Good afternoon everyone. As I near the completion of my Eberron setting I've reached the point where I need to convert D&D spells into Genesys spells. Now before I sat down to hours of converting I figured I'd reach out to the community and see if someone has done some of the work for me. To be clear, I'm not looking for anything like the Genesys magic system. I'm looking for D&D spells converted to have genesys like mechanics. Something like:

Fireball

Difficulty Hard (PPP)

Duration Instantaneous

Range Medium

Dmg 8, Blast 6, Burn 2, Knockdown

Effect: A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame. Fireball's blast quality automatically triggers for all valid targets within short range of a successful cast.

I know Skywars did something similar to this, but I was hoping someone might have done something more D&D like and perhaps a bit more comprehensive. Thank you for your time.

I know I had started doing this. Think I got through the b’s before I gave it up. I’ll share if I dig it up.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I'd love to see it if you can dig it up. Even if you didn't make it very far, it's always nice to see a fresh perspective on spell balance. Thanks in advance.

10 hours ago, ESP77 said:

I know I had started doing this. Think I got through the b’s before I gave it up. I’ll share if I dig it up.

Just curious ... why did you start doing this alphabetically instead of going from level one first through level nine last. Seems that starting with low-level spells is an advantage because they would be needed first. Also the earlier the edition of D&D the shorter the spell list, sone could start with OD&D or 1E AD&D and have fewer spells. They would also be the most common spells, I assume.

Of course, I suggest this from the perspective of a Genesys novice who hasn't figured out magic yet so I'm not really qualified to assist with such a project. (I could help out by supplying an OD&D spell list, however, if that would be useful.)

1 hour ago, finarvyn said:

Just curious ... why did you start doing this alphabetically instead of going from level one first through level nine last. Seems that starting with low-level spells is an advantage because they would be needed first. Also the earlier the edition of D&D the shorter the spell list, sone could start with OD&D or 1E AD&D and have fewer spells. They would also be the most common spells, I assume.

Of course, I suggest this from the perspective of a Genesys novice who hasn't figured out magic yet so I'm not really qualified to assist with such a project. (I could help out by supplying an OD&D spell list, however, if that would be useful.)

Simple answer? They’re sorted alphabetically in the PHB.

And I was doing it in Excel so it’s sortable anyway.

Regarding your example, the Fireball: It is quite powerful, is it not?

The Base Damage and Blast radius are, for all purposes, at least the Empowered Effect (+PP).

The Blast quality's value is 1 above the ceiling (set by Rank 5 in a skill, mind).

The difficulty is very low, considering the effects: Medium Range (PP), Fire (+P), Empowered (+PP), Blast(+P), Knockdown (?+P). It is, in fact, unachievable by the published rules, for what it's worth.

The spell is, essentially, a heavily powered-up EotE Frag Grenade, that can be thrown beyond it's regular limits, two extra Advantages (auto-triggering Blast) thrown into the bargain as an afterthought.

Furthermore, Burn and Knockdown are addenda to the D&D Spell's established effect (i.e. pure damage). As a cause for thought: No grenade in EotE, not even the Thermanator, does give Knockdown.

I do understand that, with Vancian Magics, spells get to be more efficacious than spontaneously cast ones; nonetheless, still quite powerful! This Fireball is going to wreak havoc on all minions within Short distance, and then some. Myself, I see no need for the extended Blast radius, the auto-trigger, Burn, nor Knockdown.

And now for the actual request; the one spell I've contemplated on, so far.

MM (PP), Dmg 0, Medium; Auto-Fire, Breach 1.

LOL, I really should have thrown together a better example. I did a similar post on Reddit and everyone just wanted to critique the balance of my Fireball. It wasn't at all meant to be a real spell, I have zero confidence in its balance and I was only using it as an example of the type of spells I was looking for. Sorry if that was confusing.

I haven't seen a conversion posted anywhere. As you say, such a project would take hours (I'd estimate more like days) of work. I could see it being a fun undertaking for a certain kind of mind, but a heroic one non-the-less.

I can see a couple of ways to go about it. One, you choose a spell type, apply the additional effects that most closely match the original, and then calculate the difficulty using the Genesys rule set. Alternately, establish a base difficulty for each spell level, a conversion chart for damage, and then allow a 'saving throw' for appropriate spells (i.e. upgrading the spell's difficulty by ranks in Coordination, Discipline, or Resilience for Reflex, Will, or Fortutude, respectively).

So let's take Fireball, a 3rd level spell that does 1d6 per caster level, has long range, an area of effect of 20ft, and allows a Reflex save for half damage. I'll apply both methods.

Genesys rule set: Fireball (Attack spell); Difficulty: Formidable; Dam: (twice Characteristic used for casting plus 1 per uncanceled success); Range: Long; Additional Effects: Blast (Equal to ranks in Knowledge), Empowered (doubles base Dam and increases Blast radius to Short).

Alternate spell construction: Fireball (level 3 spell); Difficulty: Daunting; Dam: 1 per caster level (or if not using levels, Characteristic used for casting plus ranks in casting Skill) plus 1 per uncancelled success; Saving throw: Coordination (upgrade spell's difficulty once per rank of target's Coordination); Range: Long; Area of Effect: Short.

Both seem pretty reasonable to me. With a four in the base Characteristic and a casting Skill of 4 or 5 after 75 to 100 exp earned (my estimation of 3rd level equivalent) a character could expect to pull off the spell more than 50% of the time.

hmm... It seems like there is a reasonable amount of interest around putting together a list of D&D style spells. Maybe I'll start a thread to crowd source one.

So as promised, though I had not gotten nearly as far as I thought, here are the spells I had finished before my attention wandered.

A fully converted list of the PHB spells would be a real gift for a big chunk of the Genesys community. Me included. I'd like to help if I can, although I am not very familiar with the Genesys magic system (mostly played scifi settings).

D... &... D... what is this thing you speak of? Seriously though, how many spells are there in the PHB?

18 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

D... &... D... what is this thing you speak of? Seriously though, how many spells are there in the PHB?

350ish?

Though many have overlapping effect and are just variations on the same spell. Burning Hands, Fire Bolt, Fireball, Flame Strike. In Genesys these are variations on a Fire Attack spell.

It might be more fun to take common d&d effects and convert those.

Just now, ESP77 said:

350ish?

?????

Just now, Richardbuxton said:

?????

Hence why I gave it up.

I would like to get a spell book of common spells just to give players a place to start.

I would divide it up into a list of common Mage themes, I know it’s s bit of a derailment but I’m sure we will get back on track :

Fire Mage (Arcane):

Fire bolt; basic attack spell

Flaming Spear; Attack + Destructive

Fire ball; Attack + Blast

Torrent of Fire; Attack + Burn

Meteor: Attack + Blast + Empowered

Flame Shield: Barrier + Empowered + Add Defence

Cleansing Flames: Dispel

Distracting flames: Counter Spell

Warmth: Utility

Flame of seeing: Utility (a magical torch)

Mountain Druid (Primal):

Avalanche: Attack + Empowered + Blast

Call Lightning: Attack + Lightning

Thunder clap: Attack + Close Combat + Impact

Ice Storm: Attack + Ice + Additional Target

Summon Wolf Pack: Conjure + Additional Summon + Summon Ally

Summon Rock Elemental: Conjure + Summon Ally + Grand Summon

Shape of the Ice Bear: Augment + Primal Furry + Swift

Shape of the Eagle: Augment + Haste + Swift

Breath of the Frost Mother: Heal + Revive Incapacitated.

Imperial Drummer/Darnati Warrior (Verse):

Song of Courage/Whirling Death: Augment + Additional Target

The Hunters March/Dance of the Deer: Augment + Additional Target + Haste + Swift

Dirge of Doom/Dancing Blades: Curse + Additional Target + Misfortune

Crushing Charge/Wail of Despair: Curse + Additional Target + Paralysed

Freedom Symphony/Falling Rain: Dispel + Additional Target

Kings Hope/Creeping Forest Growth: Heal + Additional Target

Queens Blessing/Flowing River Form: Heal + Additional Target + Restoration

Last Rites/Dance of the new Dawn: Heal + Resurrection

14 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

I would divide it up into a list of common Mage themes, I know it’s s bit of a derailment but I’m sure we will get back on track :

hmm

reminds me of the Path Magic variant from Dragon Mag ( http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Paths_of_power ), a good googler may find it online ...

Example from my personal archives:

Quote

Path of Counterspells:

1. avert evil eye (I),
2. dispel magic (III),
3. dispel mirage (III),
4. Otiluke’s dispelling screen (IV),
5. remove curse (IV),
6. force shapechange (V),
7. repulsion (VI),
8. ruby ray of reversal (VII),
9. Mordenkainen’s disjunction (IX),
10. spellstrike (IX)

also for the fireball spell ...

you could argue the exact parameters and additional effects,

but in principle (if for example taking the forgotten realms) such spells represent thousands of years of spell research

which means they are seriously more refined than the spell actions one can cook up with the Genesys CRB

so a simple rule would be to halve the difficulty (with a minimum of 1) from that of being rebuilt with CRB rules

one can also argue that for such a refined spell spending anything other than successes for damage and activating its defined qualities with advantages is impossible.

3 hours ago, Terefang said:

also for the fireball spell ...

you could argue the exact parameters and additional effects,

but in principle (if for example taking the forgotten realms) such spells represent thousands of years of spell research

which means they are seriously more refined than the spell actions one can cook up with the Genesys CRB

so a simple rule would be to halve the difficulty (with a minimum of 1) from that of being rebuilt with CRB rules

one can also argue that for such a refined spell spending anything other than successes for damage and activating its defined qualities with advantages is impossible.

umm... I suppose one could try and argue that but that won't be how I'm running things. Of course in my game spells work quite a bit different than the standard system. But Argue away. This thread is completely derailed at this point so I guess it doesn't really matter.

If the spells are rigid in design (can’t be changed or modified when casting) and restricted by a need to learn them individually then the difficulty can definitely be reduced. That’s exactly what Signature Spell is doing, defining a specific spell to make it easier.

You could easily add a second magic system besides the basic one that uses Signature Spell as a basis. The character has only a list of pre defined spells developed from the core mechanics, with the difficulty reduced.