New spells are introduced to the world through thorough research and extensive testing. When a spellcaster wants to create a new spell, or learn a spell they otherwise could not, they can perform spell research to complete that task.
Requirements
Any kind of spellcaster can perform spell research, including (but not limited to) Clerics, Druids, Bards, Wizards, Sorcerers, and Psions (for which this would be referred to as power research). Regardless of the class, there are several requirements to successfuly research a spell.
The first is a source of information for research. For most classes, that would be in the form of a well stocked library with relevent material. This library must contain a significant amount of works pertaining to the type of casting the research is for. This may be in the form of a grand archives commonly found in the largest of cities, or it could be a smaller library dedicated to the specific form of casting being researched (like a divine archives within a cathedral in a medium sized settlement). The more specialized the library, the smaller it may be, and the more likely it is to be found in smaller settlements. For Druids, this information would be found in the form of a druidic circle, and such information would be gathered not from books, but from fellow druids and communion with the surrounding nature. For Bards, this information comes in the form of songs and stories, and, rather than being concentrated in one place, is distributed through various taverns, performance halls, towns, and villages.
Once access to reference material is obtained, the next requirement is that of wealth. Spell research is not a cheap act, and carries a material cost for experimentation. This cost is equal to four times the cost of a scroll of equivalent level, or 100 times the spell's level times the minimum level you could cast that spell at. This money covers fees, consultations, material components, and so on.
The final requirement for spell research is time. Researching a spell takes one day of dedicated work (full days without room for any other major activity) per level of the spell being researched.
Crafting the Spell
Once all the requirements have been allocated, the spell must now be crafted. If the spell being researched is an existing spell, this step can effectively be skipped, as this task is already done for you. As crafter of a new spell, you must detail what the spell you are trying to create actually does, and how it works. To do so, you must provide all the details of the spell. This includes the Name, School, Level, Components, Casting Time, Range, Aim, Duration, Saving Throw, Spell Resistance, description, and material or experience components. These attributes are explained in more detail in the
Spell Descriptions and
Power Descriptions articles.
Viability
When crafting a spell, there is no limit to what can be put together. You can craft a 1st level spell that deals 50d6 damage to all enemies in a 20 mile radius with no save and a
Swift Action cast time if you please. Unfortunately, research on this spell is guaranteed to fail, as it is not a viable spell. In short, a viable spell is one which the DM allows to exist in their game. Whether or not a spell is viable, or the exact effects of a researched spell is not necessarily known until after the spell research is performed (determining if a spell is possible is the whole point of spell research after all), but if you understand the parameters with which viability is determined, then you should have a good idea of it going into the process, and be far less likely to waste your time and gold on a spell that had no chance.
The first thing to look for is equivalent spells. If there is a spell that does something similar to what you want your spell to do, you can use it as a baseline for your own. Start with the existing spell's attributes, then adjust them as needed to match the relative differences of yours. If your spell creates a ball of ice that damages an area, then
Fireball would be a good spell to base it on. If you copy all the other attributes save for the ice damage (and possibly a
Fortitude Save instead of reflex, as is common for many cold based effects), then you have a near guaranteed success, as it's power is almost identical to an existing accepted spell. If you want it to deal more damage, or hit a larger area, or not deal damage to allies within the effect, you may have to increase the level of the spell, up the casting time, or add a costly material component to balace it out. One near guaranteed way to fail with spell research is to make a spell that closely matches an existing spell's effect at a lower level or significantly easier (or cheaper) to cast.
Another thing to look out for is a spell that recreates another class's features, but better than that class (at least at the level the spell is available at). Such spells may well be viable, but only with significantly limited durations and/or expensive material costs to limit its availability in practice. A
Wizard who can consistently and reliably make themselves a better melee combatent than the party
Fighter can impinge on said
Fighter's ability to enjoy the game.
The final pitfall to watch out for is the rule of fun. At the end of the day, the main goal is for everyone at the table to have a fun and meaningful time, and any spell that could spoil that fun for one or more people will have a low likelyhood of ever being considered viable. Alternatively, a spell that is near guaranteed to create fun and enjoyment for everyone at the table may well be accepted even if some of its other attributes border on inviable.
You are welcome to talk with the DM to get guidance on this process, but are not given a definitive answer on viability before attempting the research. A spell that is marginally inviable may be produced with effects slightly altered from the original attempt (it may deal less damage, have a reduced effect, take longer to cast, have an expensive component, and so on, all at DM discretion), or if it is wildly infeasable the attempt may fail outright.
For a more detailed approach on designing a spell that is viable, see the
Designing Spells article.
Check
Once the spell is crafted and the time and resources are spent, you must make a
Spellcraft check to determine success. The DC of the check is 10 plus the spell's level. If the roll succeeds, and the spell is determined to be viable (whether the check passes or fails, you will know at this point if the spell was viable or not), then you learn the spell. If a check fails for a viable spell, the spell research must be repeated to obtain it, though the time and costs are halved, and you automatically succeed your check on the second attempt. If you succeed but the spell is determined to be inviable, you may change aspects of the spell to make it viable (work with the DM to do this), and then perform the research again. The time and gold cost of this repeat attempt depends on how close to viable the spell was, and costs up to half the original research cost (DM discretion). If you fail and the spell is determined inviable, you must start the research over, though you can work with the DM to change your spell to guarantee viability on your next attempt.
Limitations
Spontaneous casting classes like Bards, Sorcerers, and Psions are limited in how many spells they can know at each level. Spell research is no exception to that, and so it cannot be performed to learn spells past that limit. For classes that have no such limits,
Learning New Spells from spell research is in addition to any spells you normally learn by advancing in levels.
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