Template:Spell/doc/description

This template is for use in any article about a spell or ritual within the Forgotten Realms.

All parameters except name are optional and if left undefined they will not appear. This template intentionally includes only those essential crunchy statistics that allow for organization and categorization. All other crunchy details should be omitted.

This template was modified to accept different values for each edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Please preserve the older information by using the edition-specific parameters exclusively, and write the article with the evolution of spellcasting in mind.

Fourth edition added many different class abilities, each of which had many of the same characteristics as spells. It also created rituals that mimicked spells in earlier editions. Rather than having many templates that differ only slightly (a maintenance nightmare), they have been made pass-through templates to this one (a less scary nightmare). The other related templates that are variants of this one are:

NOTE: If you add/remove any of this template's parameters, they should be added/removed to/from these pass-through templates also. If you add any new variants, the Desc and Spell table templates should be updated to match the list in this template.

Fifth edition went back to the model of spell casting, but kept Cantrips and Rituals separate because they do not take up spell slots for most classes.

The Tome of Magic 3.5 sourcebook introduced shadow magic and the shadow spells were called "mysteries". Therefore another pass-through template has been added to handle any of these spells. See Mystery.

This template will automatically put the including page in some categories based on the values of certain parameters. For example, if type5e is set to Ritual, then the page will be placed in Category:Rituals (5e) and Category:Rituals. If variant is set to Evocation, for example, the page will be put in Category:Evocations. If you also set type4e to At-Will, for example, the page will be put in Category:At-will evocations. The variant defaults to "spell". For third edition and older, there were only spells, so the page will also be put in Category:Spells if any parameter ending in 1e, 2e, or 3e is set with a value.