Best Use of Spells Ever

[Mithral88]

Everyone who plays D&D has probably seen some creative uses of spells, either as the DM or a player, or was the one who thought it up. I'm curious to know, what are your stories?

On another note, what spells are your favorite and/or which ones do you think the best and most useful?

[Redshirt Army]

I'll hold off on talking about Prestidigitation because everyone loves that spell.

I really like how versatile Grease can be - beyond the standard use, there's all kinds of stuff making surfaces slippery can do (oiling a hinge, setting up a trap, quieting clockwork).

I once used Mage Hand to help load cannonballs in a naval setting...

[Alleran]

I really like how versatile Grease can be - beyond the standard use, there's all kinds of stuff making surfaces slippery can do (oiling a hinge, setting up a trap, quieting clockwork).
Or quieting armour that would otherwise be preventing the party from moving quietly.

The female paladin didn't really appreciate being dunked in grease/oil/whatever, though. The rest of us found the mental image hilarious.

[BlueInc]

I'm playing in a game as a LN hobgoblin cleric. There was a dwarf NPC who was trying to get a tax passed on all funds acquire through adventuring. I fought tooth and nail against it.

The day before the town took a vote on the tax, two of our party members distracted and charmed the poor dwarf in a bar while there was a big town meeting to argue the tax. He finally stumbled into, drunk, distraught, a half hour late, barely comprehensible.

I cast Command on him. The DM let me choose my one-word phrase to be "Vomit."

That poor dwarf.

[Vangor]

Cover a target in ferrous dust and fabricate a multi-pointed object inside of them. Stumbled upon the idea when successive rereads of fabricate lead us to the fact Magneto could not draw the iron out of a guardsman via this spell. Our use in no way transmutes a creature, only shifts things around.

[blazingshadow]

i have read before that some have used chained amanuencis to copy all the popular and important books and documents in many libraries, put the copies into a few bags of holding and moved from city to city to start a borders-like chain of bookstores around the world. all this to retire the wizard from adventuring and make a fortune to fund his research

[Necroticplague]

A book full of explosives runes+ a rune on the cover that activates scholars touch when touched. You touch the cover, you are forced to read all of the explosive runes inside, you get blown sky-high.

[QuidEst]

A book full of explosives runes+ a rune on the cover that activates scholars touch when touched. You touch the cover, you are forced to read all of the explosive runes inside, you get blown sky-high.
Scholar's Touch is a personal spell, though, isn't it? Anyways, a DM have a problem with the "magical book" exception.

If there's a way to get around the range of personal, though (I don't know, pretty new to this- I'd love to hear it if there is), and depending on the DM's sense of humor, you could use the compiled "Twilight" series and get a 1st level touch-activated Symbol of Insanity on the cheap. XP

[hisnamehere]

Alleran: :nitpick: While grease would quiet the scraping of the metal pieces of armor against one another, a lot of armor noise comes from the approximation/clanking of two or more pieces of metal against one another, which would not be reduced through use of grease.

Redshirt Army: That said, I love grease, too, and will always be looking for new ways to use it.

[Alleran]

Alleran: :nitpick: While grease would quiet the scraping of the metal pieces of armor against one another, a lot of armor noise comes from the approximation/clanking of two or more pieces of metal against one another, which would not be reduced through use of grease.
Realism? In oil-covered D&D?!

[Yuki Akuma]

Flesh to Stone > Rock to Mud > Purify Water > Desicate.

Try recovering from that.

[Malimar]

Stone to Flesh > Rock to Mud > Purify Water > Desication.

Try recovering from that.

That sequence would have very little effect on a living creature, aside from the effects of desiccate. If you started it out with flesh to stone, on the other hand... :smallbiggrin:

[Yuki Akuma]

That sequence would have very little effect on a living creature, aside from the effects of desiccate. If you started it out with flesh to stone, on the other hand... :smallbiggrin:

I have no idea why you're misquoting me.

>.>

<.<

[HalfDragonCube]

Spymaster's Coin has a variety of uses.

How deep is that dark pit and what is one the bottom? *Light* *Pings coin down*

And Blockade.

Oh no! Some kind of monster devours anything that steps on the sand? *Makes stepping stones*

[mikeygoround]

The stone to flesh/rock to mud/purify water/dessication thing sound good, but won't work per RAW. Rock to mud only works on natural, unworked stone and purify water only purifies water, not mud. That said, if you DM goes for it, you have a winner there!

[blackjack217]

wall of force in front of a flying dragon.

[Veyr]

At some point mud becomes dirty water, though. You just keep diluting it until your DM says it qualifies. He has to allow it at some point since otherwise Purify Water has no purpose.

Less sure about Rock to Mud though.

[Delcor]

I once used Mage Hand to help load cannonballs in a naval setting...

I believe mage hand can only lift 5lbs. and I'm no sailor, but I believe cannonballs weigh more than that.

Also (credit of this one goes to my dad but I thought it was cool) him and his party were on a floating chesssboard in the abyss, and in the edition they were playing (it may have been 3.0 or 3.5) they cast create water on the death knight they were facing, who happened to have a freezing aura, thus freezing the death knight in a solid block of ice, and then sliding him off the chessboard, high level mob, killed by cantrip :smallcool:

[Macloud]

heat metal + metal shield

now you can cook your food and have a handy heat source for when its too dangerous to have an open fire.

[Anxe]

Some cannonballs are around 5 pounds. It would be a pretty small cannon though.

I have, unfortunately, never had any good creative uses of spells in my days of D&D. At least ones that I remember...

[Cruiser1]

The spell Acorn of Far Travel (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) has many interesting (ab)uses. My favorite: (Greater) Plane Shift to Ysgard, cast the spell there, put the magic acorn in your pocket, then return to whatever plane you were adventuring upon. Because of the acorn, you're considered to be under its tree, and hence on Ysgard. If you die, you'll automatically receive True Resurrection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueResurrection.htm) within 24 hours. It's a way to guarantee you'll always come back from the dead (without having to cough up 5K, 10K or 25K in diamonds) and also never lose XP if you die.

[jguy]

Stone Shape + Shrink Object. Given enough downtime and a mountain side, carve out stone cubes weighing tons and shrink them down to a pebble. Fly above enemies, drop the pebble, and let it grow back again. My DM stopped this tactic after two shots. One squished a bunch of frost wolves, the next a bunch of Hill Giants.

For those of the forums with really good math skills, what is the kinetic force of 80,000 pounds of stone hitting the earth at terminal velocity?

[Yuki Akuma]

For those of the forums with really good math skills, what is the kinetic force of 80,000 pounds of stone hitting the earth at terminal velocity?

About 20d6 points of damage.

[Veyr]

It's 20d6 to the falling object, but a lot more than that to the Earth.

[Yuki Akuma]

It's 20d6 to the falling object, but a lot more than that to the Earth.

Nope, falling objects deal a maximum of 20d6 damage too.

Plus, the Earth gets a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid it.

[jguy]

It's 20d6 to the falling object, but a lot more than that to the Earth.

Actually if you go by complete warrior, its 5d6 for the first 400 pounds and another 1d6 per 200 pounds after, not just capping at 20d6. I can't remember what it ended up at, but it was over 400d6. Also, I meant in real world physics, how much energy something of that size would release.

[Aron Times]

It's 20d6 to the falling object, but a lot more than that to the Earth.

A dozen catgirls just died.

[Stix]

may not have been useful but i played a bard with a habit of casting percussin, fog, ghost lights and mage hand (rapidly open and close a bullseye lantern for strobe effect) to turn taverns into raves then charging for admission.

gnome wizard dimension doored over an entire invading drow army to be sitting on top of their general. says hi manages to not buy it in his first round in the middle of the enemy. next round puts a wand of scorching ray under the generals chin and pulls the trigger. general dies. shortly followed by death of wizard. (he always left his left pinky with the party cleric before he did this sort of thing so he could be resurrected when they burned his body)

set afloat on the astral plane: using a hastily modified pipe and a burning hands spell to create a crude rocket like propulsion device.

[marcielle]

Nope, falling objects deal a maximum of 20d6 damage too.

Plus, the Earth gets a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid it.

That's from falling DISTANCE. Weight is calculated seperately and has no limit.
Distance limit is because once you reach a certain velocity you simply will not have time to further accelerate any significant amount before you hit the ground. It would make no sense to limit damage due to weight.

Earth has a reflex save of -20 for being OH MAH GAWD SOOOOO MUCH BIGGER than gargantuan. However, if Earth rolls a natural 20, object misses the ground and learns to fly (anyone who knows where that came from gets a telegraph)

[Yuki Akuma]

...Anyone who doesn't know that's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy needs to go read that. Now.

(Specifically, I think it's from So Long and Thanks For All The Fish.)

[The Dark Fiddler]

I'm gonna tell a story from our latest session, last Friday. Before I start, I want to stress that our games aren't QUITE as serious as most.

Anyway, I'm playing an awakened cat sorcerer, and the group walks into a tavern. Friend orders food without realizing he doesn't want it, starts talking about how he won't pay for it but I start eating it. Barkeeper kicks me out, and I cast unseens servant to open the door. The bartended starts ranting about a demon cat at tries to pick me up again, but I resist and... somehow manage to win the grapple check. I claw him for 2 damage (yes, 2. Roll max and I have 6 strength), and he absolutely flips out at this point. I cast transfix (from CArc) on him and paralyze him in the middle of his running away, along with a small crowd of people, until the sun shines at night (or just until the spell ends... but still).

[Fitz10019]

'Horrible Taste' v. a Mind Flayer's Extract attack.

'Invisible' on an grappled ally so that the other creature's 4 rake attacks would have a miss chance.

[Fitz10019]

(he always left his left pinky with the party cleric before he did this sort of thing so he could be resurrected when they burned his body)
You should reread Resurrection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resurrection.htm).

[ffone]

It's 20d6 to the falling object, but a lot more than that to the Earth.

Huh, I was gonna say less - according to Newtonian mechanics, the Earth is also falling onto the object, but since the object has a lot less gravity, the Earth takes 20d4 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm).

[HalfDragonCube]

Huh, I was gonna say less - according to Newtonian mechanics, the Earth is also falling onto the object, but since the object has a lot less gravity, the Earth takes 20d4 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm).

That's the kind of logic that creates half-dragon gelatinous cubes.

Have a cookie.

[Stix]

You should reread Resurrection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resurrection.htm).

hmm fair enough. campaigns over othrwise i'd let him know that all that self mutilation was unnecessary.

[HalfDragonCube]

hmm fair enough. campaigns over othrwise i'd let him know that all that self mutilation was unnecessary.

There is always a use for having someone else's fingers!

[blazingshadow]

like an ice assasin that you can use instead of rezzing the real person

[dethkruzer]

gnome wizard dimension doored over an entire invading drow army to be sitting on top of their general. says hi manages to not buy it in his first round in the middle of the enemy. next round puts a wand of scorching ray under the generals chin and pulls the trigger. general dies. shortly followed by death of wizard. (he always left his left pinky with the party cleric before he did this sort of thing so he could be resurrected when they burned his body).

Fun fact: The part being used for resurrection must have been part of the creatures body AT THE TIME OF DEATH.

[HalfDragonCube]

Fun fact: The part being used for resurrection must have been part of the creatures body AT THE TIME OF DEATH.

That has already been mentioned.

[Socratov]

I once played an archivist, having mass-contagion, i prepare mass contagion, and maintain it on my hand, after dealing with a guard from a well secured, and well populated fort, i shake his hand, releasing the spell (i was undead, so disease dont matter) wat for a bit, and presto, 1 complete community in a fort sic and probably deceased.

EDIT:also, they never knew what hit them :smallbiggrin:

[Rapidghoul]

I've had many a time as my low level bard where a combination of Ghost Noise and Dancing Lights convince hiding monsters to give away their positions to attack the pretty lights.

Level 5 caster with a hummingbird familiar in a group of fighters facing a wall of enemies none of us could get around or face without getting severely injured. I sent my (invisible) hummingbird up and over the group, gave the biggest fighter Haste, and used Benign Trasposition on him and the bird. Suddenly there was a hole in the enemy wall, complete with flanking and no attacks of opportunity.

[QuidEst]

I'm curious… can you use "Glibness" to pass a bluff on a paradox and make a wizard or other high-INT opponent try to work it out? (A proper paradox, not "I always lie.") I've always been a little fuzzy on how bluffing works in general. I know it's up to the DM a lot, but can you do that in general?

(This is, of course, assuming that the opponent is the sort of person to work out a paradox. Maybe more applicable to, say, Sphinxes.)

[Wind4air]

14th level wizard did this:
Energy Immunity(cold), Greater Teleport to the moon, Passwall x2 directly down into the moon's surface, moon jump down(lol gravity), several disintegrations to make real room, & Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, permanency(private sanctum). He then made a Lich's Phylactery there, then greater teleported back to earth, never explaining to the other pc's why he was suddenly a bag of bones.

Edit: forgot to add he had a Bottle of Air & ... that spoon that summons food, to survive up there over the crafting process & being up there to beign with.
Edit2: the vacume of space was being treaded as just cold damage, as the environment rules found here: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Outer_Space_%283.5e_Environment%29
if nothing else, one could always use a Necklace of Adaptation

[Yuki Akuma]

The problem with that is that it isn't particularly cold on the moon during the daytime. There's very little atmosphere to keep the heat in, sure, but the direct rays of the sun are quite hot.

The problem is that there's no air up there.

[Wind4air]

The problem with that is that it isn't particularly cold on the moon during the daytime. There's very little atmosphere to keep the heat in, sure, but the direct rays of the sun are quite hot.

The problem is that there's no air up there.

it's been awhile since this happened, forgot some of the details.
Story updated

[Techsmart]

liberal use of mind-affecting spells allowed me to convince an entire city that Nigeria actually was a far-off country and that I was the prince of it (Glibness+charm Person +maxed ranks in bluff/diplomancy). Outside of 2 attempted hostage situations, I convinced most of the city that if they gave me some gold (usually what I thought they had), I would reward them greatly when I returned. I then proceeded to spend most of a town's income on a sword and armor (They didnt come down much on the price). Yes, the character was evil, and I got the idea from an email.

My DM has much stricter rules on bluff and diplomancy now.:smallamused:

[Etrivar]

I had a level 1 sorcerer in a seafaring campaign, when one of our characters drowned. We didn't have res magic yet, so the scene went something like this.

DM: "After the last of the pirates are killed, you see one of the crew members drag the body of your beloved comrade over the railing from the water."

Me: "I kneel down next to his body."

DM: "Oh, do you start CPR?"

Me: "No, I rip open his shirt."

Jim: "You queer necrophiliac! Get your character's hands off my character's corpse!"

Me: "Shut up! He's not going to be a corpse long if I have anything to cast about it."

DM: "Okay, well, what do you do?"

Me: "I cast shocking grasp." *I clap my hands together and rub them really fast* "I yell: CLEAR! Then slam my hands down on his chest"

TL;DR: My sorcerer successfully used shocking grasp as a defibrillator.

[Yuki Akuma]

There are actually rules for being exposed to the vaccuum of space in D&D, though - the epic spell Nailed to the Sky. You actually take fire damage as well as cold damage - and 1d4 damage per round from decompression.

But I'm just nitpicking here.

[Rossebay]

Well, at one point, my Sorcerer (Atlas) and my friend's rogue were trying to move across this oppressed city. Now, I only had access to 2nd level spells and Celestial Sorcerer heritage flight abilities. So, I threw the rogue in the bag of holding, turned invisible, and flew over the checkpoints that would have lead us to our deaths.

Another time, our Warforged party member (different campaign) was trapped, away from his weapons, behind a pretty large steel door. He was a duskblade. Now, he had no route of escape and we were a LONG ways from breaking him out of this jail. He Ray of Frost+Burning Hands'd the hinges, causing them to rapidly expand and contract. They subsequently broke off and he rammed the door through, eventually leading to quite the hard-to-explain situation.

Another time, Atlas was standing in this zone that basically empowered his spells, except by a margin of 2. I could also empower it for a x3 effect. I figured it'd be worth a shot to cast Augment Familiar on my hawk, Garrus. Garrus then grew strong enough to lift me safely away from combat and over the city walls. ;D

[Veyr]

A human being left unshielded in space will asphyxiate long before any other negative effects of space would matter. The lack of pressure would actually force the air from your lungs, and attempting to hold your breath could do very serious damage to your lungs, windpipe, and mouth.

Decompression would be painful, even excruciating, but it would not be fatal. A human being in a perfect vacuum but provided with air would die of dehydration, most likely.

Moreover, in space, you would not lose heat in any particularly rapid fashion: a vacuum provides an excellent insulator (you would still radiate heat, but that's nothing compared to what you normally lose to conduction or convection). Cold damage would not even come into play; you'd be dead of a lot of other things before heat loss became a serious concern.

As for cosmic rays, those would be unlikely to do especially much to you before you die of something more mundane. They are likely to leave you cancer-ridden, though, should you somehow be saved before you die. I'm not entirely sure how much you would heat up if left in the sun's rays unprotected, but I'm guessing that you would be very severely burned and that might even be life-threatening.

[Rossebay]

On the topic of Space, Atlas (a Lich now) was fighting a Merut (however it's spelled) and an adamantine golem. We couldn't kill either of these things, so Atlas teleported himself and the Merut into space, kicked off of it, and teleported back down. He then repeated the process with the adamantine golem.
I DID have to pass a reflex save, though. In space, you explode if you aren't pressurized.

[Wind4air]

Plane Shift(target touched instead of normal transport method): target, fire plane or negative energy plane, whichever flavor you want to inevitably kill your target with

[Andmcmuffin2]

Plane Shift(target touched instead of normal transport method): target, fire plane or negative energy plane, whichever flavor you want to inevitably kill your target with

Any reason the Positive Energy Plane isn't a flavor you like? You do die of overhealing there.

[Necroticplague]

Any reason the Positive Energy Plane isn't a flavor you like? You do die of overhealing there.

Because you can avoid that by hitting yourself (and if we use the rules Death Urge lays out, hitting yourself always crits).

[Wind4air]

Any reason the Positive Energy Plane isn't a flavor you like? You do die of overhealing there.

lol so they go something like this?

"omg i'm so HEALTHY! RWARRRR!" <kursplode>

[Andmcmuffin2]

lol so they go something like this?

"omg i'm so HEALTHY! RWARRRR!" <kursplode>

Something like that. Except apparently they explode into flowers and small, cute, fuzzy animals or something like that.

Also, as pointed out, the alternative to bursting is an eternity of masochism.

[Stix]

i figure being healed to death goes something more like all you orifices heal closed. you can no longer breathe.

[Alleran]

The spell Acorn of Far Travel (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) has many interesting (ab)uses. My favorite: (Greater) Plane Shift to Ysgard, cast the spell there, put the magic acorn in your pocket, then return to whatever plane you were adventuring upon. Because of the acorn, you're considered to be under its tree, and hence on Ysgard. If you die, you'll automatically receive True Resurrection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueResurrection.htm) within 24 hours. It's a way to guarantee you'll always come back from the dead (without having to cough up 5K, 10K or 25K in diamonds) and also never lose XP if you die.
Does the Acorn work across planar boundaries, though?

I know the trick with a Hathran to cast any spell you want via the Acorn and being considered in Rashemen as a result, but I'm less certain about it working from another plane entirely.

[Ravens_cry]

lol so they go something like this?

"omg i'm so HEALTHY! RWARRRR!" <kursplode>
The really insane part is, by RAW, undead are not affected. One, it does not mention that the healing specifically comes from positive energy, it just says fast-healing, and two, it is a fortitude save that doesn't affect objects.

[Gondram]

...Anyone who doesn't know that's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy needs to go read that. Now.

(Specifically, I think it's from So Long and Thanks For All The Fish.)

Arthur Dent definately flew in "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish" but it was his escape from the reincarnate recenge dude in "Life, The Universe, and Everything" in which he actually missed the ground and learned how to fly.

[Rapidghoul]

Arthur Dent definately flew in "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish" but it was his escape from the reincarnate recenge dude in "Life, The Universe, and Everything" in which he actually missed the ground and learned how to fly.

Gargravarr. Who must have had a really crappy Druid casting Reincarnation.

[Sir Enigma]

Gargravarr. Who must have had a really crappy Druid casting Reincarnation.

Agrajag, I think. Gargravarr was the guard at the Total Perspective Vortex who was separated from his body (which had temporary custody of his first name)

On topic, I had one player in a game of mine try to collapse a castle by getting into a sewer system below it, putting an acorn down and casting Accelerate Plant Growth (this was a 2e game) to grow a tree through the fortress. I didn't let it fly, on the grounds that the acorn couldn't actually grow there so there was no growth to accelerate, but it was an interesting idea.

[Cruiser1]

Does the Acorn work across planar boundaries, though?By RAW, the Acorn of Far Travel (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) does work on different planes. :smallsmile: When a spell doesn't work across planes (like Teleport / Greater Teleport) or works in a more limited fashion (like Scrying), its description specifically says so.

Another trick with the Acorn is combine it with the Sanctum Spell metamagic feat. Set your sanctum at the tree you got the acorn from, and then all your spells are +1 level. (Drop the acorn in your Bag of Holding so it's no longer considered to be on your person, if you ever want to cast spells at -1 level instead).

[Grendus]

Wand of Stick in a naval campaign. We were working as gun runners delivering a few dozen crates of alchemist fire (by boat... yes, we were a little suicidal) when we spotted an imperial ship coming to stop us. In a previous battle, the DM had given us a fully charged wand of Stick, which attaches a five pound or less object to a surface. So, thinking quickly, we cracked open one of the crates, used Stick to attach a few flasks of alchemist fire to each of our ballista bolts (the DM allowed us to stick the flasks to each other as well as the bolt, thus bypassing the "easily separated" clause), and then with a bunch of buffs managed to lodge about twelve flasks of Alchemist Fire in their sails. With their sails gone, we outran what should have been a "capture and prison escape" scenario and delivered the remaining crates for a tidy profit.

[Yuki Akuma]

In space, you explode if you aren't pressurized.

You really don't.

[Psyren]

You really don't.

Indeed. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExplosiveDecompression)

And even if you did... WHY would it be a reflex save? :smallsigh:

[Rossebay]

Indeed. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExplosiveDecompression)

And even if you did... WHY would it be a reflex save? :smallsigh:

Hahaha. Uhh, no, you don't literally pop. I know that.
But things rupture. If you read the link you just posted, being in space causes ruptures, expansions, and quite a few injuries unless you return fast enough.
So, Atlas, even being a Lich, wanted to preserve his pre-death looks. He teleported back to the planet as fast as possible. In order to do that, I'd need a reflex save. You'd think, "Oh, well, he'd know to do that right away." Problematically, in that day, no one had been to space and come back fast enough to say, "GAIZE, U DIE UP THERE." Reflex to realize it hurt, and to pop back.

[NNescio]

Hahaha. Uhh, no, you don't literally pop. I know that.
But things rupture. If you read the link you just posted, being in space causes ruptures, expansions, and quite a few injuries unless you return fast enough.
So, Atlas, even being a Lich, wanted to preserve his pre-death looks. He teleported back to the planet as fast as possible. In order to do that, I'd need a reflex save. You'd think, "Oh, well, he'd know to do that right away." Problematically, in that day, no one had been to space and come back fast enough to say, "GAIZE, U DIE UP THERE." Reflex to realize it hurt, and to pop back.

"Fast enough" is about five rounds. Or two rounds if you need to breathe. Plenty of time for a caster, really. (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html)

[Johel]

Once we had a kid we were suppose to save but our gnome sorceror ended up knifing him due to rolling a 1 while being trapped in a sac with him.

Dread necromancer to the rescue. As he was bleeding out (we used up all our healing freeing the kid in the first place) I cast gentle repose then animate dead.

Returning the kid went off flawlessly thanks to an awesome bluff roll by our rouge. It later occured to me that the next time I exceed my HD limit, the kid would eat his parents but we got paid so meh. If gentle repose doesn't wear off first, that is.

...Awesome !!! :smallbiggrin:


Because you can avoid that by hitting yourself (and if we use the rules Death Urge lays out, hitting yourself always crits).

*picture a wizard who keep stabbing himself with one hand while trying hastly to cast Plane Shift with the other*

[HalfDragonCube]

*picture a wizard who keep stabbing himself with one hand while trying hastly to cast Plane Shift with the other*

That is pretty much all there is floating around on the positive energy plane. Oh, and loose scraps of fighter.

[Feytalist]

Telekinesis. Always fun, whether you are tossing rocks at monsters or pushing them off cliffs.

A sorcerer in a previous campaign of mine used telekinesis to great effect to distract enemies for the rogue to sneak attack. It was essentially a "tap on the shoulder, look around, knife in the spleen" kinda operation. Then he got into Master of the Unseen Hand, and things just went ridiculous from there. Fling skywards is the most fun anyone can ever have, ever.

[BluesEclipse]

I once used a wand of Stone Shape to hide from a horde of dwarves(literally hiding within the walls), lure them into a long hallway, compressed a pocket of air behind a wall that I covered with spikes convinced the DM to agree that Prestidigitation could be used to create pure oxygen by "cleaning" the air, and detonated it with a fire spell(I forget which, exactly). The result: a floor-to-ceiling spike cannon covering the entire wall, doing enough damage to kill everything in the hall, except a couple of casters near the end that were savvy enough to put up a Wall of Force to shield it.

On an unrelated note, that DM no longer allows me access to wands of either Stone Shape or Prestidigation, or SLAs that can replicate those abilities. He also has a rule that I can only use physics/chemistry knowledge in game if my character has the appropriate knowledge skills.

[Veyr]

Oxygen... isn't a fuel? I mean, combustion, by definition, is an exothermic reaction with oxygen, so more oxygen will make it happen more easily, but you still need something to react with the oxygen, I thought? Something that, ya know, burns.

Though, then again, I did fail chemistry.

[Feytalist]

I did manage to blind someone else with the light spell.

Purely by accident.

[Johel]

I did manage to blind someone else with the light spell.

Purely by accident.

Was it a Kobold ? Cause that's a known tactic.

[Mr.Smashy]

After lobbying for 15 minutes with the DM that telekenisis, coupled with a DM imposed "Called Shot" variant, and maxed ranks in Know: Anatomy, would allow me to litterally attack eyes, knee caps, individual fingers, livers, hearts, ect. Nothing is more satisfying to a fiend blooded sorcerer than the squelching sound of someones heart/ femur/ insert random bodypart here, being ripped through their still bleeding flesh. Delish! That character was VERY short lived.

[HalfDragonCube]

After lobbying for 15 minutes with the DM that telekenisis, coupled with a DM imposed "Called Shot" variant, and maxed ranks in Know: Anatomy, would allow me to litterally attack eyes, knee caps, individual fingers, livers, hearts, ect. Nothing is more satisfying to a fiend blooded sorcerer than the squelching sound of someones heart/ femur/ insert random bodypart here, being ripped through their still bleeding flesh. Delish! That character was VERY short lived.

Isn't Knowledge (Anatomy) covered by the heal skill?

[Yuki Akuma]

Oxygen... isn't a fuel? I mean, combustion, by definition, is an exothermic reaction with oxygen, so more oxygen will make it happen more easily, but you still need something to react with the oxygen, I thought? Something that, ya know, burns.

Though, then again, I did fail chemistry.

Yes, you're right. Oxygen is not a fuel.

Also, "pure air" would not be entirely oxygen. It would be mostly nitrogen.

An entirely 100% oxygen environment would kill you.

[Maralais]

lol so they go something like this?

"omg i'm so HEALTHY! RWARRRR!" <kursplode>

Can I sig this? This is made of pure win.

[Alexander1996]

Using rock to mud to cause the players to sink into the mud (from the DM's point of view), create water to water down the mud and cause them to sink further, and then mud to rock and trap the characters in solid rock. Boy they were not expecting that.

[CodeRed]

Yes, you're right. Oxygen is not a fuel.

Also, "pure air" would not be entirely oxygen. It would be mostly nitrogen.

An entirely 100% oxygen environment would kill you.

Indeed. Pure Oxygen is actually highly corrosive and long-term exposure of hours can cause blindness. There is a reason why most oxides, such as rust (iron oxide), are corroded remains of the other elements the oxygen has bonded with.

Working in the hospital, my father mentioned that premature babies were often put in pure oxygen tents in the 70's but this was discontinued as it led to some of the babies being blinded. Pure Oxygen is even worse when its under pressure and then inhaled such as with scuba diving and the like.

[QuidEst]

The really fun stuff (at least, that you gan get from the atmosphere) is liquid oxygen. Not only is it incredibly cold, but it expands by a factor of 861 when you heat it to room temperature and can cause quite a few things to ignite spontaneously. Areas it has been spilled on can actually explode later on when struck hard enough.

[Feriority]

The problem with that is that it isn't particularly cold on the moon during the daytime. There's very little atmosphere to keep the heat in, sure, but the direct rays of the sun are quite hot.

The problem is that there's no air up there.

Not only do you have the direct sunlight, but you don't have any atmosphere to conduct heat away from you. You'll give off some heat due to blackbody radiation, but if you're in direct sunlight, you'll be gaining way more heat from the sun's rays than you'll be radiating off yourself.

Said unfiltered rays will be giving you radiation of the less-than-pleasant spectrum to go with the light and the warm, toasty feeling, though.

[HalfDragonCube]

Not only do you have the direct sunlight, but you don't have any atmosphere to conduct heat away from you. You'll give off some heat due to blackbody radiation, but if you're in direct sunlight, you'll be gaining way more heat from the sun's rays than you'll be radiating off yourself.

Said unfiltered rays will be giving you radiation of the less-than-pleasant spectrum to go with the light and the warm, toasty feeling, though.

I wish my physics lessons used terminology like this. It would be so awesome. :smallcool:

[Yukitsu]

Me: *shenanigans*
DM: OK, so your diet consists entirely of shadow conjured food, water and air that is metamagically invisible.
Me: Correct.
DM: You do know you're dispellable now right?
Me: Oh yeah. I'm probably going to forget to fail my will save vs. myself before then though.
DM: I hate you forever.

[BlueInc]

Me: *shenanigans*
DM: OK, so your diet consists entirely of shadow conjured food, water and air that is metamagically invisible.
Me: Correct.
DM: You do know you're dispellable now right?
Me: Oh yeah. I'm probably going to forget to fail my will save vs. myself before then though.
DM: I hate you forever.

My DM tried to screw with a player in our group who had just turned his paladin into a Blackguard by making him fight an ethereal creature in an arena battle. It was a very low magic campaign, with almost no magical items. The player managed to sustain himself by summoning undead and then consuming them with a blackguard spell.

[HalfDragonCube]

My DM tried to screw with a player in our group who had just turned his paladin into a Blackguard by making him fight an ethereal creature in an arena battle. It was a very low magic campaign, with almost no magical items. The player managed to sustain himself by summoning undead and then consuming them with a blackguard spell.

Ummm... That's just mean. Why try to deliberately kill your PCs?

[Yuki Akuma]

Ummm... That's just mean. Why try to deliberately kill your PCs?

Some people can't handle having any sort of power, imaginary or otherwise, and will always abuse it to make sure people 'know' they're better.

[Unseenmal]

I joined a campaign with a DM that hated Druids. (this was before everyone realized that they rock the house and this helped that group figure it out). Anyway, the DM kept stating that Druids fail miserably in dungeons. So the first dungeon we get into has a trapped, locked wooden door. The rogue fails to open it and the fighter can't bash it down....what do I do? Warp Wood and then smash it down. The next door suddenly was made out of iron. Soften Earth and Stone around the door and push it down. Druid: 2 - DM: 0. From that point on all doors were made in a way that I could not easily defeat them with simple use of spells. Not really on par with some of the other uses you guys have but i don't really play too many casters.

[Dark Kerman]

Bit big, but rather entertaining.


Okay, imagine the scene, we're in a city that is pretty much a zombie apocalypse (people possessed by sentient hive-mind cake-mix golems with templates, looong story), anyway, my mage decides to to scout ahead with a fly spell, and then return to base to report on what I see. As i'm flying over, my magic gets dispelled, and I find my wizard with barely any hitpoints and spells left is floating into the middle of a zombie filled street....

NOW THE INTERESTING BIT

Casting Rope-trick, I climb into the hole in reality, and wrap the dangling end of the rope tightly round my waist, giving me 15 foot of slack, I lower myself down, mission impossible to the baying zombies below, and cast Burning Hands in mid-air. :smallbiggrin:

[NNescio]

I joined a campaign with a DM that hated Druids. (this was before everyone realized that they rock the house and this helped that group figure it out). Anyway, the DM kept stating that Druids fail miserably in dungeons. So the first dungeon we get into has a trapped, locked wooden door. The rogue fails to open it and the fighter can't bash it down....what do I do? Warp Wood and then smash it down. The next door suddenly was made out of iron. Soften Earth and Stone around the door and push it down. Druid: 2 - DM: 0. From that point on all doors were made in a way that I could not easily defeat them with simple use of spells. Not really on par with some of the other uses you guys have but i don't really play too many casters.

On a related note...

Rogue: I can't pick the lock! It's too hard!
Fighter: I can't force it open! It's too strong!
Frail-looking Wizard: (Casts Heroics: Mountain Hammer) Stand aside. (Cuts lock mechanism) Now, what were we saying?

[Fitz10019]

Not only do you have the direct sunlight, but you don't have any atmosphere to conduct heat away from you. You'll give off some heat due to blackbody radiation, but if you're in direct sunlight, you'll be gaining way more heat from the sun's rays than you'll be radiating off yourself.

Said unfiltered rays will be giving you radiation of the less-than-pleasant spectrum to go with the light and the warm, toasty feeling, though.

So bring a parasol and summon an Unseen Servant to hold it.
-----

Summoning Dire Badgers to dig tunnels

Eagle's Splendoring mephits to up the DC on their Glitterdust

[Psyren]

On a related note...

Rogue: I can't pick the lock! It's too hard!
Fighter: I can't force it open! It's too strong!
Frail-looking Wizard: (Casts Heroics: Mountain Hammer) Stand aside. (Cuts lock mechanism) Now, what were we saying?

Psion: What door? (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeHop.htm)