Being creative with spells.

[Yael]

Well, this would be a thread to give away ideas of how to use spells to do things that the spells are made for, but in a creative manner.

Here's mine.

I used Benign Transposition to switch places between an Elven Druid that is hoding a rope with his foot, who's on a tree, and an Adamantine-Plated Warforged Crusader, so we could choke the enemy (that will be hanged by the neck.)

The amazing change of weight made the trick to work, by choking the monster to death.

(Sorry for my awful redaction.)

What's your example?

[KillianHawkeye]

Well I haven't been playing a wizard for very long, so I don't really have any good stories about using a spell creatively.



What I am pretty good at is using my spells at the most opportune moment and saving my spells for greatest effect rather than letting loose and then running out of magic before the day is done. Also, I try to guess the enemies' worst save and target that one so my spells are harder to resist (or just use a spell with no saving throw).

In a previous adventure, we had stumbled into the lair of some were-rats in the city sewer, but the ratlings didn't get home until we had all split up and starting looking through all their junk. They came in through the hallway all packed together, but my Glitterdust spell incapacitaded three quarters of them, simultaneously ruining their Dex-based AC and allowing the rogue and ninja in the party to have an impromptu Sneak Attack party.

Then in our last session, I used a Solid Fog spell to lock down an entire group of bandits, stopping them from using their longbows on us and making it easy to pick them of as they came out of the cloud one or two at a time. I didn't need to cast a single other spell the entire combat! :smallbiggrin:

[JeminiZero]

I shall quote myself here on To Catch a Changeling

This is an Eberron 3.5 game. Names have been omitted to protect privacy:
-Cleric: A Binder / Cleric / Divine Anima Mage, using Dynamic Priest to be Cha focused.
-Changeling: A Changeling Rogue / Swordsage (for those unfamiliar with Eberron, Changelings are a race of shapeshifters who can disguise themselves at will)
-Beguiler: Gnome Beguiler, support caster
-Warblade: Warforged Warblade
-Halfling: A Talenta halfling swift hunter riding a dinosaur.

This game is from the Golden Dragon module, and at the very start, the PCs are gathered onboard an ultra-luxury airship, celebrating its maiden voyage with a party. The Cleric had been hired as a mercenary Guard. The Changeling had pretended to be someone else and snuck aboard. The Beguiler, Warblade and Halfling were proper official party guests. At this point, the characters did not know one another, and were not working together as such.

Most of the PCs were in the reception below deck, except for the Cleric who was stationed to guard the main deck (although the only PC up there, he was not alone, and there were a dozen NPC fellow guards as well). However, the Cleric also had Malphas bound (for those unfamiliar with ToM, this gives you a remote control raven, and you can also look through the raven's eyes making it an excellent scout). So Cleric sends his raven to fly around the ship exterior, looking out for trouble.

Cue trouble: A bunch of hobgoblin and minotaur hijackers crawl up from the cargo hold, sweep through the ship and quickly seize control of the lower decks. Along the way, they grab a bunch of random bystanders as hostages, and hold swords to their throats. As (mis-)fortune would have it, one of the bystander hostages was the Changeling (currently disguised as a half-elf).

The raven spots this, and transmits the situation to the Cleric. The Cleric informs the Guard chief of this, who orders the main deck be evacuated ASAP. By the time the Hijackers reach the deck, it has been cleared of civilians. Basically, the bulk of the guards were on the main deck, while the bulk of the hijackers were below, AND controlling the staircase down. Since there were hostages, the Guards were reluctant to act, so for the moment all they could do was stand-off/stare-down against the hijackers on Deck.

Now, doesn't all of this sound like a golden opportunity for some reckless PC behaviour...

The Changeling decides she doesn't like being held hostage, and tries to kick the Hobgoblin leader holding her (and misses horribly despite her opponent being flat-footed). This starts a fight below decks, and the hijackers start hacking up helpless party guests. The Cleric learns of this via his raven, and informs the Guard captain, who promptly decides minimize losses by storming the ship: Push the hijackers back down, and retake the lower decks, before too many squishy party guests are massacred.

Fortunately, all the other PCs were also below deck, and quickly join the fight. The Beguiler casts haste / slow / other, the Warblade swings into action, while the halfling... mostly kept his head low while wishing he had his dino with him (it was being kept in the cargo hold. No we do not allow dinosaurs to roam free in the buffet area). The hobgoblin leader is frustrated by this turn of events, and shouts an order for his co-conspirator in the engine room: "BLOW UP THE SHIP!".

The Changeling (still disguised as a half-elf) tries to salvage the situation, by doing a perfect imitation of the hobgoblin'a voice, and shouting "DON'T LISTEN! THAT WAS A CHANGELING, TRYING TO TRICK US!" (bluff check). The Cleric, although still fighting on the main deck, sees and hears EVERYTHING through his raven.

As the battle wears on, the Guards manage to retake the stairs and fight their way below deck. There, they meetup with the other PCs, who have been wounded, but the Changeling especially badly so. Upon seeing the other (wounded) PCs, the Cleric does what every helpful priest would for his party: He casts DMM persisted Mass Lesser Vigor on them, and they all heal up gradually.

The horde of Guards/PCs fight on and manage to retake the rest of the ship and stop the place from blowing up (although sadly, the co-conspirator who planted the bomb got away). They do so quickly enough such that there was only ONE civilian death (and several wounded, but they got better). At this point, the Captain of the Guard, orders the "half-elf" (Changeling in disguise) who started the fight to be taken in for questioning.

Of course, the Changeling won't have any of it, so she turns invisible (for 1 round, using a Swordsage maneuver) and runs into one of the rear passenger rooms. There, she changes her clothes, disguises her form into a Dragonborn, and pretends to be knocked out on the floor. When the NPC Guards sweep the ship, they find the Changeling (now disguised as a "Dragonborn"). They bring her up to main deck where everyone else is gathered, and she spins a tale on having been knocked out by a "Half-Elf" matching the description of the one that started the fight (bluff check). The "Half-Elf" culprit in question is, of course, nowhere to be seen, and it seemed that she had escaped...

Or had she?

I would like to note that this game was held online, and everybody could see each others sheets. The Cleric's player claimed he had some means of finding the Changeling, but the other players went through his sheet repeatedly and couldn't find anything (only level 3 spells, so none of the anti-shapechanger stuff yet like Sacred Item). And they were all wondering how he was going to pull it off (especially the Changeling's player :smallamused:).

If you want to try and guess the Cleric's method, this is your chance. Answer in spoiler.
Since his raven saw/heard her shout, the Cleric had in-character reason to suspect the Half-Elf was a Changeling. But lacking any anti-shapechanger spells, there was little he could do to find her, if she switched disguise... unless he could somehow mark her in a manner that would allow later detection, such as throwing out DMM Persisted Mass Lesser Vigor.

Basically, he was using a BUFF spell, to counter shapeshifting disguise. So up on deck, he casts Detect Magic and scans those gathered. He easily finds those he had previously cast Mass Lesser Vigor on, from the faint conjuration aura... and would you know it, this "Dragonborn" was pinging! :smallamused: