Magical American Football League

[Ryuken]

Just for fun, what if:

Every NFL team had a user of magic, like as a coaching position. This person would be able to ready a casting before the snap to influence the play's outcome. Casters would be either Clerics, Druids, or Wizards, spells capped at 3rd level (though upcasting is OK), no spells that do lethal damage, no counterspell, and no summonings. And, assuming they'd get paid $1m per PC level, I'd imagine casters at the 9-10 range for budgetary reasons.

What caster would you choose and what spells would you ready for a game?

[noob]

Could you put all the opponent team to sleep?

[Brookshw]

Grease the ball. Fog/gust of wind the pass. Fly on the running back. Any kind of movement buff. Invisibility the ball for some great fake outs. Plenty of fun options.

[Ryuken]

Love the ideas so far. Personally, I'd like to think entangle would be good for those natural turf fields. And how about if silence was cast on the center?

Keep em coming!

[Goobahfish]

Isn't this just... bloodbowl?

[Bobthewizard]

If you are playing Notre Dame, just fireball them before kickoff. (JK. I don't mind Notre Dame)

Before the game:

Suggestion the other head coach "Do everything you can for the next 4 hours to lose the game without getting caught."

When you are on offense:

Hypnotic Pattern the defense
Vortex Warp to send the ball carrier 180' ahead as they run
Fear on the opposing team right before the snap
Fly or Haste on the running back

When you are on Defense:
Web, Slow, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud before the play
Warding Wind on your nose tackle
Shatter to blow up a ball on a long pass
Hold Person, Tasha's Mind Whip or Phantasmal Force the Quarterback

[Sigreid]

Cleric, no question. I don't think you can do better than bless, heroism, aid and instant healing of your starter's injuries regardless of how severe.

[kazaryu]

obviously it depends on the specifics of whats allowed, and where the person is positioned:

-id you're able to position the caster on the line of scrimmage than Fear could absolutely wreck a play or two (limited by spell slots of course). but obviously struggles if the opposing caster prepared some kind of anti fear effect like heroism.

-for a similar effect command could be solid bread and butter. basically any successful command on the QB would straight up ruin a play. in fact i think simply based on command being a thing i'd probably pick cleric straight up for that.

-enhance ability on a key player for a that particular play would probably be good. Dex would probably be the most common, especially on a running back.

-obviously haste/longstrider could both be solid choices, or maybe even jump.

-levitate could be great too. but not on a player (although that could work). levitate on the ball when the opposing team has it, so it doesn't come down once thrown.

-enlarge/reduce is a solid spell for this.

-darkness/fog cloud/grease/web could absolutely kill a down.

-hold person seems pretty self explanatory

[RSP]

Not sure why Bards were excluded, but Cutting Words from Lore Bard could be great.

And just keep casting True Strike on your QB

[Brookshw]

Illusions might be a blast.

[GooeyChewie]

Isn't this just... bloodbowl?

No, Bloodbowl is much more similar to rugby than American football. The first (and only) time I played, the guy teaching me insisted it was just like football. So of course I designed my team accordingly, with a goal of going for quick passes where I could quickly end the play either by incompletion or by going down right after the catch. I found out the hard way that there’s no such thing as ending the play in Bloodbowl. My agile but fragile players all got crushed and I pretty much just sat there watching the guy play against nothing.


Just for fun, what if:

Every NFL team had a user of magic, like as a coaching position. This person would be able to ready a casting before the snap to influence the play's outcome. Casters would be either Clerics, Druids, or Wizards, spells capped at 3rd level (though upcasting is OK), no spells that do lethal damage, no counterspell, and no summonings. And, assuming they'd get paid $1m per PC level, I'd imagine casters at the 9-10 range for budgetary reasons.

What caster would you choose and what spells would you ready for a game?

Does it need to be the coach casting? If not, Misty Step is the play. Simply having it in your arsenal means the opponent has to keep their defense back to avoid letting you simply teleport behind them and run it for a touchdown. With their defense essentially playing prevent all the time, you can take the shorter plays and consistently get first downs. The threat of that spell can result in points, even if you never end up casting it.

[Mastikator]

Wizard with Silvery Barbs.

[Larsen]

If the caster is equivalent to the coach, i would go for sorcerer or a feat to get distant spell metamagic.

Vortex Warp seem OP on offense and probably should be banned, Gaseous form maybe also.

all spells improving or impairing movement can be nice, as well as invisibility or charm and suggestion.

[Catullus64]

Is the caster standing off the field waiting to cast? Wizard. Portent is great value for only $2M.

Warlock, with the right Invocations, could also be really good. Misty Visions jumps to mind; Silent Image could be used to great effect, and this one can be cast for every single play, no limit.

Range is going to be a big problem for the sidelines-caster. Many crowd-control and buff spells have a range of 30 or 60 feet, if not Touch; it's about 75 feet (I think?) to the center of the field from the sidelines.

Is the caster a position on the field, subject to being tackled? Oath of Ancients Paladin (on the assumption that non-spell magical abilities can be used).

[Hal]

It occurs to me how many of the spells I might choose are significantly limited by their range. Sixty feet is fine for most combats, but on a football field? You need 120 feet, minimum, to really be effective. I think Sorcerer (with Distant Metamagic) is almost a requirement just to be functional.

[Brookshw]

It occurs to me how many of the spells I might choose are significantly limited by their range. Sixty feet is fine for most combats, but on a football field? You need 120 feet, minimum, to really be effective. I think Sorcerer (with Distant Metamagic) is almost a requirement just to be functional.

Ehhh, I dunno, only need 10 yards for a first down after all.

[Catullus64]

I can see Sorcerers vs. Wizards as a financial question. A Sorcerer gets you fewer spells per character level, sure, but those spells come with a lot of ways to be flexible and unexpected; Subtle Spell, if allowed, seems particularly important. So poorer teams might go for Sorcerers.

But for a team with lots of cash to burn, a Wizard can have access to all their insanely powerful spell list, giving tremendous flexibility across a whole season, copied from the spellbooks of all the support Wizards that the team also keeps on staff. Or from the opposing team's spellbook, if you're the New England Patriots.

[GooeyChewie]

It occurs to me how many of the spells I might choose are significantly limited by their range. Sixty feet is fine for most combats, but on a football field? You need 120 feet, minimum, to really be effective. I think Sorcerer (with Distant Metamagic) is almost a requirement just to be functional.


Ehhh, I dunno, only need 10 yards for a first down after all.

It depends on whether the caster can be a player or has to be somebody on the sidelines. In the NFL, the ball could start as far away as 89 ft 3 in from your sideline, and you would need 160 ft to reach the far sideline.

[Hal]

It depends on whether the caster can be a player or has to be somebody on the sidelines. In the NFL, the ball could start as far away as 89 ft 3 in from your sideline, and you would need 160 ft to reach the far sideline.

The original premise indicated this was a "coaching position" so I assumed the caster is on the sidelines.

[Beelzebub1111]

To prevent football matches from becoming wizard duels, I suggest a $100,000 fee to cast a single spell in a match with a limit of 1 spell. Refs need detect magic to prevent cheating.

Praise Be to Nuffle. May he never look upon you.

[kazaryu]

To prevent football matches from becoming wizard duels, I suggest a $100,000 fee to cast a single spell in a match with a limit of 1 spell. Refs need detect magic to prevent cheating.

Praise Be to Nuffle. May he never look upon you.

the system is already self limiting if you read the OP.
1 caster per team
the spell is cast as a readied action preparing for the snap.
and there's no counterspell.

there's literally no way for this to become a wizard's duel

[Ryuken]

The original premise indicated this was a "coaching position" so I assumed the caster is on the sidelines.

Yeah, I forgot about casting ranges. My idea was a caster picking a spell like a O/D coach picking a play. Do you ready a buff/advantage for your team or a counter to the other team's spell? (gust of wind to blow away fog cloud, etc.) Let's say each coach caster gets a "Headset of the Gridiron" that permits a spell target area to be wherever the line of scrimmage is.

[Darth Credence]

OK, so rules are wizard, cleric, druid spells, max level 3, done by a coach on the sidelines, no lethal damage. I assume the football players do not have classes, but are in peak shape, so are we assuming 12 hp, to max out the 1d8 plus a con bonus of 18? I'm going to run with that.
First - the only 4 spells that have the range to affect anywhere on the field are sending, skywrite, clairvoyance, and earthbind. Clairvoyance seems the most useful of those, as one could use it to figure out the other teams plays.
Now, which spells can help without being able to reach anywhere, without killing them? Pretty much any damage dealing spell has to be eliminated, because they all could kill a normal person. Which makes me think restraining is good. Plant growth has taken an early lead in my mind, because the area effect can cover a large portion of the field (with its range and area, it can be considered another one that can get everywhere). This seems like something that would be practiced a lot, with making specific channels through the field that are not overgrown, funneling the opponents to those areas and making them easy to stop otherwise. Can be used both defensively and offensively. Defense to just prevent them from being able to move, offense to open a path that the guy with the ball can run down freely while everyone else is slowed substantially. Biggest drawback is that once it's there, it's there, and it can end up helping the other team on later drives.
Slow is a poor substitute for plant growth, with a one minute time - the other team can burn a time out to end the 3rd level spell's effect. Same for hypnotic pattern, wind wall, entangle, sleep, and others.
Illusion spells are interesting here. Minor illusion could be spammed 6 times between every play, and they would each last the full play. If well practiced, with things like planning the position of some illusions to cover for players, meaning the other team can't just blast through anything they think must be an illusion. Really cheap method. Thrown in the occasional major illusion that can appear to move, and you might have a pretty good combo.
Dispel magic would certainly be useful for getting rid of things like plant growth.
Message, maybe say some disturbing things to the opposing players to try and break their concentration mid play.
Summons aren't worth much, because you still have to play by the rules of no more than 11 people on the field.
Vortex warp has some advantages. If you get the positioning right, it can move a player as far as 60 yards. That would almost guarantee a score every time used, and it's only 2nd level.
Grease, web, darkness, stuff like that is just too small of an area to really affect the game. It would briefly make a small patch of the field hard to navigate, maybe messing up a single play.
Catapult is nice - if the QB is in range, they can toss the ball straight up, and the caster can send it 30 yards and end up exactly where it should go. Helpful, but if you mess up those calculations you'll kill the receiver, and the ball better be exactly the top end of weight. Probably not a good choice.

I think it would quickly come about that the entire things comes down to illusions and plant growth, with a good mix of dispel magic as a counter.

[Easy e]

Not the same at all BUT I always wanted to play a Blood Bowl RPG where the characters are all somehow related to the Blood Bowl team and have to play various sessions prior to or during a match.

Silly stuff like the Pre-Game banquet, a SPIKE! magazine reporter is caught trying to spike the punch with some sort of chemical. What, why, where and how as the Characters try to unmask who is behind the dirty trick before the game and keep their team from getting poisoned.

A basic system using the games actual stats and block dice works out fine. However, I am unsure how to abstract the "game" itself into a fun and easy thing to do in an RPG session. I am sure smarter folks than I can figure it out.

[Mister Tom]

Minor illusion and charm, on the refs. How do you think <your rival team> gets away with all that holding?