Magic Adjustments

spell tiers — restrictions at minimum unlock, enhancements above it in steps

The Framework

Spell level Min. char level +5 step +10 step +15 step
1st 1 6 11 16
2nd 3 8 13 18
3rd 5 10 15 20
4th 7 12 17 —
5th 9 14 19 —
6th 11 16 — —
7th 13 18 — —
8th 15 20 — —
9th 17 — — —

Enhancements are cumulative once reached. Spells not in the lookup table below follow the fallback: at each step, add one target, double range/duration, or add one die of effect — GM's choice, fit to the fiction. Damage spells that already scale by upcasting need no adjustment.

Cantrips

Cantrip Adjustment
Light moved to a 1st-level spell — at-will, unlimited light undercuts the whole "watch your torches" resource economy; as a spell it now costs a real slot
Spare the Dying no longer auto-stabilizes — instead grants advantage on the Hand of Fate death save. Unlimited free stabilization would erase the Zero Hit Points choice entirely; this keeps a healer valuable without removing the drama
Guidance capped at uses per rest equal to proficiency bonus, rather than unlimited — stops the "cast before every single roll" pattern that flattens ability checks

Divination & Information the biggest cheats live here

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Detect Magic 1 presence + school only, no location full aura + location, 30 ft range 60 ft; senses through one layer of matter can tell if an item exceeds the party's own tier
Identify 1 8-hr ritual; only reveals magical + category full properties, Common/Uncommon, 1-hr ritual full properties, Rare, 10-min ritual full properties, Very Rare, 1-min ritual
Comprehend Languages 1 common/trade tongues only adds dead/ancient languages adds fey and planar tongues adds truly alien or first-language script
Tongues 5 one language at a time, 10 min full duration, all languages can extend to one touched ally lasts while conscious
Clairvoyance 5 range halved, image only, no sound full range and both senses can shift the sensor once per casting —
Scrying 9 1-mile range, blurry, target has advantage on the save full range and clarity as printed can scry across planes (GM adjudicates risk) —
Legend Lore 9 rumor-tier answers only, not hard fact full effect as printed can be cast on pure intent, no name needed —
Contact Other Plane 9 madness risk doubled, answers often garbled normal function as printed can reliably reach a specific named entity —
Speak with Dead 5 corpse must be under a day old, reluctant answers full 10-day window as printed works on remains of any age spirit compelled fully truthful
True Seeing 11 — duration to 8 hrs, radius doubled — —
Locate Object 3 only works on something the caster has personally touched or seen up close works from a detailed description alone range doubled can locate a general category, not just one specific item
Locate Creature 5 fails against any creature actively hiding or warded full range as printed works past one layer of mundane concealment —
Locate Animals or Plants 3 one specific named species only, short range full range as printed can search for a general category (any predator, any blight) —

Movement & Access

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Knock 3 mundane locks only, no magic wards affects Uncommon-tier wards affects Rare-tier wards affects Very Rare-tier wards
Rope Trick 3 unstable — chance it's noticed or collapses early in danger stable, as printed entrance hidden from magical detection —
Passwall 9 natural stone/earth only works on worked masonry can bypass a magically warded wall —
Tiny Hut 5 doesn't block sound; normal wandering-danger odds still apply as printed — blocks sound, improves rest safety can be cast once/day without a slot, as ritual —
Fly 5 duration halved; disadvantage on concentration over hazards as printed can extend to one additional ally per casting —
Teleport family — handled entirely by the Workings system — see the separate ritual-magic handout, not level-gated here

Social & Charm

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Charm Person 1 target always realizes once it ends; advantage on save if approached with open hostility first as printed duration extends; target unaware unless given real reason to suspect can affect up to three targets at once
Suggestion 3 −2 to save DC; suggestion must be one simple step full DC and complexity as printed can affect one additional target scales to a small group (Mass Suggestion-style)
Dominate Person/Monster 9 / 15 commands limited to single actions; target re-saves every round full function as printed — —

Protection & Counter-magic

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Shield 1 baseline (reaction, self) unaffected by this system at any level — large-area Shield is a Working, gated by caster tier in the ritual-magic handout
Counterspell 5 ability check required to counter anything above your slot level, no auto-success auto-counters at/under slot level, as printed once per rest, can chain a second counter same round —

Healing & Resurrection

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Revivify 5 returns with one level of exhaustion as printed, no exhaustion casting window extends to 10 minutes —
Raise Dead 9 two levels of exhaustion, lasting a full week exhaustion reduced to one level, clears next long rest can raise even with a small piece of the body missing —
Resurrection 13 permanent Con point lost, as printed no permanent loss — —
True Resurrection 17 effectively Working-tier magic for anyone dead more than a few years — see the ritual-magic handout

Illusion & Stealth

Spell Lvl At minimum unlock +5 +10 +15
Invisibility 3 ends on any attack or spell (as printed); high passive Perception can still catch motion as printed can extend to one additional creature per casting can hold briefly without concentration in short bursts

Dropped Spells removed, not tiered

A handful of spells don't fit the framework above at any tier — no restriction makes them compatible with the setting, so they're removed outright rather than gated.

Spell Why no tiered version works
Modify Memory the setting runs on complicity and what people remember doing — rewriting that isn't a "too strong" version of a good mechanic, it's incompatible with the premise
Zone of Truth flattens moral-complexity mysteries into a binary; there's no good partial version of perfect lie detection
Nystul's Magic Aura undermines the Identify/Detect Magic tier system directly by letting an item's true nature be masked or faked
Clone pre-purchases immortality before the stakes exist, sidestepping everything Raise Dead and Resurrection are built to cost
Simulacrum a free duplicate ally contradicts both magic scarcity and "you don't go alone" as a running theme
Wish open-ended by design — no Working lookup-table entry can capture "anything you want," so it doesn't fit the framework rather than needing a harsher version of it
Mind Blank blanket, 24-hour immunity to a whole category of magic removes tension from anything it touches, with no interesting failure mode
Silvery Barbs a reactive spell whose entire function is undoing a success that already happened — it doesn't erode stakes like the others, it erodes the table's dramatic moments directly, and no restricted version changes that
A note on named/legendary items and artifacts: none of these enhancement steps ever let a spell fully identify, bypass, or unmake something at Legendary rarity or artifact status.  These stay outside this system entirely, revealed only through story and use, regardless of caster level.