It’s been a bit since the last set, but here’s ten more spells for GURPS Dungeons & Sorcery. They’re a mixed bag of low-level spells, but there is something of an emphasis on invisibility.

Acid Arrow (SC)
Conjuration, Somatic, Verbal
22 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 200 yards
Duration: Instantaneous

This spell launches an acidic projectile at its target, doing 1d+1 corrosion damage if it hits. The acid will continue to work after hitting, doing another 1d+1 damage after 10 seconds unless it can be washed off or diluted in the meantime. There are normally no distance modifiers for this attack.

Innate Attack: 1d+1 (cor; Cyclic, 2 cycles, 10 seconds, +50%; Increased Range, x2, +10%; Long Range, (LDM) +50; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [1.65×13]

Floating Disk (C)
Evocation, Somatic, Verbal
37 points
Casting Time: 1 second
Casting Roll: None
Range: 10 yards
Duration: 30 minutes

This spell creates a visible floating disk of force about one yard across and three feet off the ground. It will normally trail about two yards behind the caster, following his path, but if the caster moves faster than it can, it will just go at its best speed down the caster’s path until it catches up. If there is an obstruction in the path (say a closed door), the disk will follow the path until it reaches the obstruction and then wait until the obstruction is removed or the spell’s duration ends. If the caster spends a second to order the disk, he can place it anywhere he likes within ten yards, but it will disappear if left there and the caster leaves the ten-yard range.

The disk has a base move equal to the caster’s unencumbered Land Move, and is encumbered as a ST 7 person; maximum load is 98 pounds, but only up to 9.8 pounds allows for maximum Move.

Telekinesis 7 (Extended Duration, x30, +60%; Independent, +70%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; One Task, Carrying, -50%; Sorcery, -15%; Visible, -10%) [1.05×35]

Glitterdust (C)
Conjuration, Somatic, Verbal, Area (Fixed), Resisted (HT)
55 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 20 yards
Duration: 1 minute

This spell conjures a 2-yard radius cloud of irritating, glittering, dust that hangs in the air, coating everything it touches for the next minute. The primary effect of the dust is that it coats all (substantial) invisible creatures, rendering them visible until the dust vanishes at the end of the spell duration. It also can cause temporary blindness if it gets into the eyes. Anyone in, or entering, the cloud must make a HT roll (at +5 for Protected Vision, and immune if Sealed) to avoid getting enough dust in their eyes to force them closed while they tear up and attempt to flush the magical material.

Static (Invisibility; Area Effect, 2 yards, +100%; Increased 1/2D, x10, +15%; Link, +10%; Ranged, +40%; Reduced Range, 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [1.9×30] + Affliction 1 (HT; Disadvantage: Blindness, +50%; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, x10, +15%; Link, +10%; Reduced Duration, 1/3, -10%; Reduced Range, 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [3.6×10]

Invisibility (C)/Improved Invisibility (SC)
Illusion, Somatic, Verbal, Buff
70 points or 69 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds (4 seconds)
Casting Roll: None
Range: Touch
Duration: 15 hours (10 minutes)

Casting this spell allows the magic-user to make any one person he touches invisible. This affects normal sight and infravision (but not ultravision, which often doesn’t work indoors, so this spell is more useful there). This does nothing to fool other senses, so Stealth rolls will still be needed to sneak past guards without being heard, etc.

Easily carried items share in this invisibility (i.e., anything up to Medium encumbrance). If the subject picks up an object, it will not immediately become invisible, but must be ‘hidden’ inside his clothes or otherwise concealed (but once made invisible, it will continue to be so as long as the subject holds onto the item). An object that the subject puts down or drops will immediately become visible again. It should also be noted that this keeps things like airborne flour from just vanishing upon contact with the subject.

This spell lasts the stated 15 hours, unless the subject attacks someone. At the point at which the subject makes an attack roll, the spell breaks, and he is fully visible again. Note that he is invisible until that point, and that attack can easily be a surprise attack (B393), and at the least will be one the target can’t see (-4 to defense roll). Note that ‘touching’ someone (say, to cast invisibility on him) does not ordinarily count as an attack, even if a roll is required by the GM to succeed, but almost any other offensive activity is. Attempting to cast a resisted spell (say, charm person), or any damage dealing effect (even if it misses everyone) will break the spell, while merely affecting the environment (opening doors, casting web, etc.) will not.

However, the spell improved invisibility ignores the entire preceding paragraph. Only dispelling or expending the duration of the spell will cause the person affected to become visible again, but the spell takes twice as long to cast (4 seconds instead of 2), and only lasts 10 minutes.

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Invisibility (Accessibility, Only Until Attacking, -20%; Can Carry Objects, Medium, +50%; Extended, Infravision, +20%, Magical, -10%), +560%; Extended Duration, x300, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Melee Attack, C, 1, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [6.95×10] Improved Invisibility removes the Accessibility from Invisibility (making it +640%); reduces Extended Duration to x3, +20%; and increases Takes Extra Time to x4, -20%. [6.85×10]

Invisibility, 4 yd Radius (C)
Illusion, Somatic, Verbal, Area (Fixed), Buff
80 points
Casting Time: 3 seconds
Casting Roll: None
Range: Touch
Duration: 15 hours

This spell works just like the basic invisibility spell, including the limitations on attacking. However, when cast, everyone within 4 yards of the person who receives this spell is rendered invisible, after which they can all go their separate ways. Anyone who attacks will become visible normally, and separately, but if the primary target of the spell (i.e., the center of the initial 4 yards) attacks, then everyone covered by it will become visible.

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Invisibility (Accessibility, Only Until Attacking, -20%; Area Effect, 4 yards, +100%; Can Carry Objects, Medium, +50%; Extended, Infravision, +20%; Magical, -10%), +560%; Extended Duration, x300, +100%; Melee Attack, C, 1, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [7.95×10]

Levitate (C)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal, Buff
36 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 50 yards
Duration: 3 minutes

This spell allows one person targeted by the caster to levitate above the ground. The subject of the spell is in complete control of his altitude, and can change it at a rate equal to half his normal Ground Move, while also able to walk/run around as if on a solid surface at his normal Ground Movement rate (note that the subject can change altitude while remaining otherwise motionless). The subject can carry as much as he wishes, subject to the limits of his encumbrance, which will slow his Move as normal.

If stunned, knocked unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated, the subject will just hang in midair at his current altitude, until something can come along and carry him off, or he recovers. Of course, if the spell wears off, or is dispelled while the subject is in midair, he falls from that height as normal.

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Walk on Air (Free Altitude Change, +20%; Magical, -10%; No Falling, +40%), +300%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [3.55×10]

Locate Object (C)
Divination, Somatic, Verbal
17 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: None
Range: 50 yards
Duration: 1 minute

This spell is used for finding objects familiar or known to the caster. He fixes an image of the desired object in his mind while casting the spell, and then will be able to sense its location if it is in range and within a 60º arc in front of him (as if he had Tunnel Vision, B151). As this sense lasts for a minute, he can move around and search for it, it is not immediately in range.

This only works for specific objects. Looking for ‘a crown’ will not work, though looking for a specific crown will, as long as the caster is familiar with it, or can work from a good description. However, looking for a class of (largely) identical objects will also work, such as ‘silver reales’.

Detect (Known Object; Cosmic, No Die Roll Required, +100%; Max Range, -5%; Precise, +100%; Restricted Arc, 60º, -75%; Reduced Range, 1/2, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%, Takes Extra Time, -10%) [1.65×10]

Mirror Image (C)
Illusion, Somatic, Verbal
88 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: None
Range: None
Duration: 1 minute

Casting this spell generates three illusionary duplicates of the caster. During the final turn of casting, the magic-user must take a Step as part of his action, and the three illusions will split off from him, Stepping in different directions. From that point on, the mirror images will duplicate everything the caster does, appearing to attack the same target he does (so that it is impossible to tell which one actually did the damage), and generally moving as he does. They will generally keep ‘in formation’ with the caster, staying one to two hexes away from each other and him, but will also pass through each other on occasion, effectively trading places as to make it even harder to be sure which one is the real caster (this, of course, only happens if the caster himself is moving).

These illusions are capable of fooling nearly any sense: vision, sound, hearing, smell, or more exotic ones will all report each illusion as identical to the caster. Only physical contact is excluded; any form of physical contact (other than passing through the caster as part of trading places) will cause a mirror image to vanish; note that this includes any attack that strikes a mirror image (which will only Dodge if the caster does) like swords and arrows, or even ‘energy’ based ones like magic missile. To determine whether a particular image is actually the caster or not, a person has to win a Quick Contest of Per vs the caster’s IQ + Talent; otherwise physical contact, or the spell expiring are the only way to tell.

Illusion (Cosmic: Extended, +300%; Independence, +40%; Limited Scope: Duplicates of the Caster, -80%; Multiple, 3, +50%; Preprogrammed, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [3.5×25] Note: “Multiple” is an enhancement based off the cost of Rapid Fire to account for the fact that there are multiple illusions to eliminate.

Obscure Object (C)
Divination, Somatic, Verbal
34 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: None
Range: Touch
Duration: 5 hours

This spell allows a caster to protect one object from all forms of magical detection, scrying, etc. for five hours. Note that this includes anything with a ‘magical’ modifier, and the ‘divine’ modifier in Divine Favor. This can only be used on inanimate objects, and will not work at all on any living or unliving creature.

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Obscure 10 (Magic; Extended, Divine, +20%; Magical, -10%), +220%; Accessibility, Inanimate, -10%; Extended Duration, x100, +80% Fixed Duration, +0%; Melee Attack, C, 1, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [3.35×10]

Shield (VC)
Evocation, Somatic, Verbal, Buff
29 points
Casting Time: 1 second
Casting Roll: None
Range: None
Duration: 30 seconds

This spell erects a barrier in front of the caster for 30 seconds. This barrier has DR 6 against all forms of damage, and DR 8 vs ranged attacks. Notably, this shield works against spells and/or attacks that normally allow no defense (specifically including magic missile) as long as they come from in front of the caster. This DR does not stack with any form of worn armor, or other protections, but the best available source of protection can be used.

DR 6 (Can’t Wear Armor, -40%; Cosmic: Defensive, +50%; Directional, Front, -20%; Force Field, +20%; Reduced Duration, 1/2, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%) [0.65×30] + DR 2 (Can’t Wear Armor, -40%; Cosmic: Defensive, +50%; Directional: Front, -20%; Force Field, +20%; Limited: Missile Attacks Only, -20%; Reduced Duration, 1/2, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%) [0.45×10]


Mirror Image, and various other fictional abilities like it, are a tough sell in GURPS, and there’s been plenty of forum threads on the subject. There’s nothing that really emulates the ‘you hit the wrong me’ idea, and while there are plenty of ways to get the general effect (harder to hit), there’s nothing that brings in the ‘process of elimination’ idea. So, I went with an actual illusion, and a description that should get you there. ‘Preprogrammed’ is a new Illusion Limitation that can only be taken with Independence, and says you must define everything your illusion can do (and it should be kept simple) when writing up the ability with no ability to direct its actions.

Invisibility is complicated merely by the ‘turn visible when you attack’ bit, but that’s one of the emblematic bits of the D&D feel. I like rolling similar spells up into one description, but of course this one has two variations that go in different directions, so it was impossible to roll it all together.

Floating Disk‘s (which actually appears under that name in Basic) writeup was inspired by a forum post by Celti, but got an extensive rewrite. Note that by RAW the disk should just go away if the caster gets more than 10 yards away, but I’m letting it just follow along at its best speed, and anything that comes across it without the caster around can just take whatever the disk is carrying….