Peter Aronson's comments Was: Locate Portal spell - Dreamer's hacked version has errors

From: "Peter Aronson" <pbaronson@???.net>
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Locate Portal spell - Dreamer's hacked version
has errors
> From: "Dreamer" <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk>
>> It depends on what you think of 'Wildspace Rangers'; you could
>> argue that this spell fits with the idea of tracking in space,
>> etc. You need to think about what the character class does, in
>> particular in a SJ setting, in addition to their existing spell
>> lists.
>
> I think Wildspace Rangers would be a neat idea, but I think clearly
> regular
> rangers wouldn't get this spell.

Groundling rangers clearly wouldn't, but I think Dreamer was talking about
spacefaring characters from the ranger class.

>> > Should read: "Casting Time: 10 minutes"
>>
>> I realise that to convert the spell, time to time, 1 DnD turn
>> becomes 10 3rdEd minutes, but if you want the spell to take the
>> same number of combat actions, which I think is arguably the
>> intention, then the Casting Time should be 1 minute.
>>
>> This is a problem which will come up again and again - if we
>> convert on just the basis of the length of time that DnD turns
>> last we will get spells that no one will contemplate casting in a
>> combat sitation.
>>
>> I'd prefer the time frame for spells to match the original, but
>> if people think the spell should become something more like a ten
>> minute ritual?
>
> This bothers me too.  A lot of the spells in the Spelljammer books seem to
> have very arbitary casting times, and it seems to me that looking for
> equivalent spells at 3.0e/3.5e and seeing what their casting time is, is
> as
> least as legitimate.

I believe that WotC have altered the way combat rounds works so that more
things happen during combat. This makes spells with short casting times
appear to be faster than spells with longer durations. However it isn't
spells like this that are *changing* - it is the ones with short durations
that are getting quicker. I don't see an issue with this spell *staying* as
slow as it used to be, because I can't see it being used during combat much.

If someone actually wants to cast this during combat the long delay can add
to the tension (like the Millenium Falcon crew attempting to activate its
hyperdrive following the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back).

>> So:
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>> Cleric Spells
>>
>> 2nd-Level Cleric Spells
>> Locate Portal - Senses direction and distance of closest portal
>> in the adjacent crystal shell.
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is not a Clerical spell of any level in Concordance of Arcane
> Spell -- 
> is it somewhere else?

If we have made an error, it will need to be deleted from the cleric spell 
list, but it can legally stay in (or be added to) a clerica domain spell 
list.

>> Unfortunately, I think this needs more work before it is agreed
>> on...
>
> I am beginning to think that this project is going to call for an editor
> to
> make final decisions.  I don't think complete agreement is going to occur,
> in part because some of the decisions will be at their heart matters of
> taste rather than matters of fact.

I nominate Night Druid! He has excellent judgement and I believe he is 
already compiling the spells to send on to Static.

> Personally, all I want out of this project is an additional spell list I
> can
> put in my campaign information binder for my players to look at when
> choosing spells, just like the skills and feats section on Beyond the
> Moons
> for when they are choosing skills and feats.

I want that to. But I also want BtM to have the Players Guide (in HTML or
PDF) finished to such a level that we can attract new d20 players to the
Spelljammer universe.

If we can get enough people playing Spelljammer, WotC may consider bringing
the setting back (or giving somone else a licence to bring it back). I
believe that Dragonlance Nexus were partially (if not totally) responsible
for generating enough player demand for the 3e Dragonlance Campaign Setting
hardback to be published. Spelljammer has a much smaller player base, but
Ravenloft was licenced and I never thought that was much popular than
Spelljammer (no offense to Ravenloft intended).

David Shepheard