Canonfire!

Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:27 pm naga

in the mm the picture of the spirit naga is a snakes body with a human head. How is it able to cast spells with no arms? Also does it have a spell book for its MU spells? What deity does it get its clerical spells from? Is there an ecology of for the naga?

Good to be back. Harvest is over and 1st edition AD&D is back on the menu.

Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:02 pm

A naga's spells still have all of the components -material, verbal, and somatic. The spells are simply variants in which any somatic components are represented by movements of the naga's body instead of the hand/body movements associated with bipedal spell casters. A wizard can learn the spells from a naga's spell book, but in doing so they must translate the arcane meaning of the naga's body movements into their own usual somatic movements (a read magic spell will impart understanding of the naga's movements such that the wizard can translate them into the more familiar somatic hand/body movements they use).

As to clerical spells, a naga will obviously get them from whatever deity they worship. If you wish to use a Greyhawk specific deity, Pyremius or Syrul would be decent choices. If you wish a broader range of choices then I would recommend Shekinester (a naga specific deity you should definitely read up on), Merrshaulk, Faluzure, or Tiamat.
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Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:02 pm

Dragons' spells require only a spoken component; I expect the same is true for naga. Likewise, most dragons don't have spell books; they simply "know" x number of spells per level. As to deities, I use Shekinester in my game, although we know of at least one naga (The Falcon) who serves Iuz.

Fri Oct 31, 2014 7:36 pm

many thanks

Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:37 am

My understanding is that a naga's ability to use spells, like that of dragons and other special creatures, is purely innate. Therefore, they don't have to memorize them in the same manner that priests must pray and wizards must use scrolls or books. This does not mean that they cannot expand their repertoire to include more magical spells, but that they are limited to the number prescribed according to 'the rules.'

-Lanthorn

Sun Nov 02, 2014 3:14 am

While true, the above can be used for those wishing their spell casting critters to be a bit different; especially the bits about translating spells from monster spell books to bipedal spellcaster's spell books, which will work in either case. Draconomicon presents spells that only dragons can use, and similar untranslatable unique spells could exist for other spell casting monster races too (not that a DM needs an example to do whatever they want to anyways Wink

).
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