I'm kicking off a mini-series today, a short lived theme called Mt. Rushmore.
"Mt. Rushmore", in this blog's context, means the four most iconic or important items from a particular D&D topic. Today's topic is Spells, future topics will be Magic Items and Monsters.
What would your Mt. Rushmore of D&D Spells look like? You're only allowed four and for this exercise make the list without consulting any D&D books. After making your list, proceed to comments to see mine.
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
Here's my Mt. Rushmore of D&D Spells: Charm, Fireball, Magic Missile, Sleep.
ReplyDeleteAlso considered: Cure Light Wounds, Raise Dead, Power Word: Kill, Knock, Invisibility, Disintegrate, Lightning Bolt, Dispel Magic.
Oh, that is too hard man...how about 4 cleric spells and 4 magic-user spells?
ReplyDeleteIf I HAVE to limit myself, I'll go with: sleep, charm, fireball, and cure light wounds.
My thinking is that if I was limiting characters in a D&D game to only 4 spells, these would be the ones that would provide the most utility and can't really be met by other means (for example, a thief can pick locks and hide, negating the need for knock and invisibility).
However, if potions of healing were readily available (say from an alchemist retainer), I'd consider changing the one cleric spell to remove curse.
I'd have to vote for Magic Missile, Sleep, Fireball, Cure Light Wounds
ReplyDeleteMagic Missile, Sleep, Light, and Read Magic (You said "important," right? M-U's kinda need Read Magic - in B/X, at least - to be able to read anything other than their own spellbooks...)
ReplyDeleteMagic Missile, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Cure Light Wounds
ReplyDeleteSleep, Magic Missile, Fireball, Wish.
ReplyDeleteFireball, Fireball, Fireball, and oh, I think I have to go with Fireball.
ReplyDeleteBut, your list is good too.
Hah, mine were also Sleep, Charm Person, Magic Missile and Fireball. It must be a B/X thing.
ReplyDeleteLee
Magic Missile
ReplyDeleteFireball
Wish
Mordenkainen's Faithful Watchdog
Sleep, Fireball, Magic Missile, and Wish over here. But Charm and Cure Light Wounds are definitely up there.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting set of responses, this is.
Sleep, Magic Missile, Tenser's Floating Disc, Magic Mouth!
ReplyDeleteSleep because it's the uber-spell at 1st level.
Magic Missile because it's magic missile!
Tenser's Floating Disc because nothing else says "this is a game about treasure hunting" like a spell for carrying treasure.
And magic mouth because of that illo. in the PHB. It's just plain trippy.
I'm almost with you guys.
ReplyDeleteMy list was Sleep, Magic Missile, Fireball, Metero Swarm.
I was thinking iconic, as opposed to most used (or even most useful).
verification word: vospo
Mine was Sleep, Protection From Evil, Cure Light Wounds, and Light.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, btw.
-Matthew
No love for the 2nd level? Just to swim against the current, I'm going to have to give it up for Knock and Web.
ReplyDeleteCure Light Wounds, Fireball, Lightning Ball, Wish :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat picks. Top Spells so far: Fireball, Sleep, Magic Missile.
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to differentiate between what I meant by iconic/important too much. There's no need to explain why, it is your list.
I can't believe I forgot Wish, but I don't know if it would have bumped Charm Person anyway, for me that is. I did consider Meteor Swarm, even though I didn't write it out. Both are great examples of iconic D&D Spells.
It was very hard for me to leave Cure Light Wounds and Dispel Magic from my list.
Going back to the first time I ever played D&D (Moldvay Basic Set), these arcane spells made the largest impression on me:
ReplyDeleteWeb, Magic Missile, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt
I'd vote for the types of spells that would help against lonely nights stuck alone on a desert island: Magic Mouth, Summon Animals, Find Familiar...
ReplyDeleteJust don't ask what I'd start doing with those animals or Magic Mouths once I hit the 6-month mark. I'm only human.
Fireball, Magic Missile, Sleep, Hold Person
ReplyDeleteWeb and Hold Person are certainly spells I should have considered. Both are very good picks.
ReplyDeleteBrunomac, a Man from the Age when Men were Men and Sheep were afraid. Don't forget Stone to Flesh on those lonely nights.
Sleep, Hold Person, Fireball, Wish.
ReplyDeleteHold Person: one level higher, less targets, allows a save, and still worth a mention alongside Sleep. Hehe.
Never did use Magic Missile much.
Some love for the other AD&D spellcasters:
ReplyDeleteMagic-Users: Sleep, Continual Light, *Fireball*, Wish
Clerics: Gate, *Raise Dead*, Heal, Spiritual Hammer
Druids: Animal Friendship, *Entangle*, Goodberry, Plant Growth
Illusionists: *Phantasmal Forces*, Phantasmal Killer, Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Walk
Cure Light Wounds, Magic Missile, Fireball, Lightning Bolt
ReplyDeleteTussock: Good point about Hold Person. Sleep is extremely good at 1st Level.
ReplyDeleteI think Magic Missile becomes the default 1st Level min-max spell once high level M-Us begin to realize multiple missiles and Sleep loses its effectiveness.
Rob: I think picking four from all of the AD&D spell sets is a cool idea, but I have a hard time calling any Druid or Illusionist spells iconic or important. That's just me as my players rarely ever played either one of those classes.
Robo: I'm glad to see Lightning Bolt getting more attention. In my old high level AD&D campaign Lightning Bolt was more popular than Fireball (even though it might bounce back, it was easier to plan and control than Fireball).
Wish, Gate, Miracle, Time Stop
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with Miracle, but the others were very important in my long running high level 1e campaigns. Time Stop in particular is a good pick.
ReplyDelete