Some Variant Spells

About a week ago was I chatting with Pat (@MountainFoot), @wereoctopus and Luka (@StratoMetaShip) on Twitter about spell variants. Matt Colville recently just did a bunch of rules for Wizard’s towers and funky spell variants, but they were like 7 pages long, hit and miss and a lot of effort. I thought I would bash out a couple of weird spell variants.

Here was the example we were discussing: 

Menress’ Frozen Portal: Functions as Hold Portal, only the held door is frozen shut.

And here are 9 more. Some muck around with the spell’s level, which make it different to the 5e version (that was the only Player Handbook I have in front of me). Cantrip refers to infinite use. You effectively trade a known spell for a trait or feature: 

Herins’ Illusive Step (1st Level): Functions as Misty Step, but only allows you to move a space within 5ft of a light source, such as a lit torch, lantern or candle.

Jericho’s Spectral Bowshot: Functions as Magic Missile, but darts are instead arrows fired from a ghostly bow. 

Usidore’s Specific Birdsong (Cantrip):  Functions as Speak With Animals, but only works with one particular species of bird chosen upon learning the spell, such as robins, geese or pigeons.

Yorow’s Flaming Breath: Functions as Burning Hands, but fire spurts from the mouth, not the hands. 

Harold’s Expeditious Summary (3rd Level): Functions as Legend Lore, but only works on the contents of a book held in your hand, providing a brief summary of its contents.  

Geera’s Ill-Planned Invisibility (1st Level): Functions as Invisibility, but only works while the target is singing loudly. 

Usidore’s Conspiracy of Birds: Functions as Cloudkill, but deals Piercing Damage instead of Poison Damage as a swarm of birds are summoned to attack the target area. Also deals damage even the creature does not need to breath.

Patricia’s Revealing Orb (2nd Level): Functions as Chromatic Orb, but also leaves a light source that lasts a minute at the target location, equivalent to the light created by a torch.

Theodore’s Wave of Frost: Functions as Thunderwave, but deals Cold Damage instead of 

Thunder Damage as an icy wind knocks nearby target to the ground. Instead of the audible boom, the rush of unnaturally cold wind can be felt up to 300 feet away.