More Knave-ified 5E Spells

I posted last year about going through the spells from the 2014 5E Player’s Handbook and reimagining them as one-sentence, level-less Knave spells. Readers enjoyed that post, so let’s pick up where we left off, halfway through the letter A, and go through the end of the letter B. 

Bolded text is my revised version of the spell; where not specifically stated otherwise, characteristics like duration and range are left to DM discretion, common sense, or an appropriate roll of the dice. These spells use advantage and disadvantage, assuming both PCs and NPCs/monsters roll for themselves; but could easily be adjusted for a game using player rolls only. L stands for level, but could be replaced by INT under Knave 2E's draft rules, which aren't yet finalized. Non-bolded text represents some thoughts on the design philosophy that underpins 5E spells, and how Knave and other rules-light systems differ from it.

Arcane Eye. You can see through an invisible floating eye that you control for L rounds; it can pass through small openings but not solid barriers.

Arcane Gate. You create linked misty portals connecting two points you can see for L turns.

D&D 5E has a suite of spells and abilities – Misty Step, Dimension Door, Arcane Gate, and others – doing similar things with varying power and duration. Beyond the scope of this exercise, it might make sense to either condense them into one spell with variable power (scaling with L), or sharpen the distinctions between them.

Arcane Lock. A closed door, aperture, or container is magically locked for anyone besides you and your allies, and can only be temporarily unlocked by the Knock spell.

Armor of Agathys. A freezing aura grants you armor as chain for L turns; creatures that touch you take L damage.

I complained about temporary hit points before, and here they show up again, in a spell that eponymously implies AC improvement. This is another recurring 5E problem, where the flavor of a spell or ability gestures at something different from the mechanical effect (Chill Touch neither dealing cold damage nor serving as a touch-range spell is the most famous example). I’ve attempted to push this spell closer to its flavor... but are two different “L effects” too finicky for Knave?

Arms of Hadar. Creatures within reach must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed far enough away from you that they can no longer reach you.

Astral Projection. You and your allies enter a state of suspended animation while traveling to another plane of existence; you arrive unerringly at your intended destination, but your bodies are vulnerable while you travel.

Astral Projection is a holdover from the early days of D&D, when a lot of ‘70s esotericism, science fiction, and pseudoscience was baked directly into the game. This spell has little practical applicability in 5E, where characters will use Plane Shift as a simpler option available at a lower level. I’ll solve this by making Astral Projection a reliable way to travel the planes, and (if I ever reach the letter “P”) make Plane Shift more like Teleport (which is to say, unreliable).

Augury. You ask an otherworldly entity about a course of action you may undertake, and it advises if the outcome will be weal, woe, mixed, or uncertain/unclear.

Except for some needlessly crunchy mechanical details, this one is fiction-forward and mostly fine as-is in 5E. The cumulative chance of false readings is nominally interesting, but I think most players would simply never cast the spell more than once in a day, so I’m just cutting that detail and leaving any penalty for overuse to DM adjudication.

Aura of Life. You and your allies gain advantage on saves related to the undead for L turns.

Aura of Purity. You and your allies gain advantage on saves related to poison, disease, or similar afflictions for L turns.

Various 5E spells interact with damage types and status conditions at a level of detail beyond what we’re really interested in here. We’ll just condense these down to their underlying ideas and leave the specifics to DM adjudication.

Aura of Vitality. L nearby creatures in danger heal L damage.

Healing spells are boring. While running Knave, I’ve enjoyed how seriously players view damage; they can’t just shrug it off the way 5E characters usually can. We’ll see how many 5E healing spells we can get through before we run out of creative ways to steer them away from the game's damage-sponge arms race.

Bane. Your enemies have disadvantage on attack rolls as long as you loudly chant and point at them.

Last time we did this exercise, I trashed Aid because it just changes numbers without changing the fiction in an interesting way. Bane is even worse, because it’s useful enough in the math of combat to be a correct tactical choice, but only gradually affects the battle in a way that feels very numbers-oriented. Our “fixed” version makes it stronger, but with a risk, putting a target on the caster’s head for as long as they persist.

Banishing Smite. The next time you hit a creature with half HP or less with an attack, banish it to its native plane, or a random location L miles away if it is already on its native plane.

Banishment. Banish a creature to its native plane, or a random location L miles away if it is already on its native plane.

A player once told me they felt bad about using Banishment as a get-out-of-jail-free card, ending a potential combat before it really began by sending an enemy off to another plane of existence. While I have issues with some of 5E’s save-or-suck spells, because they invite players to optimize the fun out of the game, I told the player I actually rather like how Banishment just kicks the can down the road. A banished enemy may show up later with a score to settle – and they’ll be better prepared for the PCs’ tricks the second time around.

Barkskin. You gain armor as brigandine for L turns, and can easily conceal yourself among trees while motionless.

I couldn’t resist adding a little flavor with the second clause; it feels like an idea one of my players would propose, and I would gladly allow.

Beacon of Hope. Name something dangerous you have seen recently; you and your allies gain advantage on saving throws while confronting it.

I recognize that I may be leaning too heavily on advantage and disadvantage to generalize out from 5E’s highly crunchy 5E spell descriptions. Advantage is a great tool, but it yields diminishing results when too many effects grant it. Any serious adaptation of the 5E spellbook to Knave would require condensing the total list of spells, or at least carefully controlling how many spells acquired by the party rely on it for their effect. An alternative approach for Beacon of Hope would be to apply it to henchman and hireling morale.

Beast Sense. After touching a beast, you can sense what it senses for L hours.

Bestow Curse. Choose one of the five senses; as long as you point at a creature while muttering curses, that creature has disadvantage on any saving throws related to that sense.

Bestow Curse in 5E is flavorful, but the actual effects are kinda crunchy and, like Bane, feel like more of an ongoing nuisance for enemies rather than something that immediately changes the situation in an interesting way. 

Bigby’s Hand. For L rounds, you control a giant glowing hand that can punch, shove, and grab with the strength of a dozen people.

Blade Barrier. You conjure a wall of spinning blades, either as a ring around you or a long wall; creatures attempting to pass through the barrier must make a Dexterity saving throw or take Ld6 damage.

Blade Ward. Weapon attacks against you have disadvantage for L rounds.

Bless. Your allies have advantage on attack rolls as long as you are in as much or more danger than them.

As with Bane, we need to attach some kind of condition, although I fear these are getting a little too vague. I do like the idea of the spellcaster leading from the front and hoisting a metaphorical battle standard to inspire the group, which is easier in a classless game like Knave.

Blight. Drain all moisture from non-magical plants roughly equal to L people in size, reducing them to dust; a plantlike creature takes Ld10 damage instead.

Blinding Smite. The next creature you strike is blinded until the next time it takes damage.

Blindness/Deafness. All nearby creatures are blinded or deafened (your choice).

Blink. You become shadowy and immaterial on the round you cast the spell – and every other round afterward – unable to be harmed by solid things, but also unable to harm them in return.

Blur. Attacks against you have disadvantage.

Branding Smite. The next creature you strike glows with tell-tale light that they cannot extinguish for L turns. 

Burning Hands. A cone of fire either deals Ld6 damage to one creature, or ignites all flammable objects in the vicinity.

Closing Thoughts

The "D&D Next" process that led to 2014's D&D 5E seems to suggest that there was some appetite for removing needless complexity from the game, and... I think that included a desire to condense the byzantine spell list. They removed many of the “greater” and “mass” variations on spells. The option to upcast spells provided a model for varying the streamlining effects like simple damage and healing spells.

But the design feels compromised. A lot of cruft obviously stayed in. The designers didn't use those tools nearly as much as they could have, or should have. I don’t know that 5E would really work with the truly level-less/balance-agnostic magic of Knave; but I do believe 5E could have gone much further than it did, and would have played that much better if it had.