I don't. But if I did, it would be "to see the world".
1 (the thrill of adventure), 2 (to seek out new experiences), 40 (to test themselves against dangers), and a few others to a lesser extent. As for my characters...
Kaesira, dragonborn-turned-elf Artificer: 1 (the thrill of adventure), 7 (to gain vengeance), 22 (to see where the road leads), 24 (to come of age), and 25 (to build something of value). Ozyre, gnome Fighter (Rune Knight): 1 (the thrill of adventure), 3 (to boldly go where no one has gone before), 13 (to explore strange new lands), 33 (to earn new ways of crafting), and 38 (to find magic items). Anvil, kenku Rogue (Soule Knife): 26 (to become Famous & Renowned), 33 (to earn new ways of crafting), and 41 (to grow stronger).
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
Friendship.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
So my Tempest Cleric's whole thing is that his family is (supposedly) descended from Thor (and god lineage is a major facet in the overall story of this campaign). He found Járngreipr, Thor's very own gauntlets that allow him to fully wield Mjolnir, in the possession of a gang leader who stole them from my character's homeland. Mechanically the gauntlets give +1 AC and resistance to Thunder and Lightning damage, and lore-wise it kicked off this personal quest to find all three of Thor's relics and find out what happened that has scattered them across the continent.
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
I haven’t been able to get that far into a campaign sadly, but I gave one of my characters a purse that looks like a bag of holding but is just a normal purse. :D
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
I gave one of my NPCs a Staff of Evolving Power.
pretty nifty item.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
I gave one of my NPCs a Staff of Evolving Power. pretty nifty item.
I know what the Staff of Power is - but what is the Evolving Power?
It makes things spin in place along the horizontal axis.
Apparently, the original creator of the artifact hated to be interrupted because he would always forget something important when he did.
Like the "R" in the name of his staff.
He also created the Staff of Revolt Pow, which is widely sought because folks are certain it will help to overthrow the Lemurian Fascian Lords.
(*giggles*)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
This is tough… I gotta do all three of ‘em
My first character received a few magic items, but my favorite one never saw any use! I was LN, and I recovered the robe of my tutor after he was slain, a robe of the magi (or whatever that magic wizard robe is called) for Good casters. Our game ended due to Covid a week later, but the sentimental connection to that robe? That made it my favorite. (And I had a sick homebrew bow too!)
My character, Jack, was a plasmoid who had once been a ship captain. He had a Spelljammer Helm that was super funny to use, but it was eventually stolen…
Finally, my third character: I don’t know if he actually got anything… haha
QotD: What is the strangest monster you've encountered? (Could be strange because of how it looked, acted, whatever the case may be!) Let us know what was so strange about it to you?
Favorite magic items were my first bag of holding and the tome of strength. Back in the day that was the only way to raise stats.
Same with monsters. The freaky ones were the first encounter with the D&D classics - Beholder, Mind Flayer, Intellect Devourer, Owlbear. There are other creepy things that have come out since 1e but they hold the same awe as meeting the classics in 1e.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
I'm sort of working through this now as a first-time DM. One of my players loves homebrewing stuff and has sent me several spell ideas, and I like them a lot and they make sense for the character, but I'm working on how to implement them into the game as canon "custom" spells. I have a few ideas, but I need to work out where and when to make these spells available.
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
I not only allow it, it is sometimes the only way that they may get a spell.
I've talked about how my group switched back to the 1e idea that spells needed to be found. I've talked about how we seriously changed the magic system -- spells do scaled damage, have a scaled casting time, don't use material components except for rituals which are long and involved things, we use spell points, essentially building upcasting and what we call empowering a spell, how we have duels, etc. Scrolls are always pages from someone's grimoire -- and grimoires can be all manner of different things (including tattoos, so consider what that scroll is). All of this kinda resets the way that magic works in the game as a whole, without actually changing much about the spells while ensuring a greater degree of uniformity.
It also makes creating a spell a lot easier, and approving a spell a lot easier, because you aren't looking to create a spell by the amount of damage it causes or how much it heals, but rather the specific way the spell works. And there are rules -- Apothegms -- about Magic, lol. The key being the "single thing" rule -- so stuff lie prestidigitation is actually several different spells, etc.
It also means that the only ways that a PC can increase the number of spells they know is to barter, buy, beg, steal, or find them. Buying them is prohibitively expensive -- Mages are very particular about their magic. Not impossible, just really expensive, although renown can have an impact on that. Barter is more common -- but you are then giving away spells you have, and if they already have them or are uninterested, then it doesn't work.
Begging is done, but is easiest with the person who taught you (so Mages often have an NPC teacher that is fun to play), who may have chosen you as their "heir", or may have thought of you as the worst of their students, or whatever. Stealing carries risks, because, well, theft. This leaves finding them, normally, but the other option is the one that is why there are Mage towers in the mage kingdom, why Mages are always researching and practicing, why they are usually weak and scrawny nebbishes that roll their eyes at the mere thought of trying to lift a sword.
They are busy creating new spells. Just learning a new spell is an effort (a die roll), and if the spell crosses an affinity (Arcane, Divine, Eldritch, Mystical, Primal), then that's an extra die roll, and so forth. This means it may take a couple weeks to figure out how to cast a new spell (if the rolls go bad), and because they are insanely complex things that are essentially alive, they require hours of study (specifically: 21+Spell level -Int of Mage) before each attempt. Although once mastered, the spell can be easily memorized (time) and held onto for a whole day (barring being knocked out). Divine folks have it significantly easier, though, in some ways (and harder in others) since they may get a spell just dropped into their head.
(There is an aside about how one of the Pedants had a spell for split pea soup in their head for days, no clue why, until they came across a beggar who loved split pea soup.)
Creating a spell is much like that. The process can be interrupted, though -- the hours and all that from above is not a contiguous block of time, so it can be done in bits and pieces during short rests and long rests, building up. they have to master it once they create it, and then it is their spell. This allows for "creating a spell on the fly". No formulas, no researching rare ingredients (unless they are going to do the spell as a ritual, which cuts the time down for researching it), just basically wrestling with the ultimate earworm.
We've done "creating your own spell" for a while. Because as I previously explained, it is a ton of fun for players, and leaves a mark in the game world. And yes, they can name it if they want.
Something hit me as I prepared to answer this that I hadn't realized: for my new world, the underlying approach is very much the opposite to the default D&D one -- D&D has always presupposed itself to be at the end of magic, at the point of its decline. Magic items are rare and ancient, secrets are lost, and so forth. My new game world sees it from the opposite end -- magic is still new, still not fully understood, still growing and changing and becoming more.
There are only about 3000 years of history (eh, it varies), but Magic has been around only about half the time. With "modern history" consisting of the Age of Myth, Age of Fable, and Age of Legend all being at least 250 years or more in the past, it makes things kinda cool.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
I’ve worked with it, adapting old rules and using new ones, but I’m not in love with it. My players and I generally prefer to just go with what we’ve got.
The only way I know of to encourage it is to take away the whole "go ahead and choose your spells" bit. There's no reason to create your own spells for most folks except as maybe a one shot use against a particular foe they already understand (Syzygy's Dragon Spike -- stabs a dragon!), and you really have to be into the role playing idea of a mage to have an interest in doing so.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
You know, it's funny.
I make custom weapons and armor up the wazzo (for melee, ranged, spellcasters), but I have no allowed for custom spells.
I think part of the reason is finding a balance. When spells can be upcast and such (and granted, not all spells can be upcast - but a lot of attack spells can).
I really do need to allow for this more often. I could make it like how I've done for some custom weapons - where it's a quest. The Artificer wants a gun (which I've not had in my game) but basically does the same as the Wither and Bloom spell - so I came up with a quest idea to gather the things to make it.
I could - and probably should - do the same thing for spells - and just base them off similar spells (for if it does damage, buff, etc).
I have allowed my players to flavor spells all the time. So a barbarian wizard from the north rather than doing fireball does "icefall" - so it's not burning damage, but rather frost - and rather than burning things, it freezes things.
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
You know, it's funny.
I make custom weapons and armor up the wazzo (for melee, ranged, spellcasters), but I have no allowed for custom spells.
I think part of the reason is finding a balance. When spells can be upcast and such (and granted, not all spells can be upcast - but a lot of attack spells can).
I really do need to allow for this more often. I could make it like how I've done for some custom weapons - where it's a quest. The Artificer wants a gun (which I've not had in my game) but basically does the same as the Wither and Bloom spell - so I came up with a quest idea to gather the things to make it.
I could - and probably should - do the same thing for spells - and just base them off similar spells (for if it does damage, buff, etc).
I have allowed my players to flavor spells all the time. So a barbarian wizard from the north rather than doing fireball does "icefall" - so it's not burning damage, but rather frost - and rather than burning things, it freezes things.
um, that *is* creating a new spell lol. Most "new" spells are just reflavored version of the existing ones -- and it creates a sense of engagement and being part of the world.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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1 (the thrill of adventure), 2 (to seek out new experiences), 40 (to test themselves against dangers), and a few others to a lesser extent. As for my characters...
Kaesira, dragonborn-turned-elf Artificer: 1 (the thrill of adventure), 7 (to gain vengeance), 22 (to see where the road leads), 24 (to come of age), and 25 (to build something of value).
Ozyre, gnome Fighter (Rune Knight): 1 (the thrill of adventure), 3 (to boldly go where no one has gone before), 13 (to explore strange new lands), 33 (to earn new ways of crafting), and 38 (to find magic items).
Anvil, kenku Rogue (Soule Knife): 26 (to become Famous & Renowned), 33 (to earn new ways of crafting), and 41 (to grow stronger).
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
QotD: What was the favorite treasure item you got for one of your characters? What it a magic sword? Staff? Something else?
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Friendship.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
So my Tempest Cleric's whole thing is that his family is (supposedly) descended from Thor (and god lineage is a major facet in the overall story of this campaign). He found Járngreipr, Thor's very own gauntlets that allow him to fully wield Mjolnir, in the possession of a gang leader who stole them from my character's homeland. Mechanically the gauntlets give +1 AC and resistance to Thunder and Lightning damage, and lore-wise it kicked off this personal quest to find all three of Thor's relics and find out what happened that has scattered them across the continent.
.....
Your character's friendship? I did specify one of your characters. :D
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I haven’t been able to get that far into a campaign sadly, but I gave one of my characters a purse that looks like a bag of holding but is just a normal purse. :D
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I gave one of my NPCs a Staff of Evolving Power.
pretty nifty item.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I know what the Staff of Power is - but what is the Evolving Power?
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
It makes things spin in place along the horizontal axis.
Apparently, the original creator of the artifact hated to be interrupted because he would always forget something important when he did.
Like the "R" in the name of his staff.
He also created the Staff of Revolt Pow, which is widely sought because folks are certain it will help to overthrow the Lemurian Fascian Lords.
(*giggles*)
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
This is tough… I gotta do all three of ‘em
My first character received a few magic items, but my favorite one never saw any use! I was LN, and I recovered the robe of my tutor after he was slain, a robe of the magi (or whatever that magic wizard robe is called) for Good casters. Our game ended due to Covid a week later, but the sentimental connection to that robe? That made it my favorite. (And I had a sick homebrew bow too!)
My character, Jack, was a plasmoid who had once been a ship captain. He had a Spelljammer Helm that was super funny to use, but it was eventually stolen…
Finally, my third character: I don’t know if he actually got anything… haha
QotD: What is the strangest monster you've encountered? (Could be strange because of how it looked, acted, whatever the case may be!) Let us know what was so strange about it to you?
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Favorite magic items were my first bag of holding and the tome of strength. Back in the day that was the only way to raise stats.
Same with monsters. The freaky ones were the first encounter with the D&D classics - Beholder, Mind Flayer, Intellect Devourer, Owlbear. There are other creepy things that have come out since 1e but they hold the same awe as meeting the classics in 1e.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
QotD: Do you allow your players to invent spells for their PCs? This was common practice in older editions, and encouraged by the rules. How common is it now?
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I'm sort of working through this now as a first-time DM. One of my players loves homebrewing stuff and has sent me several spell ideas, and I like them a lot and they make sense for the character, but I'm working on how to implement them into the game as canon "custom" spells. I have a few ideas, but I need to work out where and when to make these spells available.
I not only allow it, it is sometimes the only way that they may get a spell.
I've talked about how my group switched back to the 1e idea that spells needed to be found. I've talked about how we seriously changed the magic system -- spells do scaled damage, have a scaled casting time, don't use material components except for rituals which are long and involved things, we use spell points, essentially building upcasting and what we call empowering a spell, how we have duels, etc. Scrolls are always pages from someone's grimoire -- and grimoires can be all manner of different things (including tattoos, so consider what that scroll is). All of this kinda resets the way that magic works in the game as a whole, without actually changing much about the spells while ensuring a greater degree of uniformity.
It also makes creating a spell a lot easier, and approving a spell a lot easier, because you aren't looking to create a spell by the amount of damage it causes or how much it heals, but rather the specific way the spell works. And there are rules -- Apothegms -- about Magic, lol. The key being the "single thing" rule -- so stuff lie prestidigitation is actually several different spells, etc.
It also means that the only ways that a PC can increase the number of spells they know is to barter, buy, beg, steal, or find them. Buying them is prohibitively expensive -- Mages are very particular about their magic. Not impossible, just really expensive, although renown can have an impact on that. Barter is more common -- but you are then giving away spells you have, and if they already have them or are uninterested, then it doesn't work.
Begging is done, but is easiest with the person who taught you (so Mages often have an NPC teacher that is fun to play), who may have chosen you as their "heir", or may have thought of you as the worst of their students, or whatever. Stealing carries risks, because, well, theft. This leaves finding them, normally, but the other option is the one that is why there are Mage towers in the mage kingdom, why Mages are always researching and practicing, why they are usually weak and scrawny nebbishes that roll their eyes at the mere thought of trying to lift a sword.
They are busy creating new spells. Just learning a new spell is an effort (a die roll), and if the spell crosses an affinity (Arcane, Divine, Eldritch, Mystical, Primal), then that's an extra die roll, and so forth. This means it may take a couple weeks to figure out how to cast a new spell (if the rolls go bad), and because they are insanely complex things that are essentially alive, they require hours of study (specifically: 21+Spell level -Int of Mage) before each attempt. Although once mastered, the spell can be easily memorized (time) and held onto for a whole day (barring being knocked out). Divine folks have it significantly easier, though, in some ways (and harder in others) since they may get a spell just dropped into their head.
(There is an aside about how one of the Pedants had a spell for split pea soup in their head for days, no clue why, until they came across a beggar who loved split pea soup.)
Creating a spell is much like that. The process can be interrupted, though -- the hours and all that from above is not a contiguous block of time, so it can be done in bits and pieces during short rests and long rests, building up. they have to master it once they create it, and then it is their spell. This allows for "creating a spell on the fly". No formulas, no researching rare ingredients (unless they are going to do the spell as a ritual, which cuts the time down for researching it), just basically wrestling with the ultimate earworm.
We've done "creating your own spell" for a while. Because as I previously explained, it is a ton of fun for players, and leaves a mark in the game world. And yes, they can name it if they want.
Something hit me as I prepared to answer this that I hadn't realized: for my new world, the underlying approach is very much the opposite to the default D&D one -- D&D has always presupposed itself to be at the end of magic, at the point of its decline. Magic items are rare and ancient, secrets are lost, and so forth. My new game world sees it from the opposite end -- magic is still new, still not fully understood, still growing and changing and becoming more.
There are only about 3000 years of history (eh, it varies), but Magic has been around only about half the time. With "modern history" consisting of the Age of Myth, Age of Fable, and Age of Legend all being at least 250 years or more in the past, it makes things kinda cool.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I'm into the idea but nobody's ever taken me up on it.
I’ve worked with it, adapting old rules and using new ones, but I’m not in love with it. My players and I generally prefer to just go with what we’ve got.
The only way I know of to encourage it is to take away the whole "go ahead and choose your spells" bit. There's no reason to create your own spells for most folks except as maybe a one shot use against a particular foe they already understand (Syzygy's Dragon Spike -- stabs a dragon!), and you really have to be into the role playing idea of a mage to have an interest in doing so.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
You know, it's funny.
I make custom weapons and armor up the wazzo (for melee, ranged, spellcasters), but I have no allowed for custom spells.
I think part of the reason is finding a balance. When spells can be upcast and such (and granted, not all spells can be upcast - but a lot of attack spells can).
I really do need to allow for this more often. I could make it like how I've done for some custom weapons - where it's a quest. The Artificer wants a gun (which I've not had in my game) but basically does the same as the Wither and Bloom spell - so I came up with a quest idea to gather the things to make it.
I could - and probably should - do the same thing for spells - and just base them off similar spells (for if it does damage, buff, etc).
I have allowed my players to flavor spells all the time. So a barbarian wizard from the north rather than doing fireball does "icefall" - so it's not burning damage, but rather frost - and rather than burning things, it freezes things.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
um, that *is* creating a new spell lol. Most "new" spells are just reflavored version of the existing ones -- and it creates a sense of engagement and being part of the world.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds