Color-coded OD&D Spell Lists

04 Jul, 2025

Background

Prismatic Wasteland recently posted Slush Magic, describing a WIP magic-word system grouped into five 'schools': 

 I never liked D&D’s schools of magic. It just felt a little too academic and insufficiently magical, a problem I have long harbored with D&D and similar spellcasting systems. I have divided my spells into 5 categories that are a bit more loosey goosey. I always liked how Final Fantasy divided mages into color-based categories (a blue mage just sounds cool), so that was my prime inspiration, although Magic: The Gathering could also be cited […]. White and Black magic were easiest–white magic is mostly cleric-type, healing, and divination spells, and black magic is mostly necromancy and anti-cleric spells. Green magic was also easy by basing it on an archetype–druid-type and naturey spells filled this category. Red and Blue divided up the rest of the classic arcane spells with Red magic focusing on destructive, evocation magic, and Blue magic covering illusion and nearly all remaining classic wizardy spells.

I think this is cool as hell, so I decided to shamelessly steal the color-based school part for my house rules. (See also this post from 2017 doing something very similar). 

Though PW is using this to scaffold a wholesale replacement of Vancian magic, I like the concept for OD&D in particular:

• Having only five varieties means OD&D's relatively constrained magic-users still get meaningful options -- each flavor of magic has a decent range of options. It also doesn't impinge too egregiously on 0e's cherished simplicity.
• Much of OD&D's charm comes from the fact that it precedes its own influence on 'vernacular fantasy'. I find that these names evoke vague mythological notions of magic rather than idiosyncratic D&D-specific lore. The colors are open-ended enough for a wide range of settings.
• The colors map neatly onto the alignment system: practitioners of white magic are lawful, black magic chaotic, & red/blue/green neutral.
• It provides a useful cue for determining the spell loadout of a random NPC Magic-user. In fact, one could leave the game basically untouched and adopt this as a wholly referee-facing shorthand for NPC MUs.
• The Black/White mage dichotomy could replace the Cleric/Anti-cleric class, if one is so inclined.

Spell Lists

I've mostly kept to the Men & Magic spell list. I used the spell names in The Littlest Brown Book, but it should be obvious which LBB spell is intended. Cleric spells are marked with an asterisk (*), and spells brought in from Greyhawk or Holmes Basic are marked with (GH) & (HB) respectively.¹

The lists aren't mutually exclusive -- most spells show up on multiple lists. In some cases (e.g. Detect Magic) this is a no-brainer, in others a deliberate choice in favor of more options for players.²

White Magic

Healing magic, warding etc. plus some utility spells

1. • Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages
   • Hold Portal
   • Light
   • Saintly Sanctum (protection from evil)
   • Cure Light Wounds*
   • Purify Food & Water*
2. • Levitate
   • Locate Object
   • Invisibility
   • Wizard Lock
   • Monitor Maleficence (detect evil)
   • Continual Light
   • Knock
   • Bless*
   • Magic Mouth (GH)
   • Shield (GH)
3. • Dispel Magic
   • Saintly Sanctum (extended)
   • Haste
   • Ballistic Barrier
   • Cure Disease*
   • Remove Curse*
4. • Polymorph Self
   • Occult Oculus
   • Hallucinatory Terrain
   • Neutralize Poison*
   • Cure Serious Wounds*
5. • Bind Monster
   • Tellurian Transmutation (rock to mud)
   • Pass-wall
   • Feeblemind
   • Dispel Evil*
   • Commune*
   • Quest*
6. • Stone to Flesh
   • Reincarnation
   • Pelagic Partition (part water)
   • Projected Image
   • Anti-magic Shell

Black Magic

Necromancy, cavorting with wraiths & demons, dominating others

1. • Ensorcel Person (charm person)
   • Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages
   • Magic Missile (GH)
2. • Levitate
   • Phantasmal Forces
   • Locate Object
   • Invisibility
   • Knock
   • Ray of Enfeeblement (HB)
   • Darkness, 5' (GH)
   • Magic Mouth (GH)
   • Pyrotechnics (GH)
3. • Fly
   • Bind Person
   • Invisibility (extended)
   • Infravision
   • Slow
4. • Polymorph Self
   • Polymorph Others
   • Blazing Bastion (wall of flame)
   • Ensorcel Monster (charm monster)
   • Occult Oculus (arcane eye)
   • Hallucinatory Terrain
   • Fear (GH)
5. • Bind Monster
   • Command the Calcified Corpus (animate dead)
   • Magic Jar
   • Cosmological Query (contact higher plane)
   • Pass-wall
   • Murderous Miasma (cloudkill)
   • Feeblemind
   • Insect Plague*
   • The Digit of Doom* (finger of death)
6. • Stone to Flesh
   • Invisible Stalker
   • Lower Water
   • Projected Image
   • Anti-magic Shell
   • Death Spell
   • Geas

Red Magic

Energy & the elements, raw natural forces

1. • Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages
   • Hold Portal
   • Light
   • Dancing Lights (HB)
   • Magic Missile (GH)
2. • Levitate
   • Wizard Lock
   • Knock
   • Pyrotechnics (GH)
3. • Fly
   • Pyromantic Projectile (fireball)
   • Fulgurant Flash (lightning bolt)
   • Infravision
   • Ballistic Barrier (protection from normal missiles)
4. • Blazing Bastion (wall of flame)
   • Frigid Fortification (wall of ice)
   • Create Water*
5. • Conjure Elemental
   • Telekinesis
   • Tellurian Transmutation (rock to mud)
   • Rocky Redoubt (wall of stone)
   • Brass Barricade (wall of iron)
   • Pass-wall
6. • Stone to Flesh
   • Lower Water
   • Pelagic Partition
   • Anti-magic Shell
   • Disintegrate
   • Move Earth

Green Magic

Nature, vivimancy, life-force

1. • Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages
   • Spell of Somnolence (sleep)
   • Cure Light Wounds*
   • Purify Food & Water*
2. • Invisibility
   • Monitor Maleficence
   • Knock
   • Speak with Animals*
   • Web (GH)
3. • Aquatic Respiration
   • Fly
   • Invisibility (extended)
   • Infravision
   • Slow
   • Haste
   • Cure Disease*
4. • Polymorph Self
   • Polymorph Others
   • Remove Curse
   • Herbal Hypertrophy (growth of plants)
   • Dendritic Deceit (massmorph)
   • Hallucinatory Terrain
   • Neutralize Poison*
   • Turn Sticks into Snakes*
   • Speak with Plants*
   • Create Water*
5. • Bind Monster
   • Tellurian Transmutation (rock to mud)
   • Pass-wall
   • Murderous Miasma (cloudkill)
   • Animal Hypertrophy (growth of animals)
   • Insect Plague*
   • Create Food*
6. • Stone to Flesh
   • Lower Water
   • Pelagic Partition (part water)
   • Move Earth
   • Meterological Mastery (control weather)

Blue Magic

Illusions, psionics, scrying, misc.

1. • Ensorcel Person
   • Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages
   • Hold portal
   • Spell of Somnolence
2. • Detect Invisible Objects
   • Locate Object
   • Phantasmal Forces
   • Levitate
   • Invisibility
   • ESP
   • Knock
   • Magic Mouth (GH)
   • Mirror Image (GH)
3. • Bind Person
   • Clairvoyance/Clairaudience
   • Invisibility (extended)
4. • Polymorph Self
   • Remove Curse
   • Discombobulate
   • Dimension Door
   • Occult Oculus
   • Hallucinatory Terrain
5. • Teleport
   • Telekinesis
   • Magic Jar
   • Cosmological Query (contact higher plane)
   • Feeblemind
6. • Projected Image
   • Anti-magic Shell
   • Geas

Castles

The OD&D castle owner table (U&WA p. 15) has entries for 'Wizard' & 'Necromancer',³ each with four monstrous retainer options. (The implied worldbuilding in this table makes it one of my favorite parts of OD&D).

We could modify the tables such that a roll of 3-4 still denotes a MU castellan (or 3-6 if removing clerics), but with an extra random determination step:

• Roll a d8: 1: white necromancer (i.e. MU 7), 2: black necromancer, 3: green necromancer, 4: red necromancer, 5: blue necromancer, 6-8: reroll, but for 1 level higher (wizard, then wizard 12th, etc.)

Then roll 1d4 for retainers:

White:

1. 1d6 Superheroes
2. 1d8 Heroes riding hippogriffs
3. 1d4 Rocs
4. 1d10 Ents

Black:

1. 1d4 Abyssal Archons⁴
2. 1d10 Trolls
3. 1d12 Gargoyles
4. 1d10 Spectres

Green:

1. 1d10 Ents
2. 1d12 Lycanthropes
3. 1d20 Centaurs
4. 2d20 Dryads

Red:

1. 1d4 Dragons
2. 1d4 Elementals (from staff)
3. 1d6 Mantichores
4. 1d4 Wyverns

Blue:

1. 1d20 White Apes
2. 2d8 Robots
3. 1d4 Chimaerae
4. 1d4 Basilisks

Innate Powers

For extra flavor, one could give each type of mage a unique power:

• White: Turn Undead as a cleric of the same level (especially if replacing Clerics).
• Black: use the Turn Undead table to control undead (permanently on a 'disintegrate' result, otherwise lasting 2d6? Turns).
• Red: spend spell slots to do elemental damage to a single target, 1d6/slot level, or as Magic Missile (GH)
• Green: use the Turn Undead table to turn animals of equivalent HD (replace the 'disintegrate' result with commanding/taming the animal, perhaps?)
• Blue: honestly not sure. Their spell list is pretty beefy, so something small like +2 to saves vs. spells might be appropriate, or +1 1st level spell slot.

Etc.

• I could see this working as both a way to diversify NPC mages and as a 'sub-class' system for player MUs. In the latter case, I'd probably allow sharing of spells of levels 1-2, with 3+ representing esoteric secrets requiring devoted study of a single discipline.
• Some interesting patterns emerged as I did the (entirely vibes-based) spell sorting:
  • Black/white/blue are more lofty/cosmic, red/green more grounded.
  • Green & white share spells relating to life-force
  • Blue/black share spells relating to charm/control
• Chromatic wizards should absolutely be obligated to wear color-coordinating robes & accessories (for the same reason they can't wear armor or use swords).

#game-design #odnd #slush-pile