APPENDIX 1: SPELL CONVERSION CHARTS

NTRODUCTION

This section describes the methods I use for determining spell difficulties. I'll also convert a couple of spells from the D20 SRD for comparison.

IRST, SOME MATH

A D6 character with 9D in a skill is roughly equivalent to a level 18 D20 character. When you compare die rolls, both can roll 30 half the time (when using D6 classic).

I'm using D6 Legend, in which there is a 2/3 probability of a success per die. This means my 9D spellcaster will roll 6 successes on average. A 9D skill level is almost epic in D6 terms, and 6 successes is very heroic but not godly, so I'm happy with my numbers so far.

There are nine spell levels on D20, which continently maps to my wizard's 9D. Since I don't want to totally reinvent a spell system I will pin my 6 levels of difficulty to the 9 spell levels, which is not too inconvenient math-wise.

So in conclusion:

Each spell level in my system equates to 1.5 spell levels in the D20 system.

D6 Legend difficulty numbers equals 5 points in a D6 classic roll.

OW SOME CHARTS

Onward and upward.

I've gone over the spell lists and compared the different factors. Casting time, spell duration, range and area (I'll get to damage in a bit).

The values in the table are approximate (aside from difficulty). As long as your numbers are in the same range of magnitude you are okay.

Duration - Length of the spell's duration. One round means one round or less (rounds, actions, or instant). Extra successes will increase the duration of non-instant spells that do no damage.

Range - Maximum distance of the spell target from you.

Radius - Radius of area spells.

Number of Targets - Some spells hit multiple targets.

Difficulty - Add together the difficulty for all the items selected from the table. That is the first part of the spell's difficulty number.

Spell Complexity - Not shown in the table. Spell complexity is an additional fudge factor used to increase the difficulty for spells whose effects are more intricate. A fire spell is pretty basic and has a complexity of +0. A polymorph spell, where you fundamentally alter the form of a creature is much more difficult. Polymorph would have a complexity of +1 to +4 (I'll show an example of this later).

Preparation Time - Taking longer to cast a spell reduces the spell difficulty. Add this to the difficulty from the first table.

Now for damage. This chart gives the basic damage numbers for all damage dealing spells. With damage spells extra successes (the effect value) are added as extra dice to the damage roll. One success beyond the target difficulty adds +1D to damage.

The difficulty level in this chart is not added to the difficulty number from the first two charts. Rather, the number you came up with from the previous charts is used to look up the damage in this chart. If you created a 3^rd level spell, it's base damage is 6D.

You can increase the base damage of a spell. Shifting the damage column one row upward (so that a 2^nd level spell does 6D damage) adds +0.5 to the spell difficulty. You can only bump damage once, but this is a good option for when you have to spend half a point to round off the difficulty

You'll notice the damage amount has diminishing returns at the upper levels, so spell damage should never run out of control. Between difficulty levels and the effect value, the best a high level wizard can expect is 10D damage from his spells.

PELL EXAMPLES

We will start by creating a Fireball spell by converting it from the D20 SRD. We'll ignore most of the fine details because I don't care for all that. But you can keep the extra information for your spells if you like.

Calculate difficulty:

A second level spell, which was what I was hoping for. As a 2^nd level spell it's damage is 4D.

Next up is a Polymorph spell. Since I don't like the D20 example I'll build this from scratch.

First, I'll assign some numbers for spell complexity:

I want to morph my customer into a full-blown dragon. To be fair, I should also compensate for scale. I didn't make a chart for that, but in keeping with the pattern changing a person's scale (up or down) by 4D (dragon scale) should add +2.0 to the difficulty.

Calculate initial difficulty (I'm saving preparation time for last):

Oh dear. I would like the difficulty to be 5 (since we can't all be Rincewind). Looking back at the preparation chart we have:

I can probably swing that. The customer will have to come back for multiple appointments, and they will probably be my houseguest for the last couple of weeks. But I'll charge accordingly.