kingtycoon | Entries tagged with spellbook

Dimension Door

Dimension Door
Magic-User Level 4
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: 10’
This is a minor version of the Teleport spell, allowing the caster to instantly transfer the
Subject from its current location to any other
known spot within 360’. The being always
arrives at exactly the spot desired by the caster Unwilling subjects are granted a saving throw.
An unknown or unseen place may be specified. For example, 100’ south and 20’ high, but if the destination is already occupied by a solid body, the spell fails.

Prismatic Spray

Prismatic Spray
Magic-User Level 7
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: 70’
This spell causes seven shimmering, inter- twined, multicolored beams of light to spray from the caster’s hand. The beams are inter- twined in a “fan” of light that is 70’ long, 5’ wide at the origin and 15’ wide at the terminal end.
Each beam has a diﬀerent power.
Creatures in the area of the spell with 8 Hit Dice or less are automatically blinded for 2d4 turns. Every creature in the area is randomly struck by one or more beams, which have additional eﬀects that are identical to the same color of the globes produced by the Magic-User spell Prismatic Sphere
Roll Color Effect
1 Red Deals 10 points damage
2 Orange Deals 15 points damage
3 Yellow Deals 40 points damage
4 Green Poison
5 Blue Turns to stone
6 Indigo Causes Insanity
7 Violet Creatures Sent to Another Dimension
8 Two Colors Roll Twice, ignoring this result

One thing about these rules that govern what spells you know and can cast is that your intelligence limits your highest level casting. 7th level spells require a 17 Intelligence - out of a possible 18. I personally presume that I'm at about a 16 on a good day, though others have suggested I'm smarter than that. Now, I've generated my list up to 9th level, meaning that I'd be up to an unnaturally high intelligence score, and that's something that I think would be... Attainable - through uncanny effort.

As it is, I'm telling a tale on myself - because my system for generating these lists put a 4th level spell in my 7th level slot- Dimension Door. Not that it isn't a pretty great spell. Portals, vanishing, teleportaion! aggressive teleportation - "I send you to a place in the sky!" That's mean right there, that's terror. Plus I can, what, Nightcrawler around, go where I want, be anywhere. Rob all the vaults, sneak into all the movies! Of course teleporting has all kinds of existential questions associated with it and those would be fun and instructive to parse out, experimentally. Do I lose my scars when I go through the door?

Besides that I've got Prismatic Spray. I haven't had a real fuck you spell since 1st level and Magic Missile. Sure I can do all kinds of weird gross things already - I can sicken people and make them love me, I can even talk to your houseplants- or teleport you to the middle of the sky. But Prismatic Spray - even when it goes easy on you, when I get you with just that one perfect shade of red - it stings. Now, let's say I hit you with the green color - and remember, that I'm attacking you with upsetting colors - how nuts is that? - but if you get zapped with the green one, you're poisoned, to death - and if I zap you with the blue you're stone now. Statue, stone - decorative. That's if you avoid me making you just go Crazy. Dirty stuff right there - "Be Schizophrenic now, I'm the worst ever enemy!" Of course the violet ray - you look into that violet ray and there you are, in another dimension. No bodies, no evidence, nothing, you're away. Will you ever come back? Can you? Do I care? Better than that even - let's say I snag you with two colors well fuck you your made of rock and also insane, or just, I dunno, singed and also in another dimension - Experience that fucker - Go to another dimension and be hurt there!

The sense right now is that the hardest things are behind us. Have happened. Are over. That’s the feeling, like getting that one foot up on the edge of the hole – you can tell you’re through it and will climb out, most likely. Still - efforts are needed, but the victory is in sight.

For example – I hopped off the 10, and it was a weird afternoon on the 10 – extra crowded and with the scarred and scared denizens of the Buckeye neighborhood that filter in and out, that ride up and down 93rd street. The bus was crowded and I talked for a moment, fleeting but sweet to the Plainswoman, and was cheered and inflated by that, a buoyant harmonious feeling to talk to her and that carried me off the bus on Euclid. I looked at the sun, setting now and a maze of uncertain smudged colors, I looked and I thought- I will walk. A long way.

Up unfamiliar hills and through divergent paths, I made it to Shaker Square and then rambled back down Coventry and made it to home just in time to wait.
The long, good walk up hills and back down – that’s the needed and missing catharsis – for me – the mind, my mind it vanishes out of speculation, there’s just the ongoing action of foot and foot and foot in the long train. Here and there, there is traffic, cars – my perpetual enemies – they stop me going and I stand and it’s strange to suddenly stop – momentum being sufficient, I feel, to carry me on indefinitely. I wonder, sometimes, how far I’d make it, how long I could keep it going, what’s the longest I could go?

My longest walk, in memory now, is better than 10 miles. On facebook I’m told constantly that the people I went to highschool or college with – they run dozens and dozens of miles every day. I hate running. For real I hate it, I get an angry scowl on me when I do it. But I think, I wonder if I could run a mile? I don’t even know, but I could walk forever and seemingly never stop.

And then you stop once you reach home and then your legs are strong and weak at once, they quiver that little bit and your back is stiff and glad and you’ve spent an hour in motion without stopping, and you’ve spent a couple of hours with the good wind on you and the right pace of things to compel you forward.
Julie comes by, it’s Tuesday and we have a plan to meet and write. I am not shy about drinking beer and eating the pizza she brings, I’m starving- I announce it. She loves to get the pizza because she loves to talk to the pizza-man. I love to eat pizza. I have my party at the end of the week, which dominates my finances – my money’s all spoken for this month – and I think of it in a wistful way, looking at my filled up canvases – thinking, I’d like more, I want to paint, not write. I feel like painting and haven’t lately.

I talk, we talk, for a long time, I explain that lately it’s the visual arts, for me, I could work on my spellbook or my magic project that I’m fashioning for my Plainswoman, or I could paint my Tarot version 2 –or I could paint my maps… I could’ve painted my maps- I could paint my maps (now that I think of it), but instead it’s time to write.

I explain – “I’m pretty good at writing, people seem to like it, if they’re of a mind to like it, I don’t have problems conveying what I mean – what appears on the page is close to what I want to say – it approaches it as closely as Achilles approaches the tortoise, you understand, it’s never exactly what you’d want, but it’s also surprisingly appealing.” I said that, say that – just that way. I drop Zeno’s arrow in polite conversation, that’s just my way. I explain that I like putting pen to paper, that I like the act of writing, that I like the things I have to write, but that I don’t know where I have to go with it.

Painting, I get better, I notice and try – I get better. Spellbooks, wizardry – my weird affected, hyperreal praxis – these improve with practice.
I moan on this for a moment, and put my pen to the paper and knock down page after page, competently and well. Saying: “I don’t know if I feel like writing.” And then I do write, competently, well. Maybe just well enough.

I explain – “I’m at a plateau here. I can’t tell what being better at this would be like; I can’t tell how I even would get better at this. I don’t know where I could go or how.” Which is so.

In the end we talk about the people we’re interested in, drink more of my excellent scotch, stay up late laughing like weirdos. We talk about the fantasy lives that we each engage in, the dreams and visions that you give yourself over to until you fall asleep.

And then sleep.

Yes, this again. Yes. I mean, YES! If you didn't know, I've been concocting my spellbook, as if I were somehow a D&D wizard in contemporary North America. I guess. I guess that's what I'm doing. Sure, why the hell not. Anyhow, I'm up to level 6 spells and this has been a strange period for me. Level 1 was all the good stuff, the adventurer's toolkit. I must have done okay because I lived to cast Level 2 spells, which come at like, character level 3 - don't... let's not get into why the game is convoluted with all it's nuanced sub-systems, it's just this way and has been. So says Gygax, so say we all (with a lot of muttering and foot dragging of course). Kept it going, somehow, and made it to whatever arbitrary level I got my 3rd Level spells at - and things started to change for me. None of the really big ones, no Fireballs or Lightning Bolts, I learned to see, really see then. By the time I was throwing down my 4th Level power I guess I'd grown bitter, weary maybe. But powerful, dangerous- maybe a threat to the others... I abandoned ship, decided I'd go my own way and start a new - Monster Civilization with Monsters and Blackjack. And... Well, I'm guessing that got old, real old.

Which is all to say - I finally made it to (I think, if memory serves) 11th Level, which gave me 6th Level spellcasting ability. Pretty handy, sure. You'd like it, good luck surviving that long, but sure, it's fine. Fun. I'm getting a little distant now, strange - removed. You see, I think I'm learning - not just about the world anymore (but certainly about that, I'm learning about that in a big, big way) but about myself, and about other things, things that I hadn't thought about before. I guess I'm mellowing, or maybe turning toward a new path, maybe I'll seek some eldritch power from out of the past, or maybe I'll learn some hidden truths about the cosmic realms beyond. Maybe. Maybe I'll just spy on people like a grinning, weird creep. Who's to say?

Legend Lore

Lucubration

Glass Eye

Now... I guess these will do.Personally I'm a little stoked about the Legend Lore / Glass Eye combo-move. I mean, Legend Lore (despite the nerfy text) is basically ultimate psychometry and glass eye lets you see the bones in the walls and the dinosaurs beneath you. What's more legendary than a dinosaur? So... Like, time travel, kind of. It's weird - when you get used to seeing with your mind's eye all the things around you through the eyes of others? Remembering their memories? Well, things get pretty abstract - you start getting confused - you accidentally make a 6 page spell into a 7 page, or do you? Or do your magics become intertwined?

Straight up I'll tell you that I left an easter-egg in this thing. Well. I've left a few, and now I know how to see through objects and whatnot - I can... understand, see colors not meant to be seen, there are words beneath words! There's the hidden text within the text! There's a lot to know, all around us, and now I'm getting to know it. We shall see what becomes of me next.

P.S.: It'll be a goodly while before I get back to this - I just got home from Vacation - and I still have NaNoWriMo to overcome this month.

P.P.S.: Send Coffee.

My only 5th Level Spell is a pretty good one. It's not major creation, or Contact Outer Sphere - which are probably the coolest, but it's damned useful.

Telekinesis

Magic-User Level 5

Duration: 1 round/level

Range: 120’

By concentrating on
nothing else and taking

no other actions, the
caster can move objects or

creatures by concentrating
on them. A total of

20 pounds per caster level
may be moved 20’

per round. Living beings
may also be moved,

but they are allowed a
saving throw versus

magic.

And there it is - five pages about how to move some stuff around with your mind. I like that the level dependent stuff here is kid of in my favor now - now that I'm 9th level you understand. I get 90 minutes, a whole movie's worth of telekinesis and I can move around what 180 pounds of stuff - 180 pounds of rocks or swords or guys or furniture just by thinking about it. Think about the brain, think about the brain. You know I think... I think I must have gotten bored. What with my monster kingdom that I've got going on.

Or maybe, you know - maybe my monster friends are terrifying? Maybe I'm more than half a prisoner? Maybe I can only really get around to doing some surreptitious things around the Ogres and Trolls, I have to act in secret, I don't want them knowing, or suspecting! Maybe they're really servile though, maybe I'm just growing lazy, what with their obedience? Maybe I sit around thinking about having things come to my hand? Maybe I just mind-shove people off of cliffs as part of our gang initiation? Or as part of some kind of trial - like in that scene from Farewell to Arms? I loved that scene - I guess? Maybe monster-reprisals? Maybe I stack weights on the enemies of monsterdom to test their mettle, their virtue? Maybe I really am just bored. I mean it was interesting adventuring, and monster overlord has been working out pretty well - but I just put one spell in the old book - so maybe I need something new to challenge me?

I'll knock all their huts down on top of their heads, provoke them into fighting each other, maybe I'll keep the best ones with me and then I'm going, gone - looking for the real stuff - the Big Magic. True Power, you know? It's the wizard's way.

So I made it all this way and after many adventures and strange experiences I came to learn these spells. Honestly, I'm a little concerned about what must have happened to me that led me to this...

Speak With Plants

Protection From Normal Weapons

Charm Monster

Here is a much better version of this post...

Third level spells. You know - normally, this is where the Wizard, excuse me - The Magic User really becomes superhuman. Some of the spells he throws up to that point - they're ersatz versions of what a more... robust adventurer can do. Magic Missile is basically a crossbow that runs out of arrows really quickly, and Charm Person can be replicated with actual charm and a little money. Heck, the Floating Disc is a shoddy version of a donkey! Even Shield is just... Well it's almost as good as an actual shield. Sure, they're magic, but it sure is giving yourself a hard way to go, all that studying and learning just to do stuff that you could do with a little bit of money and practice. The payoff though. The payoff is supposed to start with the 3rd level spells. That's where Fly and Fireball are, and Lightning Bolt. The Big Ones. Of course I didn't get any of those. I got much more esoteric and, in the end, I have to admit, more interesting spells.

Dispel Magic

As a Magic-User grows in knowledge and

power, he becomes able to dismiss magic as well

as conjure it. This spell empowers the proper

forces of existence to expel the foul energies

known as magic as if they never were. The spell

affects a 20’ cubic area. All spells in that area

that are currently in effect are automatically

negated. If cast on the same segment in combat

as a spell from an enemy combatant, Dispel

Magic can be used to disrupt and negate that

spell.

All magical items within the area of effect are

temporarily disenchanted. They regain their

enchantment after 2d6 turns, but one-use items
such as potions and scrolls (but not spellbooks)
are permanently nullified.
There is one important exception - a Magic-
User’s Dispel Magic has no effect on Cleric spells.
Dispel Magic negates magical curses or diseases
for only 2d6 turns.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is a means of seeing events in a

distant location. There is no effective limit to

the spell’s range, but the location must either

be familiar to the caster or be obvious, such as

the top floor inside a tower the caster can see,

or just beyond a dungeon door. The spell cannot

penetrate metal; sheets of any type of metal

between the caster and the target area will

prevent the Magic-User from being able to scry

upon the area. The caster will be able to hear

sounds in a 10’ radius of the spell’s focal point

even if the area is dark. If the area is not dark,

the caster will be able to see as if he were

standing at the spell’s focal point, for a normal

distance but in all directions at once (for the

vision is in his mind’s eye).

I reasoned that Dispel Magic- since it's so recursive, so self-aware and metamagical, that it would be much more technical, formulaic and difficult. I figure Op-Art kind of sums that up. There are steps and procedures and there's a gloating bit of triumph. Dispel Magic won't help you get it over a pack of wild animals, some angry townsfolk or even a very aggressive priest. But you know who it does beat? Other Wizards. I like that it's the competitor's spell. The one you go to if you're trying to outplay the chessmaster. Sure it's brute-force, sure it's sometimes more science than art and sure it's a technical and arduous spell to get down and memorize (cripes...) But it wins, it wins the battle and the war - the ones that matter, the ones against your peers. I like especially to that an enemy wizard might buff and enchant and fix himself up all fancy and strong, all glammered and buffed and in a moment you can take all the wind out of him, knock his stuffing out and let the fighter have at him. "Goodbye to your fancy flight, your silly illusions, goodbye to your fireball and your enlarge and so on, I dismiss them, I am the teacher and I dismiss your nonsense."

Clairvoyance is a whole other animal. I cheated a little, and by cheated I mean - just did something I think I would do if I lived in a magical universe where I had to write these things down for real and memorize them daily and carry this nutty book around and be the obligatory scrapbooker of the party - and that's embellish preposterously. Sure I added an additional semi-transparent page! Of course I did. Transformative thinking! That's the Magic-User's whole M.O. And really, by the time I got to here, big level 5, I think I'd be pretty pleased with myself and rather stoked about my biggest and heretofore best spell. Clairvoyance is another not-too-flashy, not-so-glamorous spell that straight up wins. Sure it's viscerally pleasing to lightning bolt a line of kobolds into ash. Sure it is. It's more useful still to be able to look into their tunnels and find their treasure in advance of ever having to go and menace them. You can figure out who's who and what's what - and with my other crazy spells, I can just go in and pose as one of them and charm the dickens out of their leader. Intelligence gathering. Sure, you're going to see a lot of things you probably would have preferred not to see, and sure! You could be a giant pervert and just remotely-view bathrooms and sorority houses. You could also learn the combination to the safe, the whether your neighbor is sleeping and where he keeps his valuables. You can solve the whole puzzle in advance of everyone even knowing there is a puzzle. It's another chessmaster spell - but you don't beat other wizards with it (of course you could) you beat the whole silly world.

My Spellbook – a new project

From the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rulebook:

A spell is a fairly standardized effect that has

been repeatedly created by many Magic-Users.

While every Magic-User must use a spellbook

to store their magical knowledge – mortal

brains are not structurally designed to hold this

information – there is no “formula” for any

particular spell. Take the spell Magic Missile, for

instance. It is a very common spell, especially

for traveling and adventuring Magic-Users. But

if you looked at the spellbooks of one hundred

Magic-Users which all contain Magic Missile,

none would look the same. Each spell notation

is a combination of reference notes, philosophical

debate against the universe, and gibberish

scribbling, all of which serves one purpose: To

trigger dream-state understanding within the

Magic-User’s mind. Nothing contained in a

spell book is a “how to” guide so much as an

individual recipe for self-induced hypnosis.

The Project – I think I’ll randomly generate spells for myself and then generate an actual spellbook – through arts & crafts techniques. For my project, I’ll use a 100 page composition book, so I need to figure out 100 pages worth of spells. A spell uses a number of pages in your spellbook equal to its level, so a 2^nd level spell uses 2 pages, and so on. For the calculations and random generation of how many spells and what levels they’ll be – I’ll turn to my old pal, excel:

Spell Level	Number of Spells	Pages used
1	5	5
2	3	6
3	2	6
4	3	12
5	1	5
6	3	18
7	2	14
8	2	16
9	2	18

If you want to do this yourself (you seriously should by the way, we can scribe each other’s spellbooks) I can give you a hint about how to make old Excel do this for you. But you’re a wizard too no? You know the ways of random number generation.

So now I know what spell levels I have, now to figure out which spells I actually have in my book. LotFP helps out with this by having spells per level conveniently coincide with the more commonly rolled dice. So here’s the list I got:

Level 1

Ø Magic Missile

Ø Identify

Ø Shield

Ø Charm Person

Ø Floating Disc

Level 2

Ø Ray of Enfeeblement

Ø Detect Invisible

Ø Change Self

Level 3

Ø Dispel Magic

Ø Clairvoyance

Level 4

Ø Speak With Plants

Ø Protection From Normal Weapons

Ø Charm Monster

Level 5

Ø Telekinesis

Level 6

Ø Legend Lore

Ø Glass Eye

Ø Lucubration

Level 7

Ø Prismatic Spray

Ø Phase Door

Level 8

Ø Maze

Ø Demand

Level 9

Ø Shapechange

Ø Temporal Stasis

So… I have a pretty neat spell list. It’s nice to See Magic Missile, the Mage’s friend, and dear, sweet old Ray of Enfeeblement - I’m not scared of no fighters. Nosir. But I have to say, what with Charm Person, Charm Monster and Shapechange – I’m set up to be kind of a bastard. Plus – Clairvoyance and Phase Door and Glass Eye all make it so I’m kind of a sweet detective. I did get a little boned on my 3^rd level spells though. No Fireball, Lightning Bolt or Fly. I’ll take Dispel Magic all day long though, it’s not quite ace, but I guess it is the thinking-wizard’s 3^rd level go-to. Really the worst I did was Floating Disc and Speak With Plants – although, heck I like plants and often move a lot – so I’d take them. I’ll work on spells a I see fit, and fill up my spellbook and post about it as I finish it up.