A Thousand Cuts

A Thousand Cuts
For early edition D&D and clones:
(Magic User 3) Range: as weapon. Duration: five rounds plus one round per level
This spell is cast by the magic user muttering dire prognostications about the target's future, while preparing a dagger to be thrown. Upon finishing his incantation, he attacks the target with the dagger (thrown or melee). This attack is made as if by a fighter of the magic user's level. If it hits, the target takes damage as normal from a dagger strike, and the dagger returns to the wizard's hand. Each round following for the spell's duration, an invisible blade inflicts a fresh wound on the target, doing damage as a dagger of the same type as was used in the casting.
There is no saving throw.

Bottle Cries

OK. Weak title. I'm gearing up for my retro-D&D campaign tonight, and drawing inspiration from what they will encounter.

The Bottle of Light
This potion is generally found in a dark glass bottle, that allows it to shed its light without being uncomfortable. The liquid inside is as bright as sunlight, and in a tinted bottle will shed light as a Light  spell indefinitely. Aside from being a substitute for a torch, the potion has a number of other uses. If drunk, any curses, diseases, poisons and afflictions which are innately evil are immediately cured. Disease from a rat's bite won't be cured, but levels drained by wights will be restored. Also, it can be used as a grenade-like weapon, splashing over a 5' radius. The area will immediately be filled with sunlight, to a distance of up to 100 yards in open territory. Any undead, devil, demon or other creature deemed to be evil in essence touched by the liquid will take 3d6 points of damage immediately, and a further 1d6 each round until they scrape the liquid off of them. Alternately, a weapon could be coated with the light, causing it to deal an extra 1d6 damage with each hit against such creatures for 1 hour per dose.
Obviously, this is powerful stuff, and should be used sparingly.

Bottle of Darkness
This item is a clear glass bottle with certain arcane sigils on the stopper. If it is found full, it will seem to contain an inky black substance. If the bottle is opened and upended, it will fill the area with darkness as the spell of the same name. The darkness will remain until the spell's duration has expired, or until the stopper is replaced in the bottle and then removed again. In that case, the darkness will be taken back into the bottle, and the effect will recharge in 2d6 rounds.
If the darkness is not taken back before the spell expires, the bottle will be empty. An empty bottle of darkness can be used to dispel any magical darkness, by spending a round removing the stopper and turning the bottle upright. The bottle will them be full, and the darkness can be used again at will.

Battle Cries

A few related spells for BFRPG, L&L, D&D1e, etc. I'm working with BFRPG, for whatever that's worth.

Banshee's Wail:
MU 3 Cleric 3 Necromancer 3
Range: 30' radius*
Duration: 1 minute per caster level.
The caster of this spell takes a deep breath, and screams, filling her voice with necromantic power. If there are any incorporeal undead (spectres and wraiths, etc) within that radius, they can echo the scream, creating their own 30' radius. This can expand the effect dramatically, but each wailer has its own 30' radius. Any living creature within the radius of the spell must immediately make a save vs. spells. Those who fail the save will also take a -1 per wailer penalty to all attack rolls, morale checks, and all saving throws, as the evil energy works on their spirits. All undead in the area affected by the spell gain +1 to attack rolls, morale checks and all saving throws per creature wailing. The maximum number of creatures who can echo the original wail is 1/3rd the original caster's level.

Wolf's Howl:
Druid 3, MU 3
Range: 30' radius and special.
This spell mimics a wolf's howl, and can be heard for one mile per in open country. The caster can choose whether it is used to call wolves within that area, and the DM can decide if there are any wolves in the area, and if they choose to respond to the call. Any wolves who arrive will act normally, having no particular hostility or amity towards the caster.
Otherwise, the spell functions as the Banshee's Wail, with the following exceptions: Rather than bolstering undead, it gives the bonus to allied wolves and allied druids. Any wolves in the radius can echo the howl, increasing its radius and effect. Any creature within the area affected who is not an allied wolf or an allied druid must make a save or be affected as by the Banshee's Wail.

Screaming Charge:
Cleric 3
Range: 30' radius
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Once again, the caster spends the round making a powerful cry, pointing towards an enemy.
In this case, the call can be taken up by any human or humanoid ally, extending the radius normally. Any human or humanoid ally within the radius can immediately move up to twice their normal move and make an attack at +1 on their attack and damage rolls for each screamer within 30' of their position at the beginning of the spell. Those affected will act normally for the duration of the spell, but will retain the bonus to attack and damage rolls. Unlike the other Battle Cries, this spell has no detrimental effect on enemies.

Heresy?

Clerics in early D&D and retro-clones are very limited, in terms of the role they play. The character is designed around a holy warrior concept that is very much like a 12th Century Christian Crusader, which is very cool, so long as that works with the culture of your game. The old AD&D Deities and Demigods gave a lot of info on different religions that could be at play in the game, and of course later editions created pantheons that were rather suspiciously tailored to the needs of adventuring heroes.
Washing the dishes last night, I began thinking how to customize the cleric to suit different Gods. Here I have customized clerics for Gods of the Olympian pantheon whose names start with the letter A. Further adventures deeper into the alphabet are likely. I'm sure what I came up with is pretty terrible, but I think it's something to talk about.
Clerics of:
Aphrodite: weapons, armor and spells as MUs (using the cleric list, adding charm person, mirror image, charm monster, and hold monster at the appropriate levels). They do not turn undead, but captivate human, demihuman and humanoid males with their beauty. Roll on the turn undead chart, replacing skeleton with 1HD, zombie with 2HD up to Vampire with 8HD. Any humanoid affected will spend 3d8 rounds gaping. As with standard undead turning, the effect is broken if they are attacked.
Apollo: Clerics of Apollo are proficient with bows (not crossbows) and song. By singing, they will give members of the party +1 to attacks, AC, morale and saves. Enemies will take a -1 penalty to morale. The effect lasts as long as the cleric keeps singing, and can be used once/day/level. They advance as fighters.
Ares: Clerics of Ares are proficient with all melee weapons. They gain spells as clerics, attack as fighters and advance as Magic-Users. They do not turn undead.
Artemis: Clerics of Artemis are, again, proficient with bows. They can only wear leather armor. Their turning ability is useful against animals, rather than undead. A natural 20 on the turning roll will tame affected animals instead. A tamed animal will faithfully serve the cleric for 3d8 rounds.
Athena: Clerics of Athena can roll a d20 once/day/level. If the result is =/<  their intelligence score, they will know some relevant piece of information about whatever problem is confronting them. This should help, but not give away the whole store.

The Necklace of False Awakening

The Awakening is the main religion in my world, so feel free to transpose this to whatever works for your campaign.
In the BFRPG campaign I'm running, this belonged to the psychotic cleric living in the catacombs among the deranged grave-robbers in the city of Sfera. Upon defeating him and his gang of thugs (which the players insisted were ghouls in the D&D sense, though in fact they were just normal humans of a ghoulish disposition) one of the party's clerics found it. A brilliantly shiny representation of an eye in the sun, which he recognized as the symbol of a somewhat archaic sect of the Awakening. Feeling the power flooding through the item, he put it on, and had an intense feeling of strength and mystical energy flooding through him.
The next time he took damage, however, he was forced to make a saving throw (Con based, as I'm not using traditional saves). When he failed, he felt an intense surge of energy and enthusiasm. He seemed to swell a little, his eyes bulged, and he began to sweat.
D6 and a D4. The D4 was applied as a modifier to the ability scores according to the D6 as follows.
1 + strength, - charisma
2 + dexterity, - intelligence
3 + constitution, - wisdom
4 + strength and dexterity, - charisma and intelligence
5 +strength and constitution, - charisma and wisdom
6 +dexterity and constitution, - intelligence and wisdom
The effect lasts 3d6 rounds, unless the saving throw roll was a natural 1, in which case it becomes permanent. Since the item qualifies as cursed, it cannot be removed. After one session playing with it, the player sees it as a tremendous benefit, since it strengthens him as a melee fighter, either with attack damage bonuses, hit points, or AC. As the party is low level (1-3, though the thief is closing in on 4th I think) cleric-as-melee is pretty standard, but when his wisdom drops below 9 permanently, he will lose all his clerical powers. Also, contemplating instituting some sort of madness from his ability scores getting knocked around so much.
I have a feeling that getting rid of this cursed item will be worth a quest or two.

Magic=Random

This is the magic system in play in my BFRPG (that I call D&D) game.

I wanted a system that made things much more random than they are, without making a magic-user unplayable. I wanted a system that allowed for non-MUs to learn and cast spells, without making MUs useless. I wanted magic to be a terrifying power where things could go horribly, horribly wrong.

ANYONE can potentially cast any spell that they know.
Learning a spell from a scroll or book takes 1 hour per spell level, and the player must roll d20+MU lvl+ int bonus and beat 10+spell level each hour to succeed. Failure means they cannot learn that spell from that scroll or book.
Casting a spell requires a d20 roll, adding the character's magic user level and Intelligence modifier.
If the character has a MU spell slot of that level or higher open, they can cast the spell normally. If not, they will suffer damage to their con equal to the level of the spell. This will recover at the rate of 1 pt per day.
If the roll is less than the spell levelx2, it is a critical fail, and the player will roll any dice. If the result is an even number, the spell is lost and nothing happens. If it is an odd number, horrible things happen (the horrible things from spell failure table will be forthcoming)
If the roll is equal to the lvlx2, the spell is a partial success. Effects will be halved, generally, and there will be minor spillage. Non-magic-users will roll odd/even to use the awful things table as well.
If the roll is lvlx2+10, the spell works normally
If the roll is lvlx2+20 or more, the spell exceeds all expectations. Area of effect, duration and effects will be doubled, saves against the spell are at -5, and the caster will roll a dice. If the result is even, nothing else happens, if the result is odd, something wonderful happens. Note that doubling the area of effect means you might fireball the party, as well as the bad guys.
Ritual casting takes 10x as long, but gives a +10 to the roll. It also enables the caster to inflict the con damage on another, if the other is willing or helpless.