Whatās It Like To Create Your Own Spell?
While shopping for high quality Parchment and Ink in the Capitol (while the rest of the Party goes shopping for magic Items and Healing Potions), the Wizard takes interest in a burnt and extremely weathered spellbook that still seems to still have some esoteric arcane runes within.
After speaking with the Shopkeeper, the Wizard buys the ruined spellbook at a great discount, as well as some fine Parchment and Ink.
The Wizard takes the Book back to the tavern, only to discover that most of the pages are burnt beyond recognition. A flash of inspiration and a Mending Cantrip later soon restores the book to its former glory, though does not restore the pageās missing texts.
An Investigation Check into the Bookās Contents soon reveal the Bookās age, the Book easily dating back to before the Time of King Hirdall and perhaps even to the Time of the Floating Sky Cities of the Dragonbornā¦
Fascinated by their discovery, the Wizard looks into the Book even more, and with their previous Investigation Check finds the book appears to be in a different script, with elements of it appearing in Draconic, confirming to the Wizard the age of the Book.
The Wizard then goes out during their Downtime to the local Library to expand their knowledge of the Dragonborn Cities of Old that once ruled the sky. After speaking with one of the scribes working at the Halls, they are guided to a section on Ancient History, and another successful Investigation Check allows the Wizard to find the History Books they were looking for, gaining far more knowledge about the Dragonborn of old.
Returning to the Tavern later that night, the Wizard then decides to use Comprehend Languages in an attempt to translate the Ruined Bookās Pages.
However, it seems as though only parts of the Book seem translatable, and another Investigation Check reveals that the Book, while written in Draconic, has been written in an old and strong cipher.
A quick Intelligence Check says that this could take the Wizard hours to decrypt and translate, as well as multiple castings of Comprehend Languages.
Left a little demoralized, the Wizard goes to bed and wakes up with only one mission, to translate this entire book.
As the Wizard explains to the rest of the table, by studying the occurrence of vowels, consonants and key words, and some aid from Comprehend Languages and the Rogueās knowledge of ciphers and Thieveās Cant, they hope to make a āKeyā of sorts to this Ruined Book.
The Rogue helps out where they can, but this is clearly above their knowledgeā¦
So as the Rogue and the rest of the Party go out to do some Downtime Activities, the Wizard shuts himself in his Room at the Tavern and begins to create a pile of papers, spending the whole day translating and then deciphering the texts and symbols of the Book.
Another Intelligence Check (aided by a little luck) letās the Wizard go well into the night without any sleep while they decode these arcane glyphs, and by the morning of the next day, even though they now have 1 Level of Exhaustion, they have now translated the Book, and it seems to be a part-Journal part-Spellbook, noting the works of a Dragonborn Wizard from ages past.Ā
The Dragonborn was working on a Spell of their own, and seems to of completed it according to these Journal entries, but whatever flames the book was subjected to have seem to of partially ruined the spell the Dragonborn had completed, but it still excites the Wizard that thereās a Spell out there that no one else knows, and in theory, the Wizard could replicateā¦
The Wizard then collapses from exhaustion and spends the next day sleeping.
Finally, as this part of Downtime comes to a close, the Wizard shares their discovery with the Partyā¦
This is just one example of how I would allow a Wizard Player to craft their own Spell in D&D, while still hanging onto the Story and making the process of discovering & creating a new Spell exciting.
And there are many ways to go about making a Spell, maybe if thereās two or more Wizards in the Party, or a Wizard and another Arcane Spellcaster such as an Artificer, Warlock, Sorcerer, Arcane Trickster or Eldritch Knight, then they could work together to create a Spell.
They could also talk to NPCs, from Archmages to Historians, Librarians, Magic Item Sellers and more to āunlockā this new Spell.
But if you want to make your own Spell, always communicate it first, and talk to your DM about the possibly of weaving that into the overall story.
In my Homebrew Campaign Setting, this is why I created places like the Library of Saturnity in the City of Fostin, a place where Wizards and people of the Arcane can come and research, as well as the whole host of places to visit in Capitol; From the Edhel Halls Library to the War College to the Tower of War, the Tower of Evocation and all the other Archmageās Towers, Magic Item Shops and more that a Wizard could visit to learn more.
And thatās why magic is beginning to boom in my Setting, with so many resources available to those that need them, it means its easier than ever to create your own Spells!
I also like to connect the Spell to a Place, Person or Object. In the example above, Iāve used a ruined Spellbook, but Iāve used things like a solid sphere made of silver with elven texts etched into its surfaceā¦
The whole point of crafting a new spell is that itās a challenge: You donāt just wake up with something new in your spellbook.
A Wizard has to do research, perfect their idea, find the perfect Verbal, Somatic and Material Components they need for the spell before they can even think of writing it down in their Spellbook.
Itās a story in itself!
theartofmadeline
gracieabrams
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