There was a trick to be safe from some spells...

[Kerilstrasz]

long time ago i read about a trick in this forum...
i think it was about disintegrate but i'm not sure.
As i understand it, it was about carrying a lot of "creatures" on you (like maggots,flies etc etc) so some spells affect them 1st (as they have less HD than you) and you escape with minor or no problems.

Is anyone there that knows what i'm talking about?
maybe tell me what kind of spells are these that this trick works?
any info at all?

[bekeleven]

Sounds like a side effect of building a Nasty Gentleman (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1038816).

[Aegis013]

Are you looking for something like Globe of Invulnerability (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Globe_of_Invulnerability) and its ilk?

[TypoNinja]

I remember hearing about something similar as a way for intelligent undead to protect them from turning, you have a bunch of undead mice or something on you, since turning explicitly targets the closest creatures first, something on your body is slightly closer to the cleric than you would be and gets turned first, eating up damage 'till he no longer has enough to effect you. Bonus points if you grant them turn resistance.

I imagine a similar trick would work for things like Sleep that target HD worth of creatures, and start with the lowest. Make a collection of mice take a nap first, by the time all your pets are asleep the spell has run out of HD to make you sleep.

[Gemini476]

This might be able to be combined with the old blind-monkey-in-cage trick (he can't see what's happening, hence everyone else gets a surprise round which benefits casters).

But yeah, it works for Sleep and Symbol of X, as well as various other effects that only affect up to a certain number of HP or HD (like Turning).
However, remember that mice and the like have very low HD!

[Captnq]

Here's the problem, as a DM, I will treat your pocket full of undead mice as a swarm with a total of 1 HD and count it as one creature. So, yeah, you protect yourself from a little bit of turning, but not much.

As for the disintegrate ray, it's a ranged touch attack. Unless there are so many flies that you get a miss chance from cover, I hit you if I successfully roll to hit you. That's how it works.

[TypoNinja]

Here's the problem, as a DM, I will treat your pocket full of undead mice as a swarm with a total of 1 HD and count it as one creature. So, yeah, you protect yourself from a little bit of turning, but not much.

As for the disintegrate ray, it's a ranged touch attack. Unless there are so many flies that you get a miss chance from cover, I hit you if I successfully roll to hit you. That's how it works.

Well, for undead at least the trick was to take your tiny 1/4HD undead mouse, and use the undead creating rules/spells to buff the hell out of it. So its got a turn resistance of silly, soaks up enough turn to make the cleric's attempt a waste of time.