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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Twelve Spells of Change



Stan
2016-11-17, 10:15 AM
Ninja Prawn has a spell contest going on. I realized that I haven't made new spells for a decade, so I figured I'd give it a go.
The spells in this post are extras that will not be submitted to the contest. Contest submissions will each be in their own post for easier linkage.

Change Mind
1st-level enchantment

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
After someone has answered a question, you may cast this spell as part of re-asking the question. If they fail a wisdom save, they give the opposite response compared to the before. The target is aware that they have changed their response but they do not know why.


Change of Things
2nd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: S, M (a piece of jewelry with a built in container of one cubic centimeter, costing 5 gp or more)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell can be cast two ways. You can cast it on a set of clothing or armor, causing it to shrink to fit into the specially prepared jewelry. Later, you can cast it on yourself to exchange your clothing with that contained within a piece of jewelry. You can have multiple outfits shrunken, each in a different container.

Once Mandy became a member of court, she found it handy to be able to dress for any occasion at a moment’s notice.


Clothing Explosion
3rd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components:V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

Choose a creature that you can see within range. That creature must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the target’s largest item of clothing or held item (usually armor, a robe, or a cloak) flies away from them and lands 20’ away in a random direction.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, an additional item flies away for each slot level above 3rd.

Mandy created this spell to remove knight’s armor advantage. When cast at higher levels, it would disarm them too. Most warriors who found themselves without weapons or armor would surrender or run away. Against monsters, it has occasional uses such as that dragon that has a magic necklace around its horn. Mandy was eventually banned from court for occasionally using it to embarrass courtiers whom she found annoying.


Exchange Senses
3rd-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
You choose a creature within range. You and the target exchange all sensory abilities. If the target is unwilling, it can avoid the effect with a successful Charisma save. Magical senses are exchanged but abilities like gaze attacks are not.


Pause Pulse
3rd-level invocation

Casting Time:1 action
Range: Self (30-foot-radius sphere
Components:V,S
Duration: Instantaneous

A wave of scrambled magic energy shoots forth from you in all directions. Everyone (other than you) within the area of effect must make a Wisdom save or be incapacitated for one round.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, for each slot level above 3rd, you can designate one creature within the area of affect who can cast a spell or who has a magical ability. Those creatures are stunned instead of incapacitated for one round if they fail their saving throw.

This spell was created by the evoker, Ednon, who had the sculpt spell ability, which makes this spell much better. Otherwise, you’re spending an action to cause all friends and foes around you to lose an action, which has minimal gain. Allowing spellcasters to be more vulnerable to the wave of magic with higher spell slots makes it more worthwhile. I considered having and Intelligence save to be able to make order of the chaos around you, but then those who you would most want to stun would likely have the best saves.



Relocation Elocution
4th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous

You select a 30’ cube within range. All creatures of size small or larger exchange positions. Unwilling targets can avoid the effect by rolling a Charisma save. Randomly determine final locations among everyone who failed their wave or chose not to roll a saving throw. A target can be randomly moved to their current location. If a target’s new location puts them in the air and they cannot fly, they fall immediately. Targets behind a barrier that blocks spells are unaffected.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you may select one target’s final location instead of rolling randomly for each slot level above 4th. You must make selections at the time of casting, before saving throws are rolled.

Mandy created this to move opponents out of their perfect defensive positions. Plus it was fun to surprise people and mess with their plans.



Refined Relocation Elocution
6th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous

You select a 50’ cube within range. All creatures of size small or larger within that cube are moved to a random location within the cube. Unwilling targets can avoid the effect by rolling a Charisma save. The cube contains 100 squares that are 5 ’by5’. For each target that fails their saving throw, roll percentile dice to determine which of those 100 squares the target is relocated to. You can think of the first die determining row and the second die determining column. If the roll would put the target within a solid object or the same square as another target, increase the roll by 1 until a free square is found. A target can be randomly moved to their current location. The vertical dimension is unaffected. If a target moves to a square where they same height now puts them in the air and they cannot fly, they fall immediately. Targets behind a barrier that blocks spells are unaffected.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, you may select one target’s final location instead of rolling randomly for each slot level above 6th. You must make selections at the time of casting, before saving throws are rolled.

Relocation Elocution is nice but it wasn’t quite random enough for Mandy’s taste.


Sign of Change
3rd-level divination

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 24 hours
You create a magical sign, made of light with no physical form, at a location within range. At casting, you choose whether it is visible to everyone or only to you. Also at casting, you choose what to write on the sign, up to 25 words. The sign measures changes based on what is written on the sign. For example, if you had written “Number of Undead who have come through.” The sign would show a number corresponding to the number of undead who have come within range since the creation of the sign. You can set up the sign’s detection range up to a maximum of 120 feet.


Trivial Inquiry
Divination cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet/B]
[B]Components: S, M (a small piece of citrine cut into a triangle worth 10 gp.
Duration: Instantaneous

You target one creature within range. If that creature fails a Charisma saving throw, you learn one piece of information about them. There is no guarantee that the info will be useful but it will not be a tautology, or near tautology such as is alive or is made of matter. You can learn a maximum number of things from one target equal to your Intelligence modifier.

While occasionally useful, this cantrip has a somewhat creepy origin. When Mandy rejected Ednon’s advances, he resorted to magic to learn more about her, hoping to pretend to have more in common with her. Despite failure on that front, the spell still proved useful for the occasional lucky tidbit that could be used for espionage or blackmail.
The limit is mainly to reduce DM burden. Imagine a PC sitting in a crowded bar and casting it at the same target 100 times, forcing you to come up with 50 bits of trivia.

Stan
2016-11-17, 10:26 AM
Mandy’s Marvelous Metamorphosis
6th-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a butterfly cocoon)
Duration: 10 minutes

One target of your choosing of size large or smaller is surrounded by an opaque cocoon of force. The cocoon stops attacks, stops spells, and has immunities/vulnerabilities as per a wall of force. The cocooned creature can cast spells and take actions from within the cocoon but cannot see out and cannot affect other creatures. The cocooned creature may use a bonus action to cause the cocoon to instantly dissolve away. The creature emerges with butterfly wings which gives them a flight speed of 80 feet for the duration. At the time of emergence, the creature may choose to have a butterfly mouth. This prevents talking but imbues a bite attack that does 4d6 necrotic damage. The creature regains hit points equal to half the damage done. If the creature is in the air when the spell ends, they float gently to the ground.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, one additional creature can be affected by for each slot level above 6th

Butterflies are amazing and cool. If you look closely, they’re also creepy and weird. Of course, Mandy wanted to capture their uniqueness.

I pegged this spell at 6th due to its flexibility. It can save someone from damage for a while, grant concentration-free flight, and give a modest attack/healing. As the target controls when the cocoon opens, it’s a lousy offensive spell; otherwise the spell level would be higher.

Stan
2016-11-17, 10:28 AM
Power of the Moon
2nd-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: S, M (a small piece of moonstone worth 10 gp)
Duration: Concentration, up to 8 hours

You assume the form of a wererat, with all of its special abilities, including shapechange. Hit points, abilities scores, and abilities function identically to the spell Shapechange. You cannot transmit lycanthropy while transformed.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you may transform into any lycanthrope with a CR equal to or lower than the spell slot used. You may also transform into any creature with the shapechanger subtype with a maximum CR that is one lower than the spell slot used.

Mandy originally created this spell to infiltrate a gang of wererat slavers. She later kept it in her repertoire for its utility.

The spell is like shape change gained much earlier but with the CR much lower (spell level instead of character level). The level of the spell and CR are balanced more according to special abilities than raw damage. With a 3rd level slot, you can become a jackalwere, quasit, imp, or mimic. With a 4th level slot you can be a doppelganger, which gives you the ability to look like someone else and read thoughts. A 5th level slot unlocks the succubus with a powerful charm ability (geas and dominate person are 5th level so that seems about right). Yuan-ti and Slaads are also possible.

Style points if you can work in “In the name of the moon I will punish you! ”

Stan
2016-11-17, 10:33 AM
Trace Time
3rd-level divination

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small hourglass)
Duration: Instantaneous

Choose one object or creature within range. Images appear in your mind showing any changes in the target’s appearance within the last hour and when those changes occurred. Detected changes include what an item looked like before it was damaged, disguises, clothing changes, and any other physical change within the time period. If the target is a creature or on a creature’s body, the creature is allowed a Charisma save to avoid the effect.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the time span revealed is increased by the next largest unit of time for each slot level above 3rd: day, week, month, year, decade, century.

This spell is inspired by lyrics in the David Bowie song Changes:
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
Once he realized that he couldn’t trace the point when a change occurred, Bowie probably created a spell like this in case he ever found himself in a magical universe. You’re not super likely to find what you’re looking for when this spell is used at 3rd level but the potential amount of info grows immensely if you’re willing to expend a higher spell slot.