From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Subject: Suggestion for Replacement Spell
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.dnd
Reply-To: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:13:14 GMT

I was looking through the Great Net Spellbook, and got rather tired of
iceballs, improved fireballs, delayed blast steamballs, and such.  The
following spell is suggested as a replacement for all the redundant fireball
spells in the GNSB.

There also seem to be a number of occurrences of "1 yard + 1 yard per level"
in the GNSB, and these seem to be errors that should be fixed to 10 feet or 10
yards instead.

Comments?
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Grand Unified Blast (Invocation/Evocation)

Level: Special
Range: 10 yards + 10 yards/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: Same as level
Area of Effect: 20-foot radius sphere
Saving Throw: 1/2

This spell is actually a class of spells, which have been researched in many
forms by many different magic users.  The spell creates a blast in a 20 foot
radius, which does 1D6 per level damage, with a save for half damage.  In the
Invocation versions, the spell creates a condition in the area of effect; this
version does not expand to its full volume in confined spaces.  The Evocation
version creates a small point of fire, cold, or whatever, which instantly ex-
plodes to full radius.

The most basic form of the spell is the Fireball.  Other versions include Ice-
ball, Steamball, etc.  A magic user who knows any one version of this spell
can research any other version at 50% of normal cost; he may also research,
for free, versions of the same spell that differ only in the kind of damage
done, after experience in the appropriate elemental plane.  If you use "maximum
number of spells known per level" in your game, extra versions of this spell
of the same level as versions already known do not count towards the limit.

The basic version of the spell is level 3 and does a maximum of 10d6 points of
damage.  Versions of this spell above level 3 exist, the spell level being
determined by the following additions:

Free  Different damage type. (Iceball, Steamball, etc.)
 +1   Invocation version. (does not expand in confined spaces)
 +1   Spell does 1d6+1 or 1d8 damage per level. (same maximum number of dice)
 +1   Can be reduced to half radius at casting time, which adds an additional
      +1 point per die damage and gives -2 on saving throws.
 +2   Spell does a maximum of 15 dice of damage.
 +3   Delayed blast for up to 5 rounds. (cannot be used with invocation
      version, since there is no explosion to delay)

For instance, a Delayed Blast Fireball that did 1d8 damage per level would be
a 7th level spell (+1 for damage, +3 for delay).

The material component is a small ball made of bat guano and a relatively
common substance associated with the type of damage caused by the spell: sulfur
for Fireball, salt from boiled water for Steamball, etc.
--
"On the first day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Leftover Turkey!
On the second day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Turkey Casserole
    that she made from Leftover Turkey.
[days 3-4 deleted] ...  Flaming Turkey Wings! ...
   -- Pizza Hut commercial (and M*tlu/A*gic bait)

Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd