Was thinking of using French words for whatever the spell is ... for example firebolt = éclateur de feu but that doesn't REALLY work out so well with my characters accent which has a country twang to it.
I think it really depends on what kind of spells your character is casting. Harsh sounding consonant-heavy guttural outbursts for dark magic, earth elementals, or similar types.
Try variations of French, Farsi, or Catalan Spanish for some ideas about 'good' or 'beautiful' spells. I personally find Farsi to be an excellent inspiration for creating random 'new words' since I will somehow combine them with Latin, just to make it have more structure. Anyway, play with Google Translate. It's an amazing resource for creating beautiful gibberish.
I whipped out some Latin verbal components for my sorcerer in my last game session when the DM got to me in combat and said "What do you do?" My sorcerer reaches his outstreched hand toward the zombies and intonates the magical words in Draconic "ET EGO INVOCABO POTENTIO CONUS VAEROS!"
Since Latin is the origin of romance languages and some phrases have survived into English, it is sort of almost possible to discern the gist of the phrases. So far I've got phrases for:
Light: CU LUX EXPELLAT TENEBRAS <- "The light banishes the darkness"
Prestidigitation: QUOD MANUS EST VELOCIOR QUAM OCULUS <-"The hand is quicker than the eye"
Mage Hand: AUXILIO MANOS DABIS QUOD MIHI <- "Extra hand, get that for me!"
Mending: ILLUM FRACTUS NUNC FACERE UNUM <-"That which is broken, now make one!"
Fire Bolt : FLAMME SAGITTA PERCUTIO AVERSARIO <-"Flame arrow strike the opponent!"
Sleep: NUNC CUBITUM IRE <-"Now, go to bed!"
Burning Hands: ET EGO INVOCABO POTENTIO CONUS VAEROS <- This borrowed "Vaeros" from a Forgotten Realms dictionary in place of Flamme Draco. I think it sounded more fluid...."I call upon the power/potency of the cone of dragon fire!"
I really like these ideas. I should implement these more.
I used to come up with spell names growing up that I would use variations of translated words. I really liked Latin, Irish, Celtic, Italian, or other random languages.
Fireene -- Fire
Wavotoose - Weather
Zivoox -- Portal
Solareon -- Sun
Terrapax -- Earth
Tiversio -- Time
Luminaria -- Light
Visionous -- Invisible
Visalt -- Alter Vision
Hazal -- Immobilize
These are just some of the my old spells, but I thought I was pretty creative.
Another idea would be to try using the Draconic language provided in the 3.5 Draconimicon. Many settings describe draconic as the language most magic is written/spoken in.
That's a great idea, Abwyn. I like the soundings of a lot of those words, but the dictionary has a dearth of words (~150) for doing full phrases will be tough. I'm going to see if I can convert my latin spell phrases to Draconomicon draconic. I like how sentence structure and the unique "possessives" go.
I strongly suggest Romanian for Latin twists on language, not a large percentage speak it, but it is spoken (unlike Latin) and there is enough difference from the other Romance Languages to have it be familiar, but different.
Danish for Germanic is another good one, though it is quite a bit more common, and the words don't sound like they are spelled, lose some of the "harshness" of German.
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hey this is great thinking I may have to do something similar
Been playing D&D for a few years now. I typically play at a local game store.
Was thinking of using French words for whatever the spell is ... for example firebolt = éclateur de feu but that doesn't REALLY work out so well with my characters accent which has a country twang to it.
I'm still mulling it over
Been playing D&D for a few years now. I typically play at a local game store.
I think it really depends on what kind of spells your character is casting. Harsh sounding consonant-heavy guttural outbursts for dark magic, earth elementals, or similar types.
Try variations of French, Farsi, or Catalan Spanish for some ideas about 'good' or 'beautiful' spells. I personally find Farsi to be an excellent inspiration for creating random 'new words' since I will somehow combine them with Latin, just to make it have more structure. Anyway, play with Google Translate. It's an amazing resource for creating beautiful gibberish.
Cheers.
IT
I whipped out some Latin verbal components for my sorcerer in my last game session when the DM got to me in combat and said "What do you do?" My sorcerer reaches his outstreched hand toward the zombies and intonates the magical words in Draconic "ET EGO INVOCABO POTENTIO CONUS VAEROS!"
Since Latin is the origin of romance languages and some phrases have survived into English, it is sort of almost possible to discern the gist of the phrases. So far I've got phrases for:
Light: CU LUX EXPELLAT TENEBRAS <- "The light banishes the darkness"
Prestidigitation: QUOD MANUS EST VELOCIOR QUAM OCULUS <-"The hand is quicker than the eye"
Mage Hand: AUXILIO MANOS DABIS QUOD MIHI <- "Extra hand, get that for me!"
Mending: ILLUM FRACTUS NUNC FACERE UNUM <-"That which is broken, now make one!"
Fire Bolt : FLAMME SAGITTA PERCUTIO AVERSARIO <-"Flame arrow strike the opponent!"
Sleep: NUNC CUBITUM IRE <-"Now, go to bed!"
Burning Hands: ET EGO INVOCABO POTENTIO CONUS VAEROS <- This borrowed "Vaeros" from a Forgotten Realms dictionary in place of Flamme Draco. I think it sounded more fluid...."I call upon the power/potency of the cone of dragon fire!"
Chromatic Orb: CHROMATI SPHAERA CAPIO <-"Catch chromatic orb"
Shatter: VOCO INTENAT CREPITU <-"I call forth thunderous blast!"
Good luck!
I really like these ideas. I should implement these more.
I used to come up with spell names growing up that I would use variations of translated words. I really liked Latin, Irish, Celtic, Italian, or other random languages.
These are just some of the my old spells, but I thought I was pretty creative.
Want to be a professional Dnd Player
Another idea would be to try using the Draconic language provided in the 3.5 Draconimicon. Many settings describe draconic as the language most magic is written/spoken in.
That's a great idea, Abwyn. I like the soundings of a lot of those words, but the dictionary has a dearth of words (~150) for doing full phrases will be tough. I'm going to see if I can convert my latin spell phrases to Draconomicon draconic. I like how sentence structure and the unique "possessives" go.
Yeah, I’ve made character names using the possessives as well. I have a draconic sorc named “Arix” which is short for Ar Ixen or “my fire”
I strongly suggest Romanian for Latin twists on language, not a large percentage speak it, but it is spoken (unlike Latin) and there is enough difference from the other Romance Languages to have it be familiar, but different.
Danish for Germanic is another good one, though it is quite a bit more common, and the words don't sound like they are spelled, lose some of the "harshness" of German.