New Spell: Friends

Due to my rolling on a chart in the DMG, the 1st level magic-user spell, friends, has entered the campaign. Here’s the write-up for it for Labyrinth Lord:

Friends
Level: 1 (Magic-user & Elf spell)
Duration: 1 round per level
Range: 0

This spell causes the caster to gain a temporary increase of 2d4 points of Charisma—or temporarily lose 1-4 points of Charisma—depending on whether the creatures within the area of effect (a 10’ plus 10’ per level radius) make or fail their saving throw vs. spells. Those that fail their saving throws desire to become friends with the caster and render assistance. Those who make their save will be uneasy in the caster’s presence and find him irritating. The spell has no effect on creatures of animal or lower intelligence.

Expanded Reaction Modifier Table (if needed)

CHA 1: +3 to reaction rolls
CHA 2-3: +2 to reaction rolls
CHA 4-5: +1 to reaction rolls
CHA 6-8: +1 to reaction rolls
CHA 9-12: no modifier
CHA 13-15: -1 to reaction rolls
CHA 16-17: -1 to reaction rolls
CHA 18: -2 to reaction rolls
CHA 19-20: -2 to reaction rolls
CHA 21-23: -3 to reaction rolls
CHA 24-27: -3 to reaction rolls

Updates to Clerical Spell Lists

With two PC clerics having reached 2nd level, I've modified the clerical spell lists by deity. The new lists have been added to the existing ones and they may be found here.

Sleep Spell Area of Effect

In light of today's events, I thought about what size of an area a sleep spell affects and have decided on the following:

A sleep spell has an area of effect of a 15' radius from the point or person upon which it is cast (a 30' diameter in total--enough to affect a large dungeon room). As per the rules, a sleep spell affects 2d8 HD worth of creatures starting with the lowest HD monsters first.

I think this is both fair and in the spirit of other such magics with a 15' radius. Unless someone has a real problem with this, let it be written and let it be done.

Spell Research and Scribing Scrolls

Spell casting characters are able to research and create new spells and magical items. New spells and scrolls can be created regardless of the character’s level, but all other types of magical items require that the caster be of at least 9th level.

To create a new spell, the player describes in detail the kind of spell he wants to create, and the effect it has. The referee will then decide if the spell can be created, and if so what the spell level will be. The character must be capable of casting spells of the spell level the potential new spell will be, otherwise the player must wait until the character attains a high enough level to research and cast the spell. If the character can create the spell, it will take one week and 1,000 gp per spell level.

Scrolls can be created for spells the caster already “knows” (i.e. have in their spell or prayer book) at the cost of 100 gp and 1 week’s work for each spell of the first level, 200 gold pieces and 2 weeks for a second level spell, etc.

No attempt to create a magic item, spell or other effect happens without some chance of failure. There is a minimum probability of 15% that any such endeavor fails, and this percentage can be raised depending on the circumstances. The player will roll for failure only after the character has spent the money and time on the project, and these are lost regardless of the result. When rolling to determine failure, a high roll (85-00) indicates failure.

One last little quirk: the time required to create scrolls or research spells is in REAL time, not game time. Thus, if your magic-user decides at the end of the game session that he wishes to scribe a 1st level scroll, he will be out of play the following week as he scribbles away. He will return to the game at the session after that with scroll in hand. I realize that this may cause the amount of game time required to research a spell or scribe a scroll to vary wildly, but that’s magic for you.

Clerical Spell Lists by Deity

Seeing as how the party’s two surviving clerics are about to advance to 2nd level and gain the ability to cast spells, I thought it was time to reveal what those spells are. Each has access to eight 1st level spells, but they are not the exact same eight. Without getting into the complex notion of spheres and domains that are artifacts of later editions, I do want to make clerics a little different from one another. With that in mind, I’ve replace one spell off of the 1st level list with a prayer that duplicates the effects of another spell, possibly from another class’ spell list. For ease of reference, the spell name remains unchanged. I intend to do this with each level of spells, but we’ll concentrate on the beginning spells for now. Additional adjustments to the class may occur once the clerics reach 4th level, but my final decision on that can wait for now.

This list will be updated as additional deities enter the campaign and clerics advance to higher levels.

Donblas the Law Lord

1st Level
1) Command (see AEC p. 32)
2) Cure Light Wounds
3) Detect Evil
4) Detect Magic
5) Light
6) Protection from Evil
7) Remove Fear
8) Resist Cold

Initiation: Upon being indoctrinated into the first circle of mysteries (i.e. reaching 2nd level), all clerics of the Law Lord receive a silver holy symbol depicting the upward pointing arrow of Donblas. This symbol allows the cleric to know if a single statement spoken by another living individual is true or false once per day with 100% accuracy.

Hyrn the Horned Lord

1st Level
1) Cure Light Wounds
2) Detect Magic
3) Light
4) Invisibility, Animal (see AEC p. 45)
5) Locate Creature (see AEC p. 45)
6) Purify Food & Drink
7) Remove Fear
8) Resist Cold

Initiation: Upon being indoctrinated into the first circle of mysteries (i.e. reaching 2nd level), all clerics of the Horned Lord are gifted with a forester’s floak with a bone cloak pin bearing the Twin Antlers of Hyrn. This cloak gives the cleric a +1 bonus to surprise when in wooded areas. Multi-classed priests allowed to use bows are further given a quiver of 20 sureflight arrows (+1 bonus to hit good for a single use each. If recovered after battle, they may be used as normal arrows, but the stress of hitting their targets affects their exquisite balance permanently).

Mog the Spider God

1st Level
1) Cure light wounds
2) Detect evil
3) Detect magic
4) Light
5) Protection from evil
6) Purify food & drink
7) Remove fear
8) Spider climb (as the 1st level magic-user spell; see AEC p. 77)

2nd Level
1) Bless
2) Find Traps
3) Know Alignment
4) Hold Person
5) Resist Fire
6) Silence 15’ Radius
7) Speak with Animal
8) Web (as the 2nd level magic-user spell; see LLR p. 41)

Initiation: Upon being indoctrinated into the first circle of mysteries (i.e. reaching 2nd level), all clerics of the Spider God are gifted a silver holy symbol depicting the spider form of Mog. When worn, the symbol grants the priest a +1 bonus to saving throws vs. spider venom.

Deity Specific Power (gained at 4th level): Clerics of Mog gain the ability to Turn spiders (but not spiderlike creatures) as if they do the undead. This ability use is resolved as if the cleric were three levels less in power (i.e. a 4th level cleric Turns spiders as if he were a 1st level cleric), but is otherwise identical to normal Turn attempts.

Yg the Father Serpent

1st Level
1) Cure light wounds
2) Detect evil
3) Detect magic
4) Hypnotism (as the 1st level illusionist spell; see AEC p. 51)
5) Protection from evil
6) Purify food & drink
7) Remove fear
8) Resist cold

Improved CLW

Due to the "Dutch Courage" house rule, the effectiveness of cure light wounds is increased to reflect the potency of magical healing. Cure light wounds heals 1d8+1 points of damage rather than 1d6+1.