List of spells like 3e

[Yoroichi]

Hey people, i am trying to create a character and i want a quick recap of every spell like it was in 3,5 (IE: Fireball:6d6 fire damage ref save half) but the 5e book just has the spell listed and it is very hard to quickly see what spells you could use in order to plan a character.

I want multiclass casters so i would like access to all the spells quickly.

Has anyone done this/has been this discussed before?

Thank you!

[Justin Sane]

Does this help? (http://salty-ridge-7989.herokuapp.com/) Doesn't have the spell descriptions, but it's a nice tool.

[Yoroichi]

Thank you, i already had it in mind though.

The summarised descriptions is what i am missing!

[Daishain]

Thank you, i already had it in mind though.

The summarised descriptions is what i am missing!
iirc, Unlike 3E, the spell descriptions for 5E have not (yet?) been released as public domain.

Meaning that any attempt to post a database including said spell descriptions will prompt a cease and desist letter. Along with possible legal trouble. and yes, paraphrasing said descriptions is still a violation.

Personally? I just made a spellbook for myself and the others in the group. Print off the portion needed for the character in question, and reference that. Its better than slugging through the PHB every time.

[Morukai]

iirc, Unlike 3E, the spell descriptions for 5E have not (yet?) been released as public domain.

Meaning that any attempt to post a database including said spell descriptions will prompt a cease and desist letter. Along with possible legal trouble. and yes, paraphrasing said descriptions is still a violation.

Personally? I just made a spellbook for myself and the others in the group. Print off the portion needed for the character in question, and reference that. Its better than slugging through the PHB every time.

If I received a cease and desist letter for paraphrasing a spell description, I'd ignore it. There's nothing wrong with paraphrasing if it's clear your intent isn't to rip off the copyright owner- just keep the principles of fair use in mind. When in doubt, consult an attorney.

But to answer OPs question: Get some Spellbook Cards. I got my Arcane set yesterday, and they're immensely useful.

http://www.gf9-dnd.com/gameAcc/tabid/87/entryid/92/Default.aspx

[Kaeso]

But to answer OPs question: Get some Spellbook Cards. I got my Arcane set yesterday, and they're immensely useful.

http://www.gf9-dnd.com/gameAcc/tabid/87/entryid/92/Default.aspx

Call me cynical, but this feels like a marketing ploy. Instead of offering a quick spell description with each spell in the spell list and then offering more detail in the spell description section (like they did in for example 3.5e's spell compendium), they make the entire system very tedious. It's almost as if they planned it this way: making spells very tedious purely so they can sell these spell cards.

[Luriant]

Search Hardcodex in google.
I find a compendium of spells ready to print.

[mr_odd]

Call me cynical, but this feels like a marketing ploy. Instead of offering a quick spell description with each spell in the spell list and then offering more detail in the spell description section (like they did in for example 3.5e's spell compendium), they make the entire system very tedious. It's almost as if they planned it this way: making spells very tedious purely so they can sell these spell cards.

Is there really a difference between buying an entire book and buying cards? Besides, the cards just do what most people playing casters already do. As a player, if I really wanted to get "official," I'd rather buy one set of cards for cheap rather than buying a whole book.

[Daishain]

Is there really a difference between buying an entire book and buying cards? Besides, the cards just do what most people playing casters already do. As a player, if I really wanted to get "official," I'd rather buy one set of cards for cheap rather than buying a whole book.
Except that we have to buy the book anyways. Buying cards corresponding to spells in said book because it does a poor job of presenting said spells is the issue.

[archaeo]

Except that we have to buy the book anyways. Buying cards corresponding to spells in said book because it does a poor job of presenting said spells is the issue.

I mean, you don't have to buy cards. You can pretty easily write your own references, which will have the benefit of being tailored for exactly your needs.

It's totally reasonable to criticize how the PHB's spells are indexed, but it's still a totally usable reference and copying out what you need is the work of minutes.

[Kaeso]

It's totally reasonable to criticize how the PHB's spells are indexed, but it's still a totally usable reference and copying out what you need is the work of minutes.

What my point was is that I have the idea that the bad indexing in the PHB wasn't purely the result of incompetence, bad planning or what have you, but a result by design to create a need for reference cards which could then be sold. To me it feels like they're creating an artificial demand for products they can sell.

[Daishain]

I mean, you don't have to buy cards. You can pretty easily write your own references, which will have the benefit of being tailored for exactly your needs.

It's totally reasonable to criticize how the PHB's spells are indexed, but it's still a totally usable reference and copying out what you need is the work of minutes.
That was my solution to the issue yes.

However, it does seem like WoTC are stacking things in favor of people buying the card sets, since not everyone is going to want to mess with making their own equivalent. I'm also of the opinion that if one is going to pay significant amounts of cash for a relatively small book, it ought to be a good resource for its contents (a sentiment that has caused me no end of frustration in dealing with university textbooks)

[archaeo]

That was my solution to the issue yes.

However, it does seem like WoTC are stacking things in favor of people buying the card sets, since not everyone is going to want to mess with making their own equivalent. I'm also of the opinion that if one is going to pay significant amounts of cash for a relatively small book, it ought to be a good resource for its contents (a sentiment that has caused me no end of frustration in dealing with university textbooks)

"Relatively small"? They're full-color hardbacks with 300+ pages and filled with the work of people who were working for literal years on the content. I routinely see books with the same qualities priced well above the core 5e books.

It seems a little counterintuitive that WotC would purposefully gimp their books to sell spell cards. They either sold/leased the license outright to the card company or take some percentage of sales, a number that will be like a blip on the bottom line. Instead, it seems to all come down to space. The only indexing feature they could've added that wouldn't have really impacted the length of the book would be including page numbers next to the spells in the class lists, which would look incredibly sloppy in the current layout. I suppose they could've also added the class icons next to spell titles in the full descriptions.

Both of those solutions would only slightly improve the speed with which one can make decisions about spell selection, the only time the indexing really counts. In every other situation where you want to reference a spell, alphabetical order is probably the best way to handle the content.

[Slipperychicken]

I want multiclass casters so i would like access to all the spells quickly.

Has anyone done this/has been this discussed before?

Thank you!

Personally, I created an Excel document with spell names and levels and such. For the descriptions, I simply took the cells containing spell names, and put in comments which are cropped images of the spell entries. It means that I need to spend a lot less time looking up spells, since when I mouse over a spell, the whole description instantly pops up.

For your own use, I'd suggest putting these comments in an existing spell-sorter document to save yourself time. You could even use images which contain both the spell in question and also relevant conditions and rules (such as the Frightened condition entry appearing next to a spell which causes it, or a Warhorse's stats next to the Find Steed spell).

I would do this and upload one myself if it wasn't for this copyright stuff. Also, I wish I had thought of this back when I was playing 3.5. Looking up spells was a huge pain back then.

[Yoroichi]

Personally, I created an Excel document with spell names and levels and such. For the descriptions, I simply took the cells containing spell names, and put in comments which are cropped images of the spell entries. It means that I need to spend a lot less time looking up spells, since when I mouse over a spell, the whole description instantly pops up.

For your own use, I'd suggest putting these comments in an existing spell-sorter document to save yourself time. You could even use images which contain both the spell in question and also relevant conditions and rules (such as the Frightened condition entry appearing next to a spell which causes it, or a Warhorse's stats next to the Find Steed spell).

I would do this and upload one myself if it wasn't for this copyright stuff. Also, I wish I had thought of this back when I was playing 3.5. Looking up spells was a huge pain back then.

Thank you for your replies,

I was going to do the same thing for myself, There is not that many spells anyway... SHOTS FIRED :smallwink: