Spell Range: Personal, fix?

[demigodus]

I was trying to make a buffer build, and I keep running into this problem with spells that have a range of personal. Some of the best wizard/sorcerer buffs have a personal range. Which is great if I want to make myself into a demi-god. Not that great if I want to make my barbarian friend into a buffer demi-god, and spend the rest of combat sipping tea while he kills my enemies.

So is there a way to make personal ranged spells have a non-personal range? I'm guessing it would involve some sort of metamagic abuse, but I'm not familiar with any that would work.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

The only answer I know of is to scribe the spells onto scrolls and hand them out to people so they can buff themselves. It's not a very good solution as it only works for people with the spells on their own class lists and people with good use magic device checks but it may be better than nothing for your party. (Potions are out as a spell with a personal range can't be made into a potion.)

You could ask your DM if your character can research and try to develop versions of the spells with ranges other than personal, but that's at his discretion and they would almost be guarenteed to have higher levels and/or other drawbacks compared to the personal versions.

[docnessuno]

Master specialist (abjurer) [CM]

There are possibly other ways but nothing comes to mind right now.

Also, for your concept, you might want to check the War weaver PRC [HoB], it's pretty much the best buffer around.

[nedz]

Brew Potion — expensive, but anyone can drink them.
Custom Wondrous Item.
Ring/Weapon of Spell Storing.
Share Spells — but this only works with Animal Companions and Familiars.

[demigodus]

Ring/Weapon of Spell Storing.

For this, do spells have to be 3rd level or lower before or after taking metamagic into account? Would be fun to combine this with persistent spell type cheese.

And looks like I will be whacking my allies on the head quite a bit... would get a tad expensive though.


Share Spells — but this only works with Animal Companions and Familiars.

Okay, so now the question is: how do I turn my allies into familiars.

anyone have any tips?

[docnessuno]

Ring/Weapon of Spell Storing.


Doens't seem to work for rings in 3.5


A minor ring of spell storing contains up to three levels of spells that the wearer can cast.

[demigodus]

spell storing weapons DO work though. I would just need to find a weapon that does minimal damage when I stab/hit/slice someone with it. And convince my allies that me stabbing them with my silver +1 Spell Storing dagger is a GOOD thing.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Brew Potion — expensive, but anyone can drink them.No good. As I said, spells with a range of personal can't be made into potions.

I do like the ring of spell storing, though.


Doens't seem to work for rings in 3.5
I'm not sure. I parse that as "A minor ring of spell storing contains up to three levels of spells [and the wearer can cast them.]" They aren't spells that you must otherwise be able to cast, they are spells that you are granted the ability to cast by the ring. Since the ring can have spells in it while nobody's wearing it, it clearly doesn't rely on its wearer's spell list to decide what spells it can contain.

I'd say it still requires a use magic device check (spell trigger, I'd assume) but it's better than my scroll idea.


spell storing weapons DO work though. I would just need to find a weapon that does minimal damage when I stab/hit/slice someone with it. And convince my allies that me stabbing them with my silver +1 Spell Storing dagger is a GOOD thing.Magic ammunition is cheap. I've heard of palyers carrying around quivers full of tiny spell storing arrows with Cure Serious Wounds to use as improvised daggers/magical syringes, deal 1d2 damage and heal 3d8+5 seems like a good deal. I don't think I'd allow it at my table, but your mileage (and your DM) may vary.

[docnessuno]

spell storing weapons DO work though. I would just need to find a weapon that does minimal damage when I stab/hit/slice someone with it. And convince my allies that me stabbing them with my silver +1 Spell Storing dagger is a GOOD thing.

A whip deals 1d3 nonlethal damage and has reach.


Edit: I forgot spell-storing is a melee-only propriety, so only my first idea applies.

[vhfforever]

I can't remember if Ocular Spell (Lords of Madness) works or not, but it's something to check out.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

No dice. "Only ray spells and spells with a target other than personal can be cast as ocular spells."

[docnessuno]

I can't remember if Ocular Spell (Lords of Madness) works or not, but it's something to check out.

Doesn't work.

Edit: Swordsaged.

[nedz]

A whip deals 1d3 nonlethal damage and has reach.

I was thinking Sap, but this is funnier.

Cast spell into Whip
Whip it out

This takes two actions, so you wouldn't want to use it in combat.

Whips do no damage against characters in armour.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I was thinking Sap, but this is funnier.

Cast spell into Whip
Whip it out

This takes two actions, so you wouldn't want to use it in combat.

Whips do no damage against characters in armour.So it it applies a buff, are your whipping it good?

But yeah, you'd need to deal damage to trigger spell storing. This is a bigger concern since it can take up to 4 minutes to put heavy armor back on which may eat into the buff durations.

It would still be fun if you convince the party's paladin to take of his full plate because you want to give him a good whipping before battle.

[nedz]

Actually you could use the Smiting Spell meta magic feat from PH2.
This works just like the weapon of spell storing, but doesn't need the enchantment. +1 Spell Level. Range has to be Touch though — so maybe not. Earthbound Spell has the same restriction.


It would still be fun if you convince the party's paladin to take of his full plate because you want to give him a good whipping before battle.

The parties Monk however requires a good whipping.

[Archmage1]

Persuade the rest of your party to be spellthieves, and to take enough levels to let them steal the spell?

[docnessuno]

Persuade the rest of your party to be spellthieves, and to take enough levels to let them steal the spell?

You might as well persuade them to be wizard and cast the spell themselves.

[demigodus]

I will probably use a +1 silver dagger.

Should only deal Str+d4 damage per stab.

Although most of the party doesn't wear armor, so whipping them could work...

[eggs]

Nobody's mentioned Spellguard of the Silverymoon or Bracelets of Spell Sharing, from Player's Guide to Faerun and the DMG2 respectively. They're by far the easiest ways of sharing a wide variety of spells, any number of times per day.

Spellguard has a set of requirements that spells have to meet to count as "defensive," but they include things like Righteous Might, Divine Power, Bite of the Werebear, Giant Size and arguably Shapechange, so they're not the toughest limitations. The bracelets only require that the shared spell have a duration of at least 2 rounds; Extend is its friend.

[Darrin]

Three methods:

Glyph Seal (1000 GP, MIC). Works with any 1st or 2nd level spell, and can be activated as a free action (key it to a pocket that contains ammo or spell components). For higher level spells, the Greater Glyph Seal (4000 GP) can take 5th level or higher spells. (There's an odd "donut hole" where 3rd/4th level spells are left out, but this is probably due to an editing error... The greater version should probably say "5th level or lower", but they missed this in the original sourcebook and cut&pasted it verbatim into the MIC).

Skull Talisman feat (Frostburn). Similar to a potion, but double the cost and no limit on spell level. Also, activated with a standard action, so ideal for spells with a longer casting time.

Shallantha's Delicate Disk (6th level Sor/Wiz, Lost Empires of Faerun). Create a ceramic disk for 200 GP, can store any spell up to 5th level. Activate by breaking the disk (standard action) or throw it (attack action).