99 of the most iconic spells for D&D

MonkeyWrench · October 28, 2010, 01:56:45 PM

I've been reading through Tales of the Dying Earth lately, and I've become enchanted with the idea of there being only 100 spells in existence.

If we assume that Wish is the 100th spell, what are the other 99? Should we divide them evenly or have there be more lower level spells than higher? These don't have to be the most effective/best spells of their level, but they should be evocative and iconic.

Here are some of my picks from the PHB
Charm Person
Alarm
Shield
Invisibility
Glitterdust
Pyrotechnics
Dispel Magic

and so on...

Seanchai · October 28, 2010, 04:12:33 PM

Quote from: MonkeyWrench;412425I've been reading through Tales of the Dying Earth lately...

Huh. I'm listening to the series right now myself. It's odd to run across things that are D&D-isms, yet not. For example, the Excellent Prismatic Spray doesn't create a fan of colors in the books...

Seanchai

Benoist · October 28, 2010, 05:36:34 PM

Magic Missile
Melf's Acid Arrow
Fireball
Prismatic Wall/Sphere
Contingency

Bobloblah · October 28, 2010, 05:43:11 PM

Phantasmal Force
Power Word - Stun
Power Word - Kill
Stoneskin
Monster Summoning
Wall of Fire

MonkeyWrench · October 28, 2010, 06:04:44 PM

I'd also add Imprisonment and Black Tentacles.

Many of Vance's spells seem to be very specific. Call to the Violet Cloud takes you to a specific place. It's not just a teleport spell it's a spell that transports you to Embelyon.

So Greater Planar Binding doesn't summon up any old outsider it summons up the Scourge of Ophir who will utterly destroy one creature in exchange for a literal pound of your flesh. Doesn't matter if you give it willingly or unwillingly just casting the spells enters you into a contract.

Cranewings · October 28, 2010, 11:25:34 PM

Bigby's Crushing Hand
Knock
Hold Portal
Enlarge
Wall of Force
Disintegrate

danbuter · October 29, 2010, 01:25:24 AM

Sleep
Light
Fireball
Web
Phantasmal Force

RPGPundit · October 29, 2010, 02:50:36 PM

Seriously, the question is not which 100, its "out of the 117 spells in the Rules Cyclopedia, which 17 do we take out"? Because those 117 right there (13 per level) are the Iconic D&D spells.

RPGPundit

MonkeyWrench · October 29, 2010, 03:07:04 PM

That's a good way to look at it actually.

Cole · October 29, 2010, 03:10:46 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;412696Seriously, the question is not which 100, its "out of the 117 spells in the Rules Cyclopedia, which 17 do we take out"? Because those 117 right there (13 per level) are the Iconic D&D spells.

RPGPundit

That's a very good way to look at it. I would start by counting up spells that are duplicates or tiered versions (i.e. Cleric's Detect Magic and MU's detect magic, Protection from Evil and Protection from Evil 10' radius). I am guessing you'd probably end up with somewhere around 85, 90 discrete spells and there are probably only that many truly iconic spells outside the RC to make it back up to 100.

RPGPundit · October 31, 2010, 12:14:05 PM

Quote from: Cole;412700That's a very good way to look at it. I would start by counting up spells that are duplicates or tiered versions (i.e. Cleric's Detect Magic and MU's detect magic, Protection from Evil and Protection from Evil 10' radius). I am guessing you'd probably end up with somewhere around 85, 90 discrete spells and there are probably only that many truly iconic spells outside the RC to make it back up to 100.

Well, actually I was only counting m-u spells in that list. If you added Cleric and Druid spells, even if you removed the redundancies, you'd still have way more than 100.

RPGPundit

Cole · October 31, 2010, 12:16:56 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;412906Well, actually I was only counting m-u spells in that list. If you added Cleric and Druid spells, even if you removed the redundancies, you'd still have way more than 100.

RPGPundit

Ah, I see. I didn't directly reference the book, and didn't have an instinctual estimate of the total number of spells. Probably would be hard to trim the extras from the MU list; there aren't as many 'tiered' spells.

RPGPundit · November 01, 2010, 12:36:00 PM

There's 56 cleric spells, plus 28 druid spells, plus the 117 m-u spells, meaning that (before accomodating for duplicate spells) there are 201 spells, in total, in the Rules Cyclopedia.

Which to me is just about an ideal number.

RPGPundit

99 of the most iconic spells for D&D

Cranewings