“So, dear.” With Harriet performatively busying herself going through the boxes of provisions and checking for anything hidden, Cassandra turned to her husband once more. “Since you’ve already picked them, what spells did you pick? I’m guessing Shield of Faith for one of them, and Cure Wounds?”
Shield of Faith
1st-level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small parchment with a bit of holy text written on it)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
A shimmering field appears and surrounds a creature of your choice within range, granting it a +2 bonus to AC for the duration.
Cure Wounds
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
A creature you touch regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.
“You know me, honey.” Jason beamed at his wife. “I also picked up Detect Poison and Disease—”
Detect Poison and Disease
1st-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a yew leaf)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
For the duration, you can sense the presence and location of poisons, poisonous creatures, and diseases within 30 feet of you. You also identify the kind of poison, poisonous creature, or disease in each case. The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Rituals
Certain spells have a special tag: ritual. Such a spell can be cast following the normal rules for spellcasting, or the spell can be cast as a ritual. The ritual version of a spell takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal. It also doesn't expend a spell slot, which means the ritual version of a spell can't be cast at a higher level. To cast a spell as a ritual, a spellcaster must have a feature that grants the ability to do so. The cleric and the druid, for example, have such a feature. The caster must also have the spell prepared or on his or her list of spells known, unless the character's ritual feature specifies otherwise, as the wizard's does.
“—and I made a spell for my fourth one.”
“You made a spell.” Cassandra and Harriet both stared at the man, boggling, but it was Harriet who spoke. “You, Dad, the guy who isn’t even joking when you say that you married Mom so she could do all the thinking for you. You made your own spell?”
“Yeah!” His smile grew wistful, and he stepped forward to hug her. “I just thought of what your mother and I kept telling you, kiddo. You should always ask for what you want, just in case the answer is yes. And there were these ideas floating around that I sort of couldn’t touch, in a weird way, like they were part of a handbook that wouldn’t open for me, and there was a spell called Divine Favor—”
Divine Favor
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Your prayer empowers you with divine radiance. Until the spell ends, your weapon attacks deal an extra 1d4 radiant damage on a hit.
“—that wasn’t what I wanted. So I sort of put them together like I was doing a jigsaw, and asked for what I did want? And I got something this place is calling Impactful Smites.”
Impactful Smites
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Whenever you hit with a melee weapon attack and activate your Divine Smite ability, your weapon strikes with an additional impact, dealing an extra 1d8 Radiant damage and 1d8 damage of your weapon’s type to the target. If you use a higher level spell slot to cast this spell, add 1d8 Radiant damage and 1d8 damage of your weapon’s type for every two spell level slots, rounded down.
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Casting a Spell at a Higher Level
When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting. For instance, if Umara casts magic missile using one of her 2nd-level slots, that magic missile is 2nd level. Effectively, the spell expands to fill the slot it is put into.
Some spells, such as magic missile and cure wounds, have more powerful effects when cast at a higher level, as detailed in a spell's description.
Harriet and Cassandra whistled in contrapuntal unison. “So for now,” the Sorceress observed, “that’s a way to double up on your Smite. But when you get more levels, it’ll boost every hit. That’s an incredible spell.”
“Good job, Dad.”
Jason blushed outright, looking as though he were torn between preening under the attention and drawing into himself out of embarrassment. “So,” he said by way of deflection, “what did you get, dearest?”
“Another spell known,” she said, allowing him to change the subject. “Plus my first level spells go from two to three per… long rest, I guess? Yeah. Per long rest. And I’m at 10 HP now. For my new spell, I was thinking of grabbing Sleep, but I decided that our problem really isn’t going to be killing our enemies. So I picked up Feather Fall.”
Feather Fall
1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you or a creature within 60 feet of you falls
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, M (a small feather or piece of down)
Duration: 1 minute
Choose up to five falling creatures within range. A falling creature's rate of descent slows to 60 feet per round until the spell ends. If the creature lands before the spell ends, it takes no falling damage and can land on its feet, and the spell ends for that creature.
“Thank you, Mom!” Harriet chirped delightedly.
“You seem… really happy about that choice?”
“Mom. Mom! We’re in a set of caves in a mine. Oh my god do I not want to fall to my death again.”
“Again?” Harriet’s father turned slowly to look at her. “I don’t remember the first time…”
“Yeah, I, uh.” The girl shrugged uncomfortably. “I needed to get down a cliff in a hurry and I had a sort of Phoenix thing going on? So it’s not like I stayed dead. But it… wasn’t fun.” She was enfolded in a hug an imperceptible moment later, and didn’t bother pretending she was unhappy about that fact. “Anyway,” she mumbled into her dad’s wrist, “you’ve gotta have gotten something else, Mom. So spill the beans.”
“I have to have gotten something else?” She quirked an eyebrow at her daughter, and then shrugged, smiling. “Well, you aren’t wrong. I got something called… Font of Magic, which comes with Sorcery Points and Flexible Casting.”
Font of Magic
At 2nd level, you tap into a deep wellspring of magic within yourself. This wellspring is represented by sorcery points, which allow you to create a variety of magical effects.
Sorcery Points
You have 2 sorcery points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points column of the Sorcerer table. You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
Flexible Casting
You can use your sorcery points to gain additional spell slots, or sacrifice spell slots to gain additional sorcery points. You learn other ways to use your sorcery points as you reach higher levels.
Creating Spell Slots: You can transform unexpended sorcery points into one spell slot as a bonus action on your turn. The Creating Spell Slots table shows the cost of creating a spell slot of a given level. You can create spell slots no higher in level than 5th. Any spell slot you create with this feature vanishes when you finish a long rest.
Spell Slot Levels | Sorcery Point Cost
1st | 2
2nd | 3
3rd | 5
4th | 6
5th | 7
Converting a Spell Slot to Sorcery Points: As a bonus action on your turn, you can expend one spell slot and gain a number of sorcery points equal to the slot's level.
“That,” Jason said firmly, “sounds absolutely wonderful, and I’m sure you’ll do great things with it.”
“That,” Harriet said thoughtfully, “is kinda cool. I mean, right now you only have first level slots, so all it’s doing for you is giving you a fourth one, right? But once you level up again, it’ll give you some flexibility around, like, which spells you want to cast? But what’s the whole ‘other ways’ thing?”
“Metamagic,” Cassandra said with a shrug. “I’m not going to worry about it yet, since it’s not unlocked for me yet. We’ve got too much to deal with right now.”
“It’s true!” The girl perked up, pulling a treasure chest out from inside the nest of boxes. “Like how we’re going to get all this bulky junk back to the Short Drop Falls Mines headquarters, or what we’re going to do to get our numbers going up next!”
“Our… numbers?” Jason blinked owlishly at his daughter.
“She means our levels, dear,” Cassandra said gently. “Experience, damage, that sort of thing. She wants to get stronger, because of course she does.”
“Stonks,” Harriet agreed. “Line goes up and to the right.”
“I don’t think we need to worry about the boxes,” Jason said firmly, as though the previous sentence had never been uttered—though the effect was spoiled by his indulgent smile. “They didn’t ask us to find them or bring them back. But we haven’t found the man we initially set out to find, have we?”
“Of course not.” Cassandra shrugged when both of the others looked her way. “He’s the ongoing plot hook, right? Besides, this was a setup, he was never here to find.”
“Can you… explain, Mom?”
“I’m honestly a little disappointed, kiddo.” She shook her head, smiling grimly. “He didn’t have a name, you got your troublemaking bonus, and do you think for a second that Mhann would remember who that Dwarf was? Weiz barely remembers the names of people who work under him at the Institute, and he runs the place.”
“I bet he remembers your name,” Jason asserted amiably. “I can’t blame him for his reasons, either, apparently.”
“Yes! Yes, he remembers my name! Per the backstory I loaded into this stupid, apparently sexist world with, he remembers my name because he wants into my Charismafied dresses, which I’ve bitched about to both of you in a past that never happened.”
“So why,” Harriet said with the sound of dawning understanding, “didn’t he send you a Sending?”
“And why did he have the same snake motif going on as the Priest and Acolytes?”
“And why are there like literally hundreds of pennies in this treasure chest? I feel absolutely robbed.” The Ranger grinned at her parents unrepentantly as they stared at her. “Hey, priorities! Anyway, what’s the plan?”
“Head back,” Cassandra said. “Find out what the foreman’s deal was, find out if Mook has a Sending scroll, get paid.”
“But first,” Jason said, nodding over to the fourth person in the room, “we ask hobgoblin to share some information.”
“Oh,” the other two Claires said abashedly. “Right. That.”