The Genius Guide to 110 Spell Variants, Vol. 4

The Genius Guide to 110 Spell Variants, Vol. 4

While there are a vast number of spells available in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and official expansions, many GMs and players have an insatiable desire for more options. In many cases it’s not necessary to create new spell options from scratch, as a few minor changes to an existing spell can create something with a very different feel or impact on game play. These spell variants are based on the idea that there are a lot of interesting effects you can make with fairly minor changes to how a spell works, or by combining effects of multiple spells, or a spell and magic item or even a class ability (preferably from a class not used in the campaign). While we have explored 330 variants in previous products (The Genius Guide to 110 Spell Variants, The Genius Guide to Another 110 Spell Variants), and The Genius Guide to 110 Spell Variants vol 3), there’s always room for more magic!

Spell variants are common and fairly obvious, such as having a major magic missile spell that deals 1d8+1 per missile rather than 1d4+1. The following list of 110 spells variants are slightly more complex, and are designed to show how it’s possible to create new spells without too much work. One important tip is that when you base a new spell on an old one many details — such as its school, components, duration, and often even interaction with other spells — are already determined. Similarly, you can often create spells that have entirely new themes just by changing casting time and legal targets. This last trick is often a great way to make spells appropriate for new classes.

For example it’s fairly obvious the paladin class shouldn’t have the animal growth spell on its spell list, but a spell variant called mighty steed which acted like animal growth but could only be cast on a mount gained through the divine bond class feature is perfect for paladin. And even better, you already know it’s about a 4th level paladin spell, since that’s the level at which it appears on the ranger class spell list.