I Think I'm Going Back to Painting For a While...

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.