Spell creation is a complex and dangerous process that requires a deep understanding of magic and the ability to create new spells. It is essential for practitioners to have a defined material component or focus for a spell that requires it. This can be achieved by using a common spell language (Latin, Greek, and English) and piggybacking on previous spells.
In the 3e DMG (and 3.5 DMG), there are rules and guidelines for creating new spells, such as access to a library, wand movements, and incantation. The process of creating spells is difficult and even dangerous, with only witches and wizards with great understanding and skill in magic being known to be able to invent them. Inventing new spells requires research into wand movements and the incantation, which have a certain magical connotation.
The more spells a character has, the more what they know will fulfill prerequisites. In theory, two spells from each of Air, Fire, Water, and Fire are needed to fulfill prerequisites. A magic deceiver is someone who has learned to fool magic itself, combining known spells to devise entirely new forms of manipulation.
To create a spell, one must have a defined material component or focus for a spell that requires it. For example, with max ranks in wood crafting and a +4 int bonus, an inventor can make a third level spell in a wand on a roll of nine. By splitting their study between both disciplines, one can augment their inventions with arcane power.
In summary, spell creation is a complex and dangerous process that requires a deep understanding of magic and the ability to create powerful spells. By learning how to write and customize their magick, individuals can enhance their spell abilities and create powerful spells.
📹 F**k it, invent your own D&D spells
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Can wizards cast non prepared spells?
It is not necessary to prepare spells unless they are rituals and are specifically cast. Dungeons and Dragons 5e employs a mechanic designated as the “spell pool” or spell preparation.
Can wizards invent spells in 5e?
Wizards are able to create their own spells in D&D 5e, a feature that has been present in the game since its inception.
Why was Snape’s Avada Kedavra blue?
Voldemort advised Harry to utilize the Avada Kedavra spell to assassinate Bellatrix, underscoring the significance of the caster’s intent in the process. Despite his status as a skilled wizard, Snape was unable to produce Avada Kedavra with the requisite intent to kill. Instead, the combination of hesitation and necessity likely resulted in the spell’s distinctive blue coloration.
Did Voldemort invent any spells?
Lord Voldemort, a skilled wizard, is known for inventing many spells, including the Horcrux protections and the Unsupported Flight spell. This skill was exclusive to Voldemort in the books, but he taught it to Severus Snape before killing him. Severus Snape, known as the Half-Blood Prince, was known for his Dark aspirations and inventions, such as Sectumsempra, which was used on Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Gilderoy Lockhart, a talented wizard, was once genuinely talented but sought the easy way to success, leading to his overthrow with the Dark Arts job at Hogwarts. Before becoming out of practice with anything other than a Memory Charm, Lockhart attempted to invent a spell, which projected a giant holographic image of the caster’s face into the sky, similar to a big, beaming, and winking Dark Mark.
Inventing spells seemed to be a right of passage for the most skilled wizards in Harry Potter, but Severus Snape was a more prominent figure in the Dark Arts.
Who invented Avada Kedavra?
The Killing Curse, created in the early Middle Ages by Dark witches and wizards, was used to quickly slay opponents during duels. In 1707, the Wizards’ Council was restructured into the Ministry of Magic, allowing for stricter restrictions on certain types of magic. The three Unforgivable Curses were classified as Unforgivable in 1717, with a life sentence in Azkaban. From then until the First Wizarding War, only the darkest wizards used the Unforgivable Curses.
During the First Wizarding War, Bartemius Crouch Senior legalized the use of the Curses against those suspected of being Death Eaters. The most infamous event surrounding the Killing Curse occurred on 31 October 1981, when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named vanished after murdering Lily and James Potter and attempting to use the Curse on Harry Potter in Godric’s Hollow.
How do wizards invent new spells?
Witches and wizards with great magic skills were known to invent spells. The exact process of creating spells beyond crafting the wand movement and incantation is unknown, but it was a difficult and dangerous process. Pandora Lovegood’s experimentation is an example of this. Some known spells include vile curses, Horcrux-making spells, Morsmordre, Unsupported flight, Curse on Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, and several unknown spells.
How did J.K. Rowling write Harry Potter spells?
J. In the Harry Potter series, author J. K. Rowling employs a unique method for creating spell commands. She selects the desired action and translates it into Latin words, such as “Expelliarmus,” which translates to “push away weapon.”
Are the spells in Harry Potter made up?
Harry Potter spells are derived from Latin, but they are not proper words. Author J. K. Rowling created words that resemble other words with real meanings. Some spells, like Alohomora, which opens doors and is “friendly to thieves”, and Aparecium, which makes invisible ink appear, are derived from the Latin appareo, meaning “to become visible or to appear”. These spells are not proper words but rather resemble words with real meanings.
Is avada kedavra Latin?
Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, is an ancient spell in Aramaic, originally used to cure illness. Rowling, who studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter, took liberties with the name and transformed it into the person standing in front of him. Most charms, curses, jinxes, and spells in the wizarding world are based on Latin roots, with the origins of these spells being a combination of Latin and Rowling’s imagination. This etymology of spells in the wizarding world is a fascinating exploration of the wizarding world.
How do spells get invented in Harry Potter?
Witches and wizards with great understanding and skill in magic were known to invent spells. The exact process for creating spells beyond crafting the wand movement and incantation is unknown, but it is known to be a difficult and dangerous process. The art of creating new spells is highly dangerous and complex, with potential fatal consequences if something goes wrong. An example of this is Pandora Lovegood’s experimentation, which resulted in many vile curses, including a likely Horcrux-making spell.
📹 Don’t Do This At Home
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To really hammer in the point: Mordekainen was Gary Gygax’s character. Melf was Luke Gygax’s character. Bigby was Rob Kuntz’ character. Drawmij was Jim Ward’s character. Leomund was Len Lakofka’s character. Tasha is named after a kid who wrote letters to Gary. I could keep going for a long, long time. It is quite literally a day zero DND tradition to have your PC wizards make up spells and name them after them. Let them! Keep the tradition going!
I’ve never made a homebrew spell, but I’ve taken to being a bit lenient with the spell lists. I recently let my party’s Eldritch Knight take the spell Ceremony even though it wasn’t on the list, solely because we agreed it would be hilarious for this deranged little chaos gremlin to be able to officiate weddings.
You find a spell scroll for a cantrip called “Derrick’s Dirty Down Rust”. It makes things lightly rust as if you were in a grimdark story. It seems to allude to an entire set of oxidizing various metals. Why Derrick was interested in mildly oxidizing metallics is unknown but it does instantly add a cool roughness to your armor
A couple of years ago, I played a Shadow Sorcerer/Great Old One Warlock whose gimmick was that all his “spells” were actually just him ripping open a portal to the Shadowfell and grabbing a horrific little creature (picture all the gnarly non-humanoid ghosts that show up in the “everything is going wrong” montage in every Ghostbusters movie) that creates the spell’s effect and disappears back to the Shadowfell when the spell ends. So I came up with a cantrip to replace taking something like Mage Hand or Prestidigitation and give me more of that summoner vibe. Plus, I gave them some “ill-behaved pet” vibes like knocking stuff over or eating the object you wanted them to fetch. Iwen’s Minute Monsters Conjuration cantrip Casting Time: 1 action Range: 30 feet Components: V, S Duration: Up to one minute Calling out the name of a tiny creature from another plane, you bring it to your current plane to complete a simple task. You create one of the following magical effects within range: * Glow. The creature glows or produces faint flames or sparks, shedding dim light of a color of your choice in a five-foot cube. * Eat. The creature eats one tiny, nonmagical object that weighs less than 5 pounds and that isn’t being worn or carried. * Ruin. The creature scratches, bites, spews slime over, or otherwise causes minor cosmetic damage to one object no larger than one foot on each side, or it befouls up to 1 cubic foot of food, causing it to taste and smell disgusting. If possible, it may knock the object over as part of this effect.
My interpretation of things was that the spells that have a name are because they were notably tied to the creator. And that all the “generic spells” used to be tied to a name at one point but it has been so genericized and ubiquitously known about, but the creator’s name has been forgotten to time and only the spell name is retained.
A safety valve I like to use when a player wants a custom spell is to tie a spell component to it (that is just costly enough to not be able to be bypassed by focuses, etc). Then you have leverage to make the component more expensive (More people have heard about the spell and the demand has driven up the market) if you need to reign it in, or give the player a deal buying it in bulk once it has been proven safe.
You’ve sold me. I picked up “Vordanin’s Book of Spellcraft” today. As someone who has been playing versions of D&D since the 1980s, it is always fascinating to see a person like you who is so enthusiastic about gaming referring to “things you learned on the internet” and the like as if it was your character excavating an ancient tomb or library. It really make me realize how long the hobby has been around and how far it has come in across the decades.
Many campaigns ago, one of my player’s signature moves was casting Flaming Sphere and rolling it through combat. This was great at lower levels, but the players started to razz him because he would keep using it even when they were 15th level and he wasn’t really pulling his weight. So the player made a new spell… it LOOKED just like flaming sphere, but it did more damage, and it worked like a Resilient Sphere… only it could roll over things and trap them inside where they burned round after round. No one complained again after seeing Jaust’s Incendiary Sphere in action. O.o
I added a simple reskinned spell to my island-hopping campaign called “freeze” which was just a water-based version of the “entangle” spell. It was granted to the party druid by an ancient lizardfolk shaman. The player has since used it to great effect. New spells are great for adding more flavor to your game.
This is something I love doing with spooky and weird material components being added to spells. Experiment! Try adding monster parts of rare minerals to the spell components list! Do you like spooky symbolism? Make a new material component for Fireball from Fulgurite (lightning struck sand) – TAH-DAH! Lightning Ball! Get out there and get creative!
“Never half-ass homebrew two spells, always whole-ass homebrew one spell” but really, I can’t agree with this article enough, one small thing I love to this day is that one DM of mine let me reflavour Eldritch Blast so it more closely fit whatever patron I went with, go with some kind of fiery devil? It’s now a streak of fire from your hand, and it deals fire damage not force. Swear your allegiance to some ancient beast whose corpse was found encapsulated in ice? It’s now a spray of ice shards and deals cold damage. It’s such a tiny thing but it feels so fun when you can reskin you most commonly used spells to feel more flavourful to the character
In my games, I allow my players to get creative with their spells and even combine or expand them. This often comes at a great cost, particularly on a critical fail, but allows for some more flexibility and creativity. For example, I had a player who rolled a Sorcerer who loved Magic Missile and would use additional spell slots to change the damage type, add an explosive effect, or even fuse the missiles into one “Magic ICBM,” as we came to call it. (Edited for grammar)
I have a wizard player who really wanted to cast a cleric/paladin spell, so I let his character focus on studying the spell for two days, and roll a D20. He rolled a Nat 20, and he now knows lesser restoration. Not inventing a new spell, but letting him feel like he did something impossible. Which he kinda did.
I love using homebrewed spells and in my long running games I have been introducing them here and there with some twists. One trick that’s been fun has been the introduction of what are objectively worse spells here and there. Like I gave my wizards (I have two in one party) a spellbook that had a selection of a few spells that were entirely new or powerful but, it was also full of others things like a spell that looked an awful lot like fireball but did less damage and was 4th level, or one that was similar to the arcane deflection feature of War Wizards but cost a spell slot and gave a much smaller bonus. I also sometimes give these sorts of spells to enemies I want to give spellcasting but not scale as much as it normally does. Not only did my players love feeling like magic as a whole has been progressing in the world over the many centuries but they occasionally get to feel uniquely powerful amongst their modern peers. It’s brought such a fun dynamic to the history of my world and I love it!
My first time running my own campaign, I was with a group of veteran players who wanted to challenge themselves. One of them was a wizard who relied exclusively on traps, who grew up in the forest teaching himself magic. Because of that, most of his spells were his own creation, designed to trip up opponents creatively. I worked with him to create the spells Valen’s Adhesive Armor (which causes melee weapons to stick to his skin) and Spitfire (a touch-triggered version of Fireball that takes 10 minutes to cast), and both of them made the campaign so much more fun and unique. 10/10 would reshape reality to our will again.
One (free) suggestion that some can explore is looking to the UA Mystic for inspiration. It’s a complicated class, but the psionic disciplines have interesting twists on classic spells. I got to play one in the last campaign, and it definitely reignited my love for casting. Broke the whole repetition of “at level one I better take shield, ok level three its time for misty step”.
The way you talk about the invention of spells in the intro gave me an idea for an adventure (y’all are free to use this and write it however you’d like): a corporation of wizards buys/steals/forges the IP rights to every spell, threatening “legal action” (read: cruel violence) against any other casters who are allegedly “plagiarizing”, and it’s up to the party to climb up their skyscraper and fight pencil-pushing mages along the way to defeat the CEO and win back the magic for all. Different departments could even be themed around different schools of magic, like the illusionists department is a stealth section, and the conjuration department involves a portal puzzle, etc
One spell modification, that would be mostly useless, but could situationally be handy to have: the Light cantrip A Wizard and magic researcher NPC in my campaign found this. You need material components in form of a glass sphere filled with Mercury, and then cast light on it. As a result, the light is purple. When cast this way, the cantrip produces UV light, that is harmless to anything, but certain things glow while exposed to it. Now you can look up what glows under UV light, and think about fun ways to integrate it into the adventure. Maybe the PCs are in a dark place, that crawls with Giant Scorpions, but thanks to this cantrip they now all glow bright blue and are easily spotted. Maybe they use it to test if gems are actually real. Or maybe they use it to solve a crime by making invisible blood stains visible. The only limit are your creativity and what the DM deems possible or plausible. Or dig up spells from previous Editions and bring them up to current game mechanics.
In the current campaign I am playing in, my wizard character has invented a new branch of magic. Door magic. Which is the ability to summon different types of run-of-the-mill doors. Single. Double. Stable. He has you covered for all your suddenly blocking line-of-sight, but in a way you can go through later needs.
I really really love this, and I’m definitely getting Vordanin’s! I’m a therapist who runs therapeutic campaigns for teenagers with heavy trauma, so they often have very specific aesthetics that they want to match with their spells. No clue why D&D 5e just never thought to make a spell that facilitates “I want spooky murder witch vibes that make the BBEG’s words appear in the air and highlight for me when he’s gaslighting us” /s I’ve been fumbling my way through half-assed spellcasting homebrew and being bored with flipping through the PHB’s spells for a million times so I am very delighted that this came out at a great time for me. It’s also really appreciated that you let us know what you’re worried about with Vordinin’s too. Also, how you described players in the beginning made me genuinely laugh out loud which was nice. Also also, hi fellow underappreciated alto!!!
We actually invented a rogue class called the hexhacker. I got the idea from the Shadowrun rpg. Want to cast a spell but are too lazy to learn magic yourself? Why not borrow someone else’s spell while they are casting it. A hexhacker can see the “coding” of magic as 3 dimensional gears and dials. They tamper with a casters spell during use. Rewiring the spell to cause unintended effects. They can also crack magic locks of doors and chests. Hexkhackers come in handy for when invading magic facilities. My hexhacker was a tinker gnome that had a crude keypad connected to a headband. He hacked everything. Lol. And yes, they are “hacking the code of magic”. Fun class to play.
Homebrew Spellcrafting 101: – Take any pre-existing spell – Change one letter – Profit Our sorcerer started my Witchlight campaign by purchasing three misprinted spell scrolls. So far, Find Stud has provided some useful (sexy) mobility, while a Magic Scone laced with sleeping potion is ready to be dropped in the nearest monster’s gullet!
Great article Ginny. Totally agree with all the points you made on home-brew spell use. Like that you touched on old-school 1st edition spell creation. Back in the day I allowed players to use spells from the Great Net Spell Book and the Great Net Prayer Book. Nearly 2000 completely different spells from Cantrips through 10th level deity-level in effect. The players loved it, but you had to provide copies of the spell when handed out, as they did not have PDF files… just hard copy. 😀 There are a couple places on-line that you can still get a copy of them. It’s great source material if you want ideas for new spells.
As a DM, the idea of players creating their spells sounded terrifying, but now it sounds so much more interesting. Quest ideas, downtime activities, personal goals: so many possibilities. Also, thanks for the critique on VORDANIN’S BOOK OF SPELLCRAFT. I picked it up along with a few other things you recommended on DM”s Guild, like domestic D&D and the godly grimoire.
My in-game explanation is that there are thousands of spells, and creating them isn’t that hard. But creating efficient spells is. Nobody wants to bother learning Myrkel’s Sonic Boom to deal 3d6 thunder damage with a 5th level spell slot. For players creating their own spells, this also allows for the spell to be balanced in real time, without needing to ever nerf their favourite toy. When they first create their spell, it’s super inefficient and only serves as proof of concept. It might have a really long casting time, a too-high level, an expensive component, a very short range or a very weak effect. Over time, as the character continues to work on it, these restrictions can be slowly removed or reduced, one by one, until both player and DM are happy with the power level. You can even allow the PC to have a slightly better version that the published version (since they know the strange little quirks of their baby).
Homebrew spells are awesome and create such joy in players. My wife was playing a oath of ancients paladin in one campaign, but wanted a more nature inclined version of Divine Favour. So we made one that instead deals elemental damage instead of radiant. Years pass and the next campaign we play, two of the artificers break out this spell out of the blue. She still smiles when they use it.
My GM peppered the last game he ran with “spell augments”—variants of existing spells you could choose to cast in place of its usual effects—and “artefact spells”, which were new spells with big effects that could only be cast once each between long rests. As I was playing a wizard at the time, these were my favorite treasures. The spell augment for lightning bolt to let me refract it off surfaces with trigonometry a set number of times became my Int 22 wizard’s signature spell.
I love reflavored spells. The picture in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything with Magic Missile shaped like chickens is one of my favorites. One of my players had a kobold sorcerer with a black dragon bloodline. He took all of his spells as acid based like fireball became acid blast. Also all his spells looked like he belched them out like a breath weapon. I had an elf wizard with bright blue hair that cast all his spell in a vibrant blue color. As a DM I enjoy giving out new spells as scrolls or wands. Or having a wizard or cleric learn spells by seeing them cast by someone else. All of your suggestions are great.
I made a cleric/paladin spell for a past campaign called Divine Sacrifice – A spherical barrier up to one mile in radius surrounds the caster. For 8 hours, it absorbs all attacks that target creatures, objects, or locations inside the barrier. Creatures inside the barrier can still attack outward. At the end of the 8 hours, the barrier disappears and all the damage it blocked hits the caster at once. – I didn’t really expect the players to use it. It was more about what it told them about the hero who created that spell: how far they would go to defend their home. There’s something about putting the “lore” into the game mechanics that can sometimes make it feel more real. Makes the players seriously consider whether they might use something like that.
Back when I was running AD&D games, I created a spell that was a variant of the popular 2nd level Web spell: Constricting Web as a 3rd level spell. It had all the normal Web effects…but the web strands would tighten around those caught in it, squeezing them for minor damage every round on their turn while stuck in it.
My wizard bluffed his way into making a “Wizard’s Promise” with another person and he ended up inventing a spell by the same name that holds someone accountable to a promise or they take psychic damage and the other person is made aware they broke their promise. ALSO, Transmuted spell! Take it on your Wizards with a feat! Every spell becomes 5 more spells!
I’m workshopping an idea for an upcoming campaign where the players’ loved ones are dragged through time by an evil wizard with access to the lost art of Chronomancy and to stop him they have to find a Chronomancer NPC character I’ve created and convince him to help. Because 5e doesn’t have a ton of great spells for time magic, I’ve invented a number of Chronomancy spells that were all canonically invented by the aforementioned NPC, Azaril. That way, if they can’t convince Azaril to help them (he’s a bit of a wildcard), they can find other ways to learn the spells themselves and become Chronomancers in their own right. It’s been so much fun coming up with them and I hope at least one of my players tries to learn from Azaril’s spellbook!
Something to consider when inventing spells is how often creatures will resist them. If a damage type is more likely to be resisted, such as poison, fire, necrotic or cold then it should do more damage than one that isn’t resisted often such as thunder psychic or force. Also certain damage types usually have saves associated with them, like cold or acid is usually constitution, lightning or fire is Dexterity, intelligence or wisdom for psychic etc
I love alternate version of the core requisite spells. I have a Magus in a pathfinder game that uses Shadow Vortex, which is basically fireball, but looks like a swirling vortex of shadows and lightning and does half and half Lightning/Cold damage. Also, it’s area is centered on the caster so the use-case is different.
My drow wizard created a spell called Leolen’s Blinding Vison. A 2nd level spell that gave a target blindsight for a time with a balancing drawback that you lost your normal sight for the duration. This was primarily a countermeasure for sunlight sensitivity. I ended up debuting the spell in a pvp with our fighter/barbarian who weilded a sunblade and a shield that cast daylight. Was pretty epic.
I made a spell for a mini-boss experience of the Final boss, and it’s just conjuring a gun (made of fire) (but balanced): they start a concentration spell that conjures a fire gun that shoots extremely fast. If they can keep concentration on the spell it summons the gun. The fire gun does 2d6 piercing damage to one target, and has 3 uses. It disappears at the end of their round. Applies fire damage.
One of my favorite things to do with ancient Liches is to use the spells/spell casting from previous editions of the game. EX: Lightning bolt does d6 damage per character level and bounces off of surfaces, or Haste: affects 24 creatures for 3 turns, and doubles their attacks and movement speed. Also, the best part about making a unique spell or spell(s) for the villain is to let the party learn them from their spell book when they finally stop them.
One of the things I actually found myself doing was getting inspiration from the Mercurial Magic from Dungeon Crawl Classics. It gives some extra area or aesthetic effects to spells that aren’t overpowered to add. Even creating magic the players can’t learn helps give players a reason to look for NPCs. Spells cast in an ancient time that supposedly killed the caster to create a permanent barrier, ritual spells that require many casters like the Red Wizards of Thay.
The out-of-my-ass justification for a Fireball I think I liked the most was when a dime store Cthulhu had just mauled our tank, a goblin cleric, and my snake oil salesman bard, whose theme was that his magic flowed from his own raw confidence in his own bullshit, looked the miniboss in the eye and said “goblins cause indigestion.”
Some fun spells from Pathfinder 2e: Admonishing ray: a 60 foot slap that deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage per spell level, deals double damage if you crit on your attack roll. Agitate: the target must move on their turn or take 2d8 psychic damage, duration is based on how well they succeed/fail their saving throw, up to 4 rounds Inside Ropes: “Cantrip Duration 10 minutes. You pull a large handful of guts from your midsection. Removing these guts doesn’t harm you. You can use the guts as 50 feet of rope to help you Climb, and they help attach you to a wall. You move half as quickly as usual while climbing with your guts (minimum 5 feet), but you can attempt a DC 5 flat check whenever you critically fail to prevent a fall. Other creatures can use your guts to climb like a squishy rope, but the guts don’t help anyone but you attach to a wall. If you let go of your guts or your guts are damaged, the spell ends.”
While creating PCs for a 5e24 campaign the Cleric Half-Elf asked to change the Detect Magic as her 3rd lvl lineage spell to Pratfall from KPs Book of Ebon Tides. Since it fit perfectly with her concept for a Trickery cleric (and he’s a good dad) the DM agreed. So as long as the spell isn’t overpowered or steps on another spells toes utility wise import spells.
I’m running a game that has a lot of ritual spells, and I’m making most of them up on the fly. A lot of the rituals are actually hyper specific, tailored to the exact situation. They invoke symbolism to cause an effect, and I go into detail about what the casters have to do (such as in last night’s game, tie a silver cord to a fae and then tie the cord to a padlock made of Cold Iron to bind it). They had to trick the creature into allowing this
One of my players asked to do this as part of their backstory in the campaign im currently running (Indillon players other than Solar read no further :p) The character, Five Quills, has a whole lived-multiple-lifetimes thing going on and in one of them he was journeying to the heart of this crazy frozen over crystal-desert and invented the spell Quill’s Crystal Endurance to allow him to survive! This is as a bard-warlock storyteller, so it’s implied he worked directly with his patron to create the spell (which makes sense given the closeness of their pact) When he gets up to a high enough level to cast it again, I’m really excited to see the other PC’s reactions to Five suddenly casting a spell with his own name in it 😀
As a DM I’ve created lots of spells for my antagonists to use when existing ones didn’t satisfy my intentions of either the flavor or mechanics of what the NPC was supposed to do. For example in a past Pathfinder campaign where my players were facing the whispering way and one of their superiors the Lichwolf, i gave that one a terrifying howl, which dealt sonic damage and feared all living creatures in an area if they failed a will/wis saving throw. For an undead werewolf that felt just perfect.
Yesss! This is the energy I want at all of my tables! 😂 One of my favorite ways to test a spell and see if there are any unforeseen consequences is to give them a magic item that lets them cast it (like giving a PC a crystal ball with 3 uses of Augury before actually letting anyone learn it, to use an example of an existing spell). That way if I’m very wrong and have created a Situation – I don’t have to talk to the players and take any options away from them.
When I want to make a spell for combat, there’s something I always try to remember: Action Economy is king. Action Economy is a vital part of D&D. General rule is that whatever side has more actions, wins. Any spell or ability that has the ability to either take away turns from your opponent or add more turns via buffs or summons will always be execptionally powerful. Also, stun effects on players is not fun. Use effects that will limit the kind of actions they can take (like Slow), rather than just killing thier turn.
Love to see this! I am testing a mechanic in my home game to let wizards spend their acrane recovery to mod one spell prepared with another–and also introduce bugs! I mean to let other casters be bestowed with modded spells they petition for down the line. But wizards seem like the literal “I did it ’cause MATH” class, so it felt right to let them bear the brunt of proving “Cone of Cold + Resilient Sphere = SnoGlobe” and then working out the bugs. Thanks for the inspiration to try it out some more via NPCs! 😊
On that end bit as to how to let spells be implemented, I have a couple personal thoughts: If you want something that’s a little more roleplay focused over RNG, instead of making them roll a DC, make it so that a spell takes time and resources, with more intricate spells taking more testing, which means more time etc. That way they may be more interested in searching for downtime opportunities and you can go through scenarios of testing. You can even bring RNG back and have rolls which’d speed or slow down the time depending on how it went. If you’d prefer to keep it to just rolls, instead of having a single dice DC, increase the number dramatically to say 57, or maybe even 80-100 for intricate spells. The player then must roll to add up to that number, with each roll costing resources and time. This way you could also get others to help in the process with Inspiration & Guidance to try and speed it up. Just a couple small ideas that could be fleshed out a little more.
I used to be a rather strict DM, partially because I thought that’s what a DM does – approves or rejects things because “power balance.” Now DM’ing my third campaign, I can say it’s better if you’re ok with players being more creative with their character choices. Had a player in our second game want to dabble in arcane experimentation, and he came up with a few spells that fit a niche for his character’s role in the party that current spells didn’t. Now, we have characters in later campaigns using those same spells and it’s so cool to have these little callbacks and relics of previous games. It’s very rewarding!
I was once given a Ring of the Grammarian in a one shot, and my friends still talk about me creating Thunder Rave, which was an AOE spell that turned the entire room into a loud and boisterous rave, requiring all within to begin dancing, and rendering enemies unable to attack due to the dancing and the sick beats (the party also could not attack, but we could maintain awareness and therefore dance our way out of the room). Everyone should know this kind of joy.
My first character was a bard, a Street Performer. He had a custom cantrip that he used often. Conjure Potato. It summons an ordinary, brown russet potato of a size suitable for baking at any point within 25 cubic feet, even in mid air. it has no velocity and doesn’t fall fast enough to cause damage to any living creature larger than Diminutive size. (That’s 1 foot tall or higher. So wouldn’t hurt a cat, would hurt a mouse.) That’s it. Just suddenly, A single potato. The only component was somatic, and it could be cast as any type of action except a free action. You’d be amazed at how often a potato in the wrong place at the wrong time can do some amazing things. Need to sneak past a guard standing in front of a window? Drop a potato on his head in such a way the thinks it came from the window and sneak past while he’s looking out to see who’s throwing produce through the window. Chasing someone? conjure a potato under their foot and force them to make a difficult terrain check, thus slowing them down a little. Evil wizard about to pour a bowl of blood from a sacrifice into a brazier to complete a summoning spell? Would be a real shame if a potato landed on the edge of the bowl and flipped it out of his hands and onto his head… Evil alchemist distilling down the last ingredient of a magic mcguffin potion in his super-evil-deluxe Alchemy set with all the super swirly glass wear? A potato is a great nonlethal throwing weapon and can shatter glass. As a street performer, Juggling is a good show, but an even better show is one where the number of objects the juggler is keeping in the air keeps increasing with no explanation as to where they’re coming from.
I have a house rule where players can expend a higher level spell slot, or 2 of the same level, to change the damage type, or a single tangible effect of a spell within reason. Ie: Spend 2 3rd level slots or a 4th level slot to cast “Lightning Ball” Instead of fireball. With repeated use of these modified spell versions, I let them tweak it slowly and roll arcana checks every few casts. Once they have either done it X times, Succeeded in a few arcana checks (Based on the spell or what they’re changing about it) I make it a New spell. Then downtime spell crafting is always fine too. But players really seem to enjoy the “Modify my spell on the fly and then make that a spell I use regularly through practice” things.
We have always done this. Back when I was doing the cons, we always left with stacks of photocopies of spells people made and circulated at the con. Sometimes, they needed rebalanced. Sometimes, they were awesome. We built on them and modified them. I expect in a way that wizards would actually do when interacting with other wizards in a social type setting. A few spells were even a hold my beer moment…
I much prefer the idea of saying that there’s many more spells in the world than just those in the sourcebooks, so unless a player wants their character to be inventing their own spell, I’m quite happy with them just doing a small amount of research to find the new spell they want rather than spending weeks and multiple checks to craft it.
My two favorite spells of all time are from the Talislanta RPG: Rodinn’s Spell of Instant Sobriety, which is great for sudden mischief to be had, and Rodinn’s Spell of Sartorial Splendor; the well-kempt wizard won’t ever leave home without it. Both are from a 3rd edition supplement called The Archaen Codex (old editions of Talislanta are completely free, btw).
Griz-Gog’s Hot Flash. 1st Level Evocation. 30f AoE, 4d4 Fore Damage to target in that range. Plus 2d4 for for every level higher, one additional target for every other level higher. It wasn’t a great spell, but it was a fancy bit of spellcraft, especially for a goblin tribe in the middle of nowhere. It focuses some of the heat from the entire area on its specific targets.
The Dying Earth books definitely personalize spells, and Dungeon Crawl Classics’ version of the setting offers all sorts of weird spells like Arnhoult’s Sequestrious Digitalia (essentially empowered Mage Hand), Lutar Brassnose’s Twelve-fold Bounty, and Lugweiler’s Dismal Itch. There are also quite a few quirks like mercurial magic (side effects), wizardly objurgations (signature twists), that vary from caster to caster, as well as misfires and corruption (when you cast the spell incorrectly- because you must make a spell check each cast). Taken together, DCC has my hands-down favorite magic system that could inspire adaptation into other systems if it doesn’t win you over to it completely.
Something my table has used for years to let our casters create new spells is simply leveling up. We’ve always seen the spells you get via level up, especially for wizards, as spells you gain through your own practice and research without any outside influences. So if a player wants to make a new spell or modify an old one its free game upon level up as long as they role play putting the work in when able, such as muttering over their notes by the campfire or some such. If they want a custom spell between levels thats when we make a bigger deal out of the process because it becomes something extra they are trying to do. All that aside, great article as always and hope my table’s method is useful to someone even if it is simple lol
My druid player found a scroll for a spell called “Gazzik’s Formidable Fungus” in an underdark city, which had been written by a goblin mage working at the city’s university. She could either use the spell scroll as a one-time deal or study it and add it to her repertoire. She’s learning it, but I’m having her make a spellcasting ability check with a DC of 10 + the spell level each time she casts it, to see if it casts “right”. Once she’s done that a number of times equal to the spell’s level, she can add it to her spell list. We’re having fun with it 🙂
Cool that I have a Psychic Fireball for my bard. Dadaist Dazzle – Lvl 5 Illusion Cast time: 1 action Reach: 120 feet V, S, M (a dirty paintbrush, a written poem or any musical instrument) Using sounds, colors, or words, you conjure up a zone of complete lack of logic and rationality, altering colors, sounds, spatial and sensory awareness, causing a sensation of cold or heat, or any other unintelligible effect. Centered on a point within range of the spell, you create an illusory zone with a radius of 20 feet (6 meters), where your manifestation echoes and creates sensory illusions that cause dazzlement and confusion in everyone around. Each creature affected by the spell makes an Intelligence saving throw and takes 8d6 psychic damage, or half as much on a successful one. In addition, on a failed save, the target is incapacitated for 1 turn. At higher levels. When cast at any level higher than 5th, add 1d6 psychic damage.
There’s something about a girl covered in the brightest colors of the rainbow describing Hellraiser-esque blood magic that makes my brain happy. I love featuring spells from other source materials as lost or forgotten spells from earlier eras. Also, I’m gonna send a clip of your Sickening Radiance joke to my party. They’ve all become shellshocked from their experiences of my Warlock using it while they’re in the danger zone. The argument I present is always “I trust you all to pass”.
Only time I ever tried my hands at spellcrafting (in AD&D2ed times) resulted in a 4th level spell called “Erai’s Sphere of Affection”, which was a 30 ft diameter area effect centered on the caster. “Every humanoid in the area must make a saving throw vs spells, or be charmed by everyone in the area who failed their saving throw. The caster is also affected, but may choose to make or fail their save without needing to roll.” Needless to say, the spell has rarely been cast. Somehow, the whole idea of “let’s all just cuddle and get along” tends to give way to all kinds of unreasonable emotions once recipients snap out of their respective charms. For 5ed balancing I would make it require concentration and for the charm effect to drop for individuals who leave the area of effect, one round after they do so. Or set the duration to 1 minute, like with Hypnotic Pattern. Which might justify lowering the level of the spell to 3rd. Still not a “good spell”, but that’s not the point of it 😉 Having a player having to test out their new spell in the field before they it can definitely be codified in a “stable version” might be fun, btw! Just the unintended side effects alone might make for memorable moments!
always test homebrew in a refreshing-arena. you test it with a lvl4, 10-to-all-stats, human, character. the DM throws creatures with CR 1/2 at the character, adding the next upper challenge rating after every fight, till the character dies struggling to keep up. the players refreshes to base after every fight. this method tests the output of the homebrew and allows for adjustments to it. if it is an item/weapon/armor, this method allows for understanding its rarity. for spells, it allows for setting the spell level.
I once made my own RPG system with only mages and each had one or two elements given (like fire and earth). That was all, and players had to come up with spells on their own as long as they could explain how it fits with their elements. The twist was that enemies where the same, so no way to know what absurdity the DM could come with in return. My players really enjoyed the liberty and creativity they had. (Sadly i stopped it because i couldn’t create a coherent world to build a long term scenario)
The woes of Spell casting in D&D is precisely why my group quit D&D (well and WotC being a PoS company) and moved to Dominion Rules. You have 7 Provinces of magic and everything fits into that category. The GM looks at the spell the player created and gives a difficulty modifier based on what they thing. Best part is, GM can edit at any time if it is too underpowered or overpowered. The DR system has flaws naturally but it is meant to be very variable and easy to adjust things accordingly and, it is! We have a ton of fun. I highly recommend everyone at least check out the Dominion Rules system once in their life.
That’s when you get creative with spells. For instance if something is in a pond, lightning bolt the pond. One favorite combo of mine for an enclosed space, Acid cloud, delayed fireball followed with a wall of force sealing them in or wall of force after acid cloud and an AOE spell that’s not blocked by the wall such as ice storm. Even low level spells can be fun if creative. Guard blocking the way around a corner. Have something looking like a death knight come around and start approaching with a simple silent image spell (used this at start of campaign to break idiot dwarf cleric in party out of elven jail).
Another thing you can do is just take a spell from another system. Imagine an enemy makes a cone in front of their mouth with their hands, and then hisses, and suddenly the players are surrounded by snakes that attack them. Or your party is saved by a druid after screwing up in a forest, but they can’t talk about what happened, and if they do anyway, they start taking damage every day until the issue is resolved (aka everyone they told is dead). Maybe one of your players learns a spell that turns their arrows into trick arrows.
Years ago, my partner tried his hand at creating spells. He gave our blade singer a spell called ‘conjure mundane object’ It cost 100gp per level and if he cast it on the same thing for a year straight, it became a permanent object and Dispell Magic no longer worked on it. He was a high elf. We had a 10 year timeskip and he built a wizard college using that spell. We didn’t play the deck of many things correctly so we had basically infinite money and my eldritch knight was in the middle of becoming known more for her handcrafted tapestries and jewelry than allying with a dragon god of magic and saving the king from an assassin sent by an aspect of existence, something older than the gods of that world. I miss Sharias and Veper’s adventures in the Deck of Many Scuffs campaign. At least her daughter Serendipity is doing the Absolute Most as the first paladin of said dragon god in almost half a millennia.
one big idea about how to test a new spell is to introduce it in an ancient and almost crumbling wand, that every time it’s used has a chance of breaking up. This let’s you introduce the spell, test it daily and then take it away by the wand breaking if it’s deemed flawed. I also introduced spell reskinning for a only ice wizard. I just said to her, pick any spell you like, treat is as if it’s made of ice, and if it introduces any secondary effect by the spell element, change it to slow.
As a reward for if we make to 9th level, there is a universal spell waiting for everyone called “locate armadillo” waiting for us that the GM made (Locate creature doesn’t work on armadillos, they are immune to it.). It’s not locate all armadillos in the world, locate the closest armadillo no matter how far, it’s a 30-foot radius that tells you how many armadillos are in it. He would not take renaming it to ‘detect armadillo’ because ‘That’s more accurate, but it doesn’t sound as funny’. (There are other spells he’s made but that’s my favorite since it’s a reward for getting powerful and the creation was a result of a silly discussion of how canon armadillos are to the setting)
Honestly, Magic Missile tickles a special part in my brain. something about a spell that always hits aside from, like, 3~ish exceptions just. NEURONIC ACTIVATION. Granted, I also like to flavor the spells around my character like this one character who was a druid with a lot of focus on dragons I made it so that the force bolts were tiny green dragons. c:
I combined Vicious Mockery and Mage Hand to make a spell called Scanlan’s Middle Finger. I reskinned Fireball with a Necrotic flavor that can be cast with a musical instrument (albeit centered on the caster itself), and I named it Delilah’s Requiem. I can’t wait to try it out with a College of Tragedy Bard.
The campaign that I have been working on for a while now is in a new world where there is no civilization at all yet… And magic works differently there, meaning new spells need to be made, starting with runes written on paper or carved into objects. I’m planing on running it in Minecraft so the players can build whatever they want (if they have the ability to of course) They start in a burnt crater where the portal from the previous campaign that they played ended (or completely new characters), sort of Terminator time portal style… (Except they still have their gear and clothing)
I ran a game with spell creation once, (unfortunately fell to the grim reaper named “life events”). The wizard had studied the arts of spell craft, between us we had a summary of the language of spells, the pace, wording and tone of spells (one side quest was about the missing beat, where some spells had been being taught wrong and the conspiracy behind that). Anyway, the point was that I would let them create versions of spells where they tweaked the damage type if they knew a spell that did that sort of damange, or tweak the range or area size at the cost of damage. The cost was the same as learning a new spell of that level and they had to roll on a table inspired by the wild magic table the first time they used it to see what, if anything, didn’t quite work out the way they wanted.
A while back in a campaign I was playing a very self-sacrificial bard and the DM allowed me to make and use a healing spell that could either do more damage to an enemy to heal less, or do less damage to an enemy, damage to my own character, and heal someone else by a lot more. It was so incredibly fun, so in-character, and also really funny when the other players realised I was getting the most hurt and it was entirely my own fault XD I was the party’s healer and notorious for being willing to do anything that meant protecting/helping the party, and especially my character’s sister (who was our party’s fighter), and I’m really grateful the DM let me go as far as he did with all of that, because it genuinely made things really fun for me
I have “borrowed” the concept of Piety from Theros for my players to use their chosen faith/deity as a roleplay prompt. The sorcerer chose Mystra. One of the examples for them to gain favor is to invent new spells -so I am totally inviting them to do this if they want. I do agree that it shouldn’t just be a single arcana check. Maybe a downtime activity, or a quest… and maybe the difficulty can be influenced by what spells they already know?
I’m working on that kingdom that has a sporeinfested labyrinth of caves underneath filled with sporezombies. For that I kind of invented the spell spore explosion which is cast like fireball, but instead of dealing damage it will explode into a ball of spores infecting the characters inside its range. Unprotected characters will be poisoned and on top of that they will have pass a consave or suffer from an additional effect that could range from vomating (they basically spend their next round vomating instead of taking actions) over blindness to actually being infected with that zombie spore. That effect needs to be cured using a specific medicine or spell which only certain NPCs know (and might be teaching the players, if I as a DM decide for them to do so). I plan for other ways of getting infected as well and for storyrelevant NPCs to return from those caves as zombies. Depending on how this plays out, there is a chance that somebody would meet his former PC as a zombieversion after he dies, but that also depends on how whether or not the players would be up for that.
There’s a lot more too it but the jist of my spell craft mechanic comes down to a progress bar, the player can practice/ study once per day so long as they’re character isn’t doing anything else important/ time consuming that day; each day they spend trying to create the spell they get to roll arcana, any roll below 10 will result in negative progress ie a roll of 9 adds -1 to progress while a critical failure gives a -5 plus how far below 10 they got so a nat 1 with an arcane modifier of +6 would result in -5+-3 = -8 to progress, mean while any number they get above 20 adds to their progress with a nat 20 adding 5 plus however many they got above 20 so if they have a modifier of +8 and they got a nat 20 they’d get +13 to their progress. To complete the spell they need to reach a certain number which I as the DM decide before hand depending on the complexity of the spell, additionally there are different sections to the progress the first 75% is study while the next 10% is imitation while the final 15% is practice. During the imitation stage the player can use the spell though when they cast the spell they must succeed an arcana skill check with disadvantage, while in the practice stage the player can cast it if they pass a regular arcana skill check, if they fail the spell doesn’t work PROPERLY and the degree to they fail dictates the effect and how disastrous it is with critical failures harming (possibly killing if further or previous mistakes are made) the player and potentially those around.
Oh yeah, I played back in the day and making new spells was a thing the players would do a bunch. I think it was explicitly an exception that spells you make of your own didn’t count toward your max spells, so we went for it. Also with the learning chance roll, there was always a risk that you couldn’t get fireball for your wizard and you’d need to make your own zany homebrew version because not having fireball is not an option.
My last characters NPC father from last campaign had a bunch of spells in his prepared list from Kobold Press Deep Magic. They were really powerful Blood Magic & Infernal/Abyssal origins that hit like trucks. Not only had devastating damage, but really debilitating status effects. It was a very tough battle and a near TPK!
When my players want to create spells I tell them to make what they want and I will tell them what spell level and components will be needed. It’s a great way to let the player have all the leeway they want while making sure they don’t make “It’s fireball but it’s level 2 and it does force damage” type of spells.
9:25 ohhhh, Bone Javelin… Bone Javelin: 3rd Level Necromancy Components: Somatic, Material (A sharpened shiv of bone coated in cold dust) Casting Time: 1 Action Range: 25ft Line The caster thrusts a hand forward, summoning a large spike of bone that thrusts forward through every creature in a 25ft line. All creatures in the line must roll a Dexterity Saving Throw or take 6d6 piercing damage, taking half on a success. Any object in the way of the line that has equal to or less remaining hp compared to the damage rolled for the spell will be smashed through by the bone spike and break. If an object has more hp than the damage rolled, the bone spike will slam into the wall and shatter, dealing the damage in a 5ft radius around where it impacted.
One way of playing about with spellcrafting is to let your players tweak their spells in the moment, trading spell duration or damage etc for some extra effect or something, or using a higher level spell slot to boost it in some new way, you get a kind of intuitive feel over time for it, like what kind of cost different effects should have, and if a spell tweak proves balanced you can let them keep it and name it as a new spell.
When creating magic items to give the players as the DM, I prefer going with a less combat forward and less direct type of magic effect. Like a magic wand that obscures the wielders appearance, possibly calling it something like the Wand of Obscuration. It gives the player more options, and more time to figure out how best to put the magic effect to the best use either in, or out of combat.
I love the advice i got some time back about giving your lich spells from older versions. Player: “wait… that’s too many dice that’s not how that spell works!” Lich: “This is how it worked when I learned it” If they beat him and find his spell book, then ABSOLUTLY let them roll to try and learn the “Old” versions…
A homebrew spell I just approved for my player’s bard: Power Word Cringe (3rd level Enchantment) You speak a word loaded with acute embarrassment, forcing a creature to relive its most cringe-inducing memory. The target must succeed a Charisma saving throw or suffer 4d6 psychic damage as it reels from the discomfort. On a successful save, the target takes half damage. If the saving through is failed by 5 or more, the target gains vulnerability to psychic damage and disadvantage on Charisma saving throws until the end of its next turn. In addition, all creatures within 30 who can see the target take 1d6 psychic damage from the second hand embarrassment. If the saving throw is failed by 10 or more, the creature makes another saving throw at the start of its next turn. On a failed save, the creature is paralyzed for that turn, frozen by the sheer awkwardness of its recalled memories. On a success, the creature takes an additional 2d6 psychic damage.
Here’s one that I came up with for my Storm Sorcerer. Gale Burst 1st-Level Evocation Range: 30 feet. Components: V,S Cost: 1 Action Duration: Instantaneous Spell List: Artificer, Druid, Sorcerer, & Wizard You launch a ball of compressed air at a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the targeted creature. On hit, they take 1d12 Bludgeoning damage. No matter if you hit them or missed, the ball of air explodes with a thundering boom that’s audible within 300 feet. The target and all creatures 5 feet around it must succeed a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, they take 2d6 Thunder damage, half if successful. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd Level or higher, the amount of Thunder damage dice increases by +1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
i made my own bard spell called “ugly playing” (which is just slightly reskinned blindness/deafness without the blindness part) for funnies and memes but then one of my players using my dndbeyond campaign link actually put it on their spell list…. so now i have to deal with the consequences of my own actions 😂
I had some ogres doing blood magic, pulling blood elementals from an enemy caster’s veins and I had an encounter start with the party get automatically magically held in place, and they had to do skill checks to either break free or unravel the magic effect before they could start the fight proper, while the bad guys powered up each round they weren’t engaged in combat. and later, I gave a spellbook with several necromancy themed spells, but also allowed the owner to scribe scrolls on his skin, like the 3.5 Blood Magus, with some perks like boosted damage or a Vampiric Touch effect. I think the wizard has forgotten about it. I should remind him before next game.