Forging your own spells

[John Cribati]

Okay, first of all, I'm not entirely certain that you call it "forging" a spell. Anyway, I was just wondering about the prerequisites for a wizard or sorcerer character making up his/her own spell, or specifically, a variant of another spell, such as V modifying the Animal Messenger spell and attaching his (don't start) name to it.

[lesser_minion]

• The DM decides in advance whether or not the spell is permissible at all, and what level it is.
• If the spell isn't permissible, the DM still assigns a spell level to it, and allows research to go ahead.
• The DM also decides the precise effects of the spell.
• You need to spend one week per level, at a cost of 1,000gp per week, researching the original spell. If the DM decides the spell is not viable, then the caster still has to go through this process.
• At the end of the allotted time, you make a spellcraft check. If this succeeds, you research the spell successfully, or conclude that the spell is forbidden. If it fails, you have to go back through the process before trying again.
• The DM should tell players in advance, in fairly broad terms about any topics that are outright forbidden, e.g. time travel.

That's roughly how I remember it.

[arguskos]

• The DM decides in advance whether or not the spell is permissible at all, and what level it is.
• If the spell isn't permissible, the DM still assigns a spell level to it, and allows research to go ahead.
• The DM also decides the precise effects of the spell.
• You need to spend one week per level, at a cost of 1,000gp per week, researching the original spell. If the DM decides the spell is not viable, then the caster still has to go through this process.
• At the end of the allotted time, you make a spellcraft check. If this succeeds, you research the spell successfully, or conclude that the spell is forbidden. If it fails, you have to go back through the process before trying again.
• The DM should tell players in advance, in fairly broad terms about any topics that are outright forbidden, e.g. time travel.

That's roughly how I remember it.

This is about correct, though it's not normally recommended that the DM make players waste in-game time and money researching something that isn't going to work. If that works for you, great, otherwise, the DM can just say "nah, thats too good, you can get X at that level though" and the player and DM can hammer something out together.

[lesser_minion]

This is about correct, though it's not normally recommended that the DM make players waste in-game time and money researching something that isn't going to work. If that works for you, great, otherwise, the DM can just say "nah, thats too good, you can get X at that level though" and the player and DM can hammer something out together.

That's just the RAW. The DM is supposed to warn players in advance that certain topics are forbidden, certainly, but the rules actually do say that the player never knows what is possible except through the success or failure of research.

[arguskos]

That's just the RAW. The DM is supposed to warn players in advance that certain topics are forbidden, certainly, but the rules actually do say that the player never knows what is possible except through the success or failure of research.

And yet another reason that RAW is facepalmingly stupid. That's just an unnecessarily mean way of doing things.

On a totally unrelated note: I actually did read through all your expansion Shadowcaster material. I have almost nothing productive to say, other than "damn, that's some nice stuff". Again, thanks for letting me take a look at it.

[lesser_minion]

You... might be thinking of someone else there.

@V: Well, I haven't posted anything on shadowcasters to my knowledge.

Realms of Chaos has, but he uses the male necromancer as an avatar.

[arguskos]

You... might be thinking of someone else there.

I am? DAMMIT! They have the same avatar as you do. >_< Who was it...? I can't remember now.

Sorry dude, the avatar's confused me greatly.

[hiryuu]

Okay, first of all, I'm not entirely certain that you call it "forging" a spell.

You have now given me a character idea.

Warforged Spirit Shaman who uses a little anvil and hammer and the campfire to retrieve spells for the day by working them out of natural materials as if they were metal.

[DracoDei]

I like wasted time from a fluff and RP perspective (magic being hard to predict, and also the frustration of any sort of ground-breaking research... "99% perspiration, 1% inspiration"), although I can definitely see where it would also be very discouraging to the players.