I had been playing a Wild Mage (from Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd edition) for a long time. He had been on many adventures and was now 19th level and easily one of the most powerful wizards in the realm. This of course makes it difficult for a dungeon master to provide a decent challenge. Well, one day he went on an adventure with his long time companion (a 20th level mage who was a little off his rocker) and another friend (another magic user although I can not remember exactly what kind). During the course of this journey, they came across a wonderous thing. It was an island where magic did not work.

Of course, having three magic users on an island of null magic rendered them virtually powerless. During the course of this adventure we came across a strange creature that looked something like a cat crossed with a porcupine (Catupine? Porcat?). This creature was intelligent (somewhat) and with some prodding we were able to get it to reveal the location of a type of plant that apparently would solve our null magic problem. Finding this plant and eating it allowed us to suddenly have access to first level spells. (Great, what am I going to do with a first level spell?)

And then it came to me. For those of you who don’t know about Wild Mages, they use magic in a somewhat wild and free manner which grants them benefits at the cost of sometimes having their spells produce unexpected results due to wild surges. (An example would be trying to cast a magic missile and instead summoning a demon which attacks you.) At first level, a Wild Mage can cast “Nahal's Reckless Dweomer”. This spell allows the wizard to attempt to cast any spell they know but it always results in rolling on the wild surge table (1d100). They are then able to adjust the results up or down on the table according to their level.

So I decided to attempt to cast “Nahal’s Reckless Dweomer” and try and shape it into a ninth level “Shape Change” spell. “Shape Change” allowed the caster to transform into a wide variety of very powerful creatures (virtually anything as I recall). Rolling the dice and adjusting for my level I discovered that I had rolled 100. This gives the caster the desired spell effect but at three times the strength including duration, area of effect, and any thing else. And so my two traveling companions and I now had the ability to transform into dragons or any other creature we wanted.

Suddenly the island of null magic was not much of a challenge.