I just noticed something I have never noticed before. There is a spell called "Direct Magic" on p22 of the Greyhawk supplement, with a range of 6 and a duration of 2 turns. There is no description at all (which is why I missed it before, I suppose -- it looked like part of another spell description).
Moreover, even that range and duration are suspect because the ventriloquism spell just beneath it has precisely the same range and duration. In other words, one can only suppose that there was a spell called "Direct Magic" that was edited out or left out. Only the spell title remains (level 1 MU spell).
A mystery!
Has anyone ever mentioned this before on a message board or forum?
Huh. Good eyes. Google doesn't yield any relevant results.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't ring any bells. I'll see if my early printings of Greyhawk yield any further info or not.
ReplyDeleteAllan.
DuBeers suggests that it's a typo for Dectect magic, filling in the range and duration which were omitted in the White Box. That sounds plausible. It's still fun to speculate what it *might* have been, though.
ReplyDelete... and in my above comment I illustrate just how easy it is to make a typo when typing "Detect." Although my "dectect magic" spell isn't as interesting as "Direct Magic."
ReplyDeleteI agree with DuBeers. Note that in AD&D, Detect Magic has a range of 6 and a duration of 2 rounds/level, which fits, as long as you keep in mind that many spells had static durations in OD&D that became scalable durations in AD&D.
ReplyDeleteMy first guess was that it was a Detect Magic typo, and DuBeers sounds like his research collaborates that. I'll dig the early print Greyhawks out of the attic tomorrow, to see if any interesting tidbits are in them, Matt.
ReplyDeleteAllan.
It may be a typo, but it sounds interesting enough, and kicked the hamster into gear. I think I've come up with a plausible spell description for it:
ReplyDeletehttp://idungeoncrawl.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/direct-magic/