Be wary. This post has little point or purpose. I’m just rambling… again.
Not everyone was aware of this when I played 2nd edition AD&D, but there were actually other 1st level spells available for novice mages and specialists to select from besides Magic Missile and Sleep.
I know! It’s crazy.
“Yeah, I know that, jerk. They’re called Read Magic and Detect Magic. Duh!“
Okay, okay. Maybe there were a few others mages picked up. Identify has always been a popular one, and Light is handy when traversing about the usual caves and tombs adventurers find themselves in (Color Spray has long been my favorite 1st level alternative to MM). But there’s always a couple each level that seem absolutely useless – at least to the adventuring wizard.
For example – allow me to pick on Nystul’s Magical Aura. From the Player’s Handbook:
“By means of this spell, any one item of no more than five pounds weight per level of the spellcaster can be given an aura that is noticed by someone using magic detection. Furthermore, the caster can specify the type of magical aura that is detected (alteration, conjuration, etc.) and this effectively masks the item’s actual aura, if any, unless the item’s own aura is exceptionally powerful (if it is an artifact, for instance). If the object bearing Nystul’s magical aura has an identify spell cast on it or is similarly examined, the examiner has a 50% chance of recognizing that the aura has been placed to mislead the unwary. Otherwise, the aura is believed and no amount of testing reveals what the true magic is.”
Now, I’m not saying it’s a completely useless spell. I understand its purpose (there are plenty of other spells listed that are pretty much going to be NPC exclusive, no matter what – Fools’ Gold springs to mind). But if I’m romping around in dangerous places, especially at lower levels when my spell selection is limited, Nystul’s Magical Aura is probably the last spell I’d want inscribed in my Grimoire. I could understand using it at higher levels, say if your character has their own hold and they want to protect their gear from a rival wizard, or perhaps it could be used within an adventure set in or around a mage’z guild – but by the time your character gets to that high a level, depending on what the character’s Intelligence score is, you might already be at your limit for first level spells.
I would genuinely like to know if anyone has actually used this during an adventure at the low levels. I’ve racked my brains trying to think of a creative situation where my lowly mage would want to give a mundane item a magical aura of some kind, or disguise an item that gives off a conjuration aura with a necromantic one instead, but nothing comes to me. I have a feeling the bandits, hobgoblins, fire beetles and ghouls I’m trying to stave off could care less.
Of course, all this goes out the window if your DM selects the spells for you… but it’s a cruel, cruel DM who equips a 1st level mage with a book containing, say… Detect Magic, Read Magic, Message, Nystul’s Magical Aura, and Affect Normal Fires before throwing them into a dungeon. Might make for a interesting challenge though.
Ah well. Next time I’ll be picking on Phantom Steed! Stay tuned.
“…if any, unless the item’s own aura is exceptionally powerful (if it is an artifact, for instance)”
Hey, wait a minute. I though artifacts never radiated any aura or registered as magic? Or was 2nd ed different and I’m just showing my age.
Hmm… can’t say for sure. The only thing the 2nd ed. DMG says is that artifacts and relics are the ‘epitome’ of magic items, so one could infer from the wording that they would indeed register as a type of magical object and thus be revealed through spells such as Detect Magic, Identify, etc.
My solution to increasing the variety players use:
http://bardofvaliant.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/increasing-spell-variety/
Your note about spell selection reminds me of the old method in the 1ed DMG. There was a random table. You got something like one Offense, one defense, and one utility spell. Plus read magic? I don’t really remember completely. I just remember doing a 1 level Magic-user (that’s what they were called back then) and get the most useless spells selected from a random die.
Bah. Nystul’s was one of the most valuable spells in the book.
You just have to know how to use it (and have the right group of players to use it on).
When we played ‘back then’, we had many players (20ish) and each player had up to five characters (and of course many of them were also DMs). So rather than a single group, adventuring parties were formed for each adventure (which means that many characters tended to be ‘out for themselves’).
On top of this, magic items (which were typically rare) were awarded randomly among the party members – highest roll got first pick, etc. And this roll and pick were often made [i]before[/i] the items were identified.
Of course, in this environment players were understandably paranoid – to the point where (once we were high enough to afford or cast the necessary spells) some of them routinely cast or paid for various divination spells to check for party members stealing treasure or otherwise ripping them off. (And there were some characters you did not want to get caught ripping off).
Enter my mage with Nystul’s. I figured out that the best way to rip off the party wasn’t to take items [i]out of[/i] the parties treasure. It was to add items [i]into[/i] the parties treasure. Worthless items, enchanted with Nystul’s aura.
Especially rings, because rings were always popular and usually the first items chosen.
So I started ‘enchanting’ several rings and bringing them on adventures – tossing them into drawers, chests, or anywhere that was plausible for treasure to be hidden and I could count on one of the other party members finding them.
And when it was time to divide up the treasure, since I knew which items were real and which ones were fake, I was almost always able to end up with a real item while my higher-rolling companions snapped up the fake rings.
And when they found out the rings were fake they just blamed the DM for being sneaky and never suspected my role at all.
Carl
So what you’re saying is… if I ever get into a group with a bunch of backstabbing assholes for players I should learn Nystul’s right away so I can be equally as assholish?
There’s a classic Third Edition D&D scam using Nystul’s Magic Aura and Mount.
First, cast Mount. Then using Nystul’s, hide your ephemeral horse’s magical aura. Sell your horse. Get out of Dodge before the purchaser’s goods evaporate.
Well, first, the fact that a low-level spell is useless at low levels isn’t a problem from a world-design standpoint. Low level spells are created by high-level mages, usually for their own use.
…but, yeah, disreputable low-level wizards can make a lot of money using Nystul’s. Take a mundane weapon and give it a magic aura… then sell it at a steep ‘discount’ to a traveling merchant.
[...] Jump to Comments A short time ago I decided, for no good reason, to start picking on Nystul’s Magical Aura. I bemoaned the fact that it seemed a near useless spell whilst dungeon delving and asked what [...]
The only time I have ever used this spell effectively as a player the DM had rolled random treasure and I received it as a scroll. I took the time to scribe it into my spellbook just in case I ever needed it.
Several session later the party was hired to transport an enchanted item to a Druid in her remote grove surrounded by a deadly forest. We were warned by our employer that the item would be sought after by a rival guild and that assassination attempts may be made against us in an attempt to retrieve it. I assured my party and employer that it would be safe.
With a simple casting of Nystul’s Magic Aura every couple of days by my low-level mage foiling any attempts to divine the item’s nature magically, combined with other mundane precautionary measures, our party safely avoided several potentially deadly encounters.
Either way…just my 2 cp
It can be used to exorcise spirits that can only inhabit mundane objects. Thats the best use i can come up with