Spells for an artist

[Private-Prinny]

I'm making a Wizard, and his main fluff thing is going to be that he is an artist. A decent chunk of his spellbook, then, is going to be spells that can be used for some artistic purpose or have some connection to runes. The only schools off-limits are Enchantment and Necromancy. Hm... I was going to do Abjuration specialty for the free feats in Master Specialist, but now I'm thinking generalist so I can get the Symbol of X line and other goodies...

Just to start off, from core:

______ Image
Explosive Runes
Sepia Snake Sigil
Minor/Major Creation
Stone Shape
Hallucinatory Terrain
Mirage Arcana
Fabricate

What else is there that jumps to mind?

[NNescio]

I'm making a Wizard, and his main fluff thing is going to be that he is an artist. A decent chunk of his spellbook, then, is going to be spells that can be used for some artistic purpose or have some connection to runes. The only schools off-limits are Enchantment and Necromancy. Hm... I was going to do Abjuration specialty for the free feats in Master Specialist, but now I'm thinking generalist so I can get the Symbol of X line and other goodies...

Just to start off, from core:

______ Image
Explosive Runes
Sepia Snake Sigil
Minor/Major Creation
Stone Shape
Hallucinatory Terrain
Mirage Arcana
Fabricate

What else is there that jumps to mind?

Create Magic Tattoo (SpC). It requires ranks in Craft (Painting) to boot. Or other similar artistic skills (i.e. calligraphy).

[LansXero]

Color Spray and the prismatic stuff wouldnt be too out of line, right?

[El Dorado]

Magic Mouth (to tell people about your art)
Illusory Script (to make people come see your exhibits)
Erase (to cover up the mistakes)
Continual Flame (for the spectacle)
Illusory Wall (build your own maze!)

[Private-Prinny]

Create Magic Tattoo (SpC). It requires ranks in Craft (Painting) to boot. Or other similar artistic skills (i.e. calligraphy).

Cool. I was going to take Craft (Painting) anyway for Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments.


Color Spray and the prismatic stuff wouldnt be too out of line, right?

Not at all.

[opticalshadow]

by the rules as long as the function of mechanics dont change you can make your spells apperence change to fit your own personality, this allows you alot of freedom with non artsy spells add some poetry to the mix, and attack some horse hair to the end of your magic wand (to look liek a paint brush) and some fun descriptions to the casting and you can turn that lightning bolt into a electric unicorn charging down your foes.

dont forget the fun you can have with alterself or baneful polymorph, wood shape, stone shape.

[Seffbasilisk]

Most illusions and polymorphs lend themselves well to this.

Item crafting as well. Especially golems.

Pick up a level of rogue (oooo! skillpoints!) and have the sneak-attack being artistic with your spells. (I've a Warmage that was known as an Artiste.)

Sandshaper?

[Tvtyrant]

You could go Runesmith or Geometer and then use that feat the lets you put your spells on yourself as tattoos to effectively coat yourself in geometric tattoos.

[Niceman]

Prestidigitation would be extremely useful for performance art... quick little sculptures, changing color patterns, mood effects, etc. Also Ghost Sound could help in such instances.

Dancing lights would be useful. Even Levitate and Tenser's Floating disk could be used for aiding in displays.

If you've got a mean streak.... Flesh to stone ;)

[Eldan]

Woodshape and stoneshape? Let's you make statues.

[Zaq]

Any of the Image spells can get you any model you want for whatever piece you're working on. A lot of artists I know consider models of some kind (live or photographed) to be crucial, and I think that would help a lot.

I'm aware that you've mentioned it already, but basically, I'm just emphatically agreeing.

[OverdrivePrime]

I used to get a lot of mileage out of a sculptor/plastic surgeon transmuter with max ranks in Craft (Alchemy), Craft (Sculpture), and max cross-class ranks in Heal. Once he got to a decent level, I homebrewed a variant of Flesh to Stone, and did some pretty cool stuff with Rock to Mud, Stoneshape, and some specially prepared alchemical minerals and muds.

With a cooperative DM and a creative mind, you can give your party members permanent circumstance bonuses to charisma checks, make them look like a different race, give them diamond-infused skin (or sapphire or hematite or whatever) and all sorts of other fun stuff.

He made most of his living doing the magic equivalent of liposuction, facelifts, chest alterations and gastric bypass surgery for nobles.

[Greenish]

Arcane Mark, to sign your work. Can also be used as magical graffiti, and a painting that looks different depending on whether the audience is using Detect Magic, See Invisibility or True Seeing sounds very "modern artsy".