2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Seventy-One

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 16 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Men & Magic - Volume 1.

Today we will look at the 3rd Level Magic-User Spells:

Fly: By means of this spell the user is able to fly at a speed of up to 12”/turn. The spell lasts for the number of turns equal to the level of the Magic-User plus the number of pips on a six-sided die which is secretly determined by the referee.

As the referee I made that die roll an open roll. Some things should be secret, but I do not think this should be one of them. I also put a 10 pound limit on what you could carry and only the caster can fly, although magic items can let anyone fly.

Hold Person: A spell similar to a Charm Person, but which is of both limited duration and greater effect. It will affect from 1–4 persons. If it is cast at only a single person it has the effect of reducing the target’s saving throw against magic by –2. Duration: 6 turns + level of the caster. Range: 12”.

Love this spell, players hate being on the receiving end. But they used it a lot themselves. Very popular spell.  Hold them, tie them up and then the Magic-Users take turns casting Charm Person until one succeeds. 

Dispel Magic: Unless countered, this spell will be effective in dispelling enchantments of most kinds (referee’s option), except those on magical items and the like. This is modified by the following formula. The success of a Dispel Magic spell is a ratio of the dispeller over the original spell caster, so if a 5th-level Magic-User attempts to dispel the spell of a 10th-level Magic-User there is a 50% chance of success. Duration: 1 turn. Range: 12”.

Another great spell with a lot of versatility.

Clairvoyance: Same as ESP spell except the spell user can visualize rather than merely pick up thoughts.

When the monsters use these spells against the players, you see the players take a wider range of spells. When you have 16-18 players and 6-8 Magic-Users you see a wide variety of spells taken as they spread the load around even at lower levels where they do not get many  spells.

Clairaudience: Same as Clairvoyance except it allows hearing rather than visualization. This is one of the few spells which can be cast through a Crystal Ball (see Book II).

As per previous comments.

Fire Ball: A missile which springs from the finger of the Magic-User. It explodes with a burst radius of 2” (slightly larger than specified in CHAINMAIL). In a confined space the Fire Ball will generally conform to the shape of the space (elongate or whatever). The damage caused by the missile will be in proportion to the level of its user. A 6th-level Magic-User throws a 6-die missile, a 7th a 7-die missile, and so on. (Note that Fire Balls from Scrolls (see Book II) and Wand are 6-die missiles and those from Staves are 8-die missiles. Duration: 1 turn. Range: 24”

Most people miss this, a Fire Ball burns for 1 turn (10 Melee rounds) and it deals its damage every one of those melee rounds unless you can get out of the area of the fire ball. Yes, you cast fireball into a room and it deals 6d6 (or more) every round for 10 rounds within that space. Very powerful spell. This spell is a must have when fighting a lot of trolls if you can get it off before they close in melee.

Lightning Bolt: Utterance of this spell generates a lightning bolt 6” long and up to 3/4” wide. If the space is not long enough to allow its full extension, the missile will double back to attain 6”, possibly striking its creator. It is otherwise similar to a Fire Ball, but as stated in CHAINMAIL the head of the missile may never extend beyond the 24” range.

A Lightning Bolt is good for some things, but it only lasts one round and is a one shot weapon, unlike the Fire Ball which lasts for a full turn. So it only does its damage one time, unless you cast it into too small a space when it can do the damage multiple times depending on how many times it has to double back.  

Protection from Evil, 10’ Radius: A Protection from Evil spell which extends to include a circle around the Magic-User and also lasts for 12 rather than 6 turns.

A Fighting-Man can stand in that circle and safely attack any evil creature that comes within reach of his weapons. The Magic-User can use it to crowd an evil creature into a corner or to retreat to a more defensible position. Two strong Fighting-Men can pick up the Magic-User and move him to move the circle and it is their strength moving the circle.

Invisibility, 10’ Radius: An Invisibility spell with an extended projection but otherwise no different from the former spell. 

You still cannot cannot attack and remain invisible, but now it covers more characters. As I noted, I added a Silence Spell and used with Invisibility it is very effective in getting close to an opponent. But also as noted you have to worry about sense of smell and the direction of air flow. Plus monsters do this to the characters too!

Infravision: This spell allows the recipient to see infrared light waves, thus enabling him to see in total darkness. Duration: 1 day. Range of infravision: 40–60’.

My players cast this on the human members of the party so that they could see in the dungeon without carrying a torch all the time. Oh and the whole thing about dwarves, elves and others losing their infravision if they are player characters, we never did that. IMO it makes no sense and is just to make it tough on the party underground. But you still need torches or light stones or other light sources because infravision is only good for seeing warm living creatures. It will not let you see undead or anything that is the same temperature as the environment. And it is not of any use in an ice cave or any other really cold place unless there are warm creatures there. What infravision does is allow you to only use your light sources when you need them and some things can only be done with light. Light stones that I mentioned previously are great, but they can be dispelled.

Slow Spell: A broad-area spell which affects up to 24 creatures in a maximum area of 6” × 12”. Duration: 3 turns. Range: 24”.

Very useful spell, again this is one players love, but hate when it is used against them.

Haste Spell: This is exactly the opposite of a Slow Spell in effect, but otherwise like it. Note that it will counter its opposite and vice-versa.

Also this spell does not have the penalty that appears in later editions. That is we never applied the extreme aging effects from it that later editions did. We assumed that the spell was better designed than that, i.e. we did not want to spend time tracking aging effects. But yes, we knew that a haste spell should age you, that was obvious, but we never fooled with it. (Our Biology major brought it up immediately.)

Protection from Normal Missiles: The recipient of this charm becomes impervious to normal missiles. This implies only those missiles projected by normal (not above normal) men and/or weapons. Duration: 12 turns. Range: 3”.

Limited protection, that giant throwing a boulder at you, yeah, it does not help you with that. But against bow wielding orcs, it is priceless.

Water Breathing: A spell whereby it is possible to breathe underwater without harm or difficulty. Duration: 12 turns. Range 3”.

Great spell, and my players were always trying to find a Ring of Water Breathing.

Tomorrow we are on to the 4th level spells.