Does anyone have some tips for a newcomer to the more in-depth homebrewer?
I really thank you all in advance.
there isn't much to say
1. look that your spell can't be abused (no turn water to any liquid, which could make a mist to fuel in the air)
2. compare spell to existing spells to see what spell lvl it would be.
for the rest, you could ask more specific questions, but I guess you just wanted to know the guidelines.
easiest is, if someone wants an "iceball", a fireball that does ice-damage. If it does other status things like ice on the floor, difficult terrain and such, you know it's higher than spell-lvl 3 (fireball)
utility-spells are a bit more complex, even exisiting spells can get out of hand if used loosely.
Edit: Spell-resistance is a big factor to see how a good a spell is, don't forget that, and saves.
There is probably some tips out there in existing books, but I don't know them.
there isn't much to say
1. look that your spell can't be abused (no turn water to any liquid, which could make a mist to fuel in the air)2. compare spell to existing spells to see what spell lvl it would be.
for the rest, you could ask more specific questions, but I guess you just wanted to know the guidelines.
easiest is, if someone wants an "iceball", a fireball that does ice-damage. If it does other status things like ice on the floor, difficult terrain and such, you know it's higher than spell-lvl 3 (fireball)
utility-spells are a bit more complex, even exisiting spells can get out of hand if used loosely.
Edit: Spell-resistance is a big factor to see how a good a spell is, don't forget that, and saves.
There is probably some tips out there in existing books, but I don't know them.
There were a couple points (your whole response, in fact) in here that were extremely helpful. Sometimes it just takes another person reinforcing those thoughts that you were carefully picking through to get your confidence up.
For a more in-depth question... let's talk about spells such as Blade of Blood, for example from Players Handbook II (Duskblade), and examine how we could supplement gish-builds that don't have that support yet. Do they even need those small support-spells?