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View Full Version : So I just paged through the Spell Compendium



Phhase
2019-04-17, 03:53 AM
And I have to say, it has some of THE MOST EXTRA spells I have EVER seen. I LOVE it. Like, listen to this masterpiece of villainous edges that is Avascular Mass. At it's heart, Avascular Mass is just Web. It creates a big, sticky, entangling mass.

But.

Instead of just conjuring a web, this Edge 8/Wiz 8 spell removes half(!) of the target's current hitpoints (Save for half I guess) and causes the target to erupt in a fountain of gore, which coalesces to form the vile matrix of fleshy strands that form the web. The target gets no save to avoid entanglement, and what's more, the web is still alive, writhing and winding itself around the victims, potentially disrupting spellcasting. The web is also not flammable. Like, I have never seen anything that screams "The villain casts this spell right in the hotshot's face." more than this. Ooh, or, even better, casts it on a dying underling that's right next to the heros.

There are also such cruel gems as Extract Water Elemental, which attempts to summon an elemental using target creature's blood as the medium, and Ghoul Gauntlet, which is save-or-die but instead of just dying, you take like 2d6 per round until you transform into a ghoul under the caster's control (downside of being magically curable, of course.).

On a less gruesome and edgy note, I also love the racial and typed spells, like the ones that rely on the caster being special in some intrinsic way (has a breath weapon, has x type of limb, etc). And of course I really appreciate the myriad weird and wacky buff spells like Girallon's Blessing (+2 to Arms), and it's inverted brother Fuse Limbs (Or whatever it's called), which fuses all of your arms together into two huuuuge arms with great strength.

Do you have any favorite odd/edgy/cool spells from archaic sourcebooks you like to use?

(Also yes, I'm aware the Spell Compendium is just an aggregate of said spells from other books)

RedMage125
2019-04-17, 02:04 PM
So, Avascular Mass actually inherits from Avasculate. Which, if you read it, is Necromancy because the spell animates the target's blood vessels and pulls them thru the skin. Metal af, right? It gets better. There is NO save against the hit point reduction. That just happens. The save is to see whether or not the target is stunned for one round after having their hp reduced by 50%. And Avascular Mass? Takes those animated blood vessels, and makes an entangling web out of them. Gross, but so cool.

And Extract Water Elemental is likewise a higher level version of Horrid Wilting. But instead of just draining their water like a Fremen of Dune, you then pull it out and turn it into a servant.

Phhase
2019-04-17, 02:46 PM
NO save against the hit point reduction. That just happens.

Ah, yes, indeed. Quite fearsome. Also an interesting way to deal alot of damage to someone and put the fear of Orcus in them, while guaranteed not killing them.