Turn Any Targeted Spell Into an AoE!

[Rubik]

I was thinking today, and I figured out how to turn ANY targeted spell in the game into a 60' cone that affects every available target within. How? I'm glad you asked!

Lords of Madness has two points of interest for this.

The first is the Ocular Spell feat, which turns any ray or targeted spell into a 60' ray.

The second is a magic item called the lens of ray widening. Guess what it does! It turns any ray spell into a cone the length of the ray!

Want to cast a Wish that grants everyone in a 60' cone a +1 to an ability score? You can do it! Want to cast PAO and affect every friend or foe in sight? Do it!

Feel free to Enlarge it, if you like, for double the pleasure (and double the fun)!

[Zaq]

That's all well and good, but isn't the lens a consumable item, and not a cheap one at that? It's a cute trick to use once in a while, but it's really cost-prohibitive to make it a primary strategy.

[VisitingDaGulag]

And its a known trick.

[pwykersotz]

And its a known trick.

Still a pretty neat one, if blatantly abusive. :smalltongue:

Also, I'd never heard of it prior to this thread. Where has it been discussed before? Just previous threads here?

[ericgrau]

So then with 2 levels of arcane archer you can put any targetted/ray/area spell you know into an arrow. PAO cone sniping. Or enervation cone sniping.

[dextercorvia]

It has a fun interaction with Spellwarp Sniper then. You can turn a Fireball* into a 400+ foot ray with SS, then change it into a 400+ foot cone with the Lens. That would make for an actual battlefield shaping spell.

*Fireball is, of course, given as the classical example. Replace with any medium or long range spell with instantaneous duration and relatively small native area like Fell Draining Hail of Stone or Fell Draining Sudden Stalagmite for no save no SR damage and negative levels in a 100~300 ft cone.

[Psyren]

Want to cast a Wish that grants everyone in a 60' cone a +1 to an ability score? You can do it!

Actually, this one is a bit debatable - it's not clear whether this use of Wish targets the creature it grants the ability score to.

"Grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to an ability score. Two to five wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 inherent bonus, three for a +3 inherent bonus, and so on)."

It doesn't actually say anything about targeting that creatue, so it's not clear whether this use can be made Ocular and kick off the combo.

[sleepyphoenixx]

You forget the fact that enemies get a fixed DC 15 save to negate, which kind of makes it useless for any kind of offensive use.
It also costs 32,000gp and is destroyed after 9 uses, which makes it a little too expensive (~3500gp/cast) for any kind of non-cheesy use (like your wish example which should work by RAW but i can't see getting allowed by most DMs).

[WhamBamSam]

You can also accomplish this by combining Spellsword's Channel Spell with the Area Attack feat. Area Attack is explicitly attacking the area with the improvised weapon in question, so it should count as a "successful attack" for the purposes of the channeled spell and discharge it (effectively) as an area effect. The Channel Spell from Ordained Champion would also work, though it's more limited in what spells you can use.

[DarkSonic1337]

What book is Area Attack from?

[WhamBamSam]

What book is Area Attack from?Savage Species.