Ancient History wrote:The most minimalist spell description you can get while still being complicated enough to be interesting are the combat spells in Shadowrun, which basically consist of a name, several pre-determined tag categories, and a formula. You can't really get that condensed in D&D.
Maybe not, but you can get pretty darn close. The basic blasting spells are all simple enough to be respresented Shadowrun-style; the Shadowrun version of Fireball is thus:
Fireball (Indirect, Elemental, Area)
Type: P • Range: LOS (A) • Damage: P • Duration: I • DV: (F ÷ 2) + 5
These spells create an explosion of flames that flash into existence and scorch the target(s). These spells deal Fire damage (p. 164).
These flames burn out after striking the target, but their secondary effects may ignite flammable materials that will continue to burn after the spell is exhausted.
while the D&D
fireball is, if spells are compacted the same way, thus:
Fireball Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 3 • Components: V, S, M • Targeting: LoS, Point, Projectile
Range: Long • Area: Spread 20 • Duration: I • Save: Ref half
A fireball is launched as a glowing pea-sized bead that blossoms into a pressureless explosion. The fireball deals 1d6/level fire damage to creatures and unattended objects in the area.
Combustibles ignite and metals with low melting points melt.
Material Component: A tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur.
with things like default spell templates, launching spells through openings, choosing points in space versus creatures, which spells allow SR, area spells blasting through barriers, and so forth being defined with keywords appropriately.
While a lot of more complex spells are very special-case-y and couldn't easily inherit a lot of information, like
simulacrum or
rope trick, D&D already has a lot of stuff defined at the school, subschool, and descriptor level that could be reused. Formalizing and standardizing some things like figments and polymorphing, and adding some additional subschools and descriptors to further categorize things, would go a long way toward achieving Shadowrun-like levels of standardization.
[EDIT: Actually, come to think of it, the wordy parts of
simulacrum are how to determine how convincing your illusions are, how to exercise control over a summoned/animated/created minion, and how to repair an artificial creature, and the wordy parts of
rope trick are how creatures and effects interact with extradimensional spaces, so if those are well-defined the spell descriptions shrink nicely. But there are plenty of actually harder ones to choose from.]
For instance, Shadowrun has a "Detection" spell category that defines which actions they require, several spell subtypes for targeting, standard ranges and actions, abilities and skills used with those spells, and so forth. D&D has a fairly similar standardized setup with its own
detect [stuff] spells (they all detect in a cone, require active concentration, give more information over 3 rounds, and give information in several broad categories), it just repeats all the information with small variations in each spell description and gives only vague information in the actual Divination description:
Divination
Divination spells enable you to learn secrets long forgotten, to predict the future, to find hidden things, and to foil deceptive spells.
Many divination spells have cone-shaped areas. These move with you and extend in the direction you look. The cone defines the area that you can sweep each round. If you study the same area for multiple rounds, you can often gain additional information, as noted in the descriptive text for the spell.
Those sorts of divinations could just as easily be set up like this (spoilered for space):
Divination (Detection)
Divination spells of the Detection subschool enable you to identify qualities of creatures or objects or to find unknown or hidden things.
Detection spells have the following basic template unless otherwise noted in a spell's statistics block:
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped emanation
Duration: Concentration (D), up to a maximum duration noted in the spell's entry
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
The cone generated by a Detection spell moves with you, extends in the direction you look, and cone defines the area that you can sweep each round.
Studying an area for one round reveals the presence or absence of whatever the spell detects, and if you study the same area for multiple rounds, you gain additional information, as noted in the descriptive text for the spell.
A Detection spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
Some Detection spells detect magical or supernatural auras in multiple categories of strength: Faint, Moderate, Strong, or Overwhelming; thresholds for each category will be noted in the description along with any effects related to detecting an aura of a given strength.
Auras linger even after their source is gone; such auras register as Dim and are detectable for a certain duration after they are created, as follows:
Faint: 1d6 rounds
Moderate: 1d6 minutes
Strong: 1d6×10 minutes
Overwhelming: 1d6 days
Detect Magic
Divination (Detection)
Level: Brd 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Sor/Wiz 0
Duration: Maximum 1 min./level
This spell detects magical auras. Outsiders and elementals are not magical in themselves, but if they are summoned, the Conjuration spell registers.
Concentration: You detect the number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura with a second round of concentration, and the strength and location of each aura with a third round of concentration. You can identify the school of each aura in line of sight with a Spellcraft check (see Spellcraft description).
Auras: An aura’s power depends on a spell’s functioning spell level or an item’s caster level, whichever is stronger:
Spell or Object | Aura Power | | |
|
| Faint | Moderate | Strong | Overwhelming
|
Functioning spell (spell level) | 3rd or lower | 4th-6th | 7th-9th | 10th+ (deity-level)
|
Magic item (caster level) | 5th or lower | 6th-11th | 12th-20th | 21st+ (artifact)
|
Detect Evil
Divination (Detection)
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S, DF
Duration: Maximum 10 min./level
This spell detects the presence of evil. Animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil, and as such this spell does not detect them.
Concentration:You detect the number of evil auras (creatures, objects, or spells) in the area and the power of the most potent evil aura present with a second round of concentration, and the power and location (if within line of sight) or direction (if out of line of sight) of each aura with a third round of concentration.
If you are of good alignment, and the strongest evil aura’s power is overwhelming (see below), and the HD or level of the aura’s source is at least twice your character level, you are stunned for 1 round and the spell ends.
Auras: An evil aura’s power depends on the type of evil creature or object that you’re detecting and its HD, caster level, or (in the case of a cleric) class level:
Creature/Object | Aura Power | | |
|
| Faint | Moderate | Strong | Overwhelming
|
Non-Undead, non-Outsider creature (HD) | 10 or lower | 11-25 | 26-50 | 51 or higher
|
Undead (HD) | 2 or lower | 3-8 | 9-20 | 21 or higher
|
Evil outsider (HD) | 1 or lower | 2-4 | 5-10 | 11 or higher
|
Cleric or other character with the Aura class feature (class levels) | 1 | 2-4 | 5-10 | 11 or higher
|
Evil magic item or spell (caster level) | 2nd or lower | 3rd-8th | 9th-20th | 21st or higher |
and so forth; they could be further compacted if the spells are tweaked a bit to be more uniform (like standard level equivalents for aura cutoffs or how things are detected out of line of sight) instead of keeping them exactly as they are now.