Spells of Light and Darkness: The Art of the Flame and Void was released last week. If you’ve been thinking to yourself, “Light and darkness spells? Sounds pretty lame.” here are two spells of darkness that might change your mind:

Eclipse
Evocation [Darkness]
Level: Cleric 7, Sorcerer/Wizard 7
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 2 miles
Area: 2-mile-radius sphere
Duration: 4d12 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell creates an area of magical darkness in a 2-mile radius centered on a point chosen by the caster. Within the area of the spell the sun is blotted out, creating an area of magical darkness that suppresses natural light sources, resulting in an area of shadowy illumination. Creatures within an area of shadowy illumination gain concealment (20% miss chance). Even creatures that can normally see in such conditions (such as with darkvision or low-light vision) have the miss chance in an area shrouded in magical darkness.

A darkness spell (one with the darkness descriptor) counters and dispels a light spell (one with the light descriptor) of an equal or lower level. A darkness spell brought into the area of a light spell of equal or higher level is temporarily negated (and vice versa). If both the darkness and light spells are simultaneously negated, the otherwise prevailing light conditions exist in the overlapping areas of effect.

Arcane Material Component: A small diamond dipped in black oil.

Shadow Spy
Divination [Darkness, Scrying]
Level: Assassin 3, Cleric 4, Sorcerer/Wizard 3
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: Your shadow
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell animates your shadow, allowing you to independently move it up to your speed as a move action. In addition, the shadow spy acts as a scrying sensor, allowing you to see (but not hear) the immediate surroundings of your shadow as per a scrying spell.
A shadow spy can be difficult detect, making Hide checks using your skill modifier with a +10 circumstance bonus. In areas of dim light or shadowy illumination, this circumstance bonus doubles to +20. The shadow spy cannot be physically harmed.

While the spell remains in effect, you possess no natural shadow.

A darkness spell (one with the darkness descriptor) counters and dispels a light spell (one with the light descriptor) of an equal or lower level. A darkness spell brought into the area of a light spell of equal or higher level is temporarily negated (and vice versa). If both the darkness and light spells are simultaneously negated, the otherwise prevailing light conditions exist in the overlapping areas of effect.

Arcane Material Component: A shard of obsidian.

The eclipse spell is the type of thing that high-level necromancers use to keep their undead happy and Dark Lords crafts into sunslayer spheres to keep the yokels properly cowed with fear.

But shadow spy is the type of all-purpose utility spell that just about any self-respecting spellcaster will find useful. It’s less powerful than scrying, but also a slightly lower level and very flavorful.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

CHARACTER BACKGROUND: RANTHIR

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IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Character Background: Ranthir

Many of you are reading this website because of D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations, the essay I wrote in March of last year. One of the points I made in that essay is that low level characters are actually more than capable of being experienced experts in their fields. Even at 1st-level, while they don’t have to be, they certainly can be.

Which brings us to the character of Ranthir, the last of our main characters: This guy isn’t your typical 1st-level apprentice. Instead, he’s an accomplished Acolyte of the legendary Academy in Isiltur, the Spired City. Although his esoteric theories are not fashionable or popular, he is nevertheless an accomplished scholar.

In our world he would be a gifted graduate student. In the world of D&D, there is a much higher ladder for him yet to climb. But I think it’s important not to denigrate the accomplishments of those who would be considered gifted and extraordinary in our world merely because they happen to live in a world where the superhuman is possible.

Which is not to say I don’t like my share of neophyte characters, too. Take a peek at Tee and Elestra, for example.

All I’m saying is that it can also be fun to shake things up a bit and roll up a starting character who hasn’t just fallen off the turnip truck: The guy who was already honored among his tribesmen, served a long and glorious tour of duty in the military, or distinguished himself in a scholastic career.

And I’m pointing out that you don’t need to start the character any higher than 1st-level to make that happen.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

CHARACTER BACKGROUND: ELESTRA

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IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Character Background: Elestra

I have previously mentioned that the events in the campaign journal are an accurate recounting of what happened at the gaming table. There is, however, one exception to this: The character of Elestra.

In the Shadow of the Spire originally started as an online game run through ScreenMonkey and Skype. After several sessions, however, a couple of the long-distance players ended up dropping out of the game and the third long-distance player ended up being local instead. After a lengthy hiatus, we added a new player and jump-started the campaign back to life as a face-to-face game.

This left us with two orphaned characters: Agnarr and Alysta.

One of the other players ended up taking Agnarr on as a second character. And then I offered the new player the choice of either taking over the role of Alysta or creating a new character.

She decided to create a new character (which turned out to be Elestra). At this point I had two options: I could choose to simply kill off Alysta and then figure out a way to get Elestra involved with the group. Or I could retcon the campaign journal, replacing the character of Alysta with the character of Elestra.

Normally it would be a no-brainer to go with Option #1. But I had a few reasons for going with Option #2:

First, the hiatus in the campaign had already created a natural break in continuity. Part of the process in gearing back up from that hiatus was going to be reviewing the campaign journal and getting back into the flow of things. In some ways, it was an ideal time to perform a retcon.

Second, although it would have actually been quite trivial to kill off Alysta, the campaign was structured around this specific group of people waking up to find themselves locked in a common cause. I didn’t want to risk losing or watering down that essential core of the campaign.

Third, retconning would be relatively easy because Alysta had ended up being something of a cipher. Almost as soon as the campaign had started, the work schedule for Alysta’s player unexpectedly shifted and she ended up missing large chunks of the game. Playing the character during these abseences had fallen to me.

Now, on the one hand, I’m not very good as a GM when it comes to playing allies of the PCs. I usually have lots of balls in the air anyway, and I tend to just forget about the extra character who has no physical presence at the game table. In the case of Alysta this particular shortcoming was aggravated because Alysta’s player — as a result of her absences — never really defined who the character was or what her personality was like. Since I felt it was important for the player to be the one to define who the character was, I refrained from making any strong choices.

In practice this meant that Alysta would frequently go off and “do her own thing” whenever the opportunity arose. The result was something of a tabula rasa — one which easily suited itself to having the label that read “Alysta of the Order of the Holy Sword” scraped off and replaced with “Elestra of Seyrun”.

For those who might be curious, here’s the original write-up for Alysta:

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