Indistinguishable from Magic

Fog Cloud The very definition of a useful, simple, low-level spell that can easily be replicated with technology. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out why carrying London around in your pocket might be useful, but a smoke grenade would get the job done just as easily and let you save this slot for Magic Missile. Real-World Rating:  5 (Effective But Limited) Forbiddance I love the awkward, over-elaborate name of this spell, which practically begs you to use highfalutin pseudo-Shakespearean English while casting. "Methinks I shall engage in a bout of... forbiddance ." Anyway, what this does is create a huge magical no-fly zone, which basically prevents anyone from teleporting, astrally traveling, gating, plane-shifting, or otherwise mystically trespassing on the area for an entire day. Sound pretty good, right?  In Dungeons & Dragons , it is! It's a high-powered 6th-level abjuration with lots of practical applications. But, as a reminder, the premise of th...

Fire Shield  Let's continue our exciting tour through the wonderful world of what TSR Wizards of the Coast Hasbro Industrial Fantasy Simulations Inc. thinks you can do with fire. This one basically shrouds you in a bonfire, which provides you with resistance to fire damage, after the 'sympathetic magic' approach that so much of Dungeons & Dragons  relies on. (In fact, being consumed by flames makes you more  vulnerabe to fire damage, not less .) It also gives you a counter-attack against anyone who tries to smite you, inflicting a small but not insignificant amount of damage. What's particularly odd about this spell is that you can also make it a 'chill shield', whatever that is, that makes you equally resistant to cold . This makes no sense, and furthermore, doesn't it make more sense to have Chill Shield  as a separate spell?  If nothing else, it would break up the tedium between Charm Person and Chill Touch. Real-World Rating:  5 (Effective But Li...