Sunday 9 May 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells X

Sorcery: Assorted Spells X

In this post, I convert several D&D spells. Shadow Walk is a quite difficult statistics-wise spell that moves you across large distances and lets you cross planar boundaries. Fetch is a summoning spell that leaves the summoned creature free of the summoner's control instead of sending it back to where it came from. Light Step and Personal Light Step are limited variants of Walk on Air. Teleport Cage is a permanent spell that redirects teleportation spells to another random point within its area.

    Fetch
    Keywords: None.
    Full Cost: 37 points.
    Casting Roll: Will. Special casting time, see below.
    Range: Special, see below.
    Duration: Instantaneous.

    Each time you cast this, you summon an outsider (worth 75% or less of your point value) from a particular plane of existence (chosen when you pick this spell). The GM will create this being, but you can request one that meets broad criteria. You cannot summon a specific being. A penalty applies based on the planar “distance”: There is no distance penalty for creatures that are currently on the same plane of existence. Adjacent dimensions impose -5, increasing by -5 for every intervening dimension. The Prime Material Plane is considered adjacent to the Astral Plane, and the Astral Plane is adjacent to the Outer Planes, where most of the outsiders come from. Thus, preparations that mitigate the penalty usually are required.
    The summoning itself requires 10 minutes of preparation and ritual. At the end of the casting, you must pay 1 FP and make the casting roll. If the roll is successful, you must also pay a certain number of Summoning Points to force the outsider to appear. This summoned entity then becomes a free-willed, permanent resident of the summoner’s world, not his Ally, but on a Good or better reaction, it will grant its summoner a minor favor or service before departing.
    You get a pool of 5 Summoning Points that recover at a rate of one point per week of game time. Consult the following table to determine how many Summoning Points you must spend. “Point Total” is the summoned being’s point total expressed as a percentage of your starting points; “Cost” is the number of Summoning Points required. If the summoned being’s point total falls between two percentages, use the higher.

Point Total

Cost

25%

2 points

50%

4 points

75%

5 points

100%

8 points

150%

16 points

    Two other versions of this spell summon beings of different potency. Lesser Fetch has a full cost of 14 points, calls forth an outsider worth up to 25% of your point value, has a casting time of one minute, and gives you a pool of only 2 Summoning Points. Greater Fetch has a full cost of 110 points, calls an outsider worth up to 150% of your point value, requires one hour to cast, and provides a pool of 16 Summoning Points.
    Statistics: Ally (A type of outsiders; Built on 75%; Constantly; Adjustable, +50%; Conjured, +100%; Immediate Preparation Required, 10 minutes, -45%; Requires Will Roll, -5%; Magical, -10%; Nuisance Effect, Can only be used with Impulse Points, -15%; Special Abilities, +50%) [27] + Impulse Points 5 (Game Time, +0%; Triply Aspected, Changing the world, Allies, -60%) [10]. Lesser Fetch has Ally, built on 25%, Immediate Preparation Required decreased to 1 minute, -30%, and has 2 levels of Impulse Points. Greater Fetch is built on 150%, increases Immediate Preparation Required to 1 hour, -75%, and has 16 levels of Impulse Points. Note: As a special effect, this spell breaks sorcery rules by allowing free maintenance, but this is offset by imposing a FP cost to cast and dimensional “range” penalties.

Light Step
Keywords: Buff.
Full Cost: 25 points.
Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 100 yards.
Duration: Three minutes.
 
    Air, smoke, and other gases are like solid ground beneath subject’s feet, allowing it to walk up and down “invisible stairs” at its ground Move, but no higher than 5 feet from the ground. This won’t work in a vacuum – there has to be some kind of air present. If the subject gets knocked down or slips, it falls!
    Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Light Step, +130%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [25]. Note: “Light Step” is Walk on Air (Magical, -10%; Maximum Height, 5 feet, -25%) [13].
  
Personal Light Step
Keywords: None.
Full Cost: 12 points.
Casting Roll: None.
Range: Self.
Duration: Indefinite.
 
    Air, smoke, and other gases are like solid ground beneath your feet, allowing you to walk up and down “invisible stairs” at your ground Move, but no higher than 5 feet from the ground. This won’t work in a vacuum – there has to be some kind of air present. If you get knocked down or slip, you fall!
    Statistics: Walk on Air (Maximum Height, 5 feet, -25%; Sorcery, -15%) [12].
 
Shadow Walk
Keywords: None.
Full Cost: 85 points.
Casting Roll: IQ, additional IQ to cross the Plane of Shadow; Special casting time and FP cost.
Range: Self.
Duration: Instantaneous. Travel takes time.
 
    To use the Shadow Walk spell, you must be in an area of shadowy illumination. You and anything you carry (including other creatures) are then transported along a coiling path of shadowstuff to the edge of the Material Plane where it borders the Plane of Shadow. The effect is largely illusory, but the path is quasi-real.
    As a Concentrate maneuver make an IQ + Talent roll to cast this spell, modified for distance and preparation time as per Warp (p. B97). Apply a bonus of +1 per additional 2 FP spent. You must declare this before you roll, and you lose the FP whether you succeed or fail. You never have to spend FP, but it is usually a good idea if you must travel far or without much preparation.
    On a success, you are shunted into the quasi-real space between the Material Plane and the Plane of Shadow. In the region of shadow, you move at a rate of 50 miles per hour, moving normally on the borders of the Plane of Shadow but much more rapidly relative to the Material Plane. Thus, you can use this spell to travel rapidly by stepping onto the Plane of Shadow, moving the desired distance, and then stepping back onto the Material Plane. Because of the blurring of reality between the Plane of Shadow and the Material Plane, you can't make out details of the terrain or areas you pass over during transit, nor can you predict perfectly where your travel will end. It's impossible to judge distances accurately, making the spell virtually useless for scouting or spying. Furthermore, when the spell effect ends, you are shunted to a random location somewhere in a circle with a radius equal to 1% of the distance you traveled (minimum one yard); e.g., if you traveled 10 miles on the Material Plane, you’d materialize somewhere in a 0.1-mile circle around your target. The better your casting roll, the closer you’ll be to your target, but it’s up to the GM exactly where you appear. On a critical failure, you’re likely to appear high in the air or underground.
    On a failure, you go nowhere and strain your ability to cast this spell: you are at -5 to cast this spell again in the next 10 minutes. On a critical failure, you arrive at the wrong destination. This can be anywhere the GM wishes! It need not be dangerous, but it should seriously inconvenience you. In addition, your spell temporarily “burns out” and will not function again for 1d hours.
Shadow Walk can also be used to travel to other planes that border on the Plane of Shadow, but this usage requires the transit of the Plane of Shadow to arrive at a border with another plane of reality. The transit of the Plane of Shadow requires 1d/2 hours. This requires an additional casting roll as per Jumper (p. B64), but does not cost extra FP. It is possible for one casting roll to succeed while the other fails, or for both to fail.
    Statistics: Jumper (Accessibility, Only in areas of shadowy illumination, -20%; Accessibility, Only on planes adjacent to the Plane of Shadow, -5%; Cannot Escort, -10%; Cannot Follow, -20%; Limited Access, Planes adjacent to the Plane of Shadow, -10%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Extra-Heavy, +50%; Magical, -10%; Nuisance Effect, Delay, -40%; Reduced Fatigue Cost 1, +20%; Warp Jump, +10%) [65] + Warp (Accessibility, Only on planes adjacent to the Plane of Shadow, -5%; Accessibility, Only to a place you could have traveled to normally given time, -20%; Accessibility, Only in areas of shadowy illumination, -20%; Blind Only, -50%; Drift, -15%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Extra-Heavy, +50%; Limited Speed, -50%; Reliable 5, +25%; Requires Concentrate, -15%; Sorcery, -15%; Warp Jump, +10%) [20].
  
Teleport Cage
Keywords: Area (Special).
Full Cost: 45 points for level 1 + 20 points/additional level.
Casting Roll: IQ.
Range: 100 yards.
Duration: Permanent.
 
This spell modifies the functioning of all teleportation spells and spell-like abilities into, out of, and within its area (each casting covers an area of its spell level yards in radius). If cast in an area adjoining or overlapping another teleport cage, the effects of both spells merge to create a single teleport cage. When cast within a teleport cage, such translocation spells simply transport all affected creatures and objects to another random location within the teleport cage.
    Statistics: Control Teleportation Magic 1 (Accessibility, Only to redirect, -60%; Extended Duration, Permanent, +150%; Nuisance Effect, Cannot exempt people from effects, -5%; Persistent, +40%; Ranged, +40%; Sorcery, -15%) [25] + Control Teleportation Magic +1 (Accessibility, Only to redirect, -60%; Does not increase area of effect, -50%; Extended Duration, Permanent, +150%; Nuisance Effect, Cannot exempt people from effects, -5%; Persistent, +40%; Ranged, +40%; Sorcery, -15%) [20]. Additional levels add Control Teleportation Magic +1 (Accessibility, Only to redirect, -60%; Extended Duration, Permanent, +150%; Nuisance Effect, Cannot exempt people from effects, -5%; Only increases area of effect, -50%; Persistent, +40%; Ranged, +40%; Sorcery, -15%) [20/level]. Notes: Redirecting is treated as an effect that requires two levels of Control, as if using Neutralize with Derange. As this is one advantage (Control Teleportation Magic) with the Sorcery limitation, not two, it costs only 1 FP to use.
 


2 comments:

  1. Very cool, Enraged Eggplant.

    Teleport Cage: I really like it.
    Light Step: Useful stuff.
    Shadow Walk: Nearly perfect. One question - how would I need to tweak Shadow Walk such that the caster can choose to exit in the Plane of Shadow instead if they want? (I don't recall if it allows for that in the 3e writeup, but it gets used that way a few times in the novels).
    Fetch: While an interesting spell, I notice it's more of a variation on Planar Binding (as your Planar Summons spell is, which, I suppose, makes some sense as it's a Conjuration (Calling) spell - rules out using it mid-combat, but he's using it to stock dungeons rather than use them in combat, so the long cast time isn't a huge deal.

    Though, going through your spells, I'm seeing a lot of limited duration variants on 'Planar Binding' but not seeing any equivalent to "Summon Monster" (IE: you can cast it in combat; it creates semi-real generic creatures based on a 'cosmic archetype' rather than bringing a real creature to you; the semi-real creature has no specific knowledge because they're not actually real and does your bidding unquestioningly; higher level summonings can create multiple weaker creatures).

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    Replies
    1. Thanks!
      The 3e writeup seems to imply that you cannot exit on the Plane of Shadow itself, but I think you can just say that you can without altering the writeup - it's just an insignificant alteration to the Limited Access limitation.
      As for a combat Summon Monster spell - I'll include one in the next batch of requested spells.

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