Monday, January 17, 2011

Grammaree (Jewel Throne) Preview

The Eyes of Far Death
Level: Magic-User 5
Range: 7 miles
Duration: Ten minutes or until discharged
The caster gains the ability of telescopic vision, being able to zoom in on anything within both their line of sight and the range of seven miles, magnifying it at will until it looks like its is directly before the caster. The caster may choose to discharge the spell at one target within their vision, which will manifest as an invisible particle beam from the caster's eyes that will inflict 1D6 points of damage per level of the caster upon the target, with a saving throw versus spells allowed for half damage. If a man-sized or smaller target is slain by the spell it's body will explode into a mass of superheated chunks. If the caster attempts to focus on a target within 200 feet they must make a saving throw versus paralysis or suffer such extreme vertigo and disorientation that they fall in a faint for 1D20 rounds, with a 50% chance of the spell discharging and inflicting damage upon the target.

Mass of Serpents
Level: Magic-user 4
Range: Caster
Duration: Ten minutes per caster level
The caster becomes a 10' diameter mass of venomous serpents, with an Armor Class of 9, a Movement Rate of 90' (60' while swimming or climbing), and the ability to attack all within it's area. On a successful attack the target will suffer 1-3 points of damage and will have to make a saving throw versus poison or die in 1-6 turns.

Psychic Reaping
Level: Magic-User 4
Range: 1 Sentient creature within 30 feet
Duration: Permanent
The caster sends a probe into the target's mind and gains knowledge of all of the target's shameful secrets and perceived weaknesses. The target will be aware of this occurring as well as who is responsible, and will forever suffer a -1 penalty to all die rolls directly involving the caster, such as attack rolls, saving throws, damage rolls and so forth, with the caster gaining a +1 bonus on all such equivalent rolls involving the victim. The target is allowed a saving throw versus spells, and if they roll a 20 on their saving throw the effect of the spell is reversed, with the target instead gaining knowledge of the caster's shameful secrets and perceived weaknesses, with the attendant bonuses and penalties.

Raise Drowned Vessel
Level: Magic-User 5
Range: 1 mile per caster level
Duration: 24 hours
This spell will raise one sunken ship from the bottom of a body of fresh or salt water to temporarily float at the surface level; while casting this spell the caster may choose to specify the name of the vessel, if so only the aforementioned vessel will be raised (if it is within range), otherwise the nearest sunken vessel will be raised.

Speak With Cats
Level: Magic-User 1
Range: Caster
Duration: 24 hours
For the duration of this spell the caster's speech will be understood by cats and other felines. If the caster is able to see a feline's body language and can hear it's utterances, the spell will translate the aforementioned feline's communication into eloquent speech heard inside the caster's head.

10 comments:

  1. Very nice--Speak with catrs is a fun spell. Very useful in cities like Ulthar...

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are great. I already have a use for the cat spell.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice. I particularly liked mass of serpents. That creates all kinds of imagery in my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are good; Raise Drowned Vessel is my favourite.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Speak With Cats? I've already got that one, all mine says is "feed me".

    These are all awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You might want to fix this: "sends a into probe" on Psychic Reaping.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks!

    @ Netherwerks & Booberry: The inspiration was an intractable feline servitor my magic-user summons, I'm very frustrated by having to use a cleric cast speak with animals for 5 minutes once a day to communicate with the dumb thing.

    @ Johnathan: I'm imagine you could do something with that imagery :)

    @ Melan: It was actually inspired by an illustration in Swords & Wizardry: Complete.

    @ Pat: "Me! Me! Me! Me!"

    @ C'nor: Thanks for catching that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah Speak With Cats! I like how inspirations from playing in my game always pop up here.

    I did stress language selection being important in-game. And hard to find magic user scrolls/spellbooks. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Actually I like these all enough they could very quickly be tossed around the sandbox...

    The Far Eyes of Death function would be a bitchin add-on to the helm of the Man From Another World.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @ Scrounger: Are you saying that animal dialects are valid language selections? that would be very Tunnels & Trolls -esque.

    Glad you like the spells, The Eyes of Far Death were also inspired by your game ("I wish we had a sniper with a telescopic-sighted laser rifle!")

    ReplyDelete