These are my opinions and analysis of these spells. I'm not an expert, but I've played an awful lot of D&D over the years, so I think these points are worth considering. This post is meant to accompany the Dolmenwood Player's Book readthrough.
Summary: The early Arcane spells are quite weak and/or situational. With the rules as described, in which a caster must prepare each specific spell he/she wants to use that day, I feel that casters are at a major disadvantage early on (even more so than in other AD&D retro clones). That being said, if a caster can survive long enough, the spells become extremely powerful (even more so than in other AD&D retro clones).
Rank 1 Arcane Spells
I’m not usually one to do tier lists, but I think in this case, it’s warranted.
CRYSTAL RESONANCE
This spell allows the caster to imprint their surrounding energies onto a gem, then later release it. It cannot cause damage, blindness, deafness, or other special effects. There are four types of energies: Light, Images, Sound, and Temperature. So you can store an area of darkness or light, you can take a 360-degree photograph of a 10’ area, you can capture a recording of a sound, or you can preserve a balmy summer night and save it for a cold winter.
Of course, there’s always a 5% chance the crystal shatters when you’re imprinting it, which means the caster must spend 50g to get a new one.
This is an interesting spell. It does a lot of things that other bespoke D&D spells have done in the past. You can capture darkness to create an area of darkness later (or conversely, light). You could take a recording of someone, possibly playing back a password or something to gain access to a forbidden area. You can preserve a certain temperature. The usefulness of this spell greatly depends on the types of adventures the party has and the level of creativity from the player.
My analysis of this spell is now as long as the spell itself.
Grade: B. The value and usefulness of this spell are highly situational, but cool and interesting.
DECIPHER
This translates written information in any language, including coded messages or symbols to be deciphered. This lasts for 2 turns. This spell is only good if the DM is enforcing language rules. Very often, when something is not translated when players initially find it, I have them make a note of the map key number so I can tell them later. This is a hassle.
Grade: C-. Situational, and requires the Referee to use rules that most tables ignore (i.e., languages).
FAIRY SERVANT
For 50g, you can summon an invisible fairy to do the sorts of things Mage Hand does.
This spell is as useful as Mage Hand, but it costs 50 gold. Curious.
Grade: B. Mage hand is useful, but having to pay for it makes it less useful. It’s funny to think you’re basically paying a fairy to help you do small tasks.
FIRELIGHT
The caster can produce a heatless flame that cannot be used to burn. It also doesn’t count as daylight. You can make it flare up to dazzle those nearby, giving them -2 to attack rolls for 1d4 rounds.
This is the Light spell with more flavor and the ability to dazzle foes. This is a good spell.
Grade: A.
FLOATING DISC
This floating disc can carry up to 5,000 coins of weight, or about 50 slots (!) for 6 turns (1 hour).
Grade: B. Situational, and is best used when tracking inventory weight. However, 1 hour is not enough to travel out of a hex, but it is enough to travel out of a dungeon. A recent delve into how heavy treasure can become tells me this spell might be far better than I originally thought. I’m upgrading my original C grade to a B, but only if the party is closely tracking weight.
GLYPH OF SEALING
Magically seals a door, lid, gate, or other portal. It can only be countered with a Knock spell or the strength of creatures 3 levels higher than the caster.
Grade: F. I have never seen this spell be used, except by NPC casters. Unlikely to get used in my game.
IGNITE/EXTINGUISH
Ignite or extinguish light sources. A creature carrying a lit source can save vs Spells to prevent their flame from going out.
Grade: C+. In the hands of crafty players, this could be used to create ambushes against creatures that need light to see.
INGRATIATE
This game’s version of Charm Person. They get 1 save every day, but are otherwise charmed indefinitely. Depending on one’s definition of “charmed,” this can be a very useful spell.
Grade: A. This spell would be used constantly in social settings. It’s very Susanna Clark.
IOUN STONE
This game’s Magic Missile. It only deals 1d6+1 damage, and there’s only one missile. However, this spell scales (badly) with caster level, giving 1 additional shard every 3 levels.
Grade: B. 1d6+1 damage that always hits can be the difference between life and death at low levels. I’m realizing that Magicians are not meant to be damage dealers in this game at low levels. We’ll see how things shake out once I review all the Arcane spells in this book.
SHIELD OF FORCE
Boost your AC for two turns. You get 15 AC against all attacks, but 17 AC against missile attacks.
Grade: B+. Two turns with high AC is alright, assuming the magician prepared the spell. It’s life or death out here.
VAPOURS OF DREAMS
This game’s version of Sleep. It creates an expanding cloud of vapor that has a chance to put creatures under level 4 to sleep.
Grade: S. This spell is amazing and will be used frequently.
VENTRILOQUISM
You can make your voice come from anywhere within 60’.
Grade: C-. It’s flavorful but most likely useless. Best used by NPCs. In the hands of crafty players and a generous referee, it might be useful.
Rank 2 Arcane Spells
ARCANE CYPHER
Make any written word into a coded cypher that can only be read by casting the Decipher spell.
Grade: F. Situational, flavorful, mostly useless. Best for NPCs.
DWEOMERLIGHT
Allows the caster to detect and discern magic as visible light. It also allows you to detect what types of spells are prepared by other casters.
Grade: B+. Situational, but there are plenty of reasons to detect magic in OSR games. Being able to get a hint about a rival caster’s prepared spells is both useful and flavorful.
FLAMING SPIRIT
Conjure a streak of white fire to inflict 1d6 damage to a target. They save vs. Ray to resist all damage. Lasts 1 round per caster level.
Grade: B-. A second-level spell that can inflict a maximum of 1d6 damage per caster level. It’s relatively good value for a single spell slot, but the damage is low, and the chance to save makes it worse than Magic Missile.
GLYPH OF LOCKING
This is the classic spell Wizard Lock.
Grade: D-. Situational, only really useful as downtime flavor and NPC spells.
INVISIBILITY
As it says on the tin. Invisibility.
Grade: A. Very useful.
KNOCK
The opposite of Glyph of Locking.
Grade: B-. Still situational, but players tend to be opening a lot of locked containers. However, spell slots are more precious than Thieves.
LEVITATE
Lets you float up and down 20’ per round. You’ll need to find a different solution for horizontal movement, though.
Grade: B. Situational, but useful.
MIND CRYSTAL
Allows the caster to read the thoughts of any creature in a 60’ cone. Requires a crystal worth 250gp (does not consume on use).
Grade: C. Good for interrogations, and I’m not sure what else.
MIRROR IMAGE
Creates 1d4 illusory clones that soak damage whenever the caster is attacked. Illusions break even if the attack missed.
Grade: B+. Guaranteed to soak an average of 2 attacks, which is better than dying.
PERCEIVE THE INVISIBLE
Detects invisible things out to a range of 10’ per caster level.
Grade: B. Situational, but useful.
PHANTASM
Create an illusory scene, attack, or monster; the latter two can inflict illusory damage, removing enemies from combat for 1d4 turns.
Grade: S. If I were playing an Illusionist, I would prepare this spell three times a day. Its versatility as an attack, defensive, or summoning spell makes it excellent.
WEB
Summons a 10’ cube of web, possibly trapping creatures. If burned, the creatures in the web take 1d6 damage each.
Grade: A. A strong pick for any adventure. Great crowd control, and good AOE damage if you’re willing to burn a torch.
Rank 3 Arcane Spells
CIRCLE OF INVISIBILITY
Target a creature to stick the spell on. Everyone in a 10’ radius gets invisibility until they attack. 1 hour per level.
Grade: A.
CRYSTAL VISION
Use a 500gp gem to see through the eyes of any creature within 60’, effectively turning their eyeballs into security cameras.
Grade B+. Great for recon.
DARK SIGHT
Gain dark vision for 24 hours.
Grade: B. There are better rank 3 spells, but this one is good. The duration really sweetens the deal.
DISPEL MAGIC
Dispels magical effects in a 20’ cube.
Grade: B. Players love to dispel magic.
FIREBALL
240’ range, 20’ radius explosion, 1d6 damage per caster level (3d6 at this level). Boom.
Grade: S. Everyone loves Fireball.
FLY
Gain a fly speed of 120’ for 1d6 turns +1 per caster level.
Grade: A. Players love to fly.
HASTE
Allows up to 24 creatures to move and attack twice as much (but not with spells).
Grade: S. There are precious few ways to gain more attacks in this game, and this is one of them.
LIGHTNING BOLT
Shoot a 60’ bolt of lightning in a straight line, dealing 1d6 damage per caster level (3d6 at this level) to the targets. Can bounce off walls.
Grade: A+. I find this spell is slightly less versatile than fireball, due to the clumpy nature of D&D combat. Still great, though.
MISSILE WARD
Grants a target within 30’ immunity from normal missile attacks.
Grade: C. Very situational. There are better uses for 3rd-level spell slots. Great on a scroll, though.
PARALYSATION
This is like an AOE hold person. It works like the OG sleep spell.
Grade: A+. A real battlefield tide-turner.
SERPENT GLYPH
Magically create a glyph in a page or on a surface. Once triggered, a magical snake attacks the person, possibly freezing them in time for 1d4 days.
Grade: A. What the hell, 1d4 days?
WATER BREATHING
Allows a target to breathe underwater.
Grade D+. Extremely situational, and the spell preparation rules make these kinds of spells hard to justify compared to any of the other 3rd-level spells listed here.
Rank 4 Arcane Spells
As we can’t cast rank 4 spells until level 7, we’ll keep the number 7 in mind for these spells.
ACID GLOBE
A 1-foot globe of acid strikes a target within 150’ for 7d4 damage; the target saves Blast for half. If they fail the save, they take 7d4 damage again on their next turn. Everyone within 5’ of the target must also save or take 2d4 damage once.
Grade A. This is an extremely potent spell. It deals a minimum of 3d4 acid damage, and a maximum of 14d14. That swing is between about 12 and 56 damage for one spell! Also, it gets even better as the caster gains levels.
ARCANE EYE
A magical (but visible and physical) eyeball that allows the caster to see up to 60’ in total darkness. It cannot pass through solid barriers. The fact that casters must concentrate to see through the eye means the usefulness of this spell is a bit suspect.
Grade: C.
CONFUSION
This spell is a chaos bomb. 3d6 randomly determined creatures (including the caster’s own party) within 30’ attack randomly for up to 12 rounds (less if they’re at least level 3). It’s hard to gauge the value of this spell, but it gives targets a 33% chance to do nothing, and a 33% chance of attacking their own team means there is about a 67% chance of favorable outcomes for your own side, provided you didn’t target your own team with the spell.
Grade: B-
DIMENSION DOOR
Always a useful spell for getting around the battlefield, and it can be used to reach hard-to-reach places. High utility, as long as you remember to prepare it.
Grade: B+
DOMINATE
Allows the caster to mind control 3d6 creatures of level 3 or less, or one creature of a higher level, indefinitely. They get to make their save again once per day, and if only ONE of these saves succeeds, the whole group is free of the spell. This is a very good spell, but eventually someone is going to succeed their save and ruin the fun for everyone.
Grade: A
HALLUCINATORY TERRAIN
Make terrain look different from what it is, but breaks if an intelligent creature touches it. This is best used by NPCs.
Grade: D
HEX WEAVING
This is equivalent to Add/Remove Curse in other games. The effects can be quite deleterious. Mostly good for NPCs to use on PCs. I envision a game where the player characters are actually quite strong, and simply “cursed” back into being low-level adventurers. Levels up take the form of broken curses. It’s sort of like Super Metroid.
Grade: C-
PLANT GROWTH
Creates a permanent area (up to 3,000 sq. feet) of thorny vines and brambles that are difficult to travel through—quite a lot of utility for larger-scale battles.
Grade: B.
POLYMORPH
Turns the caster or another living creature into another type of creature. You can turn yourself into a dragon, or turn your enemy into a mouse. It only lasts between 2 and 7 turns if cast on yourself, but it’s permanent if cast on another. That’s some brutal fairy shit. I love it.
Grade: A. It’s flavorful, powerful, and a great use of a spell slot.
WALL OF FIRE
Creates a 6” thick, 60’ long, and 20’ high wall of fire, in a line or a ring. Deals 3d6 damage to anyone who passes through (doubled for undead and cold-based creatures). Lasts 1 round per level. Concentration required.
I’ve seen versions of this spell used to magnificent effect in other games, and I expect the same is true here. This is a great, if slightly situational spell. By the time the party can cast it, they’re likely fighting large numbers of enemies at a time.
Grade: A
WALL OF ICE
Similar to the spell above, except that it acts as a much more effective barrier. Creatures must be level 4 or greater to even have a chance to break through, and they take damage while doing it.
Grade A-, only because this seems more situational
WOODLAND VEIL
Gives up to 100 medium or small creatures the illusion of being trees. The effect is permanent and based on an area. This seems very thematic and strange, and I’m not entirely sure how to make it useful in play.
Grade: D
Rank 5 Arcane Spells
Note that a caster must be level 9 to cast these spells(!)
AIR SPHERE
Makes a 10’ bubble of breathable air around the caster that moves with them. Lasts 1 turn per level (9 turns or 1.5 hours at this level).
Grade: D. Highly situational.
ANIMATE DEAD
Permanently raises 9 humanoid corpses to fight for you until they are destroyed.
Grade: A. An all-around useful spell, and a game-changer for battles. Also, horrifying.
CLOUDKILL
A 30’ diameter cloud of death that moves at speed 10. Deals 1 damage per round to creatures of level 4 or higher, and has a chance to kill creatures of lower levels immediately. In short, this is AOE crowd control.
Grade: B+. Great if you’re still fighting big groups of weak mobs at this level.
CONJURE ELEMENTAL
Conjures an elemental to murder your enemies. Caster must concentrate and walk slowly, or else it breaks free.
Grade: A. Who wouldn’t want a level 16 monster at their command?! Risks be damned!
FABRICATE
Disassemble an inanimate object and make it into an object of your choosing. The implications are a bit terrifying. I might have the Nag-Lord visibly disassemble every building in a village to build a large, disgusting throne for itself, and a barbecue for the village’s still-living residents, all while the NPCs watch.
Grade: C. Flavorful and cool, but there are better ways to spend this slot. Best used by NPCs, probably.
FEEBLEMIND
Turns an arcane spell-caster into a simpleton who is unable to cast spells EVER AGAIN (duration is permanent). This is a magical lobotomy. Gnarly. Sets their intelligence to 3. Remove curse is your friend.
Grade: A (against another caster). You don’t want to be on the receiving end of this spell.
MIRE
Turns a 3000’ area into a 10’ deep swamp for 3d6 days. Everything in the mire sinks and dies if it can’t get out in time. Definitely a kind of “I win” button against massed forces. Also, kind of sickening.
Grade: A- (against a large number of troops).
PASSWALL
Creates a 5’ diameter, 10’ deep hole in a wall for 3 turns.
Grade: C. Situational, but useful if you’re trying to sneak into somewhere you’re not supposed to be.
SENDING
Sends a message with unlimited range to someone you know. They automatically understand. Thematic, situational, and probably best used by NPCs, but I can imagine scenarios where the spell is useful.
Grade: C
TELEKINESIS
Move objects up to 200 coins per caster level (1,800 coins at this level) with your mind. Also works on creatures, but they get a saving throw. For context, 1800 coins is roughly the same as a horse. Lasts 6 rounds (1 minute).
Grade: C. There are better ways to do damage, but in a siege scenario, it might be good.
TELEPORT
Allows you to teleport anywhere instantly, with increasing risks based on one’s familiarity with the destination.
Grade: C+. Most of my players wouldn’t care to roll the dice on even a 90% accurate teleport.
WALL OF STONE
Create a permanent wall of stone, not to exceed 1000 cubic feet of volume.
Grade: C+. Very good if one is building a base, and casting this spell daily.
Rank 6 Arcane Spells
Note: Arcane casters must be level 11 to cast these spells.
ANTI-MAGIC WARD
Blocks all spells of level 3 or less. Lasts 11 rounds (1 round per level). Can be dispelled.
Grade: A. Extremely useful if doing battle with a caster (i.e., the Nag-Lord). Also useful for powerful NPCs.
CONTROL WEATHER
Does what it says. Requires concentration.
GRADE: C-. Situational, thematic, but generally useless.
DISINTEGRATE.
Turn up to a 10’ square area, or a 5’ cube of mass, into dust. Living things must save vs. Doom to resist. Holy shit.
Grade: A+
DWEOMERFIRE
Punishes casters by making their magical items burn them, and makes spells they cast explode for 3d6 damage. Also deals 1 damage for every memorized spell they have. This is the anti-caster spell.
Grade: A+. Bring this if you plan to fight a caster. Or the Nag-Lord.
GEAS
Magically compel someone to perform a specific action. Very hard to get out of. The implications are terrifying. Probably the basis for many a sexual or revenge fetish (or both). Only works if the caster is at least 2 levels higher than the target (this protects certain high-level NPCs from this spell).
Grade: A-. In the right hands, this spell would be S tier.
INVISIBLE STALKER
Summons an invisible assassin who attempts to twist your words, so choose carefully. Carries out its job and disappears.
This is like a Wish spell, but for a sentient murder-creature. Interesting, but probably best cast outside of normal sessions.
Grade: B. Plays well with political games.
MOVE TERRAIN
Allows you to move a 120’ square foot of land up to 60’ per turn for 6 turns (360’ feet in total). Simple, flavorful, situational.
Grade: C-. Best used for base-building or siege battles, neither of which is likely to happen in this game.
ORACLE
Spend 1000gp to ask a magical oracle any question to get a cryptic answer. Each time you use it, you risk hurting your brain and being in a coma for 6 weeks.
Grade: D+. There is a use for this spell, but almost purely as a downtime activity, or something you pay someone else to cast.
PETRIFICATION
Also known as Flesh to Stone (or Stone to Flesh), this spell permanently turns a target into stone. Save vs. Hold to resist.
Grade: A. This can permanently disable a creature. Very strong vs. a single target, as it’s effectively a good chance of one-shotting anybody you want.
PROJECT IMAGE
Creates a flawless illusory duplicate. If it gets hit in melee, it is destroyed.
Grade: C+. There are better ways to use this slot, but it’s good to have extra defense for a caster.
WAVE OF FORCE
A 10’ wide, 60’ wall pushes everything out of its way. Lasts 4 turns.
Grade: B. A great way to control a battlefield.
WORD OF DOOM
Has a chance to instantly kill any creature that is not undead and below level 7, within a 60’ cube.
Grade: S. This is a very good spell.
3500+ words and more than four months to finish this project. Well done.
Well, maybe not done yet. I still need to do the Holy spells…
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