17 Spells We Removed from Theria and Why

One of the most discussed aspects of fantasy literature and media is magical consistency⁠—for good reason. The “rules” of a magical system can make or break the realism of your world, and what is able to be done with magic can establish the tone of the world you are creating. 

Recently we posted our Removed Spell List on World Anvil. These are spells that are in official WotC sourcebooks that Jason and I vetoed from the world. It was a process⁠—reading every spell out loud and then discussing it. Some discussions were very short, others took some debating. Here are 16 of the most popular or perplexing spells we decided to remove from our game of D&D and why.

As always, these are just thoughts from us relating to our game and cast. Every time a new group sits down to play a TTRPG, a new world is born, and it’s up to the group and their game master to set the tone and rules.

Why is the Magic System Important?

Honestly, most nerds have thought about various magic systems enough that it’s borderline pandering to explain it, but I think it’s worth it to take a moment and analyze why Game Masters feel the urge to prune spell lists and homebrew in the first place. The obvious answer is that it’s easy for a group to become “overpowered,” especially if you have a team of min/maxers, and for some GMs, that can be frustrating to play with. It can sometimes stop feeling like you are all trying to tell a story together and start feeling like the GM and players are trying to outsmart one another. That is a playstyle some gamers like, but it’s not what Jason had in mind for Theria. But that isn’t the only reason.

1) Misty Step

2nd-level conjuration

There are a few types of magic that give us pause when reading through a spell, and teleportation is for sure one of them. If the spell is not worded carefully or too lenient, it can lead to what Jason would call a “get out of jail free card.” While the text of Misty Step is not too egregious, only allowing travel of 30 feet and limited by eyesight, the combination of it being a bonus action, instantaneous, and only a level two spell is what brought it to the chopping block. For Theria, that is simply too much, too soon. 

2) Beast Bond

1st-level divination

This spell is very much of the traditional world of Dungeons and Dragons, where there are beasts that have an Intelligence of 4 or higher. In Theria, not so much. The closest thing you could have to a beast with that high an intelligence is a kobold, and a telepathic link with one would not be very helpful. Theria is split into ‘sentient’ and ‘non sentient’ races. That does not mean that an animal familiar, for example Dog from Group Ravens, does not have a soul or the ability to “figure things out.” The difference is that Dog is, in fact, a dog, and a telepathic link with a non-sentient creature is impossible. Or, if it isn’t, it would be mostly useless. Dog is smart, but will never think in the same manner as a sentient beast and therefore would not benefit from a telepathic bond.

3) Charm Monster

4th-level enchantment

At its core, what a spell like Charm Monster essentially does is force a roleplay/peaceful situation in an encounter where one would not usually be able to. While some groups may greatly benefit from this spell, it’s problematic when you have multiple groups (or characters) able to access the spell in one world. One would wonder why any fights occur at all when a means of de-escalating a situation with any creature, regardless of its intelligence, is as simple as succeeding on a 20-sided die. Now, it’s worth noting that what Charm Monster does can still be done in Theria. The difference is placating a creature would come down to a Skill Check Challenge, which has more risk than a spell. Failure means they wasted multiple turns or put themselves into a situation that is not favorable for the combat to follow. 

4 and 5) Create Food & Water, Create or Destroy Water

3rd-level conjuration, 1st-level transmutation

Putting these two together for the simple reason that despite their level differences, the reason behind removing them from our world is the same. In a world where a magic-user can create water at 1st level and food at 3rd, there would be an entirely different landscape when it came to travel and world hunger. While that reality is something fun to explore or imagine, and even play in, for Theria we decided that this magic could not be as common as it is in the D&D universe so our world functions in a way that makes sense. When a group travels through a desert in Theria, they need to prepare for it because no one will be creating any water from nothing along the way.

6, 7, and 8) Dominate Person, Hold Person, Calm Emotions

5th-level enchantment, 2nd-level enchantment, 2nd-level enchantment

This one is simple. We imagined an NPC using this spell on a PC. Could it be interesting, compelling, and make for a cool story moment? Yes, it could. Could it also cause the player to feel like their agency was removed, and make the game less fun for them? Very much so. Hold Person was actually used famously on the show, and it was against a character that was a very good sport about it, but in retrospect it made that battle less fun for the player⁠—if things had turned out differently and the character that player had been playing had died, they would have left the experience in a completely different mindset. That is just not something we want in our games.

9) Mage Hand

Conjuration cantrip

This spell would be removed if it were 1st-3rd level, let alone as a cantrip. The spell seems crafted specifically to allow magic users to steal without having to rely on a teammate to pickpocket, and it’s just too much for our world.

10) Sleep

1st-level enchantment

Honestly Sleep sounds like a spell we would remove for being “too powerful,” but the stipulations around rolling 5d8 and the spell only affecting creatures with a total HP value lower than the rule mitigates it quite well, and then there is the exception to creatures immune from charmed and undead. However, the amount of “table time” the spell requires and the fact that there are many situations where players would feel miffed at being on the other side of this spell made it more convenient to remove it from play. Not every spell we removed would break Theria. Some of them are just not worth the effort it takes to carry them out.

11 and 12) Speak with Animals/Speak with Plants

1st-level divination, 3rd-level divination

Much like Beast Bond, these two “Speak With” spells were removed due to the target’s lack of sentience. This is why Speak with Dead was left in Theria, because a soul being spoken to would still have the sentience to communicate, which Plants and Animals in Theria lack. That said, especially with the Plants spell, it is clear in the text of that one that it is the magic that gives them the ability to communicate. We decided that whatever would be required to give the plants sentience enough to communicate would be magic far stronger than 3rd level, and also there were some overarching ethical consequences to consider. Gifting sentience to an inanimate object for ten minutes cuts a little too close to Flowers For Algernon than we’d like. 

13) Unseen Servant

1st-level conjuration

This is another spell that mostly suffers for being placed in the Level 1 bracket. If this spell were a higher level, it would be something to consider more thoroughly. However, a 1 hour non-concentration spell at level one that can be used from 60 feet away and can perform simple tasks? That’s too much too soon for Theria, and this time around we had already decided on the “make or break” model for most spells. (Aka, if the spell didn’t fit we would remove it, not try to change it to make it work. Doing so leads to confusion more often than not.)

14) Wall of [insert all here]

4th-6th level evocation

Honestly these spells very much could exist in Theria. Summoning fire, ice, force, stone, thorn, ect are all perfectly reasonable and 4th level is exactly around the time mages would be summoning larger-scale versions of them. That said, these guys are just annoying when you are playing digitally with many groups. There are so many rules and caveats, and the spell needs to be drawn on the digital map somehow, and then it’s something to track through every turn. The time you spend on the mechanics is simply not worth it for us. In person you just pick up a mini (or a kleenex box, book, soda bottle, ect), put it where it goes, and that’s that. Digitally we just aren’t there yet. 

15) Detect Evil and Good

1st-level divination

Evil and good are dichotomies that don’t exist in Theria. Everyone is the hero of their own story, and there are no “evil” gods or races. As such, this spell is pointless. For a while we left it in and we sort of made it a “vibe check.” Like does this person agree with my morals? But doing so was so vague that players who used the spell would feel disappointed with the outcome pretty much every time, so removing it entirely keeps players from wasting a spell slot on it.

16) Mage Armor

1st-level abjuration

On the face of it, Mage Armor is a fairly benign spell. What kept us from passing it in this case was the eight hour duration. For a 1st level spell, that is too lasting to make sense for Theria. Curses and spells with long durations require more power behind them to stay effective, or sometimes concentration. Eight hours with no concentration is a no-go.

17) Disguise Self

1st-level illusion

This particular spell isn’t so bad, as the text points out that the spell itself holds up to scrutiny. Honestly the big crux of why we didn’t care for it was the need for a creature to succeed an Intelligence (Investigation) check, when there are likely multiple ways a person could see through the ruse. For instance, Dog would be able to tell if Petrichor were replaced by another Vanalli who looks just like him, and it wouldn’t be because of an Intelligence check. There is simply not enough nuance for the spell to feel balanced in a world like Theria, especially at 1st level.

To Wrap Up

Hopefully these explanations help to fill in the thinking process Jason and I take when we are making decisions like this for Theria. Personally, I believe the key takeaway from this list is not that any of the spells we chose to omit from play are bad or broken, merely that they did not work for our table, with our group, and in our world. It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing you know what the ‘right’ way is, but the truth is there are dozens, hundreds, even thousands of ‘right’ ways to play tabletop rpgs. 

The right way for you is the way that makes you and your friends happiest, whether that involves removing spells or ditching the concept of hit points altogether. And of course, if you want to share your game with an audience, it may help to try and stay consistent so that your world feels solid.

What spells have you removed from your games? Or have you ever adapted existing spells to add more roleplay elements to them, or to remove something about them that irked you? We’d love to hear your stories!