“Oh, you’re a spellcaster? What can you do?” asked the Knight to the person petitioning to be his squire. “Oh, I have been specializing. I have Pas,” the young and eager potential-squire responded. “Pas? did you just start learning to cast spells?” the knight asked quizzically. “Nope, I’ve learned it 8 times so far!” responded the formerly-potential-squire enthusiastically. “I also learned Transmute Self...and ever since a close call a while back, Regenerate the Scalp!” The knight walked away shaking his head, while the poor squire without a knight frowned not knowing where he went wrong.
Our spell system has many spells in it which at the moment are often considered useless, but some spellcasters learn them for schtick, fun, or various other reasons. As a person throwing content in the Realms, you can breathe life back into some of the spells that have languished over the years. Lets take a look at some of these spells, and how to allow them to shine*.
*Note: you do not need to work all suggestions into a single event and/or series of events. Your results may vary. Not applicable in all 50 states. What is useful or not varies by opinion, and doesn’t necessarily reflect my own opinions on what spells are useful.
Pas
Talk to your NPCs ahead of time about whether they should accept the spell or not. If the creatures are mindless killing machines, it makes sense for this to not work, but any NPC which might take a bribe should be affected by this spell. Also, talk to your NPCs about having bribes without the spell be less effective, not work at all or just be a lot more “expensive.”
Speak
Have NPCs with information that don’t speak common. Wolves/squirrels/animated plants/etc. Perhaps they saw something. Perhaps they just know something. Perhaps, they will let you through safely if you try to talk it out or offer them something.
Detect Magic
Label everything as stealable that you are willing to have PCs walk away with. Additionally, distribute some items that are not magical but still have information that Identify will reveal, so COP can’t act as a poor-caster’s Detect Magic. Remember, this spell just informs you if Identify will be useful, not if the item is actually enchanted. Alternatively, with the new change to detect magic, hide items really well on NPCs so the spell will allow the item to be found that way.
Ritual Of Banishment
There are plenty of ways to make this spell useful, although some of them are not obvious. If NPCs are from another plane, the spell becomes useful, as all NPCs can be a target. For bosses and other creatures you do not want to have the option to be blown away, require the ritual form and let the PC work for it, but use the spell as a starting point. Alternatively, if the NPCs are on their home plane, there are a few things you can do to still make this useful. First, casters can summon their own Undead Minion, which Ritual of Banishment specifically works on in burst form. Second, even though they are not technically on the list of targets, you can allow PCs to be affected if they are trapped on another plane. Finally, if a person performs the ritual version, you can choose to have it disperse the target’s magic rather than banish the being itself, or at least lead to clues that will help disperse the magic.
Enfeeble Being
This is simple. All you have to do is brief your NPCs to become goblins if they are enfeebled. If the creature is “too powerful” to be enfeebled, you can choose to still have the creature be affected, but in a weaker manner. Take off a point of armor instead of all armor. Be unable to carry boulders anymore. Lose a weapon call that was previously available to the NPC. Most importantly, role-play that something happened, so the person doesn’t feel as if the effort was for naught.
Protection from Magic Missile
This is a simple fix. Have more NPCs use Magic Missiles. Do you have site calls that work just like magic missile? Then let protection from magic missile work against that also, especially if you are only changing the name of the mechanic for flavor reasons.
Skew Divination
Any time NPCs would use seer magic, make sure the character is named, so they can be skewed. This is great if there is a race between the PCs and an NPC faction. Skewing Find the Path could lead to the NPCs getting to their destination later in the day (if at all) than they normally would. Keep in mind that the PCs need to know a named NPC might be scrying for them to think to use Skew Divination in this manner.
Shapeshift
If you can afford it, provide extra garb to people with this spell. Make sure NPCs are always clearly either IC or OOC so a shapeshifted PC can infiltrate their ranks.
Zombie Walk/Zombie Send
Incorporate situations where PCs already have to be carrying something in their hands. For example, PC’s have to hold onto a rope with one or both hands. Then if a person is dead, they have to be zombie walked or sent rather than simply carried to the healer. A way to have Zombie Send be useful in particular is to have a ward that living bodies are unable to cross.
Regenerate the Scalp
Have something require a person to be scalped and affected by Soul Bane. This encourages a person who has Regenerate the Scalp to use it. Or, if you know someone has this spell, they can be the target of an assassination, but this is risky because if they used it already, it may lead to them being dead in the woods for a while.
Protection From Magic/Resist Magic
Give your NPCs access to spells such as Magic Missile. Have magical wards that can be resisted. Have PCs knowingly trigger magical explosions. Just make it feel awesome for them.
Find the Path
Simply enough, let there be optional things to be found (and give them a name). If an NPC is looking for something that has a name, this spell could be used. Lost/kidnapped children are a great use for this spell. Alternatively, while the main quest may lead to where the caster wants, this will lead to a back way in to the fortress or something similar.
Transmute Self
This is a highly conditional spell, but a creative EH can come up with good uses for it. There can be explosions that only the spell Transmute Self can protect against for example, or if a person needs to be kept alive, but not mobile, if the PCs choose the person, this could make things easy for the PCs.
Enchant Blade
This is a tough one, but here is the suggestion: have creatures that break or disenchant swords that hit it but magic is armor-piercing. This would be the only way to swing a sword without losing a magic item. Similarly, this could be used to enchant non-standard weapons. For example, a creature could be hard to kill in normal combat but if a magic javelin or arrow will slay the creature, that gives this a use due to the general lack of magic arrows/javelins.
Overall, think of ways that these spells can be applied to your event, and then allow them to work. Brief your NPCs to be ready for them, or to simply just roll with something if it feels like it should work.