I’ve been thinking about using ACKS for a potential campaign and have been going through the spell list with a fine tooth comb - magic has always probably been the most problematic part of D&D in my experience, and I’m looking at a couple of things - trying to quash “outliers” in the spell list and also I’m looking for advice on how to arbitrate certain spells.
Firstly, I’ve I’ve been trying to get slightly more “level appropriate” spells using the Player’s Companion spell creation rules, after being inspired by this thread. In it, a new statblock for the sleep spell is proposed to bring it more into line with other first level options (changes in bold):
Slumber - targets 1 creature of 4+1HD or 2d8 HD of creatures up to 4HD, affects creatures with fewest HD first, range 60’, duration 12 rounds, saving throw avoids spell
Here’s a couple of attempts at bringing Fireball and Lightning Bolt back into line:
Standard Fireball
1d6/level fire, 20’ sphere, 90’ range, save v. blast half (cost 32.4),
or
1d6/level fire, 15’ sphere, 180’ range, save v. blast half (total cost 33.4)
Standard Lightning Bolt
1d6/level lightning, 60’x5’ line, 120’ range, save v. blast half (total cost 31.8)
or
1d6+1/level lightning, 60’x5’ line, 60’, save v. blast half (total cost 30.3)
As far as I can tell, a good chunk of the extra “cost” for these spells comes from the extra range increments, which probably ends up mattering a lot less before the “army level” tier of play (240 feet is probably overkille for the confines of most dungeons).
This suits me just fine, and allows me to include the original versions of sleep, fireball, and lightning bolt as useful treasures that the PCs can aim for later, assuming domainal play is every reached. Are there any other notable outliers in the book, and if so, do they follow similar progressions?