I’m looking to create an ability that copies the abilities of having a mount without actually using a mount.
Any suggestions? Too powerful? Not powerful enough?
This is what I have so far:
Minor Celestial Empowerment
Casting time: 10 minutes
Tapping into primal radiant energies, you gain large translucent wings and levitate one foot off the ground, giving you a movement speed of 60ft (NOT flight speed). The wings have 20 HP and an AC of 12 (+4 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Con).
The wings themselves can be targeted and also take damage from area of effect spells and abilities. If the wings are destroyed or forced to move by an attack or ability you must make a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. You can un-summon the wings at will as a bonus action and re-summon them for half your movement speed. If they are destroyed you must recast the spell. Any attack that successfully knocks you prone or anytime you take fall damage the wings un-summon immediately. If an attack on the wings would knock them prone then they will immediately un-summon and you must use your reaction to catch yourself or be knocked prone.
You also gain a special movement action while the wings are present. With this action you may Dash or Disengage. If you do not use this special movement action then the wings become more ethereal and any attack targeting them has disadvantage.
Any spell you cast only on yourself is also cast on the wings. The wings cannot be the target of any mind altering ability or spell.
That seems far more complicated than it could be, and the reasons for doing so are not apparent to me at the moment.
If a creature is floating around 1-foot of the ground, why not actually make it a flying speeds but with that restriction of only being 1-foot off the ground. (Kinda like Dow the floating disk works. You may find something useful in that spell to amend this one.)
In D&D, things don’t get “unsummoned,” they get “dismissed.” (Kinda like find familiar, an Eldritch Knight’s bonded weapons, or the Warlock’s Pact of the Blade pact boon. You may find something useful in those to help with this.)
There is no such thing as a “movement action” in 5e. I understand that you are attempting to emulate an intelligent mount, but instead of referring to a “movement action,” it would be more in-line with other mechanics if it “cost half your movement.” (Just like standing up from prone.)
I understand that you included the bit about spells the PC cast on themselves also affecting the wings as a means of healing them. However, that will get really weird really quickly if the PC casts anything else that only targets themself, like haste, longstrider, jump, mage armor or enhance ability. Those all work fine in regards to also affecting a mount, but the wings…?
You state the wings can be targeted, but don’t specify what they actually are. A found mount is obviously a creature, and can therefore be targeted with anything capable of targeting creatures. By contrast, an arcane hand is specified as an “object.” Objects can only be targeted with spells that explicitly state they can target objects, and have very specific (and restrictive) rules governing saving throws. You designated the wings as neither an object nor a creature. So while you explicitly stated they can be targeted with spells, since they don’t fall under either of those categories, there are no spells capable of actually targeting them. If you make them an Object, then that severely limits which spells can target them, which makes them more powerful than a mount, so the spell level should be higher. If you make them a Creature, not only does that not make sense, it leads to additional potential issues such as. what happens if someone casts hold monster on the wings?!? (You may want to look at the description for arcane hand to get some inspiration for how to address this.)
The way you wrote this spell, the wings are automatically dismissed under a enough conditions that I honestly think they could be more of a pain in the neck than they are worth. All the enemies need to do is shove the PC prone every round and then they have to be summoned again at the cost of half the PC’s movement. It would make more sense if they didn’t do some of the stuff you included (to balance things), but did do some of the stuff you state makes them vanish.*
Also, you mentioned that it costs half the PC’s movement to do certain things, but is that supposed to be half of the PC’s normal movement, or half of the 60 ft they will have after the wings are summoned? Like, most PCs have a standard speed of 30 ft., so would they sacrifice 15 ft to gain 60, netting 45 feet of movement after the wings manifest? Or would they have to give up their normal 30 to manifest the wings and then have another 30 feet of movement again? With a mount, it is clear that the PC spends half of their own movement to mount-up, and then the steed’s movement speeds are unaffected.
Basically, most all of these problems seem to stem from your using a spell designed to give the PC a separate, creature to ride as the template for a spell that would create an object (like arcane hand), or simply an extension of the character (like mage armor). I’m not saying it’s no good, just that you will have a lot more work to do in order to make it useable. Whereas, if you made it simpler* it would be a heck of a lot easier for you to design and for the players to use.
*If I were writing something like this, I would simplify it and limit it in other ways. I wouldn’t try to create a spell that gives a PC a semipermanent pair of wings that don’t do anything wings would do, and that cut out all the time and can be killed super easily. Instead, I would create a spell that gives a PC a set of wings for a limited length of time, and that actually help with stuff wings could theoretically be used to do. So, off the top of my head, maybe:
A Transmutation (not Conjuration), spell with casting time of 10 minutes, and a duration that scales when upcast (not unlike hex or hunter’s mark).
The spell would manifest a pair of wings which can be dismissed or re-summoned as a bonus action.
The wings would grants the character a flying speed equal to 1.5× its innate walking speed, with a max cruising altitude of 5 feet (like floating disk), and allows them to hover.
They would also increase the distance of the creature’s high jumps and long jumps to 1.5× their normal jump distances too.
I would have the wings grant the creature advantage on saving throws and ability checks they make against being knocked prone.
Finally the wings would also grant special reaction they could use to reduce the number of dice used to calculate falling damage they might take by 1d6 while the wings are manifested.
That’s roughly about it, at least as a starting point at any rate. It obviously needs attention to the outline of the spell’s description, and the language in general, and then as much playtesting and editing as it would take to get it right. Now, if you like the direction in which yours was going, ignore what I stated I would do. (Just ‘cause it’s what I would do, doesn’t mean it’s any better than what your are working with, just different is all.)
I’m looking to create an ability that copies the abilities of having a mount without actually using a mount.
Any suggestions? Too powerful? Not powerful enough?
This is what I have so far:
Minor Celestial Empowerment
Casting time: 10 minutes
Tapping into primal radiant energies, you gain large translucent wings and levitate one foot off the ground, giving you a movement speed of 60ft (NOT flight speed). The wings have 20 HP and an AC of 12 (+4 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Con).
The wings themselves can be targeted and also take damage from area of effect spells and abilities. If the wings are destroyed or forced to move by an attack or ability you must make a dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. You can un-summon the wings at will as a bonus action and re-summon them for half your movement speed. If they are destroyed you must recast the spell. Any attack that successfully knocks you prone or anytime you take fall damage the wings un-summon immediately. If an attack on the wings would knock them prone then they will immediately un-summon and you must use your reaction to catch yourself or be knocked prone.
You also gain a special movement action while the wings are present. With this action you may Dash or Disengage. If you do not use this special movement action then the wings become more ethereal and any attack targeting them has disadvantage.
Any spell you cast only on yourself is also cast on the wings. The wings cannot be the target of any mind altering ability or spell.
That seems far more complicated than it could be, and the reasons for doing so are not apparent to me at the moment.
If a creature is floating around 1-foot of the ground, why not actually make it a flying speeds but with that restriction of only being 1-foot off the ground. (Kinda like Dow the floating disk works. You may find something useful in that spell to amend this one.)
In D&D, things don’t get “unsummoned,” they get “dismissed.” (Kinda like find familiar, an Eldritch Knight’s bonded weapons, or the Warlock’s Pact of the Blade pact boon. You may find something useful in those to help with this.)
There is no such thing as a “movement action” in 5e. I understand that you are attempting to emulate an intelligent mount, but instead of referring to a “movement action,” it would be more in-line with other mechanics if it “cost half your movement.” (Just like standing up from prone.)
I understand that you included the bit about spells the PC cast on themselves also affecting the wings as a means of healing them. However, that will get really weird really quickly if the PC casts anything else that only targets themself, like haste, longstrider, jump, mage armor or enhance ability. Those all work fine in regards to also affecting a mount, but the wings…?
You state the wings can be targeted, but don’t specify what they actually are. A found mount is obviously a creature, and can therefore be targeted with anything capable of targeting creatures. By contrast, an arcane hand is specified as an “object.” Objects can only be targeted with spells that explicitly state they can target objects, and have very specific (and restrictive) rules governing saving throws. You designated the wings as neither an object nor a creature. So while you explicitly stated they can be targeted with spells, since they don’t fall under either of those categories, there are no spells capable of actually targeting them. If you make them an Object, then that severely limits which spells can target them, which makes them more powerful than a mount, so the spell level should be higher. If you make them a Creature, not only does that not make sense, it leads to additional potential issues such as. what happens if someone casts hold monster on the wings?!? (You may want to look at the description for arcane hand to get some inspiration for how to address this.)
The way you wrote this spell, the wings are automatically dismissed under a enough conditions that I honestly think they could be more of a pain in the neck than they are worth. All the enemies need to do is shove the PC prone every round and then they have to be summoned again at the cost of half the PC’s movement. It would make more sense if they didn’t do some of the stuff you included (to balance things), but did do some of the stuff you state makes them vanish.*
Also, you mentioned that it costs half the PC’s movement to do certain things, but is that supposed to be half of the PC’s normal movement, or half of the 60 ft they will have after the wings are summoned? Like, most PCs have a standard speed of 30 ft., so would they sacrifice 15 ft to gain 60, netting 45 feet of movement after the wings manifest? Or would they have to give up their normal 30 to manifest the wings and then have another 30 feet of movement again? With a mount, it is clear that the PC spends half of their own movement to mount-up, and then the steed’s movement speeds are unaffected.
Basically,
mostall of these problems seem to stem from your using a spell designed to give the PC a separate, creature to ride as the template for a spell that would create an object (like arcane hand), or simply an extension of the character (like mage armor). I’m not saying it’s no good, just that you will have a lot more work to do in order to make it useable. Whereas, if you made it simpler* it would be a heck of a lot easier for you to design and for the players to use.*If I were writing something like this, I would simplify it and limit it in other ways. I wouldn’t try to create a spell that gives a PC a semipermanent pair of wings that don’t do anything wings would do, and that cut out all the time and can be killed super easily. Instead, I would create a spell that gives a PC a set of wings for a limited length of time, and that actually help with stuff wings could theoretically be used to do. So, off the top of my head, maybe:
That’s roughly about it, at least as a starting point at any rate. It obviously needs attention to the outline of the spell’s description, and the language in general, and then as much playtesting and editing as it would take to get it right. Now, if you like the direction in which yours was going, ignore what I stated I would do. (Just ‘cause it’s what I would do, doesn’t mean it’s any better than what your are working with, just different is all.)
I hope that helps.
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That’s helps a lot! Thanks. I’m going to implement some of those ideas!