Spell Redesign: Find the Path

Let’s do something simple, eh?

A whole 6th level spell to tell you how to get to a place, but only if you’re familiar with it, and it hasn’t moved,

In a game with no exploration system.

Concentration, of course.

My Version (Better)

This rather tricky request from buddies in Aaron’s server proved less tricky with the tried-and-true method of beating my head against the wall. 5e has no default exploration system, so providing benefits to an exploration system is nearly impossible. Or so I thought.

See, third party exploration systems (like my own) do depend on checks in some capacity. For those with similar benefits to my own, succeeding on said checks supplies you with loot, boons, blessings, a whole bunch of goodies. It also makes your journey more pleasant overall. So by wording the spell to help you along certain win conditions, I can at the very least make it compatible both with my designs, and the designs of anyone with a similar development or solution at the table.

My Version (Even Better)

Now it’s a decent prep spell for all campaigns.

Go nuts.

Spell Redesign: Shillelagh

Ah, been awhile! Back safe from the road trip, deadlines met, other issues taken care of, it’s been a happy month. Time to get back on the bandwagon of spell designs.

Shillelagh’s a neat spell, full of funky druid weirdness. As usual, our problems are “it doesn’t scale” and “it doesn’t do anything else interesting”. Honestly these aren’t problems, they’re just “not how I’d design it”. Not gonna lie folks, part of why it took so long to get this thing together was writer’s block. When I get some revision essays/updates going, you can definitely expect this one to pop up.

My Version (Cooler?)

The text of the spell! There’s gotta be a way to collapse this down to a button. Learn some Java, James. Come on buddy, we’re better than this.

Shillelagh

Transmutaion cantrip

Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a holly leaf)
Duration: 10 minutes

You touch a wooden club or quarterstaff, turning it magical. For the duration, you can use your spellcasting ability modifier for attack and damage rolls., and the weapon's damage die becomes a d8. The shillelagh gains effects based on fulfilling certain conditions.

- Heal a creature: the affected weapon's next damage is increased by one.
- Kill a creature: the next healing spell cast with the shillelagh is increased by your spellcasting ability modifier.
- Paralyze, Stun, or Incapacitate a creature: grants the shillelagh a single ranged attack.
- Grapple or Restrain a creature: increases the weapon's reach by 5 feet on its next attack.
- Produce or heal plant life: one effect of the shillelagh remains on the weapon for 8 hours.

Shillelagh, at its core, ascribes new properties to the weapon on account of magic. I figured I could keep that process going by incentivising you to cast additional spells in the interest of the weapon. This way I could keep the weapon interesting, I keep you casting shillelagh, and I keep you casting a variety of spells. Honestly, this might be the key to other druid spells.

My Version (Even Cooler?)

The text (again)!

Shillelagh

Transmutaion cantrip

Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a holly leaf)
Duration: 10 minutes

You touch a wooden club or quarterstaff, turning it magical. For the duration, you can use your spellcasting ability modifier for attack and damage rolls., and the weapon's damage die becomes a d8. The shillelagh gains effects based on fulfilling certain conditions.

- Heal a creature: the affected weapon's next damage is increased by one.
- Kill a creature: the next healing spell cast with the shillelagh is increased by your spellcasting ability modifier.
- Paralyze, Stun, or Incapacitate a creature: grants the shillelagh a single ranged attack.
- Grapple or Restrain a creature: increases the weapon's reach by 5 feet on its next attack.
- Produce or heal plant life: one effect of the shillelagh remains on the weapon for 8 hours.

When you reach 5th level, you can assign the Light or Heavy properties to the shillelagh. You can assign an additional weapon property (but not Light or Heavy, if you assigned the other) to the shillelagh at 11th and 17th level.

Here we are, now the spell scales in a new fashion. Now the shillelagh already scaled with my prior version indirectly. The more spells and spell slots you have access to, the more you can proc the additional effects. Now, it contains additional benefits simply by virtue of leveling up, which was identified as desireable.

Redesign Preview: Shillelagh

There’s too much going on today to get the full redesign in, I’m preparing for a road trip and need to release the secondary classes packet for my Chill Mist Valley players, and finish up my first DMsGuild product. On top of that, I may have a new writing project (for someone else this time, thank goodness).

That being said, I’d be remiss to leave today blank.

If you’re familiar with Shillelagh, you know it’s a simple, non-scaling attack cantrip which allows druids to use That Cool Stick They Found to murder people. A variety of people even, it makes the stick magical.

In order to make it scale, and incentivize players to stop spamming basic attacks/cantrips as spellcasters, I’ll introduce a variety of benefits to That Cool Stick They Found based on other spells they cast or actions they perform.

• Healing others increases the stick’s next damage.

• Inflicting certain conditions (most of which penalize movement) grants the stick a ranged option,

• Killing creatures increases the reach (separate purpose from the ranged option), giving you more stick per stick.

• Restoring or producing plant life increases duration of other spells.

It’ll be fun, but it will sadly have to wait until tomorrow.

Spell Redesign: Zephyr Strike

Back to the ranger!

Gotta Go Fast

Get advantage on an attack once, an additional damage die once, extra movement once, and ignore attacks of opportunity. Actually kinda cool.

Unfortunately, you have no means of refreshing the advantage, and thus the damage buff, nor the movement buff. This spell is a protection against attacks of opportunity, with a one-time set of very attractive butts. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad spell. It theoretically competes with hunter’s mark, by allowing you to avoid attacks (and therefore damage) for the duration, while also permitting you to add a bit of extra damage in one round. Assuming a 3 round combat (and I often find this to be a decent estimate of the core of a given combat in 5th edition), zephyr strike is quite competitive at low levels.

In fact, consider the vulnerability of a low level character: your armor class is unimpressive, your hitpoints are meager in comparison to the damage CR 2 and counting creatures can pump out, etc. Even as a ranger, your options for additional attacks are somewhat limited at low levels, and more than one requires a bonus action to use (thus competing with hunter’s mark, whereas both need the other to remain effective). Zephyr strike meanwhile provides a better damage buff for one of our three rounds of combat (assuming you have only one attack, reasonable at low levels), allows you to kite enemies in that same round, and maintain said kiting for the duration of the spell.

You could reasonably say this spell is the ranger’s shield, no doubt about it. My buddy Caleb and I both played rangers in our great DM Matt’s campaign, and I always wondered what he saw in this spell. Now I get it. Even with the unfortunate addition of concentration, higher level characters can afford to burn a duration spell for a single round when these are the effects. If you’re a ranged character, the game doesn’t offer you many opportunities to flee and shoot in the same round (unless you’re playing a rogue). Still fewer improve the attack when you do so, and this may very well be the only one when it comes to rangers. This is a benefit which scales circumstantially at higher levels; if a dragon has gotten into melee with your archery-focused ranger, this spell could very well save them from going down, while also keeping up the necessary damage.

With all that well deserved praise out of the way, I can’t help but wonder if the spell could improved by pushing it into a more specific mechanical niche. At low levels, you’re more likely to use the full duration for a number of different reasons, with the damage buff acting as a sort of consolation prize for the fact you’re not concentrating on hunter’s mark. At higher levels, it’s used for an immediate need to cover your ass, sweetened by an opportunity to get some bonus damage. In the latter case, it'll probably get dropped for another concentration spell (back to hunter’s mark). Here’s the problem; you only get an increase to movement on the same round you use the special attack. Without this increase to movement, the benefit of avoiding attacks of opportunity is somewhat lessened; your enemy will likely catch up to you, either sharing or having a slight gain on whatever your movement happens to be. It’s not useless, there’s a hidden tactical value to kiting in many combats. The spell doesn’t actually prime you to make use of its core effect outside a single round; so do we invent a reason to make it a duration spell? Or do we reset the damned thing to an instantaneous effect?

My Version (Instantaneous)

Our instantaneous effect is made to represent a shock attack of wind and blades, with supernatural force. Not necessarily you, by the way; you can apply this to someone else. It’s important for me that rangers can give specific attack bonuses to other people in their party. See, rangers have:

• The only early level combat companion in the PHB.

• A narrative tradition of bonding with animals and other critters.

• An ideal combat niche of providing rogue-like benefits to the entire party (i.e. leading ambushes).

Cast it on your wolf. Go ahead, it’s fine. Also, casting this lets you, you specifically make a weapon attack.

My Version (Duration)

The duration effect is, surprise surprise, a minigame. Use your maximum movement to get extra movement + advantage on an attack. If I were spending more time on this, I might make an early end condition based on not making an advantage weapon attack. In any case, there you have it.

Spell Redesign: Firebolt

A quickie today, folks. I’ve got a date.

Firebolt: Magic Spam

It’s one of the best attack cantrips, with some of the highest damage available to the highest number of classes, can be cast at-will, and whose only weakness is the number of creatures resistant to fire damage, for which you have other cantrips anyways (meaning you especially use this spell on creatures weak to fire).

In short, provides players with the greatest incentive to spam it incessantly rather than casting their coolest spells. To be clear, I don’t think I’m going to solve that today. It’s much easier for me to solve that via the other spells becoming more interesting as time goes on.

That being said, maybe I can work my magic. The primary issue I take with firebolt at present is how boring it is, though.

My Version (Cooler)

I don’t know how a small change, which assumes you suck and miss like a fool gives you the sensation of warping a barely containable chaos. The good news is, this is an alchemical practice, for which my talents and expertise may work in equal measure, but not necessarily with explanation. You do feel like you’re barely containing a force beyond your control, if you can in some way manage the failures you’re expected to make.

My Version (Even Cooler)

Aha! Now it explodes. Provided I keep this up with the cantrips, at the very least you’ll want to cast a variety, rather than spam the same thing over and over.

Spell Redesign: Fireball

Sunday freebie folks. We love fireball, it’s legendary, it’s been with us since Chainmail. That’s right,all the way back to Gary’s mass combat system!

One of the Greats

Great spell, does exactly what it’s supposed to. So, the process of updating it for our purposes here involves toning down the damage slightly, and adding a little minigame for additional damage.

My Version (Cooler)

There’s our minigame. Of course, I like minigames which scale in some way, so on we go.

My Version (Even Cooler)

But what about second minigame? Figured we could increase the friendly fire destructive potential while also tapping into thematic elements like fire being chaos let loose, the sort of dangerous magic you don’t play around with for fear of letting it consume you.

Until tomorrow, folks.

P.S.

I’m thinking of doing posts focused on updates and 2nd drafts of these spells. Maybe videos, these would work nicely as videos.

Spell Redesign: Silent Image

Note: this one also needed more time to bake. If I ever go more than a day without posting a spell, assume from here on it’s on account of a new sub-system related to spellcasting in some way.

Illusions suck. Humans have 5 senses, some other creatures have more/different senses, and what do the illusionists of D&D do with this knowledge? Visual illusions, occasionally sound, until said illusions can be interacted with physically. No explorations of other senses, they rarely if ever enforce outcomes, and are “DM-dependent” to have any effect at all.

Illusion of Decent Spells

Ah, but James! By not enforcing outcomes in illusion spells, you can actually make the spell better! No. Fireball would not be “better” if your DM decided on a whim whether it was contextually appropriate for the creatures targeted to take damage. When your DM is even involved in such a decision, there are several bounding boxes limiting the circumstances of said decision. Is someone able to stop you from casting the spell? No? Continue on. Fireball has a 20 ft radius. Is the character in the radius? If yes, continue on. The Dex save the spell provides you halves the damage. Is there some feature allowing them to ignore the damage on a success? If no, continue on. The spell deals 8d6 damage. Is the creature able to reduce the total damage or dice rolled to 0? If no, continue on. The damage dealt is fire damage. Aha! Even if there’s nothing specific about the creature (like an immunity to fire damage) preventing them from taking damage normally, you can consider matters of circumstance influencing the outcome, like whether the affected creatures are underwater. A DM could reasonably rule such a creature is unaffected by a fireball, completely within the bounding box offered by the rules.

And only in that bounding box.

We go through a bunch of other steps before we even get to consider whether the DM has any justification for deciding they don’t like the idea of random guards dying to a fireball. As God intended, of course. Other games may operate on this principle, and they have their own bounding boxes and compensatory mechanisms for players to continue enjoying the game (some good, some terrible). So why, pray tell, do illusions alone get beaten with design equivalent of an ugly stick? It’s sensory-altering magic, you are literally taking control of a creature’s senses to project something which isn’t there. In what world does that not have a set of dedicated, guaranteed effects for the player to take advantage of?

Perhaps one in which the designers have no minds or senses of importance with which to consider what might happen if magic took hold of them. They probably burned themselves on a stove once or twice though, so fireball stays safe.

So, here’s silent image, the first of the illusions we’ll tackle.

My System (Better)

I’m not going to spend a huge time explaining this, because you already know why I made it. Reaction rolls are, in this context and for the purpose of this discussion, smarter than your DM. A simple reaction roll allows us to ignore silly DM and player “thoughts” on whether an illusion should work, which are really just ways of expressing how intensely you wished the illusion did or did not work. We believe in the oracular power of the dice, and so the dice are trusted to fairly determine what human minds obviously can’t.

You roll on the table, it tells you how the enemy reacts/how effective the illusion is.

My Version (Better)

Alright, the first effect of note; creatures of a low enough CR automatically regard the illusion as accurate. “Accurate” is a useful word, because while a wolf might not be as easily cowed by an image of a bear if there’s no accompanying scent to back it up, your average guard is very much going to react to an image of a giant constrictor slithering towards him. This is how we set up the bounding box for adjudication; the DM has no reason to be involved in the decision of whether the creature “believes” the image is actually there, we’ve taken care of that for them. Additional bounding boxes like how different creatures react to time, scents, etc can be set up in the base game. We’ll imagine an alternate reality in which the designers were serious about making illusions effective, and did this simple work beforehand.

Higher CR critters can opt in to a reaction roll, giving us a very clear distinction between who reasonable can or can’t suspect the illusion. On top of that, we get a real measure of illusions becoming more powerful with higher level spell slots.

My Version (Even Better)

So if we understand illusions require a reaction roll to correctly adjudicate them, I can add an extra effect contingent on said table (and adjust the spell accordingly). That’s the special effect you see here.

Spell Redesign: Invisibility

Note: this one wasn’t actually supposed to go up last night, invisibility simply needed more time to bake, so we delayed release for a day.

The old-but-gold, invisibility is the source of many a long-lasting friendship between mages and thieves, assassins, and other ne’er-do-wells ever competing to be the very best at staying out of sight.

Can’t See Me

Ah, this kinda sucks. Like it’s great for what the designers want you to use it for, sneaking around undetected….provided you never do something that would otherwise make you detectable. Want to sneak attack the guard? Sorry! Gotta drop invisibility.

Alright, obviously it would be a huge problem if you could attack a bunch of people for an hour and remain invisible (regardless of whether some DMs have recognized easy solutions to said scenario, which are sadly not always contextually appropriate).

My Version (Better)

This was a good start, but it needed a day to bake (you’ll see why in a moment).

My Version (Even Better)

I realized while developing this, Dex checks (especially stealth) were going to literally end this spell early based on the first version. Fixed!

Also, as oft requested, damage can force you out of invisibility. 5th edition’s normal workaround for this is forcing a creature to make a concentration save…provided they’re the one concentrating on the spell. Otherwise, you have to find the creature who actually cast the spell to force em out. Not so any longer; we took away concentration, and instead let you damage the person to break the invisibility.

Alternative Invisibility

This is my ode to WebDM! They mentioned a version of invisibility like this on their episode discussing illusion magic. One such suggestion mentioned light bending around the creature, which would keep them from seeing on account of how eyes work! Oh, delicious. But I figured something like that might come from a transmutation mage, since it’s altering the actual world rather than producing false pockets of imagination.

Bonus for Bards

After the dissonant whispers redesign, I’ve decided to include additional notes for bards casting these spells (provided they’re on the bard spell list). Not going to attach it to every single spell (in their descriptions, anyways), but I can place them here.

A bardic or artistic implement used to cast this spell fills the subject of its next performance with an aura of passivity and poor vision.
The audience ignores loud noises and shocking visuals which are not part of the performance, and have disadvantage on checks made to perceive anything other than the subject of the performance. Those who witness the art or music performed will have a great deal of difficulty describing it.

Spell Redesign: Dissonant Whispers

Alright, here’s a funky one. This spell is, by far, one of my favorite spells in the entirety of the game.

So, why I am I redesigning it?

Bardic Magic

I was chatting with Aaron the Pedantic earlier today, and he mentioned a preference for a bard’s magical abilities represented by powers (in the old school lingo) rather than spells. I figured I would start playing around with bard spells, and add extra effects in tune (pun intended) with artist-as-mage themes.

My Version (A Little Better)

For this, I’m literally just cleaning up some language and adding details for a bard who casts this. It’s a great spell! Normally, you have to cast some stupidly designed concentration spell to get this kind of battlefield control. It uses the target’s reaction, they run away (feeding yourself and your allies a multitude of opportunity attacks), and on top of all of this, you get to deal 3d6 (that’s great) psychic damage (rarely resisted, fantastic damage type). I practically can’t believe it’s in the game. It’s not like it’s an encounter winning spell or overpowered, it’s just designed in such a way that the spell working provokes a better outcome for you and your party commensurate with how circumstantially prepared you are to take advantage of said outcome, all without punishing you for enjoying that sort of playstyle.

My Version (Better)

Alright, so I can’t get away with just pasting the spell + a minor social mechanic. So I shook her up a bit! There was a funky situation where I cast this spell on a construct in my buddy Caleb’s campaign (pretty sure it was a golem), and we had a brief back and forth on whether the spell could make them move. They were already immune to psychic damage, but could it make them move? They were immune to charmed, but could it make them move? It’s a golem, it doesn’t feel pain, but can the spell make it move?

Obviously I argued yes, for my own benefit. It got me thinking though, there were creatures of a semi-mindless orientation whose minds were almost entirely composed of magic. So, I popped a fun alternative effect for said critters.

Spell Redesign: Faerie Fire

Oh boy, a spell from nature and the fey with simple mechanics and no scaling potential! I wonder what James will complain about this time.

I can definitely see why some people think this should be readjusted as a cantrip. It offers a save for a very minor effect (though admittedly handy for invisible creatures), requires concentration (because of course it does), and like I said, it doesn’t scale. Disappointing!

• Light oriented magic can afford to be slightly more complicated

• Faerie light? Come on, surely there’s some roleplay potential. The spell just needs to take advantage of it.

Alright, we did a few things here.

• The spell now has a means of dealing damage, which is pleasant.

• The language has been clarified.

• If I’m expending a spell slot on such a small area of effect, I’m getting my magic’s worth. The Dex save to avoid the effect has been removed, except for invisible creatures.

• The spell can be used as a wall. for the purpose of fencing off an area or denying line of sight.

I think the most important thing we did was make the spell evolve as time goes on. At first, it highlights enemies. Then, it generates environmental hazards the party and enemy can maneuver around. As more spaces are taken by pillars of light, it becomes a wall of damaging light. Normally I might think this is a bit much for a 1st level spell, but given I’m attacking the entire list, I think it’s perfectly reasonable.

Besides, this isn’t even the final version.

My Version (Even Better)

Ah, I changed the spell’s level. It really did get to be too much for a 1st level spell! I see “duration” as the domain of the 2nd level spells when comparing them to 1st level spells. Also, I introduced a lovely social benefit, along with a bit of implied setting lore.

Do you think the fey dance in these pillars of light? Explains why dancing with them is so dangerous.

Spell Redesign: Lightning Bolt

It’s Sunday as I type this in Texas, so I’m taking a freebie and making a small adjustment to a spell I already mostly like. In this case, it’s introducing a legacy mechanic, and spicing it up a bit.

My Version (Cooler)

I toned down the damage slightly to compensate for the multiple damage procs, which helps keep this spell competitive with fireball. This is definitely cooler than fireball to be clear, but competitive with my eventual redesign of fireball. Competitive with the current version even, just with a leg up.

Maybe I’ll tackle that one next Sunday.

Also, you can change the line’s direction if you hit metal critters or critters wearing metal armor. Fun! You can potentially force the bolt to bounce in multiple different directions.

My Version (Even Cooler)

Ah, this is better. see, line spells are often regarded as the worst area of effects. Cones offer a degree of precision while still allowing you to target a decent number of creatures, a radius goes all in on accuracy through volume, and cubes work much like cones, except you can place them at range (usually at the cost of a smaller radius).

All of that is to say the line probably won’t hit many people. Oh well, at least with the prior version you could ensure people who were hit could at least get hit twice, right? I’ll do you one better; by allowing the return bolt to come back on a later turn, you and your allies can position the enemy specifically for the return bolt! Sure, you can prepare for the bolt in advance before you throw it, but it’s less of a priority if you think your caster buddy might cast lightning bolt in 3 turns vs positioning enemies for the return bolt you know is coming just after your turn.

Spell Redesign: Magic Missile

Note: this was also supposed to go up last night, and didn’t. Whoops!

It’s your favorite. It’s iconic. Everyone knows it.

You cast it. At the darkness.

Legacy Stunner to Fan Favorite

Magic missile is notable for the guaranteed hit on enemies, and the compensatory decent damage. The darts can be used for heavily damaging or wiping out low level mooks with a single spell!

Alas, as the levels go up, an upcast magic missile needs to dedicate all of its darts to a low level mook in order to even put a dent in it! What a shame, right? Iconic spell, everyone sees it, evokes whatever catchphrase your party has in stock for for your favorite spells, and it’s destined to fall by the wayside as the levels go up. Mage armor sticks around, shield sticks around, they keep their value for ages. It’d be neat if the offensive staple could as well.

Back in the days when spells increased in potency with your caster level, this would’ve been easy to manage. We no longer live in those days, and porting that solution to 5th edition would feel pretty cheap. Each dart only deals 1d4 + 1 extra damage, and each upcast level only gets you 1 extra dart.

My Version (Cooler)

This is what I come up with when I assume “magic missile should stay relevant” is a good and decent goal. As time goes on, you have more bonus action and reaction spells available, combats sometimes take an additional round or two, so magic missile cements itself as a kind of finisher. It’s an auto-hit, but if you wait a few rounds to pop it off,

Say, check out yesterday’s redesign of sword burst for a really fun interaction between these two spells.

My Version (Even Cooler)

When I posted this in Aaron the Pedantic’s discord (those guys have been great for these spells btw, huge props to Aaron for the excellent community he maintains), two folks pointed out it reminded them of the Storm mechanic of MTG. You can find the specifics of that online, but it involves recasting a spell for every time a spell was cast anytime(?) this round. I had to clarify at that point, I wasn’t intending on having magic missile pop off for every spell anyone had cast, that wouldn’t be appropriate for this game for a variety of reasons.

See, while people might be worried about book keeping with regards to tracking the number of spells they’ve cast….they’re already tracking the number of spells (of 1st level and above) they’ve cast on their character sheet. Part of being a spellcaster to begin with is crossing off expended spell slots! It may seem like large overhead, but it’s loaded on to something you’re already doing. Cantrips aren’t too bad either, you’ll remember you cast firebolt last round in a 3 round combat, even though you didn’t mark it on your character sheet.

In the process of discussing my clarification, it did strike me with the next complicating element of the spell: casting magic missile against enemy casters. We’re already trying to establish magic missile is just as valuable to the enterprising wizard as shield and mage armor at higher levels. Particularly, it’s a finisher; cast it at the end of combat to maximize its effects. So what if it was similarly a staple of mage duels?

That’s why it increases the number of darts when cast against people who’ve recently cast spells on you (note we didn’t specify harmful or not; DMs, go wild with dominate person and make the wizard nuke his cleric). In a duel, casting magic missile isn’t just a tactical decision, it’s a statement; it’s time in this duel came to an end. The enemy mage perhaps tries to cast shield, the attacking mage casts counterspell in response, and the darts fly in towards the now-helpless mage. This is the best kind of drama; the kind sourced right from the implied setting (which of course come right from the mechanics).

Enjoy!

Oh, the bookeeping for enemy casters isn’t bad either. We figure a 3 or 4 round combat, and magic missile only counts spells cast against you. So the enemy mage might’ve cast shield, misty step, etc etc but you only have to remember the fireball the mage actually smacked you with.

So, enjoy!

Spell Redesign: Sword Burst

Note: sorry for the wait, this was supposed to go up last night!

Sword burst is one of the coolest cantrips I’ve seen come out of the game from a thematic perspective. It’s not half bad mechanically speaking either! The cantrip popped up in the more recent Tasha’s, but I think it was first introduced in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (SCAG, for short) back when GISH support was in high demand. WOTC answered with a collection of 4 cantrips designed to aid the enterprising spell-blade in their travels, and they were pretty popular! Two in particular, booming blade and green flame blade (green flame!). Those two cantrips allowed you to incorporate a weapon attack into magic, a distinction of magic previously available only to the ranger (and you certainly weren’t playing rangers for their mechanical advntages).

The other two, sword burst and lightning lure, were thematically adjacent but had no such interplay with the mage’s weapons, and so fell to the dustbin of “just like every other cantrip”.

Sword Burst’s Opportunity

It’s a delightful cantrip, you make blades appear around you! I just want to use it more ways. Certainly if players are inclined to spam cantrips, I want them to do different things on different turns. So, here are some of the effects I’m thinking of for the redesign.

• Reward players for incorporating weapon attacks if not into the cantrip, into their turn.

• Allow players to incorporate the attack into the cantrip.

• Make it another one of those puzzle type cantrips, where meeting certain conditions incorporates more permanent effects.

• Make the cantrip a weapon attack??

• Boost range/conjuration effect.

• Make it a multi-part effect.

My Version (Better)

Alright, we’re starting off simple. Well, simple compared to the eventual change. We’re making the cantrip a little more complex to start off with, but doing it simply. You get it?

Anyways.

Sword Burst

Conjuration cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You can produce a panoply of spectral blades in a 5 ft radius or 10 ft line. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 force damage.

If you commit to casting this spell immediately before or after making a weapon attack, the weapon deals an additional 1d6 force damage.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).

So the spell gives you an incentive to whack someone before or after you cast it. If you do, you add a little extra force damage. On top of that, you can adjust the spell a bit in terms of its shape. If the player’s intent on spamming, at least they might do something different with the spell.

My Version (Even Better)

Now we’re talking!

Sword Burst

Conjuration cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You produce a panoply of spectral blades in a 5 ft radius around you or 10 ft line. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 force damage.

If you commit to casting this spell immediately before or after making a weapon attack, the weapon deals an additional 1d6 force damage until the end of your next turn.

If you deal force damage to a number of creatures or a number of times equal to your spellcasting ability modifier, you can change the spell in one of the following ways:

Give the spell a range of 30 feet (choosing a point you can see for the radius or line to originate from).
Make the spectral blades take the form of a bladed weapon you're holding (dealing its damage rather than the spell's).
Deny the Dexterity saving throw to avoid damage by making the blades nearly imperceptible.

You can change the spell multiple times by damaging the requisite number of creatures multiple times. The changes fade the next time you cast it.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).

Perhaps this is a mouthful. Not to worry, it’s still quite simple in play. Cast the spell, spectral swords. Your weapon deals a bit of extra damage if you whack someone with it. All the rest of the text is an optional minigame of sorts to change the spell’s effects. But here’s the fun part; the optional minigame bit increases the chances (for at least two of the 3 options) to perpetuate the minigame. You cast a different spell or use a weapon which deals force damage, damage a bunch of critters, and turn loose with this spell. Now if the player spams the spell, they’re more likely to make it look and act differently every time they cast it. Different in small ways, perhaps, but many of said small ways add up. They can even change it multiple times!

I think that counts as a success.

Spell Redesign: Create Bonfire

Have we done a cantrip before? No, I don’t think we have. I attached one to the last redesign, but it was a new spell. I don’t like the idea of cantrips as magic replacements for swords, you spam them like you would regular attacks. A bit disappointing, they’re barely different beyond disparate damage types and ranges. Soooooo perhaps we remake cantrips as magic that has the complexity or potential of a normal spell, but you have to tease it out. Cantrips, from here on out, will not be the simple at-will attack magic. They’ll still get used for that purpose I’m sure, but more importantly, cantrips will represent magic leaking into the world. If you tease them out long enough, or skillfully enough, you’ll have the power of a regular spell on your hands.

That is, After All, What the Bonfire is For

The beautiful part of messing with a cantrip is I can with absolute confidence make small changes to make them better. They’re so short and simple! Dex save or take fire damage. Concentration for no apparent reason, deals less damage than firebolt, and gets passed over by such past level 3 or so. Creating a bonfire is neat, though. Everyone loves a nice campfire.

My Version (Better)

Right then! First thing’s first, as we always do, we get rid of concentration. Oh nonono, the archmage maintaining concentration on a tornado couldn’t possibly have a small nearly-self-sustaining fire going at the same time. I swear the devs are abject idiots sometimes, why do they behave like this? Are there no rolled up newspapers within reach?

Anyways, I give you an incentive to make the bonfire a permanent fixture while also making sure the lack of concentration is at least slightly compensated for. If you want to keep the bonfire going so you don’t have to cast it again, all you need is for a bit of fire to get stuck in the bonfire. Throw a torch in, overlap a fireball, and

Not only that, feed it enough fire and you’ve got your camp set for the night. Say, bet we could use that.

My Version (Even Better)

Nice. A lot of these spells are combat oriented, and will likely remain so. Who’s gonna stop me from adding exploration or social effects though? Crawford gonna break down my door? I can’t really generate a mode of play from a cantrip, I’m sorry. I’ve attached other modes of play to 5th Edition before and it took a lot of work, which involves digging out a new foundation for the game.

Spell Redesign: Hail of Thorns

Back in the day, we thought casting this spell would apply it to a single piece of ammunition. If you missed with that one, too bad! The spell’s wasted. We were new to the game back then, and a little less careful about reading the rules. Casting the magic on the ammunition seemed pretty natural! While harsh, our lax readings of this spell also yielded some benefits. For instance, we didn’t notice it was a concentration spell, because why would we assume a spell which had an instantaneous effect upon meetings its condition forced you to concentrate on it?

Poorly-Aged Math

You never seem to know whether a trpg’s math has gone the way of wine or milk until you uncork the phb and take a swig. This bottle’s from 2014, and it already smells like rotten eggs. Hail of thorns initially looks like a good spell, and frankly, that’s because it is (when you first get it). It deals an extra d10 of piercing damage, it gets added to a ranged weapon attack, and you get to cast it as a bonus action. Oh, and it explodes on critters within 5 feet of the target. It feels like the ranger gets a whole bunch of ways to layer damage and effects, perfectly tuned to their present circumstances. Once you go up a level or two, things start to change; hunter’s mark pops off on every successful attack against the selected enemy, whereas you could miss several times before getting hail of thorns to finally pop off. Getting the damage to explode is nice, but all affected are offered a Dex save to avoid half the damage. Single digit damage values are still effective at 2nd and 3rd level, and attaching them to a ranged weapon attack will see you downing enemies in far fewer strikes. Besides, the enemies don’t have bonuses high enough to make the saves except by luck (basically flipping a coin, but it’s weighted in your favor).

Once you get to 4th level or so, the enemies stop falling so easily, and the spell is roughly as effective when the enemy fails their save as when they succeed; an extra 4-8 damage just isn’t as important at those levels. Understand though, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can rebuild this spell; we have the technology.

Rangers don’t get many spells to begin with, but they also don’t have a massive list to pick from to begin with. Because they have a spell which already works for all combats, including a few niche spells which can outperform it in niche ways isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Hell, this is the one advantage of making hunter’s mark a spell (bad, dumb) over a class feature (good, obvious choice). The rest of your choices are just which circumstantial improvements over hunter’s mark you want (you could do this with hunter’s mark as a class feature too, just forget you read any of this).

So let’s go back over the problems:

• Damage which is good for the level the ranger gets this (2nd level) becomes tedious by the time they can scale it (5th level). In other words, single digit values.

• The range doesn’t scale. This was a red herring for the redesign; turning this thing into an mediocre area blast very quickly turns it into a friendly fire concern. But without it, scaling damage maintains this spell as a niche precision damage spell with area damage as a treat.

• The spell offers a save to half the damage. Becuase rangers aren’t going to focus on their Wisdom scores as much as their primary physical score(s), the DC for this save is hardly going to be impressive. They have a significant chance of rolling a 3 or lower for the spell’s damage, which then gets halved to 1 on a success. Not a devastating roll around level 2-3, but it becomes an unacceptable waste around level 4-5.

• Rangers are afforded virtually no means of padding spell damage with static values or additional opportunities to adjust their damage rolls.

The funky thing is, hail of thorns scales well. I genuinely mean really well. As you can see, the damage goes up by 1d10 per level. 2d10 isn’t amazing for a 2nd level spell, but take the bonus action to cast, the ranged attack, and the detonation radius into account, and it’s reasonably competitive with other 2nd level spells. Not the best, but I’m not putting it in the doghouse just yet. Rangers are half casters though, so they regrettably can’t take full advantage of this scaling. They’re 5th level by the time they have access to 2nd level spells, and as mentioned earlier, this is competing with the constant and consistent damage of hunter’s mark. The opposed spell gets to scale by virtue of an increasing number of attacks, which rangers can acquire far earlier than higher level spell slots.

While figuring out how to redesign this, I was tempted in a few different directions. Make it a 2nd level spell dealing 3d10 damage, keep it as a 1st but increase base damage to 2d10, make it a cantrip for crying out loud and change the damage to your Wisdom modifier, there were plenty of angles. Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Increasing base damage inflates its value at low levels even higher, but only delays the inevitable point at which it becomes a poor choice at higher levels. If I make it competent for level 5, it one shots critters at level 3 and down. That’s practically the definition of a 2nd level spell (in this context).

• Scaling the range along with the damage introduce friendly fire concerns, while barely addressing the lacking damage values and diminishing the spell’s niche. You pick this spell because you want a precision strike to have some collateral damage, turning it into an area blast is going to force comparisons with the rest of your area blasts.

• Turning this thing into a cantrip complicates matters by making me introduce cantrips to rangers, which I admittedly like and am now thinking of as I type this. I know for a multitude of reasons this can’t be the redesign or replacement though, so the cantrip will be added as a fun footnote.

• Padding damage intrinsically, such as with a ranger’s Wisdom modifier could make this a powerful competitor with hunter’s mark, ensuring the damage is practically always a step above what the aforementioned could offer. I’d be tempted to attach concentration to it, if I was really concerned about players stacking these hunter’s mark and hail of thorns.

My Version (Better)

The theme of thorns exploding outwards is very easy to work with. Evocative! Exciting! Ranger magic excites me. As such, my primary concern here was just removing the primary competition with every ranger’s favorite spell and degenerate the restrictions on damage.

I realized the Dex save was literally only there to scale it poorly; at low levels, the spell maybe goes from overkill to getting a hefty chunk of damage. At mid level, it turns the thing into a massive opportunity cost. So we get rid of the Dex save, we get rid of the absolutely moronic cost of concentration for a 1 time effect, and leave it be.

My Version (Even Better)

Now we’re talking. I mean this might be too strong, but I find damage over time effects to be a healthy means of balancing spells to stay competitive. I mean, that’s what hunter’s mark is, for instance. Now the difference between these two is hunter’s mark allows you to keep pricking enemies for an extra 1d6 per hit for hours on end, whereas this offers you a much faster damage over time effect. Of course, the DOT effect can be cleared early on this effect, and still requires you to attack them individually for said extra damage.

Bonus Cantrip

Ah, take it or leave it. I don’t know how I feel about this one. It’s an iteration of something I found much easier to accomplish in a card game!

Spell Redesign: Flame Blade

Today, we’re attacking the druid spell list in an attempt to mess around with a funky spell list, which in spite of suffering from 5th editions many problems is still one of my favorites. The druid spell list taps into the unfortunate and lazy concentration mechanic nearly as often as the wizard spell list does, but also has a great spread of secondary and conditional effects which feel very old school (in a good way). Call lightning intensifies under harsh and stormy weather, for instance. It feels primal, like the druid should!

So, I thought a change of pace was in order, and I’d edit a what I normally consider to be a good spell, just to show you how different executions can make something more interesting. Most of these redesigns have included an iteration of the spell which makes it do something unique.

Perfectly, Pleasantly Average

Druids aren’t nearly as squishy as wizards, and thanks to the health pool afforded to them by wildshape, they can engage in a bit of good ol’ fashioned melee combat.

So, the thing doesn’t let you attack with it more than once in a given turn. Well that hardly seems fair! Sure, the druid doesn’t really get extra attacks. But what if they could attack on a bonus action? What if someone multiclasses? It’s shaped just like a scimitar, acts just like a weapon, can’t I do weapon-things with it? Not a big deal, it’s just an artifact of some linguistic oversight, and making the attack cost an action rather than be resolved as every other attack in the game.

Note: there’s an argument to be made that attacking with the scimitar is technically the attack action, potentially allowing other weapons to be used provided the wielder can attack multiple times.

So with that in mind, what else could we do?

My Version (Spicier)

So this is fun! You get to cast multiple flame blades, keep them going, keep using them while wildshaped, and probably look like a badass doing it.

You may notice this is the first spell I’ve kept the concentration tag for. That’s because while the concentration system of 5th edition is a gross overcompensation for the degenerate play and terrible design of legacy players, and never should have been implemented as written much less applied to 90% of duration spells, it is still technically a balancing mechanic which is uniquely suited to this particular spell. What’s more, even if the character who uses this spell isn’t using the other redesigns of this series, they’re still getting really great bang for their buck using their one concentration spell.

My Version (Even Spicier)

Thanks to Mari for getting me past writer’s block on this one.

I don’t have much commentary on this one. It does something different, it changes based on your environment, and has a bit more of that wildfire flavor. It also lets your druid empower the party if they’re lacking magic weapons or want fire-based attacks.

Fun!

Spell Redesign: Arcane Lock (and Arcane Door)

There’s a class of Old School (up to 2nd edition) and even Legacy (3/X and its Consequences) spells which made it into the game purely on account of D&D being a brand, rather than a game. Arcane lock has been part of the game for 50 years or whatever, so arcane lock makes it into D&D.

Locked by Mechanics

Arcane lock allows a spellcaster to magically lock a thing you could open. That’s it. It adds some stipulations from people who don’t need to worry about the lock, plus some nonsense about increased difficulty in picking the lock, PLUS some more stuff about turning off the spell for a little while. That’s all it does.

Perhaps the weirdest quirk of arcane lock is the fact you can suppress it with a 2nd level spell designed to open locks…or can annihilate it completely with one of the most common 3rd level spells out there. Dispel magic! It doesn’t even require a roll. See, dispel magic lets you end a spell early if the dispel magic is cast at higher level than the target spell. Arcane lock is by default, 2nd level. You can cast it at a higher level (for no reason other than to ward against this possibility), but there it is.

All in all, even if we took the function this spell is meant to represent in-game as being worthwhile (which is to keep something under lock and key), it’s really bad at doing its job.

Locked by Circumstance

This is going to get worse before it gets better. See, there’s really no reason for this spell to exist in the game by default. See, you don’t have a use for a lock in 5e. You don’t put things under lock and key, you carry them around with you, and so long as they’re on your person, they’re generally safe. You don’t put people under lock and key, you’re itinerant adventurers by and large, and even if you did, you’re more likely to hire people to solve the problem of “keep this person locked up” than you are entrust it to a single spell. Certainly nothing of 2nd level, anyways. Hell, jails probably exist already, in which case you cart your (still living, for some reason) adversary off to the slammer.

Locking doesn’t do anything important! You could attempt to block off a fleeing or attacking enemy by virtue of a doorway, but then you’re stuck trusting the very suspect durability of the door itself. I’ve reworded these points in a more direct fashion below:

• Players don’t have strongholds or things they’re worried about keeping safe (beyond that which is on their person, anyways). Anything they do is circumstantial and generally resolved in far more proactive ways than using a crappy spell.

• Even if they did, there’s no mechanics or even a basic play structure for enemies coming to take your stuff away. There is no standard of player patrons (a la BROSR style play) attacking your keeps, nor are there procced events like “thieves come to still your crap”.

• Even if there were, what impact is a locked door going to have? How do you evaluate the effect of a locked door on an invasion when it’s NPCs doing the invading?

Strategic Considerations Open Strategic Play

So, let’s think. The problems I discussed above are much like the issues I discussed in our cordon of arrows redesign. Spells with more strategic than tactical use cases see less play unless they’re good enough for the player to try and force using them. Cordon of arrows doesn’t just get passed over on account of being a more strategic spell; it also does crappy damage and will never scale. If you want players to use the spell as part of predicting and attempting to subvert or defuse encounters in advance (i.e. engage in strategy), the spell must produce a more desirable outcome. Otherwise, engaging in strategy is a waste, and the player feels like they’d getting trolled by the designers for not just rushing in and casting hunter’s mark like they were supposed to.

What I did not discuss in that redesign was how making cordon of arrows more appealing (and thus getting more play) makes the situations cordon of arrows is meant to help with more appropriate for the game. Ambushes while the part is resting, enemies coming from what was thought to be a cleared corridor, etc. It’s supposed to be a defensive spell! So the more use it sees, the more appropriate it is to put the party on defense!

Sure, you can say it’s always appropriate to put the party on defense, but that’s something you are doing to them, rather than a more natural part of the game where players regularly put defensive strategies to use. In this scenario, the players are putting their feet on the gas. It doesn’t matter how shy of a DM you are, your players are inviting you to respond in kind. This is a problem I have with traps, which I’ll be sure to chat about some other time. So, cordon of arrows invites the DM to throw a few skeletons at the party during the night, because the party is reminding them such an encounter is expected of the game they’re playing every time they cast it.

How does this apply to arcane lock? Well, if the spell is appealing enough to cast it often enough, the players remind the DM certain creatures and NPCs might want to get at the player’s valuables every time they cast it.

Let’s see if it actually works.

My Version (Better)

Arcane Lock

2nd-level abjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small crystal key worth at least 100 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Until dispelled

Choose a closed door, window, or hatch you can perceive within range. Warding magic locks it, and forms a knob or latch which you and creatures you choose can use to open it (barring other mechanisms locking it).

Roll 1d6; the object takes on a spell which is cast at the resulting level when broken through or picked.

If you don't know a spell of the resulting level, you instead choose a spell you do know, which will be cast at the resulting level.

The knock spell suppresses this spell for 10 minutes. Any magic used to dispel the arcane lock requires a roll against 10 + the lock's level, regardless of whether the dispelling effect could bypass a roll entirely.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you add +1 to the 1d6 roll for each slot level above 2nd.

Aha! This makes your magic locks pack a punch. A hefty punch! Infuse a spell potentially higher level than the slot you used to cast it? Suddenly sleep, which has been poorly implemented in 5th edition, could be used as a trap spell if you get to cast it at 6th level for the price of a 2nd level slot.

My Version (Another Spell?)

So this is fun, I’ve always liked the idea of certain spells having prerequisites to them which were slightly more advanced than “limited to this class”. They may need to be learned from a specific creature, learned through research or gaining a stronghold, or (in this case), through knowing a different spell. Given 5e designers were too preoccupied with appeasing legacy players, it’s no surprise they avoided more sophisticated means of evaluating a spell’s value. More damage, more valuable. Concentration, less valuable. By making certain spells prerequisites of other spells, we can increase their value and make players more likely to make use of the edge cases they’re most useful in. Maybe you don’t like edge case spells, and I get it, I point out why they diminish the value of spells all the time in these essays.

However, if you already have the spell, you have some incentive to use it for whatever win condition or complicating factor the spell is supposed to introduce! So, we give you more incentive to have the spell to begin with, and manipulate other circumstances to make the most of it. It’s a nice barrier against players choosing the same spells over and over again (of which this is merely one of many, and of which none are present in 5th edition).

So, what does Arcane Door do?

Arcane Door

4th-level abjuration, can only be learned by a creature who knows arcane lock

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small crystal key worth at least 100 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Until dispelled

Choose an opening (such as a windowsill, doorway, or hole) you can perceive within range. Warding magic forms an invisible near-impenetrable barrier in the opening, barring egress from one direction.

When you cast this spell, roll 1d6. The opening is infused with a spell you know which affects an area or creature. If you don't know a spell of the result's level, you instead choose a spell you do know, which will be cast at the result's level.

Each time a creature attempts to bypass the door, the infused spell activates. For the duration of the activated spell, the magical barrier fades, then reforms. If the creature who activated the door makes it through during this time, the spell ends early.

The knock spell suppresses this spell for 10 minutes. Any magic used to dispel the arcane door requires a roll against 10 + the lock's level, regardless of whether the dispelling effect could bypass a roll entirely.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you add +1 to the 1d6 roll for each slot level above 4th.

It’s just like arcane lock! Except this spell fires off a repeated blast of energy. It does this at the cost of an effect you’ll notice in the text; the spell ends early if the critter attempting to pass through the door actually makes it. This brings an interesting conundrum to mind! Do you choose a spell with an instantaneous duration, so as to prevent creatures from actually making it through? Do you choose a spell with its own warding qualities, such as a wall spell, to keep critters at bay? Do you bank on an enchantment or illusion turning creatures away by virtue of their newly guided will? Tricky!

This would definitely need another pass as I get exposed to more and more combinations, some of which are acceptable “the players win” scenarios, others of which are “this might be the most powerful warding spell to exist unless I fix it”. Perhaps changing the duration would be sufficient; maybe this kind of warding magic can only be sustained for an hour, or a day.

Spell Redesign: Dust Devil

For today’s redesign, we’ve got a bit of a freebie. A spell which could be cool, nothing about it keeps you from having a good time with some minor changes, the devs simply missed the mark. Having simply missed the mark, rather than developed something which clashed with the rest of the system, this post will be short. Also, It’s nearly midnight and I’ve just come home from a long shift.

Dust Devil’s Quirks

Dust devil looks like the good bones of a potentially good spell, as we look at it. But it also raises a whole bunch of questions, all of which make us wonder if there’s a second draft deep in the bowels of WOTC’s offices.

• Why doesn’t the cloud inflict additional effects? It picks up gravel and such, but doesn’t interact with other gaseous or fluid-like effects.

• Why does it deal a single d8? It has poor damage. Like, really poor. Fireball is one level higher than this thing and absolutely blows it out of the water. There are some 1st level spells that blow this out of the water. Hey, aren’t tornado looking things supposed to be cool?

• Why does it push creatures away? Why not suck them in? Sure, that wouldn’t do much with the rest of the spell, but the idea is you make the effect and then make it useful.

My Version (Better)

Oh, and the text for you to copy (this gets updated depending on suggestions).

Dust Devil

2nd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: M, V (a pinch of dust)
Duration: 1 minute

A 10-ft high elemental twister appears in an unoccupied 5 ft space you can see within range. On each of your turns afterwards, the twister grows by 5 feet, and you can move it up to 20 feet as a bonus action.

Creatures who end their turn within 5 feet of the twister must make a Strength saving throw or suffer 2d8 bludgeoning damage. If the twister rolls over a gaseous, fluid, or dusty/gravelly terrain or effect, the twister sucks up the effect until the next time it grows (afflicting creatures it damages with the affect, such as with the stinking cloud spell).

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the twister grows an additional 5 feet taller per round, and an additional 5 feet in diameter.

A bit better! Clunky language, but I think you understand what it’s getting at. More damage, more interactions with other effects.

My Version (Even Better)

Man I was so close to just wrapping this up but I remembered something. The text:

Dust Devil

2nd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: M, V (a pinch of dust)
Duration: 1 minute

A 10-ft high elemental twister appears in an unoccupied 5 ft space you can see within range. On each of your turns afterwards, the twister grows by 5 feet, and you can move it up to 20 feet as a bonus action.

Creatures who end their turn within 5 feet of the twister must make a Strength saving throw or get sucked into the twister, getting ejected from its top and suffering 2d8 bludgeoning damage (half on a success). If the twister rolls over a gaseous, fluid, or dusty/gravelly terrain or effect, the twister sucks up the effect until the next time it grows (afflicting creatures it damages with the affect, such as with the stinking cloud spell).

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the twister grows an additional 5 feet taller per round, and an additional 5 feet in diameter per round.

Aha! One little change. Did you know fall damage is a thing? Fall damage is a thing. The twister already grows taller grows taller from round to round. They suck things in! Those things fall out!

Free damage!

Until next time.

Spell Redesign: Cordon of Arrows

This second level spell is one of the few non-concentration spells rangers have access to, but sees virtually no play, as it fails to mesh with the core gameplay and its assumptions.

Ken: what is darkvision?

No. Today’s redesign won’t be nearly as vitriolic as yesterday’s, if only because it needs no vitriol to be fixed.

Ranger’s Minefield

Ignored and alone, cordon of arrows is a curio in the ranger’s arsenal. It has a long duration with no concentration requirement, but players don’t acquire it until level 5 on account of the spell cost. It allows the ranger to pop a few (four) specifically non-magical pieces of ammunition in the ground (limited only to arrows and crossbow bolts), which fly up and deal a measly 1d6 damage if a target fails their Dexterity saving throw.

Casting the spell at higher levels only allows you to plant more pieces of ammunition. If you’re smart, you can see where the frustrations begin.

Identifying the Fix

Looking over the spell, it’s clear it cuts off the typical means of improving it in virtually any capacity.

• The spell’s damage die is fixed. It won’t deal more than 1d6 per ammo expended without some class feature giving you a flat bonus, and you won’t find them applying to this spell (much less in the ranger’s class features to begin with).

• You can’t use magical ammunition. Even if the ammunition still only dealt 1d6 damage to the target, you could potentially get some additional effects out of the spell by forcing a save vs conditions, penalties, etc. The spell only deals damage.

• Using different ammunition doesn’t really have any bearing on the effects. Not many tables use non-magical special ammunition, like exploding or quicksilver rounds. Certainly not when the game first came out, though some designers have attempted to tackle that problem. I created a free equipment supplement focused on this lack of content. But without those, the player is left choosing between heavy crossbow bolts and short bow arrows, which for the purposes of this spell, apparently have no difference at all.

Yeah, this thing isn’t going to get better no matter what you do or what you find or really what you even gain passively by virtue of you and your buddies leveling up. Shame. Sucks!

My Version (Better)

This version of the spell fixes pretty much all of the troubles I mentioned in the article’s opening. It scales, it’s open to more ammo types (including those of a magical persuasion).

My Version (Even Better)

This version clears up some ambiguity with the damage while also providing it with a larger damage set. It might not be clear what ammo gets what damage, so we say the arrow deals max damage to indicate it’s associated with the weapon. It might not be obvious at first blush, but it’s a lower word count fashion of saying something obvious if you’re familiar with 5e.

I inflated the damage value to the maximum of the ammunition for two reasons. First, higher damage ammunition is usually more valuable, letting you spend more to do more. Magical ammunition in particular is more valuable and more damaging, so maximizing it lets you synergize with the spell in a fun way.

Second, using the ammunition with the spell generally prevents you from using any features or bonuses made for weapon attacks. You can (probably) get more damage with the sharpshooter feat, bracers of archer, magic bows, you get the drift. But you might not. This adjustment evens the two out a little, just to make it an attractive option for more spellcaster-y rangers.

Spell Redesign: Beast Bond

I’m enjoying redesigning spells for 5th edition, as I can make this a daily post, maybe put it on dtrpg (after uploading the whole catelogue here for free), and solidify my own thoughts on magic design.

First on the chopping block is beast bond, an atrocity emblematic of how bad Wizards of the Coast is at doing anything, but especially spells.

Here’s the original text of beast bond:

Beast Bond

1st Level Transmutation
Casting time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 10 minutes (Concentration)

You establish a telepathic link with one beast you touch that is friendly to you or charmed by you. The spell fails if the beast’s Intelligence is 4 or higher. Until the spell ends, the link is active while you and the beast are within line of sight of each other. Through the link, the beast can understand your telepathic messages to it, and it can telepathically communicate simple emotions and concepts back to you. While the link is active, the beast gains advantage on attack rolls against any creature within 5 feet of you that you can see.

This is worded quite miserably, so let’s separate the spell into benefits and conditions:

You gain telepathy with a beast:

• Provided their Int score is 3 or lower (and you have no means of changing this).

• Provided they remain within 30 feet of you for the spell’s duration.

You also grant the beast advantage on attack rolls:

• Provided their Int score is 3 or lower (and you have no means of changing this).

• Provided they’re attacking a creature within 5 feet of you.

• Provided they’re within 30 feet of you.

• Provided you can see them.

• Provided you can see the target of their attack.

Most impressive, they chose to put this embarrassing block of text in the Elemental Evil’s player companion (and later reappeared in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. I figured they would’ve given themselves and excuse and placed it in the player’s handbook. First time designing spells guys, you know how it is! Try not to be mad! Didn’t even give themselves some leeway!

So, why does this suck?

You can rarely even cast the spell.

In order for the spell to succeed, it must be cast on:

• A creature with the “beast” type.

• A creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower.

As it turns out, the list of creatures with these intersecting qualities is tiny. It includes fan favorites such as the mighty octopus, the boar, the owl, the riding horse. Hey, riding horse isn’t so bad. Panthers, wolves, poisonous snakes, and lions all have 3 or less, meaning they’re at an important spot in an upcomming venn diagram.

There’s a few precious higher level beasts as well; giant scorpions, mammoths, t-rexes, allosauruses, orcas, etc. I’ve grouped these examples (which take up the majority of the 5e eligible critters, mind you) intentionally. See, we first have eligible creatures which the players can easily come across in their travels, but can’t be used to fight. Well you theoretically can use the octopus to fight. It’s a bad idea, though. What’s it going to do? It’s an octopus! Even if you think of a clever idea, is advantage on attack rolls going to make or break whether our beloved cephalopod succeeds? Frankly I’m offended it’s even eligible for this spell, it should have a way higher intelligence.

I’ll skip to the big critters next. Orcas, mammoths, and t-rexes. Have a lot of t-rexes for sale in your campaign? No? How about orcas? Sea World keeping the market cornered, huh? Ca we give mammoths a-tropical campaign, alright that sounds like a no. If you do come across these critters, they’re combat encounters in 5th edition. Combat. That’s why they’re so high level. 5e doesn’t have taming mechanics. You’re allowed to have a pet if you choose a specific subclass of a specific class in 5e, and it’s not allowed to get better. There are a few player options made available since which let you get way cooler pets, but they’re limited to things other than beasts. No t-rexes. These creatures can be used to fight, but can’t be encountered frequently.

There are some spells which let you pick up animals as friends. Theoretically, your druid buddy could cast some of these to acquire one of these guys, temporarily. After that, you could give them advantage on attack rolls for 10 minutes, provided you kept a ready supply of enemies within 5 feet of you. And succeed on all of your concentration checks, because it’s a concentration spell, because WOTC hates you.

Hates you.

That’s why you need a separate friend in your party to turn these higher level combat encounters friendly for you, by the way. If you’re planning on using beast bond, you can’t be on taming duty. So, we’ve safely eliminated higher level creatures as a use case for this 1st level spell, along with the 0 level/CR critters which make up the vast majority of eligible critters. This brings us to our last group of critters.

We finally come to the small list of beasts on our already tiny list of creatures eligible for the spell’s effects which can potentially appear with frequency, and can in fact be used to fight. The reason being, the beastmaster ranger can pick these critters as their animal companion. If you don’t have a beastmaster in the party, these creatures no longer show up with any degree of frequency, and get relegated to the same class of critters which can fight but can’t be encountered often enough to justify taking the spell.

Given the frequency issue, I could’ve based this entire series of thoughts on the spell’s utility to the beastmaster archetype of the ranger alone, since it’s the only character option for whom this spell is even remotely usable. Indeed, many of the restrictions on the spell (which take up more text than the benefits) appear to be made with preventing the beastmaster from using this on their pets too often. So, who is the beastmaster picking for a pet? Well, turns out lions actually exceed the CR requirement of beastmaster pets, so they go with the mammoths and orcas. We’re left with panthers, poisonous snakes, and wolves. My my, what a list! WOTC sure put a lot of work into a 98 word spell just to make it relevant to 3 creatures. Panthers are a pretty good critter to cast this on, all things considered. They can pounce if they move in a 20 foot straight line, which can potentially knock an enemy prone. They have a 50 ft movement speed, meaning they can run back and forth 20 feet if you really want them too. They’ll even stay in range of the spell the entire time. Advantage is great for these guys.

How about poisonous snakes? Well, these guys tend to have crappy hitpoints, so they’re not the most impressive frontline fighters, but beastmasters give them a fighting chance thanks to a measly replacement of 4 x the ranger’s level in hitpoints. Wonderful. With advantage on attacks, the snake has a better chance of hitting and potentially inflicting some decent poison damage on the target. Lovely, two good creatures for an entire spell.

Oh wait! I forgot wolves. Wolves….have pack tactics.

Pack Tactics. The (creature) has advantage on an attack roll against a(n enemy) if at least one of the (creature)’s allies is within 5 feet of the (enemy) and the ally isn't incapacitated.

The effect of this spell. But always on. For free. Just for having it there. Without a spell.

Thanks, Wizards of the Coast. A whole first level spell with a whole list of 2 creatures one character archetype can maybe use this on if they don’t feel like casting hunter’s mark, assuming they were somehow tricked into playing this notoriously bad archetype by some less-than well meaning friends.

My Version (Better)

And I’ll copy the text here if you prefer as such.

Beast Bond

1st-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a tuft of fur)
Duration: 10 minutes

You gain telepathy with a beast of your choice within range. The spell fails if the beast’s Intelligence is 6 or higher. While within range, you and the beast can share thoughts and emotions, and the beast gains advantage on attacks against creatures within 5 feet of you.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell at 2nd level or higher, the spell can affect a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 higher for every level above 1st.

Nice. The first thing we do is globally increase the number of eligible creatures by boosting the eligible Intelligence to 5. It covers a lot more creatures. Not only that, but we allow the ranger to increase the number of eligible features further by using a function already present in the player’s handbook; casting the spell using a higher level spell slot. Maybe the initial change doesn’t include everything our aspiring beast tamer wants, but we can allow them to expend more resources.

We also cleaned up the core text to remove stupid restrictions, reducing it to about half the original’s word count. The beast gains advantage on critters within 5 feet of you, and has telepathy while it stays in range (which was updated to 30 feet). We also removed the concentration tag, because it had absolutely no good reason to be there and WOTC attaches it to duration spells by default.

The product of laziness.

My Version (Even Better)

And the text:

Beast Bond

1st-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a tuft of fur)
Duration: 10 minutes

You gain telepathy with a beast of your choice within range. The spell fails if the beast’s Intelligence is 6 or higher. While within range, you and the beast can share thoughts and emotions, commanding the beast requires no actions on your part, and the beast gains advantage on attacks against creatures within 5 feet of you.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell at 2nd level or higher, the spell can affect a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 higher for every level above 1st.

This spell basically just exists for the Beastmaster, right? So why don’t we let them overcome one of the most infuriating restrictions on beast companions and let the pet do its own thing by casting a spell? It only lasts for 10 minutes, and rangers are half-progression spellcasters, so the spell gives them a neat bump in power at the cost of a heavily limited resource. Like they’re supposed to do. Anyone else who’s doing some action-restricted commands on beasts can also benefit from this spell, I think there’s a few effects which also require actions to command (like some of the dominate spells).

On top of that, if their character is dumb enough, you could potentially cast this on your druid companion. Or on a polymorphed party member. Polymorph them into a t-rex, perfect.

Finally, a post I can make daily.