New Mage Spells

 

During the present rules sweep a total of 6 clerical spells have been added or strengthened already, with 3 more new combat-related clerical spells (Holy Fist, Overpowering Will, and Retrieve) scheduled to be considered concurrently with this proposal.  As things stand now, this rules sweep will seriously disrupt the mage/cleric balance, especially at the highest levels.  For illustration, let’s look at level 9 spell-by-spell.

 

            • 9^th level mages can cast Death, while 9^th level clerics can cast Divine Wrath.  Divine Wrath is substantially better than Death: Divine Wrath usually works and requires death and a Resurrect (a 9^th level spell) to fix it, while Death is routinely nullified or otherwise ineffective and can be fixed by Restore Life, a 6^th level spell. 

 

            • 9^th level mages can cast Teleport, and 9^th level clerics can’t.   This is true, but anyone with 45 marks can buy a teleport potion, or a 5^th level Alchemist can make a teleport potion, and there are no other 9^th level spells that are available as potions.  Plus teleport is not really as useful in practice as, say, Resurrect or Mass Safe Journey.

 

            • 9^th level clerics can raise (Resurrect) anyone from the dead, any time, with or without a body, and 9^th level mages have nothing comparable.  This is a huge advantage!

 

            • 9^th level clerics can make an entire party completely invulnerable to harm while still able to move around (Mass Safe Journey), and 9^th level mages have nothing comparable.  This is also a huge advantage!

 

            • 9^th level clerics can now stop an entire battle by cursing a line of bad guys with Peaceful.  The effect does not wear off and the bad guys can’t do anything about it (unless there happens to be an evil 9^th level Cleric to nullify the spell, or a mage who feels like spending 45 spell points to cast dispel magic 9 times).  Mages have no equivalent at ninth level.  The closest thing they have is Mass Rootfoot at 8^th level, which I think is considerably less useful – it lasts only 5 minutes, can be nullified by the average Big Bad, and doesn’t necessarily stop the fighting.

 

            The bottom line is that mages get TWO spells at 9^th level, one of which is also available as a potion, while clerics get FOUR spells at 9^th level, none of which are available as a potion.  The actual power difference is huge!  Worse, it seems like a high-level cleric can do all of a high-level mage’s tricks, only better.  Mages are supposedly particularly good at offensive magic (i.e. doing a lot of damage to one target or some damage to lots of targets), while clerics are supposedly particularly good at healing and protective magic.  But the clerical Divine Wrath is more potent than the mage Death spell, and the clerical Mass Curse is at least as effective as the mage’s Mass Rootfoot.  So if I want to become a very powerful offensive spell caster, clearly I should play a cleric.  And if I’m really worried about casting Teleport, I can spend 3 points on Wealth and buy a fresh Teleport potion every five games.

 

            Looking more broadly, mages have three offensive spells that can directly inflict damage on an enemy, (Lightning Bolt, Shatter Limb, and Death) and clerics have just as many (Wounding Grasp, Piercing Grasp, and Divine Wrath).  Mages have eight offensive spells that can effectively remove an enemy from a combat (Aversion (TOW), Charm (TOW), Hallucination (TOW), Suggestion (TOW), Poison, Heat Metal, Mass Hallucination (TOW), Paralysis), but Clerics have eleven (Emotion (TOW), Charm (TOW), Fear (TOW), Mana Block (TOW), Poisoned Grasp, Curse, Delusion (TOW), Nightmare, Mana Vortex, Mass Fear (TOW), Mass Curse).  Clerics also have a whole additional class of offensive spells that are effective against undead (Holy Bolt, Avert Undead (TOW), Command Undead (TOW), Holy Banishment (TOW)).

 

To remedy this imbalance, I propose adding several new spells to the mage canon:

 

4^th level:  Wound Limb:  Wounds the caster’s choice of limb on any one sight-range target.  This spell counts as one hit towards protection (e.g., it cancels out a Barkskin or removes one hit from armor).  [This is basically a greatly weakened version of Shatter Limb (a 6^th level spell)—it does only one hit of damage, it doesn’t ignore armor or stoneskin, and it can be healed by a 1^st level spell (Knit Limb) rather than a 5^th level spell (Regenerate).  Or, viewed differently, it is a sight-range version of the clerical spell Wounding Grasp, but unable to injure a torso and one level higher.  I’m proposing to add this spell at a low level to permit the Mass version at level 7, primarily because Mass Lightning Bolt would be impractical.]

 

5^th level:  Mass Aversion (TOW):  Casts the spell of Aversion on one target per level of the caster.

 

7^th level:  Mass Wound Limb:  Casts the spell of Wound Limb on one target per level of the caster.

 

9^th level:  Mass Invisibility:  Cast the spell of Invisibility on one target per level of the caster.

 

9^th level:  Disintegrate:  Utterly destroys the target and everything the target was carrying (except for magic items marked "indestructible"), leaving nothing behind but a thin layer of black dust.  The target's spirit is unaffected and may roam normally.  This spell can also be used

to destroy inanimate objects that are no larger than a normal human.  [Credit John Eure for this one.]

 

I also propose moving See Invisible down to 7^th level (from 8^th) in order to make it more accessible in response to Mass Invisibility.

 

The final result of this proposal would be this revised spell list:

 

Cleric                                                                          Mage

 

7^th level                                                                        7^th level

Holy Banishment (TOW)                                              Command (TOW)

Mass Safe Circle                                                          Mass Wound Limb

Mana Vortex                                                                Wraith Form

Magic Bandage                                                            Heat Metal

Restore Health                                                              See Invisible

                                                                                   

 

8^th level                                                                        8^th level

Mass Fear (TOW)                                                       Mass Hallucination (TOW)

Mass Heal Wounds                                                      Mass Rootfoot

Reveal                                                                          Paralysis

                                                                                    Magic Absorption

 

9^th level                                                                        9^th level

Divine Wrath                                                                Death

Mass Safe Journey                                                       Teleport

Resurrect                                                                      Mass Invisibility

Mass Curse                                                                  Disintegrate