Spell Levels and Magic in the Realms

Hi. Guilty as charged, ladies and gentles: quite often my spells ARE too powerful. I'm trying to get better, really I am *g*.         However (you knew there was a 'however' coming, didn't you?), the [Wyrms of the North] spells are for dragons only. The design rule for converting draconic spells to human spells are: spells MUST acquire both a somatic and a material component (either something related to the spell effect, or lacking that something related to the spell target, AND some substance of the type of dragon casting the spell [e.g. part of a dragon scale]), the verbal component changes, casting times move up to appropriate for the level, and all spell levels jump by 2.         There are exceptions, but they must be explained, and justified by the nature of the spell. P.S. I know this design rule is correct, because I wrote it. *g* P.P.S. For those who mutter that there's too much magic in the Realms, my answer is: tough. I designed the Realms to be very magic-abundant, and TSR wanted to keep it that way to differentiate it from Greyhawk and Dragonlance, at the time of its release. None of these perceived power problems arise as problems in play at all if you're running a ROLE-playing first and foremost campaign (which my home campaign is, and has always been). If you don't like this or that spell, don't use it. If certain characters give you a pain, don't use them. Someone else who plays, and is short of time or creative juices some night WILL use them, and be glad they snuck into print. That's not to say complaints about game design or balance aren't valid; all too often, they are (my best spells are detailed rituals that go on for pages, though, and editorial trimming often results in too-powerful or unbalanced spells that are quite different from what I wrote; remember the "Spelltouch" discussion [on the FR-L list], a while back?).