An Even Perfecter Spell System
Earlier this month, Nathan posted what he called a Perfect Spell System, so I went
and decided to make my own.
Now what I was going for here are "spell as techniques". There's only 20 of them and the idea is that they have no breaks, ideally you should be able to cast them as often as you'd like. That said, I banged them all out in a short period of time and none of this is tested, so I'd love feedback on it, if you even care about me as a person. Tonally, we're going for some very high magic here.
Another caveat is that I keep mentioning a "ritual-casting" system which you won't find here. I haven't made it up yet but I'll almost certainly steal something from The Nightmares Underneath, it just means "if you cast it slowly, over like a week and with a bunch of apprentices helping you, it amplifies the power of the technique".
So this is what we got.
The Actual Spell List
Astral Projection - The caster separates their soul from their body and travels freely. The physical world may not otherwise be tampered with. If the caster’s body is destroyed their soul is bound to the world until exorcised.
Cast on the fly, the caster must traverse distances as if walking normally (though they don't get tired or need to sleep; their body, however, is subject to the ravages of time). Cast ritually, the caster may throw their heart wherever them or one of their assistants in the ritual has been before.
Clone - You may divide your HD between different clones who poof into existence. Any knowledge gained by the clone is transferred to the original body upon the clone's disappearance, which can happen at any moment. Regular equipment is similarly cloned for the duration of the technique, but unique items aren't.
Elemental control - This spell allows you to command or create a specific element, picked at the time of learning the spell. You may issue a one-word command each round.
If used to raise a wall of the element, it is 6 m high and 3 m long per HD of the user, or vice versa.
If made of stone, water, and things like that, it is half a meter thick.
If made of iron, it is 10 cm thick.
Conjure object - You conjure an inanimate object that you've seen or touched before. On the fly, the object must only be big enough to conceivably fit inside a backpack or your torso, though you may spend HP (1d6 per torso-worth) to conjure up something bigger.
If conjuring food, you can feed 4 people per torso's worth.
How the item shows up is up to you. You may conveniently find it under a blanket you laid, snap your fingers and have it appear, or pull it all out of your hat.
If cast ritually, the limitation on size is non-existent, thus castles can be erected this way.
Contract - You may celebrate a contract with someone at any terms, so long as conceivably possible given the present capabilities of both parties, including the death of those who breach it, or spells being automatically cast (such as someone being turned to a guinea pig on breaking their contract).
Curse1 - Characters with this technique may wish some evil upon others. Curses have Potency. Base Potency is equal to their HD, plus:
​+3 if it’s considered harmful by a whole community instead of only by the caster.
​+5 if it’s nearly universally considered heinous in most circumstances.
​+1 for each person affected directly by the offender’s deed (max +3)
​+2 for each thematically relevant task the caster might go through for casting the curse, such as getting a sympathetic fetish from the target’s hair, blood sacrifice, traveling to a specific place etc. Curses will be, most likely, spur-of-the-moment.
+2 if the curse is deemed suitably ironic considering the offense.
Reduce Potency by:
-1 if the offense was accidental.
-1 if the offender is properly warded against it.
-1 if the offender desires to be cursed for whatever reason, or if the curse targets someone related to the offender.
-2 if no foul action was taken against the caster, or if the effort the caster is putting into the curse seems disproportionate to the offense.
Determine Effect and Duration:
Effect: it’s an inconvenience injury (-1); it’s a deeply stigmatizing condition/debilitating illness (-2) (when in doubt, assume this Effect); it makes social interaction or living within the world nearly impossible, potentially ruining a life (-3)
Duration:Â a week (-1); a month (-2); a year (-3); as long as hatred exists (-4)
Roll a number of d6s equal to remaining Potency (min. 2) and take the two highest. Check the result:
​6-: the curse backfires.
7-9: the curse is cast but the caster can’t fully control it, potentially affecting others, being more severe than intended, or also partially affecting yourself.
10-11:Â the curse works as intended.
12:Â the curse works, but its power goes above and beyond as the caster gets lost on their hatred. Roll a mishap.
Glamour - This spell creates a visible illusion that behaves how you dictate for as long as you concentrate. It may be as large as a house and stationary, or it may be roughly human-sized and moving, such as an afterimage of yourself. If used to change terrain, the size balloons up to the entire feature. Either way, the images disappear once touched.
If not actively concentrating, the spell lasts for 1d6 hours or turns, depending on the size and complexity of the thing. If it's something relatively simple, like hiding a tree, it remains until dispelled.
Exact replicas have a 2-in-6 chance of being detected at a glance, and will always be found out under scrutiny.
Anyone who knows this spell may also turn invisible so long as they concentrate. This also disguises the sound of their steps.
Healing - This spell, at a touch, removes pain and cures one wound the target received, or purifies them of poison.
If cast ritually, this spell has no limits. Diseases are cured, limbs grow back, madness is purged. This isn't a restoration to a status quo ante, thus this will even cure blindness from someone born without eyes, or make walk someone born with no legs. They will have to learn how to use these new capabilities on their own, however.
Hypnosis - So long as the hypnotist has a moving point of focus, such as an open flame, flashing light, or running water, he may either put all those looking at it to sleep, or suggest a strong emotion - such as loyalty and friendliness to the hypnotist, hatred towards his enemies, calm and peace etc.
If affecting many people, this affects a number of creatures of lower HD, so long as they themselves have up to the hypnotist's own HD.
To affect a target of more HD than himself, the hypnotist must only target them and maintain eye contact, but they get a Save. If the hypnotist has been talking to them in a calm and controlled environment, priming them for the hypnosis with questions, their Save is made at -4.
If cast ritually, this spell may affect an entire community of people, depending on how many people the user is using to amplify the spell, but theoretically up to an entire city can be affected.
Ki Blast - The user spends 1d6 HP to deal an extra 1d6 in damage in the form of a concentrated ball or blade of energy that needs to hit the target. It can be used at a distance at the cost of an additional 1d6 HP. Wounds gained from these damage reductions involve getting tired and sluggish due to such a crude use of one's vital essence.
The size of the die can be swapped too, but it needs to be swapped for both. Thus a fighter who chooses to deal an additional 1d20 damage will also subtract 1d20 of his own HP.
Lawspeak - If this technique is executed by someone bearing a royal writ, they may compel someone to obey any order so long as it does not contradict the laws of the land or cause the person to incriminate themselves - both in effect and intention. To resist, both roll off their HD and ATK against one another in d6s, highest number wins.
All who know this technique may also use it to reveals the customs of the land and credibly establishes the character as either an authority figure (if conceivable) or the spokesman for a trusted outsider.
Necromancy - You can animate or destroy 2d6 HD worth of corpses as servants, limited by the amount of actual corpses and skeletons buried in the location.
If cast ritually, this spell may be used to erect troops and armies. It can also be used to trap a soul inside a ritually prepared container.
Psychic - Touch someone and open up their mind completely: sift through their memories, feelings, nostalgias, etc.
You may also possess or swap your conscience with them, roll all your HD versus theirs. If possessing, your body stays behind as if sleeping, and their consciousness is still able to talk to you and experience what their body is doing. If attempting a long term possession, your victim gets one roll a week. If they fail for 3 consecutive weeks, it becomes 1 a month; then 1 a season, then 1 a year. After failing for 3 consecutive years, the possession becomes permanent and the other mind is subsumed by the possessor.
This can be done at a distance so long as you can see their face clearly and distinguish features on it, but it costs you 1d6 of HP per HD that the target has.
Red Fist - A last resort technique. For the duration of the technique, every hit deals maximum damage, you may attack as many opponents as your Attack bonus, and you move fast independently of armour.
You can't turn it off until the end of the fight. At the end of the fight you collapse for 1d4 weeks and roll X in 6, where X is the amount of rounds the powerup was activated. If that happens, you get a permanent injury, roll on the table.
Death.
You're a hair's breadth away from dying. Your legs don't work anymore, but they can be healed by powerful magic.
You're seriously injured. Convert your time downed to months.
You're knocked out for 4 total weeks. If you already had rolled 4 on the die, no additional malus is gained.
Different traditions have different ways to discount this first round, like burning most of your body fat, or changing in the table from "you die" to "you turn to a giant stone toad and your friends need to take you back to the Land of the Toads to be brought back"
Shadows - You can lay flat on any shadow, as well as travel to other shadows you can see. You can also snuff out all of the lights in a room; or a corridor, if you're on the move.
Anyone who possesses this technique can see in the dark.
Cast ritually, this spell allows you to detach your shadow from yourself and have it act independently, though it cannot affect the physical world. While shadowless, people instinctively mistrust you; get disadvantage on all Reaction rolls. If your lack of shadow becomes apparent and obvious you may be treated as a pariah, unless they're motivated enough.
Telekinesis - You can animate, float, hold, and move objects and people with your will. If against their will, roll all of your HD and ATK bonus as d6s against theirs; if they win, they cannot ever be manipulated. This must be tested every time, as it becomes easier to resist the spell with repeat uses.
This spell may also be used to open up any locks. If magically sealed, the wizard tests just his HD in d6s against the spellcaster.
As a side effect, this spell can be used to achieve perfect cleanliness and tidiness.
Tongue - A very versatile spell to do with language, voice, and communication. It allows for you to stealing someone's voice and using as your own, having your voice come out of strange places, and making someone's speech come out as garbled or make them make a fool of themselves. For all negative effects, they get a Save and, if they win, you may never prevail in this field again.
This spell can also be used to manipulate written text, changing its meaning, protecting it against magical interference, or writing invisibly. If cast ritually, it can be used to strike someone from all recorded annals of history and have them be forgotten by all.
Transformation - You can change the properties of something into something else, such as turning a man into an animal or statue, freezing a liquid, making someone larger or smaller, turning lead to gold, change someone's sex, growing new limbs, etc. It cannot change someone's actual age, though it can change their appearance to be older.
If affecting a single target of less HD than the alchemist, they can't resist. If higher, they get a Save. If they succeed, the caster may never affect them with this technique without their consent.
Guidelines size-changing are as such: little birds and vermin are tiny; children and dogs are small; adult people are medium; horses and tigers are large; elephants and whales are huge. Creatures may wound anything within 1 step of them regularly, or 2 steps with difficulty.
Ward - An elementary technique which creates a ward that notices when someone passes through it, an alarm, an alert to the caster that someone is messing with it, a lock with the caster's face which they can transport their mind to in need, and other such protective measures.
Weather control - Allows you to choose the weather that occur in your immediate surroundings, but it will eventually return - and may return even stronger. To cause a permanent and far-ranging change, this technique must be executed ritually and by many people.
Other things in me head
Summoning - Not exactly a technique, more like a contract made with certain living beings to allow you to pull them in exchange for something - or once you've proven yourself worthy. Since it summons individuals, the particulars are up to the contract.
SENSORIAL SPELLS like seeing in the dark or listening vast distances are also better as magic items or learned blessings.
FINDING AND COMMUNICATION SPELLS are better as instructions in books or specific rituals.
GROSS LOCOMOTION SPELLS like flight, climbing, cloud walking, walking on water, etc, are better as perennially active magic items
PROTECTION SPELLS like animal repellent, ward against fire etc, are better represented by talismans and such.
ESP SPELLS are better as magic items, like crystal balls.
POCKET DIMENSIONS and spaces that are bigger on the inside are better as items too, maybe a minor spell that can be taught for it.
ENHANCEMENT SPELLS like becoming more charismatic and shit are better as magic items or simply learning it, like potions of tirelessness and strength.
This is all.