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View Full Version : [3.5] Things to do while Time-Stopped



Malacode
2009-06-02, 05:05 AM
I personally think this spell is great, yet my repetoire with it is rather limited. Besides, I would love to learn exactly how you guys (and girls) in the playground use it, and hear any anecdotes about it's use. You know, for the lulz.

My favourite tactic:
Forcecage
Prismatic Sphere
Reverse Gravity.

They're inside the forcecage, you're just above it with the Prismatic Sphere poking through. Timestop ends, they get flung up into the prismatic sphere, then fall back down as the Reverse Gravity can't penetrate the Sphere. Up, down, up, down... So many saves, so little time.

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-02, 05:10 AM
Having never played a wizard quite that high... *taking notes*

Though knowing me it would look something like this:

Fireball > Lightning Bolt > Cone of Cold > Disintegrate.

I'm nothing if not persistent <.<

Salt_Crow
2009-06-02, 05:16 AM
I don't believe you can directly affect anything other than yourself. I'd be buffing like hell though :)

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-02, 05:18 AM
Unless I mis-remember >.< can't you cast damage spells and they just "Hang" there until time is back on? (Then again maybe I'm thinking solely of videogame implementations... which is the closest I've ever gotten to time stop myself.)

Malacode
2009-06-02, 05:22 AM
Heh, buffing like crazy is one of the best uses of the spell. That, and to wait out the Daze from Celerity.


From the SRD
This spell seems to make time cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends. Most spellcasters use the additional time to improve their defenses, summon allies, or flee from combat.


I once had a mage (Still do) that through Prestige Classing, feats and obscure spells could cast up to 26 spells a round. You have no idea how scary that prospect is when combined with Timestop, Celerity, immunity to Daze and over 600 spell levels per day. Effectively, he could burn through all his spell slots as a Swift action. Then again, I never thought of any way to -use- them all. There are only so many creatures you can Forcecage/Cloudkill in any given encounter.

Yuki Akuma
2009-06-02, 05:22 AM
Unless I mis-remember >.< can't you cast damage spells and they just "Hang" there until time is back on? (Then again maybe I'm thinking solely of videogame implementations... which is the closest I've ever gotten to time stop myself.)

Nope!

You can cast a Delayed spell (or a Delayed Blast Fireball), though.

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-02, 05:25 AM
Ahh, now I see where I was mis-reading <x.x> Bah!

(The part about "If a spell targets an area AND has a duration longer..." - I was reading it as 'either-or')

Woops, my bad <'x'>





*will go back to his fighters* <~_~> Me dumb, bash enemies wif metal fing.

Salt_Crow
2009-06-02, 05:36 AM
Ahh, now I see where I was mis-reading <x.x> Bah!

(The part about "If a spell targets an area AND has a duration longer..." - I was reading it as 'either-or')

Woops, my bad <'x'>





*will go back to his fighters* <~_~> Me dumb, bash enemies wif metal fing.


multiple castings of Delayed Blast Fireball goodness, perhaps?

jcsw
2009-06-02, 05:43 AM
As someone who managed to get time stop on a Big Stupid Fighter, I'd like to ask about *their* options too.

Malacode
2009-06-02, 05:49 AM
Readied actions? I think that's about it, except if you're a sneaky fighter. You can affect objects not in another creature's possesion, so you can steal unattended objects. Saaay... Pick up a big rock. Hold it over the head of a foe. It'll stay there while you put more rocks above other people's heads. Timestop ends, Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies

Yuki Akuma
2009-06-02, 05:52 AM
As someone who managed to get time stop on a Big Stupid Fighter, I'd like to ask about *their* options too.

See if your DM will let you exchange it for Time Stands Still (from Tome of Battle) instead.

Because for a fighter, Time Stop is pretty much worthless.

Talic
2009-06-02, 05:54 AM
Maw of Chaos/Forcecage is a good combo.

Provided you're of a decently high level, and are metamagic focused, and are a Sorceror:

Hold Rod of Greater Maximize.
<Swift>: Arcane Spellsurge
<Standard> Maximize an Empowered Time Stop. You have 5+1d2 rounds.

Round 1:
<Standard> Maximize an Empowered Maw of Chaos
<Swift> Forcecage

Round 2:
<Standard> Maximize an Empowered Maw of Chaos on something else
<Swift> Forcecage
<Move> Put up Rod.

Round 3:
<Move> Draw 2nd Rod of Maximize
<Standard> Maximize an Empowered Delay Blast Fireball
<Swift> Maximize a Delay Blast Fireball

Round 4:
<Standard> Maximize an Empowered Delay Blast Fireball
<Swift> Forcecage

Round 5:
Whatever you want

Round 6:
Whatever you want

Watch as anything in those cages melts.

Ridureyu
2009-06-02, 06:07 AM
Get some sleep.

jcsw
2009-06-02, 06:23 AM
Oh, as a caster, I found that time stops are really useful for putting up this one spell. Energy Transformation Field, from Spell Compendium.

It has a *four round* casting time, but can achieve disgusting results, like raining a hundred magic missiles without having to spend half your feats on it.

It's even more powerful if you're, say, a sublime chord...

weenie
2009-06-02, 06:26 AM
I once had a mage (Still do) that through Prestige Classing, feats and obscure spells could cast up to 26 spells a round.

Wow, how did you do that?

Eldariel
2009-06-02, 06:40 AM
For some caster types, wall them in except for one side, shape an AMF to cover that one side and toss a longterm damage spell such as Maw of Chaos or Cloudkill at them.

Curmudgeon
2009-06-02, 07:17 AM
For some caster types, wall them in except for one side, shape an AMF to cover that one side and toss a longterm damage spell such as Maw of Chaos or Cloudkill at them. Uh, how are you going to get that long-term damage spell at them through walls (which block line of effect) and Antimagic Field (which stops magic)?

EDIT: If you're going to say that the shaped spell prevents an attack, remember that you must have at least a 1' square opening to be able to cast a spell through, and any opening big enough for you to cast out of is also big enough for them to cast back at you.

Malacode
2009-06-02, 07:26 AM
Wow, how did you do that?
Beholder Mage gets 10 spells/round, with Arcane Fusion, Arcane Fusion (Greater) and Heightened Arcane Fusion (Greater) that becomes 13 spells of 7th level down. If you had cast Arcane Spellsurge, that is all for a swft action. Then you trade actions down. Like how you can trade a standard action for a move action, to get a double move, but not the other way around. Swift actions are the lowest of the limited-use actions (Free actions are unlimited and 5ft steps are always 1/round), so you can trade your Move/Standard for a Swift... That is, unless someone in my gaming group made up that rule. I swear, we have so many houserules that are just "assumed" and never stated that most of us have forgotten how to play D&D as-written.
There, 26 spells a round. I actually think I had some trick that got me extra swift actions though, like a class ability or something, which is legal-er (If that's a word)

Curmudgeon
2009-06-02, 07:41 AM
so you can trade your Move/Standard for a Swift... That is, unless someone in my gaming group made up that rule. Yes, they made it up. That's a blatant RAW violation.

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-02, 07:41 AM
multiple castings of Delayed Blast Fireball goodness, perhaps?

Ultimately yeah; that seems to be the logical way to do what i was after <._.> probably with Energy Admixture or Energy Substitution to make a few of them other element based. (What's better than glassing an area with 4 fireballs? Hitting it with a Fireball, Acidball, Iceball and Sonicball ... because!)

Gotta agree with Yuki about Time Stands Stilll though. Sadly it's not as potent as Time Stop (4-5 rounds of spells vs 2 rounds worth of attacks) - but at least it lets you hit them, unlike Time Stop >.<

J.Gellert
2009-06-02, 07:43 AM
Go to the bathroom without anyone noticing.

Seriously. It quickly lowers your level of awesome if your universe-altering near-epic wizard has to take breaks to visit the bathroom.

Malacode
2009-06-02, 07:48 AM
Go to the bathroom without anyone noticing.

Seriously. It quickly lowers your level of awesome if your universe-altering near-epic wizard has to take breaks to visit the bathroom.

That is definitely getting added to my repetoire of Time Stop tricks. Just to piss people off:smallbiggrin:

Khanderas
2009-06-02, 07:58 AM
Go to the bathroom without anyone noticing.

Seriously. It quickly lowers your level of awesome if your universe-altering near-epic wizard has to take breaks to visit the bathroom.
Or make a 0 level spell, "secret purge" or something, that basically teleports wste to a random location (1d4+2)* 100 yards away.

Because
A: Everything should be solved by magic.
B: Plenty of hilarity for GM's, if so inclined
C: If I were a wizard, capable of ripping reality as I see fit, taking a dump in the forest and use leaves is not gonna happen. This is a spell that will be researched real fast in a world where you get better at casting spells by killing kobolds in tunnels and dragons in ancient ruins weeks away from civilization.

Set
2009-06-02, 07:58 AM
Change your outfit, really fast.

Balance flasks of alchemist's fire all over the enemy, so that if they move even the slightest, 'boom!'

Pants everyone and then teleport away, with their pants.

Set poison-coated bear traps with fire trap set to go off if they are opened in front of every moving person. Then tie their bootlaces together.

Replace the BBEGs healing potion with dust of sneezing and choking.

J.Gellert
2009-06-02, 08:19 AM
Or make a 0 level spell, "secret purge" or something, that basically teleports wste to a random location (1d4+2)* 100 yards away.

Because
A: Everything should be solved by magic.
B: Plenty of hilarity for GM's, if so inclined
C: If I were a wizard, capable of ripping reality as I see fit, taking a dump in the forest and use leaves is not gonna happen. This is a spell that will be researched real fast in a world where you get better at casting spells by killing kobolds in tunnels and dragons in ancient ruins weeks away from civilization.

Definitely. D&D needs more utility spells - why do people assume that spellcasters only ever create a new spell if they want to kill someone in a new, yet unheard of, way? :smallbiggrin:

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-02, 08:21 AM
So what you're saying is... someone needs to make Jarrate, the spell. >.>

Gaiyamato
2009-06-02, 08:32 AM
Use it to cast a whole lot of delayed Time stops?

So time stop #1: cast more time stops.

Then use Fabricate or similar spells to do interesting things.

There are rules in the stronghold builders guide that could be useful.
So one second your all fighting in the open, then the next BAM they find themselves in the middle of a dungeon full of booby traps and summoned critters.

They would likely also assume that they were teleported, which would actually be wrong. lol.

Curmudgeon
2009-06-02, 08:33 AM
Balance flasks of alchemist's fire all over the enemy, so that if they move even the slightest, 'boom!'
While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell.

You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession. You can't balance anything on another creature. That would make the flasks of alchemist's fire carried by that creature, and you can't move them into that position. Plus that's targeting the creature with a (delayed) attack, anyway.

jcsw
2009-06-02, 08:59 AM
You can't balance anything on another creature. That would make the flasks of alchemist's fire carried by that creature, and you can't move them into that position. Plus that's targeting the creature with a (delayed) attack, anyway.

It's not an attack. Attack has a specific meaning, and this isn't it.

You're not moving things carried by that creature, you are moving things he isn't carrying so that they become things that he is carrying, at no point do you have to touch anything he is carrying. In fact, if you insist that things that touch him can no longer be affected by you and are stopped in time, you only need to drop things onto him and they'll stick there until the time stop ends.

woodenbandman
2009-06-02, 09:10 AM
Well, I'd personally Favor of the Martyr chain delayed Greater Celerities. 5 full round actions now - 5 swift actions now = 5 full round actions later. If possible, twin said greater celerities.

EDIT: I'd also Minor Creation a bunch of Black Lotus Extract directly above a creature, and the time stop will prevent it from falling for a while.

Curmudgeon
2009-06-02, 10:39 AM
In fact, if you insist that things that touch him can no longer be affected by you and are stopped in time, you only need to drop things onto him and they'll stick there until the time stop ends. Dropping alchemical bombs onto someone most definitely is an attack. Either that, or there's no mechanism in the D&D rules for it to do any damage.
You can throw a flask of alchemist’s fire as a splash weapon. Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. If you don't make that ranged touch attack then the alchemist's fire does no damage.

Stop trying to cheat. There are plenty of ways that you can leverage Time Stop within the rules. This isn't one of them.

Triaxx
2009-06-02, 12:50 PM
Who said anything about it having to touch them? Anything that's not you is stopped right? So just leave it in the air. It doesn't violate any rules or laws that Time Stop isn't violating already.

IM@work
2009-06-02, 12:52 PM
Summon Monster VII: Bone Devil Can cast Wall of Ice. Summon a ton of these with a higher summon monster or Malkonvoker prestige class and have them all cast Wall of Ice each round and create a maze of Wall of Ice.
Purpose: none
Hilarity: yes

Heliomance
2009-06-02, 12:55 PM
Beholder Mage gets 10 spells/round, with Arcane Fusion, Arcane Fusion (Greater) and Heightened Arcane Fusion (Greater) that becomes 13 spells of 7th level down. If you had cast Arcane Spellsurge, that is all for a swft action. Then you trade actions down. Like how you can trade a standard action for a move action, to get a double move, but not the other way around. Swift actions are the lowest of the limited-use actions (Free actions are unlimited and 5ft steps are always 1/round), so you can trade your Move/Standard for a Swift... That is, unless someone in my gaming group made up that rule. I swear, we have so many houserules that are just "assumed" and never stated that most of us have forgotten how to play D&D as-written.
There, 26 spells a round. I actually think I had some trick that got me extra swift actions though, like a class ability or something, which is legal-er (If that's a word)

Doesn't work. Beholder Mage casts spells as a free action, but can explicitly only cast one spell of each level per round, no matter what.

Waspinator
2009-06-02, 01:34 PM
Time Stop is one of the spells you definitely get something like Sudden Maximize for.

Curmudgeon
2009-06-02, 03:51 PM
Who said anything about it having to touch them? Anything that's not you is stopped right? So just leave it in the air. It doesn't violate any rules or laws that Time Stop isn't violating already. OK, then, the flasks drop harmlessly to the ground. The rules require them to be thrown to break on impact, and a ranged touch attack for them to do damage.

Yuki Akuma
2009-06-02, 04:25 PM
Summon Monster VII: Bone Devil Can cast Wall of Ice. Summon a ton of these with a higher summon monster or Malkonvoker prestige class and have them all cast Wall of Ice each round and create a maze of Wall of Ice.
Purpose: none
Hilarity: yes

They wouldn't be able to act during the Time Stop. You'd just end up with 1d4+1 Bone Devils simultaneously appearing.

Which is also useful.

TheCountAlucard
2009-06-02, 04:29 PM
Fap!

Err, wait, that won't work!

Create a maze with a bunch of Wall of X spells, and then fap!

Harperfan7
2009-06-03, 12:52 AM
Just dropping an alchemists fire won't break it.

Anyways, I would use a bunch of Summon Monster 9's and 8's using the "or 1d3 monsters from the next level lower list" option, cast mass whatevers on them, and greater invisibility on self. Obviously, augmented summoning feat a must. If you choose fire elementals, go ahead and add in delayed blast fireballs.

Dienekes
2009-06-03, 01:26 AM
The one time my gaming group got that high of level, my party wizard used time stop on the Big Bad. He then completely straight faced informed the party he was going over to teabag the villain.

GM didn't let him do it, unfortunately

Alleine
2009-06-03, 01:57 AM
Make an omelet.

Make out with a hot enemy/party member, though it requires them to have an open mouth, and it might not be as fun as you'd imagine.

Rearrange the room.

Draw mustaches on the faces of your enemy/party with sharpie(it isn't an attack!)

Do a very fast one-man reenactment of your favorite play.

Summon a large amount of animals all over the room.

Deth Muncher
2009-06-03, 03:20 AM
On the "thrown v. falling" argument:

Thrown things like Alch. Fire have a range of 10', right? So are you saying you can only trigger it if it goes 10'? Like, if you dropped it from your hand, it wouldn't explode? Nuh-uh. Don't think so. Yeah, it's cheaty to balance all those things on your enemy, but it makes sense.

Now, I realize that the spell is worded in such a way as to prevent insta-win scenarios, but what I never got is why that is. If you're moving faster than everyone, you should be able to lodge a sword in that person's gut. Or scorch him with a fireball. Or smack him. Like, really?

Of course, were we allowed to attack while in TS-Mode, it'd go:

BBEG: Fear my power, squishy wizard!
Wizard: Sudden Maximized Time Stop. Disintigrate. Quickened Disintigrate. Dead yet? No. Rinse lather repeat until Time Stop runs out.

Curmudgeon
2009-06-03, 03:33 AM
On the "thrown v. falling" argument:

Thrown things like Alch. Fire have a range of 10', right? So are you saying you can only trigger it if it goes 10'? Range increments have got nothing to do with this argument. You can drop it 1000' and it still won't do any damage unless you make the ranged touch attack.Time Stop doesn't let you auto-hit; in fact, it explicitly prevents hitting anything.

elliott20
2009-06-03, 04:35 AM
That is definitely getting added to my repetoire of Time Stop tricks. Just to piss people off:smallbiggrin:

ba-dum-chh!

Heliomance
2009-06-03, 05:01 AM
Range increments have got nothing to do with this argument. You can drop it 1000' and it still won't do any damage unless you make the ranged touch attack.Time Stop doesn't let you auto-hit; in fact, it explicitly prevents hitting anything.

Indeed. It will leave your hand and freeze in space, simply hanging there until the spell runs out. At that point, it will complete the trajectory, and you can roll the attack.

Malacode
2009-06-03, 06:35 AM
It's a rather pointless argument anyway. By the time you get Time Stop, you've got acess to Black Lotus Extract, either through Minor Creation or more legit means. Black Lotus Extract is not only better than Alchemists Fire, dealing far more damage on a failed save, but it's a Contact poison so there's no worries about hitting them.

Excavate: Create a hole 5ft/5ft/1ft per caster level. 20ft may not be much, but 120ft from casting it five times is quite a bit more. That's a not-insignificant amount of falling damage, which is untyped and not subject to DR. Quicken Create Water/Minor Creation or somethig, and fill the hole with liquid, preferably the Black Lotus Extract mentioned above. See how long they can hold their breath after losing 3d6 CON. Even after reaching the surface, they'd have to make climb checks to get out (Unless they've got a flight speed, in which case you could cast Undeniable Gravity or something). Assuming they've got average speed, you've got a lot of actions to burn while they're just climbing.

Edit: Finally! That's the secnd bad joke I've made. For bonus points, find the first one.

Tyrmatt
2009-06-03, 06:58 AM
I have this idea of freezing a caster in the middle of launching something destructive and rotating them so they are facing the ceiling or floor as they do it. Release time-stop, watch as they fall to the floor and have the ceiling cave in on them :D

Curmudgeon
2009-06-03, 07:38 AM
Indeed. It will leave your hand and freeze in space, simply hanging there until the spell runs out. At that point, it will complete the trajectory, and you can roll the attack. Uh, no. First you need to use Prepare to throw splash weapon -- a full-round action. Then you need to make a ranged touch attack as a standard action when you throw the flask -- not at some later time. You can certainly do the former while in Time Stop, but the spell prevents you from taking the second action; it's just against the rules of D&D. Your attack roll is opposed by the target's AC, which is effectively infinite when you're in Time Stop.

Master_Rahl22
2009-06-04, 03:10 PM
Ok, we get it that the alchemist's fire thing is debatable, and yet it doesn't matter because you have things like Delayed Blast Fireball that are immensely more useful than alchemist's fire in this situation.

I like the Excavate idea. I think my favorite idea that has been posted so far is using Summon Monster and mass buff spells.

I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned, but if you can buff monsters, you can instead buff your party/yourself. Wouldn't it be fun to cast a Delayed Blast Fireball or two, then some quickened buffs for your party, capping it all off with a Tenser's Transformation or something, so your enemies see your party and you casting, then they see the party bigger/stronger/tougher and you're a giant fighter type now. :)

Yuki Akuma
2009-06-04, 03:14 PM
In Time Stop, you can't cast spells on anything but yourself or empty air. So no buffing anyone other than yourself (although you could slap down an area-of-effect buff).

Zeful
2009-06-04, 03:19 PM
Indeed. It will leave your hand and freeze in space, simply hanging there until the spell runs out. At that point, it will complete the trajectory, and you can roll the attack.

If it did than you would be able to cast normal direct damage spells like lightning bolt/fireball, but anything you have on you when you stop time isn't stopped, so it would fall to the ground, or break against the person, and then do nothing.

TheThan
2009-06-04, 03:50 PM
Step one:
Cast time stop

Step two:
Have tea

Step three:
???

Step four:
Wait till time stop to end

Step five:
Profit

shadzar
2009-06-04, 03:58 PM
Tie a rope around your opponents feet and tie them all together. When it ends and they move, hilarity ensues.