In an upcoming campaign I am going to play a divination wizard. It is going to be a celtic/gaelic themed campaign in a setting where magic has been gone for a long time and is just now starting to come back. I always wanted to play a wizard focused on divination: peering into the malleable outcomes of reality, juggling fate and chance in my hands and - in this case - throwing my rune stones to see what the future holds in store for us.
Having said all that I was always fascinated with the possibility of creating my own spells as a way of putting my mark onto the campaign world. After all, it's not just Hideous Laughter, it is TASHA'S Hideous Laughter; and it is not Magnificient Mansion, it is MORDENKAINEN'S Magnificient Mansion.
Creating spells is a difficult topic in and of itself and I have checked a few threads about that topic, but those mostly talk about not making spells to overpowered in terms of damage and stuff.
I want to play my wizard as a support-type character. The wise and intelligent advisor to a group of powerful friends and to a lord of a clan. So I would like to focus on that aspect, but tied to the divination domain.
One idea I had for example is creating a spell that would give another character (or myself or a group of characters) advantage on different kinds of stuff (attacks, saving throws, ability checks, all of the above). I find that hard to balance as that mechanic in and of itself could range from a 2nd level spell (Touch; give one person advantage on rolls for one round) to something along the lines of 8th level (60 feet; give up to 10 creatures of your choice advantage on rolls for one minute; concentration). Especially if you factor in other mechanics like concentration. Yes or no? How many targets? Range? Duration?
The only points of reference I can think of off the top of my head would be stuff like Foresight (9th level; 8 hours; self only; no concentration; advantage on just about everything) and the Path of the Zealot Barbarians Zealous Presence (Char level 10; 1 round; up to 10 people; advantage on attack rolls and saving throws).
So... how would I balance something like that? Going off of the barbarian thingy, maybe something like:
5th level spell 1 round duration, until the end of my next round up to 10 people no concentration advantage on attacks and saving throws
Is that overpowered? Underpowered? How would I scale something along those lines up or down?
I am a bit at a loss here, maybe you people can help me out a bit with that.
The most obvious spell for granting advantage on "stuff", would be Enhance Ability.
The most accessible mechanic for granting advantage is the Help action, which is often exploited via Find Familiar.
"Advantage/Disadvantage" is comparable to a "±5" effect, though a straight bonus/penalty tends to be better. Bless/Bane modify a roll by d4.
Use those as a frame of reference, outline your desired spell, then ask yourself the following question, "If I could only choose one or two spells at this level, would I definitely choose this spell?"
If the answer is "yes", then it's still too powerful.
The ideal is for each spell to only be situationally useful. If you know that you will be using a spell every single combat/session, then it probably needs to be turned down until it almost feels hard to justify. Combat spells, in particular, need to be more strictly regulated.
Spell schools are deeply inconsistent - Foresight is advantage on checks, but so is Enhance Ability, and that's transmutation. This seems appropriate:
See the Truth
As Enhance Ability, but only the mental stats, which are listed twice: you can choose a mental stat for checks or for saves. Divination, not transmutation.
Precognitive Strike
As Enhance Ability, but when you pick a stat, the target's attacks with that stat have advantage.
Precognitive Dodge
Reaction spell to cause disadvantage on attacks against the caster - like Shield but better. Second level.
Hello there!
In an upcoming campaign I am going to play a divination wizard. It is going to be a celtic/gaelic themed campaign in a setting where magic has been gone for a long time and is just now starting to come back. I always wanted to play a wizard focused on divination: peering into the malleable outcomes of reality, juggling fate and chance in my hands and - in this case - throwing my rune stones to see what the future holds in store for us.
Having said all that I was always fascinated with the possibility of creating my own spells as a way of putting my mark onto the campaign world. After all, it's not just Hideous Laughter, it is TASHA'S Hideous Laughter; and it is not Magnificient Mansion, it is MORDENKAINEN'S Magnificient Mansion.
Creating spells is a difficult topic in and of itself and I have checked a few threads about that topic, but those mostly talk about not making spells to overpowered in terms of damage and stuff.
I want to play my wizard as a support-type character. The wise and intelligent advisor to a group of powerful friends and to a lord of a clan. So I would like to focus on that aspect, but tied to the divination domain.
One idea I had for example is creating a spell that would give another character (or myself or a group of characters) advantage on different kinds of stuff (attacks, saving throws, ability checks, all of the above). I find that hard to balance as that mechanic in and of itself could range from a 2nd level spell (Touch; give one person advantage on rolls for one round) to something along the lines of 8th level (60 feet; give up to 10 creatures of your choice advantage on rolls for one minute; concentration). Especially if you factor in other mechanics like concentration. Yes or no? How many targets? Range? Duration?
The only points of reference I can think of off the top of my head would be stuff like Foresight (9th level; 8 hours; self only; no concentration; advantage on just about everything) and the Path of the Zealot Barbarians Zealous Presence (Char level 10; 1 round; up to 10 people; advantage on attack rolls and saving throws).
So... how would I balance something like that? Going off of the barbarian thingy, maybe something like:
5th level spell
1 round duration, until the end of my next round
up to 10 people
no concentration
advantage on attacks and saving throws
Is that overpowered? Underpowered? How would I scale something along those lines up or down?
I am a bit at a loss here, maybe you people can help me out a bit with that.
The most obvious spell for granting advantage on "stuff", would be Enhance Ability.
The most accessible mechanic for granting advantage is the Help action, which is often exploited via Find Familiar.
"Advantage/Disadvantage" is comparable to a "±5" effect, though a straight bonus/penalty tends to be better. Bless/Bane modify a roll by d4.
Use those as a frame of reference, outline your desired spell, then ask yourself the following question, "If I could only choose one or two spells at this level, would I definitely choose this spell?"
If the answer is "yes", then it's still too powerful.
The ideal is for each spell to only be situationally useful. If you know that you will be using a spell every single combat/session, then it probably needs to be turned down until it almost feels hard to justify. Combat spells, in particular, need to be more strictly regulated.
Spell schools are deeply inconsistent - Foresight is advantage on checks, but so is Enhance Ability, and that's transmutation. This seems appropriate:
See the Truth
As Enhance Ability, but only the mental stats, which are listed twice: you can choose a mental stat for checks or for saves. Divination, not transmutation.
Precognitive Strike
As Enhance Ability, but when you pick a stat, the target's attacks with that stat have advantage.
Precognitive Dodge
Reaction spell to cause disadvantage on attacks against the caster - like Shield but better. Second level.
Thank you for your replies!
I will keep the enhance ability as well as the bane/bless route in mind when thinking about making spells.
I also very much like the idea of the "Precognition Dodge" spell!
Now I at least have some starting points. :)