Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Grindhouse Edition Spell Lists

You'll see a lot of spells being switched around in order to separate and clarify the two types of magic between the Holy Man and the Diabolical Wizard types. Note that the "Speak With..." spells, particularly Speak with Dead, are now over on the Magic-User side. No Animate Dead for the Clerics either. It's the Magic-User that disrupts the fabric of reality. There is only one spell shared between the two classes now, Dispel Magic, because both needed it - but they work differently.

Whether Cleric magic is truly divinely inspirited or merely a type of mysticism whose practitioners are traditionally brought into the religious structure, and whether Magic-User spells represent true diabolism or use of the knowledge stolen from beyond sleep or whatever, is entirely up to you. But Cleric magic fights Magic-User magic.

Now this doesn't fix a central issue in a "Weird" game that's often brought up, namely the Lovecraftian idea of no gods, no significance, just strange alien entities that will reclaim the Earth when they bother to get round to it.

Well just as D&D was a melting pot of fantasy influences, so is LotFP a melting pot of strange and horrific styles. This isn't just Lovecraft: The Fantasy RPG and never was intended to be.

The one weakness of this setup, which just might limit the potential wide applicability as a general retro-clone (but I figure so many got there before me anyway), is that the Cleric class really doesn't work so well for pagan style religions anymore (if it ever did), and the Magic-User class makes a poor fit for a that sort as well. Bring forth your Druid variants, haha!

One thing you'll notice, I wanted to keep all the spell lists so random spells could be chosen with a die roll. That meant padding out some of those higher level Magic-User spell lists with spits and spats of OGC entries instead of just dropping spells that were "out of flavor." The idea of researching spells is going to be newly encouraged though (not that anyone ever even considers such things...), so anything missing can easily be replaced in a campaign even if you decide to use the new spell list as the official baseline. That's one of the very points of using this rules backbone in the first place, that multitude of compatible stuff. And if you like the spell lists from the Deluxe edition better, simply use it instead. Nothing changes.

(the free PDF of the Deluxe edition won't be linked from the blog anymore once the free PDF version of the Grindhouse Edition goes up, but it will still be available from the main LotFP site)

Here they are:

Cleric Spells

First Level
1. Bless*
2. Command
3. Cure Light Wounds*
4. Detect Evil*
5. Invisibility to Undead*
6. Protection from Evil*
7. Purify Food & Drink*
8. Remove Fear*
9. Sanctuary
10. Turn Undead

Second Level
1. Augury
2. Delay Poison
3. Enthrall
4. Heat Metal
5. Heroism
6. Resist Cold
7. Resist Fire
8. Silence 15’ Radius

Third Level
1. Cure Disease*
2. Dispel Magic
3. Magic Vestment
4. Remove Curse*
5. Sacrifice*
6. Water Walk

Fourth Level
1. Cure Serious Wounds*
2. Detect Lie
3. Divination
4. Neutralize Poison*
5. Protection from Evil 10’ Radius*
6. Spell Immunity

Fifth Level
1. Commune
2. Cure Critical Wounds*
3. Dispel Evil
4. Insect Plague
5. Quest
6. True Seeing*

Sixth Level
1. Anti-Magic Shell
2. Find the Path*
3. Forbiddance
4. Heal*
5. Tongues*
6. Word of Recall

Seventh Level
1. Control Weather
2. Earthquake
3. Holy Word*
4. Part Water

Magic-User Spells

First Level
1. Charm Person
2. Comprehend Languages*
3. Detect Magic
4. Enlarge*
5. Faerie Fire
6. Feather Fall
7. Floating Disc
8. Hold Portal
9. Identify
10. Light*
11. Magic Aura*
12. Magic Missile
13. Mending
14. Message
15. Read Magic*
16. Shield
17. Sleep
18. Spider Climb
19. Unseen Servant
20. Ventriloquism

Second Level
1. Audible Glamer
2. Change Self
3. Detect Invisible
4. ESP
5. Force of Forbidment
6. Forget
7. Invisibility
8. Knock
9. Levitate
10. Light, Continual*
11. Locate Object*
12. Magic Mouth
13. Mirror Image
14. Phantasmal Force
15. Ray of Enfeeblement
16. Speak with Animals
17. Stinking Cloud
18. Wall of Fog
19. Web
20. Wizard Lock

Third Level
1. Clairvoyance
2. Detect Illusion
3. Dispel Magic
4. Explosive Runes
5. False Alignment
6. Fireball
7. Fly
8. Gaseous Form
9. Gust of Wind
10. Haste*
11. Hold Person
12. Invisibility 10’ Radius
13. Lightning Bolt
14. Monster Summoning
15. Phantasmal Psychedelia
16. Protection from Normal Missiles
17. Secret Page
18. Speak with Dead
19. Suggestion
20. Water Breathing*

Fourth Level
1. Charm Monster
2. Confusion
3. Creation, Minor
4. Dig
5. Dimension Door
6. Extension
7. Globe of Invulnerability, Minor
8. Growth of Plants
9. Hallucinatory Terrain
10. Invisibility, Improved
11. Mnemonic Enhancer
12. Polymorph Others
13. Polymorph Self
14. Protection from Normal Weapons
15. Seven Gates
16. Shadow Monsters
17. Speak with Plants
18. Wall of Fire
19. Wall of Ice
20. Wizard Eye

Fifth Level
1. Airy Water
2. Animate Dead
3. Chaos
4. Cloudkill
5. Contact Outer Sphere
6. Creation, Major
7. Faithful Hound
8. Feeblemind
9. Hold Monster
10. Interposing Hand
11. Magic Jar
12. Passwall
13. Secret Chest
14. Stone Shape
15. Telekinesis
16. Teleport
17. Transmute Rock to Mud*
18. Wall of Force
19. Wall of Iron
20. Wall of Stone

Sixth Level
1. Animate Dead Monsters
2. Barrier
3. Contingency
4. Death Spell
5. Disintegrate
6. Freezing Sphere
7. Geas
8. Glass Eye
9. Globe of Invulnerability, Major
10. Invisible Stalker
11. Legend Lore
12. Lucubration
13. Move Earth
14. Phantasmal Supergoria
15. Projected Image
16. Shades
17. Speak with Monsters
18. Stone to Flesh*
19. Suggestion, Mass
20. Veil

Seventh Level
1. Animated Artwork
2. Duo-Dimension
3. Fireball, Delayed Blast
4. Grasping Hand
5. Instant Summons
6. Invisibility, Mass
7. Magic Sword
8. Phase Door
9. Power Word Stun
10. Prismatic Sphere
11. Prismatic Spray
12. Prismatic Wall
13. Remote Surveillance
14. Reverse Gravity
15. Simulacrum
16. Spell Turning
17. Statue
18. Vanish
19. Vision
20. Witchlamp Aura

Eighth Level
1. Antipathy/Sympathy
2. Charm Person, Mass
3. Clone
4. Demand
5. Incendiary Cloud
6. Maze
7. Mind Blank
8. Permanency
9. Symbol
10. Trap the Soul

Ninth Level
1. Gate
2. Imprisonment*
3. Meteor Swarm
4. Power Word Kill
5. Shape Change
6. Time Stop

12 comments:

  1. > Now this doesn't fix a central issue in a "Weird" game that's often brought up, namely the Lovecraftian idea of no gods, no significance, just strange alien entities that will reclaim the Earth when they bother to get round to it.

    Also, let it be said that some of the pioneers and continuers of the weird genre - Hodgson and, controversially, Derleth - definitely wrote in supernatural forces that fought their nightmare horrors. And where would vampires, werewolves and demons be without white wizards and witchfinders?

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  2. Well this business with Animate and Speak to Dead is a definite improvement, esp. for necromancers.

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  3. need so more cleric / priest spells ; otherwise this class will be boring really quick;

    Even if the fantasy or quasi-medieval ‘church’ is considered by most to be stifling or repressive; it supports the best the ancient world has to offer - community, art, literature, healing, law and orderly succession of monarchy.

    the cleric class would be cooler if one adapts a
    Van Helsing more than DnD trope

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  4. IMO, too many magic user spells. I like 12 spells per level, 20's starting to remind me of the overcrowded AD&D lists.

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  5. I disagree with there being too many MU spells. If I could find a source to allow 100 quality spells per level, I'd jump at it. The breadth of possible MU ability is a key feature of the class, I think. Even if nobody will ever choose most of those spells, they still get interesting when they come up on scrolls.

    As for the Cleric list, there are more 1st level spells than in Other Leading Simulacra, certainly more than in 0e. I don't see how the number of spells here makes a Cleric more boring than the class is traditionally presented.

    Also, Bless, Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, and Turn Undead are all more effective as the Cleric gains levels.

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  6. Also keep in mind the cleric knows all spells on the list while the MU has to collect them ... at least I think that's true in LotFP?

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  7. I like these changes for personal reasons. When I decided to switch "The World After" to LotFP Deluxe it was mainly because I liked the specialist, the fact only fighters got better at combat, and the requirement MU be chaotic. The last fit very well with my "Fallen as defenders of creation against Demons out to destroy it" and that the whole situation was created by a human wizard.

    The new spell lists will help cement the idea that clerics represent the vestiges of the Church and new orders empowered by The Fallen to preserve creation while magic users are humans trading in the same hubris and disregard that almost destroyed the world once before and could finish the job any time now.

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  8. 1. get rid of cleric and mage and use witch instead with dark/light or chaos/law versions
    2. give them both kinds of magic
    3. require that most magic take time and prep, and that nasty magic be carcosa-ish.

    That would be awesome.

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  9. Messing around with details is one thing. Changing around fundamental elements of how the game works is a no-no design-wise for me.

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  10. I really love this distinction between the cleric drwaing is magic from a compliant nature where the magic user is perverting it for his own benefit (sounds like dark sun). But I see a problem with the elf, then. Shouldn't it be a fighter-cleric rather than a fighter-MU according to this new definition of the roles?

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  11. Absolutely not. Elves are unnatural magical creatures. Human-sized faeries.

    ReplyDelete