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View Full Version : How Many Uses for a Tinfoil Hat?



Lycanthromancer
2009-10-20, 08:00 PM
Step 1: Find, commission, make, or otherwise procure a dome or cone of a lightweight but sturdy material (such as darkwood, mithral, or blue ice) just large enough for you to fit inside and cast spells easily.

Step 2: Cast shrink item on it (possibly coupled with permanency).

Step 3: Wear it as a hat.

What uses could you find for this particular piece of 'magical equipment'?

Use #1: Protection from antimagic fields. Whenever you're exposed to one, the hat expands, blocking line-of-effect and allowing you to cast unimpeded.

Use #2: Have your raven familiar ready an action to call the command word to protect you (and it!) from an attack of some sort. Whether it be the charge of a rabid barbarian, the stony stare of a medusa, or the halitosis of a dragon, it's good for at least a single-shot at protection.

What else?

Xyk
2009-10-20, 08:02 PM
I'd give +5 vs mind-affecting abilities.

Flickerdart
2009-10-20, 08:06 PM
Make it lead, protect yourself from Detect Thoughts. Glue it to your head, laugh at Illithids.

Starbuck_II
2009-10-20, 08:08 PM
Force Cage only works you are the small enough to fit. A Really tall Stove pipe hat, for instance, blocks it.

Rhiannon87
2009-10-20, 08:37 PM
Immunity to detect thoughts?

That's what tinfoil hats are customarily used for, afaik.

OracleofWuffing
2009-10-20, 09:02 PM
Flip it upside-down and you got a boat.

Why you'd need a boat when you could Fly, Control Water, Breathe Water, or Blow Up The Dang Universe, I don't know, but hey, you got a boat.

Superglucose
2009-10-20, 09:04 PM
Flip it upside-down and you got a boat.

Why you'd need a boat when you could Fly, Control Water, Breathe Water, or Blow Up The Dang Universe, I don't know, but hey, you got a boat.

Because you're a sorceror and you don't have Fly, Control Water, or Breathe Water and you aren't in the mood to Blow Up The Dang Universe, but want to get from point A to point B with river C in between?

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-10-20, 09:09 PM
Immunity to detect thoughts?

That's what tinfoil hats are customarily used for, afaik.

Well, immunity to Cosmic Mind-Control Rays, at least

chiasaur11
2009-10-20, 09:14 PM
Protects against Cthulhu's mental powers.

OracleofWuffing
2009-10-20, 09:25 PM
Because you're a sorceror and... you aren't in the mood to Blow Up The Dang Universe,
O_o Is that a sorceror variant from Unearthed Arcana? :smalltongue:

Anyhow, you could write "Tree" on it, and get a +2 circumstance bonus to hide in woodlands.

Galileo
2009-10-20, 10:56 PM
If it's shaped like a cone, you get immunity to all slavery effects with the [Roman] subtype.

bosssmiley
2009-10-21, 10:00 AM
Equipment bonus to saves vs. mind-affecting
Bonus to saves vs. illusion (and/or conventional wisdom)
Bonus to Concentration checks to maintain illusions

Side-effect: you think gold is the only metal with any value as a currency.

oxinabox
2009-10-21, 10:57 AM
One of may characters actually bought sheetleada and wrapped it arround his head.
This was after a previos character had had his mind fully read, by another PC caused by a wild magic surge...
(eventally he died of poisoning, from drinking the bottle labled "poison")

Quincunx
2009-10-21, 02:11 PM
HA! All bow before the power of the titanium tinfoil hat!

Darkmatter
2009-10-21, 02:50 PM
You definitely want permanency on this thing.

1) Add a fold-out bed and mattress for sleeping comfortably in the wilderness. No more secure shelter preparations needed!

2) Add clear windows and closeable port holes for firing spells out of if needed

3) If you don't make it lightweight it'll also serve as a longer-term protection, since a 0.5 pound hat will turn into a 1 ton hut. You can always use the "clothlike" option for shrink item to make it a comfortable hat, and shrink it again if you need to move it.

4) More normal shrink item tricks still apply - dropping your newly 1-ton hat ten feet onto someone's head is going to get their attention (to the tune of 10d6 damage.) Works even better with your raven familiar - after, all, you've got better things to do with your actions.

5) Coating with lead foil will foil a number of detection spells

6) Put wheels on the roof, and you can unshrink it upside down to help drag your ill-gotten gains out of the dungeon and back to town (should let everyone contribute 10 times their max carrying capacity due to the "favorable conditions" of having wheels, so one 18 Str meat shield could drag your one ton wheeled hat plus 1000 lbs of loot)

ericgrau
2009-10-21, 03:05 PM
O yeah permanency lets you change back and forth between sizes at will. OTOH just cast shrink item again.

The point of the boat is that it can hold your entire party, lasts a long time, and doesn't use another spell slot (beyond the 1 you already used for this multi-purpose device).

I'll add:

Protect from mind attacks from alien abductors. :smallbiggrin:
Carve an arrow slot into it to cast through. +8 touch AC from improved cover. +4 to reflex saves. And just walk away from the slit whenever you get in trouble.
Escape plan #37: Invert hat, stand inside, expand it. Ride down the slope of current mountain at breathtaking speed. Fly away once you are out of range of your pursuers, before the sudden and painful stop. Realize you didn't prep a way out for your party members who are also riding. Oh well they have more HP than you :smallbiggrin:

jiriku
2009-10-21, 03:18 PM
In the Burning Empires game, a tinfoil hat will grant you +1 die to resist psychic powers.

Your hat-cone can protect you from crushing ceilings, or wedge open one of those pesky auto-closing auto-locking dungeon doors.