2014-01-30

Greyhawk Magic Tidbits

Tonight I was leafing through the Greyhawk (OD&D Sup-I) spell lists, and a few little things caught my eye among the new higher-level spells:

(1) Permanent Spell (p. 27): "Dispell Magic which are are least twice the level of the caster of the Permanent Spell will negate it, so three Warlocks could negate the spell of a 12th level Wizard...". Notice that the three Warlocks (level 8) are taking the sum of their levels for this consideration (3×8 = 24). Have you ever allowed multiple spell-casters to cooperate in this way to meet level requirements?

(2) Meteor Swarm (p. 28): "A blast of four Fire Balls (Jim!). thrown in whatever pattern the caster desires, each of 10-60 points of damage -- or eight Fire Balls (Jim!) of one-half normal diameter...". So what's the (Jim!) reference here? Is that a Star Trek gag in my original D&D book, or something else?

(3) Gate (p. 28): "Employment of this spell opens a cosmic portal and allows an ultra-powerful being (such as Odin, Crom, Set, Cthulhu, the Shining One, a demi-god, or whatever) to come to this plane." Okay, I know who Odin, Crom, Set, and Cthulhu are; but does anyone know who the "Shining One" is in this context?


10 comments:

  1. The Shining One is from A. Merritt, The Moon Pool. Stats regrettably absent from Gods, Demigods & Heroes.

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    1. Yep. And if you don't want to read The Moon Pool, it's Smokey from Lost.

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    2. Great! Never read the Moon Pool, just now yoinked it from Project Gutenberg Australia. Thanks for that!

      I will ignore the Lost reference. :-)

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  2. There was a disagreement between Jim Ward and Ernie (? I may be misremembering the second party) over whether the spell created actual meteors or magical meteor-like fireballs.

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    1. Fascinating! Thanks so much for that.

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    2. The answer is given here:
      http://blogofholding.com/?p=5564

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    3. Drat! It seemed so much like a Dr. McCoyism.

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    4. I know, particularly in regards to a "meteor"-themed subject, right?

      jbeltman, thanks for the link, fascinating!

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  3. Re: #1 - That's a great concept - I was just toying with a similar idea for cleric 'stacking,' where multiple clerics working in concert could gain a bonus for turning. I'm hesitant to give a full level summation to access high-level spells, maybe 1.5? Although a limiting factor that the MUs need to be of the same school (if used) to gain the benefit might be a criteria.

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    1. Those are good ideas. I think you're probably right about pro-rating the added levels, almost in any case I can think of.

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