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[kingtycoon]

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.