What Would Spells in the Stone Age be Like?

What would spells look like in the Stone Age? A question about modifying D&D spells to work for an ancient setting leads us down the road to Planegea.
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[@kutalyl7153]

You'll need a stoneage artificer to make a bow or a boomerang

[@timhaldane7588]

Thumbs up for the thumbnail image alone.

[@achimsinn6189]

conjure animals - having control over animals would fit very well to a stoneage magicuser plant growth - again having a connection to nature would fit the theme cloud kill, fog cloud and similar spells: Could be achieved by magic, but could also be some natural incrediants combined bythe shaman to create the clouds commune - this one would be my idea for the shaman talking to the spirits

[@Blu3W4r10Ck]

1. magic pebbles 2. conjure spark 3. summon grug Grugmancery yes please. All dice should be knucklebones. Healing is a combination of rubbing "magical" dirt and spit on a wound.

[@timhaldane7588]

I foresee a lot of rituals. Rituals to influence the weather. Sacrifice rituals to gain the favor of angry spirits. Sympathetic magic rituals that give "Shamanic inspiration" for the hunt. Also lots of totems and figures.

[@garvinanders2355]

A prehistoric wizard, instead of having a spellbook, their familiar (maybe more than one?) whispers their daily spells to them as they sleep and must make alliances with spirits and arcane creatures that will cast spells for him or loan him specific abilities and powers. Sort of warlocky I know, but the idea is each spirit only gives you one spell so it's not as intense a relationship as a warlock and their patron. Hell if a GM wanted to, you could get into how the two groups split with the invention of writing.

[@seleckt6600]

The lowest of fantasies

[@craiggehlert]

ooooo..i want to play plangea

[@thebigdork8030]

I kinda see two ways to go about it, and maybe two different classes or 2 halves of the progression of the shaman class. 1 way or the first half is the natural phenomena - its very clever and there's tons of interesting things in nature that we take for granted that would spook a caveman. You'd have to be more strict with materials for the spells ofc. But stuff like using kindling and flint to create fire, medicinal herbs to create healing magic and even "illusions" with smoke and echoes. This would represent the lower end of the magic in the setting or the magic that wizaard-analogues have access to. The 2nd half is the scary nasty stuff where you're calling on the power of actual gods, demons and primordials to give you power. Conan style "Magic is inherently corrupting and evil", and the rare few shamans who wield this true power are terrifying legends of the pre-historic. So this would be the 2nd half of the magic progression where a player stumbled into some dark altar or something, or a warlock-analogue where they were contacted by some outer god. Of course there's always the Dragonlance idea of having there being clerics in the setting but no "true" clerics. So the player begins as a regular shaman pulling his medicine man thing while worshiping a silent god, then once he reaches a certain level or milestone, the god lends them their aid in recognition of their fealty, giving them real miracles and cleric spells. So that's a third class or third split for the Shaman.

[@MrMuddyWheels]

Shaman would be the catch all for spellcasters. And the knowledge of it would be less advanced than the usual d&d setting

[@nervousdisposition7150]

yeah I feel like since it's a proto-magic feel, you could have shaman as a sublcass that encompases all spellcasters, and sublcasses to flavour them towards sorcerer, wizard, druid etc. but the inital class should have a mix of spells from all of them - thorn whip, thaumaturgy, cure wounds, green flame blade etc. would all fit in really well

[@krinkrin5982]

@@nervousdisposition7150 I almost want to say to get rid of almost all arcane magic, and leave only divine magic in. After all, divine magic comes from communing with nature or powerful beings, while arcane magic comes from wrestling the power to your will. Sorcerers would be the only arcane casters, extremely rare and feared as aberrant for their magic does not come from 'natural' sources.

[@nervousdisposition7150]

@@krinkrin5982 i mean druids would totally fit in still with what you said about communing with nature as well. I feel like it'd be cool to narrow down the classes into simplified versions to fit the theme, but also removing some entire classes and not others is probably just not a good move game-design wise since it might punish a player who really wanted to do a wizard

[@krinkrin5982]

@@nervousdisposition7150 Thing is, traditional wizard doesn't really fit with the setting. Removing and changing whole classes isn't anything new, and shouldn't be a problem as long as it's clearly communicated during session 0. If you want to retain the wizard as an option, one of the possibilities is changing the class so that your magic comes from special tattoos inscribed upon your flesh rather than any spellbook equivalents, and you need to trace them with sacred ointments every morning to imbue them with power (representing spell preparation).

[@nervousdisposition7150]

@@krinkrin5982 yea that's true, I just think re-skinning the classes to fit would be easy enough. If it was me as a DM, I'd want to give my players the flexibility to play around. Imagine a divination wizard whose consulting bones and entrails for their portent dice!

[@janthummler3548]

Woah, what a cool topic!