Can we get more eponymous spells?

Madhax

Not sure if "personal" is the correct term, I'm referring to "Larloch's Minor Drain" or "Melf's Acid Arrow". Spells created by certain notably wizards, in other words.

It always bugged me how few of these there are in the D&D CRPGs. I don't know how prevalent they are in PnP, so I might be completely off-base in this, but as a kid playing BG1 I always thought Larloch was some minor trickster who crafted crappy spells. It wasn't until recently that I discovered he's a godlike lich of enormous power, and it seems silly that his only named spell in the BG series is a minor pinprick that gets outdated quickly.

Something like "Larloch's Major Drain" would be simple enough to implement for starters, right?

karnor00

There's a reasonable number in BG. Off the top of my head I can think of Larloch's Minor Drain, Nahals Reckless Dweomer, Aganazzar's Scorcher, Melf's Acid Arrow, Melf's Minute Meteors, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Simbul's Spell Trigger/Sequencer, Tenser's Transformation, Mordenkainen's Sword, Khelben's Warding Whip, Abi-Dalzim's Horrible Wilting. And Bigby's obsession with magical hands.

Madhax

My issue is that there aren't enough personalized spells PER WIZARD, not necessarily in the game as a whole. Bigby and Melf have a handful of spells each, and Tenser perhaps didn't have other unique spells, but Larloch and Aganazzer certainly crafted more powerful spells than the basic stuff we're left to play with, right?

Corvino

I think the correct term for such spells would be "Eponymous". But then I'm a pedant.

TJ_Hooker

You forgot Tenser's Floating Bandage.

O_Bruce

I would like to see Larloch MAJOR drain, considering who Larloch was...

Madhax

Corvino said:

I think the correct term for such spells would be "Eponymous". But then I'm a pedant.

Thanks, I was blanking on the word. I re-wrote that subject line multiple times and hated myself for not having a better way to say it. Edited.

ajwz

Just so you know, some spells are named by casters that aren't part of the forgotten realms (such as mordenkainen)

Nifft

This would be cool, but I think it's best accomplished via mods.

Personally I think we should find at least one brand-new spell. We'd find it in chapter 6, and it would have been created by a mage named Gorion.

Madhax

@Nifft

Not a bad idea, but after all the work Overhaul went through in revamping the Gorion vs. Sarevok fight to be more "realistic", giving Gorion a unique spell would only beg the question why he didn't whip it out during the duel.

Nifft

Madhax said:

Not a bad idea, but after all the work Overhaul went through in revamping the Gorion vs. Sarevok fight to be more "realistic", giving Gorion a unique spell would only beg the question why he didn't whip it out during the duel.

Maybe he did!

What if it was a "Shield Other" spell which transferred all damage from the target to the caster?

This is how CHARNAME escaped...

Proposed spell name: Gorion's Gift.

Mordeus

I've looked through all the 2ed magic supplements to pick out some spells for the mod I'm working on. And I found alot of the spells named after Wizards to be fairly hard to implement or were a little too gimmicky. Still there are a couple that could be implemented. Malec-Keth's Flame Fist, Lorloveim's Shadowy Transformation, Hornung's Surge Selector, Gunther's Kaleidoscopic Strike and Bloodstone's Frightful Joining could be easily done.

Messi

I just want to cast lightning bolt!

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karnor00

I've always assumed that we don't get to see most of the spells created by the really powerful spellcasters - they keep them to themselves to gain an advantage over other wizards.

The only ones that are generally available are those which happen to have somehow slipped out over time.

SirK8

He had it slotted for memorization, but CHARNAME and Gorion didn't sleep before heading out so...

Madhax said:

@Nifft

Not a bad idea, but after all the work Overhaul went through in revamping the Gorion vs. Sarevok fight to be more "realistic", giving Gorion a unique spell would only beg the question why he didn't whip it out during the duel.

karnor00

Given the terrible belt that Gorion has chosen as adventurewear, I shudder to think what his unique spell would do.

Perhaps Gorion's Fragile Grounding - makes the caster immune to electical damage but take double physical damage.

Kamehouse

I find it unlikely for a wizard to find completely new spells in a world like the worlds of AD&D. Even one did find one, the typical highest level wizards live on their own, and even when not, he or she would not share his wisdom with others.

SirK8

Teams of Wizards working together may discover new spells I would think, or possibly unearth ancient spells through research. As far as them becoming common knowledge, sure they would try to keep it to themselves, but surely there would be espionage within those circles. Wizards do have to write down the spells at some point, making it susceptible to being stolen or copied. So while the new spells would probably only exist in certain circles at first, eventually they could be used by most powerful groups and even in some cases every wizard who has a formal education in the arcane. Think of real world weapons and knowledge like the a-bomb (used to be just U.S. now many countries have it) and the Bible (used to be restricted to clergy now anyone who wants one can obtain one).

Kamehouse

Lol @bomb and @bible

Well, if teams of wizards working together to discover new spells - if they really would discover a new spell - what did not happen very often in the last thousands of years - they would not name it after one of them or kill each other being the one it is named after... ^^