Creating A New Spell - Slow Time

[Don Jones]

During one of the early play test sessions for Netherstorm, one of the players came up with the idea of a Chronomage, who could affect time. Below is a description of how to use the Thunderhead system from Netherstorm to create a new spell for the Chronomage, Slow Time.

First, get a concept of the effect the spell should have. In this case, we want it to make everyone else move much slower than the spell caster. Within the system, there are a number of ways to do this.

The easiest way to slow everyone down is with a Control spell type (Page 56 in the book). That automatically costs two points to cast. A control spell has three possible effects, each with an increasingly higher cost. The mage only needs to slow everyone, so that will cost 1 pt to cast, plus automatic 2 pts., for a total of 3pts.

For Area of Effect, we're going to take a medium option. Putting 20 levels in the spell will give a radius of 12' if we take the option of 3'/5 levels. This adds 6 pts to the 3 pts it already costs to cast, for a total of 9 pts.

We want the range to be a circle centered on the spell caster, so we take the option of Self as the range. this costs 2 pts. to cast, for a total of 11pts.

This is a pretty good Slow Time spell as is, but we want to add some touches to make it unique to the Chronomage. To help keep the casting cost down, we will take a duration of 1 round/10 levels. With the 20 levels we are putting in the spell, it will start with a duration of two rounds and will cost 4 pts to cast, raising the total cost to 15 pts. By having the spell take two rounds to cast instead of one, the casting cost is lowered by 1 pt., down to 14 pts.

Now we add the additional touches. Because the mage moves faster, we are going to combine this with a Movement spell. This automatically costs 3 pts., for a total of 17 pts. The mage will move an additional 50'/round horizontally (3 pts.), it affects a medium size (3 pts.) Animate target (3 pts.), for a new total casting cost of 26 pts. The Duration of 1 round/10 levels adds 3 pts. and the casting time reduces it by 1 pt., bringing the new total to 28 pts to cast.

Finally, we are going to calculate the Component Modifiers. The 28 pt. cost to cast the spell is somewhat high, so we are going to use an uncommon material component (-2 pts.), complex gestures (-3 pts.) and long incantation (-3 pts.), to lower the total casting cost to 20 pts.

This could be done a number of different ways. Instead of additional movement speed, the spell could give the caster additional defense, or it could reduce the target's chances of hitting. The final spell looks like this:

Slow Time Cost: 20
AoE: 3'/5 levels
Range: Self
Damage: N/A
Casting: 2 rounds
Duration: 1 round/10 levels
Components: uncommon material, complex gestures, long incantation
Type: Control/Movement
Description: Time slows in an area around the caster. Anyone in the area but the caster moves at half speed and has half the actions (1 action per round becomes 1 action every two rounds). The caster can move an additional 50' per round.

Feel free to post any questions.