Friendly neighbourhood adventurer: stuff to help out peasants?

[Jowgen]

I'd like to make a small collection of spells/items/abilities/whatever than an average adventurer could use to better the lives of the common folk he comes by during his adventuring travels, but at no lasting cost to himself. In this I am looking for things that'll have a positive impact beyond the short term. From the top of my head so far.

Spells
Plant Growth: for better crop yields obviously
Unseen Crafter: days/level unseen servants providing man-power where it's needed, and can craft
Prestidigitation: clean stuff that would otherwise be impossible to clean
Continual Flame: free light sources for everyone (access via Lantern Archon calling/summoning/etc.)

Items
Lyre of Building: large scale construction with a perform check (situationally better than unseen crafters)
Sacred Vessel: literal buckets of free Holy Water for everyone, just in case

[Coidzor]

Some of the spells from the terraforming Athas thread and other terraforming threads might be of interest.

Create Spring from Oriental Adventures can be used to maximize the number of springs in an area. In places like deserts, it'll probably increase the number of habitats for creatures and may make desert travel easier by creating more oases.

Make Whole could make what would be detritus into things of use.

Wall of Stone could help patch up city walls where damaged, especially combined with Fabricate or Stone Shape.

[Sagetim]

Druids are pretty well set up for that, actually.

Spels like Goodberry for food, Mending to fix small things, Stone Shape, and Wall of Stone could be handy for raw materials and potentially the rough drafting of a structure.

Non-Druid specific things like Wall of Iron (which costs 50 gold, sre, but you get a Lot of iron out of it that can be smelted down into a lot of day to day tools and what not)

Fabricate (or if you're a psion, greater fabricate) can help you turn that wall of iron into masterwork tools and other items, or to finish out details like turning walls of stone into bricks or finished walls or what have you. It's going to be kind of slow going, but not impossible.

Create Water (and purify food and drink, which can be used to recover fouled or gone bad food to edible and fresh)

Any means of removing disease is going to be helpful in an average middle ages setting, most especially a low magic one.

Create Food and Water is technically useful for feeding groups of people (like beggars in the street) but you're going to want prestidigitation and maybe fabricate to flavor and texturize the food it makes.

If you can find a way to mitigate the gold cost of raising the dead (there are more routes that I'm aware of in pathfinder for this than 3.5) that could be very useful for peasants who have tragically dying children to accidents and what not.

A Decanter of Endless Water in any desert nation is going to make you a lot of friends as long as you can keep your hands on it.

Flying and an Immovable Rod can possibly brighten a lot of people's days by visiting a terrifying commupance on the local village jerk.

A ring of regeneration lets you grow back limbs, right? I can't remember. But you might be able to exploit that with a cow or something if you can figure out a way to avoid having it's fear and pain taint the meat.

I remember someone coming up with a way to harvest ambrosia or joy or something from people with book of exalted deeds stuff to get a limitless supply of liquid that could be used to mitigate some of the xp cost of crafting a magic item. It may have been a threat on this forum, actually ,but I can't recall the name of it. But the general idea was that you used a low level exalted spell to make people feel joy or something with a long duration, like, 24 hour duration or something, then harvest the joy off them every day. And you use that stockpile of joy juice to pay the xp cost for crafting an item that just emanates an aura of joy for everyone in the radius of it's effect, then you can harvest every day until you have however much you need to build whatever you want. And technically that stuff has a market value, especially if you go by the suggested 1 xp = 5 gp rule. So yeah, you make like, a happy tavern as a local business and not only does it improve people's day by visiting the place, it also lets you build community improvement projects off the harvested joy of beggars or whatever.

In fact, if you're just taking that idea to it's conclusion, you could use it to build things like decanters of endless water, continual flame lamps, and fabricate in a plumbing and sewage system while you harvest the joy to build enough decanters to run the recently installed plumbing of the city. Oh, and did I mention you could make the plumbing from the wall of iron's iron? Rust is technically only an issue until enough minerals build up on the inside of the pipe to insulate the pipe from the water.


Edit: Elation (persisted to last 24 hours, 2nd or 3rd level spell) and Distill Joy (3rd level spell), neither of which is exalted, but both of which are from the BOED. Ambrosia is wroth 2 xp per dose for good spellcasters in crafting magic items. I think it would probably have a higher street value for being literal happy juice though.

[Gildedragon]

I have a (disreputable) cleric of mirth / wannabe bard (initiate of milil, initiate of olidammara, sacred performer) that does a lot of "friendly neighborhood adventurer" stuff
1) the Festival Feast is a first level spell: feed 3 ppl / CL, explicitly good food and OK drink: cater one of their festivals or weddings
2) PFs Enhance Water spell (ibid, pay the innkeeper with a few barrels of OK booze)
3) Play music for their events, boost morale with a bardic music effect.
4) Ranks in Kn Religion and Perform Oratory to give rousing sermons.
5) After a night of massive drinking have a healing loresong spell on yourself and mass cure minor wounds to heal the hangover

Pro Tip: Do NOT use purify food and drink near their alcohol or their cheese making or their meat curing

[ATHATH]

If you have enough XP that you can casually spend 500 XP on stuff, you can going around and cast Planar Familiar on volunteers to turn them into Celestial creatures.

The spell, for reference (note that the spell has a target of a "living creature", not "a companion or a familiar")
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011020a

You can go around giving children the Blooded One template as well (with their parents' permission, of course):
http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/bloodedone.shtml

Having a +2 bonus to STR and a +4 bonus to CON is pretty nice (most farmers aren't going to be affected much by the -2 to INT), and the "Usually Lawful Evil" alignment of the template can be negated by turning the child into a Celestial creature (which has an alignment of "Always Good"). From what I can tell, you don't need to kill the humanoids that you extract the blood that's needed for the ritual from, so you shouldn't have to commit murder.

[ATHATH]

Isn't there a spell called Imbue with Spell-Like Ability or something out there? Giving the village doctor the ability to cast CLW would be pretty neat, although the spell costs XP, IIRC.

[Uncle Pine]

Magic of Faerun has a 4th level Bard spell (celebration?) that makes people smashingly drunk, which is good when the village needs to celebrate for a good harvest or something. I can't really name it because my book isn't in English and I don't know its original name, but I hope someone will manage to get it. I also thought there was a spell to magically plow a field in the same book but I can't find it.

[Fizban]

Raise Dead via Touchstone (Healing Waters of Abu-Ima).

[Vizzerdrix]

Fireball. As often as some of my old DMs had that spell utterly destroy loot, you would think it would be perfect for incinerating every day trash.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pine
Magic of Faerun has a 4th level Bard spell (celebration?) that makes people smashingly drunk, which is good when the village needs to celebrate for a good harvest or something. I can't really name it because my book isn't in English and I don't know its original name, but I hope someone will manage to get it.

This is Celebration, which is kind of a passive-aggressive spell that debilitates people by getting them magically smashed. But it’s only short-range, and the effects fade without consequence a few rounds after the performance ends. Not that great for a village celebration, more of a short-term way to put down the guards in the gatehouse while the rest of the party saunters past. Honestly, it seems pretty underwhelming for a fourth-level spell.

(Also, what language is your book in? And what’s the spell name in your copy?)


Originally Posted by Uncle Pine
I also thought there was a spell to magically plow a field in the same book but I can't find it.

This is driving me nuts. I could’ve sworn this was in one of the 3.0 supplements, but I’ve looked in Masters of the Wild, Defenders of the Faith and Magic of Faerûn with no luck.

I’ve seen that same spell, just can’t chase it down.

[ATHATH]

Didn't it create a giant machine or something to plow the field for you? Am I thinking of a different spell?

[daremetoidareyo]

Handle animal and catch some vultures. They can forage for food in any environment with a huge survival modifier

[Gildedragon]

This is Celebration, which is kind of a passive-aggressive spell that debilitates people by getting them magically smashed. But it’s only short-range, and the effects fade without consequence a few rounds after the performance ends. Not that great for a village celebration, more of a short-term way to put down the guards in the gatehouse while the rest of the party saunters past. Honestly, it seems pretty underwhelming for a fourth-level spell.
Also it makes folk pass out.
This is a party-ending spell, not so much a party boosting one.
I mean for that matter Pipes of Frenzied Revelry are great. Makes people all touchy feely to one another.
Pair it with lots of dancing lights and vials of glow ink and torchbug paste and you got a rave

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pine
I also thought there was a spell to magically plow a field in the same book but I can't find it.


Originally Posted by ATHATH
Didn't it create a giant machine or something to plow the field for you? Am I thinking of a different spell?

Nope, no machine involved, just a magical furrow in the field.

—Found it! Turns out this is Phantom Plow, which is from the 3.0 Lords of Darkness. I don’t know if it was ever updated to 3.5 or Pathfinder.

Kind of an odd spell to be in a book about cults and villains. It’s third level for clerics and druids, and seems to be exactly what the OP is looking for—something to help local folk get their planting done faster.

.

[Vizzerdrix]

Didn't it create a giant machine or something to plow the field for you? Am I thinking of a different spell?

You are thinking fantastic machine and the greater version. Basicly summon tractor.

[denthor]

Clerics make a heal check this is skill only have them provide the materials wood, rags, for the splints.

finger(memorized) spells are effective and without cost. Your party does not need them the village can.

for fighters help with the lifting of firewood or go and collect it cut it.

Mages, bards get to watch the children.

Thieves get to buy drinks get local knowledge.

[Gildedragon]

Mage... get to watch the children.


oh dear...
Poor children get Shadow Welled or Sepia Snake Sigil-ed to keep them safe.
Poor wizard: children filch their spellbook and draw on it

Barbarians make the best nannies. high str and con means they can be living jungle gyms, impress children by smashing thingsit being impressed by kids' reading capacity

[noob]

Make the villager immortal with psychic reformation to make them get the immortality feat you can get at level 1.

[Uncle Pine]

This is Celebration, which is kind of a passive-aggressive spell that debilitates people by getting them magically smashed. But it’s only short-range, and the effects fade without consequence a few rounds after the performance ends. Not that great for a village celebration, more of a short-term way to put down the guards in the gatehouse while the rest of the party saunters past. Honestly, it seems pretty underwhelming for a fourth-level spell.

(Also, what language is your book in? And what’s the spell name in your copy?)
The spell is called Celebrazione in Italian, hence why I managed to guess the original name: because it's a literal translation for once. I'm aware that it's intended as an offensive save-or-suck spell, but I'm sure all the 1st level commoners you can fit in a 15 ft. radius (or more, if you widen it) wouldn't say no to the hangover of their lives.


Nope, no machine involved, just a magical furrow in the field.

—Found it! Turns out this is Phantom Plow, which is from the 3.0 Lords of Darkness. I don’t know if it was ever updated to 3.5 or Pathfinder.

Kind of an odd spell to be in a book about cults and villains. It’s third level for clerics and druids, and seems to be exactly what the OP is looking for—something to help local folk get their planting done faster.

.
That's the one! Interestingly enough, the duration of the spell is permanent rather than instantaneous, which means the furrows are dispellable. I wonder if this is unintended or Netherese spellcasters did it on purpose in order to efficiently turn vast empty areas into crop fields and then back into their original state in case they needed them for something else. :smalltongue:

[CasualViking]

I remember someone coming up with a way to harvest ambrosia or joy or something from people with book of exalted deeds stuff to get a limitless supply of liquid that could be used to mitigate some of the xp cost of crafting a magic item. It may have been a threat on this forum, actually ,but I can't recall the name of it. But the general idea was that you used a low level exalted spell to make people feel joy or something with a long duration, like, 24 hour duration or something, then harvest the joy off them every day. And you use that stockpile of joy juice to pay the xp cost for crafting an item that just emanates an aura of joy for everyone in the radius of it's effect, then you can harvest every day until you have however much you need to build whatever you want. And technically that stuff has a market value, especially if you go by the suggested 1 xp = 5 gp rule. So yeah, you make like, a happy tavern as a local business and not only does it improve people's day by visiting the place, it also lets you build community improvement projects off the harvested joy of beggars or whatever.

In fact, if you're just taking that idea to it's conclusion, you could use it to build things like decanters of endless water, continual flame lamps, and fabricate in a plumbing and sewage system while you harvest the joy to build enough decanters to run the recently installed plumbing of the city. Oh, and did I mention you could make the plumbing from the wall of iron's iron? Rust is technically only an issue until enough minerals build up on the inside of the pipe to insulate the pipe from the water.


Edit: Elation (persisted to last 24 hours, 2nd or 3rd level spell) and Distill Joy (3rd level spell), neither of which is exalted, but both of which are from the BOED. Ambrosia is wroth 2 xp per dose for good spellcasters in crafting magic items. I think it would probably have a higher street value for being literal happy juice though.

In Fantasy Soviet Russia, comrade dirt farmer is happy. Always happy. Is mandatory.

[Coidzor]

Bringing Pathfinder material into the matter, even a low level Wizard could spend several days improving the wall situation for a town or village that relied upon palisades using Expeditious Construction (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/expeditious-construction/) to add some earthworks which would otherwise be even more labor intensive than getting the logs in place for palisades. Or he could literally help with dyke construction or reinforcing a channel for a canal

Expeditious Excavation (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/expeditious-excavation) could be used to distribute compost or fertilizer evenly around fields from larger piles spaced out in a pattern.

Crafter's Fortune (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/crafter-s-fortune) is a lower level, longer duration Magecraft that gives a Luck bonus and isn't Personal, so it can be shared with others or sold. Although at lower CLs, one basically has to craft day by day. Could make barn-raising or repair work after an attack or disaster go faster.

Tears to Wine (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/t/tears-to-wine) and Enhance Water (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/enhance-water/) could both be used to provide booze for festivals and celebrations. Enhance Water could even be used to make things like Kefir which are nutritious and alcoholic. While Tears to Wine could, for example, help the Town Council make better judgment calls after partaking.

[noob]

Spam unseen crafter?
You can manage to make objects worth thousand of gold coins per week with it and thus make cool stuff for the villagers(and since you do that with low level slots you can use higher level slots for doing other things like persisting mastery of the earth for casting stone wall one time per round all the day)
Also make a command word magic item who casts guard and wards for creating lots and lots of wind energy.
You might also summon one of those creatures that have an at will create food sla.

[Coidzor]

Spam unseen crafter?
You can manage to make objects worth thousand of gold coins per week with it and thus make cool stuff for the villagers(and since you do that with low level slots you can use higher level slots for doing other things like persisting mastery of the earth for casting stone wall one time per round all the day)
Also make a command word magic item who casts guard and wards for creating lots and lots of wind energy.
You might also summon one of those creatures that have an at will create food sla.

Thousands of gp of value? Exactly how much spam are you proposing, an at-will Command Word item?

[Sagetim]

oh, oh, and you can cast explosive runes on all the children's foreheads that can't read. Then you'll know when the town is under attack from the resounding boom. After all, the children know better than to try and read their own forehead marks.


oh wait, Friendly. Right, sorry, I've been playing a few too many evil characters. Have you tried setting them on fire? That way ninja's can't catch them. And if they're Tieflings it's not like a little 1d4 fire damage per round is going to beat their 5 resistance. I suppose you might have to summon a few devils to help the farmers have tiefling children though. And you may need to find a way to make their homes fire proof, but I say that's what some rocks, wall of stone, and stone shape then fabricate are for. After all, if I remember right, wall of stone requires natural stone for targets, so as long as you set up the walls of stone between natural stone, then fabricate those sections into bricks, then repeat, you get all the building material you need for houses, bridges, and hydro electric dams. Or you know, bricks for dropping on people out of your bag of holding as you fly overhead on a carpet of flying and really lord it over them.

And now that you have a community of fire proof, on fire people who live in stone houses, you can set up chimneys to funnel that heat all into your flying castle to boil your water and power your boiler driven steam cannons. I mean, it's not like it's a stretch to use immovable rods encased in fabricated and hardened stone as the solid support structure that the rest of your 'floating' castle is based upon. And it will make such a great platform from which to set steam powered artillery pieces with which to aggressively protect your citizens.

[ATHATH]

oh, oh, and you can cast explosive runes on all the children's foreheads that can't read. Then you'll know when the town is under attack from the resounding boom. After all, the children know better than to try and read their own forehead marks.


oh wait, Friendly. Right, sorry, I've been playing a few too many evil characters. Have you tried setting them on fire? That way ninja's can't catch them. And if they're Tieflings it's not like a little 1d4 fire damage per round is going to beat their 5 resistance. I suppose you might have to summon a few devils to help the farmers have tiefling children though. And you may need to find a way to make their homes fire proof, but I say that's what some rocks, wall of stone, and stone shape then fabricate are for. After all, if I remember right, wall of stone requires natural stone for targets, so as long as you set up the walls of stone between natural stone, then fabricate those sections into bricks, then repeat, you get all the building material you need for houses, bridges, and hydro electric dams. Or you know, bricks for dropping on people out of your bag of holding as you fly overhead on a carpet of flying and really lord it over them.

And now that you have a community of fire proof, on fire people who live in stone houses, you can set up chimneys to funnel that heat all into your flying castle to boil your water and power your boiler driven steam cannons. I mean, it's not like it's a stretch to use immovable rods encased in fabricated and hardened stone as the solid support structure that the rest of your 'floating' castle is based upon. And it will make such a great platform from which to set steam powered artillery pieces with which to aggressively protect your citizens.
... Doesn't being on fire cause 1d6 points of fire damage per round, not 1d4?

Also, doing that means that your citizens will likely take damage when touching each other- fire resistance negates a certain number of damage per round, not per source (IIRC).