Mutating Your Spells

Normal spell mutation incurs one roll on the main 2d20 chart. That chart may instruct you to roll on the subsequent two charts or roll additional times. For the purposes of tallying mutations, Good-Boring mutations are counted with their accompanying Drawback as a single mutation.

Spell Mutation Main Chart (roll 2d20, add them)

2. Roll on the Drawbacks table.
3. Death Burst: When you die, you may cast this spell immediately with extra MD equal to your amount of wizard-equivalent templates x 4.
4. Inevitable: If you have in your possession something belonging to your target, you can burn it to target them from infinite range without line of sight, the magic will slip between the tectonic plates, crack the barriers between worlds to reach their target. It is impossible to hide from the spell, but it may be stopped by adequate protection.
The target knows who hunts them and where the spell was cast.
5. Gorgon: After a gorgon spell is cast, the invested MD are occupied until a creature sees the caster, at which point they are immediately made the target of the spell, range disregarded.
6. Discovery: When cast, the caster learns one non-obvious thing about the target.
7. Transportation: 1-3: The caster is teleported to the target of the spell, after its initial effects have been resolved. 4-6: Target teleported to caster.
8. Trigger: Whenever you cast this spell, define a condition that also defines a potential target should that condition occur. Lastly, select an inanimate object no larger than an elephant, the spell is bound to that object and will be cast from that object as soon as the condition holds true. The invested MD are occupied, unless you use 25 GP’s worth of magical ingredients per invested MD.
9. Spellborn Homunculus: Your spell becomes a person.  They are neutral towards you. Roll a random personality and goals. They can cast themselves 1/day. They start with 1 MD, and can gain more.
10. Cross-pollination: The next time it is cast, the spell permanently incorporates some aspect of 1. The caster 2. A random spell in/on the caster 3. The target 4. A random spell in/on the target 5. The next thing to touch the spell after the target. 6. The most powerful creature in the area.
11. Peanut Gallery: All players present collectively come up with something new and fun.
    * "The spell is lured by the smell of chocolate"
    * "The spell gives good artistic advice when memorised"
    Go with something that makes the GM or the caster laugh or scream.
12. Phase: Phase out of space and time for [dice] turns after you cast the spell, but before it resolves.
13. Curse: same as 8, but can only target a creature instead of an inanimate object.
14. New Flavor:  The spell changes elements or orientations.  Fireball becomes lightningball, protection from evil becomes protection from good, charm person becomes charm bird (or perhaps infuriate person), web becomes freedom of movement.
15. Counter: If a spell is cast within sight, you can immediately cast this spell at that target as a counter before it resolves.
16. Wild: Whenever you cast the spell, roll on this table and use that mutation for this one cast. (If this introduces too many extra rolls, replace it with Protean: change the mutation at each dawn.)
17. Breeding:  Your spell has just given birth.  This newborn spell is a weaker version of its parent, but after being cast 5 times it will have grown to adulthood.  Roll a d100 to see if it has mutated from it's parent breed (the same as encountering a new spell in the wild). This is not a permament mutation applied to the parent, but more of a singular event.
18. Ritual: If the caster spends 10 minutes casting the spell, the spell can either be cast with an extra MD or with a recovery range improved by 1, your choice.
19. Roll once each on the Good-Boring Table and Drawback Table
20. Roll again twice
21. Roll again twice
22. Roll again twice
23. Roll once each on the Good-Boring Table and Drawback Table
24. Proxy: You may choose to not cast the spell as normal, instead you invest MD as normal and target a creature to allow them to cast the spell instead of you once with all the invested MD. You can reclaim the MD at any point, but until you do, they count as occupied.
25. Cooperation: If other casters close hands with the Spellhost, they may pool their MD together for the Spellhost’s magic. In addition, each participant adds +1 to [sum], even non-casters.
26. Chain: After resolving the spell, if a miscast or doom occurs; cast the spell again with the duplicate MD’s for free on a new creature within sight.
27. Delayed: The spell can be cast and at a later date be unleashed as a free action, while doing so it occupies the invested MD. Multiple instances of the same spell cannot be delayed.
28. Recursive: You do not regain MD when casting this spell, instead any recovered MD are immediately spent on recasting the spell on the same target, repeating this effect until no MD remain.
29. Circumference: As the spell is cast, the caster is protected by a circle of visible energy drawn 5 feet around the caster, any creature that steps through the circle (including the caster) will have the spell re-cast at them, with the amount of previously invested MD added for free, after which the circle dissipates. The circle lasts for [dice] turns.
30. Blood: You can sacrifice 5 of your own HP to add up to one MD to the casting, if this MD resulted in recovery, regain HP equal to the dice’s result.
31. Full Sentience:  Your spell becomes fully sentient.  It talks to you.  Roll a random starting personality and goals.  If it is angry at you, it may refuse to be cast.  If it is especially pleased, it may enhance itself in a way that you request.  Spells enjoy being in your brain and seeing out your eyes.  They do not enjoy being in the spellbook, which is much like a jail.  They may request (or plot) their release, or the release of all your spells.
32. Familiar: Whenever the spell is cast, it manifests instead as a 1HD familiar with a shape embodying the spell’s theme, the spent MD are occupied until the familiar is destroyed, at which point the spell is cast. The familiar can be commanded to destroy itself. You can only have one active familiar per spell at a time.
33. Tribute: The spell can be cast with an extra MD as long as a sentient creature is sacrificed as part of its casting. The sacrifice has to be ritualistic and performed on a helpless target, just sacrificing an active combatant is not possible.
34. Soul: If the spell kills a creature with 1 HD or more, choose to recover or replace one MD. As long as that MD remains unused, you can communicate with their soul.
35. Name: If you can name your target, add an extra MD.
36. Necro: The spell can target corpses with an intact soul (dissipates after 13 minutes) and use it to fuel their spell. Each 2 HD or 1 level of the target creature allows you to add an extra MD, failed recovery rolls on the extra MDs causes a 3 necrotic damage backlash.
37. Cantrip: If you cast this spell investing only one MD, the MD always recovers.
38. Mimic: Before casting, this mutation can assume the effects of any mutation in one of your memorised spells.
39. Powerful: MD’s invested in this spell are rolled as D8’s, their recovery range is 1-4. This is the Philosopher’s Stone of Spellhosts, coveted by all and ruthlessly hunted.
40. Pick any entry on this chart of your choosing. If that entry has a random/indeterminate result, you can probably pick that too.

(2d6) Good-Boring Table

2. Hard:  Targets get -4 to their Save.
3. Subtle:  You can cast this spell quietly and without being noticed.
4. Improved Effect: The spell does more of whatever it does.  5d6 damage becomes 6d6, charm becomes obsession.
5. Improved Reach: Triple the range of the spell. If it was Touch, it becomes 30'.
6. Improved Area of Effect:  The spell affects a wider area, or more targets.
7. Negotiate! GM and players think of something not game-breaking but cool, including fusion. Or you can use this to get rid of a downside to the spell.
8. Improved Finesse.  You have more control over your spell.  You can create gaps in your fireball, or limit the damage, for example.
9. Improved Duration. Triple the duration.
10. Improved Applicability.  The spell affects a broader category of targets.  Charm person becomes charm biped.
11. Reliable: Roll an additional MD, and then exclude any single MD from resolving the effects. This can be used to avert mishaps/dooms.
12. Facile.  You can cast the spell as a free action.
 

(2d8) Drawbacks Table

2. Cancer: Reduces the amount of MD cast with this spell by one. Cancer cannot be removed or re-rolled through Spell Breeding, but it can be swapped to another spell, in which there is a 50% chance the cancer will duplicate and exist in both swapped spells.
3. Enemy of Farmers: Every time this spell is cast the nearest unborn animal rolls on the Physical Mutation chart.
4. Gadabout: Spell has a 50% chance of being present when wanted. Otherwise it's faffing about someplace.
5. Jealous: If the spell is the first spell you cast today, get the benefits of Reliable ONCE for the day. If not, the GM may force a reroll of any single MD invested in each cast for the day.
6. Clingy: The spell will not willingly relocate out of your head. Burn a MD to try to force it out, and Save to succeed.
7. Worsen: Pick a random numerical attribute of the spell and halve it.
8. Calling Card: The spell leaves very obvious and long-lasting evidence that it was cast, usually thematically particular to the associated caster when this mutation was gained.
9. Specificity: Spell's Target becomes more specific. "Charm Monster" becomes "Charm Smelly Monster" for example.
10. Center of Attention: The spell now gains a great deal of pyrotechnics and noise. While not necessarily damaging to be nearby, it is almost impossible to not notice.
11. Touch: The spell can only be cast while touching the target, but if you do, add one additional MD for free.
12. Finale: When this spell is cast, include 2 free MD. However, any available MD that the caster did NOT invest in this spell are rolled and the sum taken as damage by the caster.
13. Aphasia: While memorised, caster cannot verbalise anything except the spell's name or subsets thereof.
14. Parasitic: The spell is less choosy about where it lives, and progressively alters a host more to its liking. This is not healthy for the caster in the long-term, but they may be able to glean some benefit.

Spell: Mutate Spell

R: Touch (including in head); T: A spell;
Material components: 1gp of bribes and anaesthetic per MD invested
Effect: Target spell is mutated according to the result of a roll on the Mutate Spell chart. You must invest a minimum number of MD equal to the number of mutations the spell already has.

If you spend 100gp per MD invested (minimum 100gp), you may roll twice on the chart and pick the result you want.