This is an idea that came out of this thread: a few players have been criticizing the arcane list, and while I do believe the tradition is still very powerful, one of the facts that came about is that the arcane list features the smallest number of exclusive spells relative to other traditions. In particular, certain iconic spells from before the remaster, like power words, weren't kept in the jump, leading some to question what the identity of the arcane tradition is meant to be.
This is an attempt to introduce a few new arcane-exclusive spells, and so by creating a special new law trait:
Law: Spells with this trait alter one or more of the fundamental constants of the Multiverse, causing reality to reassert itself and temporarily prevent further meddling. A target of an effect with the law trait is temporarily immune to further law effects for 10 minutes.
In short, your spell messes with the laws of reality, and you can't do that to the same target too quickly... just like the old power words! Let's use that to try to create spells exclusive to the arcane tradition, defined by extreme reliability, but weaker effects:
Traits: concentrate, law, manipulate
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature
You strip the target of all motion, briefly freezing them in place. The target is stunned 1, or stunned 3 if its level is less than twice the spell's rank.
Heightened (8th): You can cast the spell as a single action. A target 3 or more levels below twice the spell's rank is stunned for 1 minute.
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Effectively, it's a weaker, earlier-rank power word stun, except instead of speaking a word of power you mess with the laws of motion. Let's try another:
Traits: concentrate, law, manipulate
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature
You increase the constant of entropy, instantly dissipating large amounts of the target's constituent matter. The target takes damage equal to five times the spell's rank (no damage type), or ten times the spell's rank if its level is less than twice the spell's rank. If this damage brings the target to 0 Hit Points, it is blasted to fine powder; its gear remains.
Heightened (9th): You can cast the spell as a single action. A target 3 or more levels below twice the spell's rank is instantly blasted to fine powder, regardless of how many Hit Points it has.
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So now we have power word kill! Let's do power word blind next:
Traits: concentrate, law, manipulate
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature Duration: varies
You change the way light bends so that it hardly reaches the target's eyes. The target is dazzled for 1 round, or 1 minute if its level is less than twice the spell's rank.
Heightened (7th): You can cast the spell as a single action, and the target is blinded instead of dazzled. A target 3 or more levels below twice the spell's rank is permanently blinded.
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Now, let's see how we can apply this formula to another effect:
Traits: concentrate, law, manipulate, teleportation
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature
You rewrite the target's position in space, causing them to instantly reappear where you want them to. The target teleports up to 10 feet away from its original position to a location an unoccupied space within range you can see, or up to 60 feet away if the target's level is less than twice the spell's rank. If this would bring another creature with the target—even one carried in an extradimensional container—the spell is lost.
Heightened (9th): You can cast the spell as a single action. A target 3 or more levels below twice the spell's rank is teleported to any location within 1 mile. You don't need to be able to see the location, as long as you have been there in the past and know its relative location and distance from you.
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And hey presto, you get an extremely reliable reposition spell! Not as cheap as acid grip, but certainly more versatile and effective against enemies with high Reflex saves. Let's try something a bit different:
Traits: concentrate, law, manipulate
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature; Duration: 1 round
You weaken the constituent bonds holding the target together. The target gains weakness to damage for 1 round equal to the spell's rank, or twice the spell's rank if its level is less than twice the spell's rank. This weakness applies only once each time the target takes damage.
Heightened (10th): You can cast the spell as a single action, and the weakness is always twice the spell's rank. The spell's duration is 1 minute against a target of a level less than twice the spell's rank; if the target is 3 or more levels below twice the spell's rank, you can designate any number of additional targets in range of the same level or below with the spell.
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So with one casting of this spell, you create one round where everyone gets to significantly increase their damage. So far, we've done two-action spells that turn into single-action spells many ranks later; let's see if we can play with this framework a little:
Traits: concentrate, law
Tradition: arcane; Range: 30 feet; Targets: 1 creature
Trigger: A creature Casts a Spell of a lower rank than this spell.
You erase the creature's magic from existence, as if the triggering spell was never cast in the first place. You automatically counteract the triggering spell.
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So with that, you'd have an extremely reliable, once-per-enemy counterspell for when you really need that Power Word Nope. It'd be stronger than nullify by virtue of being of a lower rank and not inflicting self-damage, but let's be honest: nullify isn't a very good spell to begin with.
In essence, the basic structure here is: with these arcane-exclusive spells, you get an extremely reliable effect that's counterbalanced by a relative weakness to other similarly-ranked effects that incur a roll, as well as a 10-minute target lockout. At higher ranks, you get a lessened action cost when applicable to cast these spells alongside others you might cast for added flexibility, while also getting a "nice to have" disproportionately strong effect against trivially low-level creatures. This would fill out the arcane list with a few more exclusive spells that'd make the tradition exceptionally reliable, giving arcane casters specialized tools to get a specific job done, and limited-use buttons to press in encounters that do exactly what's desired with perfect reliability.
Indeed, the enemy level calculation might end up slowing this down more than intended -- I wanted to replicate the different level-based degrees of effectiveness from the power word spells, though I don't consider the level-3 effects strictly necessary as those would only apply to trivial creatures with a top-rank spell slot. I do agree that doing a little bit of calculation could be very on-theme, so the at- vs. below-double-spell-rank separation could be interesting to have if it doesn't slow down play by too much.
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The idea is indeed that you get a really reliable spell in your back pocket, one balanced by the fact that you'd only be able to use one of these spells against the same enemy in any given encounter. Even so, this might perhaps still be on the strong side -- it may be about equal to the success effect of a slow spell (it does also disable reactions though), but a lot of monsters have strong Fort saves, so the reliability would be a major boon in those situations. I'd have to test that one out and make sure it doesn't tip encounters too hard.
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I'm hesitant to endorse anything that implies knowing someone's Leve, being potentially immersion-breaking. Still, these all seem helpful and I can't think of anything balance-breaking with them. It's also easy to not get confused about who-got-hit-with-one-Law-effect if you just use a single one per fight.
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Use a weak law spell on yourself ahead of time to prevent your opponent known for using them, successfully using them on you.
Use a weak law spell on yourself ahead of time to prevent your opponent known for using them, successfully using them on you.
That's actually quite a funny exploit, good catch! It would be easily solved though by changing the immunity to: "After you use an effect with the law trait, the target, or targets, are immune to your subsequent law effects for 10 minutes." That way, multiple arcane casters could each use an law spell against an enemy, but also wouldn't be able to make themselves immune to laws in the way you described.
If I'm reading this right, these allow no save? In that case Law of Entropy seems awfully good. At odd levels you do 10 damage per rank to an equal level target, with no save!? And it effectively has a death effect? Starting at level 1?
That would be really brutal at low level in NPC hands (and still pretty nasty at high level).
If I'm reading this right, these allow no save? In that case Law of Entropy seems awfully good. At odd levels you do 10 damage per rank to an equal level target, with no save!? And it effectively has a death effect? Starting at level 1?
That would be really brutal at low level in NPC hands (and still pretty nasty at high level).
Death spells are generally disproportionately effective when used by NPCs than PCs to begin with, but I'm also less concerned with the high effects against at-level or lower enemies, since that's no different from incapacitation spells. Paralyze, for instance, paralyzes an at-level creature on a failed save when used with a top-rank slot.