[OD&D] Preloaded Spells for NPC Spellcasters

As mentioned in my last post, one of the main things that puts me on the backfoot when running OD&D is having classed NPC groups appear as wandering monsters. They're a crucial part of the feel of this edition of the game. They reinforce the fact that your classed PCs are not unique, and keep the stakes high by potentially having the party's own abilities come into play against them. 

Yet it's undeniable that they come with admin which can feel like 'cheating' if you wing it. Chief among these admin issues is which spells an NPC spellcaster might have memorised (or perhaps in their spellbook - though for this post I'm assuming the former). This gives me analysis paralysis in prep, and feels wrong to handwave during play.

Vapourising a PC party because an NPC party has fireballs feels like something that should always be a threat, but not something that happened because of an ill-considered whim of the Dungeon Master. So I cobbled together this system to determine what they're packin'.

First I roll to see the type of spell preloads the NPCs will have. These preloads only roughly determine the spellcaster's arsenal. Think of them of the 'flavour' of spellcaster.

Then I roll a d4 or d3 as appropriate on each Spell Level (SL) row until the spellcaster's slots for their level are accounted for.

SPELL PRELOAD TYPE

	Magic Users (d4)	Cleric (d3)
1	Major Offensive	Offensive
2	Minor Offensive	Utility
3	Utility	Esoteric
4	Esoteric	/

MAGIC USER: MAJOR OFFENSIVE

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Sleep	Charm Person	Hold Portal	Read Magic
SL2	Knock	Detect Invisible	ESP	Locate Object
SL3	Fireball	Lightning Bolt	Hold Person	Protection / Normal Missiles
SL4	Wall of Fire or Ice (50%)	Polymorph Others	Polymorph Self	/
SL5	Cloudkill	Conjure Elemental	Teleport	/

MAGIC USER: MINOR OFFENSIVE

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Charm Person	Sleep	Detect Magic	Hold Portal
SL2	Detect Invisible	Knock	Invisibility	Detect Evil
SL3	Hold Person	Protection / Normal Missiles	Lightning Bolt	Slow Spell
SL4	Confusion	Hallucinatory Terrain	Passwall	/
SL5	Feeblemind	Animate Dead	Wall of Stone	/

MAGIC USER: UTILITY

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Detect Magic	Light	Hold Portal	Read Magic
SL2	Levitate	Knock	Locate Object	Phantasmal Forces
SL3	Clairvoyance	Water Breathing	Dispel Magic	Fly
SL4	Massmorph	Polymorph Self	Growth / Plant	/
SL5	Transmute Rock To Mud	Telekinesis	Animate Dead	/

MAGIC USER: ESOTERIC

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Charm Person	Sleep	Protection/Evil	Read Magic
SL2	ESP	Continual Light	Locate Object	Wizard Lock
SL3	Fly	Dispel Magic	Haste Spell	Hold Person
SL4	Polymorph Self	Dimension Door	Remove Curse	/
SL5	Magic Jar	Contact Higher Plane	Teleport	/

CLERIC: OFFENSIVE

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Protection / Evil*	Cure Light Wounds*	Light*	Cure Light Wounds*
SL2	Hold Person	Bless*	Find Traps	Bless*
SL3	Continual Light*	Cure Disease*	Continual Light*	Locate Object
SL4	Cure Serious Wounds*	Prot/Evil 10'*	Cure Serious Wounds*	Sticks To Snakes
SL5	Raise Dead*	Dispel Evil*	Insect Plague	Raise Dead*

CLERIC: UTILITY

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Detect Magic	Cure Light Wounds*	Purify Food / Water	Light*
SL2	Find Traps	Speak w / Animals	Bless*	Hold Person
SL3	Remove Curse	Cure Disease*	Locate Object	Continual Light*
SL4	Neutralize Poison	Create Water	Speak w / Plants	Protection / Evil 10'*
SL5	Create Food	Commune	Quest	Dispel Evil*

CLERIC: ESOTERIC

	1	2	3	4
SL1	Detect Magic	Purify Food/Water*	Detect Evil*	Protection / Evil*
SL2	Find Traps	Hold Person	Bless*	Speak w / Animals
SL3	Remove Curse	Locate Object	Cure Disease*	Locate Object
SL4	Speak w / Plants	Neutralize Poison	Speak w / Plants	Sticks To Snakes
SL5	Create Food	Raise Dead	Commune	Quest

 

As always when I'm talking about OD&D, I'm referring to the 3LBB and so only spells from Men & Magic will be referenced here. You also won't see 6th level spells here because the highest level MU on the OD&D wandering monster chart is Wizards, which I interpreted literally as being 'only' 11th level spellcasters. Also, have used '/' as re-rolls for Magic Users, but have added duplicate entries for several Cleric spells to increase the likelihood of them turning up (such as with Cure X Wounds).

Also I assume Chaotic Clerics are always carrying the reversed versions of spells marked *