Spell Variation Pt II

[Albert Sales]

   The system I mentioned is lost deep in archives (I have more cds than I realized). Simply put, I had looked over spells, and assigned weights to the various effects based on the BMCs of spells with those effects. I also considered variable effect spells (Pain and fire darts are all that come to mind). After adding all these factors up, I made a progressive chart to show what a good, neutral BMC would be. From this, applicability could be applied.
   Example: The Law Wizard wishes a spell to Imbue Flame into weapons. He previously owned an item that granted Creature Tie: Flaming Stead, and Lawful Fire is his primary supernatural tongue. The spell has a duration of 2 turns (EL power ...). The effect adds the EL to the WSB of any weapon, converting the whole damage into fire damage (for fire resistance). Duration: 5 (Extended), Effect  1 (minor) Total: 6
   I remember 6 fell into BMC 2 range. Since it is being designed as Law, that will drop it by ONE for applicability (well, actually by 3 for him as a personal spell, but BMC 1 is the minimum: 1 Alignment 1 Tongue 1 Tie). So it is a Law Spell BMC: 1

  Wounds came up one time by someone who wanted to be able to imbue the leaching effect into other people's weapons. Wounds is BMC 1, but the modified effect is moderate (3) with Extended Duration (5). They wanted to be able to cast it at Very Close range (1). The change in the nature of the damage strengthens it, so the effect is stronger (fire damage is easily resisted, life damage is impossible to resist, and can hurt creatures that you can't fight normally) for a +2 special modifier. 11 makes it BMC 3. However, when we discussed it further, it came out that they wanted it to effect arrows as well, increasing the versatility and range. That would make the BMC 5. It was not viewed as having an applicability benefit (wounds comes from the life-draining ability of creatures, which is not transfered through weapons). The BMC was 3 for Melee or 5 for any weapon. They gave up.


   I also mentioned that with an impossible "Skill Roll" I would allow a factor in a spell to be changed. The EL and BMC of the spell would determine how much freedom I would allow. For example, a damaging spell has little effect on structures. Under the Strenth stat, it describes breaking things, and each point on that chart is worth about 4 hp. Even modified, a fire dart isn't going to do much. However, I would allow a smokeless flame to burn down just about any door if modified. The fire Dart was used to hit (and thus heat) an enemy's weapon. Other examples would include and extra exclusions (maybe 1 per 4 EL + BMC), reducing area of effect (this really applies with Sleep Mist, to hit the MDV limit, but only hit a small area). The total effect was close to ONE EL per 4 points between. THIS COULD NOT STRENGTHEN A SPELL!!! The effects would reduce other EL factors.
   (got interupted, bbl)
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