Best uses for Reverse Gravity

[Invader]

What are the best ways to use reverse gravity. It seems like a lot of people think it's more powerful than it really is or I'm just not being creative enough. So barring any ridiculousness that breaks the rules, what are the best ways you can think to use it?

[StreamOfTheSky]

You use it against monsters without flight or teleportation that have no ranged attack or a relatively inconsequential one. You use it in areas were you can put it to a height that doesn't reach the ceiling (nor put your foe within arm's reach of it) but also high enough that the foe cannot melee reach anyone on the ground, either. As a shapeable spell, you can select the height of the effect in this way just fine. As an area spell, you can use it to affect many potential targets. It allows no save if there is nothing around to grab onto, nor does it have SR.

So against the right foes in the right environment, it's basically 100% auto-win.

Of course, against any such monsters, the entire party flying basically results in the same auto-win scenario (it's easier to layer battlefield control spells and make them stick w/ the Reverse Gravity approach, though), so I think RG is pretty overhyped. It's a nice trick, but the situations where it pwns...you could already turn into a joke many levels ago for cheaper spell resources.

I will say, I did see a wizard and cleric combo RG with an in the air Blade Barrier for a hilarious/horrific "meat grinder trap" that did a hell of a job of sealing off the hallway we went down, both physically and psychologically. Brilliant! :smallbiggrin:

[Sheogoroth]

A favorite of mine has always been to use it in a Chapel of Pelor during full services. Several hundred townsfolk taking double fall damage racks up a fair amount of exp.
Gotta love those vaulted ceilings.

[Waker]

Improved Siege Weapon

Get a hill or similarly inclined plane. Roll boulder down incline. Boulder is flung at angle along the reverse gravity tunnel until it reaches the end of the 10ft cubes.

[Invader]

A favorite of mine has always been to use it in a Chapel of Pelor during full services. Several hundred townsfolk taking double fall damage racks up a fair amount of exp.
Gotta love those vaulted ceilings.

That's what I mean, assuming you're 14th level you'd have 7 10 ft cubes, which I interpret to be 10x10x10. That would be enough to get someone 70 feet off the ground for 7d6 falling damage right? It seems like the falling damage isn't that impressive compared with what a lot of people think.

Although yes for commoners it would rack up some pain lol.

[Invader]

I will say, I did see a wizard and cleric combo RG with an in the air Blade Barrier for a hilarious/horrific "meat grinder trap" that did a hell of a job of sealing off the hallway we went down, both physically and psychologically. Brilliant! :smallbiggrin:

This is a clever idea! Things like this is what RG is made for lol.

[Andion Isurand]

If you have the spells/items available...

1) have a means of flight active
2) cast Time Stop
3) move in overhead
4) cast Prismatic Sphere so it appears just above the head of your foe(s)
5) exit sphere and move away
6) cast Reverse Gravity shaped just enough to send the foe(s) falling up into the sphere when the Time Stop ends

[Seharvepernfan]

Don't forget, you can also make heavy things fall up and hit flying opponents.

[candycorn]

I've used reverse gravity to conceal traps. For example:

You're walking down a 10x10xlong corridor, and reach an area with spikes on the ceiling. The rogue searches, and sure enough, finds a pressure plate on the ground that releases the ceiling. Disabling it, the party steps past the spikes, and the lead person falls up into the ceiling, hitting the pressure plate on the ceiling.

This releases two of the hinges holding the spike plate up, causing to swing like a door towards that pressure trigger, entering the AMF, and speeding up further as it swings up to hit the trapped!

In the above example, Reverse gravity is used as misdirection and setup. Using it, you can set up a trap trigger in an unlikely place, and use weird gravity tricks to keep people guessing.

Alternately, Reverse gravity and some clever engineering could create a medieval maglev.

[Gnorman]

Lava fountain.

[Acanous]

It's amazing for rendering all mooks in a large battle inconsequential.
Also good if you combo it with any number of other spells. The best part of RG is that it forces the target to move to the top of the RG stack instantly. You can get a rod and Widen it. Need to chase a flying monster, but it's got a higher fly speed than you? RG. Now you're in front of him.
The best part is the Save/SR: No. Things like Golems get auto-beaten by RG.

[Malachei]

You could combine it with Cloudkill, or a similar area spell.

Unless you have time to deal with the trapped enemies yourself.

[jackattack]

If the top of the field touches the ceiling, anyone in the field should be able to move normally on the ceiling (within the area of the field). It's a nice movement spell that can get the whole party around various obstacles without any pesky jumping or climbing.

[Paladin's Pride]

The classic "Grimtooth's Traps" series had a number of traps based around reversing gravity. However, I tended to dislike such traps. If you're going to use a reverse gravity spell to float someone into a pit, why not just build a disintegration trap (which is a lower level spell, and far more devastating). I realize that I'm probably in the minority with such an arguably pedantic criticism, but in general I feel like encountering traps based on very high level effects (even when those effects aren't overtly lethal) in lower level dungeons ruins suspension of disbelief for me. Grimtooths had alot of teleportation circle traps against which I leveled the same criticism.

[Paladin's Pride]

Oh, and if you're looking for a truly evil high-level encounter, have a chamber that has spikes on both floor and ceiling (and the group can either move through them safely very slowly, or use flight). Part way into the room the group encounters a reverse gravity trap and a beholder. The reverse gravity trap flings them into the ceiling spikes, and whenever the beholder turns its anti-magic ray onto the group, the reverse gravity trap is suppressed and they fall back into the floor spikes. Fairness would argue that the beholder should be limited to doing this once per round.

[weckar]

From practice: tossing creatures off any vessel in motion.