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dspeyer
2020-03-18, 12:16 AM
Those of you crazy enough to play Dungeons the Dragoning 40k may have noticed that the list of spells is a little short. Here are some that my characters invented, along with notes on how they worked:

Least Animate Dead

Least Animate Dead

Necromancy 1
Focus Test: Necromancy + Intelligence
Target Number: 15
Components: Somatic, Verbal, Touch
Duration: 1 hour

You restore an intact part of a dead body to an unholy mockery of life. This could be as little as a finger or an entire body whose brain is left dead and bypassed. Necromantic energies replace the need for glucose and oxygen in the blood.
All severed nerves grow channelrhodopsins or luciferases as appropriate (without associated mRNA) so the body part can be commanded by a standard bionic-optical interface. Attaching this is a TN 15 Tech Use check.

Once attached, the limb can be commanded in terms of specific muscle contractions (which will be elaborate software to do anything interesting in real time) or in terms of actions the pre-death creature knew as "muscle memory" (accessible by Doctrine of Similarity linking the physical muscle to the brain's sensory humunculous).

After an hour, the body part rots away and cannot be animated again.

A given caster can only maintain a single animation at a time. Creating a second one causes the first to rot away.

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Commentary:

This spell did not prove particularly useful, but I'm very glad of how it fits the setting. Note that there is now a standard for bionic-optical interfaces, and interface chips are cheap enough not to track.



Drain Energy

Drain Energy

Necromancy 2
Test: Necromancy + Intelligence
TN: Target's Constitution + Arcana
Range:
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Verbal, Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Inflict a level of fatigue on the target, plus an additional level per raise. For every level inflicted, decrease your own fatigue by one. This may leave you with negative fatigue. A level of negative fatigue may be spent for +1k0 on any check. The most negative fatigue you can hold is equal to your necromancy level, and if you are holding negative fatigue at the end of a scene, it vanishes.

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Commentary:

In hindsight, this one may have been a little too powerful. It's quite useful both offensively and as a general-purpose buff. Still, it didn't outright break the game.



Lesser Fabricate

Lesser Fabricate

Transmutation 1
Test: Transmutation + Wisdom
Target Number: 15
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Verbal

Convert raw materials (or worked items from which raw materials could be scrounged) into a finished object. This can be an ordinary object of Ubiquitous or Very Common rarity, a poor-quality Common object, or the sort of kludge a grad student might throw together in a few days and refuse to document out of embarrassment. In any case, the item falls apart insofar as makes sense for it to do so at the end of the scene.

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Commentary:

This spell I am entirely pleased with. If you've ever wanted to play Agatha Heterodyne, this is the spell you need.

I planned to invent Fabricate (3rd level, can make more complex things) and Greater Fabricate (5th level, can really go crazy) but the campaign ended.


Enhance

Enhance

Transmutation 2
Test: Transmutation + Wisdom
Target Number: 20
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Verbal
Duration: 1 Scene

Pick one type of check (one skill, one magic school, etc.). Target creature gains +1k0 to checks of that type for the remainder of the scene, plus an additional +1k0 for every raise on the power test. Any given creature can only be the target of a single Enhance spell at any time. While you can select Transmutation checks, the bonus will not apply to future castings of Enhance.

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Commentary:

This one is very similar to the published Luck spell. It worked quite nicely. Having both this and Luck on the same character might get to be too much... or at least require a clause that the spells can't boost each other.



Locate Self

Locate Self

Divination 2
Test: Divination + Wisdom
Target Number: 20
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Verbal
Duration: Instantaneous

Learn your current location relative to the Great wheel. You learn two bits of radius (e.g. “between ¼ and ½ of the way from Sigil to the Outlands”) and four bits of angle (e.g. “Chaotic by Chaotic Good”). For each raise, you get one additional bit on both coordinates. Being outside of a crystal sphere grants a free raise.

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Commentary:

Probably not useful in most campaigns, but potential game-changer if you have a bunch of sphere-hopping magic out of your control. Should be considered in relation to the intended plot.

I'm just glad I got to use the name.


Goo

Goo

Conjuration 2
Test: Conjuration + Willpower
Target Number: 20
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Verbal, Somatic
Duration: Instant
Target: A point within 25m.

All surfaces within 5m of it are covered in 1cm of ectoplasmic goo. The goo has whatever properties you like so long as they are suitable for goo. Sticky, slippery, flammable, fire-suppressent, black, shiny, translucent, and non-newtonian are examples of suitable properties. Corrosive, photosynthetic and vengeful are not. Overcoming the goo requires a TN 20 ability check (usually str or dex). Every raise on the casting check increases this TN by 2.

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Commentary:

This one was powerful -- maybe too powerful. One coating of goo can have many useful properties.




Expulsion

Expulsion

Evocation 2
Test: Evocation + Charisma
Target Number: max(20, holding creature's str test)
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Verbal, Somatic
Duration: Instant
Target: A held object within 25m

Target object goes flying out of its holders hand. Under normal circumstances, it flies 15m before coming to rest (unusual topography, wind or gravity can change this). If your Focus Test exceeds the holder's strength test by at least 10, you may choose the square the object lands in. If someone is in the receiving square and has an empty hand, they may catch the object with a TN 15 dex test.

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Commentary:

Less useful than expected. Harry Potter villians routinely carry a single wand they cannot cast effectively without, but DtD goons seem to routinely carry a small armory of almost-equally-effective weapons.


Resist Gravity

Resist Gravity

Abjuration 1
Test: Abjuration + Willpower
TN: 15
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Verbal, Combo-OK
Duration: 1 hour (dismissable)

Target willing creature and its gear gain gravity resistance of up to 5m/s2. For every raise on the casting check, double the maximum potential resistance.

All gravity-like accelerations are reduced by the resistance to a minimum of zero. This includes mass-mass attraction, aristotelian "down", general relativity analog effects from warped space, the artificial gravity spelljammers use, and centrifical force iff there is one clearly correct rotating refrence frame to be thinking in.

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Commentary:

We never actually tested this one. I wrote it and the DM approved it, but my character didn't manage to take it before the campaign ended.

The exponential raise-response is entirely deliberate, on the logic that resisting major gravity wells should be difficult but possible.



Telekinesis

Telekinesis

Evocation 1
Test: Evocation + Willpower
TN: 15
Action: Half Action
Keywords: Somatic, Combo-OK
Duration: Concentration (Half action), max 1 scene

You can extert up to 50 lbs of force on objects you can see, divided as you see fit. The maximum pressure you can apply to any object is 1psi. Note that this means to apply the entire 50lbs to a single object, it must have 50 square inches of correctly-oriented surface.

This is not sufficient force to effectively wield a melee weapon, but you can pull a trigger, slide a land mine under someone's foot, or slash an enemy's throat if they are already paralyzed. Any dex or ballistics checks made with this power are at -1k0.

Regardless of the number of forces involved, if you use this spell for an “action”, that is the only thing you can do with this spell at that time.

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Commentary:

Another spell I never actually got to use.

Willpower rather than Charisma is deliberate, and a precedent I'd encourage for nondestructive evocations. There is precedent for splitting a school based on the book 2 Divinations.