Re: New Spelljammer Spells

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Miller" <night_druid3000@?????.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 1:55 AM
Subject: [SPELLJAMMER] New Spelljammer Spells


> Just because I like stirring the pot a bit :D  I've
> been working on new SJ spells for a while, and I'm
> starting to get a pretty nice list going.  Since we're
> talking spells, I figure I'd toss out a couple.

Toss out a couple he says, before giving us a spell for throwing ropes and 
another spell for throwing people overboard! Arf!-Arf!

> Life Preserver

I like this spell, it sounds very practical. However, the name sounds a bit 
modern (and a bit American). "Life Preserver" brings a life jacket to mind. 
Wouldn't "Lifeline" be more descriptive (as it is a line)?

> Evocation (Force)
> Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 1
> Components: V, S
> Casting Time: 1 action
> Range: Long (400 ft + 40 ft./level)
> Target: Up to ten creatures no two of which can be
> more than 30 ft. apart
> Duration: 2 rounds per level
> Saving Throw: None
> Spell Resistance: No
>
> Life Preserver creates a rope of magical energy
> streams from your hand and into the hands of any
> large-sized creature or smaller.  This spell is
> commonly used to throw lines to crewmen whom have
> fallen overboard.  A caster can throw one Life
> Preserver line per round.  Once he has thrown the
> line, other beings can take his end of the rope. The
> rope unerringly reaches its target, although the
> target can let go of the rope at any time.  If the
> target is unconscious, dead, or an inanimate object,
> the rope ties itself around the object.

How does the spell *know* someone is unconcious? Wouldn't it be better to 
make the rope *always* try to wrap arounds someone's waste, but give people 
a reflex save if they want to avoid this effect.

> A rope
> vanishes after 2 rounds per level of the caster or if
> the object is brought on board, whichever happens
> first. For every two levels past 1st, the caster can
> throw another line.  You have two lines at 3rd level,
> three lines at 5th, and so on up to ten lines at 19th
> level.

If lots of people fall overboard, the last person targeted with this spell 
is only on the rope for one or two rounds. I don't know if they would make 
it all the way back to the ship.

I can't see someone being pulled 440ft in one round! How fast can someone on 
a rope be pulled in?

> Walk the Plank

Interesting idea.

> Transmutation
> Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 1
> Components: V, S

Hmmm, should the plank be seen as a focus of the spell? If it is, the whole 
spell would have to be rewritten with the deck of the ship as a target and 
the plank being something that magically grows out from it.

> Casting Time: 1 action
> Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)

Why does this spell need a range? Wouldn't it be more in keeping for the 
spellcaster throw a plank onto the deck and shout: "shazam!" That would make 
it a touch spell.

> Target: One plank-like object, length up to 10 ft. per
> level

As I said, you could say that the deck of the ship is the target.

> Duration: 1 round/level

So this

> Saving Throw: None
> Spell Resistance: No
>
> You can cause one plank-like object, essentially a
> board about 2 ft. wide and 10 ft. long, to lengthen
> and extend.

You said 10ft per level above and 10ft here. Which is right?

Why does the plank have to be short? Why can't a 1st level spellcaster 
extend the "last 10ft" of a long plank?

> It will extend to the edge of the air
> envelope, until hit hits a solid object, or until it
> reaches a length of 100 ft. + 10 ft./level.

You have the length of the plank as the same as the spell range.

Your spell basically adds 100ft the any plank. While higher level 
spellcasters, can create longer planks, they have to do this by starting off 
with a longer plank.

I think it would sound better if spellcasters targeted a plank fixed to the 
deck and extended it by an amount given in the spell.

> Anyone
> who walks on this plank travel more quickly than
> normal; for every 5' square traveled, four 5' squares
> are actually traveled.  Thus, if a character moves
> onto the plank and moves two squares, he ends up eight
> squares from his starting point.  The plank is an
> ordinary piece of wood and has the following
> statistics: 1 in. thick, Hardness 5, 10 hp.
> Destroying any one section destroys the plank and ends
> the spell.  At the end of this spell, the plank
> returns to its normal length, dumping anyone still
> standing on it in wildspace.

Why do people move faster on the plank? Is the surface moving? Is their mind 
being altered? Are they being hasted? Does it use some sort of 
interdimensional travel (in which case it wouldn't work in the flow - would 
it)?

> This spell is most commonly used to force condemned
> prisoners to "walk the plank", dumping them beyond the
> air envelope.  This keeps them from lingering in the
> gravity plane, wasting precious air.  It is also used
> to aide in the boarding of a grappled vessel, moving
> warriors (typically marines) quickly from one vessel
> to another.  This is somewhat risky, as a lucky shot
> could dump several crewmen into the wildspace between
> the ships.

If ships are grappled, their air envelopes are combined and a crew member 
that fell between the ships would have a good chace to move towards one of 
them. The greater danger would surely be getting crused between the ships.

Instead of having a plank "snap out" and then have movement enhancing efects 
I'd be tempted to make the plank slowly grow away from the ship it is fixed 
to (and "snap in" when the duration ends). A plank that extends could move 
people outwards at a rate of 10ft per round. Instead of doubling a 
characters's movmement, the spell would than add 10 feet to the character's 
existiong movement speed

David Shepheard