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GameMastery Guide / Rewards / PCs Controlling Rewards / Research and Designing Spells

Good Spells and Bad Spells

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 114
The best spells do something interesting even when the casting isn’t fully successful. They should have fairly simple mechanics without many ambiguities, special cases, or qualifications. If a spell takes a half-page or more to describe, it is probably too complicated and should be rejected or revised.

Watch out for spells that counter or otherwise render useless equal- or higher-level magics. For defensive spells, countering an equal-level spell is fine (like shield negating magic missile), but an offensive spell generally should only overcome lower-level defenses or higher-level spells that duplicate those defenses (like disintegrate destroying both wall of force and forcecage).

Good spells expand upon the existing themes of magic, but in a novel manner. The game doesn’t really need more ways to throw damage around, but a spell that hurls adjacent enemies away from the caster is both interesting and useful. Watch for spells that break the implied limits of the game. Most arcane casters have poor healing abilities, and divine spells rarely excel at direct damage. With rare exception, spells shouldn’t duplicate existing class features or feats.

While as a general rule overly specialized spells are a bad idea, there’s much to be said for researching specialized spells like a brewer’s blessing or a charm to hold a shoe on a horse. If a player is particularly excited about the spell, consider approving it even if it doesn’t have much in-game application.

Archives of Nethys

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Good Spells and Bad Spells