Introduction Vol 1 (WSC)

==Introduction==
If you are familiar with the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS* game, welcome! This book contains a wealth of ideas you can use.
If you are not familiar with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, be aware that this book is a collection of material that expands the game rules found in the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER 'S HANDBOOK. That work (or the Introduction to ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS boxed set) will explain the basic concept of roleplaying games, and define the special words that have been created for use with the game. A short summary of the most important of these can be found in the last volume of this series.
For the uninitiated, this is not a book of "real" magical spells. In a fantasy game world there are characters like Merlin the Magician, who can create marvelous magical effects with a wave of the hand. This is a book of marvelous effects that can be used by the good guys (and the bad guys) in the course of a game session. The key is, as always, the decisions made by the players (heroic or otherwise), and the impact those decisions have on the plot line of the game. New spells are fun, but it's even more fun figuring out unusual ways to use them.
This book is a compilation and distillation of the efforts of a whole generation of role-players. All have contributed to the ongoing development and success of our favorite game. For over twenty years, creative and imaginative minds have been fascinated with the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game; and are still having a lot of fun with it.
In perhaps no area of the game are the players and judges more creative than in the development of new and unusual spell effects for the magic-using classes. Whether these are mighty earthshattering pyrotechnics of cinematic proportions, or the flamboyant flourishes of the traveling showman, or the subtle shadowings of the most mysterious movers of campaign events, one of infinite number of possible styles and approaches employed by the wizards in a campaign world is sure to appeal to everyone.
So, after many years of continous play, experimentation, and refinement, it is time for the vast body of official and semi-official work dealing with the mage class to be organized and presented in an easy-to-reference format. You are holding the first instalment of that work.
==How This Book Came to Be==
Several decisions were basic to the way we put this book together.
First, the need exists for a general reference work that contains details of the spells that have been created for the AD&D" game system. As the game has expanded, it has become ever more difficult to remember exactly which magical effects have been integrated into the game, and at which power level they have been introduced. The chances for duplication and contradiction are ever-present, and as the game is (at least so far) infinitely expandable, some means is needed to know what has already been done. Also, as earlier works become scarcer, the material in them becomes more difficult to find.
Second, up to this time, lists of spell effects have been keyed to spell level: that is, relative spell power. In other words, if all a gamer or Dungeon Master knew was a spell name, each level's list of spells had to be checked. Although this series will include level lists (and lists by race, and by specialty), the primary organization is alphabetical. The point will be covered in greater depth in the section How to Use This Book.
Third, the materials included in this book needed to be presented in the most up-to-date fashion and consistent fashion possible. This is a great challenge in a game system that continues to grow and develop, especially as the game has continued to evolve over the last 20 years or so! The basic format of the AD&D 2nd Edition rules was our starting point, and the earliest material has often been updated to bring it forward to the current state-of-the-art.
Finally, the decision was made to concentrate on the classic magic system, sometimes referred to as the "Vancian" magic system, which was inspired by the "super-science," mathematically-based magic system postulated by the science fiction writer Jack Vance in books like The Dying Earth, Rhialto the Marvelous, Cugel the Clever, Eyes of the Overworld, and others. To this day, no better introduction to the general concepts of spell "memorization" and "spells available per day" versus "spells collected in a spell book" can be found than the short stories collected in The Dying Earth. (The book is also good for recovering a sense of wonder about the magic system after the players have thrown one fireball too many.)
Such variant systems as the rune magic of our Viking setting historical reference book; the realmlevel magic of the BIRTHRIGHT" setting; the psionic Dragon-King magics of the DARK SUN" setting; and the very rare, pure-energy spellfire of the FORGOTTEN REALMS'* campaign are all beyond the basic scope of these books. The emphasis here is on those magical effects that any magic-using character might find useful in the course of an adventure.
==About This Book==
This book is the first in a series that will cover the spells of the AD&D game system from 1975 to 1995. The first volume covers spells starting with the letters A through D. The goal is to create a definitive version of the game rules for wizard spells for players, judges, and designers.
The basic organizational scheme is alphabetical. For spell names that include a wizard's name, for example Tenser's floating disk, the primary entry will be under "T." A reference to the main entry will be found the second word of the spell name; in this case the entry would read: "Floating Disk, Tenser's."
Be aware that many spell names are irregular compound words, and that standard alphabetical order follows complete words. Thus,/ire shield will appear before fireball. If you can't find a spell, try looking for it as a compound form.
Some spells will have multiple names; or sometimes the name of a spell has been changed, either to avoid confusion with a better known spell of a similar name, or to better match the spell effect. For example, double, which replaces one damaged animated skeleton with two undamaged ones, was renamed double undead to distinguish it from spells such as double steel and the various double wizardry spells. Every renamed spell has an entry under its original name.
Spells associated with specific campaign worlds will be marked with a special symbol so they can be easily recognized. See page 19 for a summary of these symbols. Also, spells that are associated with a specific monster or nonhuman race (such as dragons, elves, and so on) will be noted; the race name separated from the spell name by a dash.
Generally, spell names and secondary game effects will be italicized. For example, the emotion spell has a secondary effect called hope. The PLAYER'S OPTION™ books have been integrated into this series as far as has been possible. This means that rule clarifications to the Player's Handbook and Tome of Magic spells from the
PLAYER 'S OPTION: High Level Handbook have been incorporated into those spell descriptions. The spells from the PLAYER 'S OPTION: Spells & Magic book will appear in these volumes, even though they had not been published when the compilation phase of this project ended. Further, in addition to the standard "schools" of magic outlined in the Player s Handbook, the newer and option schools from the Tome of Magic and the PLAYER'S OPTION series have been added to the spell descriptions in this series.
The earliest spell source used was the 1st Ed. Advanced Player's Handbook, which contained a few spells that did not make the jump to 2nd edition, such as the push spell, which will be in a later volume of the Wizard's Compendium. The earliest DRAGON* Magazine articles with AD&D spells were in the low-40's; spell material before that was much more primitive "D&D® Variant" material. Indeed, some of the earliest spell descriptions ran as little as two lines! Mining such hoary archival materials for redesign (for no less will do!) is, sadly, a project for another day.
However, the series will include spells updated from their original appearences in DRAGON Magazine (articles and variants), DUNGEON* Magazine (prepared adventures and storylines), POLYHEDRON Newszine (newsletter of the RPGA® Network— the ROLE PLAYING GAME ASSOCIATION™ Network for the active hobbyist), and even IMAGINE Magazine, a TSR hobby magazine that was published in the United Kingdom and not distributed in the United States.
Category:Wizard's Spell Compendium