Cantrips

[Queshire]

I prolly asked this before, but my ideas tend to go in circles so here it is. I've recently been inspired to try and make a story featuring a main character who only uses the weakest, simplest of magics but does so in inventive enough ways to beat more traditional fire ball throwing mages, steel weilding Knights, and all sorts of threats. I think the story would be better with a set spell list, forcing me to think creatively with the tools he has at his disposal instead of having the temptation of coming up with a new spell to get out of the situation. So! I'd like your help to come up with the spell list!

The character in question flunked out of magic school. He was at school long enough to learn the basic tricks and utility magic all mages learn in their first year or so, but the mage's more traditionally iconic spells such as tossing about fireballs.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[ThinkerX]

Try looking in one or another of the D&D 'Players Guides'?

Or the 'Petty Magic' list from WFRP?

At any rate, in my writings, I have several wizards whose abilities are minor at best.

Kyle, the hulking peasant mage in 'Empire' can manage to light fires, locate objects, and has a rudimentary ward against evil. On a really good day, he can (barely) manage a wimpy Teleport spell that transports him all of thirty feet...and leaves him stark naked.

Beth, a sort of 'hidden princess', picked up a few spells from the evil witch who protected her. She can manage a simple, stationary illusion, invisibility, and levitate for a few seconds.

Warren the Wizard, a minor mage in the Solarian navy, can predict the weather, summon fish (sometimes), work a ward of protection, and manage a Light spell.

Don't know if that helps you or not.

 

[Addison]

NO D&D! I had the same issue (my MC is kinda the same) I went to my brother's D&D shrine and looked through each book. All of that magic stuff....the way it's structured and put together made more than just the spells leak onto the page.

Look at it from the other side. I mean it's like in high school. If the star quarterback sees the geek, or waterboy or some other classmate that didn't make the team, he's going to show off, rub it in his face and-when opportunity presents itself-use his greater skill against him.

So, using the football analogy, the team flunk can;
Throw a straight, long distance ball.
Kick the ball twenty yards.
Stop, but not tackle, an opponent
Run ten yards before getting caught.

The team star can:
Throw the touchdown ball.
Kick the winning shot.
Avoid all tackles and tackle everyone.
Run end-to-end without getting tackled.

So your non-flunking mages can do the fireball, maybe even wielld spears of fire. They can turn a person into a horse, snake, shrink them to a thimble's size. They can influence the mind so they appear to be a great friend, who knows!

So from their superior education they can say that your MC can only, I don't know, Enchant a squirrel to dance, turn a leaf into paper, only move a thimble's worth of water from thin air, whatever works in your magic system. Just put yourself in their shoes as they watch your MC across the street or something.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

In one of my WI'sP I have a duel between a major evil wizard and a minor sorceror (the good guy naturally!) And he had to win.I used two advantages to help him do that. First because he was a sorceror (the lowest of the low on the totem pole) I made him faster with his spells - it doesn't take as long to cast a minor magic. That gave him first strike.

The other thing I did was give my major wizard a single weakness brought about by his arrogance. He had any number of huge magical weapons spells he could use, but he'd always been dismissive of the minor magics. My MC hit him with a spell of vertigo which completely disabled him. Try doing anything when you're spining around completely out of control. (Unfortunately I speak from experience.)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[eliec]

There's quite a bit you can do with low levels of power.
Instead of creating fireballs, throwing huge boulders telekinetically and illuminating an entire football field, imagine a guy who can only make sparks, throw coins and create pinhead sized light sources, about as powerful as a light bulb.

Now imagine if that guy, knowing that he is severely lacking in the power department, has trained his precision to unprecedented levels. He can know create the spark directly inside an enemy's brain. He can only move coins, but can throw them at incredible speed, or has incredibly fine control over them. Imagine if he could place that light source right in front of his opponents to completely blind them.

Personally I'd be more afraid of the low-power guy with surgical precision than of the fire-ball slinging oaf.

 

[skip.knox]

I find it difficult to talk about this in the abstract, outside the structure of an actual story. My first question is, who is the villain? What are his weaknesses? Then I would start casting about for some low-level spells that could counter that.

Also, maybe the spells don't need to defeat the enemy. Maybe they only need to slow down, divert, confuse, or undo the enemy actions long enough for supporting characters to help out.

Also, maybe the MC learned this _one_ spell. It didn't seem very important at the time, but at a critical juncture, this silly or weak spell is just what is needed.

However you slice it, though, trying to arrange this sort of thing really needs characters and plots before it can take any sort of shape at all. IMO.

 

[Addison]

Every magic has an advantage. I recently re-read an anthology called "Witch High". The first story had an MC who had the weaker magic, called House Magic. At the start she was young and facing a bully descended and wielding powerful magic. As her magic was good for mending clothes, making produce last and other stuff, one wouldn't usually think she could stop the bully from using his invisible snare on others. But she was able to use her magic to fray the rope so that when sprung, it would break and everyone but the bully would be happy.