AD&D Spell Revision: Blink

In the course of preparing for my upcoming AD&D campaign, I've done... a lot, frankly. Much of it tedious. The process of digesting the 1e PHB and regurgitating it as a now 170-page document featuring setting and system rules, custom character creation, special notes on playing illusionists, and reformatted... everything... was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. 

Still, a lot of it was tedious. It's around two thirds spell lists by page count, and I had to reformat and spellcheck all of it. On the bright side that's done now, so I can benefit from the work of old me and get on to more interesting things. Or rather, it was done, until I got it into my head today to do a final revision of all the spell descriptions to clarify and cut down the text. That'll take me a while longer. 

For most of these, I'm just removing excess text (the bits written for people who were not assumed to have the now-ubiquitous background knowledge of how D&D works) and rephrasing some of the purple prose. Still, every now and again there's a spell that seems to require a little bit more than that. 

Case in point: Blink, 3rd level MU spell. The original text is lengthy, more than the spell deserves given that it's ultimately pretty simple. That said, simple is not the same as easy, and Blink's design made me do a double take when I really digested its description. 

Maybe I'm missing something. If so, point it out in the comments. But in exchange for a 3rd level spell, as well as a 25% chance that anything other than stabbing will fail and a not-inconsiderable chance of getting stuck in the ethereal plane (don't get too close to any cave walls!) you get to... not get hit by a non-area attack that happens to occur on a random segment? 

I get what this is going for. Moreso than many other spells I could name, Blink has an immediately evocative element for the visual imagination: I can imagine a wizard appearing and disappearing chaotically, becoming unpredictable and difficult to target. It's a concept that's at home both in pulpier sword and sorcery games and more superheroic ones. 

But the execution here doesn't deliver on that vision, nor on the expectations for the power of a third level spell. Fireball has been a meme since 1979, everyone at least wants access to it, anything else in that 3rd level list should, at minimum, have something that makes a prospective wizard say 'I can imagine a situation where I would really want to have this instead of a fireball.' Blink doesn't seem to pull that off. This is supposed to hold my attention next to Dispel Magic, Fly, Invisibility 10', and Tongues? Maybe that's why it got such a drastic redesign in the 2e PHB: arguably a downgrade, as I can't even understand what the hell the 2e version of Blink even does or how it works. 

As I'm writing this, I'm half convinced Anthony Huso is going to swing through the window on a rope and show me the hidden elegance and synergy of the spell... but only half convinced. I'm not quite so wedded to AD&D RAW (as my last post may hint), and wary though I am of tossing out some perfectly good design thanks to my own philistinism, I can't for the life of me figure out why this works the way it does. 

Each round, roll 2d4, that's the blink segment. On that segment, roll 1d8 for direction. Determine if something is going to stop you from teleporting 2' in that direction, figure out if that ends with you getting stuck in the ethereal plane. The spell text references the Monster Manual entry for Blink Dog, whose ability works pretty differently: it's just uncontrollable short range teleportation which is very likely to flank an opponent. Not really much of an improvement. 

It's doing several things which, whether you're playing with my specific combat/initiative rules or no, seem to break the flow of the game. It pencils in a new event on a different segment each round (which really needs to be managed by the DM, to make sure it doesn't get skipped over), and on that segment there has to be another die rolled and the state of the physical space has to be examined in pretty damn fine detail (almost nothing else in AD&D gets measured in individual feet, outside weapon lengths and Burning Hands) in a way that apparently presumes miniature play. And you might get randomly screwed, all in exchange for what really looks like a tiny benefit. 

I'm not buying it. 

So I dug out the old hat I used to wear back when this blog was known for hastily-constructed and totally unplaytested GLOG classes, the one labeled 'ill-considered homebrew' and shaped like Rita Repulsa's hair from the original Power Rangers, and made this. 

Blink (Alteration)

Level: 3    Components: V, S    

Range: 0     Casting Time: 1 segment    

Duration: 1 round/level     Saving Throw: None    

Area of Effect: Personal

    The spellcaster bridges the gap between the material and ethereal planes using their own body, becoming swifter and more elusive while surrendering to the chaotic eddies of the astral wind. 

    Each round after the blink spell is cast, the caster rolls two dice for initiative. The lower result is used for initiative, and is modified as normal. The higher result is added to the caster’s armor class and applicable saving throws for that round. This bonus does not apply to attacks by creatures and effects which can target both the material and ethereal planes, such as a medusa’s gaze.

(Worth noting, I use per-round initiative that determines the first effective segment of action, lower is better.) 

There we are. Short, to the point, fits the fantasy of the spell better. I think it's a good fit for a third level spell and shouldn't be overly potent. The defensive bonus is variable, fitting the chaotic nature of the spell, and even on the high end I don't think it's excessive. It's sort of like a Shield spell, except it doesn't block Magic Missiles but also doesn't take into account direction and improves saves more; for a dextrous or otherwise well protected spellcaster the AC bonus is superior to Shield, but inferior for a clumsy and/or unarmored one, while lasting only a fifth as long (still probably long enough to outlast most combats). The improvement to initiative is nice but doesn't seem like it should cause any problems. 

And all of this is rolled into one extra rolled die, which gives the player of the spellcaster an immediate, tangible feeling of the benefit the spell provides, while requiring no extra bandwidth on the DM's part and not slowing down combat, except possibly clarifying what counts as an 'applicable' saving throw and reminding players which monsters can attack the ethereal simultaneously. 

It'll probably be some months before I even have a chance to playtest this. Ah, the heady and carefree days of youth!