[3.5] Practical Applications: Curse of Spilt Water

[Maginomicon]

Curse of Spilt Water
Transmutation [Water]
Level: Drd 6, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

The target of this spell must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or be permanently transformed into water equal its original volume. The water immediately splashes to the ground and spreads as normal water. If a suitable container is within 5 feet of the target, the caster can direct the water to collapse into the container. Any equipment carried by the victim also transforms into water. While transformed into water, the victim has no consciousness and can take no actions.

If any quantity of the water is recovered, a break enchantment can restore the victim to normal. However, if the water is allowed to evaporate (a process that requires 1 hour for a creature of Fine size, 1 day for Tiny creature, and 2 days for each size category larger than Tiny) or mixed with a larger body of water, such as a lake or sea, a limited wish, miracle, or wish is required to restore the target to its original form.

Material Component: A rag doll soaked in seawater.

"Any quantity of water" you say?

*rubs hands together evilly*

I liquify someone, bottle up a vial of the resulting water, and freeze it. Reminiscent of Megamind, anyone?

Even worse, combine this with dust of dryness, and you can store someone (or perhaps a number of people) forever as a ball of dirt.

[holywhippet]

For amusement/irony purposes you could use it to transmute the spawn of a vampire into a water, then make it into holy water and use that to attack the vampire with.

This spell reminds me of the flesh to stone combo of disposing of someone - flesh to stone -> stone to mud then spread the mud out in pieces at sea.

[Maginomicon]

Another thing you could do is use it for futuristic long-term population cryostasis by converting Curse of Spilt Water into a repeating magic trap, freezing some small manageable quantity of the water, storing it, and then using a repeating magic trap of Break Enchantment to reconstitute them when the journey's over.

[Ravens_cry]

For amusement/irony purposes you could use it to transmute the spawn of a vampire into a water, then make it into holy water and use that to attack the vampire with.

This spell reminds me of the flesh to stone combo of disposing of someone - flesh to stone -> stone to mud then spread the mud out in pieces at sea.
Except it's a Fortitude save. Vampire Spawn (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm#vampireSpawn) are still undead, and undead are immune to Fort saves that don't affect objects.

[Maginomicon]

It has occurred to me that for the purposes of cryostasis, when a person is turned into water, multiple vials of a person's watery form could be stored in separate locations as backups. Obviously, restoring one of them would make the other backups cease to exist (or otherwise become inert, as it says "restore the victim"), so that makes Curse of Spilt Water extremely effective for keeping them in stasis over long distances of space flight or other travel without the cloning problem.

Heck, you could sneak an army into a city by carrying a resetting boon trap of break enchantment and a case of "holy water" vials. (or, depending on your GM, a jug, as there's no reason you can't put the water of multiple people in the same place and use break enchantment repeatedly on the mixed water).

[greamlive]

I wonder what would happen to someone whu shallowed a vial containing someone victim of Curse of Split Water that then receive a Break Enchantment.

[Bakkan]

Imagine that you have a small army, enough to resist an invasion at a single point on the border but no larger. You could curse all of them, split them into many vials, and keep one vial of each soldier at every likely invasion point. A single small army could essentially defend the entire border, with the only danger being near-simultaneous attacks far apart from each other.

Along those same lines, what happens if you curse one soldier, split the water into several bottles, break the enchantment on one of them, and then re-curse the original? If the water in all the original bottles disappears when the curse is broken, there's no problem, and in fact this could be used as an instantaneous communication method. If the water remains, can you break the curse on one of the original bottles and get the soldier back?

This spell has so many amazing applications under almost any interpretation. Thank you for introducing me to it, Maginomicon!