Wizardry: Frostburn Spells VII

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells VII

Mantle of the Icy Soul by RAW should cost 450 (!!!) character points for each casting!, but I think that 33 is more reasonable. After all, you are imbueing the subject with a 33-point meta-trait, and the spell itself is something of a point tax to be able to do that to others.

Meld into Ice is an ice variant of Meld into Stone. Ice is a category that is four times cheaper, so this spell is very affordable. By default, it also includes snow, so I had to remove this capability with a limitation.

Mindfrost is a weak damaging spell that freezes the mental pathways of the subject.

Move Snow and Ice is an ice variant of Move Earth. Ended up being a point more expensive due to the inclusion of snow.

Numbing Sphere is a cold variant of Flaming Sphere.

Obscuring Snow is a snow variant of Obscuring Mist.

Pass through Ice sounds like a variant spell, but it actually isn't. The swimming part is something unique and interesting.

Raise Ice Forest is interesting. Did you know that there's a formula to calculate a volume of a tree? No I do know that. A 15-foot-tall tree with a 5-foot-diameter trunk at breast height has a volume of 4.155 cubic meters or 146.733 cubic feet. With ice having density of 53 lbs/cubic foot, an ice tree would weigh 7777 lbs.

Shivering Touch is a melee cold spell.

Snow Walk is a simple buff that lets the subject move and fight on snow unpenalized.

Snow Wave may seem very expensive for what it does, but you can layer the created snow! This is a very powerful battlefield control spell.

Snowdrift is a snow variant of Ice Shape.

Snowsight is peculiar. How do you give yourself an ability to see unimpeded through falling snow? Penetrating Vision, even with Specific, even with Accessibility, Only falling snow would be extremely expensive. But think about it logically (*hits pipe*), if darkness is a kind of Vision penalty that is completely ignored by Dark Vision, why not create a variant advantage that ignores all Vision penalties for falling snow? I think that is sensible.

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells VI

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells VI

Oh, dear, we've reached the letter "I", and that means that we're going to have a bunch of ice spells.

Heartfreeze encases the heart of the target in a block of ice. This deals cold damage and has a chance to stun on cause a heart attack.

Heat Leech is a cyclic freezing attack spell.

Hibernate forces the subject into a deathlike trance. Could be useful when cast both on enemies and allies.

Ice Castle conjures up an entire castle made of ice. Instead of doing it via Create or Snatcher, I decided to go a roundabout way and do it via Jumper.

Ice Darts is a rapid fire ice attack spell.

Ice Rift is an icy variant of Earthquake.

Ice Shape is an icy variant of Stone Shape.

Ice Shield is a very limited variant of Stoneskin.

Ice Ship conjures a vessel made of ice.

Ice Skating lets the subject ignore combat penalties on ice and improves top speed.

Ice Slick lets you do one of Sub-Zero's special moves.

Ice to Flesh is an icy variant of Stone to Flesh.

Ice Web is similar to Web, but also deals frostburn damage.

Icicles is a triggered trap spell that isn't actually a variant of an existing spell, surprisingly.

Ivory Flesh turns the subject's flesh white for camouflage purposes.

Leomund's Tiny Igloo lost its furnishing and became a specialized form of bulk snow creation. To calculate the requires Create level, I had to calculate the volume of the walls in Unigraphics NX.

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells V

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells V

I think that when I'm done with this book, the Ice college will be the largest one.

Frost Weapon is a simple weapon buff that adds cold damage.

Frostbite is a Malediction spell that deals fatigue damage.

Frostburn (the spell) deals frostburn (type) damage that was introduced in Frostburn (the book) and not mentioned anywhere else. In D&D, it reqruies a caster level check to heal magically, doesn't heal naturally in temperatures below freezing, and it cures cold creatures. Here, I made it so it cannot be healed at all unless the victim is brought into a warm area.

Mass Frostburn is an area version of Frostburn.

Frostfell is a very high level spell in its original form, but here I decided to turn it into a limited version of Cool that has a fixed temperature shift, no range, and a very long duration with a possibility of making it permanent. It also is affordable!

Gelid Blood imposes the normal side effects of cold damage without actually damaging the victim. Kind of sucks, doesn't it? But I guess it could be situationally useful, as it is less expensive than, for example, Frostbite.

Glacial Globe of Invulnerability is a fire-specific version of Globe of Invulnerability.

Glacial Ward makes the subject very resistant to fire spells that directly affect it. There actually aren't many of spells that this spells would be useful against, at least for now.

Glacier is a limited form of Column of Ice.

Glaze Lock jams a locking mechanism with ice, making it harder to pick.

BrOSR and GURPS

BrOSR and GURPS

A few months ago, TheRyujinLP introduced me to the Joy of Wargaming YouTube channel, something for which I'm thankful. Aside from providing interesting battle reports, solo RPG playthroughs, and other RPG and wargaming-related videos, this channel introduced me to the concept of BrOSR (a portmanteau of OSR and Braunstein), something I wasn't aware of before. I watched some videos (both from the proponents and detractors) and read some blogposts. The most material can be found on Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog, but it was surprisingly difficult to find posts that clearly explain what BrOSR is. However, he who seeks will find, so I'll link you two posts that explain the concept very well:

1. BROSR Principles: A Primer (the blog of the Joy of Wargaming host, be sure to check this one out, it has a lot of good stuff).

2. How to Play D&D Like A Wargame (this post really could use some editing, but that's rich coming from me out of all people).

All this for the most part assumes AD&D or similar games, but the principles themselves are universally applicable. I found the concept of BrOSR fascinating, but since AD&D and GURPS are so different, it made me think - what principles can and cannot be applied in GURPS? So, here's a rambly post that'll probably bring me some heat.

Preface: I've never played AD&D, and I'm merely dipping my toes into the subject - there's a chance that I do not understand some of the concepts properly.

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells IV

Wizardry: Frostburn Spells IV

Detect Fire is a divine-only spell in Frostburn, but I decided to arcanize it. After all, we have a useful Fire spell that isn't related to blasting stuff, which is very nice.

Dispel Cold and Dispel Fire work very differently in the original source. Here, I decided to turn them into limited versions of Dispel Magic. Now, instead of a very expensive spell of dubious utility, you have a much more affordable spell of much less dubious utility. Also, the Fire college yet again gains a non-blasting spell!

Ease of Breath is a very situational but cheap buff that lets you breathe in a thin atmosphere.

Entomb traps its victim in a block of ice.

Flash-Freeze transmutes water into ice and earth into perma- sorry, I mean everfrost. What the hell is everfrost? Google only mentions this book and a League of Legends item.

Flesh to Ice is merely a variant of Flesh to Stone.

Float is a non-reflexive version of Wave Blessing from Stormwrack.

Divine Favor, Pulling Rank, Agency, and Investment

Divine Favor, Pulling Rank, Agency, and Investment

GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is something like proto-sorcery. Despite the "proto" part, it feels more like a magic system than a raw framework. The gist is basically the same - you have a "base" advantage, and your learned spells/prayers are taken as alternative abilities. The difference is not only in the flavor, the way spells/prayers are constructed, but most importantly in that base advantage.

Making Sense of the Great Wheel Cosmology

Making Sense of the Great Wheel Cosmology

I always loved the D&D Great Wheel cosmology, even though nowadays it makes “players” go “aaaaah, I have to keep more than two things in mind, my brain can’t handle it, help me, this is too complex!” I think what D&D 4e did with it was a criminal offense. The Great Wheel has a rich history, both in-universe and in a meta sense, because things changed a lot between editions, even if you pretend that 4e never existed. Karilan, my homebrew setting, uses the Great Wheel cosmology as well, but with all the aforementioned changes and inconsistencies, this doesn’t say much. In GURPS, the cosmological structure actually sometimes matters, as certain spells and abilities take penalties based on a “planar distance.” Thus, a post is required that will set everything in stone and fill the gaps with headcanon.