Unofficial New Cantrips for AD&D® Contrarian, June 24, 1998June 13, 2025 I actually have about five dozen "new" AD&D spells sitting in my personal database, but I’m not going to share those until I buy the entire Wizard’s Spell Compendium, and make sure none of my creations are redundant with those hundreds of spells that are now official. Publishing such spells would be a real waste of your time (and mine). So until then, I’m going to waste our time by publishing some spells I’m sure won’t be redundant, because they’re only meant for AD&D First Edition campaigns. That’s right: I’m putting a bunch of useless new cantrips on the Web. I have no shame. For those you who weren’t paying attention in the 1980s, just can’t remember, or aren’t even old enough to have been there the first time around, cantrips, in the AD&D First Edition, were zero-level magic-user (and/or illusionist) spells. (Characters could choose to memorized four cantrips in lieu of one first-level spell and cast two cantrips per round.) Cantrips had very minor effects, but they could be useful if a player was clever enough. For some reason, cantrips amused me, so I wrote some. Here they are, along with some general notes on zero-level spells. (In AD&D Second Edition, zero-level spells have gone the way of the thief-acrobat and the Hierophant Druid, subsumed into one first-level spell. Cantrip requires players and Dungeon Masters™ to wing it when determining the limits and effects of cantrips. If you hate winging it, you can always use these cantrips (and the official ones, of course), as guidelines for what the cantrip spell can do.) Please keep in mind that I was 16 (at most) years old when I wrote these, so some of the prose may seem stilted. (Not to mention some of the ideas being just plain silly.) Rather than rewrite everything, I’ll occasionally throw in a "10 Years Later" section to try to explain what I was thinking. New Cantrips List Bloodtype Blunt Call Toss Clot Clue Cobweb Cointoss Evil Eye Eyeglow Fade Hone Pop Scarab Windspeed New Cantrip Descriptions Bloodtype (Divination) Type: Useful Area of Effect: One sample of blood Casting Time: 1/2 segment The bloodtype cantrip allows the caster to determine what kind of creature (and what sex of creature) a sample of blood came from. If the caster has sampled a specific creature’s blood before, he may compare samples to determine if blood came from a specific creature. The caster must be reasonably familiar with the type of creature whose blood is sampled; if for instance, the caster does not know what a beholder is, then bloodtype is completely useless on beholder blood. The somatic component of bloodtype is the act of touching the blood; the verbal component requires invoking the names of obscure magical hemogoblins. (10 Years Later: Boy, did my spellchecker hate that joke. I added four Divination cantrips, because the rulebook cantrip list didn’t have any. I actually considered adding Divination as a new Type, but finally decided that Divination cantrips all belonged in the Useful group.) Blunt (Alteration) Type: Reversed Area of Effect: One blade Casting Time: 1/2 segment This is the reverse of the hone cantrip. Casting it will dull a blade slightly. While it has no effect on combat, it may effect small tools’ ability to cut as well or lower the sale value of a blade. The caster must slide the blade against a smooth surface while saying tsk, tsk several times. Call Toss (Divination) Type: Useful Area of Effect: One coin Casting Time: 1/10 segment A cantrip of this sort allows a caster to predict the result of a random coin toss while the coin is still in the air. It will also reveal if a coin is "loaded" or in some other way modified to create a result. If both cointoss and call toss are cast on the same coin, they cancel each other out. Like cointoss itself, call toss will not work on magical coins. The verbal component of this spell is the word kallngit, spoken while pointing at the coin. Clot (Alteration) Type: Person-affecting Area of Effect: 1 wound Casting Time: 1/2 segment This cantrip is used to stop a wound from bleeding. The spell does not cure any damage, but does prevent any furthur bleeding damage such as that caused by a Major Wound (Wilderness Survival Guide, p.70). It also reduces the chance of infection by 5%. The verbal is the magic word porbaybi. The somatic component is moving the hands as if wrapping the wound with a bandage. (10 Years Later: A cantrip that’s completely useless in campaigns that don’t use the Wilderness Survival Guide. I don’t even think I used the WSG that much. Originally, I put this in the Useful cantrips, but then realized that none of the original Useful cantrips were intended for use on a person. Does this cantrip step on the toes of clerical magic? Maybe, but then, so does Resurrection. I figure if it doesn’t actually restore hit points, it’s consistant with precedent, however flawed that precedent may be.) Clue (Divination) Type: Useful Area of Effect: 20-foot radius Casting Time: 1/3 segment This cantrip is used by mages to help them find some vital tip-off that they may have missed. The spell gives the caster a +1 bonus to any one ability check (usually Intelligence or Wisdom) to notice something. The somatic and verbal component is the caster "holding" his chin with his thumb and fore-finger while invoking the elemental dir-watson. (10 Years Later: Some of these verbal components are just too precious, aren’t they? I was just trying to follow Gygax’s lead. Honest.) Cobweb (Evocation) Type: Personal Area of Effect: 1 square foot Casting Time: 1/3 segment A cantrip of this sort creates a small patch of webbing as would be made by a common household spider. The webbing is thin, will not obscure vision unless cast directly on someones face, and is easily torn. It may stop very small insects, and serves as a possible counter to cantrips such as bee, bug, or gnats. The verbal component (the magical word sharl-et) is verbalized as the caster spreads his hand over the area to be cobwebbed. Cointoss (Aleration) Type: Legerdemain Area of Effect: One coin Casting Time: 1/10 segment This cantrip allows the caster to control the result of a cointoss. It will not work on a coin that is in anyway already magical (even a Nystul’s magic aura will disrupt the spell). The caster must point to the coin in the air while stating the result s/he desires. Evil Eye (Charm) Type: Person-affecting Area of Effect: One person Casting Time: 1/2 segment This cantrip allows a caster to put an small, but intimdating charm on his victim. The subject of an evil eye receives a -1 penalty to any morale checks made in the 10 minutes following the evil eye. A bard’s singing will instantly negate the effects of this cantrip. (10 Years Later: evil eye was part of an attempt to add some "witchy" spells (to my campaign) that were based on Medieval European witchlore. I like my campaigns to seem "Old World", you know? Evil Eye didn’t have much to do in a standard AD&D campaign, but if I’d been running a Ravenloft™ campaign, I’d probably have had it affect Fear or Horror checks instead of morale.) Eyeglow (Illusion) Type: Minor Illusion Area of Effect: Caster Casting Time: 1/10 segment This cantrip causes the caster eyes to glow with an earie yellow light for two seconds (1/3 segment). It has no ill effect on the caster or anyone else, but may cause some to believe some other spell has been cast. Fade (Alteration) Type: Reversed Area of Effect: 1 cubic yard Casting Time: 1/6 segment This reverse of the color cantrip bleachs out the color of an object. Such an effect lasts 30 days. This cantrip will also instantly negate a color cantrip. The caster of this cantrip must act as though s/he is sprinkling something on the item to be affected while saying a magical word such as klorox. (10 Years Later: This is a reversed version of an official cantrip. I probably wrote it as an exercise in game logic. I did that a lot back then. It’s not a good design habit, and I don’t recommend it these days. The more things you do because of “game logic,” the farther you get from having a game that can tell human stories.) Hone (Alteration) Type: Useful Area of Effect: One blade Casting Time: 1/2 segment This cantrip will sharpen a dull blade, including all swords, daggers, spear-heads, etc. It gives no bonus to hit or damage, it merely simulates normal upkeep of a blade. The caster must slide his finger across the blades edge while verbalizing a shish sound. Pop (Evocation) Type: Haunting Sound Area of Effect: Special Casting Time: 1/4 segment This cantrip creates a small "pop!" noise where the caster points. The pop can be heard for 10 feet in all directions. The caster must vocalize a very small pop noise of his own while pointing to where he wishs the sound to originate from. Scarab (Necromancy) Type: Personal Area of Effect: One insect Casting Time: 1/2 segment This rare example of a necromantic cantrip creates a semblance of unlife in single dead beetle. Necromancy is a difficult school of magic, and this cantrip is notoriously undependable. The undead scarab has 1 hp, moves 2 feet per round, and only remains animated for 1d6 hours before crumbling to dust. The scarab is easily turned; any character with a holy symbol can chase the undead insect away, and any cleric can destroy it with a turning attempt. (10 Years Later: I’ve never been really happy with this spell, but I really wanted a necromantic cantrip in the spell list. After all, how are magic-users going to learn about necromancy?) Tarnish (Alteration) Type: Reversed Area of Effect: 1 object Casting Time: 1/2 segment This reverse of the shine cantrip causes small amounts of rust and/or tarnish to appear on an object. While not affecting an items usefulness, this may lower its monetary value. The caster must pretend to spit on object to be affected, then say the magical words oxy-day-shun. Windspeed (Divination) Type: Useful Area of Effect: 0 Casting Time: 1/2 segment A cantrip of this sort is used by a magic-user to determine the speed of the wind in his area. Upon casting windspeed, the caster is mentally informed of the wind’s speed (in miles per hour). The somatic component of the cantrip consists of the caster touch his index finger to his tongue and holding the finger up to the wind. The verbal component is Hmmmmm. (10 Years Later: I wanted some low-level weather magic in the spell list. Funny how I can always remember my agenda, but not the original intent.) (15 Years Later: I came across some old notes that reminded me exactly why I wanted low-level weather magic: Weather manipulation is a power ascribed to witches/sorcerors in so many cultures that I was trying to create a “weather witch” spell set. Actually manipulating the weather is much too tall an order for cantrips, of course, so I settled for adding a little bit of magical meteorology.) Appendix 1: More Sources for Cantrips The original 74 AD&D cantrips by Gary Gygax appeared in his "From the Sorceror’s Scroll" column in Dragon® Magazine, issues 59, 60, and 61. They were reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume 3 and Unearthed Arcana. Another 9 cantrips (created by Ed Greenwood) appeared in Dragon Magazine issue 100, in the article "Pages from the Mages V", and were reprinted in the original Forgotten Realms boxed set. (I have no idea if they’re in later versions of the campaign setting.) Although clerics and druids were never provided with zero-level spells in the official rulebooks, Arthur Collins introduced 12 orisons in "Cantrips for Clerics", Dragon Magazine issue 108. I could never think of any good orisons to add, but Rick Reid added 12 more druidical orisons in "Cantrips for Druids — Naturally" in Dragon Magazine #119. Mark L. Palmer, apparently trying to show me up even more, added 20 more druidic orisons in “Higher Aspirations” in Dragon Magazine #120. (Bit of cumulative power creep, though — the end result of those three articles is that druids have a lot more options than clerics.) (In other words, a whole lot of people put a whole lot of work into an obscure corner of the AD&D rules that was closed off from the game a few years later. We old-timers were weird that way.) Appendix 2: Advice on Cantrip Design In my old AD&D campaign, I actually allowed 1st level PC magic-users to start the campaign with one unique cantrip (researched during their apprenticeship), because I was trying to get the players familiar with the spell research rules. To help myself out, I made a list of design principles for cantrips, provided below for your convienence. (The first three were actually stated by Gary Gygax in the original cantrip rules; the others are my own extrapolations.) Cantrips are short range; 1 scale inch at most. Cantrips always allow a saving throw if used against a person. The saving throw always results in total negation of the cantrip. (Animals don’t necessarily get a saving throw — see Gygax’s change cantrip, for example.) Cantrips don’t need material components. I don’t know why, they just don’t. (My scarab cantrip walks a fine line on this rule by destroying the subject of the spell as a side-effect.) Cantrips are easily trumped. Most of my cantrips are blocked or easily defeated by "real spells". Cantrips are inflexible. The can produce only one effect, whereas "real spells" can provide some choice (Compare, for example, the one-trick Haunting Sound cantrips to flexible illusions like Audible Glamour.) Cantrips are non-reversable. Reversed version of cantrips must be researched and learned as separate cantrips. (Compare hone and blunt.) Cantrips are level-independent. Designed for use by zero-level characters, cantrips’ effects don’t improve with caster level. (Actually, several of Ed Greenwood’s cantrips do improve with character level, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.) Cantrips are rules simple. If you need two paragraphs to explain the cantrip, it might be too complex. (In fact, if you need two words for the name of the cantrip, it might be too complex.) Cantrips are magically simple. A cantrip may only use one school of magic. Even normally conjoined schools (like Conjuration/Summoning or Enchantment/Charm) are separated in cantrips. Appendix 3: Cantrips for NPC Classes The articles cited in Appendix 1 provide zero-level spells for the four official spellcaster classes, but long-time Dungeon Masters will remember that Dragon Magazine often published unofficial NPC-only classes. Most of these character classes are based on non-adventuring professions (like alchemist or grave robber), and assume a high-fantasy campaign where nearly any skilled professional has a chance to know some magic. (Gygax cohort Lenard Lakofka was very fond of this approach.) On the other hand, very few of those articles addressed the use of zero-level magic by the new character classes. If you have one of those campaigns where even glassblowers cast spells, here are some very quick, not-really-playtested suggestions for cantrip/orison use by various magic-user and cleric NPC classes. In most cases, I’m only recommending a few cantrips for each class. While standard magic-users can start the game knowing as many as 52 different cantrips, most NPC classes had small “over-specialized” spell lists to begin with, so I’m restricting each NPC class to those cantrips that mirror its current spell list and/or would be useful to their general profession. Alchemists (from Dragon issue #49) Lenard Lakofka’s alchemist (reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume III) is a magic-user subclass specializing in potion brewing and lab work. The alchemist’s spell list has few spells affecting living things, focusing instead on liquids, metals, poison, and spells useful in the lab. A typical alchemist knows 3d4 of these cantrips: bloodtype, change, chill, clean, curdle, dampen, dry, firefinger, flavor, freshen, polish, salt, shine, smokepuff, sour, spice, spill, and warm. Cloistered Clerics (from Dragon issue #68) Lenard Lakofka’s cloistered cleric (reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume IV) is basically a non-adventuring cleric. They don’t get spell use until their second character level, and they’ve got a lousy selection of combat spells. If you want, give cloistered clerics access to all ten clerical orisons in “Cantrips for Clerics”, with first-level cloistered clerics allowed the use of one orison per day. Death Masters (from Dragon issue #76) Len Lakofka’s death master (reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume IV) is a magic-user subclass specializing in the creation of undead. The average death master knows 2d4 of the following cantrips: chill, dry, evil eye, exterminate, firefinger, salt, scarab, smokepuff, spice, stitch, unlock, and wilt. Oracles (from Dragon issue #53) Andrew Dewar’s oracle class (reprinted in Best of Dragon Volume III) combines features of the magic-user and cleric classes to create a divination specialist. They gain spells through meditation/prayer (rather than a spell book), so their zero-level spells should be clerical orisons. The recommended orisons for oracles are all mostly divination-related: edible plant, find a stray, find water, haze, meditation, and test soil. Savants (from Dragon issue #140) Vince Garcia’s savant is a scholarly “split-class” that can must be used in combination with the cleric or magic-user classes. (In other words, all savants are multi-classed magic-users or clerics.) They have their own very small spell list (mostly divination and language-related), and store their savant spells in spell books. Choosing zero-level spells for Savants has is tricky. The only cantrips that fit them well are bloodtype, clue, and windspeed. The orisons edible plant, mark path, and test soil might pass for scholarly talents. Scribes (from Dragon issue #62) Ed Greenwood’s scribe class (reprinted in Best of Dragon volume IV) is an NPC class who specializes in languages and writings. They gain the limited ability to use other classes’ writing-related spells at eleventh level, but ignore the spell level of such spells in favor of using a spell-point system unique to the scribe class. The only zero-level spell involving writing is the orison mark path from Dragon #120. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, Dragon Magazine, and Unearthed Arcana are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast Advanced Dungeons & Dragons