Just A Slightly Magical City?

[Palanan]

I'm trying to come up with some low-level magic effects that would be common aspects of an Elizabethan-style city. This won't be an all-pervasive magical environment, but I'd like sensible uses for very basic spells, a light touch of the arcane and divine.

Most of the noble houses would have a first- or second-level caster as part of house staff, and many of the urban gentry would probably be able to hire a caster on special occasions. I wouldn't expect entire industries to be transformed by magic--in fact there may be laws against it--but a clever use of a low-level spell might go a long way.

So given this, what sorts of simple applications could you find for basic magic in a Renaissance metropolis?

[Vhaidara]

Continual Flame for streetlights, obviously.

Unseen Servants to clean up the street.

Possibly a self-resetting Burning Hands trap in the toilet to incinerate the waste. At least, in very wealthy nobles houses.

Create Water, obviously.

I feel like I remember a 2.0 spell called Zone of Sweet Air. For some reason it was level 2 or 3, but it was basically an area of pine air freshener.

[Zanos]

Prestidigitation to clean everything. Forever.

[Osiris]

I feel like I remember a 2.0 spell called Zone of Sweet Air. For some reason it was level 2 or 3, but it was basically an area of pine air freshener.

It's probably because it creates a bubble of air, easily defeating water and vacuum traps (drowning/choking because lack of air)

I actually have no idea if the spell existed, I'm just making a guess.

[Coidzor]

I feel like I remember a 2.0 spell called Zone of Sweet Air. For some reason it was level 2 or 3, but it was basically an area of pine air freshener.

I think that's within the limits of Prestidigitation, really.

[Vhaidara]

Yeah, but this was industrial strength air freshener. As in it countered things with Stench or spells like Stinking Cloud.

[jedipotter]

Detect Poison cast on food and drinks. Even better would be a magic item, like a plate or spoon of detect poison.

Light to light up areas. You could make custom glowing items for dark places.

Ghost Sounds to add sound to anything. Like a 'white noise' box or a tapestry.

Mage Hand can move all sorts of things around.

Mending Fixing things. Cast this daily and everything ids as good as new.

Message is a quick ''cell phone chat'' and has lots of uses.

Prestidigitation is a little wish and can do a lot. Just the ability to clean stuff is huge.

Alarm cast every night, or have a stone of alarm.

Mount for rides with in a couple hours.

Unseen Servant to do tons of work.

[Captnq]

Here's the thing. What's a little magic? 1,000 gp? 10,000 gp? no magic item over 873 gp?

I can cast Stone Trap. I cast it over and over with the trigger being when the Sun hits the city. Now I have an unlimited number of floating stones that can hold several hundred pounds each.

Do it one 10' block at a time, I can make me a flying city.

There's a spell that turns any rock into another kind of rock. Forget what it was. I make all the rocks the kind that multiplies light that hits it by 6. Then I cast the spell that makes rocks transparent. Now I put these rocks on top of my floating, invisible support rocks. Now I have a floating tower that shoots rainbows all over the city when the sun hits it.

GP/XP cost: Big fat goose egg.

Need details, mate.

[Vhaidara]

Dancing Lights + Obscuring Mist (Maybe a cantripified version) + Ghost Sound

You now have a nightclub with raves.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by jedipotter
Message is a quick "cell phone chat" and has lots of uses.

This is one of my favorite low-level spells--often overlooked, but as versatile as your creativity allows. Very short range compared to the extent of a city, but I could see this being used in a large workshop or indoor market.


Originally Posted by jedipotter
*list o' good suggestions*

A lot of these could be useful, although it would depend on the price of casting and the practical applications. Mending would be very useful to have in a household; Mage Hand might be more limited.

And there's got to be something you can do with Launch Item. :smalltongue:


Originally Posted by Keledrath
Dancing Lights + Obscuring Mist (Maybe a cantripified version) + Ghost Sound

You now have a nightclub with raves.

See, this is the sort of thing I'm looking for. :smallbiggrin:

[Captnq]

Oh.

You just want cantrip suggestions. Why didn't you say so?

Cut and past from the EVD:
PRESTIDIGITATION
Editor (Utility): As far as spells go, the real use of this spell is your imagination. It should be noted, that if the spell is used creatively, the DM is permitted to allow up to a +2 circumstance bonus to a given skill check, but this is the full extent of any benefit the spell can grant. It cannot add to saving throws, to hit, damage, or any other roll. Just a +2 circumstance bonus to skill rolls, if the DM is impressed enough. And remember, circumstance bonuses don’t stack. Prestidigitation is the ultimate in spell versatility. Although extremely weak, it lets you perform the gamut of "tawdry tricks" that every sorcerer or wizard on television, in movies, and books should be able to perform. The effects produced by prestidigitation are great for distraction (or, for the optimist: entertainment) and annoyance Prestidigitation is a great and simple spell for injecting some personality into an NPC. Beyond its obvious use as a "performer's" spell, where it can produce flowers from behind an onlooker's ear or make a spoon stand up and dance, it allows sorcerers and wizards to "act" in a truly magical way. Have your NPC arcane spellcaster heat her mug of mulled wine with the use of this spell or make a grand show of her using prestidigitation to whisk away the dirt and grime from the surface she plans on sitting on. Remember that once cast, a character can perform these tricks for up to an hour, so an entire scene could be enhanced in this manner. Alternatively, you could make a house rule: As long as a character uses prestidigitation for purely cosmetic effects (such as those described above), an arcane spellcaster has this spell in effect at all times, which can add a bit of magic and mystery to his everyday actions
Uses for Prestidigitation
Change: You transform one object of Fine size or smaller into another object of roughly the same size. The object can weigh no more than 8 ounces. The change must be within the same kingdom (animal, vegetable, or mineral). Note, you have no control over an animal you create. It acts as an animal of it’s type would act. You can, however, set it’s original mood when it is created (Afraid, Angry, Hungry, Playful, Lethargic, etc)
• “Change” a bucket of paint to paint covering a wall.
• A belt buckle changes shape so it no longer holds the belt in place.
• A hole opens up in a bucket.
• Bite off a piece of your fingernail, spit it at someone, and have it turn into a severed hand in mid air.
• Blow snot out of your nose that turns into a butterfly. Later, when the duration expires, it will turn back. I hope nobody is playing with it. Remember: animal secretions fall under the animal kingdom.
• Create a mirrored surface so you can bounce sunlight down a corridor.
• Cut off a lock of your hair. Make a fake mustache.
• Fix a hole in a bucket for an hour.
• Get tomato seeds. Turn them into tomatoes. Throw them at people. No clean up in an hour.
• If you are paying someone you hate a bag full of gold, change a piece of cloth into a sack. Put the gold in the sack. An hour later (Hopefully while he is crossing the street) the bag reverts to a piece of cloth. Gold goes scattering across the street.
• Make a copper piece look like gold.
• Make a forged document seem aged and brittle.
• Make a gold coin look like it’s made of tin.
• Make alchemist’s fire smell and look like coffee.
• Make an angry wasp appear in someone’s hair.
• Make materials separate from water to get pure water. Now, this doesn’t work with anything that dissolves in the liquid or chemically reacts. If you have muddy water, you can filter out the mud. If you have poison that dissolves in water, you are out of luck.
• Make that thunder stone look like candy.
• Make your foot prints disappear as you walk, for an hour.
• Make your foot prints look like someone else’s.
• Put a hole in a vile of poison someone is holding.
• Put a lump of poison in the bottom of a goblet. Shape the goblet to cover over the poison in a sealed compartment. When the spell expires, the goblet returns to its normal shape, releasing the poison.
• Shape the smoke from a campfire to make your stories that much more dramatic.
• The bottom falls out of the enemy’s quiver.
• Turn a bug into a mouse to distract the wizard’s cat familiar.
• Turn a flask of poison into whiskey.
• Turn coal into diamond.
• Write your name in the snow in “yellow”. Demonstrate amazing penmanship.
• YOU CANNOT Change a shield to have a new insignia. The changed object must be of Fine size and a shield is too big.
• You could animate the corpse of a fine sized animal for an hour. It cannot do any damage, but would count as undead for the duration of the spell.
• You could change a piece of paper into scrap of linen, and then change that into a rose. Likewise, you could change a coin into a ring. You could not, however, turn a strip of leather into a piece of paper.
Chill: You reduce the temperature of an object by about 40° F, but never below freezing (32° F). After an hour the object's temperature returns to normal.
• Chill the wine before serving it to a lady friend when you are on a date.
• In very Humid areas, slowly fill up a glass of water via condensation (1 oz water/minute)
• Keep your chocolate from melting on a hot day.
• Sell lemonade on a hot day.
Clean: You remove dirt, dust, and stains from floors, walls, dishes, windows, and the like, leaving these surfaces or objects spotless. You can clean an object with a volume of 1 cubic foot, or 1 square foot of the surface of a larger object, each round. The effect does not remove any foreign object of Fine size or larger. Dirt you remove is permanently gone, but objects you clean can get dirty again just like anything else.
• Brush your teeth.
• Clean up part of a summoning circle.
• Clean up those pesky blood stains after you murder a nobleman.
• Clean yourself up after a long trip. Improve those diplomatic checks by smelling nice.
• Clean yourself up after a messy crime to help provide an alibi.
• Never have to wash your hands after going to the bathroom again.
• Pick your nose.
• Pick your friend’s nose.
• When the blood is being poured on the sacrificial stone, clean it up.
Color: You bring color to an object. You can restore faded hues or give it a new color. If you add color, it must be from the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet). You cannot change an object's pattern, such as adding or removing stripes or polka dots, but you can change the color in a pattern. If you change something’s color, any one section of the object must change to the same color. For example, if you change on polka dot to green, it is all green.
• A blue garment with white stripes becomes green with yellow stripes.
• Change your clothes to be the same color of an enemy militia or evil god’s clergy.
• Have a “truth stone” that can change red when someone “lies”. Useful when trying to bluff someone.
• Human skin has shading, so you cannot change your skin to another color convincingly. You can make it all the same color to help when it comes to camouflage. (At best, a +2 circumstance bonus.)
• If you change your hair color, it will all be the same color and thus look somewhat unnatural. Normal hair has slightly different shades to it because color fades as the hair grows. If you don’t mind neon pink hair, then there is no problems.
• Make the paladin’s sword pink.
• Mood Ring.
• The next time you cast enlarge person on someone, turn them green. Encourage them to say, “Hulk Smash!”
• Turn yourself blue. Claim to be prince of the lake people. Tell villagers the lake people are angry and demand tribute or you and your people will slay the land dwellers.
• You can change the color of your clothing. You cannot add patterns or words, but you can change the shading to anything you could pull off with normal dye.
• YOU CANNOT make an insignia out of color. That would be creating a pattern.
Count: You can count how many of a given object are in an area, as long as you can directly sense the entire area, the objects are all the same, and all objects are within 10 feet of one another. The objects are not moved, you just know a total number of said object in your mind. Note, if there are fake coins, you have to make an appraise check to sort them out.
• Count how many coins are in a pile of gold.
• Figure out how many grains are in a sack.
• Make a mark in the dirt ten feet away. Walk up to it. Make another mark ten feet away. Measure any distance. Figure out where secret doors are by mapping out exact dimensions. Hidden passageways have to take up SOME space, after all.
Create: You can create small objects from nothing. They are crude, fragile, and look artificial. They cannot serve as tools, weapons, or spell components.
• A fake dagger to stab someone. Create fake blood after doing so. Play possum.
• A puff a smoke for a momentary distraction. (at best allowing you to make a new hide skill roll).
• Create a field of fake caltrops that you have no problem running through, but may give pursuers pause.
• Create a small cluster of bells that drop and roll down the side of a mountain.
• Create dice for gambling.
• Create rotting garbage to hide something under.
• Have a pebble appear in someone’s shoe. No matter how many times they take off their shoe, there is always a new pebble in there.
• Have a puppet show.
• Make gritty dust fall on someone whenever they speak.
• Make smoke pour out of someone’s nose. Capture it in a bottle. Claim to have captured their soul. Have the smoke in the bottle resemble them and pound on the glass.
• Replace screws and bolts with conjured screws and bolts. Just enough to hold up something, so it collapses under additional weight. A bridge or balcony for example.
• Stab yourself with a fake dagger, making it crumble. Claim to be invulnerable to normal weapons.
• When you get hit with an arrow, have blood just gush out non-stop. Every time you get wounded, the blood just keeps flying out of you, splattering everywhere. Keep fighting and ignore the blood. After a few rounds, your enemies might freak out wondering exactly what’s going on.
• You create a puff of wind that can push something light up to 1 five foot square.
• You’re sneaking up to an enemy camp, but a guard is blocking your way. Use prestidigitation to drop a small object and make a ruckus.
Dampen: You leave an object damp to the touch for 1 hour. Damp objects have fire resistance 2 while the effect lasts.
• Dampen the front of the paladin’s pants just as you find the dragon.
• Put out a small campfire, given a few rounds.
• Put out a torch.
Dirty: You soil, spot, and sully walls, floors, dishes, garments, or the like, leaving them dusty, filthy, or stained. You can dirty an object with a volume of 1 cubic foot, or 1 square foot of the surface of a larger object, each round. Dirt you add remains after the effect ends, but objects you soil can be cleaned again just like anything else.
• Dirty yourself so that you look like you climbed out of a sewer, when you need to fake an alibi.
• Have the local town statue cry blood.
• Lipstick on a man’s collar.
• Look like a leper.
• Make something look worthless so it is overlooked.
• Put blood stains on some sucker and then call the town guards.
• Soil someone’s tunic/pants to embarrass them.
• Suspicious stains on the carpet, ranging from pools of blood to mud tracked in to skid marks left by a dog wiping his butt.
• You could cover your tracks, but it would be slow going. Instead, I recommend Sculpt Spell so that you can ‘dirty up’ your tracks in sand, dust, or snow in various shapes as needed.
Dry: You remove dampness and excess moisture from an object. Moisture you remove does not return after the effect ends, but the object can become wet again just like anything else.
• Dry out a book that got wet so the pages don’t curl up.
• Dry socks.
• Evaporate a glass of liquid. (1 cubic foot/round).
• Evaporate just the alcohol from your drink so it appears like you are drinking.
• Evaporate the water out of something to leave behind the concentrated form of whatever isn’t water in the liquid..
• Make a spellcraft roll to dry out a potion until it’s just a highly concentrated drop of liquid. Put it in a fake tooth. Crunch down on it when you really need a +4 to your strength or something. Failing at the spellcraft roll means you ruin the potion while trying to concentrate it. (DC 20 check.)
• Make beef jerky.
• Make trail rations from fruit and nuts. By drying out the fruit
• Make salt from salt water.
• Make something appear “evil” by having drops of holy water boil away in a puff of white vapor. Claim the item cannot just be destroyed by smashing it, because the evil will just escape. Offer to hold it for safekeeping.
Flavor: You give a substance a better, worse, or different flavor. You could, for example, make porridge taste like lobster bisque. You do not change the substance's quality or wholesomeness. Spoiled food remains spoiled, a poisoned drink is still deadly, and inedible material provides no nourishment -- you can make a twig taste like steak, but it remains a twig.
• Add the favor of poison to convince someone they only have moments to live.
• Flavor the poison to make it harder to detect. (-2 to any skill check to detect.)
• Make a cheap spice taste like a rare an expensive one, then sell it to some sucker.
• Make a dwarf’s ale taste fruity.
• Make a gourmet chef’s work go sour.
• Make cheap inn food taste good.
• Make the food taste awful so everyone else eats less and you get to eat more.
Gather: You neatly collect numerous objects. The objects you gather can be no larger than Fine size, no two items can be more than 10 feet apart, and their total weight cannot exceed 1 pound. You can place the gathered objects into a container you touch, or you can form a stack or pile that you touch.
You can gather selectively; for instance, you can pick up just the coins from an area.
• Gather sticks as you walk along and ignite them. Make a trail of small fires at night.
• Gather up all the broken bits of a broken vase.
• Gather up all the oil just sprayed on you before it catches fire.
• Gather up spilt milk.
• Gather up the burning oil splattered on you into your hand and throw it back at the enemy, just to be a bad ass.
• Gather up the coins that have fallen in between your couch cushions.
• Pick up just the copper pieces.
Ignition: You cause a jet of flame up to 1/2 foot long to shoot forth from your finger. The flame is hot and ignites combustible materials. Lighting a torch with this effect is a standard action (rather than a full-round action), but lighting any other fire with it takes at least a full-round action (DM's discretion).
• Breathe fire
• Burp smoke.
• If someone is drinking REALLY strong alcohol, set his drink on fire.
• Ignite a severed hand.
• Ignite a tinder twig without striking it.
• Light a candle.
• Make something appear to smolder.
Lift: You can slowly lift 1 pound of material. The material in question cannot move upward faster then 5 feet a round. An object has no sideways motion, but can be pushed sideways and will maintain it’s weightlessness and relative height.
• Build a ship in a bottle.
• Cause a small stone to float around your head. Tell everyone it’s an Ioun stone of ultimate magic and the source of all your power. Wait until someone tries to steal it.
• Dig a hole one pound of dirt at a time.
• Fish something you dropped in the sewer out.
• Float oil/sovereign glue over a target.
• Go fishing without a fishing line.
• Have a burning, severed hand float up and flip someone the bird.
• Hold the torch.
• Itch in that embarrassing place.
• Lift a key off a hook. Use create air puff to slowly blow it your way.
• Lift a sheet. Have it float around. Make soft moaning sounds.
• Lift the curtains to let sunlight into a room.
• Lift the skirt of a comely maiden to make her think it was the result of the guard she was walking past.
• Make a rock float.
• Make a skeleton’s hand rise up and flip someone off.
• Make a small ball float a foot off the ground. Play air hockey.
• Make little fluttering paper butterflies.
• Make the judge’s powdered wig float off his head at trial.
• Make the pages of your spellbook turn without touching them, Tell people it’s because you don’t want the demon bound into it to escape into your skin.
• Pat yourself on the back.
• Pull the target’s hat down over his eyes.
• Rug supported over a hole.
• Your hair moves dramatically.
• Objects in water are lighter then normal, so you could “lift” a heaver object that was under water then normal. At most you could lift 5 pounds up to the surface. Conversely, you could make something 5 pounds heavier and push it under.
Light: You can create small balls of light, or small balls of darkness. These cannot blind or cause anything more then a small amount of light or a faint shadow.
• A glowing “mark of justice” appears on someone’s forehead.
• Have a “glow” about you.
• Have a gem stone sparkle.
• Have a red spark crackle at the tip of your finger.
• Have your eyes glow demonic red.
• Make someone else’s shadow act like it wants to kill.
• Make your shadow move around and do funny things.
• Motion blur, so you look like you have speed lines. Put it on you as you run, on your sword, on the monk’s hands, on your fork.
• Sparkling white teeth.
• YOU CANNOT make things invisible. You can make them transparent, but you still only gain a +2 to any skill roll to hide said items.
Polish: You bring luster to a wood, metal, stone, leather, glass, or ceramic object. The object must be clean to start with. It remains shiny after the effect ends but can become dull again like anything else.
• Actually polish a turd.
• Clean up a suit of armor to make it look better, giving you a +2 for the skill check to sell it.
• Polish the party’s weapons and armor on your shift so they stay rust free and in top condition. Very important in deserts, by the ocean, or any location high in salt content.
Scent: You create a smell. It can be nice or awful, but has no effect on scent based powers other then it can make it easier to follow by enhancing someone’s natural scent, or cover up a smell, making it hard to track someone.
• Always have the best perfume.
• Create a ball that smells like catnip to entertain your familiar.
• Make an orc smell like pork.
• Make it smell like someone else farted.
• The smell of brimstone fills the room as you enter dramatically.
• Your *bleep* don’t stink.
Sketch: You create a two-dimensional visual figment of whatever you desire. You can leave the image hanging in the air, in which case it is immobile, or place it on a mobile object, such as a shield. The image can be no more than 1-foot square, and it lasts a maximum of 1 hour.
• A fake tattoo. It will look fake.
• A good way to interact with people when you are invisible.
• Add a few words or a new insignia over someone’s shield, but only a 1 foot square.
• Create a small mirror floating over someone’s shoulder while you play cards with them. If you are fast and good at distractions, you might even get away with it.
• Make a battle map so you can review the plan of attack.
• Make a floating arrow that says, “They went that way!” then go the other way.
• Put a big target on the back of the paladin’s armor.
• Put a kick me sign on the Monk’s back.
• Put grid lines on something when you are drawing. The grid disappears, but the lines stay straight.
• Put mustaches on a portrait.
• Put X’s over a dead man’s eyes.
• Use sculpt to create a 40 foot wide billboard in the air.
Slight of Hand: You can perform minor slight of hand. You effectively can teleport any fine sized object to any other point on your body or clothing. You cannot move it into an extra-dimensional space.
• Be entertaining at a child’s birthday party.
• Dramatically offer a business card.
• Move a coin from your hand to your pocket, or vice versa.
• Pull a coin out of your ear.
• Pull a rabbit out of a hat. Wand of flowers, endless pocket of scarves.
• Run a shell game where the pea is only under the cup when you want it to be.
Sound: A faint tinkling sound is possible. A good rule of thumb is any sound you could make with the human voice box.
• Add a dramatic echo when you speak.
• Add that evil reverb when you speak so it sounds like you gargle broken glass when you talk.
• Make the sound of a closing door.
• Make your words have a few second delay, either happen a second too late, or a few seconds early.
• Play a lullaby for a baby.
• Ring for tea.
• Whoopee Cushion.
• Your sword makes “Swoosh” sounds when you swing it.
Stitch: You magically sew seams in textiles or leather. You can create new stitching or repair old work. Unlike the mending cantrip, you cannot fix rips, holes, or tears (though you can patch or sew them together). If you have thread on hand, the stitches you make remain after the effect ends, but they are no stronger or weaker than normal stitching. You also can sew without thread, but then the seams last only an hour.
• Create something that holds an ingredient suspended over a boiling pot of water. When the spell expires, the ingredient falls in and the alchemical reaction takes place.
• Make a pair of shoes in half the time.
• Stitch together clothing that will fall apart in an hour. Wardrobe Malfunction!
Tie: You magically tie a firm knot (as though taking 10 with the Use Rope skill) in a thread, string, cord, rope, or cable up to 10 feet long. You can knot together two such objects if they're within 1 foot of each other.
• Cut the time it takes for the fighter to get on his armor by half.
• Tie someone’s shoe laces together.
• Tie the peace cord over someone’s sword while it’s in his scabbard.
• Tie your shoes without bending over.
• You don’t need any help tying down the main sail.
Trigger: You can set off any trigger that you are aware of that is in a line of effect and within range. You have to be aware of the trigger and it has to be something that could be set off with approximately 1 pound of pressure. A pressure plate that needs a 100 pound man to walk over it cannot be triggered.
• Make someone’s cocked and loaded crossbow fire. The BAB is effectively zero for whatever he happens to have his crossbow pointed at.
• Set off the dart trap by pushing on the tripwire.
Warm: You increase the temperature of an object by about 40° F, but never above 140° F. After an hour the object's temperature returns to normal.
• Melt a wall of ice. Very, Very, Very slowly.
• Warm a bath.
• Warm your apple cider on a cold night.
• Warm your bedroll on a cold night.
• Warm your soup after you left it unattended to go fight off the goblin ninja assassins.
• Warm your tent.
Untie: You can untie anything that would succumb to 1 pound of pressure. This is just about anything you could untie or unbutton with one hand.
• A no-hands striptease.
• No more bikini wax.
• Tie up your dress in the back all by yourself.
• Unbutton a blouse.
• Untie someone’s shoes while trying to outrun a dragon.
• You could shave yourself.
Metamagic
Chain: Well, it’s ranged. It technically has a target line. However, I’m going to have to say that it doesn’t have a single target, so you cannot chain it. Sorry.
Earthbound: You would need to program the effect before it went off, but there is no reason you can’t get creative. A whirlwind of smoke, the victim turns green, they smell like bad meat. Annoying, but funny.
Extend: Double the duration of the spell for 1 spell level. Seems like a waste considering cantrips are so cheap.
Persistent: It has a fixed range, so there is no reason you cannot make this spell last for 24 hours.
Retributive: Have the person who hits you turn bright pink.
Sculpt: Now this is the feat to use. Take something from a mere 1 cubic foot to a 20 foot radius. Clean the street, clean your house in one round. Get creative.
Scrolls
Prestidigitation (SL0/CL1): 12.5 gp
Wands
Prestidigitation (SL0/CL1): 375 gp
Prestidigitation Sculpt (SL1/CL1): 750 gp
Super charged wand of area effect clean. Alas, only clean, count, dirty, gather, and sketch benefit from sculpt. The rest are not area of effect and thus are not improved by the feat. Still, it sure speeds up cleaning up your tower.


Just make it permanent and let everyone use it. It does EVERYTHING, just a little bit.

[Vhaidara]

I can't take credit for it. One of my groups is planning on doing this, because we also have a guy with glowing blood who doesn't notice small injuries/value his own blood (fill vials with it for glowsticks) and a half emerald dragon (sonic breath weapon, allowing him to drop the bass).

[Skysaber]

For the longest time we have simply assumed that all settlements, from the moment they are able to afford it, have the city wall enchanted as a Magic Circle vs Evil.

It stops so much, and costs so little, and makes so much sense that, like plumbing, we figure from the moment it first got figured out, everyone has been duplicating it.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Skysaber
For the longest time we have simply assumed that all settlements, from the moment they are able to afford it, have the city wall enchanted as a Magic Circle vs Evil.

Very interesting, thank you. Not sure if the pricing would work out to be affordable for the entire city, but definitely worth considering for key points such as the armory, cathedrals, watchtowers, etc.

Can't use it on the banking houses, though, or the entire economy would collapse. :smallamused:



What else can be done here, especially with first- and second-level spells? I could see Baleful Transposition getting some use as a trap in a vault, maybe?

[Skysaber]

Very interesting, thank you. Not sure if the pricing would work out to be affordable for the entire city, but definitely worth considering for key points such as the armory, cathedrals, watchtowers, etc.

Can't use it on the banking houses, though, or the entire economy would collapse. :smallamused:

I believe you missed the small exploit used there. The magic item creation guidelines do not restrict the size of a magic item you create, so enchant the ENTIRE city wall as one great big Magic Circle vs Evil.:smallcool:

And your banks will still have customers. It only holds out summoned evil. The important part is that it stops all sorts of possessions and mental control. So you know your sleezebag of a politician is a sleezebag of his own volition instead of him being mentally controlled by someone(thing) else.

Given the vast array of critters with some kind of dominate ability, it's sort of necessary, unless you want to post signs out front saying "This brain farm is run by our beloved Illithid overlords."

[Pickford]

Oh.

You just want cantrip suggestions. Why didn't you say so?

Cut and past from the EVD:
PRESTIDIGITATION
Editor (Utility): As far as spells go, the real use of this spell is your imagination. It should be noted, that if the spell is used creatively, the DM is permitted to allow up to a +2 circumstance bonus to a given skill check, but this is the full extent of any benefit the spell can grant. It cannot add to saving throws, to hit, damage, or any other roll. Just a +2 circumstance bonus to skill rolls, if the DM is impressed enough. And remember, circumstance bonuses don’t stack. Prestidigitation is the ultimate in spell versatility. Although extremely weak, it lets you perform the gamut of "tawdry tricks" that every sorcerer or wizard on television, in movies, and books should be able to perform. The effects produced by prestidigitation are great for distraction (or, for the optimist: entertainment) and annoyance Prestidigitation is a great and simple spell for injecting some personality into an NPC. Beyond its obvious use as a "performer's" spell, where it can produce flowers from behind an onlooker's ear or make a spoon stand up and dance, it allows sorcerers and wizards to "act" in a truly magical way. Have your NPC arcane spellcaster heat her mug of mulled wine with the use of this spell or make a grand show of her using prestidigitation to whisk away the dirt and grime from the surface she plans on sitting on. Remember that once cast, a character can perform these tricks for up to an hour, so an entire scene could be enhanced in this manner. Alternatively, you could make a house rule: As long as a character uses prestidigitation for purely cosmetic effects (such as those described above), an arcane spellcaster has this spell in effect at all times, which can add a bit of magic and mystery to his everyday actions
Uses for Prestidigitation
Change: You transform one object of Fine size or smaller into another object of roughly the same size. The object can weigh no more than 8 ounces. The change must be within the same kingdom (animal, vegetable, or mineral). Note, you have no control over an animal you create. It acts as an animal of it’s type would act. You can, however, set it’s original mood when it is created (Afraid, Angry, Hungry, Playful, Lethargic, etc)
• “Change” a bucket of paint to paint covering a wall.
• A belt buckle changes shape so it no longer holds the belt in place.
• A hole opens up in a bucket.
• Bite off a piece of your fingernail, spit it at someone, and have it turn into a severed hand in mid air.
• Blow snot out of your nose that turns into a butterfly. Later, when the duration expires, it will turn back. I hope nobody is playing with it. Remember: animal secretions fall under the animal kingdom.
• Create a mirrored surface so you can bounce sunlight down a corridor.
• Cut off a lock of your hair. Make a fake mustache.
• Fix a hole in a bucket for an hour.
• Get tomato seeds. Turn them into tomatoes. Throw them at people. No clean up in an hour.
• If you are paying someone you hate a bag full of gold, change a piece of cloth into a sack. Put the gold in the sack. An hour later (Hopefully while he is crossing the street) the bag reverts to a piece of cloth. Gold goes scattering across the street.
• Make a copper piece look like gold.
• Make a forged document seem aged and brittle.
• Make a gold coin look like it’s made of tin.
• Make alchemist’s fire smell and look like coffee.
• Make an angry wasp appear in someone’s hair.
• Make materials separate from water to get pure water. Now, this doesn’t work with anything that dissolves in the liquid or chemically reacts. If you have muddy water, you can filter out the mud. If you have poison that dissolves in water, you are out of luck.
• Make that thunder stone look like candy.
• Make your foot prints disappear as you walk, for an hour.
• Make your foot prints look like someone else’s.
• Put a hole in a vile of poison someone is holding.
• Put a lump of poison in the bottom of a goblet. Shape the goblet to cover over the poison in a sealed compartment. When the spell expires, the goblet returns to its normal shape, releasing the poison.
• Shape the smoke from a campfire to make your stories that much more dramatic.
• The bottom falls out of the enemy’s quiver.
• Turn a bug into a mouse to distract the wizard’s cat familiar.
• Turn a flask of poison into whiskey.
• Turn coal into diamond.
• Write your name in the snow in “yellow”. Demonstrate amazing penmanship.
• YOU CANNOT Change a shield to have a new insignia. The changed object must be of Fine size and a shield is too big.
• You could animate the corpse of a fine sized animal for an hour. It cannot do any damage, but would count as undead for the duration of the spell.
• You could change a piece of paper into scrap of linen, and then change that into a rose. Likewise, you could change a coin into a ring. You could not, however, turn a strip of leather into a piece of paper.
Chill: You reduce the temperature of an object by about 40° F, but never below freezing (32° F). After an hour the object's temperature returns to normal.
• Chill the wine before serving it to a lady friend when you are on a date.
• In very Humid areas, slowly fill up a glass of water via condensation (1 oz water/minute)
• Keep your chocolate from melting on a hot day.
• Sell lemonade on a hot day.
Clean: You remove dirt, dust, and stains from floors, walls, dishes, windows, and the like, leaving these surfaces or objects spotless. You can clean an object with a volume of 1 cubic foot, or 1 square foot of the surface of a larger object, each round. The effect does not remove any foreign object of Fine size or larger. Dirt you remove is permanently gone, but objects you clean can get dirty again just like anything else.
• Brush your teeth.
• Clean up part of a summoning circle.
• Clean up those pesky blood stains after you murder a nobleman.
• Clean yourself up after a long trip. Improve those diplomatic checks by smelling nice.
• Clean yourself up after a messy crime to help provide an alibi.
• Never have to wash your hands after going to the bathroom again.
• Pick your nose.
• Pick your friend’s nose.
• When the blood is being poured on the sacrificial stone, clean it up.
Color: You bring color to an object. You can restore faded hues or give it a new color. If you add color, it must be from the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet). You cannot change an object's pattern, such as adding or removing stripes or polka dots, but you can change the color in a pattern. If you change something’s color, any one section of the object must change to the same color. For example, if you change on polka dot to green, it is all green.
• A blue garment with white stripes becomes green with yellow stripes.
• Change your clothes to be the same color of an enemy militia or evil god’s clergy.
• Have a “truth stone” that can change red when someone “lies”. Useful when trying to bluff someone.
• Human skin has shading, so you cannot change your skin to another color convincingly. You can make it all the same color to help when it comes to camouflage. (At best, a +2 circumstance bonus.)
• If you change your hair color, it will all be the same color and thus look somewhat unnatural. Normal hair has slightly different shades to it because color fades as the hair grows. If you don’t mind neon pink hair, then there is no problems.
• Make the paladin’s sword pink.
• Mood Ring.
• The next time you cast enlarge person on someone, turn them green. Encourage them to say, “Hulk Smash!”
• Turn yourself blue. Claim to be prince of the lake people. Tell villagers the lake people are angry and demand tribute or you and your people will slay the land dwellers.
• You can change the color of your clothing. You cannot add patterns or words, but you can change the shading to anything you could pull off with normal dye.
• YOU CANNOT make an insignia out of color. That would be creating a pattern.
Count: You can count how many of a given object are in an area, as long as you can directly sense the entire area, the objects are all the same, and all objects are within 10 feet of one another. The objects are not moved, you just know a total number of said object in your mind. Note, if there are fake coins, you have to make an appraise check to sort them out.
• Count how many coins are in a pile of gold.
• Figure out how many grains are in a sack.
• Make a mark in the dirt ten feet away. Walk up to it. Make another mark ten feet away. Measure any distance. Figure out where secret doors are by mapping out exact dimensions. Hidden passageways have to take up SOME space, after all.
Create: You can create small objects from nothing. They are crude, fragile, and look artificial. They cannot serve as tools, weapons, or spell components.
• A fake dagger to stab someone. Create fake blood after doing so. Play possum.
• A puff a smoke for a momentary distraction. (at best allowing you to make a new hide skill roll).
• Create a field of fake caltrops that you have no problem running through, but may give pursuers pause.
• Create a small cluster of bells that drop and roll down the side of a mountain.
• Create dice for gambling.
• Create rotting garbage to hide something under.
• Have a pebble appear in someone’s shoe. No matter how many times they take off their shoe, there is always a new pebble in there.
• Have a puppet show.
• Make gritty dust fall on someone whenever they speak.
• Make smoke pour out of someone’s nose. Capture it in a bottle. Claim to have captured their soul. Have the smoke in the bottle resemble them and pound on the glass.
• Replace screws and bolts with conjured screws and bolts. Just enough to hold up something, so it collapses under additional weight. A bridge or balcony for example.
• Stab yourself with a fake dagger, making it crumble. Claim to be invulnerable to normal weapons.
• When you get hit with an arrow, have blood just gush out non-stop. Every time you get wounded, the blood just keeps flying out of you, splattering everywhere. Keep fighting and ignore the blood. After a few rounds, your enemies might freak out wondering exactly what’s going on.
• You create a puff of wind that can push something light up to 1 five foot square.
• You’re sneaking up to an enemy camp, but a guard is blocking your way. Use prestidigitation to drop a small object and make a ruckus.
Dampen: You leave an object damp to the touch for 1 hour. Damp objects have fire resistance 2 while the effect lasts.
• Dampen the front of the paladin’s pants just as you find the dragon.
• Put out a small campfire, given a few rounds.
• Put out a torch.
Dirty: You soil, spot, and sully walls, floors, dishes, garments, or the like, leaving them dusty, filthy, or stained. You can dirty an object with a volume of 1 cubic foot, or 1 square foot of the surface of a larger object, each round. Dirt you add remains after the effect ends, but objects you soil can be cleaned again just like anything else.
• Dirty yourself so that you look like you climbed out of a sewer, when you need to fake an alibi.
• Have the local town statue cry blood.
• Lipstick on a man’s collar.
• Look like a leper.
• Make something look worthless so it is overlooked.
• Put blood stains on some sucker and then call the town guards.
• Soil someone’s tunic/pants to embarrass them.
• Suspicious stains on the carpet, ranging from pools of blood to mud tracked in to skid marks left by a dog wiping his butt.
• You could cover your tracks, but it would be slow going. Instead, I recommend Sculpt Spell so that you can ‘dirty up’ your tracks in sand, dust, or snow in various shapes as needed.
Dry: You remove dampness and excess moisture from an object. Moisture you remove does not return after the effect ends, but the object can become wet again just like anything else.
• Dry out a book that got wet so the pages don’t curl up.
• Dry socks.
• Evaporate a glass of liquid. (1 cubic foot/round).
• Evaporate just the alcohol from your drink so it appears like you are drinking.
• Evaporate the water out of something to leave behind the concentrated form of whatever isn’t water in the liquid..
• Make a spellcraft roll to dry out a potion until it’s just a highly concentrated drop of liquid. Put it in a fake tooth. Crunch down on it when you really need a +4 to your strength or something. Failing at the spellcraft roll means you ruin the potion while trying to concentrate it. (DC 20 check.)
• Make beef jerky.
• Make trail rations from fruit and nuts. By drying out the fruit
• Make salt from salt water.
• Make something appear “evil” by having drops of holy water boil away in a puff of white vapor. Claim the item cannot just be destroyed by smashing it, because the evil will just escape. Offer to hold it for safekeeping.
Flavor: You give a substance a better, worse, or different flavor. You could, for example, make porridge taste like lobster bisque. You do not change the substance's quality or wholesomeness. Spoiled food remains spoiled, a poisoned drink is still deadly, and inedible material provides no nourishment -- you can make a twig taste like steak, but it remains a twig.
• Add the favor of poison to convince someone they only have moments to live.
• Flavor the poison to make it harder to detect. (-2 to any skill check to detect.)
• Make a cheap spice taste like a rare an expensive one, then sell it to some sucker.
• Make a dwarf’s ale taste fruity.
• Make a gourmet chef’s work go sour.
• Make cheap inn food taste good.
• Make the food taste awful so everyone else eats less and you get to eat more.
Gather: You neatly collect numerous objects. The objects you gather can be no larger than Fine size, no two items can be more than 10 feet apart, and their total weight cannot exceed 1 pound. You can place the gathered objects into a container you touch, or you can form a stack or pile that you touch.
You can gather selectively; for instance, you can pick up just the coins from an area.
• Gather sticks as you walk along and ignite them. Make a trail of small fires at night.
• Gather up all the broken bits of a broken vase.
• Gather up all the oil just sprayed on you before it catches fire.
• Gather up spilt milk.
• Gather up the burning oil splattered on you into your hand and throw it back at the enemy, just to be a bad ass.
• Gather up the coins that have fallen in between your couch cushions.
• Pick up just the copper pieces.
Ignition: You cause a jet of flame up to 1/2 foot long to shoot forth from your finger. The flame is hot and ignites combustible materials. Lighting a torch with this effect is a standard action (rather than a full-round action), but lighting any other fire with it takes at least a full-round action (DM's discretion).
• Breathe fire
• Burp smoke.
• If someone is drinking REALLY strong alcohol, set his drink on fire.
• Ignite a severed hand.
• Ignite a tinder twig without striking it.
• Light a candle.
• Make something appear to smolder.
Lift: You can slowly lift 1 pound of material. The material in question cannot move upward faster then 5 feet a round. An object has no sideways motion, but can be pushed sideways and will maintain it’s weightlessness and relative height.
• Build a ship in a bottle.
• Cause a small stone to float around your head. Tell everyone it’s an Ioun stone of ultimate magic and the source of all your power. Wait until someone tries to steal it.
• Dig a hole one pound of dirt at a time.
• Fish something you dropped in the sewer out.
• Float oil/sovereign glue over a target.
• Go fishing without a fishing line.
• Have a burning, severed hand float up and flip someone the bird.
• Hold the torch.
• Itch in that embarrassing place.
• Lift a key off a hook. Use create air puff to slowly blow it your way.
• Lift a sheet. Have it float around. Make soft moaning sounds.
• Lift the curtains to let sunlight into a room.
• Lift the skirt of a comely maiden to make her think it was the result of the guard she was walking past.
• Make a rock float.
• Make a skeleton’s hand rise up and flip someone off.
• Make a small ball float a foot off the ground. Play air hockey.
• Make little fluttering paper butterflies.
• Make the judge’s powdered wig float off his head at trial.
• Make the pages of your spellbook turn without touching them, Tell people it’s because you don’t want the demon bound into it to escape into your skin.
• Pat yourself on the back.
• Pull the target’s hat down over his eyes.
• Rug supported over a hole.
• Your hair moves dramatically.
• Objects in water are lighter then normal, so you could “lift” a heaver object that was under water then normal. At most you could lift 5 pounds up to the surface. Conversely, you could make something 5 pounds heavier and push it under.
Light: You can create small balls of light, or small balls of darkness. These cannot blind or cause anything more then a small amount of light or a faint shadow.
• A glowing “mark of justice” appears on someone’s forehead.
• Have a “glow” about you.
• Have a gem stone sparkle.
• Have a red spark crackle at the tip of your finger.
• Have your eyes glow demonic red.
• Make someone else’s shadow act like it wants to kill.
• Make your shadow move around and do funny things.
• Motion blur, so you look like you have speed lines. Put it on you as you run, on your sword, on the monk’s hands, on your fork.
• Sparkling white teeth.
• YOU CANNOT make things invisible. You can make them transparent, but you still only gain a +2 to any skill roll to hide said items.
Polish: You bring luster to a wood, metal, stone, leather, glass, or ceramic object. The object must be clean to start with. It remains shiny after the effect ends but can become dull again like anything else.
• Actually polish a turd.
• Clean up a suit of armor to make it look better, giving you a +2 for the skill check to sell it.
• Polish the party’s weapons and armor on your shift so they stay rust free and in top condition. Very important in deserts, by the ocean, or any location high in salt content.
Scent: You create a smell. It can be nice or awful, but has no effect on scent based powers other then it can make it easier to follow by enhancing someone’s natural scent, or cover up a smell, making it hard to track someone.
• Always have the best perfume.
• Create a ball that smells like catnip to entertain your familiar.
• Make an orc smell like pork.
• Make it smell like someone else farted.
• The smell of brimstone fills the room as you enter dramatically.
• Your *bleep* don’t stink.
Sketch: You create a two-dimensional visual figment of whatever you desire. You can leave the image hanging in the air, in which case it is immobile, or place it on a mobile object, such as a shield. The image can be no more than 1-foot square, and it lasts a maximum of 1 hour.
• A fake tattoo. It will look fake.
• A good way to interact with people when you are invisible.
• Add a few words or a new insignia over someone’s shield, but only a 1 foot square.
• Create a small mirror floating over someone’s shoulder while you play cards with them. If you are fast and good at distractions, you might even get away with it.
• Make a battle map so you can review the plan of attack.
• Make a floating arrow that says, “They went that way!” then go the other way.
• Put a big target on the back of the paladin’s armor.
• Put a kick me sign on the Monk’s back.
• Put grid lines on something when you are drawing. The grid disappears, but the lines stay straight.
• Put mustaches on a portrait.
• Put X’s over a dead man’s eyes.
• Use sculpt to create a 40 foot wide billboard in the air.
Slight of Hand: You can perform minor slight of hand. You effectively can teleport any fine sized object to any other point on your body or clothing. You cannot move it into an extra-dimensional space.
• Be entertaining at a child’s birthday party.
• Dramatically offer a business card.
• Move a coin from your hand to your pocket, or vice versa.
• Pull a coin out of your ear.
• Pull a rabbit out of a hat. Wand of flowers, endless pocket of scarves.
• Run a shell game where the pea is only under the cup when you want it to be.
Sound: A faint tinkling sound is possible. A good rule of thumb is any sound you could make with the human voice box.
• Add a dramatic echo when you speak.
• Add that evil reverb when you speak so it sounds like you gargle broken glass when you talk.
• Make the sound of a closing door.
• Make your words have a few second delay, either happen a second too late, or a few seconds early.
• Play a lullaby for a baby.
• Ring for tea.
• Whoopee Cushion.
• Your sword makes “Swoosh” sounds when you swing it.
Stitch: You magically sew seams in textiles or leather. You can create new stitching or repair old work. Unlike the mending cantrip, you cannot fix rips, holes, or tears (though you can patch or sew them together). If you have thread on hand, the stitches you make remain after the effect ends, but they are no stronger or weaker than normal stitching. You also can sew without thread, but then the seams last only an hour.
• Create something that holds an ingredient suspended over a boiling pot of water. When the spell expires, the ingredient falls in and the alchemical reaction takes place.
• Make a pair of shoes in half the time.
• Stitch together clothing that will fall apart in an hour. Wardrobe Malfunction!
Tie: You magically tie a firm knot (as though taking 10 with the Use Rope skill) in a thread, string, cord, rope, or cable up to 10 feet long. You can knot together two such objects if they're within 1 foot of each other.
• Cut the time it takes for the fighter to get on his armor by half.
• Tie someone’s shoe laces together.
• Tie the peace cord over someone’s sword while it’s in his scabbard.
• Tie your shoes without bending over.
• You don’t need any help tying down the main sail.
Trigger: You can set off any trigger that you are aware of that is in a line of effect and within range. You have to be aware of the trigger and it has to be something that could be set off with approximately 1 pound of pressure. A pressure plate that needs a 100 pound man to walk over it cannot be triggered.
• Make someone’s cocked and loaded crossbow fire. The BAB is effectively zero for whatever he happens to have his crossbow pointed at.
• Set off the dart trap by pushing on the tripwire.
Warm: You increase the temperature of an object by about 40° F, but never above 140° F. After an hour the object's temperature returns to normal.
• Melt a wall of ice. Very, Very, Very slowly.
• Warm a bath.
• Warm your apple cider on a cold night.
• Warm your bedroll on a cold night.
• Warm your soup after you left it unattended to go fight off the goblin ninja assassins.
• Warm your tent.
Untie: You can untie anything that would succumb to 1 pound of pressure. This is just about anything you could untie or unbutton with one hand.
• A no-hands striptease.
• No more bikini wax.
• Tie up your dress in the back all by yourself.
• Unbutton a blouse.
• Untie someone’s shoes while trying to outrun a dragon.
• You could shave yourself.
Metamagic
Chain: Well, it’s ranged. It technically has a target line. However, I’m going to have to say that it doesn’t have a single target, so you cannot chain it. Sorry.
Earthbound: You would need to program the effect before it went off, but there is no reason you can’t get creative. A whirlwind of smoke, the victim turns green, they smell like bad meat. Annoying, but funny.
Extend: Double the duration of the spell for 1 spell level. Seems like a waste considering cantrips are so cheap.
Persistent: It has a fixed range, so there is no reason you cannot make this spell last for 24 hours.
Retributive: Have the person who hits you turn bright pink.
Sculpt: Now this is the feat to use. Take something from a mere 1 cubic foot to a 20 foot radius. Clean the street, clean your house in one round. Get creative.
Scrolls
Prestidigitation (SL0/CL1): 12.5 gp
Wands
Prestidigitation (SL0/CL1): 375 gp
Prestidigitation Sculpt (SL1/CL1): 750 gp
Super charged wand of area effect clean. Alas, only clean, count, dirty, gather, and sketch benefit from sculpt. The rest are not area of effect and thus are not improved by the feat. Still, it sure speeds up cleaning up your tower.


Just make it permanent and let everyone use it. It does EVERYTHING, just a little bit.

What edition is that from? (3.5 doesn't enable the caster to count things, for example)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Skysaber
I believe you missed the small exploit used there. The magic item creation guidelines do not restrict the size of a magic item you create, so enchant the ENTIRE city wall as one great big Magic Circle vs Evil.

Hm.

The ten-foot radius emanation plays no part here?

Hm.


Originally Posted by Skysaber
Given the vast array of critters with some kind of dominate ability, it's sort of necessary, unless you want to post signs out front saying "This brain farm is run by our beloved Illithid overlords."

No illithids involved. Much simpler, much easier.

:smallbiggrin:

[Vhaidara]

Hm.

The ten-foot radius emanation plays no part here?

Hm.

It does. 10ft radius emanation from the enchanted object. In this case, the walls. All of the walls.

Also, if you're the DM in this, then it is definitely ALL OF THE WALLS.

[Palanan]

Interesting. Very interesting.

What would be the cost on that? And does the size really not factor in at all?

[Vhaidara]

Stronghold Builder's Guidebook shows the Holy Warding Wall Enhancement at being 50,000gp, and that gives anyone standing on the walls the effects of Holy Aura (the level 8 anti-alignment spell)

So, if we assume that Magic Circle is 3/8th the price (it would be less0 then it would cost 18,750gp.

Or, if you are DM (are you?) you can say "The city is magically protected from evil. By a circle." and be done with it.

[Captnq]

What edition is that from? (3.5 doesn't enable the caster to count things, for example)

That is a summation of every Prestigitation thread on the internet. Some of the examples are questionable and in need of DM approval. However, a fair number were from tome and blood (3.0)

[Skysaber]

What would be the cost on that? And does the size really not factor in at all?

3rd level spell times 5th level caster times 2,000gp for continuous function. Grand total 30,000gp. Cost of building an average city wall is so much higher you won't even notice the enchantment being added.

And while mundane equipment charge for size, magic items do not. When was the last time you heard someone on this board screaming in outrage that his half-ogre barbarian had to pay twice as much to have his sword enchanted?

Never, because it costs the same to grant a bonus to the dagger of a pixie as it does to the greatsword of a titan.

If it helps, imagine the city wall as a ring sized for some unimaginably large giant.

[Vhaidara]

Damn you Skysaber. Now I need to run a campaign where every major city in the world is part of the equipment of some uberbeing.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Skysaber
When was the last time you heard someone on this board screaming in outrage that his half-ogre barbarian had to pay twice as much to have his sword enchanted?

Good point, although there's so much background outrage it might have been momentarily drowned out. :smallamused:


Originally Posted by Keledrath
Now I need to run a campaign where every major city in the world is part of the equipment of some uberbeing.

It does spark ideas, it does indeed. :smalltongue:



In the meantime, though, I'm still interested in the lower-level spells that nobility and upper gentry would have easy access to, and which everyday folk might, just might be able to scrape and save enough for, if the year's been good to them.

I liked Keledrath's rave idea, just for the creativity of it. What sorts of other combos are feasible, especially the ones that might make a difference in a smithy or a bakery?

.

[Vhaidara]

For smithy/bakery, Raging Flame/Slow Burn (x2 hot, .5 duration/.5 hot, x2 duration) could be a cost saver for bursts of heat/longer heat

Unseen servant/prestidigitation, as mentioned.

Honestly, those two are kind of the low level utility magics that are useful in day to day life.

[ksbsnowowl]

Stronghold Builder's Guidebook shows the Holy Warding Wall Enhancement at being 50,000gp, and that gives anyone standing on the walls the effects of Holy Aura (the level 8 anti-alignment spell)

That cost is for a single Stronghold Space (~20 ft x 20 ft x 10 ft). Even the wall of a small city would be many hundreds of stronghold spaces.

Stronghold Builders' Guidebook cites* this map as an example of a dungeon composed of 60 - 120 stronghold spaces:

http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1st-edition-DMG-sample-dungeon.png

*Table 1-4: Stronghold Spaces, p.8
(Note, the map on 3.0 DMG p.127 is a spiffier-looking copy of this exact map. It appears it was a duplicate of the 1st edition DMG sample dungeon, which is what is shown here.)

To forestall another potential argument:

"But it should be cheaper because it is only one wall!"

Some augmentations only affect exterior or free-standing walls. In this case, even though you pay for an entire stronghold space to be augmented, the augmentation does not affect any interior walls. Note, the mentioned augmentation can only be applied to exterior or free-standing walls, and would only protect those within ~1 stronghold space distance from the wall.

[tiercel]

Spell Compendium, go!

stick -- made popular by Lord Postit. Problematic for outdoor use (since winds > 10mph will detach it), but Instantaneous duration is nice.

amanuensis -- 'cos all those "Have You Seen My Lost Mephit" flyers don't photocopy themselves

amplify -- you could stick a bunch of ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) or just ask your friendly bard to dial it up to 11. see also: town criers, Civil Defense sirens, etc

healthful rest -- combine this effect with long-term care from the Heal skill and a bard's Healing Hymn ACF, and everyone affected heals 6hp/level and 6 ability damage overnight. Not shabby even for first level action; the city's temples/otherwise affiliated Halls of Healing should be well equipped. (For folks with a particularly nasty disease, you can at least easily heal a lot of their ability score damage without burning lesser restorations while you hunt out a 5th level cleric.)

lesser vigor -- wands thereof are standbys for PCs and should be for your city's EMT units as well

cloudburst -- and here's one for your fire department (especially for a bog-standard wood-and-thatch pseudomedieval city construction)

lay of the land -- Google Maps. (OK, not quite, but still quite handy as a Ranger 1 spell.)

spontaneous search -- and one for your CSI teams (especially for areas you can't reasonably afford to keep cordoned off indefinitely)

remove scent -- for when prestidigitation just isn't cutting it

(Note that I'm ignoring combat-specific spells, of which there are plenty, or direct skullduggery/intrigue/crime spells, where anything that would be good for an adventuring rogue or bard would be good for a thief or conman... or inspector out to catch such.)

Those are just 0-level and 1st-level spells. (Lay of the land is a bit of an exception given it's Ranger 1, but one could imagine hiring rangers to craft "GPS devices" for VIP use.)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by tiercel
Spell Compendium, go!

*list of creative goodies*

These are excellent, thank you--exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. The Halls of Healing in particular are perfect.

More? More is always welcome.

:smalltongue:

[Skysaber]

Ahem.

Take those simple, second level spells, Heat Metal and Chill Metal. At first blush they are combat spells of very little utility, low damage spread out over a long-ish duration. Most fights are over before they can do 2D4, and even if they weren't the two most commonly resisted energy types the spells don't apply to even half of the monsters you may face, because most monsters don't wear metal armor - these spells are so bad at combat they may even be comic. They are like taking a sharpened toothbrush to a gun fight instead of a real weapon - jokes more than threats.

Ah! But now consider *outside* of combat how much effort man has put into heating things and cooling them down. First off, we have cooking, where things are either fried/baked/boiled or chilled, then we have household furnaces and air conditioners for heating or cooling our houses, and the number of *industrial* uses for high heat or freezing temps are extraordinary! Butchers need to chill their meats so they'll last longer, bakers need hot ovens for bread. Smithies need some of the hottest temperatures of all, as do glassblowers, and alchemists can use any temperature there is.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Cities burn fuel. Human civilization in particular uses a LOT of fuel! They use it daily. There is a continual demand for more and better types of fuel, because someone always needs more of it than he is getting. And most of that fuel? Well, it gets burned making things hotter. Very little of it sees any other use or purpose.

So consider for a moment if you could make Heat Metal and Chill Metal permanent. You can anyway, just as a magic item variant "this spell is always active on this object" but more elegant to ask for the permanency spell to apply to it (as has been done in countless traps and dungeons of published adventure modules).

Because with that suddenly the world is your oyster.

What is a water heater but a metal thing holding a small reservoir of water, with the intent of making that water hotter? Now picture one that's got a permanent Heat Metal on it. Okay, the water within is boiling, and that's too hot for bath water (although perfect for washing clothes, dishes and disinfecting things, to say nothing of dying work, and so on). But if I've got a water heater, odds are I want a hot bath out of it. So you have multiple options, you could just run the bathwater and let it sit long enough to cool down. But say you are impatient, you are a busy mage and you want your comforts delivered when you want them, not an instant later. Well, even that is possible, just run pipes from the hot water heater and some other source of water, then mix in whatever proportion you want to get the temp desired. A little from the hot tap, a little from the cold tap, and we're in business. You could even cut the hot water with cold in the pipes so it doesn't arrive hot enough to scald anyone, if you are feeling cautious.

Also, you've got this big metal thing in your house glowing red-hot. That's a furnace whether you want one or not. But mankind has gotten pretty good at insulation over time, and your building designers will too with practice. Put the metal water heater/furnace in its own room in the basement, seal off the entrances, then put an equally big hunk of metal with a permanent Chill Metal on it in the next room and just allow the air from each of those rooms to circulate in the other when you want temps in the house unaffected by either. But if you want your house hotter or cooler, send air or water from one room or the other blowing through vents or pipes throughout the rest of your house in whatever proportion you like to achieve the temperatures you desire. With less mechanical complexity than a crossbow trap, you could even set it up so the temperature blend is controlled by a dial.

Congratulations. You have achieved magical central heating/cooling, along with both hot and cold running water, for the price of a couple of low-level permancied spells.

And that's not the only source of goodness, because the cost of casting Permanency on a spell is tied to that spells level, but unlike magic item creation the caster level of that spell has nothing to do with it. As it happens, both Heat Metal and Chill Metal have a caster-based amount of volume affected, which is 25lbs per caster level, and this can specifically be spread across multiple small objects.

Consider, for a moment, this volume spread across coins, or even false coins that have no inherent value, just a coin size and shape but made out of iron or something. Either way, according to D&D rules we get 50 coins to the pound, so that's 1,250 coin sized objects under Heat or Chill Metal per level. So now we can spread them around to get little spots of benefit wherever we want it!

Suspend one in the middle of your water heater or cooler to get nearly the same effect on the water within as having the spell cast over the whole metal object, only now it's safer as it's contained, so no one dies from a member of the household help having brushed up against it. But we can still heat or cool the house by pumping water around and letting heat radiate to or from those pipes!

Put a chill coin at the back of a stone closet and suddenly you've got yourself a fridge. Put a hot coin somewhere in a shed and you've got yourself a smokehouse, or a sauna. Put a hot coin on a counter and put a skillet on it and suddenly you're frying up foods. Put a bucket on a chill coin and make iced cream.

The uses are as many and varied as mankind has thought up for hot or cold. A fireplace is as simple as one of the hot coins hung from a hook in a depression on a wall. And it's not just useful for keeping manors comfortable. Even today, farmers will put kerosene heaters in greenhouses, or beside every tree in an orchard, when they fear that a cold snap of weather might otherwise harm or even kill their plants. The same could be applied in reverse to grow crops in a climate that was just slightly too warm for them, by placing out chill coins, so you could have apples in the savana.

Also, the amount of fuel used by such a civilization drops to a pittance, a percent or two of what it was, because virtually everything that could be gained by burning wood, or coal or oil can now be gained from a handful of coins.

And those coins can be had for cheap. Even if we pay gold out of pocket for the Permanency, and pay the listed cost of spell level times caster level times ten, plus 5gp for every xp cost, that's 5,450gp for the Permanency spell. Then if our caster for our Heat or Chill Metal was just four (one above the minimum to cast it) we are making 5,000 hot or chill coins per casting. That works out to a little under one gold and one silver per hot/chill coin. But there's no reason we can't pay for a 20th level caster for our Heat or Chill Metal spells!

Paying market cost of a twentieth level caster on a second level spell, times ten, that's 400gp to get the Heat or Chill Metal spell cast. Cost for the Permanency stay exactly the same, only this time we are getting 25,000 hot or chill coins per casting! That's a little over two silver apiece!

So for a little less than the price of a month's worth of firewood, someone can have one of these and heat their home and cook their food forever. Then next month have a fridge and get ice whenever they want it.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Use a few minor images to really spice up those plays with special effects! Later illusion spells could make those explosions cooler, with heat wafting out at the audience! Some people may be less impressed than others.

[Vhaidara]

Skysaber every time you post it gives me chills. You are almost too good at this. I am totally telling my friend (he's playing a crafter who wants to become a god) about that plan.

Also, if you did use magic item creation, you could probably get a similar price, and make it activatable. Then you can have voice activated A/C. Or a microwave. Or do it with Light and invent the flapper light switch. It also gets around the problem with children burning themselves on the stove.

[Skysaber]

Skysaber every time you post it gives me chills. You are almost too good at this. I am totally telling my friend (he's playing a crafter who wants to become a god) about that plan.

Awww! And I haven't even mentioned any of the extras yet!

Like, go for Energy Substitution: Electric, and suddenly you have an inexhaustable source of energy. Just touch a wire to one of those electric coins and suddenly you've got a current running aross it. Possible uses are as many and varied as the modern world has ever come up with, but for a medieval variant on an old standard: the telegraph. I have, on my snowy borders, a watchtower (heated by hot coins) looking out over a barbaric and hostile neighboring country. In that watchtower, they have... well, it could be anything, but for style points we will go for one of those big lever style switches you see in mad scientist laboratories, but it could be a button or anything else. The enemy invades, that switch gets thrown by my watchmen in that tower, which connects a bit of wire to the electric coin hidden within the mechanism. On the other end of that wire, *miles* away, the copper leash on a rat (kept in a cage on a shelf, which bears LOTS of similar rat cages) conducts that current, and the rat gets crispy fried - and by the label on that cage I know I am being invaded, and where from.

Not the best use for electricity, but certainly rich in flavor.


Also, if you did use magic item creation, you could probably get a similar price, and make it activatable. Then you can have voice activated A/C. Or a microwave. Or do it with Light and invent the flapper light switch. It also gets around the problem with children burning themselves on the stove.

Price for a magic item version has to take CL into account, so would boost the price up. But call that the deluxe version, as there are uses for both, and I can't deny the appeal of being able to on/off these at will.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Pretty much if you consider the stuff that even low level magic in D&D can accomplish, there's pretty much no limit on what you can do with a spell made into a permanent magic item, or a 'trap' item. IE, a spell that is triggered by a button, an always active magic, or triggered by someone walking in the room.

Consider the cantrip 'message'. If made into a 'trap', you could have a device that you point at someone, push the button, and now you can silently communicate with them, perhaps from a hiding spot. If the party had two, they could talk two-way with the party rogue, without having to make a sound that is likely lower than the rogue's stealth movement score.

Stealth walkie-talkies! Higher level communication spells could give you building intercoms, phones, and other assorted niceties of modern life, but that first one is a cantrip.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Skysaber
*elaborate, inventive, detailed uses for two underrated low-level spells*

I have to say, this is really thoughtful and creative. Thanks for writing that up, it's extremely interesting.

As you've noted, it also has the potential to be absolutely transformational to the society in which it's implemented. This would probably move things much further towards magitech than I was thinking, but the ideas are still worth looking at in detail. Just a few comments on a couple aspects here:


Originally Posted by Skysaber
You have achieved magical central heating/cooling, along with both hot and cold running water, for the price of a couple of low-level perman[en]cied spells.

The question is what exactly that cost would be, especially when compared to a typical citizen's annual budget. Low-level permanency might be a trivial expense for adventurers, with fast money and generally short life expectancies, but I have a feeling it would be an entirely different prospect for the general population, even given a wide spectrum of economic strata.

I've never really done much with Permanency, so the math and GP values aren't intuitive to me. How much would this cost?


Originally Posted by Skysaber
Also, you've got this big metal thing in your house glowing red-hot. That's a furnace whether you want one or not. But mankind has gotten pretty good at insulation over time, and your building designers will too with practice.

Well, today we have insulation produced by some fairly sophisticated manufacturing processes, which wouldn't exist in a Renaissance-era city unless a lot of pretzel-logic was devoted to ensuring it was there.

And a lot of people did scald themselves, or die in fires started by embers or candles. With metal constantly glowing hot enough to potentially kill people who touch it, I'd say the risk of fire or personal injury could be a real impediment to its use. At least an ordinary fire can be smothered with water or sand--but for a cauldron that's glowing with perpetual heat, water is vaporized and sand becomes dripping glass, so there would need to be some way to interrupt the effect when necessary.


Originally Posted by Skysaber
A fireplace is as simple as one of the hot coins hung from a hook in a depression on a wall.

Apart from the concerns mentioned above, two questions occur to me here. First, how exactly is the coin moved around? This is glowing cherry-red, I presume, so kitchen mitts won't help.

Also, the assumption is that this will be indoors--but the air will be heated up quickly in an enclosed space, and this could make the chamber absolutely unlivable in the summer.

I'd also wonder how long the coin would survive at that temperature. Again, not intuitive for me, so I don't see offhand why it wouldn't eventually melt.

Very interesting ideas, indeed, but cost and practicality would be real concerns for the typical hausfrau, or even the butler and head cook of a wealthy mansion.

.

[Skysaber]

The question is what exactly that cost would be, especially when compared to a typical citizen's annual budget. Low-level permanency might be a trivial expense for adventurers, with fast money and generally short life expectancies, but I have a feeling it would be an entirely different prospect for the general population, even given a wide spectrum of economic strata.

I've never really done much with Permanency, so the math and GP values aren't intuitive to me. How much would this cost?

I am a little confused by this question, as I'd answered it in my post already, or thought I had anyway.

Allow me to make it a little clearer.

Some wealthy person, either an aristocrat or noble, adventurer, or (more than likely) owner of a magic shop pays for the permanencied spell, finds 25,000 of these coins in excess of his own needs, and sells the remainder.

The coins cost 2.2 silver to make, so if you sell them in a magic shop for 3 silver each, or if you are greedy 5, then everyone who can afford a month or two of firewood can afford to buy one.


Apart from the concerns mentioned above, two questions occur to me here. First, how exactly is the coin moved around? This is glowing cherry-red, I presume, so kitchen mitts won't help.

Blacksmiths routinely handle red hot metal. They use tongs.

Do go read the spell description. The 2D4 damage is only if you are wearing the glowing metal armor at the time or carry metal weighing one-fifth his own weight of affected metal. So a 100lb person would have to be carrying 1,000 of these coins to take full damage. Any lesser contact causes merely 1 or 2 points of damage, which even the average commoner could survive.

D&D also presents us with a wide array of materials with innate fire resistance. As one possible option they could indeed use oven mitts if those mitts were made out of the hide of a red dragon.


Also, the assumption is that this will be indoors--but the air will be heated up quickly in an enclosed space, and this could make the chamber absolutely unlivable in the summer.

Which is why you have an equal number of chill coins available. Really, did you even read my post? All of these questions gave me the impression you'd merely skimmed it, as each one of these concerns about building up heat, casual contact, etc, got addressed the first time I'd said anything.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Skysaber
Really, did you even read my post?

In fact I did, but some of your points may not be as clear as you thought. We're approaching this from different perspectives, and you're skipping steps and making assumptions I don't always follow. For instance:


Originally Posted by Skysaber
But there's no reason we can't pay for a 20th level caster for our Heat or Chill Metal spells!

This is a tremendous assumption, since it's entirely setting-specific as to whether a twentieth-level druid will be available to cast a second-level spell for you, or even remotely interested.

Rather than going through all the rest point by point, I'll just say that I found your presentation more than a little confusing in many places.


Originally Posted by Skysaber
D&D also presents us with a wide array of materials with innate fire resistance. As one possible option they could indeed use oven mitts if those mitts were made out of the hide of a red dragon.

We're looking at this from entirely different perspectives. I'm thinking of how an ordinary house cook or a baker would be using this, and what they would have available to work with. Cooks and bakers usually don't have dragonhide oven mitts.

[Vhaidara]

then you just use my idea and have them voice activated

[Yahzi]

Some ideas that are completely within the rules:

Prestidigitation:
Flavor for exotic dishes at the Baron's dinner parties.
Clean and Polish teeth at the dentist's.
Color hair and nails for the grand ball.

Zone of Truth:
At every trial ever.

Cure Minor Wounds:
No more women bleeding out during childbirth. Ceasarians are commonplace and trivial instead of certain death for the mother.

Cure Disease:
Doh.

Plant Growth:
One person casting this spell once a day during growing season is roughly the same effect as modern fertilizer for an entire map hex (8 miles by 8 miles). It's a 30% boost to the base economy of a city.

Continual Flame:
This never wears out. The older your city is, the more of them are lying around.

[tiercel]

A general thought for making low-level effects consistently accessible, other than having low-level spellcasters on hand to actually cast them:

Instead of permanency or even "traps" of magic spells (ala the Tippyverse), one could turn to rune circles (Races of Stone). At minimum, they take existing magic item pricing and divide by 4 (by 8 if you make the circle small enough), due to being stationary emplacements. If you only want the magic for urban use, being fixed locations isn't so much of a downside (as it would be for most adventuring use).*

*Assuming you don't have a problem with the wording on rune circles that says that if "lack of portability isn't a significant factor" then the cost reduction shouldn't be so much.

...at some level the question isn't just "how much can magic do to change a city's apparent tech level" but more about "how high do you want your city's effective tech level to be?" If you want your city to have industrial or steampunk abilities, or even "modern tech" achieved through magic, it's just a matter of twisting the arm the rules in the right places.

The bigger question is, at some point, how far you want to take things. At some point the campaign will hardly be recognizable as traditional D&D (which is fine if that's your aim), but more to the point, you will need to figure out how your PCs (and major NPCs) will use your new "tech" innovations to their own advantage, likely in unexpected ways.

I'm not saying don't use many of the awesome ideas in this thread -- just be sure to ask, e.g., "what are my players likely to try to do with a potentially unlimited source of heat/cold/electricity"? If your world gets too "techy," don't be surprised if you wind up with a "Tesla" character whose player is trying to spin max ranks in "Knowledge (Physics)" into outlandish inventions that dance on the shattered gravestones of the magic item creation guidelines.

[Vhaidara]

Yeah, you need to set your ceiling, not your floor. When I told my friend about Skysaber's coins, his idea was to combo it with Create Water traps. Suddenly, steam engines are a thing.

[Eaglejarl]

Parents of new newborns would pay a fortune for Sleep.

Endure Elements for those hot summer days.

Summon Monster. Gladiator fights.

Comprehend Languages.

Detect Magic & Identify. For shopkeepers.

Suggestion. For unscrupulous shopkeepers, and for diplomats.

Silent Image & Ghost Sound & Alter Self. For thespian wizards.

Ray of Enfeeblement. For restraining prisoners.

Enlarge Person. For construction workers / stevedores / etc

Magic Weapon. Make tools more effective. (smith's hammer, lumberjacks axe, etc)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Eaglejarl
Parents of new newborns would pay a fortune for Sleep.

Hilarious and spot-on. Speaking from experience, I take it? :smalltongue:

I could definitely see nobles and even the wealthier gentry having second-level bards on hand in the nursery. Probably strumming nonmagical lullabies for the most part, with the spellcasting for the really hard cases.

:smallbiggrin:




Originally Posted by tiercel
I'm not saying don't use many of the awesome ideas in this thread -- just be sure to ask, e.g., "what are my players likely to try to do with a potentially unlimited source of heat/cold/electricity"? If your world gets too "techy," don't be surprised if you wind up with a "Tesla" character whose player is trying to spin max ranks in "Knowledge (Physics)" into outlandish inventions that dance on the shattered gravestones of the magic item creation guidelines.

Very much agreed--both that many of the ideas in this thread are genuinely creative and excellent, and also that some of them could certainly go much too far into magitech, at least in context of what I have in mind.

As for the players, I think I can keep them busy enough.

:smallamused:



The Playground really needs an evil-grin smiley. The amused smile is the closest I can find, but I really need something that evokes sinister DM intent.
.

[TuggyNE]

The Playground really needs an evil-grin smiley. The amused smile is the closest I can find, but I really need something that evokes sinister DM intent.

:xykon:, perhaps? Or :belkar:.

[Palanan]

Heh. Those are options.

I'm not really an OotS fan, but the Xykon skull has potential.

:xykon:

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, let me add my input.

animate fire, animate water: I believe the up-to-date versions are both in the SC. Essentially, they allow one to move around a small amount of fire or water, in the manner of an itty-bitty elemental. Have a small device that produces a flame and casts the spell. The holder can now light candles high up, start up the incinerator, and heat objects. (Deference give to skysaber's much more ambitious heat metal project.) The water can be used to quench fires, cool/lubricate items, and so forth.

skillful moment: I believe it's from Dragon Magazine somewhere. Allows one to take 20 on their next skill check. For making those all-important first impressions.

chalkboard: a cantrip from dragon magazine, it creates a large, opaque illusory plane that one can write on with illusory chalk. Useful for signage, for decorations at parties, and for the governess that doesn't want to dirty her hands while she instructs the nobles in their family history and so forth.

shadowplay: a cantrip from Dragon Magazine. Allows one to manipulate one's shadow into any form imaginable (within, I think, size limits). Combine with the rave plan for sheer awesome, or use to amuse children alongside prestidigitation.

goodberry: Want to feed the poor but not sure you can trust them with money? Here's your solution.

master's touch: Can't remember if this is the right name, but there is a spell in SpC that grants temporary proficiency with a weapon touched. Have special items for dueling that cast this on the wielder, to level the playing field.

In general, I advise looking through Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, if you haven't already. It's full of stuff that can be used to trick out a city, some subtle, some not, and it can all be refluffed/redressed in order to fit the tenor of your Elizabethan-esque idea. A good place to look for inspiration, in any case. Keep in mind some of the pricing in there may be slightly off, as it's a 3.0 book. One of my favorites.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Phelix-Mu
Alright, let me add my input.

Very nice, thank you. I especially like the use of Goodberry; yet another case of forehead-smacking that I didn't think of it before. Especially since I have an urban-druid concept I'm working on, whose "grove" is a warren of shanties and slums.

...and just now I came up with his name. I love those moments. :smallsmile:

[Phelix-Mu]

There used to be an even better spell for providing no-cost food. I don't think it got a 2e reprint, but it was like a version of the stuff that murlynd's spoon produces, but in spell form. Can't remember the name, but I think it made a bowl of turtle soup. Pretty sure it was named after one of the Seven Sisters, and was probably from one of my favorite AD&D splatbooks of the same name.

feather fall: could be the core of a pretty interesting sculpture designed to tell time (via a fixed rate for falling objects).

arcane mark: Rich man's graffiti. With at will use, one can overlap the marks to form larger images. Make it invisible so that only your rich friends can see it.

drifts of shalm: From PHB2, this could be an interesting way to arrange an impressive entrance or decorate for a party. Conjure colorful leaves to coat the ground. Add slight breeze.

[Palanan]

You have quite the artistic take on this. Keep 'em coming.

:smalltongue: