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Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-26, 01:22 PM
All right, post the worst spell you have ever picked that you used in an amazing way.

I'll start. I was fighting an ultimate buffed up fire giant. It was doing masses of damage, so I ran away. I was faster than it, and after two turns I reached a pool of water that was in my last battle. I jumped in, dived to the bottom, and cast baleful transportation. Then I healed myself to full. When he finally got out, I hit him with a targeted dispel magic, dispelling every single one of his buffs. It was pretty fantastic.

Heliomance
2009-01-26, 02:18 PM
Baleful Transposition is not remotely a bad spell. It's an extremely good spell, for situations just like that, or to split up a group of enemies, or whatever.

Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP. And you can't Persist Time Stop.

Ganurath
2009-01-26, 02:21 PM
I once cast Create Water inside an attacking dwarf's full plate, and after a raised eyebrow the DM said he was stunned for two rounds, no save.

BRC
2009-01-26, 02:24 PM
I was once fighting a massive army of skeletons, I had a magic item that fired 3 magic missiles, so I would target the left legs of 3 skeletons and fire.

VistaniMistress
2009-01-26, 02:25 PM
While playing a high cha sorceress, I got grappled by a soldier, with intentions that weren't really work safe, if you get what I mean.

Shocking grasp + called shot houserules + soldier's crotch.

Fax Celestis
2009-01-26, 02:28 PM
I used create water to waterboard and interrogate a prisoner.

...I went from CG to CN after that.

Adumbration
2009-01-26, 02:43 PM
I used create water to waterboard and interrogate a prisoner.

...I went from CG to CN after that.

Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

Person_Man
2009-01-26, 02:47 PM
Animal Messenger: Great way to distract someone before you ambush them. "Why is that frog sitting there staring at me? And why does he have a note tied to him. Hold on, let me read it... 'I prepared Explosive Ruins today?' What does that BOOOOM!!!!"

AngryRussian16
2009-01-26, 02:48 PM
Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

Well, I think there are rules and stuff for that in the BoVD, but I don't care to look at the specifics

Fax Celestis
2009-01-26, 02:48 PM
Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

...you didn't happen to be a hobgoblin invading a dwarven fortress, were you? If so, I'm sorry. :smalltongue:

hamishspence
2009-01-26, 02:51 PM
BoVD doesn't have rules for waterboarding.

Fiendish Codex 2 has "intimidating torture" any form of torture that does no actual damage.

As an Evil act, it ranks really low, comparable to casting an Evil spell, and less evil than, say, stealing from the needy.

so, unless you were already on the borderline, you could make a case that one evil act doesn't make for an alignment change- it takes a trend of evil acts.

Fax Celestis
2009-01-26, 02:53 PM
Animal Messenger: Great way to distract someone before you ambush them. "Why is that frog sitting there staring at me? And why does he have a note tied to him. Hold on, let me read it... 'I prepared Explosive Ruins today?' What does that BOOOOM!!!!"

This video, around 5:30 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeyR9yXNOTE&feature=related).

FFTGeist
2009-01-26, 02:54 PM
Constipation + Grease spell

Problem solved? :eek:

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-26, 02:55 PM
Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP. And you can't Persist Time Stop.

Well, dont tell my DM :smallwink:!

EDIT: ninjaed!

Glimbur
2009-01-26, 02:55 PM
Helping Hand. It's a core cleric spell, and I never see it mentioned anywhere. It creates a ghostly hand that guides a person within a few miles at most to you. I suppose the original intention was to un-split the party or some such.

Alternatively, say there's a character hiding from the party and sniping. No-one has the Spot check to make this stop, but you have seen the sniper before so you can supply a good physical description to the spell. Cast Helping Hand targetting said sniper. It winks over to him/her and gestures. That's enough to drop a Glitterdust or Maw of Chaos or whatever your favourite AoE spell of the time is.

I tried this in an epic game and it almost worked; had I had a better description of the sniper it would have.

hamishspence
2009-01-26, 02:58 PM
That makes me think of OOTS use of Dancing Lights- as an alarm signal, to warn exactly how serious threat is.

Adumbration
2009-01-26, 02:58 PM
As a matter of fact it was an 18th level Malconvoker at an antimagic prison, and he just got severely beaten, so it wasn't that bad. And it was a snap decision from my part - even though it was a one-shot, it might not have been the wisest course of action in terms of roleplaying.

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-26, 03:00 PM
My DM said that Continual flame could be used to create heat/fire as well if you want it too...

I had a pirate campaign, and I destroyed multiple enemy ships by casting continual flame on their deck :smallbiggrin:!

EDIT: Double ninjaed!

TK-Squared
2009-01-26, 03:08 PM
Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP.

Only a successful save can Harm not reduce you below 1HP

TempusCCK
2009-01-26, 03:11 PM
Not that fly and magic missile are by any means a set of "bad spells"

I pride myself on having used them creatively in a couple of instances.

One time, I was being chased over the tops of buildings in a city, I had succeeded in making a rather large jump using some magic, and as the person following me made his jump, I blasted him in the chest with a full five magic missiles. Being force damage, one can assume that it's something similar to blunt damage. I likened it to a man sitting in the air holding a hammer, and with a STR mod of at least 4, whacking the guy in the chest. My assailant then smashed into the side of the building and fell to his doom.

The time I used fly creatively was during a grapple check, I was losing to a much stronger foe, so I floated up twenty feet and turned upside down, causing him to lose his grip and tumble down. Buwhaha. Gravity is MY best weapon.

Bayar
2009-01-26, 03:43 PM
Not that fly and magic missile are by any means a set of "bad spells"

I pride myself on having used them creatively in a couple of instances.

One time, I was being chased over the tops of buildings in a city, I had succeeded in making a rather large jump using some magic, and as the person following me made his jump, I blasted him in the chest with a full five magic missiles. Being force damage, one can assume that it's something similar to blunt damage. I likened it to a man sitting in the air holding a hammer, and with a STR mod of at least 4, whacking the guy in the chest. My assailant then smashed into the side of the building and fell to his doom.

The time I used fly creatively was during a grapple check, I was losing to a much stronger foe, so I floated up twenty feet and turned upside down, causing him to lose his grip and tumble down. Buwhaha. Gravity is MY best weapon.


You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling :tongue:

Starscream
2009-01-26, 04:03 PM
This wasn't me, but in our last campaign we faced a half-dragon monstrous scorpion that, due to an apparent miscalculation, was way tougher than it should have been. I mean it slayed our most powerful combatant in the first round of combat. Even the DM was shocked.

We had a warlock in the party. In the first round he cast Summon Swarm, a least invocation which had absolutely no effect but to cause like a single hit point of damage. Seeing that we were totally outclassed, the party ran for dear life.

But the swarm of bats the warlock has summoned had the Wound ability, which causes the target to lose a hit point every round until they make a heal check or receive a cure spell. The scorpion was mindless and could make no such check.

So to everyone's utter amazement, the thing ended up just bleeding to death. A gigantic half-dragon scorpion. After getting a scratch from a bat. Sure it took several hundred rounds, but it worked. Needless to say, this was totally unplanned.

Arbitrarity
2009-01-26, 04:07 PM
Only a successful save can Harm not reduce you below 1HP


Harm charges a subject with negative energy that deals 10 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level). If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount, but it cannot reduce the target’s hit points to less than 1.

Arguable. I never read it that way.

Knaight
2009-01-26, 04:16 PM
This wasn't D&D, but in one game a player had their character invent a spell that controlled light string, basically a weakened animate rope. Thats it. Cue impromptu, mobile, trip wires. The best use of this, however, was in tandem with a flask of oil. One person threw the flask, and while the target was slipping around his shoe(this game varied in time levels) was tied to his bow string. Next time he tried to shoot an arrow, he pulled the bow up, yanking himself off of his feet. The oil was then lit on fire.

TempusCCK
2009-01-26, 04:24 PM
You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling :tongue:

Spell was already cast, I just wasn't using it for part of the duration.

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-26, 04:33 PM
I have a very high DC :smallwink:.

And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

monty
2009-01-26, 04:38 PM
And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

It doesn't actually have a duration. The 1d4+1 rounds are "apparent time" which take place effectively instantaneously, so it has no real duration to persist.

Draz74
2009-01-26, 04:42 PM
And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

FAQ ruled it. It claimed that its duration, "1d4+1 rounds [apparent time]; see text" actually means "instantaneous."

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-26, 04:59 PM
Can I use intensified extended time stop?
20 turns!

Yay metamagic reducers!

Dixieboy
2009-01-26, 05:18 PM
You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling :tongue:

It was probably cast before he was le grappled?

Edit: I should've kept reading

And a little example: Hold portal is generally considered ****, and so is open/close
However in conjunction and with the use of for example expeditious retreat they are an excellent was to get away from really big people with really pointy metal sticks

'course it was houseruled that oen could use open/close for bigger doors, thus making it slightly unfair :/

Zergrusheddie
2009-01-26, 05:20 PM
We were in an Undead Pyramid in a huge desert. We were attacked by a few monsters that looked exactly like trolls. Fire wasn't doing anything to them, so our Duskblade made a Knowledge: Monster check to see what they are. Apparently, he rolled high enough to learn they were Sand Trolls. After frantically looking up what the hell they wore, our Duskblade shouted off "They don't like water!"

Without missing a beat, our Druid casts a Create Water (level 0 spell) above the trolls. The trolls were supposed to take 5d6 damage per gallon of water; level 15 Druid X 2 Gallons/level X 5 = 150d6. The DM just said that they exploded, violently.

Here's the funny part: one of our Fighters used a gem to summon a Huge Water Elemental to kill them (cost about 10k) and the Druid ended the fight with a level 0 spell.

Swooper
2009-01-26, 06:27 PM
Tenser's Floating Disk. Throw a cloak over it in combat. Ta-dah! Instant cover. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: Enlarge and Reduce had a lot of utility potential in 2E, since back then, they affected not only humanoids, but other kinds of creatures and objects too. Stuck door? Reduce it and remove from the doorway. Someone chasing you down a narrow canyon? Enlarge a rock to block it. Need to charge through a line of guards? Enlarge your mount, trample them!

imperialspectre
2009-01-26, 07:02 PM
The Create Water story reminded me of the first session I was ever in. The DM had already shown distinct tendencies to put us in difficult situations with tough monsters, and an enjoyment of enforcing the old 3:1 rule for attacking places (if you want to be sure of winning in an attack, you need at least 3 attackers for every 1 defender). Since all of us were tactically-minded and didn't care to face potential TPK, we evolved a sense of caution rapidly.

So we had found out that a bunch of monsters responsible for harming the local livestock were hanging out in a cabin fairly deep in the woods, and we wanted to neutralize them. The cabin was fairly easy to find, but when we got there it became fairly clear that just walking in would be a bad idea. The windows were boarded up and virtually impossible to see through, so we couldn't see what was in there, and setting fire to the cabin would a) ruin perfectly good loot in a low-level game and b) was fairly difficult anyway because it was a rainy day and the wood of the cabin would be hard to light.

We knew something was in there, because there was smoke coming out of the chimney.

The solution? We climbed up onto the roof very quietly, and the cleric cast Create Water at the top of the brick chimney.

The enemy came out piecemeal to investigate. Game over.

Ricky S
2009-01-26, 07:54 PM
I was in a dungeon, with my party. We had no torches or anything so it was pitch black and we had been wandering around for 6 in game hours. I was a cleric but had used up all my spells. So when I next prepared all of my cantrips were light. We were tracking the BBEG a 7th level Barbarian through the dungeon. (we were 5th level) My party comes into an opening and on a ledge just across from us is the barbarian. I cast light on my crossbow bolt and fire it at him (after winning initiative). Roll a natural 20 hit him in the eye and blinds him because of the light (in the other eye. The one hit with the bolt really couldnt see that well :smallbiggrin: ). He subsequently rolls a one for his leap attack and falls into a crevice and gets impaled on some stalagmites. Our Group laughed so much at the DM for the big build up to the final battle and the anticlimax that when we ventured on we met a 10th level werewolf. Needless to say we werent laughing after that.

Waspinator
2009-01-27, 02:00 AM
Doesn't Time Stop not count as having a multi-round duration because all of the rounds of stopped time don't count as real rounds by the standards of the outside world?

AslanCross
2009-01-27, 03:40 AM
That makes me think of OOTS use of Dancing Lights- as an alarm signal, to warn exactly how serious threat is.

My players once used dancing lights to call down a trebuchet strike on the keep they were raiding. Stuff died.

Person_Man
2009-01-27, 11:13 AM
This video, around 5:30 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeyR9yXNOTE&feature=related).

That was freaking awesome. I love the Japanese.


Back on topic, you can use Feather Fall and a high Bluff check to kill an enemy. "You can jump right off the cliff, and the winds will gently carry you down. Just watch!"

A similar trick is to use Ventriloquism and a high Bluff check to start fights between guards, especially if you're a Kenku (MMIII I think - basically little mockingbird people who have the racial ability to copy sounds and voices).

Dyllan
2009-01-27, 11:41 AM
How about open/close to close a sprung pit trap and hold portal to make it safe to walk across?

Or my favorite that I did as a DM. Minor image of a group of sleeping trolls at the end of a short hall, cast on the wall of a dungeon. The party wizard sees them, and immediately casts fireball... at the wall 5 feet in front of himself.

kjones
2009-01-27, 12:55 PM
My DM said that Continual flame could be used to create heat/fire as well if you want it too...

I had a pirate campaign, and I destroyed multiple enemy ships by casting continual flame on their deck :smallbiggrin:!

EDIT: Double ninjaed!

Yeah, the spell description for Continual Flame specifically says that it can't do that, probably for that reason. Even if it could... it has range touch. Why were the pirates letting you on their deck? And why wouldn't they just, I don't know, toss the burning thing overboard before the flames could spread?

A lot of these sound like examples of people not understanding the effects of certain spells. I don't mean to rain on everybody's parade, and I enjoy DMs that encourage cleverness and creativity, but if you rule that, for example, Create Water can stun a creature in heavy armor for two rounds with no save... that's incredibly powerful for a spell of any level, much less 0th level. (Incidentally, that wouldn't work because you don't have line of effect to "inside their armor" - for the same reason that you can't, say, Summon Monster inside someone's pants.)

The archetypical example of this is using Summon spells to summon an elephant or whale or similar bighuge creature, directly above the enemy. Again, very clever, but this would let you do way more damage then you should be able to do for a spell of that level. (They subsequently changed this, for this very reason. "Creatures cannot be summoned into an environment that can't support them." This means you can't summon land-based creatures in the air...)

As a DM, I encourage inventive uses for spells - hell, just the other night my players used silent image to cheat at cards, and ghost sound to interrogate (made a cleric think his god was talking to him)... but you've got to stay within the rules, or chaos ensues. When the case is ambiguous, use the guideline of, "How powerful should a spell of this level be?"

Keld Denar
2009-01-27, 01:06 PM
Featherfall is also great for a caster boss to use. Have him rig up a couple of Spellwarped body guards, and then, while hes casting his normal spells, he's casting the swift action, multi target featherfalls on all the Spellwarped bodyguards. If he fails his SR check, the bodyguards get buffed in a bad way. Its pretty sick to see in play.

monty
2009-01-27, 01:19 PM
for the same reason that you can't, say, Summon Monster inside someone's pants.

I once summoned a monster in my pajamas.

kjones
2009-01-27, 01:37 PM
I once summoned a monster in my pajamas.

What he was doing in them, you'll never know?

Gloverboy
2009-01-27, 01:41 PM
Druids get to do freaky things.

Like the Druid in one game I played. A relatively large party we (Pretty much every nerd in our Dorm hall, the hall for honors students) ran into a large, grouchy Hydra. Our friendly Dragon charged, and was immediately murdered by the heads.

things look pretty grim for us. Then our insane druid looks at his Summon spells

Druid: "I can summon a whale, right?"
DM: "Yeah"
Druid: "Ok, I summon one over the Hydra!"
DM: "Wha...?"

Hydra pancake.

Kinda like this
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0208.html

kjones
2009-01-27, 01:49 PM
Druids get to do freaky things.

Like the Druid in one game I played. A relatively large party we (Pretty much every nerd in our Dorm hall, the hall for honors students) ran into a large, grouchy Hydra. Our friendly Dragon charged, and was immediately murdered by the heads.

things look pretty grim for us. Then our insane druid looks at his Summon spells

Druid: "I can summon a whale, right?"
DM: "Yeah"
Druid: "Ok, I summon one over the Hydra!"
DM: "Wha...?"

Hydra pancake.

Kinda like this
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0208.html

Except that you can't do that. I just explained this - see my post above.

If your game houserules that you can summon heavy creatures above your enemies, fine - but be prepared to deal with the consequences. There's not a whole lot of ways to avoid having stuff fall on you.

magic9mushroom
2009-01-27, 01:58 PM
FAQ ruled it. It claimed that its duration, "1d4+1 rounds [apparent time]; see text" actually means "instantaneous."

No. 1d4+1 rounds apparent time is close to 0 actual time but isn't quite. You're in a different reference frame that has some crazy warp factor.

Keld Denar
2009-01-27, 02:10 PM
#854 No, you may not refer to your casting of the Time Stop spell as Bullet Time or Entering the Matrix.

Signed: Captain Jarlot of the Forgotten Freedom

Mad props for the references!

Lost Demiurge
2009-01-27, 02:56 PM
A wizard PC of mine in a 3.0 game was flying overland over a mountain range. On his way, he attracted a curious wyvern. He cast Mount, sending a screaming horse plummeting downward and the hungry wyvern followed, giving him enough time to lose the critter.

On my own cognizance as a halfling wizard, I used a silent image once to overlay an illusionary door over a door. Then I opened the door so the party could check out the manned guard post beyond without giving away our position. (This one was years before the OOTS strip that gave that little trick away.)

Tacoma
2009-01-27, 03:46 PM
On my own cognizance as a halfling wizard, I used a silent image once to overlay an illusionary door over a door. Then I opened the door so the party could check out the manned guard post beyond without giving away our position. (This one was years before the OOTS strip that gave that little trick away.)
A guard-post, with guards in it, who are guarding, don't notice the creaky door handle and creaky door opening noise? Or that the inside of the door looks a lot different than they're used to seeing when they look up?

Seems to me like people in a magical setting wouldn't react to mysterious phenomena with wonder - they'd immediately jump up and stab it or flee.


Best use of a crummy spell was from 2E - Bigby's Dextrous Digits. The spell created a pair of floating hands that had your qualities, but unable to cast spells or use magic items of course, and it lasted one hour per level. Second level spell.

My Magic-User had the Carving proficiency (best craft skill evar for versatility) and bought many sets of wood-carving tools. Every day we were in town, he'd haul the tools out, memorize only Dextrous Digits for second-level spells, and have the little guys work all day carving cool wooden items for him. Because his Intelligence was so high (and as the DM had decided Carving should be like Weaponsmithing or Armorer and be INT based) the hands' Carving skill rolls were crazygonuts.

The next best use of a spell was when I was playing a Cleric of an Elven god and used Weighty Chest, a second-level Cleric spell from 2E. The target object of the spell would weigh a multiple of the weight of whoever touched it, but would weigh normal if the Cleric touched it. It's purpose was to ward an item to keep people from picking it up and carrying it away. The larger the looter, the heavier the item got. If two looters picked it up, it would get REALLY heavy. I cast it on my arrows. When I shot someone, if I did damage the arrow was stuck in the target. And now the arrow weighed about 5x as much as the target's body weight because he was touching it. Suddenly encumbered, the victim was unable to move and had severe penalties to fighting. And if he can still move around? Have a party member walk up and touch the arrow :smallamused:

EDIT: 20% less snark

Molant
2009-01-27, 07:10 PM
My favorite unconventional use of a spell was at a time when our DM wanted us to fight our way up through a tower. After letting the DM's pet lay out a stupid plan, I suggested we just have one of the dragons our side had been provided with throw us at the top of the tower, I'd featherfall us to a safe landing (assassin) and then we could just cast dimension door ten feet down.

It worked perfectly until the DM ruled that Dimension Door "malfunctioned" and sent us two hundred feet down. It was for crap like this that I eventually killed his railroading ex-PC superleader three times in one round (Death Attack, zero constitution and sheer damage).

We also had a guy cast create holy water (or sanctify water, something) during a rainstorm while fighting undead.

Another time, we formed a protective circle around one of our guys and had him taunt the guards into charging out into the courtyard, where they were fried with lightning that our druid has conjured up.

Oh! The best trap I ever came across was an acoustic spell set on an underwater gate. Our DM magnified the damage for being in a denser medium.

Of course, there's always the ole Enlarge Person on the enemy while in the sewers. Or the time I threw a fireball into a closed room and we held the door shut while it basically destroyed everything inside (the DM immediately filled it with ruined loot). Or using True Strike during a sea battle to take out the enemy captain (always fun). There was one time I used alter self just for an intimidate check (turns out having a +42 makes them fearfully obey your every command until you tire of ordering around sucky cohorts and kill them).

I had a DM rule that a paladin's Aura of Good would repel vermin, so when we were later getting swarmed, I just had everybody get close and let the wizard gave some fun.

My first group was always really creative in the application of things and thankfully that's how I learned to play (my second group needed me to save them all the freaking time); this sort of stuff happened all the time.

ShadowFighter15
2009-01-27, 07:30 PM
My favorite unconventional use of a spell was at a time when our DM wanted us to fight our way up through a tower. After letting the DM's pet lay out a stupid plan, I suggested we just have one of the dragons our side had been provided with throw us at the top of the tower, I'd featherfall us to a safe landing (assassin) and then we could just cast dimension door ten feet down.

It worked perfectly until the DM ruled that Dimension Door "malfunctioned" and sent us two hundred feet down.

Okay, now that DM's just being a jackass. I haven't seen anything like what's been posted (though I haven't been playing for that long), but I imagine that someone'll come up with something (probably me if my character's half-sister shows up. Two words: hyperactive sorceress:eek:.

Keld Denar
2009-01-27, 07:37 PM
The next best use of a spell was when I was playing a Cleric of an Elven god and used Weighty Chest, a second-level Cleric spell from 2E.

Similar to Weighty Chest was Frisky Chest. Instead of getting super heavy, the item would dance away from whoever was trying to get close to it. Well, to really abuse it, get an incredibly large and heavy statue, cast Frisky Chest on it, and have one of your other party members chase it around the dungeon. Smash walls, doors, monsters, everything, under the weight of your semi-animated statue monstrosity.

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-28, 11:50 AM
Yeah, the spell description for Continual Flame specifically says that it can't do that, probably for that reason. Even if it could... it has range touch. Why were the pirates letting you on their deck? And why wouldn't they just, I don't know, toss the burning thing overboard before the flames could spread?

I was a geshalt Fighter/Sorcerer. I used enlarge person, ran to the side of my ship, leap attacked across, killing their helmsman. Then I cast the spell on their deck, Conjured some oil, then jumped back. Hilarity ensured. And they would have had to cut off their deck (which was entirely on fire due to the oil spreading) and throw it in the water. They probably would have had to cut off their mast too :smallsmile:.

Another pirate campaign (one DM started one after each Pirates of the Carribean Movie) I was playing a kineticist. It was slightly higher technology level, so their were cannons with gun powder. I cast energy missile, (not a bad spell in the slightest) which shoots five bolts of, in my case, fire. I directed them to different cannon hole things. Goodbye left half of ship.

kjones
2009-01-28, 05:28 PM
I was a geshalt Fighter/Sorcerer. I used enlarge person, ran to the side of my ship, leap attacked across, killing their helmsman. Then I cast the spell on their deck, Conjured some oil, then jumped back. Hilarity ensured. And they would have had to cut off their deck (which was entirely on fire due to the oil spreading) and throw it in the water. They probably would have had to cut off their mast too :smallsmile:.


What spell did you use to conjure oil? And couldn't you have just used a torch instead?

Also, I think somebody's pointed this out already, but I'm pretty sure you can't use Harm like you do in your sig, and I know you can't use Time Stop like that.

CompositeSanta
2009-01-28, 06:54 PM
So me and my party were trapped in the hold of a ship, weakened from a monster we had fought, and level one. There were two exits, each on opposite sides, but both being guarded by people with heavy crossbows. With no first level spells left, my wizard hatched a daring plan. He told the paladin to take a readied action to charge up the stairs with his dwarven waraxe, and the druid would summon nature's ally and take the other side while they were distracted. So I cast "open/close door" on the little hatch, and the dwarf charged up it. When the thugs re-opened the hatch, they found an angry dwarf paladin staring them in the face while they were holding crossbows in melee range. After a few short rounds, we killed them and forced their leader to surrender to us.

Atamasama
2009-01-28, 07:41 PM
A couple of months ago, in our Kingdoms of Kalamar 3.5E game, we had an absent player and I was taking over his cleric/wizard in a fight (we do that on occasion).

We were at a monastery on top of a mountain, fighting a hill giant in frigid weather and getting creamed. My main character and the fighter of the group were at death's door, everyone else was terribly battered and the spellcaster I was playing had used up every single combat spell.

So what I did was cast "create water" on the rocks around his feet, which in the extreme cold turned instantly to ice. The giant slipped and fell prone. I then cast "mount", but summoned the horse right on top of the giant. The horse of course panicked and furiously lashed out at the giant. We were able to finish it off after that.

UserClone
2009-01-28, 07:52 PM
My bard greased the Warmage's robes so that he could wriggle free of the grapple that a wasp devil had on him. It had grappled him and begun flying away. Unfortunately, that was my last level 1 spell, so no feather fall for his ass. fell 20 feet, but he survived!:smallcool:

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-28, 07:54 PM
What spell did you use to conjure oil? And couldn't you have just used a torch instead?

Also, I think somebody's pointed this out already, but I'm pretty sure you can't use Harm like you do in your sig, and I know you can't use Time Stop like that.

I KNOW i HAD A WHOLE GIANT CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS ALREADY!

Actually you can use Harm like that if they fail their save...but you are right about time stop.

I used major creaton for the oil, and since it was continual flame, the DM decided that the pirates couldn't put out the fire :smallsmile:.

Atamasama
2009-01-28, 07:58 PM
Edit: Enlarge and Reduce had a lot of utility potential in 2E, since back then, they affected not only humanoids, but other kinds of creatures and objects too. Stuck door? Reduce it and remove from the doorway. Someone chasing you down a narrow canyon? Enlarge a rock to block it. Need to charge through a line of guards? Enlarge your mount, trample them!
I never did this, but read about it in an old Dragon magazine some time ago...

Apparently one trick you could do in 2E when facing an enemy with an anti-magic shell (like an anti-paladin) is cast Reduce on a boulder, then chuck the (now) small rock at him. Once inside his field the boulder turns large again, crushing him. I just love the idea of turning someone's abilities against him (it's like Wizardry Judo).

Atamasama
2009-01-28, 08:02 PM
My DM said that Continual flame could be used to create heat/fire as well if you want it too...

I had a pirate campaign, and I destroyed multiple enemy ships by casting continual flame on their deck :smallbiggrin:!
I think when your DM decides to completely change the fundamental use of a spell from being a handy way to have light, to becoming an overpowered combat spell, it no longer counts as a "bad spell".

This is the equivalent of saying that someone can use a flashlight as a lightsaber. :smalltongue:

kjones
2009-01-28, 08:13 PM
I think when your DM decides to completely change the fundamental use of a spell from being a handy way to have light, to becoming an overpowered combat spell, it no longer counts as a "bad spell".

This is the equivalent of saying that someone can use a flashlight as a lightsaber. :smalltongue:

This, only with a dash of "Guys, check out how I killed twenty stormtroopers using only a flashlight!"


I used major creaton for the oil, and since it was continual flame, the DM decided that the pirates couldn't put out the fire

So you used a 5th level spell and a 2nd level spell (in direct contradiction to its actual effect) to replicate a torch and some flasks? Well done.