Uses for Spell Storing Ammunition

[Forumlurker]

Hello again, Playground!

So, in our current game, my Rogue/Swordsage is planning to enlist the party Artificer to get some Spell Storing bolts for his hand crossbow. What would be some good spells to place in these bolts?

There are several things to note regarding this campaign. First of all, these bolts are reusable. They will not break under normal use (although the spell is still expended and needs to be refilled. An expended SS bolt is for all intents and purposes simply a normal Masterwork bolt until it gets refilled.) Secondly, magic weapons in this campaign do not require a +1 numerical enchantment before they can be enhanced with a special property. Lastly, the DM has agreed to add a Greater (+2) version of the Spell Storing enhancement that allows the weapon to hold spells of up to sixth level. (There's a definite chance that this one will be changed to a +3 enhancement, but as it stands it's +2.)

I've already found some very useful spells to infuse into these bolts. For instance, Bestow Curse, Fireball, and Shivering Grasp for the +1 bolts, Heal, Harm, and Chain Lightning for the +2 variety. What would some other particularly potent choices be? For that matter, what about some other choices for enchanted ammunition in general?

[Efrate]

They are reusable? Awesome.

Buff spells. Deal a point of damage to yourself to give yourself a buff. Unlimited use spell storing hyperdermics. Get one with lesser vigor to offset the damage, then just pick the best wizard/cleric/druid/wu jen buffs you want. As plus 1 ammo with your rules you are looking at 40 gp for a limitless use buff spell for the lesser, and 160gp for any buff up to 6th level forever. Drop a good 7 or 8k into that and you are set for life.

[Forumlurker]

They are reusable? Awesome.

Buff spells. Deal a point of damage to yourself to give yourself a buff. Unlimited use spell storing hyperdermics. Get one with lesser vigor to offset the damage, then just pick the best wizard/cleric/druid/wu jen buffs you want. As plus 1 ammo with your rules you are looking at 40 gp for a limitless use buff spell for the lesser, and 160gp for any buff up to 6th level forever. Drop a good 7 or 8k into that and you are set for life.
My bad. The spell is still expended when the bolt is used, it can just be recovered after the combat ends and refilled with another spell. The OP has been edited to clarify this.

[danielxcutter]

To be honest you don't seem like you need lots of help, seeing as you've already used SS bolts to deliver some of the most devastating touch spells in the game. If you manage to get a +3 version that can channel up to 9ths, I recommend using Scorching Touch - a 7th level touch spell that deals 13d6 fire damage and a Fort-save against daze for every caster level is pretty sweet. If you want something more simple, then you can't go wrong with Enervation. Other Save-or-Dies are also good.

[Mutazoia]

Melf's Minute Meteors - Get hit in the front, and a shotgun blast of meteors rips out the back.
Cloud Kill - Talk about "silent but deadly"
Delayed Blast Fireball - Target breaks off the arrow, two rounds later, goes BOOM!
Shrink (opposite of Enlarge) - Target giant is now a dwarf.
Darkness, 10' radius - Hit a living creater for a moble effect, or hit a stationary taget.
Silence, 10' Radius - Hit the enemy caster to nullify most of his casting ability, or target an area as above.
Wall of Iron - Plink, SQUISH.
Reverese Gravity - particularly nasty if used outside.
Mass Hold Person - Simon says FREEZE!
Gate - Target enemy wins all expenses paid trip to the negative material plane.
Balde Barrier - Target enemy get's sliced and diced fron the inside.
Summon Swarm - Ever see that episode of the twilight zone where thousands of roaches crawl out of the old guy's body?
Flesh to stone - mean enough for ground targets, devistating to flying ones.
Dsintegrate - No brainer.



Also, consider taking a level or two of Arcane Archer, to get the Imbue Arrow ability, so you can stack two spell effects on one arrow....

* Some of these may or may not be in the version you are using, but should be able to be added if your DM is okay with it.

[icefractal]

Normal Spell Storing ammunition is already extremely good, and yours is several degrees better, so I'd say you've hit the jackpot big time.

The biggest advantage of Spell Storing over means like scrolls, wands, etc is that you count as actually casting it, and can use all the tricks at your disposal. Mailman-style Sorcerer who one-shots Titans with an Orb of Force? Now you can stockpile those for 40gp each.

Another advantage is that it discharges as part of an attack action. So buff spells that normally take a while to cast now take less than a round. Offensively, not as much use, but there are the Channeled spells. Also, Mark of Justice for no-save cursing.

[CasualViking]

Wov. There's a reason even regular spell storing ammo isn't legit. What you're describing is going to become not just rocket launcher tag, it's going to be rapid-fire rocket launcher tag.

Do you know what your next campaign is going to be?

[Tohsaka Rin]

Grease, Sleep, Rock to Mud.

Never underestimate the ability to do these things at a long range.

That guard patrol at the end of the street? Enforced naptime.

Those ambushing bandits? Not charging you through knee-deep mud.

That big ogre with his massive club? Hope he's a good dancer, or he's going to be flat on his back for most of the fight.

Being a nuisance is good, being a nuisance out of range of the people you've just made really, really mad? Better.

[flappeercraft]

Ghoul touch is a great one for fighting humanoids as it is a No save paralysis for 1d6+2 rounds and gives stench around the target which can be negated with a Fort saves making it a decent AoE debuff.
Also for fighting well prepped casters Magical backlash is great as it deals 2 points of untyped damage per spell level of all spells added up. If you are fighting a persistomancer this is an incredible spell especially if you use the Splitting property with your bow or crossbow for double the shots fired per attack which also go at the same target and they have the same bonus.
On a separate note, I would reccomend making the Spell storing bolts of special materials like Oerthblood which is incredible for ammunition if it is reusable. If your DM allows it try stack the Spell storing property on Bolts of arcane penetration since they ignore Deflection bonuses to AC and the first between the following to AC (Cover, Shield and Armor). The bolts of arcane penetration are on a dragon magazine which I don't remember which one but there is a list with the source of everything from dragon magazine which I will link here if I find it.

Edit: Found it, here is the link to the DragonDex http://aeolia.net/dragondex/

[Vaern]

Revivify. It's a 5th-level spell that resurrects a dead target with no level or constitution loss and costs only 1000 gp worth of diamonds to cast.
The down side is that it's a touch-ranged spell which must be cast within one round of the target's death. It's still a great spell to have handy at any given time, but much more so when you can cast it at a range via one of your greater spell storing bolts.

Also...
Dispel Magic could be useful on your lesser bolts, or Greater Dispel Magic on your greater bolts.
Feeblemind can remove casters from combat without having to actually kill them.
Similarly, Dismissal and Banishment can get rid of outsiders without having to actually kill them.
Disintegrate. Harm will generally deal more damage, but it isn't capable of destroying objects like Disintegrate can. Can't find a door? Make a door.
Wingbind, to ground those pesky flying targets.
Blindness, to ground those pesky flying targets.
Slay Living, to ground those pesky flying targets.

[Forumlurker]

To be honest you don't seem like you need lots of help, seeing as you've already used SS bolts to deliver some of the most devastating touch spells in the game. If you manage to get a +3 version that can channel up to 9ths, I recommend using Scorching Touch - a 7th level touch spell that deals 13d6 fire damage and a Fort-save against daze for every caster level is pretty sweet. If you want something more simple, then you can't go wrong with Enervation. Other Save-or-Dies are also good.Honestly, I'm kinda pushing it with these upon further inspection. I'm probably not going to ask for anything higher than 6th level. The goal is to add some combat versatility (and power) but I don't want it to be overwhelming. Thanks for the suggestion though!


Normal Spell Storing ammunition is already extremely good, and yours is several degrees better, so I'd say you've hit the jackpot big time.

The biggest advantage of Spell Storing over means like scrolls, wands, etc is that you count as actually casting it, and can use all the tricks at your disposal. Mailman-style Sorcerer who one-shots Titans with an Orb of Force? Now you can stockpile those for 40gp each.

-snip-
Also, Mark of Justice for no-save cursing.Good catch on the Mark of Justice. I can find some uses for that, assuming the DM doesn't say no. As for orb of force, our party doesn't have an Arcane caster. The artificer could do it, but it would cost him XP every time.


Grease, Sleep, Rock to Mud.

Never underestimate the ability to do these things at a long range.

That guard patrol at the end of the street? Enforced naptime.

Those ambushing bandits? Not charging you through knee-deep mud.

That big ogre with his massive club? Hope he's a good dancer, or he's going to be flat on his back for most of the fight.

Being a nuisance is good, being a nuisance out of range of the people you've just made really, really mad? Better.Great utility suggestions. It would be worth having a few of these around.


Ghoul touch is a great one for fighting humanoids as it is a No save paralysis for 1d6+2 rounds and gives stench around the target which can be negated with a Fort saves making it a decent AoE debuff.
Also for fighting well prepped casters Magical backlash is great as it deals 2 points of untyped damage per spell level of all spells added up. If you are fighting a persistomancer this is an incredible spell especially if you use the Splitting property with your bow or crossbow for double the shots fired per attack which also go at the same target and they have the same bonus. The DM ruled that a Splitting weapon doesn't duplicate the effects of magical ammunition. I had the same thought. Also, I looked up Ghoul's touch. It isn't No Save Paralysis. It simply has two effects, both of which are negated by a successful Fort save.

On a separate note, I would reccomend making the Spell storing bolts of special materials like Oerthblood which is incredible for ammunition if it is reusable. If your DM allows it try stack the Spell storing property on Bolts of arcane penetration since they ignore Deflection bonuses to AC and the first between the following to AC (Cover, Shield and Armor). The bolts of arcane penetration are on a dragon magazine which I don't remember which one but there is a list with the source of everything from dragon magazine which I will link here if I find it.I'll look into those. Dragon magazine material is allowed on a case-by-case basis, so we'll see about it.


Revivify. It's a 5th-level spell that resurrects a dead target with no level or constitution loss and costs only 1000 gp worth of diamonds to cast.
The down side is that it's a touch-ranged spell which must be cast within one round of the target's death. It's still a great spell to have handy at any given time, but much more so when you can cast it at a range via one of your greater spell storing bolts.

Also...
Dispel Magic could be useful on your lesser bolts, or Greater Dispel Magic on your greater bolts.
Feeblemind can remove casters from combat without having to actually kill them.
Similarly, Dismissal and Banishment can get rid of outsiders without having to actually kill them.
Disintegrate. Harm will generally deal more damage, but it isn't capable of destroying objects like Disintegrate can. Can't find a door? Make a door.
Wingbind, to ground those pesky flying targets.
Blindness, to ground those pesky flying targets.
Slay Living, to ground those pesky flying targets.Good suggestions! I'd already been planning on using Dispel and Greater Dispel.

So far, the biggest problem I've been running into has been the fact that our party doesn't have an Arcane caster, and the Artificer has much better things to be doing with his XP. As such, I'd prefer Cleric spells if possible, simply so that I can have the bolts recharged by our Lawful Neutral zombie-in-disguise cleric of death.
On another note, our group also has a Psion player who's planning to join soon, and Psi-Magic duality is in full effect, so psionic powers are also on the table to be shoved into these bolts.

[flappeercraft]

The DM ruled that a Splitting weapon doesn't duplicate the effects of magical ammunition. I had the same thought. Also, I looked up Ghoul's touch. It isn't No Save Paralysis. It simply has two effects, both of which are negated by a successful Fort save.
I'll look into those. Dragon magazine material is allowed on a case-by-case basis, so we'll see about it.

Actually in the SRD description of the SRD you can see that the touch itself does "Imbuing you with negative energy, this spell allows you to paralyze a single living humanoid for the duration of the spell with a successful melee touch attack." after that the stench which is the thing negated with the fortitude save is "Additionally, the paralyzed subject exudes a carrion stench that causes all living creatures (except you) in a 10-foot-radius spread to become sickened (Fortitude negates). A neutralize poison spell removes the effect from a sickened creature, and creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the stench." on the stench it specifies that fortitude negates it which makes it weird that it doesnt on the paralysis, also due to additionally starting the stench effect, that implies that is a separate effect of the spell. The reason it says fortitude negates and not partial is probably because it completely negates the effect of the spell to everyone who is not the touched target while the touched target gets no save.

SRD description: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/ghoulTouch.htm

[unseenmage]

Awaken could be hilarious to use. Tricky to set up too which makes your GM's job a itsy bit easier.

Minor Servotor and Animate Object are waaay easier to use though. That is if the arrows will expend their spell on an unattended mundane object.

Humanoid Essence and Greater Humanoid Essence are hilarious if you're facing constructs at all. Also useful.when combined with the above to allow buffs that normally couldnt affect your new construct minions.


I always wanted to hit an ememy mage's Construct bodyguard with some.sort of hyper quockened Incarnate Construct or Awaken Construct spell arrow. Never did figure out how.

The Mineralize Warrior spell requires the subject be entombed but there are spells for that too IIRC. One Delayed Mineralize Warrior bolt, then an entomning spell bolt and viola, the subject has to serve for a year and a day AND they get a nifty template.