Strange uses for speel slots

[yellowrocket]

Someone in another thread mentioned that a player they played with used most of their slots on animate rope because they were a transmuter. What other strange or funny uses have you seen for spell slots?

[ryu]

Someone in another thread mentioned that a player they played with used most of their slots on animate rope because they were a transmuter. What other strange or funny uses have you seen for spell slots?

Well part of my ultimate trick for wizard hiding all knowledge of self includes a combination of vecna blooded, self-inflicted mindrape to forget everything (EVERYTHING) but extremely general directives, and contingent miracles to restore as necessary, and an important last step. Spontaneous divination feat to qualify for versatile spellcaster means I can literally prepare read magic in EVERY slot just to deny an enemy information in the event they ice assassin me. Every wizard can prepare read magic. Even that one. Even if he has no spellbook. Congratulations on finding the scariest thing in this game. A high level caster you are fundamentally incapable of gathering any useful intel on. Not even the gods can do it for you.

[Deepbluediver]

I don't know if it counts as "strange" exactly but I once played a Wizard and spent nearly all my spells slots on versions of "Summon Elemental" (Summon Monster really). I would use the a higher level spell to create 1d4+1 elementals from a lower level spell and frequently had half a dozen of them running around the battlefield at once. My turn frequently took as long as everyone else's combined, and I'm glad that was a one-shot because if I'd tried to pull that two sessions in a row I think the rest of the group would have exiled me.

[icefractal]

My turn frequently took as long as everyone else's combined, and I'm glad that was a one-shot because if I'd tried to pull that two sessions in a row I think the rest of the group would have exiled me.Heh. Yeah, same thing happened last time I played a Druid. Liked the character, didn't like the massive amount of paperwork (spell prep + wildshape stats + companion stats + summon stats!) and the fact that my turn was at least two turns and sometimes more like five turns.

I don't know why anyone thought that putting pet + summoning + personal melee into the same class was a good idea. :smalltongue:

[ryu]

Heh. Yeah, same thing happened last time I played a Druid. Liked the character, didn't like the massive amount of paperwork (spell prep + wildshape stats + companion stats + summon stats!) and the fact that my turn was at least two turns and sometimes more like five turns.

I don't know why anyone thought that putting pet + summoning + personal melee into the same class was a good idea. :smalltongue:

Because something had to compete with wizard and cleric?

[Deepbluediver]

Because something had to compete with wizard and cleric?
It's still a bad idea. Even if you went by CAI (content as intended) and your Wizard does mainly evocations and the cleric is a healbot, in the druid you've still got a class with full spells, at-will shapeshifting for melee, AND an animal companion.

[icefractal]

It's not even about the power-level issue, it's an bookkeeping issue. Even if the Druid was perfectly balanced with all classes, it would still take up too much real time in combat, and (for most players) too much prep time.

[the_david]

Well, there's the Ponymancer ofcourse. Being able to solve any problem with the Mount spell (Or Regal Procession/Communal Mount) is kinda strange.
Do you need to get somewhere quick? Mount!
Do you need a quick getaway from a dungeon encounter? Block the hallway with Regal Procession!
Do you need to do something about that enemy ship that is rapidly approaching? Sow chaos on deck with Regal Procession!
Do you need to disable a trap? Mount!

Another option is the not so smart wizard. Even if a spellcaster has an 11 in his casting stat, he should be able to fill up higher level spell slots with lower level spells. He could even use metamagic on those spell slots just to be somewhat useful.

[The Glyphstone]

It's still a bad idea. Even if you went by CAI (content as intended) and your Wizard does mainly evocations and the cleric is a healbot, in the druid you've still got a class with full spells, at-will shapeshifting for melee, AND an animal companion.

The CAI/playtest druid used its wildshape for stuff like turning into a bird and scouting ahead via air, not for combat utility. Getting into melee was for fighters and rogues, not bears or pet bears.

[Deepbluediver]

The CAI/playtest druid used its wildshape for stuff like turning into a bird and scouting ahead via air, not for combat utility. Getting into melee was for fighters and rogues, not bears or pet bears.
Interesting- I did not know that. I guess that means the Druid was play-tested every bit as thoroughly as the rest of the core classes (which is to say, hardly at all).

[Goladar]

The CAI/playtest druid used its wildshape for stuff like turning into a bird and scouting ahead via air, not for combat utility. Getting into melee was for fighters and rogues, not bears or pet bears.

How do you know what the playtests were like? Are there records?

[Fizban]

Someone involved posted it on a forum ages back, never seen the link myself though and presumably it was on the old WotC forums which have been gone for years. Not sure if it was the same or a different post, but the "iconic" characters at the end of Enemies and Allies (a 3.0 book of NPCs) are also the playtest builds from what we've heard. And once you look at those builds you really can't claim that any amount of optimization was accounted for.