THE TRANSFORM AND REINCARNATE SPELLS, REVISITED
(DS: Bjarni Egilsson)


This is just a quick note on the Transform and Reincarnation spells: as written, they don't sound very attractive, though they do allow you to play a monster without the need for a special scenario. Generally, you have to take a dead body and then have them sacrifice four lives (which seems to indicate that this is already limited to people who start with 5 or more lives) to play one life as the given monster. Since it's an enchantment, a single "Dispel Magic" (or a lucky shot) can wipe them out, and the person is suddenly out 4 lives. (A preface to what I'm about to say: the following applies ONLY to what we've done in Dragonspine, and is NOT intended to be taken as Amtgard Canon; though if you like it you are welcome to suggest it to the powers that be to try to enact these changes more globally.) Within Dragonspine, we thought long and hard about this, and have made the following local rules changes to make the spells more appealing: 1) These spells are now considered "neutral" magic, which means they cannot be dispelled; and 2) The spell is cast at the beginning of the battle -- the target comes out in approved monster garb (essential!), and sacrifices ALL class lives to play the STANDARD NUMBER of lives for that monster (as described in the Dor-Un-Avathar). A person thus affected is allowed to receive monster credit for that battle. If more people want to play monsters than there are willing 6th-level spellcasters, the GM of Monsters is responsible for seeing that everybody gets a turn eventually, and that no-one repeats until others have had a chance. How you do it in your local group is of course up to you; but this seems to work for us. - Bjarni.