I was reading the template for cyborgs in Dungeon 91 and considered a few additional defensive qualities. The one that first popped up in my mind was Fire Shield, or at least some variant of it. I dug through my collection as I knew someone had written one or two variants before me and I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. They are in Feared and Hated, a nifty little pdf on customizing sorcerers for 3.5. One defends against and causes acid damage and the other, called Urchinskin, defends against acid and inflicts magical piercing damage. Considering those two, I came up with the following. All of them defend against and inflict damage. You can develop your own that use conditions, but I wanted to stick with the theme of the original spell.
Defense/Offense
Fire/Force- this spell was designed for fighting fire spirits. In first and second edition, you might consider disruption (ala the mace of) for the defensive part.
Cold/Electricity- this is the one I thought of for the cyborg. Protects the flesh from harmful low temperatures and zaps those foolish enough to touch the creature.
Acid/Sonic- an anti-ooze spell. If you use earth based creatures that use their energy type, this spell works wonders as well.
Water/Electrictiy- there aren't many water based spells that inflict damage, but enough to make this spell useful in fighting aquatic critters.
Vegetative/Blight- protects against Entangle and similar spells and kills the plants that touch the caster.
Fire/Poison- this isn't meant for humanoids, but rather fungal spellcasters. It turns their spores into a deadly contact toxin.
And then there are some that are different because they work against physical damage rather than energy. I would rate them at 1 point per 4 or 5 caster levels (e.g. 3/- for a 12th level wizard).
DR/Positive- undead are lethal enough as it is and this protects poorly armed wizards from them.
DR/Poison- this is not meant for humanoid casters, but rather dragons that do not have their own DR. The poison aura goes back to the idea of their toxic blood.
DR/ Cold Iron- fey don't usually melee but those that do tend to be brutes. This teaches them to play nice.
DR/Fire- this one is meant to fight illithids. It keeps them from easily removing the caster's brain while burning their tentacles.
Obviously there are a lot more possibilities out there. What would you use?
