Spellcrafting

[Ken14]

I can already imagine the flames burning on this idea, but hear me out on this:

What if players could leave their mark in the history of Ravenloft and create their own spell?

Now, sure, this is more the domain of wizards and their need to learn and presumably innovate. It's something I've seen return in tabletop games I've observed.

But other classes could do this as well. Maybe a Bard makes a musically themed spell. Maybe a cleric creates a prayer specific to that religion. Maybe a sorcerer manages to devise some new way to warp arcane power.

However, I'm NOT saying that players should be given the tools to create spells. I'm suggesting they could have the chance at creating a new spell through roleplay.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but every attempt I've ever heard of that revolved around creating new spells has always ended in disaster for the one doing it. And never new spells.

Now, there should be some rules to this, naturally. Just off the top of my head:

1) A DM / The Council needs to approve of it:

Naturally, spell creation is not precise knowledge,  but one should be able to at least give the DM's and the Council an idea of what the spell would do. That way, they can see if an attempt is allowable and they can already prepare the spell for when the research/soul-searching/quest is complete.

If they say nay, well....You can still roleplay it, of course, but you'd have to eventually end up at 'it can't be done with our current resources' ingame.

2) The spell needs to be different enough:

Naturally, spells can't be carbon copies of existing spells.  If you're going to roleplay that you puzzled together your own way of casting a fireball, then use the spell fireball.

It needs to be differentiated enough that the DM's / The Council goes ' Huh. This could be interesting to add and not at all a slightly different fireball'.

3) Success is NOT automatic:

Again, the caster(s) involved will not get a free pass to make the spell. You roleplay it, and if the DM/Council involved deem it good enough…...You MAY get to invent a new spell.

I would add that the more minds are working on it, the more chance of success. Or, if it's a group of insane mad lads trying it ( aka GNOMES), then the chance for a spectacular mess might increase.

4) You may get objectives:

A DM may contact you and tell you of certain steps you have to undertake. This should be things no-one could do alone, from devising a highly complex circle from hunting for spell components for testing purposes. Or maybe a test goes haywire and unleashes a giant firebreathing Chicken on Vallaki.

I mean, if you already DO that sort've RP with others involved, then sure, but if it's repetition of 'Is reading up on x and applying it by his lonesome', then yeah…..The DM's could spice that up.

5) The spell may not be what you've envisioned:

The DM's/ Council will Always have the general say what a spell would do. Your roleplay would shape it, sure, but they are the last vote on what can be made, and you will only know the outcome after it's good and done.

6) No overpowered spells!

This should be obvious, I think. Any spell can be made -powerful-.....But there must be restrictions or drawbacks.

For example: I devise a spell called Flash Heat. It applies a Combust spell in about the same area as a fireball would.

Drawback 1 : Unlike Combust, it's a 5th circle spell.
Drawback 2 : It can only be cast at touch range, so no matter what, you'll always set yourself on fire as well. And you need to get close to do it.


Anyway, just a suggestion, and likely not one that'll be implemented any time soon, if ever.

But man, how awesome would it be to leave a mark? Your character may end up dead, but his/her spell would survive…..If (s)he's able to spread the spell, of course....

[Revenant]

Immediate concern is the dev overhead here. Unless we're only allowing wizards who are also competent NWN coders to make spells in this hypothetical world of spellcrafting, and further assuming that they would all make their code to the standards of the dev team without requiring a doublecheck, this would add workload to our devs. And as is made pretty evident on a lot of suggestions, their to-do list is already very long. Custom spells are not as simple as adding a book to the loot pool or adding a gravestone somewhere.

Other than that, I would like to address something in your first point - if when you refer to "The Council" you mean the Community Council, this is not something in their roundhouse. Now, if you meant the secretive Illuminati-esque council that governs all that we do and are allowed to do from the shadows... well, maybe. 

[Ken14]

Immediate concern is the dev overhead here. Unless we're only allowing wizards who are also competent NWN coders to make spells in this hypothetical world of spellcrafting, and further assuming that they would all make their code to the standards of the dev team without requiring a doublecheck, this would add workload to our devs. And as is made pretty evident on a lot of suggestions, their to-do list is already very long. Custom spells are not as simple as adding a book to the loot pool or adding a gravestone somewhere.

Other than that, I would like to address something in your first point - if when you refer to "The Council" you mean the Community Council, this is not something in their roundhouse. Now, if you meant the secretive Illuminati-esque council that governs all that we do and are allowed to do from the shadows... well, maybe. 

Well. I mean. If the person involved is capable of making the code, that seems like a solid plus!

But yes, this isn't a 'we need this now' suggestion. Just a 'this would be neat down the road, maybe?' suggestion.

And even then: Creating a spell is a -difficult- prospect. It's the work of months of roleplay, if I get the gist behind it. If not more.

And hey maybe a new spell is already in the works, and the Dev can make use of the caster involved to bring it into the World of Ravenloft. Rare though that may be.

As for the Council bit, I will neither confirm nor deny any allegations about any supposed World-Order......

[MAB77]

Though I certainly agree that researching and creating new spells is a staple of the D&D game, it would unfortunately be very difficult to implement in the module. This is very easily done in a P&P game, in a computer game you'd have to script every possible combinations and that is simply beyond what can realistically be accomplished.

The crafting system is already complex enough with 2 components per crafted items, a custom spell would have to contend with 10 components: innate spell level, spell schools, descriptors, components, range, area of effects, durations, save options, spell resistance options, and the spell effects themselves. Even by limiting options this would still mean a system offering millions of possibilities. The sheer magnitude of which guaranteeing it will never happen.

What would be more reasonable is a system allowing one to scribe or research existing spells. Though this too comes with serious balance issues and considerations explaining why we still have not implemented such a system yet. We're not against it per say mind you, we just have to find a way to make it work properly.

[zDark Shadowz]

I guess a wordcasting system is out of the question then even if someone did all the coding components first. Oh well.