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Odyssey Spells Section
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 16:24:05 +0000 UTCMagic in Odyssey is meant to capture the feel of D&D without the rules overheard and crunch. My approach is to lean on the DM to adjudicate corner cases and handle creative spellcasting. This touches on my core conceit for this project:
TTRPGs are about conversations between players and DMs. The more they talk, the better. The rulebook provides the structure for those conversations by offering robust methods, rather than rules. Picking a DC is a method, making it so that the rulebook does not need to tell you how difficult everything is. Instead, the DM considers the difficulty then picks a DC.
I want to apply that model to as many rules as possible. For magic, that approach is reflected in how I present spells:
First, each spell gets a short description of how it operates in the world of the game. This section provides narrative, not rules.
The second section provides specific mechanics. This section aims to be concise, easy to read, and quick to process. Ideally, you can jot it down on your character sheet.
The final section provides the DM with some guidance on how the spell might be used creatively. It is there to inspire players and help DMs get a handle on how a spell might be used in novel ways. It draws from the mechanics and narrative to provide some creative prompts.
All of this comes from my experience running hours of D&D every week. Players like to use spells in creative ways, so why not support that?
It also reflects a core divergence between Odyssey and D&D 5.5. I don't want more rules and specific details. Like I mentioned earlier, I want methods. In my experience, more flexible rules make for better gaming.
A few notes on specific spells:
General Note on Cleric Spells
Clerics in Odyssey essentially cast all their spells as bonus actions, so the power level of their spells has been tweaked.
There are also no spells for removing conditions. My thinking is to give conditions an way to remove them, and one of those being a generic "a cleric can spend X power to end this" option. We'll see how that works out. It future proofs the design and allows me to add more conditions later.
General Note on Magic-User Spells
I've removed spells that scale up as you spend more power, at least for now. Scaling is a little awkward with damage effects, and I think there are enough combat spells that it isn't necessarily needed. Cleric spells scale because they typically scale up by adding more targets, or it's a healing spell and there is no real design space for higher level versions outside of more healing.
Acid Arrow
In D&D this is called Melf's Acid Arrow, so I went to Luke Gygax - Melf's player - and asked him for the story behind this spell. His idea was a spell that injured an enemy caster and then, due to the damage on subsequent rounds, prevented spellcasting. I've adopted that for this design. Thanks, Luke!
Acid Mist
A slight re-naming of the acid splash cantrip, I wanted one auto damage cantrip and this one is it. Note that cantrips don't scale up. I might end up scaling them, or I might allow casters to use two cantrips per turn at higher levels. Two cantrips (or orisons) is more fun, but it could be slower. We'll see.
Bless
This spell specifies that you roll only on a miss or failed save to help save time at the table. Players in my games forget it all the time and usually only roll if they fail anyone, so why not lean into that?
Command
I altered this spell to have its effects resolve on the caster's turn. I feel that this reduces tracking and makes it clearer what a command can do.
Dancing Lights
Slimmed this down to fewer, weaker lights, but the ability to move them gives it an edge over the light spell.
Disintegrating Rays
A slight tweak to scorching ray, I liked the idea of a spell that is good in combat and particularly useful for dealing with physical barriers.
Divine Insight, Etc.
The core cleric design in Odyssey can cast a spell and attack on their turn. I designed a number of orisons to lean into this, essentially giving the cleric a list of at-will tools to improve their attacks or protect their allies.
Haste
Haste is a powerful spell, and I wanted to capture the feel of its drawback (aging) from AD&D. Thus, a random chance that you gain a failed death save each time you use its extra action.
Invisibility
Big changes to this one! In playing D&D for over 40 years, I still don't get the point of the Ethereal Plane. In Odyssey, I've taken inspiration from the Lord of the Rings and made it a shadow realm that overlays reality. If you turn invisible, that's where you go. The downside is that if you are invisible, other invisible creatures can see you and vice versa. I liked the worldbuilding that adds, and it also means that the best counter to an invisible creature is to turn invisible yourself.
Magic Missile
This is a great example of a spell that seems like it should be simple to write, but can be awkward to nail down from a techanical point of view. I broke down the damage based on the number of targets you choose to solve that.
Misty Step
I dropped this one's cost to 1, but halved the distance you teleport. I then made it a swift spell, allowing you to cast it more than once per turn. That means you can misty step, do something, then misty step again if you have 2 power to spend.
Repel the Unholy
I'm thinking of just pushing the equivalent of turn undead into the spell list to streamline the cleric.
Sleep
Monsters in Odyssey have levels, so you'll see that referenced in a few spells that have effects based on the relative power of the caster.
Comments
J. Brian Murphy
Very, very late to this party, but have you considered replacing the random rolls on buffing cleric spells with a flat modifier based on how long ago the target took part in a ceremony or made a sacrifice to the caster's deity (or friendly ally deities)? It's a bit more bookkeeping, but as we all know, you can't have a meaningful campaign of strict time records are not kept. ;)
Mike Mearls
Defenses were nice, but weirdly players tripped up on them all the time. I think it is one of those things where a subtle difference is hard for some players to grasp. Saves are easier for new players in 5e IMO because they tie back to the abilities, and those are character defining.
October Foundry
Thank you for sharing your notes with us! I really like what you're doing with the spells. In particular, I'm a fan of the brevity of the spells and I love the section on creative ways to use a given spell! I agree with the idea of possibly making Turn Undead a spell. I've always been a little baffled that Turn Undead looks and feels like a spell, but it isn't a spell. I am a bit bummed by the inclusion of Saves; I really liked D&D 4e's Defenses when I played that. But overall I like these spells significantly over the ones in the 5e PHBs.
