),
and the vanish (a teleport objet effect)
affects creatures or objcts, not magical
forces.
Paralysis: A character can perform various
things by concentration alone; fly, for
example (while a potion or spell effect is
running). Paralysis incapacitates the voluntary
nervous system, but not the automatic
(otherwise the victim would be asphyxiated).
Presumably, the victim can still think
normally. So couldn't a paralyzed character
concentrate effectively -- gaining all that
implies?
More to come later. What do you want to
see? Communicate!