PDA

View Full Version : interesting uses of spells



grimbold
2010-07-26, 02:31 PM
I am just curious if anybody here has ever used a spell, 'creatively',

as in

I once used a fireball to cook a cow,

The previous night i (as DM) had house ruled that the wizard could use prestidigitation to start the fire, the next day he killed a treant with it saying, if i could do it last night why not now?. Needless to say, as the dm i was ticked.

I made a public pool with create water.

so anybody else ever get creative w/ there spellcasting?

Kobold-Bard
2010-07-26, 02:39 PM
Wrong subforum old chum, might want to send Rawhide/Roland a PM to get it moved to RPG.

-----------------
Once used Alter Breasts to distract the BBEG so she was flat-footed so the Rogue could sneak attack her :smalltongue:

Keld Denar
2010-07-26, 02:40 PM
This would be a topic best fielded to the d20 Gaming subforum. If you click the little red sign next to your avatar, you can report it to a mod and request it to be moved.

The only other thing I have to say here is Stone Shape. Seriously, imagination + time = infinite possibilities right here. Everything from carving out the hinges on that adamantine barred door (so you can loot the door!) to scupting a likeness of a person, Stone to Fleshing the statue, and turning the "body" in for a Dead or Alive bounty or to fake someone's death. Possibilities are endless!

Dr.Epic
2010-07-26, 03:30 PM
Detect Thoughts to cheat at poker.

Keld Denar
2010-07-26, 03:40 PM
Eh, just cast Cheat (CScoundrel, IIRC). Its a whole level lower and doesn't allow a save.

SpiderMew
2010-07-26, 04:22 PM
Well everyone knows that grease spell + any fire spell = burning over time damage for the oiled up baddys.

Using the lv 0 prestadigataion is great for doing lots of things, like making footprints to trick people following you or so the party rouge can get the drop on them.

All that stuff with stone shape mentioned above is also great!

waterpenguin43
2010-07-26, 05:40 PM
Using lightning bolt to conduct through water.

Savannah
2010-07-26, 06:39 PM
I had a player, faced with a lot of small, aquatic creatures in a pool of water that the party needed to cross, stick her hands into the water and cast shocking grasp (she was first level, and it was the only electricity spell she knew). Beyond that, I can't think of anything.

SpiderMew
2010-07-26, 07:09 PM
I really tend to get more creative combining effect to make unique magical items that border on artifacts when im allowed to play an artificer.

Like the magic missle mechinegun. It looks like a minigun. Its a wonderious item with mutiple intelegences who are pre-treated to reguard you as their master and smart enough to use wands. The wands are in tubes and the intelegences are in plates and are all connected to a crystal they can use to see and target from. the tubes spin arround the plates and the intelegences fire them. It spins so that when the carges run out on the wands they get shot out and a new wand is autoloaded into it.
There are 3 versions. One that requires a user to hold onto controll sticks to help aim and to show the intelegence which target to attack. The second is conntected to a crown or earing that allows you to do this mentaly from a distance. The 3rd is smart enough to operate on its own, but can only really take simple orders but can be made to reconigse a magic marker of some kind like an amulet or even a symbol so that people with that symbol or amulet or whatever wont be attacked.

Xyk
2010-07-27, 01:13 AM
I allowed a player to use Mage Hand to make five pounds of dust into a dust cloud, allowing the party to escape. That was pretty cool and a rare good idea from the player.

I've used Web to break my fall when I forgot to prepare feather fall.

I have thought about things but never had the opportunity to actually use them:
Stoneshift or whatever that spell is that lets you alter stone to make a pit trap and then again to trap the foe in stone.

A bottle of air and a portable hole and a couch makes the perfect mobile home.

grimbold
2010-07-27, 04:38 AM
Spider mew, i am not sure if you are brilliant or you spend to much time playing this game.

Aedilred
2010-07-27, 05:09 AM
Seconding the Stone Shape. One of my players used it to trap a vampire in place, then Daylighted it. My initial reaction was annoyance that they'd defeated an enemy with such a high CR so easily, but it was obvious he'd been thinking about it for a while, and we're there to reward creativity after all, so he ended up getting quite a lot of XP for that.

Rawhide
2010-07-27, 07:25 AM
Wrong subforum old chum, might want to send Rawhide/Roland a PM to get it moved to RPG.

Actually, the best thing to do is to report the first post in the thread, even if it is your own, and ask for it to be moved - as Keld suggested.


This would be a topic best fielded to the d20 Gaming subforum. If you click the little red sign next to your avatar, you can report it to a mod and request it to be moved.

Kobold-Bard
2010-07-27, 07:56 AM
Actually, the best thing to do is to report the first post in the thread, even if it is your own, and ask for it to be moved - as Keld suggested.

Ah but you see I didn't post that. It was my evil twin Rodrigo trying to make me look like a fool.

Thank you for the warning, I'll go deal with him now.

Nihb
2010-07-27, 08:28 AM
When under 10 HP, facing a dragon, you'd better get out of the way, and fast. Wall of Stone to make a dome, Garaa-style, then use the move action to burrow.

Steel or iron bars blocking your escape? Reduce Object. And if your DM enchants every steel pipes you meet thereafter, just break the wall and sell the pipes.

Prime32
2010-07-27, 08:44 AM
Seconding the Stone Shape. One of my players used it to trap a vampire in place, then Daylighted it. My initial reaction was annoyance that they'd defeated an enemy with such a high CR so easily, but it was obvious he'd been thinking about it for a while, and we're there to reward creativity after all, so he ended up getting quite a lot of XP for that.Why didn't the vampire revert to gaseous form and escape?

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 09:20 AM
Spider mew, i am not sure if you are brilliant or you spend to much time playing this game.

Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

Its not as bad though as my friend who turned 2 bags of holding and a cu-cu clock into a weapon of mass destruction.

He had it set up so that when the clock was about to make it chimes a mechanism inside the clock would push one bag of holding inside the other and reverse it inside it, putting a pocket dimension in another like that causes a rip in the fabric of the universe opening up a giant rift allowing things from all the planes in. So angels and demons and somtimes even gods find them selfs riped into the materal world and they fight eachother, leaving devastaion untill the rift heals itself and everything runs back to their home plane.

Bags of holding and clockmaking became banned after that.

Another_Poet
2010-07-27, 09:36 AM
Vampire turned into a bat and tried to fly away. It flew up to the ceiling and hid behind some cobwebs. I looked at the description of the Black Tentacles spell that I had controlling a big chunk of the room, and noted that it doesn't say it only affects creatures walking through it - it affects a 20'r ares and all creatures who enter it. "Arguably," I said, "That means creatures who fly over it will also be grappled - the tentacles reach up for them."

"You're right," agreed the DM.

But the bat hadn't flown over it :smallfrown: (At least we learned that gem of tactical information....)

Chiron0224
2010-07-27, 10:03 AM
I once cast light on an arrow and fired it down a hallway to see what was down there.

On another occasion I was in a drinking contest and we were using escalating fort saves to represent the increasing effects of the alchahol. One of the other players wanted me to win so he cast resistance(to give me a +1 to the save). I was playing a dwarven cleric of Torag(pathfinder's Moradin) so I had a dwarven pride issue with cheating at a drinking contest. Being a cleric however I also had that spell prepared and countered his use telling him not to interfere. I lost the contest to a human because fate is a cruel mistress.

Animate rope to untie a beam of a tree stand and send the whole thing(bandit guards and all) tumbling to the ground.

Reduce person on myself to avoid taking a -2 attack penalty from a low ceiling.

grimbold
2010-07-27, 10:14 AM
wow spider me.. just wow...
chiron wouldnt reduce person give you a different penalty for being a small creature?

Finally upon getting finger o' death i killed a cow for a feast today :)

my friend as an epic wizard chain lightninged a town to death. (just heard this today) as in he used 1 spell for everyone!

poked out an eye with bigbys hand (homebrew spell bigbys poking hand ;))

also used it to pick a giants nose :)

valadil
2010-07-27, 10:42 AM
I found a cool combo by accident once. We were fighting a large group of undead. I dropped a defenstrating sphere. Next turn I dropped a wall of force. Each turn, I'd yell "pull!" and the sphere would lob an enemy over the wall (and yes, we did roll for height and direction and they somehow always made it over the wall) and the rest of the party had readied actions go off.

Caphi
2010-07-27, 11:19 AM
I once used a fireball to cook a cow,

I have been present for two separate instances of fireball to start funeral pyres for dead comrades. One of them was started by me. The other one was primed by an everflowing mug.

Swooper
2010-07-27, 11:51 AM
I miss how a lot of spells had more utility in AD&D 2nd edition. Like, Enlarge Person and Reduce Person used to be just Enlarge and Reduce, and worked on objects.

Reduce on the locked/stuck door to remove it from the door frame. Enlarge some random object (table, boulder, whatever is handy) to block a passage. Stuff like that...

WarKitty
2010-07-27, 11:57 AM
Prestidigitation. Demon. Waterskin full of holy water. 'Nuff said.

Savannah
2010-07-27, 01:52 PM
I remembered another one. We were fighting a black dragon while standing on a narrow ledge on the edge of a underground lake. The dragon was swimming in the lake (we had caught sight of it earlier) and we were worried it would be jumping in and out of the water to ambush us. The wizard tagged its nose with a light spell, making it much easier to see. (Be careful trying to repeat this, as light technically only affects objects. The DM thought it was clever enough to let that slide.)

(The rogue also lassoed the dragon and she and the monk rode it underwater twice, but that didn't involve spells, just crazyness...)

Ramza1987
2010-07-27, 02:01 PM
Stone to mud (i think is the name of the spell), let your enemies sink, and then just dispel or dismiss the effect; voila, now you have your enemies trapped in the earth.

grimbold
2010-07-27, 02:10 PM
nice ramza i have never thought of that!

Keld Denar
2010-07-27, 02:36 PM
Stone to mud (i think is the name of the spell), let your enemies sink, and then just dispel or dismiss the effect; voila, now you have your enemies trapped in the earth.

Slightly more cruel use of Transmute Stone to Mud...

Step1: Transmute Flesh to Stone
Step2: Transmute Rock to Mud
Step3: Purify Food and Drink (turns mud into pure water)
Step4: Drink water
Step5: :smalleek:
Step6: ???
Step7: Proffit

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 02:37 PM
Slightly more cruel use of Transmute Stone to Mud...

Step1: Transmute Flesh to Stone
Step2: Transmute Rock to Mud
Step3: Purify Food and Drink (turns mud into pure water)
Step4: Drink water
Step5: :smalleek:
Step6: ???
Step7: Proffit

*gains idea for magical device that will do that automaticly as you throw living things into it*

mrcarter11
2010-07-27, 02:44 PM
Spider, considering you already use a minigun.. I think that would work better as a grenade.. Well up to the drinking part at least.

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 02:51 PM
With a device that does that automaticly, you could bring water to a deset town, start your own kingdom there by bringing water out of nowhere. Just pipe in big monsters or prisoners who are to be exacuted.

Keld Denar
2010-07-27, 02:52 PM
Try the soylent green water, its made from people.

grimbold
2010-07-27, 03:02 PM
so we would need to make a staff of flesh to water mayhaps? upon using it to cast flesh to stone and conjures a bucket at the feet of whoever it is being used upon the other spells chain in the described way with mage hand at the end bringing you the water. and maybe a mouth spell saying -i hope you enjoy your just brewed water!

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 03:04 PM
I was thinking more along the lines of a stanary vat with a drain, with a perminate circle that casts the over all flesh to water ability.

Keld Denar
2010-07-27, 03:53 PM
If you made it a metal bucket, you could Head Metal the bucket, boil off the water. It would disperse to the atmosphere and get scattered to the four winds.

The person isn't technically dead, nor are they technically alive. No way to rez them, and nothing short of a Wish could even bring them back.

/grin

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 03:56 PM
but if you scatter them to the 4 winds, you cannot digest them as water. Unless you wanted to them seperate the gases so you can make rocket fuel, if you could figure that kind of stuff out in game.

grimbold
2010-07-27, 04:31 PM
a rocket ship could probably be built by an explosives specialist (check em out in ultimate prestige classes 1) they are a prestige class based on explosives. he can take out buildings, do 5d6 of damge w/ a time delay bomb, all sorts of great stuff. so yeah u could figure that out in game w/ him as your pc

SocratesOnFire
2010-07-27, 05:27 PM
Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

Its not as bad though as my friend who turned 2 bags of holding and a cu-cu clock into a weapon of mass destruction.

He had it set up so that when the clock was about to make it chimes a mechanism inside the clock would push one bag of holding inside the other and reverse it inside it, putting a pocket dimension in another like that causes a rip in the fabric of the universe opening up a giant rift allowing things from all the planes in. So angels and demons and somtimes even gods find them selfs riped into the materal world and they fight eachother, leaving devastaion untill the rift heals itself and everything runs back to their home plane.

Bags of holding and clockmaking became banned after that.

There's nothing in RAW about the exact effect of a bag of holding inside another bag of holding, just about the interactions of bags of holding with portable holes:
"http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bagofHolding"

SocratesOnFire
2010-07-27, 05:30 PM
My wizard once tried to use Flesh to Stone, Stone Shape, and Stone to Flesh to perform pro bono cosmetic surgery on barmaid with low self esteem. How I hate critical failures...

DracoDei
2010-07-27, 07:11 PM
If you made it a metal bucket, you could Head Metal the bucket, boil off the water. It would disperse to the atmosphere and get scattered to the four winds.

The person isn't technically dead, nor are they technically alive. No way to rez them, and nothing short of a Wish could even bring them back.

/grin

I would extrapolate from Polymorph any Object that they are, indeed, dead at that time, however you have made it so it would take a 9th level effect to get them back (since there is no "small fragment" of a body) and without the fuss of a viking funeral pyre (hotter than a modern crematorium).

Xallace
2010-07-27, 07:17 PM
Not a spell, per se, but I once used Mountan Hammer's Hardness-bypassing property to anchor my spear into a wall and used it as a ladder rung.

Same maneuver was used to anchor a vampire into solid stone so I could play punching-bag with him.

SpiderMew
2010-07-27, 07:27 PM
There's nothing in RAW about the exact effect of a bag of holding inside another bag of holding, just about the interactions of bags of holding with portable holes:
"http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bagofHolding"

hmmm.. well he must have shown me something that made it seem like it was going to be a bigger problem then shown there. Ah i think he was using bags of infinate holding, which would have been house ruled given to him by a week dm in the first place.

Ranger Mattos
2010-07-27, 08:41 PM
Not mine, but I heard a story about someone who made a magic trap like this:

1. Transmute Flesh to Stone
2. Transmute Rock to Mud
3. Ample time to turn into a puddle
4. Transmute Mud to Rock
5. Transmute Stone to Flesh
6. The trespasser is now melted.

grimbold
2010-07-28, 05:20 AM
oh my...

nice xallace

The_Admiral
2010-07-28, 05:31 AM
stone orb that cast summon monster 9 on command word

Ramza1987
2010-07-28, 11:46 AM
Step1: Transmute Flesh to Stone
Step2: Transmute Rock to Mud
Step3: Purify Food and Drink (turns mud into pure water)
Step4: Drink water
Step5: :smalleek:
Step6: ???
Step7: Proffit

When i first saw that comment the image of a giant juicer came to my mind.
You put a living being, in one end, you get water in the other end of the artifact. :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

Xallace
2010-07-28, 11:55 AM
I think for a trap I'd combine Transmute Flesh to Salt and a swinging pendulum-hammer. Or a family of deer.

Keld Denar
2010-07-28, 12:02 PM
I think for a trap I'd combine Transmute Flesh to Salt and a swinging pendulum-hammer. Or a family of deer.

DEATH BY A BILLION LICKS!

Teln
2010-07-28, 12:07 PM
Tarrasque, meet 13th level cleric. (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dkb1/dnd/tarrasque.txt) (Scroll down to Method 4).

Aedilred
2010-07-28, 05:55 PM
Why didn't the vampire revert to gaseous form and escape?
He did, but, being indoors, couldn't escape quickly enough, and snuffed it.