Troll Lord Games

Ive been giving some thoughts to spells in my game, and one of the obstacles Ive come across is that some of the spells the characters in my game used to have access to dont exist in C&C. Im also going to be porting in some of the domains for the sorcerers and mystics in my game, and Id hate to have to go through every single domain to see if it has a C&C counterpart.

Would there be any harm in just using D&Ds existing spell list for C&C casters? What are the benefits and pitfalls?

Overall, I think it would work okay, though some of the summon X spells may not work so well. Saves should be easy to convert.

Thoughts?
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Trampas Whiteman
---DragonHelm--->
Dragonlance Nexus

Many of the D&D spells are weaker than their C&C spell equivalents, either because they have a cap on damage, or some other effect. They also rarely (if ever) have issues for being cast, such as haste. However, if you want to use D&D spells, there is nothing stopping you.... just use them, nearly as written, though some things will have to be ignored and some will be rendered useless unless you have specific houserules further making them applicable (a spell like align fang, for example, is pointless in C&C as there are no creatures that require a "good" weapon to strike them, because "DR" works dramatically differently.) Spells that provide feats are rather pointless unless you are also using feats, and the same goes for skills too. The bonuses provided by D&D spells are often enormous compared to C&C values, such as the attribute enhancing spells, so one should always cut them in half, at minimum, and possibly even more if the bonus is still huge or simply refuse to use the spell at all (true strike comes to mind...)

We use spells from 3.5E all the time. The spell compendium is a wonderful source. I just adjudicate on the spot. The saves are easy to figure out quickly. Works well.
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Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

-George Washington

I'm not sure this is a plus or minus... But the D&D spells are classified under the various schools and such. This is great is you want to implement this style of system and it would also allow specialists. The bad part about that, is you're effectively killing the current Illusionist class by doing so (unless you do something similar and give other types of specialists class abilities)

Of course, if you port the spells straight in and not worry about the school stuff, you won't have this problem either...

Moriarty the Red
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"You face Death itself in the form of... 1d4 Tarrasques!"

Partner to Brave Halfling Publishing
http://www.arcanacreations.com

The thing I strongly dislike about 3e spells is that as a character progresses, the lower level spells become practically useless. Instead, in C&C even lower level spells are useful at all levels.

Furthermore, many 3e spells are too "munchkin-friendly".

Should I choose, I would rather import AD&D spells instead.

Cheers,

Antonio

My experience with playtesting was that AD&D spells almost always "fit" better. However, as the spells in C&C were based on the SRD, all 3E+ spells can be made to fit C&C pretty easily. Some of them just need a bit more attention.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

I would think using the massive collection of 2e spell reference books would work well. What were those books called?

2E definitely "fits"better for me. The only spell I really took from 3E, so far, is sleep. We are only now just getting to 4th level spells in the campaign.

I've downloaded those from www.paizo.com both the Wizard Spell Compendiums and the Clerics's as well. 7 books containing all spells from BECMI, 1st, 2nd, Dragon Magazine (for the first 200 or so issues), Polyhedron, campaign settings (Planescape, Greyhawk, Birthright, Forgotten Realms, Al Qadim, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Red Steel). I keep it on my laptop if we have to look something up but I usually preprep and print out the spells that I'll need for the night.

Tons and tons of spells that fit right in.

vivsavage wrote:
I would think using the massive collection of 2e spell reference books would work well. What were those books called?

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Greg Volz
www.naturaltwenty.com

For 3e spells, I've made use of a few from NG's Eldritch Sorcery. Didn't run into any problems.

2nd edition spells work great and there's a massive amount to pull from.

So in other words, I should quit my whining, draw spells from all editions, and use the ones in my game that sound cool.
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Trampas Whiteman
---DragonHelm--->
Dragonlance Nexus

Sounds like it, yep.