AD&D Spell Spotlight: Heroism & Superheroism

Today we look at two powerhouse spells that turn low- to mid-level fighters into battlefield legends... Heroism and Superheroism. I will break down what they do, how to use them in your game, and why a clever DM can make these spells the centerpiece of an epic moment.

#ADnD #Heroism #Superheroism #ClericMagic

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Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Good morning. Welcome back to the podcast
Dungeon Master AD and D UniversePodcast.
I am your host, Evil Dungeon Master Vince, and I felt like I
got the intro right. I keep screwing that intro up
ever since I changed the name toAD and D.
Anyway, hopefully you're doing well out there.
I know I am. It is Friday, it's time for the
weekend, and it's time for another podcast.

(00:36):
Ask of the DM at the Evil dm.com. theevildm.com is my
website andyoutube.com/evil dmrumble.com/the Evil DM
patreon.com/the Evil DM. Now we got all that all out of
the way ahead and check all my stuff out on YouTube.
My solo quests, my side quests, everything else, couple of

(00:59):
channels that I'm managing now to try to break things up for
people who want to see certain things and not see other things.
But anyway, thank you to those that give feedback and
suggestions for everything that I do for this podcast and
support everything I do as we'regetting further and further up
the ladder towards the, I guess 11,000 subscribers on YouTube

(01:24):
and close to 1000 subscribers for Spotify.
So I'm happy about that. Anyway, today we're going to
look at another thing from Polyhedron Magazine, but we're
going to go a little further back this time.
And my, and just before I continue with this, now when I
do things for this podcast, I think some people get a little

(01:47):
confused that I'm only doing 1stedition and not second edition.
So when it comes to some of these things, sure, later on in
second edition, they may have modified or added or made
clarifications because you know,it's a different edition.
They have to do that. So anyway, Paulo Hugin 22 came
out in 1985. And if you were one of the kids

(02:11):
that was able to get this magazine delivered or newsletter
delivered to your house like I was able to do, my parents
didn't know exactly what this magazine was at first.
So I was able to get a lot of these to the home.
Wasn't that expensive either. I don't remember being that
expensive. But anyway, there is a on page

(02:32):
22, there is a bunch of new unofficial spells because
everything Apollo Hedra magazinewas kind of quote UN quote
unofficial or official. I don't know.
A lot of the stuff, it was a lotof test stuff, things it was
done by people for other people.So that's why I really liked

(02:53):
Polyhedron Magazine better than Dragon Magazine because of some
of the stuff that was in here. And it was, they have graphics
and stuff like Dragon magazine graphics images, but it was more
of a newsletter. So people would share it and
write things into it and they would include it.
So if it didn't work, well you know it's in this.

(03:16):
But there is a whole section here for unofficial spells for
clerks. New spells for clerks is saying
by John Pickens. The article has a whole bunch of
new spells. It starts off with one small
paragraph before getting into it.
Remember when you last tried to recharge your staff of striking
and couldn't figure out what spell to use?
Logic seems to dictate that all the listed magical items except

(03:39):
for artifacts and relics must have been made by some
spellcaster with a spell that produced the desired effect.
So here is the first of a seriesof articles giving unofficial
suggestions for what these forgotten spells may have been,
as well as a few extras in quotes to fill in the gaps.

(03:59):
So what I was looking at today was he added the spell to
clerics, which I was kind of surprised at and maybe not so
much surprised that. But you wouldn't think when it
came to spells and stuff like that, that a cleric would be
doing this spell. The heroism and the

(04:21):
superheroism, which are obviously potions which come up
in the Dungeon Masters Guide from I'm looking at it on page
126 and further along as well. Then there's also, you know, one
page 126, and it also comes up in our Arthur Canada as a potion

(04:43):
and stuff like that. They're just potions.
But like you said in the meeting, someone had to have
made this potion or cast a spellonto whatever.
It's a cleric. I was a little bit shocked
myself on that one. I would think it would be a
magic user doing this, doing thefact that the magic user would
deal with enchanting items and stuff.

(05:04):
But I guess a cleric would be A1casting this spell a la
basically a potion. It makes a little sense.
You know the clerics use their faith to inspire heroism inside
of a fighter class and it's subclasses only.

(05:24):
I don't like that it was just restricted to fighter classes
and subfighter classes. But I guess I I get it.
So going over the whole thing, it is a third level spell for
them and verbal, semantic and material 6 segments.
Duration is one round per level effective area.
Area of effect is one person is a third level spell and it reads

(05:47):
exactly how it is pretty much inthe Dungeon Masters Guide
because it is copying the potionexactly.
So this adds extra hit points onto you, so we'll go over it real
quick. The spell effects only in
Fighter class and fighter subclass, conferring a temporary
increase in life energy levels upon any such individual with

(06:11):
fewer than 10 levels of experience, including zero level
men at arms. The amount of increase is shown
below and it has a three column chart here depending on the
level of the person and how manylevels of energy you would get,
and A10 sided dice for accumulated damage bestowed and

(06:34):
basically how much you would get.
The recipient fights as though an experience level bestowed
upon the magic for the duration of the spell.
Damage sustained is taken first from the magical game hit dice
and bonus points. The material component is a
cleric's holy symbol, and then the superheroism is 6 level
spell and it's 3 rounds per level.

(06:55):
Is the only difference 8 segments casting and it does up
to 12th level. Well, sorry, fewer than 13
levels of experience. I just want to put up to 12th
level. But, and it's the same thing how
much level of energy you would get if you were blah blah blah
blah. So if you were zero level, you
get 6 levels of experience on you.

(07:16):
So you'd be fighting as a six level fighter.
So yeah, whatever, but I always found it interesting that always
I found it interesting that thisis a cleric doing this.
So maybe some ways you can use this as a cleric is the party is
about to be overrun. The cleric cast heroism on a

(07:37):
recruit or one of the fighters in the party and give them an
edge just to hold the line long enough for reinforcements to
come arrive. When they're about to be
overrun. Maybe the guards are on the way
or someone ran to go get them. Maybe there is a gladiatorial

(07:57):
battle going on and a famous champion seems to constantly win
and fight well above his level. The truth is, he has a cleric
who is helping him in the shadows behind fixing fights.
Maybe the players have to investigate and figure out how
this is happening because this guy is fighting well beyond his

(08:19):
means. Little investigation story,
right? Let's see here.
I've just written down some moreideas.
OK, so let's look at it from this standpoint.
The hero potion and or spell. A fighter gets hooked on it like

(08:39):
it's a drug and the feeling of fighting at higher levels starts
and he starts taking bigger risks expecting this cleric to
always have this spell ready. And when he doesn't he gets, you
know, irritated and angry and hestarts badgering.
You know, he he needs this fix for the spell.
Maybe it comes with side effectsthat you know, if you don't take

(09:02):
it for a while you get angry or some side effects based on some
various drugs that people take. You as Adm can figure that part
out. Another idea I thought was much
like the gladiator secret one, but there is a high-ranking MPC,
evil MPC in the town and think of it he is like I want to say

(09:27):
he's the the best in town as faras dueling one-on-one battles
and he constantly wins all the time and he challenges people
and people fear him because he always wins.
Think of the I'm thinking of an Old West movie, the quick of the
dead. Quick in the dead, how Gene
Hackman was this badass and thatruled the town.
He was the mayor of the sheriff and he was also good at

(09:50):
one-on-one duels because he had an edge for whatever reason.
Well, the MPC of this town has this edge and he rules over them
with fear. And anybody that steps up to
challenge him can't beat him because he has this advisor that
quickly cast heroism on him, or superheroism in this case, and

(10:12):
he gets all these level boosts and boom, he wins.
So there's some ways you can usethis in your campaign other than
a boring just spell or something.
You can have your cleric quest for this spell.
Maybe he has to go on a pillage because he wants this spell from
his God when it comes to third level and the cleric, the higher

(10:37):
cleric and he watched it, the higher priest of his religion.
This is like, I'm not going to easily just give this to you.
I need you to perform a feat in the name of your God and prove
your heroism to get the heroism spell.
So I would yeah, pillage. Maybe you have to go to the
highest mountain and and defeat the lion in The Cave.

(11:01):
I don't wise the lion in The Cave, but defeat the lion in The
Cave at the highest mountain andbring back his head or something
weird like that. And that'll prove to your God
that you serve in a heroic manner and in his name you
defeated this evil beast and since you did that, you are

(11:23):
worthy of this hero spell. And then he pretty much grants
him the ability to have this spell going forward.
And I'm spitballing ideas here. Now that I'm thinking about it,
it could be done for so many different ways.
I like the idea of a cleric questing for certain spells.

(11:45):
Like certain spells, yeah, fine.I grunt this spell upon you when
you reach this level. You know this.
The high priest does that to youfor the first couple of levels,
and you gain it. But then I like the idea of when
it gets to a certain point and it's a certain spell that you
would be like, yes, you need to quest for that spell.
And he sends the party out on a side adventure or a campaign

(12:09):
hook for the evening. And boom, you have now something
for the party to do. Because we all know that while
this spell is for the cleric, it's going to benefit the party
because it's benefiting the fighters in the party.
So everybody has a reason other than the rogue or the thief to

(12:30):
go. But the thief is going to go for
pure adventure and just whatevergold he can find out there.
Because, you know, as a thief, you're definitely greedy.
So that's why you're a thief, because you're stealing stuff
and wanting to become rich when you get stuff.
But yeah, there's different. There's so many things that you
could possibly do when it comes to spells, this heroism spell.

(12:52):
I'm sure there'll be people in the comments that'll have other
ideas on Facebook, Facebook, Wowon YouTube.
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(13:13):
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(13:33):
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(13:56):
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(14:19):
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well. All right, I think I've gone
long enough for today on Friday's episode.
Hopefully you have a great weekend.
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(14:41):
I'm going to head out Kee it original.
Kee it old school tonight.