Re: Regular Day-Night - proposed SJ spell

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Thu 24 Aug, Nils Jeppe wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Aug 2006, Dreamer wrote:
[snip]

> Okay, I see where you're coming from. That is a powerful spell, and it 
> compares better. Actually, tbh, I never understood how making light could 
> be considered to compare to casting fireballs. I think Adam - was it Adam? 
> - was right when he pointed out that daylight has effects on undead, etc.

I will admit I overlooked that...


> So how about this: Remove your artificial restriction on day length. 
> Instead, the spell works as desired in creating any day/night cycle the 
> caster might set (up to the duration of the spell, and of course modified 
> by metamagic feats). (KISS-principle)
> 
> However, since it is magic, the daylight will not negatively affect undead 
> or other creatures that are normally harmed by it. It won't blind, hurt, 
> whatever. The nights, likewise, are not so dark that a human would be 
> helpless; say, about the brightness of a night of a full moon. The spell 
> will not affect great temperature changes. The nights will be mild and not 
> cold; the artificial days will be at best a little warmer than the nights 
> they replace. The spell can't change the climate and it can't change the 
> season. If you want additional weather effects, you can cast Control 
> Weather.
> 
> Also, remove the flashy "night sky as desired" thing. It sounds cool, but 
> it would imply that the entire area is covered in a magical dome. Instead, 
> the spell simply blocks out the sunlight (or somehow warps space to 
> provide sunlight). The result is that the sky during the day/night looks 
> pretty much like a normal day/night in the region. If you want additional 
> visual effects, cast normal illusion spells for them.
> 
> Now, the spell is much less useful in affecting game balance, but on the 
> other hand it is universally usable.
[snip]

OK, I can see its use is much less than I thought it might be,
but here is a re-write which hopefully addresses people's
concerns:


Control Day-Night
Transmutation
Level: Clr 6, Drd 6, Sor/Wiz 6, Util 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes; see text
Range: 2 miles
Area: 2-mile-radius circle, centred on you
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You change the day-night cycle in the local area.  It takes 10
minutes to cast the spell and an additional 10 minutes for the
(full) effects to manifest.  You can produce a day or night
appropriate to the climate of the area you are in.

You cannot produce any hotter days than suit this area, or colder
nights.  You can cause dusk then night in the middle of the day,
or dawn then day during the middle of the night.  However, while
this cycle is enough to keep things like crops happy, the
daylight produced, being magical, will not harm undead or other
creatures normally harmed by such, and the night will not require
Darkvision or Low-light Vision to move around safely in it.  Any
spell or other effect which requires natural daylight or night to
work cannot make use of such created by a Control Day-Night spell.

If desired you can terminate the spell early, for example, you
start casting the spell, after ten minutes it starts to get dark,
after another ten minutes maximum darkness has been reached, then
over the next ten minutes the light level returns to whatever it
would be naturally, and you terminate the spell.  You can also
cause the spell to affect a smaller, even non-circular, area, but
not generally one smaller than 100 ft. by 20 ft.  If you wish to
use this spell inside an enclosed space then it must be immense;
no normal artificial structure will be suitable.

A particular use of this spell is in a spelljamming setting,
where you want a 24-hour day-night cycle, optionally with
seasonal variations in day-length such as an Earth-like world
would have.  This is generally done by enchanting a magic item
with this spell which produces this spell effect once per 24-hr
day.  One use of this would be on board a SJ ship that wanted to
follow a 24-hr day even though deep in wildspace.  A moon which
is tide-locked to a planet can then have a 'standard' day-night
pattern, as long as this does not increase the average amount of
sunlight received over a year.  Sometimes this spell is used with
something like an artificial sun to turn its continuous light
into a more useful day-night pattern.

You can also choose whether or not your spell effects are visible
outside the area; if you desire it looks from the outside as if
the normal conditions for the area continue inside, until someone
moves inside the spell area.

GM Note: This spell is an adapted Control Weather spell, and if
you wish you may assume that things like this are not needed. 
However, it may provide useful 'flavour' and detail in some
settings.  Cruel GMs may wish to note that whatever is the
underlying natural lighting level will be what effects creatures,
so they might be confused into going out in the magically-created
night, and then be blasted by the daylight that is truely there!

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/