Prank use of entangle while traveling on a ship?

[Hiro Quester]

My gnome druid has been challenged to a friendly challenge of pranks. Traveling on a ship, with many shrubs and a few vines growing around it. The challenge is to use entangle in a prank.

What kind of prank can I use entangle for, that would be amusing, minorly annoying to the humans, while not devastating to our progress across the sea?

Edit. I'm a druid5/monk1 with natural spell and wildshape 1/day. Books are core plus PHB2 and stormwrack.

[Allanimal]

I think a good prank should be focused on specific targets and and have a specific effect/goal. The trouble with entangle is that it has a huge area of effect, and a clause specifically allowing the DM to alter its effects based on the situation.

This means to me, there is no way to absolutely be sure what entangle might do, and thus is not great for a prank.

The druid spell list has lots of spells -I'm sure there's a better prank spell out there. Faerie fire maybe? Spore field? Updraft?

[Hiro Quester]

The DM himself issued the challenge (via an NPC).

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Hiro Quester
Traveling on a ship, with many shrubs and a few vines growing around it.

I'm confused about the shrubbery. Is this a ship with greenery onboard for some reason? Or is it sailing through a really narrow forested channel?

:smallconfused:

[Hiro Quester]

There are potted shrubs in a few places on board. And vines twining around the railing.

The tactical idea is that if we are trying to resist being boarded, a Plant Growth spell could make a defensive wall of overgrowth around the ship, while leaving the interior clear. That spell requires brushes and trees. So the ship has strategically placed brushes and trees.

Entangle has this note:


Note: The effects of the spell may be altered somewhat, based on the nature of the entangling plants.


So we have shrubs and small trees around the deck, and a small amount of vines growing around the railing.

It could also be used to grow and entangle with seaweed, I imagine, if cast on an area of water with plants in it.

Also we are a pair of ships, traveling together. The druid on the other ship challenged me to a friendly prank competition. The challenge is to use the entangle spell to do something creative, funny (at least to some people) and of limited harm.

Our party members (in order of inclination to help with a prank) include a rogue/swashbuckler, archery-focussed fighter, Monk, cleric, and a Dwarven Knight (who is rather uptight and might need to be the butt of the prank).

There's also the possibility of using the spell to do something to the other druid's ship, rather than the one I'm sailing on, if that would be funnier. the two ships are often sailed next to one another in the early evening, with a net slung between the ships.

The thing is, my alignment is lawful neutral (I have just swung towards neutral, after being inspired by a monk on our crew to take a level of Monk --long story). So I'm also thinking that the prank might be the kind of thing I'll feel obliged to run by the ship's captain and/or the owner of the ships (alsoo traveling with us, and favorable disposed to my Gnome character) and get permission.

But I'm drawing a blank. What can I do that would be funny, not terribly harmful but possibly embarrassing to a knight or to the other ship's druid. I can use a combination of wildshape, animal help from Summon Nature's Ally I-III, other core druid spells (plus prestidigitation, ghost sound, dancing lights as 1/day SLAs), a little help from mischievously inclined party members, but which must feature the entangle spell?

[Allanimal]

Ok, the entangle spell does one thing: if there are plants around, it entangles if the targets fail a save. The caster has no control over the effect, just where it goes.

That means your prank has to be something where it is funny to be entangled. So, you mentioned the uptight dwarf knight. Maybe you can figure out a way to get said knight entangled with their pants down on the privy. Strategic placement of some of the onboard plants could make this possible, but you also need to take care of line of effect.

Assume you have all that figured out. Trouble is, entangled knight is alone in an enclosed space. You'll need to open the doors or the walls so everyone else on board and on the other ship can see the uptight knight. Maybe other PCs who are in on it can help, but this may be hard due to entagle's very large area. Maybe you can use warp wood or another spell to accomplish this. Then, once uptight dwarf is on deck bearing all for the world to see and unable to run away, pop a faerie fire on him, just to add a spotlight to the show.

I'm sure there are other scenarios to embarrass someone who can't run away (or only get away slowly) which is basically the only effect entangle can produce.

[Invader]

And the person in question is going to have to be in the same square as the plants in question, which is going to be odd by the type of plants you have, they don't reach out and grab people. Maybe get him sea sick and when he's throwing up over the side the coukd hold him in place.

Does it have to be entangle? Maybe we could do more with another spell.

Nevermind I just saw your other post.

[Invader]

There's evards menacing tentacles which doesn't rely on plants. Windfall or gust of wind for some sail shenanigans on the other ship. Summon swarm but it automatically attacks and you can't direct it not to so I doubt you want to kill anyone :smalltongue: Kelpstrand literally shoots kelp at people and entangles them.