Level
2nd
Casting Time
1 Reaction
Range/Area
60 ft.
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
1 Round
School
Transmutation
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
This spell is an evolving spell.
Each of the effect described, beyond the first one, must be researched and practiced thoroughly so that the spell is casted on the good timing to trigger it.
Choose a willing, fighting creature that you can see within range. You briefly accelerate the body and mind of the target, just enough so it can take its adversaries off-balance. You choose one the following effects :
- For the next round of fighting, the target creature goes first in the initiative order.
Researchable effects :
- Until the end of its next turn, all of the target creature's movement (if it has any) are raised by half of their maximum values.
- If the target creature is about to be submitted to a dexterity saving throw, it has advantage on that saving throw.
- ...
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the following effects become available :
- ...
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Posted Oct 10, 2021I like the idea you are going for here with a spell being customizable. It is an interesting mechanic that a player could have some fun with. Obviously your spell description isn't finished, however I will offer my personal gut response. I like you you are trying to give some narrative flare to the description to describe the in-game mechanics of the spell. I would encourage you to go more down that narrative path of adding some flavour to the spell and try to steer clear of the dry mechanical stuff. I get that sometimes it is just unavoidable thought as ultimately every spell has to more or less have at least some vaguely some mechanical impact on the game.
From a mechanical perspective, I think something like this spell creates a bit of a one stop shop to be all things for all situations... Well probably not that bad but I am exaggerating for dramatic effect. My advice would be to get rid of the higher spell stot scaling or get rid of the multiple effects at the same level. If you get rid of the multiple effects at the same level that kind of just ruins the whole concept of the spell. As an example this is my take on the Analyze Blood spell a few contributors have contributed:
=== START SNIP ===
At Higher Levels: When cast as a higher level spell you may gain additional information from the blood analysis. When cast as a higher level spell you gain all information granted by the spell up to an including the level it is cast at. Additional information you can gain is listed below:
2nd level: Type of creature (Monstrosity, Undead, Human, Elf, Orc, etc.)
3rd level: If the blood carries any diseases or poisons and if the creature is capable of spellcasting
4th level: If applicable, the creature's gender, age, and alignment.
=== END SNIP ===
So you could have the spell scale that way however I don't fell like this approach does justice to the concept you are going for. The space I feel like you are playing in mechanically is that you want the wizard to just learn one - a kind of generic template spell - and then have to practice/learn/research various incarnations or overlays to work into the spells generic template. However, you don't what the research to be the equivalent research of simply learning an entirely different spell. For example you don't want the wizards spellbook filling up with: Accelerate - extra attack, Accelerate - first strike, Accelerate - boost fortitude, etc...
I can see some issues with the spell mechanically moving forward... As the wizard learns and masters more effects, the spell which remains a 2nd level spell becomes more powerful over time... Perhaps marginally so if you keep the various effect relatively minor... but the more options the spell has the more use cases it will have.
I would suggest a bit of a compromise... to develop the spell and open the mechanical space for a group of similar style spells. In my mind I could imagine it working like this...
Template spell
Has one effect when wizard learns it.
The casters intelligence (or spellcasting ability modifier) is used as the basis for the number of additional options the spell can take up to a maximum of 3 extra options.
Rough example:
Tessellation of Alacrity
(The name becomes the template for other spell of the similar nature)
Basic function target wins next initiative roll
A number of additional optional functions of the spell can be mastered. The number of additional options is limited to the spellcasting ability modifier (INT for a wizard). So 13 INT can master 1 extra option. (make sure you limit the extra options to 3 in each spell description.
Each of the following can be learned with a week of study and a successful INT check
Tessellation of Lethargy
Basic function Target goes last in next initiative
Same rules for learning the options…
Tessellation of Vitality (buffs ability scores)
Tessellation of Stupor (debuffs ability scores)
Just some ideas….