Unexpected
Consequences from Spellcasting
By:
Jesse C Cohoon
There are a variety
of things that can either go wrong, or cause the circumstances in which the
spellcasters in your game to have unexpected, unforeseen consequences from
their casting. These consequences can be beneficial, harmful or neutral in
nature, due to the dynamics of the battlefield.
Damage,
in general
One thing that RPGs
tend to gloss over is that the scenery is capable of being damaged. For most
things, this damage is either negligible or doesn’t make an impact in the game,
but this doesn’t necessarily need to be so. If a building or cave is
sufficiently damaged, it could collapse, trapping those inside the area,
forcing others to dig them out in order to save them. If a person’s weapon or
armor is damaged from spells, “normal” repairs might not work on it and ‘mending’
spells might be useless, because the spellcaster might not know how the item in
question was made, however it can be house ruled that the character’s knowledge
to repair items doesn’t matter. Items might become warped, unable to be bent
back into shape. Their clothing could become worn and threadbare just from
being exposed to various spells. Conversely, they might become brittle, and any
attempt to work on it would damage it further. Glass objects in a character’s
backpack can shatter, and the contents leak out and damage the rest of the
character’s belongings.
Fire
Based Spells:
Fire based spells
take oxygen, without enough of which, nothing can happen. If a magic user tries
to cast a spell in such an environment, the spell slot is still used, but nothing
happens. Or if there’s enough oxygen and not much more, the characters could
start to suffocate, or pass out due to lack of oxygen.
Conversely, if you
open an area that had been sealed off, which previously had been filled with an
inert gas, there could be flammable crystals in there that, once exposed to
fire would cause the fire based spell to become more powerful. Or there could
be pockets of explosive gas. If others had gone through the area with fire
based light sources, there could be scorch marks on the walls, ceiling, and
ground. Some spells specifically state that the fire can catch flammable
objects in the area afire. When you think about it, there’s not much that isn’t
able to catch fire: clothes, plants, paper, and more.
Water Based Spells
Water based spells
pose an entirely different set of difficulties. Some of these may be able to be
circumvented with house rules.
For instance, when
creating food and water, where does the water go? Most characters don’t carry
around buckets or a bathtub to either store or use the water as needed. If the
just appears midair and falls to the ground, it doesn’t do much good, as the
ground beneath, unless soaked already will simply absorb most of it. Even in a
drought, most spellcasting characters aren’t going to be attempting to water a
garden in that fashion either, as it’s inefficient.
In a stone based
environment it’s not much better. Unless the cave floor is perfectly level, it’ll
do what water naturally does: find the lowest point. Now this may lead the
characters to have some interesting discoveries. For instance if the water is
seeping under a crack in the wall, it may mean that there’s a secret passage
there or there’s chambers beneath that need exploring.
Depending on the
volume of water created and the speed at which it flows, it could cause
flooding problems, and erode the plants anchoring a hillside in place. Or
floods a town because the water, once started, can’t be stopped without a
specific set of circumstances.
In an all desert
setting such as Dark Sun, because there is no water, the water has to come from
somewhere: the plants and animals, the characters or NPCs, or even the planet
itself. In normal deserts, however, having a large source of water appear would
cause life to reemerge from the stasis. Within a few hours of the water’s
arrival fish, frogs, insects, and more come alive, mate, give birth to
offspring and die… only to burry themselves again to repeat the cycle again
once more water appears.
Electricity
Based Spells
Lightning and
shocking types of spells have their own set of problems based on its ability to travel, or be transferred .
The most basic
unforeseen consequence is if a character in metal armor is able to hit an NPC
or grapple them as they’re being struck by an electric spell, the damage would
bleed over to the struck/ grappled character. The reason why this makes sense
is because the electricity doesn’t “stay put”
If you cast an
electric based spell onto someone who’s wet, they’ll take more damage. If you
cast it into a body of water, it has the ability to travel further than you
might think. See here https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2wb16v/how_far_can_electricity_travel_through_water/
for the science behind it.
Casting “lightning
bolt,” “forked lightning,” etc. into a cavern filled with veins of metal, might
have it bouncing off the walls until the energy is used up. Conversely, casting
lightning bolt into a crystalline structure such as the picture would cause it
to scatter in all directions, possibly striking the caster.
Earth
Based Spells
Earth based spells can
also have their own set of unforeseen consequences. Casting “earthquake” in an
earthquake prone area can cause the fault line to become more active than it
would be normally, causing massive destruction over a much wider area than
anticipated. Conversely, casting the same spell in a swamp or in a marshy area
might not do much that much. Earthquakes in large bodies of water have the
potential to be very destructive, due to the fact that they become tsunamis.
Digging in earth may
not be safe either. Passageways or holes that the spells create may fill with
water, possibly causing a sinkhole. If deep enough, lava is a concern.
Furthermore, the magic may allow transport, but not breathing, such spellcasters
would have to hold their breath the entire time they’re moving through the
earth, and hope they can emerge before they suffocate.
Cold
Based Spells
Cold spells like “cone
of cold” and “ice storm” have their drawbacks. Even though many of the
descriptions state explicitly that the snow and ice melt, that isn’t
necessarily the end of it. In areas more susceptible to cold weather, the spell
may simply bring in cold weather to an area earlier than it normally would
arrive. This can have a ripple effect in your game. Winter comes early, kills
crops, causes death of livestock, etc.
There can be other
effects, too. In a cave the cold can get trapped in the stone, and radiate
outward for a time. The ice can also remain longer without melting in a colder
climate. The cold can actually do enough damage to plants to kill them as well.
Monster
Summon
What happens when the
wrong monster is summoned, or a misunderstanding of the type of monster that the
caster is asking for? The caster may not have control over it and it attacks
the party for having the audacity to summon it. Or it resents being summoned,
and follows orders begrudgingly, but not to the best of its ability. Or it tricks
the caster into doing something stupid (like signing a contract) for its
services, but instead enslaves the caster.
Plant
Based Spells
Plant based spells can
have unplanned-for consequences as well. Think of things with today’s
technology/ science. Adding “miracle grow” to a weed makes it get bigger. Same
thing with the spell “plant growth.” Using weed killer to a plant damages it,
by the roots, many times. What happens if you cast the spell on the wrong
plant? An entire castle could be held captive to a giant thorn bush. The cave
becomes impassable due to the overgrowth of molds/ slimes that the characters
have to fight their way through. Conversely, what happens if you cast “horrid
wilting” on a plant, but it’s not one, but the entire crop for the kingdom?
Next time a spell is
cast in your campaign, look for ways to have it do more than what the
description says. You’ll add depth to your world, and give more challenges to
your players by making them think “Do I want to cast this spell here and now?”
No comments:
Post a Comment