Quickie O/B/X D&D Starting Magic-User Spell Determination

Intelligence
3-8 - Randomly determine 1 1st level spell.
9-12 - Pick 1 1st level spell.
13-15 - Read Magic and pick 1 1st level spell.
16-17 - Read Magic, pick 1 1st level spell, and randomly determine 1 1st level spell.
18 - Read Magic and pick 2 1st level spells.

Inspired by my recent academic adventures, I imagine the above as this:

Int 3-8 - You're inept; although you somehow stumbled into an apprenticeship/wizard school, you were a failure and only remember how to do one thing, and it's probably not want you wanted to learn.

Int 9-12 - Although you got into an apprenticeship/wizard school you're pretty much a hack and managed to only learn how to do one thing.

Int 13-15 - You were an adequate student, you managed to learn a spell and the skills necessary to learn more on your own.

Int 16-17 - As above, but you managed to also retain some scraps of random information.

Int 18 - You were a prodigy and graduated with two spells of your choosing, what a champ!

One can easily play around with this depending on the DMs preferences regarding starting # of spells, randomization, etc. Maybe you need a 13 Int to avoid random starting spells? Maybe an 18 Int PC gets to pick 3 spells. I just like having a handy, arbitrary system for determining starting M-U spells that allows for some reward for being a brainiac.

I always liked the AD&D starting spell determination in principle, but in execution is a mess however much I love the cheap laffs at the expense of 1st level M-U's that have Friends, Mending and Ventriloquism in their spellbooks ("Where did you learn magic, working at a cricus? Bwahahahaha!").

As an aside, random spell determination works a lot better for the PCs with the OD&D/B/XD&D spell lists which aren't cluttered up with the hedge mage spells of dubious general utility. Heartbreak is your Magic-User reaching 7th level and getting Shatter in their spellbook. Not that I'm entirely against the D&D rules repeatedly slapping your PC in the face.

Jewel Throne Preview - The Black Lasher

Artwork by Johnathan Bingham

The Black Lasher

Level: Magic-User 3

Range: Caster

Duration: 10 minutes

The caster's left arm becomes a whip-like tentacle of thorny black rubbery flesh that can stretch out to a length of 30 feet. The caster may attack with this limb as a monster with as many Hit Dice as the caster's Levels, inflicting 1d8 points of damage on a hit and on an unadjusted attack roll of 20 the tentacle can wrap around and constrict the target, automatically inflicting 1d8 points of damage per round. The tentacle has an Armor Class of 3[16], with all successful attacks against it injuring the caster; it can take up to half the casters maximum hit points of damage before it is severed, dissolving into black slime and requiring the caster to make a successful Saving Throw vs. Death or lose their left arm.