Creating something unique for your world is very satisfying. From places to people, or even monsters, as you get more experienced at being the Dungeon Master. However, tackling the mechanical side of the game can be a challenge. And one of the game's most important mechanics is its magic system.
The game already has many spells. Some are extremely powerful, and others that are often neglected. Still, it is fun to surprise the players with a spell unique to your game, catching them off-guard during a big battle or something special to reward them. How do you ensure your spell won't be too weak or game-breaking, though?
5 What Is Your Goal? 🌱
Spells can do many things, so it's essential to have an objective in mind before you start creating anything. Do you want your spell to cause lots of damage, like a Fireball? Or is it a crowd-control spell, like Sleep? It can also generate positive effects on you and allies - a.k.a. buffs.
For example, you can tie this new spell with the situation you want to introduce it. If you have a powerful lightning-based BBEG, using this type of damage on your homebrew spell would be interesting. Or if you want to reward a player with a spell, it could be something that relates to them, such as a damage buff to a Fighter, or even something they're all lacking, like a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:group-heal spell for a party with no healer.
The already pre-existing spells are also a perfect reference. Instead of starting from scratch, you can take an official spell and just tweak details a little bit. 🏅Your BBEG lightning-agility that helps them evade most attacks could be an altered version of Mirror Image that shocks people back, for instance.
4 💧 Damage And Effects 🅘
The Dungeon Master's Guide offers some insight into spell creation on page 283, focusing on balancing its damage. As mentioned, if your spell is used often and others are overlooked, that could mean your spell is overpowered, and if it's rarely used or situational, it could mean you need to buff it.
It even offers a Damage table with how many dice you should use for calculating damage depending on the spell's level and whether it's a sole target or an area of attack.
Depending on the damage type you choose, you should use a saving throw where the target only takes half the damage if they succeed - for example, fire attacks usually ask for Dexterity saving throws - or the spell will simply🧜 demand an attack roll from their user. For instance, the Spell Damage table suggests 2d10 damage for a first൲-level spell that targets a single enemy.
What this table doesn't cover, however, are other effects. Your fire spell could leave the enemy burned, causing extra damage on subsequent turns, or the initial blast could knock them prone - with a Strength saving throw to give the enemy a chance. Or you can ditch damage entirely and cause a condition; some conditions are too strong, so having both them and damage could be problematic.
It's also okay to give your spell multiple effects but remember it can't do everything, and you may have to increase their spell slot to balance things out. Mind Sliver, for example, causes very low damage (d6 Psychic) that can be avoided through an Intelligence saving throw. Still, it also gives a penalty to their next saving throw, having both damage and effect, and that's just a cantrip.
Meanwhile, some things are too powerful and shouldn't cause multiple effects. Magic Missile has low damage, but that's because it's an automatic hit. Hold Person doesn't cause damage, it can fail, and it demands concentration (an excellent thing to put on spells that last a long time), but paralyzing an enemy is one of the best things you can do in a fight, potentially ending it in a round or two.
Use your knowledge of the game to separate what is too good and too bad. If the effects and damage are too much, consider removing one of them, lowering said damage, or d🌼emanding a higher spell slot for the spell. I♏f the spell feels too weak, consider extra effects or increase the number of dice on the damage roll.
You can also balance things by deciding whether the spell will require an action, bonus action, or even reaction. You can even put minutes on the casting tim🉐e, but doing so will essentially have your players use your spell mostly outside combat.
3 🉐 Spell Slots, Components, And Upcasting 🌸
One of the biggest focuses for creating your spell is what you'll need to have or do to use it. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cantrips require no slots, while spells will demand a spell slot. That already is an excellent way to balance things; something that causes 8d6 damage should not be a first-level spell, but that isn't so much that it is enough to be a high-level spell - ninth-level spells can go from 40d6 to instant kills.
Aside from the spell slot, components are a good way to keep things in check, especially the material component. A particular object may be necessary every time you cast it. For example, Revivify asks for a Diamond worth 300 gold pieces for its activඣation every time you use it.
Lastly, you can🍒 make the spell even more powerful by upcasting it. Cantrips tend to become more powerful depending on your level, so they can still be somewhat useful for a level 17 Wizard. Still, other spells need to consume higher spells slots - Casting Fireball as a level four spell, for example, so the damage will be 9d6 instead of the usual 8d6.
Considering everything said so far, you can start testing. Let's take Fireball and give it a spin for a lightning-based BBEG, for example. Changing the damage type isn't a big change, so you could have a stunning effect from the electricity in case people fail the saving throw and half damage, plus no stun for those who pass it.
However, the spell now is better than our reference, so you could lower the number of dice on the damage or raise it to a fourth-level spell. Either way, the user can add an extra d6 for every spell slot above the main one. It even causes a fun decision-making process for being similar to Call Lightning, which does more damage, but it's a sixth-level spell and doesn't stun.
2 Other Casting Methods 𝓀
In case your spell is too powerful for spell slots, or the character you're giving it to is a martial, they can use it in other ways. It can be once per short or long rest or a number of times equal to their proficiency if you want it to be available a bit more often.
Alternatively, you can 🅺also have a spell activated by a magic item. They 🐎can have an X number of charges, with each being consumed when the spell is used, and these charges can come back naturally after some time (like a day), or the user needs to obtain certain conditions to restore charges, such as having an actual lightning hit the item to charge it.
The more diffic꧟ult to recover the charges, the more powerful the spell should be. The same appl♏ies to spells they can use only sporadically, such as once per rest.
1 Do Some Fie𒈔ld Testing
Do you have a minmaxer on your table? Now is the time to call them for some extra work. All these ideals are good, but there could be things you haven't accounted for (we didn't even test our example, to be fair, so feel free to improve it), and testing it will help you out.
Your player's feedback would also be imperative, as they can point out potential problems, remind you of similar spells (rendering the creation of a new one unnecessary), or just general ideas to make things even better. Two heads think better than one, after all, so don't be afraid of having players involved in the creation process and make your 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:spells even more destructive.