The first one I'll blame on John Milton (Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 648 ff.) but the second one seems to be all my fault.
Brood of Sin
Level: 3
Duration: 2d6 rounds
Range: Self
This spell causes the abdomen of the caster to distend and contort in agony for one full round, at the end of which the caster gives birth to 2d6 Hellhounds. These monsters obey the caster's commands for the duration of the spell. At the end of the spell's duration any surviving Hellhounds will return the way came, gnawing on the innards of the caster for one round, which causes d6-1 damage.
Males casting this spell must save or die. A successful save indicates 2d6 damage upon giving birth, as well as total destruction of the caster's generative organs.
The summoned Hellhounds will not fight Arch-Devils, Demon Princes, Balrogs or Cthulhoid Entities, returning to the caster's womb early rather than facing such foes.
Face of Terror
Level: 1
Duration: d6 turns
Range: 120'
For the final somatic component of this spell the caster rips their own face off, revealing the grinning, bloody skull beneath. Up to 3d6 foes of one hit die or less flee in absolute panic with no save or the caster can direct the effect at any single foe of more hit dice, who is allowed a save.
If the caster loses their face somehow (stolen by gremlins, burnt up by a fireball, etc) it will grow back in d6 days. During this time the caster's Charisma is halved and they cannot recast the spell.
Two casters who both know this spell can use it to swap faces, but only by targeting each other and both successfully saving.
Update: Ed over at Esoteric Murmurs has provided a cool illo for Face of Terror.
A Return to the Stars
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After a veeeeerrrryyyy long, and mostly unplanned, hiatus, Stuart and I got
together to play more Stargrave in recent days. It was good! It was also a
bit ...
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Posts
I can't believe you made up a spell just to re-enact the Nicolas Cage/John Travolta vehicle Face/Off in a fantasy RPG.
ReplyDeleteHa! That was an afterthought of the "how can PCs exploit?" variety.
ReplyDeleteMy approach to exploiting this spell would be to cast it if I knew I was going to lose my face anyway, so that at least I could guarantee that it'd grow back after a week...
ReplyDeleteThen again, that's kind of a lame reason to keep a spell memorized permanently.
Hmm. Did you know there's a species in a series of books who nails mages of other races to trees and rips their faces off, because they believe that the only real magic-users are of their species? It seemed kind of relevant with that spell.
ReplyDeleteBoth those spells will sufficiently creep me out for the evening. Ew!
ReplyDeleteBut I'm totally using that first one for an NPC bad guy soon.
Thanks!
I love the spells, but that first one seems a little overpowered for only a 3rd level spell. Save or die in casting it? That seems like more of a 4th or 5th level spell to me. But I'm just saying. 8)
ReplyDeletehm, this also makes me want to do a gruesome wholesale reskinning of basic spells.
ReplyDeleteThat's messed up.
ReplyDelete"that first one seems a little overpowered for only a 3rd level spell. "
ReplyDeleteI was on the fence with third or fourth level for a while, to be honest. Monster Summoning IV is 6th level per the 1st edition PHB. My spell summons more Hellhounds (+1), is limited to one type of monster (-1), doesn't last as long (-1?), potentially harms the caster (-.5?), potentially kills or mutilates male casters (-1?) and has no effect on certain monsters (-.5?). If you wanted to rate it a fourth, by all means please do so. For me, I'd rather have a fireball or lightning bolt in many circumstances, but second level is too low.
> Males casting this spell must save or die.
ReplyDeleteGiving birth to hellhound-tuplets can't be any kind of picnic for female spellcasters, either.
Cool! Thanks man for making this!
ReplyDelete