Cool Spells

[Glarx]

Hi there Playgrounders,

I'm going to be creating a magical item soon that will provide someone with a sufficiently high Use Magic Device check access to a lot of spells. I decided I wanted to go through all the books in 3.5 and find the coolest spells to put on there -- not the mechanically best, although a few of those might be on there too. It can be either arcane or divine, but I do ask that they not be Psionic -- those aren't spells, to my knowledge.

I'm looking for advice on 7th level and below spells that are just cool. Whatever definition of cool you'd like. Someone might suggest fimbulwinter because it's a literally cool spell -- hey, if they think it's neat, I'd love to hear about it. Any official 3.5 (so no Dragon Magazine!) source is fair game, and you get extra points if you mention which book the spell is in.

To get the ball rolling, I'll provide a few of spells I think are pretty cool.

Sandstorm: Haboob. Just the image of a haboob is striking. That thing is dangerous!
Sandstorm: Flesh to Salt. There's something horrifying about becoming petrified, but becoming something that's water soluble? Oof!
Vile Darkness: Death by Thorns. Making someone explode from the inside with thorns? There are so many cool ways to refluff this -- bone spikes, parasites, bloody ice. Just a nifty spell!
Complete Arcane: Defenestrating Sphere. It's an Airbender's ball that aims for the windows. What's not to love?


Those are just a few. Does anyone else have any spells that they think are cool? I'd love to hear about them!

[ahenobarbi]

Delay Death - you don't die even when they kill you! (Spell Compendium)
X Image series - they make looking really cool easy (Players Handbook )
Disintegrate - just look at the name. What's cooler than turning your foes to pile of dust?(PHb)
Revivify (SpC), Raise Dead (PhB),... - do the impossible!
Glibness (PHb) ]:->

[eggynack]

I've always been a fan of the heart of x series from complete mage, particularly heart of water. It's basically the absolute perfect duration for a freedom of movement effect that can also let you swim around for hours per level. Also, when you get all four you can start singing the captain planet theme song as you activate them, perhaps replacing "heart" with "hearts". I just really like the design of those spells in general.

[NeoPhoenix0]

I'm a huge fan of the teleportation subschool so I'll start with a good teleport spell.
1) Refuge (Player's Handbook/SRD): Very useful, allows you to retreat too your home or create objects for other creatures to use to retreat to your home. you can also create objects for other creatures to use to summon you.

2) Rainbow Beam (Spell Compendium): Why use different spells for each element when you can use one spell of a random element. Includes gems such as force damage, poison damage and sonic damage.

3) Solipsism (Spell Compendium): Because convincing creatures everything but them is an illusion is awesome.

[Keldrin]

I've always been a fan of the heart of x series from complete mage, particularly heart of water. It's basically the absolute perfect duration for a freedom of movement effect that can also let you swim around for hours per level. Also, when you get all four you can start singing the captain planet theme song as you activate them, perhaps replacing "heart" with "hearts". I just really like the design of those spells in general.

I'm a fan as well, plus all four and you have heavy fortification, very useful for gish types. Long term minor (or not so minor) buffs, and short term better buffs.

[eggynack]

I'm a fan as well, plus all four and you have heavy fortification, very useful for gish types. Long term minor (or not so minor) buffs, and short term better buffs.
Indeed so. Were it not for the heavy fortification, I would be unlikely to ever cast more than just heart of water. Then, where would I be in terms of singing the Captain Planet theme song in the middle of a game? It would truly be a tragedy. Really, heart of water is probably the only one that's independently powerful. The ability to expend an hour/level spell once per day in order to gain freedom of movement rounds/level is wonderful. The fact that I'd generally consider it a better spell than freedom of movement, and at a lower spell level, is just a crazy amount of value.

[ahenobarbi]

3) Solipsism (Spell Compendium): Because convincing creatures everything but them is an illusion is awesome.

Nice.

- Power Word Kill (PhB) - you die because I say so.

[eggynack]

Great thunderclap (SpC) is pretty sweet. It has three separate saves for three separate debuffs, and it's mighty flavorful to boot.

[Glarx]

I'm loving the suggestions so far, but please keep in mind that these need to be 7th level or below -- PW:K is level 9!

[eggynack]

Hmm... 7th or below? Earthquake. Cast summon nature's ally VI for an oread, and he can cast earthquake once a day, along with some other, less busted, stuff. I don't know if it necessarily qualifies as cool, but I've always thought it was pretty funny. Some other cool summon nature's ally monsters of note are the fossergrim at V, which is a weird waterfall dependent creature which I can't ever see myself summoning, and yellow musk creeper at IV, which is a crazy plant creature that shoots out puffs that make your enemies into plant zombies. They're all from the fiend folio, and they're all weird as hell.

[AntiTrust]

(Spell Compendium) BoneFiddle - the flavor text sells it for me, rubbing your middle finger and thumb together while humming as a translucent fiddle sinks into the flesh of your target and plays on their bones.

[ahenobarbi]

I'm loving the suggestions so far, but please keep in mind that these need to be 7th level or below -- PW:K is level 9!

Ah sorry I forgot the limitation (all from Races of the Dragon):
Power Word Disable - you (almost) die, because I say so!
Power Word Distract - hey, look there! (and they actually look)

[Spuddles]

Avascular Mass, Libris Mortis.

Target's guts rupture and boil out, then entangle everything around him in a 20ft radius.

[Setra]

Reverse Gravity (PHB)

To me it's just the essence of making physics cry in the corner, of course I've always been a fan of gravity manipulation.

[Vaz]

Quick Question; why 7th's?

Spirit Binding, it's a 6th level Wu Jen Spell.

You can do anything with it. It allows up to 16HD as 6th level spell (sadly, the Greater Version for 24 HD is not going to happen unless you can get 8th's).

These are the targets it can Bind.


Page 101, 123: Spirit Creatures
For the purposes of the commune with greater spirit,
commune with lesser spirit, greater spirit binding,
lesser spirit binding, spirit binding, spirit needle, and
spirit self spells, a “spirit” or “spirit creature” includes
any of the following creatures: all incorporeal undead,
all fey, all elementals, creatures in astral form or with
astral bodies (but not a creature physically present on
the Astral Plane), all creatures of the spirit subtype (see
Oriental Adventures), spirit folk and telthors (see
Unapproachable East), and spirit creatures created by
spells such as dream sight or wood wose (see Complete
Divine).

Unless you need a physical task operating, just Planar Bind a Ghost ANYTHING. While the CR goes up, their HD doesn't change. While some might be able to resist the Will Save, if you can pump up the Caster Level anyway in particular, (hard with Spell Completion items), then that makes it easier.

One of the best is an Elemental Wierd. Just summon yourself a Sorcerer 18 with access to a couple of thematic domain spells. Whether or not the pool tags along with the Spell begs the question, and as well as how well it's Bound within the Magical Circle, but if the Elemental Pool tags along as well, safe to say you've won your encounter; with a 6th level spell (ECL13), you've just got yourself 9th level spells, and the ability to Divine anything with it's SLA's.

Or a Verdant Prince; Essentially a Geas, but without the Mind Affecting rubbish. It just needs to make the Oath Bond, and then it's Broken. You don't need to know whether it's broken or not, but you essentially just render enemies useless. A -6 penalty to their scores results in things like Wizards being turned into something completely unable to move or Paralyzed.

[Alleran]

If you're looking for cool spells, then there isn't much cooler than Frostfell or Iceberg. The latter especially. Because when all else fails, sometimes you just have to drop a giant iceberg on somebody. That said, those two are also 9ths. You could try a metamagic-ed cone of cold or similar.

[NeoPhoenix0]

I forgot to include my favorite literally cool spell

4) Boreal Wind (Frostburn): You really have t read it to understand everything it can do. The damage is big 1d4/CL max 15d4. The area is absolutely absurd 20ft wide by 20ft high by 400ft plus 40ft/CL. Finally it lasts 1+1/2CL rounds.

5) Polar Ray (Player's Handbook/SRD): The reason i mention this is if you have access to the Player's handbook II then this can be a 5 lv spell from the Duskblade spell list.

[Amnestic]

Summon Instrument - there's no restriction on size other than it be "handheld", which depends on how big your hands are. Ancient Red Dragon with a talent for theatrics decides that throwing rocks is so...primitive. Throwing pipe organs is much more civilised.

You could also have a legitimate reason for saying "I play the world's smallest violin" at any possible time - and actually do so.

Cheat (Bard 1, Wiz/Sorc 1, SpC) - Allows you to cheat at a single game of chance. The uses for this are incredibly few in that it only affects non-magical games (no cheating the Deck of Many Things ;p), but it's just a cool little spell. I try to pick it up on any Bard I make. Might never use it, but cool to have.

[gorfnab]

Regal Procession (SpC) - basically Mount/CL. It has many uses besides transportation. It's actually nifty as a battlefield control spell. Use the horses to block off corridors, clutter sections of the battlefield (think wall of horses), or to stop objects from moving (a quarter horse weighs between 1000lbs to 1500lbs). It's a great spell for ship combat as well. Use it to clutter the deck, cause the ship to list if you line the horses along the rail or stampede from port to starboard every round, or get the horses to chew on the rigging.

[Maginomicon]

Thunderlance (Sor/Wis 4; Spell Compendium page 220) or its little brother Decastave (Sor/Wis 2; Unapproachable East page 49), because I not just whack you widda stick, I whack you widda FORCE stick.

Rain of Roses (Druid 7; Book of Exalted Deeds page 105): Roses fall from the sky; evil creatures take 1d4 Wis damage per round and are sickened.

I find it hard to believe no one's suggested Prestidigitation yet.

[almightycoma]

hibernate (frost burn) nothing says nap time like sleeping 1 week per caster level.
animate siege weapon (heroes of battle) for when you run out of chumps to man the walls
Lastly anything with leomund's name in it. That guy loves making weird housing.

[Sponson]

hibernate (frost burn) nothing says nap time like sleeping 1 week per caster level.
animate siege weapon (heroes of battle) for when you run out of chumps to man the walls
Lastly anything with leomund's name in it. That guy loves making weird housing.

I'm going to second Leomund's Spells.

Orcs charge you in the open, roll initiative, what do you do?
Sorcerer: I cast Wall of Stone around us.
Wizard: I cast Leomund's Instant Cottage within the wall.
Cleric: I cast Heroic Feast.
Fighter: I eat and rest.