Now let's create a new spell that also fits our campaign scenario. This Shadow Goblins and the Armour of Shadow Aura that we created above, both rely on areas of dim light or darkness to operate at maximum efficiency, so we'd like a spell to allow the high priest of the Shadow Goblin tribe to prepare permanent areas of magical shadow in and around their lair(s).
Rather than create a new spell from scratch, we're going to base our spell on an existing spell that already performs a similar function - Hallow.
From the homebrew landing page, click on the CREATE SPELL button.
On the page that follows, click in the SPELL field and start typing the name of the spell we want to use as a template (in this case Hallow) then select the Hallow spell.
Click on the CREATE button and you should see the following page:
You can go ahead and dismiss the hint titled CREATE A COPY OF A SPELL, by clicking the X at the top-right corner of the hint, then let's go ahead and make changes to create our spell!
Step 1 - SPELL NAME. Currently, this will show the text COPY_OF_Hallow. Click in the SPELL NAME field and change the text to Veil of Shadows, or whatever name you would like for our homebrew spell.
There are a number of fields we can skip, because we're happy with the values they contain: SPELL LEVEL & SPELL SCHOOL.
Step 2 - CASTING TIME. The Hallow spell takes 24 hours to cast, but we want this spell to be a bit more rapid in deployment, so we're going to change it down to an hour, which we'll set as 60 minutes. Click on the CASTING TIME field and change the value from 24, to 60. Now we click on the dropdown box next to this and change it from Hour to Minute. It should now look like this:
Step 3 - COMPONENTS. We're happy that the spell requires Verbal, Somatic & Components, so we'll leave all three of those checked. If we did decide to disable one, we'd just click on it here. We're also happy with the description of the components in the MATERIAL COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION field.
We picked well with Hallow, as the next few fields are also exactly what we wanted: SPELL RANGE TYPE, RANGE DISTANCE, DURATION TYPE & DURATION, so we'll leave those fields as they are.
Step 4 - DESCRIPTION. We need to change the description of casting the spell, to better suit our spell. We adjust the description of the spell to the following:
You touch a point and infuse an area around it with holy shadow power. The area can have a radius up to 100 feet, and the spell fails if the radius includes an area already under the effect a Veil of Shadows spell. The affected area is subject to the following effects:
Warded. Summoned creatures can't enter the area, nor can such creatures charm, frighten, or possess creatures within it. Any creature charmed, frightened, or possessed by such a creature is no longer charmed, frightened, or possessed upon entering the area.
Shadow. the area is filled with shadow, reducing the light condition to dim light at most. Normal light, as well as magical light created by spells of a lower level than the slot you used to cast this spell, can't illuminate the area.
Fear. Creatures that do not follow the same deity as the caster, are frightened while in the area. When a creature that would be affected enters the spell's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it can make a Charisma saving throw to negate this.
There are a number of other fields below the description field, which we do not want to change for this spell: RITUAL SPELL, AT HIGHER LEVELS SCALING, HIGHER LEVEL SCALING TYPE, AVAILABLE FOR CLASS(ES).
Step 5 - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. This section is mostly concerned with technical data about the spell. We changed the size of the spell in the description (above), so need to edit it here also. Click in the AREA OF EFFECT SIZE (FT.) field and change the value from 60 to 100.
We're going to leave the SAVE TYPE as Charisma, as it's appropriate for resisting the Frightened effect.
Lastly, for this section, click in the SPELL EFFECT TAGS and add the tag WARDING, which is now relevant for our spell.
Click on the "SAVE CHANGES" button to ensure our spell is saved and we don't lose any information.
Step 6 - CONDITIONS. Lastly, we need to add a condition for our spell. Click on the ADD A CONDITION button. On the following page, we set-up the condition caused by the spell - this is the fear effect that we included in the description above.
Click the SAVE button once the data is entered.
The bottom of our spell page should now look like this:
Click on that "SAVE CHANGES" button, to save the new changes to the spell and then we're done!
Step 7 - REVIEW our spell! Go back to the Homebrew Landing page. On the bottom-right of the page, under "Collections & Creations" click on the VIEW MY HOMEBREW CREATIONS button. This takes us to a page showing all of the homebrew that we have created, where we can see an entry for our new Veil of Shadows spell. Click on the spell to view it.
