Casting Spells in Crowfield

Why change the way spell casting works?

Because Vancian Magic sucks.

Clearly that’s just my opinion, but I know it’s shared by more than a few. Ever since the beginning of the hobby, players have been replacing the “memorize, fire, forget” system with different systems, most involving spell points of some sort.

This is not a spell point system. I think those add another level of book-keeping that I’d rather avoid.

I guess I should say why I don’t like Vancian magic. I’ve never read Jack Vance’s work, so his magic system doesn’t match my (pre-D&D) mental image of a magic user. If you were to ask young me to think of a magic user, there are four names that would have sprang to mind:

• Merlin
• Gandalf
• Samanatha Stevens
• Jeanie

I can’t think of a single scene with any of these “classic” magicians that fits the “memorize, fire, forget” paradigm. Instead they have powers that they can do, and when they need to do them, they do them…

…And sometimes it doesn’t work.

…And sometimes it goes horribly wrong.

…And sometimes they temporarily lose their powers.

That’s what I want to recreate.

While I’m at it, I want to align spell levels with character levels.

How do I cast a spell?

Just like using a talent: roll 2d12 + Attribute Bonus. Use all the dice for easy and difficult spells.

Casting a spell of a lower level than your casting level is easy. Example: Arbegla¹ is a 5th level magic-user casting Magic Missile, a 1st level spell. 5 (character level) - 1 (spell level) = 4, so his player gets 4 “bonus” dice. He rolls 6d12 and keeps the two highest.

Casting a spell of a higher level than your casting level is difficult. Example: Arbegla is somehow casting Cloudkill, an 8th level spell. 5 (character level) - 8 (spell level) = -3, so his player gets 3 “penalty” dice. He rolls 5d12, keeping the two lowest.

Which attribute do I use for the attribute bonus?

If you’re casting a magic-user spell, use intelligence.

If you’re casting a cleric (or druid²) spell, use wisdom.

If you’re casting a bard³ spell, use charisma.

I rolled the dice. Now what?

Just like talents:

(All the examples here will assume that Brother Björn is casting a Cure spell on Swinfar. The spell is supposed to restore 1d6 hit points to Swinfar.)

Roll	Result	Description
“natural” 244	Critical Success	The spell succeeds with maximum or better than expected results. This requires some fast thinking on the DM’s part, but he should always make it beneficial to the party and fun for the players. Example 1: The DM rules that 6 points are restored–no dice roll necessary. Example 2: Swinfar recovers 2d6 hit points instead of 1d6. Example 3: Swinfar recovers 1d6 hit points, and so does Jalice who was standing nearby.
14 or better	Success	The spell succeeds as expected with no unintended side effects. Example: Swinfar recovers 1d6 hit points.
13	“Unlucky 13”	See the next question.
12 or less	Failure	The spell does not take effect, and the character cannot cast any more spells until they get a full night of rest. Example: Brother Björn casts his spell over Swinfar, and…nothing happens. But Brother Björn knows that the power has left him, and he needs a full night to recover before he can cast anything again.
“natural” 2	Spell Backfires!	The spell takes effect, but in a reversed or otherwise detrimental way. The character cannot cast any more spells until they get several days of rest. As with the critical success, this requires some fast thinking on the DM’s part. While it has to be detrimental to the character(s), he should still try to make it fun for the players. Example 1: Instead of healing 1d6 hit points, Swinfar suffers 1d6 hit points of new damage. Example 2: Swinfar recovers nothing, but the orc that he was fighting is healed 1d6 hit points.

What about “Unlucky 13”?

The principles from Talents carry over:

• The roll is considered a failure unless the player is willing to accept a Bad Thing. Using the same example as the previous question, the player can just accept that it’s a failure. Swinfar isn’t healed, and Brother Björn can’t cast any more spells today.

• If the player accepts the Bad Thing, then the attempt is considered a success

What Bad Things make sense for an Unlucky 13?

So, using the same example as the previous questions:

• The spell roll is doing two things: it’s attempting to get the intended magical effect while maintaining the character’s control over their magical ability. So a good default option for when you can’t think of anything else is to let the spell work, but take away casting for the rest of the day. Example: Swinfar is healed of 1d6 hit points, but Brother Björn can’t cast any more spells today.

• Or, if you’re feeling generous, you could flip it: Example: Swinfar isn’t healed, but Brother Björn can still cast spells today. Maybe he’ll try again next round.

• You could ask the casting player which of those two options he prefers: “You feel the magical energy slipping out of your control! It’s fighting you, trying to wiggle free. Would you rather…”

• All spells are assumed to use some sort of material component. You could say that casting the spell used the last of it. Example: While healing Swinfar, Brother Björn uses the last of his dried mint root. You won’t have any more until you can get back to town.

• I think it’s more fun to come up with things that play off of the spell's effects. In all these examples, Swinfar is healed of 1d6 hit points, and Brother Björn can still cast spells today (because that’s what the player “paid for” by accepting the Bad Thing), but…:

  • Example 1: …the orc that Swinfar is fighting also heals 1d6 points

  • Example 2: …the hit points that Swinfar recovers are taken as damage by Brother Björn and Jalice (divided equally)

• Finally, if you can’t think of anything, ask the player. “What Bad Thing do you think would happen?”

What did you mean about aligning spell levels with character levels?

Let’s look at some of the original D&D rules:

• To cast a 1st level magic spell, the magic-user has to be at least 1st level
• To cast a 1st level clerical spell, the cleric has to be at least 2nd level
• To cast a 4th level magic spell, the magic-user has to be at least 7th level
• To cast a 4th level clerical spell, the cleric has to be at least 6th level

This is all too complicated for me. If a character has to be 7th level to cast the spell, why not just call it a 7th level spell? That way there’s never the question of “I’m a x level character. Can I cast a y level spell?”

So all I'm going to do is "re-level" each spell according to this table:

D&D MU spell level	D&D Cleric spell level	Crowfield Spell Level
0 cantrip	-	0.1
1	0 orison	1
-	1	2
2	-	3
-	2	4
3	3	5
-	4	6
4	5	7
5	-	8
6	6	9
7	7	10
8	8	11
9	9	12

Can my character cast a higher level spell?

Yes!

There are two ways:

1. In Crowfield, many spells are “multi-level”–it’s one spell with varying effects depending on the level that it’s cast at. For example, instead of separate Cure Light Wounds and Cure Serious Wounds spells, there’s just a Cure Wounds spell that varies between first and sixth level. Once you know the spell, you know all the levels of the spell. So a first level character could try to cast Cure Wounds at sixth level to heal more damage, but it would be very very very risky (lowest 2 of 7 dice! That’s an 11% chance of backfire and only 2 percent chance of success, counting Unlucky 13 as a success!)

2. You can just learn a spell of a higher level! Crowfield doesn’t prohibit this, though it's very difficult.

What does a multi-level spell look like?

Here’s the one we keep talking about:

Cure Wounds

Casting Time	1 action
Range	Touch
Target	Creature touched
Duration	Instantaneous
Saving Throw	half (harmless) (see text)
Level Effects	Level 1: 1d4-1 hp (minimum 1) Level 2: 1d8 hp Level 3: 1d10 hp Level 4: 1d12 hp Level 5: 2d6 hp Level 6: 2d8 hp
The character cures a number of the target’s hit points, based on the spell’s level. The spell will only be effective on wounds received since the last time the target was the target of this spell. This spell deals damage to the undead instead of curing their wounds. An undead creature can attempt a save to take half damage.

Do I need to prepare spells in advance?

No. Once you know a spell, you know it. You don’t have to study it every time you cast it.

What about components?

In traditional D&D spells often have verbal, somatic, and/or material components. Different spells have different requirements. Whatever.

In Crowfield, all spells are assumed to need a few words, some gestures, and some material component (a pinch of dust, powdered frog’s blood, etc.). Casters are assumed to carry the needed stuff with them, so there’s no need to track it all.

If for some reason a caster can’t speak (the victim of a Silence spell, maybe), can’t move (paralyzed, tied up, etc.), or lost their material components, simply shift the difficulty up one level per complication.

Example: Brother Björn and Swinfar are being held prisoner. Brother Björn is bound and gagged. All their possessions have been taken away. Swinfar has a plan to escape, but he’s too badly injured to execute it safely. Brother Björn can cast a Cure Wounds on Swinfar, but he’ll have to take the lowest 2 out of 5 dice! (The 2 base dice, plus one penalty die each for (1) not being able to speak (gagged), (2) not being able to make gestures (bound), and (3) not having dried mint root.)

How do I learn new spells?

The process is a little different between magic-users and clerics, but the core mechanic is the same:

• Each week, the player makes a casting check (complete with difficulty modifiers) as if he was casting the new spell

  • If the check is a success, the character is one step closer to learning the spell.

  • If the check is a critical success, the character is two steps closer to learning the spell.

  • When the number of “steps” (successes) equals the spell’s lowest level, the character has learned the spell.

  • If the check is a failure, the character has gone down the wrong path. They don’t lose any progress but the week has been wasted and they’re at risk of never learning the spell.

  • If the check is a backfire, the character has a serious misunderstanding and it counts as two failures.

  • If the character reaches 3 failures before he’s mastered the spell, he has reached the point of no return and he can never learn that spell.

• The process requires 100 gold pieces per spell level worth of materials (material components, etc) each week.

• The weeks do not have to contiguous, but every week of “break” erases one success.

• Tutors

  • If using a tutor, you get to add the tutor’s attribute modifier to your own.

  • Tutors are expensive.

  • Most tutors will require a blood-oath of loyalty.

• From a scroll

  • Spells cannot be learned from a scroll

  • Scrolls can be copied into a spell book, though there’s a chance that doing so will erase the scroll.

How many starting spells do I get?

3 + the attribute modifier. So a cleric with a Wisdom of 18 gets 6 starting spells. A wizard with an intelligence of 3 would get no starting spells. Don’t play a wizard if your intelligence is 3.

How are my starting spells determined?

You get to pick them! You don’t even have to do it before play begins! Just add a spell as you need them until you’re out of starting spells.

That's it

That's my idea for casting spells in Crowfield. What do you think?

While I spell out a lot of exact number of penalty/bonus dice, I suspect that at the table I'll just "guesstimate" to keep things flowing quickly. If a player balks at my number, then we'll calculate things.

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Footnotes:

1. Arbegla (are-BAY-glah) was the first magic user that I ever rolled up. Yes, his name is “algebra” spelled backwards. I was using my textbook to support my notebook when I was trying to think of a character name.↩

2. Seeing that I’m using the OGL, that means that I have access to a large body of spells, so adding a druid class would be pretty simple. It would also mean that a ranger-type character would multiclass as a fighter-druid. Just an idea I’m toying with. Not committing to anything yet.↩

3. This is really just an example. For now, at least, bard isn’t a player class in Crowfield.↩

4. A “natural” result ignores the modifiers. So a “natural 24” only occurs if the dice come up as double twelves; a “natural 2” only happens if you roll double ones. Example: Arbegla gets a +3 to his roll because of his intelligence. He’s casting a spell one level higher than his level. He rolls and the dice are a 12, another 12, and a 9. We keep the lower two dice and add his intelligence modifier: 12 + 9 + 3 = 24. The result is 24, but it is not a “natural 24.”↩

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Updated 2020-07-24: Grammar/typo corrections as provided by ZomusPrime.  Thank you!