This is the tenth collection of spells for my GURPS Dungeons & Sorcery project. Which means there’s now over 100 spells for it, which I didn’t initially think I’d do, and this is still finishing off 2nd level spells, and moving into 3rd level, with Fly as the headliner old-time spell.

Earthen Grasp (SC)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal
9 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 20 yards
Duration: 30 seconds

An earthen arm comes up out of the ground and attempts to grasp the leg of the target of the spell. If the target is hit, the arm will hold him in place and keep him from moving away, Changing Posture or facing, and confers a -4 DX penalty.

The target can break free by winning a Quick Contest against ST 15. Each attempt to do so takes one second, and costs 1 FP, but there is no other penalty to trying again. The arm can be attacked, and Innate attacks from the victim will automatically hit, while all others suffer a -4 penalty. Other characters can attempt to attack the arm, but they might hit the character instead (see Striking into Close Combat, B392). The arm can only be damaged by crushing damage, and has DR 5, but each point of damage reduces the arm’s ST by one, and is destroyed when at ST 0.

This spell can only be used when there’s appropriate ground or turf under the character to be grasped. It will not work on stone, or inside a building.

Binding 15 (Environmental, Earth, -20%; One-Shot, -10%; Only Damaged By Crushing, +30%; Reduced Duration, 1/2, -5%; Reduced Range, 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, ‑10%) [0.3×30]

Fly (C)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal, Buff
82 points
Casting Time: 3 seconds
Casting Roll: None
Range: Touch
Duration: 90 minutes

Any one person the caster touches will be granted the ability to fly at will for the next hour and a half. The subject can hover, or Move at any speed up to twice his normal Basic Speed (round down). This will not consume any FP, and the subject can even rest while moving at full speed. However, contrary to the Flight rules on B354, there is no sprinting, or bonus distance from Flight skill; the maximum Move possible is twice the Basic Speed. The spell’s ‘maximum load’ is equal to Medium Encumbrance on the subject, and will be unable to provide any motion at all past that weight.

The Flying Combat rules (B398) work exactly as given there, with the note that the subject can hover, and there is no ceiling on the flight itself, just the practical one of the subject probably needing air. Complex maneuvers and Acrobatic Dodges naturally take Aerobatics rolls, and the spell does not provide any bonus to that.

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage: Flight (Can Carry Objects, Medium, +50%; Externally Sourced, -10%; Magical, -10%; Space Flight, +50%), 720%; Extended Duration, x30, +60%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Melee Attack, C, 1, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [8.15×10]

Fog Cloud (C)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal, Area (Fixed)
10 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.
Range: 10 yards
Duration: 30 seconds

This spell allows the magic-user to place an 8-yard radius cloud of fog wherever he likes within 10 yards. This cloud will generate a -2 penalty to vision rolls per yard of the cloud in the line of sight, and will slowly drift with the wind, or away from the caster (if there is no wind).

An alternate use of this spell (though all of the above is still true) is that the caster can specify that the fog cloud is a sickly yellow-green in color, making it appear to actually be the cloud of a cloudkill spell.

Obscure (Vision) 2 (Area Effect, 8 yards, +150%; Drifting, +20%; Environmental, Air, -5%; Magical, -10%, Ranged, +50%; Reduced Duration, 1/2, -5%; Reduced Range, 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [2.6×4]

Infravision (C)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal, Buff
21 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: None.
Range: Touch
Duration: 5 hours

The subject of this spell will be able to see heat, eliminating most darkness penalties in combat. As long as something gives off heat it will be visible in normal darkness (but the darkness spell will block this vision too), and anything that has a different temperature than the background is at +2 to spot. Trails no more than an hour old have a +3 bonus to Tracking rolls from the residual heat. There is no ‘color’ to this vision, so the subject will be at -4 to distinguish objects of a similar size and shape if he must rely solely on this. (See Infravision, B60 for more detail.)

Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Infravision (Magical, -10%) +90%; 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%) [2.05×10]

Insatiable Thirst (C)
Charm, Somatic, Verbal, Resisted (Will)
24 points/level
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to Aim.
Range: 20 yards
Duration: Special

After a successful ‘hit’ on a subject, make a Quick Contest of Will. The subject will then feel dehydrated and go mad with thirst, and will try to drink all possible liquids in the area, for a number of minutes equal your MoS. Sorcery Talent adds to your effective Will, and each additional level of the spell adds a -1 penalty to the target’s Will.

The subject will not take any obviously dangerous actions to slake his thirst; i.e., he will not consume any known poisons and the like. However, he will not conserve water, he will not rigorously check if harmless-looking liquids are safe, he will consume potions if that’s what’s to hand, he will take water from other people, etc. The subject will feel like he is dying, and will be desperate, and will act on that desperation until the spell expires.

Affliction 1 (Will; Disadvantage: Severe Delusion, “Dying of Thirst.” (Magical, -10%), +14%; Based on Will, +20%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Reduced Range, 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [2.39×10]

Numbness (C)
Phantasm, Somatic, Verbal
37 points/level
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to hit.
Range: 50 yards
Duration: Permanent

If you hit the subject with this spell, roll a Quick Contest of your Will + Talent vs his HT; if you win, he loses his sense of touch. This is not an illusion of ‘nothing’, nor a condition that can be cured magically or medically. Sensation can only be restored by successful use of dispel magic or similar, or entering a No Mana area.

The subject still feels pain, temperature, and shock as before, but will not know where injury has happened without looking or using some sense other than touch. This makes personal First-Aid rolls impossible without being able see the injury, all tasks that are purely by feel (untying hands behind his back) are impossible, and all skills listed under High Manual Dexterity (B59) have a -3 penalty.

Each level of this spell past the first adds a -1 penalty to the target’s HT.

Affliction 1 (HT; Disadvantage: Numb (Magical -10) +18%; Extended Duration, Permanent, +150%; Malediction 2, +150%; Reduced Range, 1/2, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%, Takes Extra Time, 2x, ‑10%) [3.63×10]

Past Life (C)
Divination, Somatic, Verbal
4 points or 11 points
Casting Time: 1 second
Casting Roll: IQ + Talent
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 minute

After casting the spell, the magic-user has a minute to touch a single dead creature. At this point, he makes an IQ+Talent roll to gain a sense of what the creature looked like in life, modified by how long it has been dead. There is no penalty for a creature that died within the day, -1 for one that’s been dead up to 10 days, -2 for 100 days, -3 for three years, -4 for 30 years, -5 for up to 300 years, and so on with an additional -1 for each multiple of 10.

A second level of this spell exists (for 11 points) that also allows the caster to see the final minute of the subject’s life from his point of view.

Psychometry (Accessibility: Corpses Only, -20%; Active Only, -20%; Limited Use, 1, Fast Reload, -20%; Melee Attack, C,1, -20% Mundane, -30%; Requires Gestures, ‑10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%) [0.2×20] Second level adds Immersive, +100%. [0.55×20]

Pyrotechnics (C)
Alteration, Somatic, Verbal, Resisted (HT)
39 points
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to hit.
Range: 100 yards
Duration: Special

The caster picks one fire within range as his target, which will then flare up, burning through its fuel in one second. This can be used to put out candles and the like, but the sudden flare up will alert others that something unnatural just happened.

The primary purpose of this spell is that a large enough fire will blaze with blinding light for that second, and may possibly blind anyone nearby. A torch should be should be sufficient to blind anyone within a couple yards, while an ordinary camp fire will possibly blind anyone within 16 yards. Larger fires (like a bonfire) are up to GM discretion, and might be judged too large for the spell to completely affect, but may cause exceptionally large areas of effect, and penalties to resistance rolls.

Anyone who is in the area of effect must make a Quick Contest of their HT vs the caster’s Will + Talent. Anyone who fails this roll will be blinded for three seconds per margin of failure.

Affliction 1 (HT; Disadvantage: Blindness, +50%; Area Effect, 16 yd radius, +200%; Environmental, Fire Source, -20%; Malediction 2, +150%; Nuisance Effect, Eliminates Own Source, -10%; Reduced Duration, 1/20, -25%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%; Vision-Based, -20%) [3.8×10]

Ray of Fatigue (C)
Necromancy, Somatic, Verbal
9 points
Casting Time: 1 second
Casting Roll: Innate Attack (Gaze) to hit.
Range: 20 yards
Duration: Instantaneous

This spell fires a beam that drains energy from a living target, doing 2d-1 fatigue damage to it on a hit. Not only does this not affect machines and other beings that do not use fatigue, but it will not affect undead of any type. This spell will often reduce FP below the 1/3 point, and may drive them to 0 or negative (see Lost Fatigue Points, B426).

Innate Attack 2d-1 (fat; Accessibility: Living, -10%; Increased 1/2D, x10, +15%; Reduced Range 1/5, -20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%) [0.5×17]

Spectral Force (SC)
Phantasm, Somatic, Verbal, Area (Leveled), Resisted
49 points + 12.5/level
Casting Time: 3 seconds
Casting Roll: None. Use IQ or Artist (Illusion) to determine how convincing it is.
Range: 50 yards
Duration: 10 minutes

This is a further improved version of improved phantasmal force. It allows the caster to create any illusion he wants inside a two-yard radius anywhere within 50 yards of the caster. This illusion is independent and can act in simple ways on its own, however, it will not react, or act intelligently, but just do whatever action the caster specified. He can concentrate once again to direct the illusion to take a new action. Finally, while the illusion can make a wide range of noises, intelligible speech is too complicated, and cannot be done with this spell, though some inarticulate grunts could be managed.

This illusion fools vision, hearing, and smell, and can cause its victims to feel changes in temperature (both by sensation, and through viewing with Infravision). Any temperature changes are illusory, and cannot cause actual damage or Fatigue loss, but the subject will still feel ‘hot’ or ‘cold’.

The caster must win a Quick Contest of the caster’s Artist (Illusion) (or IQ, if that is better) plus Talent vs the viewer’s Per to convince him that the illusion is real. Failure means the viewer notices something ‘off’ about the illusion, and there is a +4 to the viewers’ roll if they are alert to illusions (possibly told to be by someone who already made his roll), or a +10 if it appears before them from nowhere.

This spell has levels that doubles the radius the area of the illusion.

Illusion (Accessibility, General Sounds Only, -10%; Extended: Infravision, Smell, Temperature, +40%; Extended Duration, x10, +40%; Independence, +40%; Ranged, +40%; Reduced Range, 1/2, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Sorcery, -15%; Takes Extra Time, x2, -10%) [1.95×25]. Additional levels add Area Effect, +50%. Note: Extended: Temperature is rated as +10% as it is part of the sense of touch.


Fly owes a debt to Kelly Pedersen, who helped write up a new limitation for all movement-related powers:

Externally Sourced -10%

This modifier can be applied to any advantage that provides a form of movement (Aquatic, Flight, Walk on Air, etc.) or one that increases your Basic Ground Move (Enhanced Move (Ground), for example). Your mobility comes not from your own muscles or personal power source, but some other force that moves you. This means you don’t have to expend your own FP to move quickly, and can even rest while you move, regaining FP as if you were moving at no more than a slow walk.

However, your Move when using the advantage cannot ever exceed the Basic (/Enhanced) Move granted by the ability—you can’t sprint, use Extra Effort to extend your movement, and so forth. Instead, it uses a separate energy reserve, which is either equivalent to your normal FP, or a ‘fuel supply’ that will last eight hours (akin to the Machine meta-trait). This can be modified with extra energy reserve, or Does Not Eat, and similar traits.

Lastly, the advantage now only covers your own body, and will shut down if you carry anything more than light clothing. To be able to carry more, take the Can Carry Objects (or Can Carry Others) enhancement.

As written, Flight and other advantages can always use sprinting and other effort-related rules, but that seemed a really poor fit for a spell that lets you float around, and this was the result of wondering how to do that.

Pyrotechnics is simplified from its AD&D version, which can also produce a smoke cloud instead, but I felt that niche is covered by other spells already (such as Fog Cloud), and so I didn’t bother complicating the writeup with that.