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ufo
2007-08-03, 07:59 AM
I'm sure some of you spellcasters have tried this. You're placed in a dire situation, and your arsenal of spells (for one reason or another) only contains ineffective spells, or spells that are not suitable for this situation.

I'll begin:

For some idiotic reason, I had chosen the spell 'Mount', and furthermore had it prepared. Me 'n' my half-orc mate returned to the inn we frequented for a rest after having found, killed and sold the hide of a golden basilisk. We we're about to go to sleep, we hear battle downstairs and rush out of our room. In front of the stairs, there is a man in a black coat, he tosses a knife at me. Succesfully dodge it. My half-orc 'friend' rushes at the man. I look over my list of spells, only to find the spells 'light' and 'mount' un-used. For some reason, I had a patch of horse hair, so I summon a pony above the enemy. Splat...

Ikkitosen
2007-08-03, 08:07 AM
The trouble with threads like this is that after so many rules iterations the authors have closed most of the loopholes there "inventive uses" exploit.

For example, you now have to summon stuff onto a surface that can support it, so no Mount-squishy goodness :smallfrown:

CrazedGoblin
2007-08-03, 08:13 AM
im not sure its an alternative use for spells but when i played Githyanki Archer. ill need to put abit of backstory into it. There is one dubious character which has fitted into most of out game group's campaigns the person is known as Alfred, im sure if i get some of his description wrong platinum jester will correct me but basicly he was the master of the spork and was immortal and a retard, i think he had long pink hair but im not sure.

Anyway back to the story, Alfred had got himself impaled on a cadaver collecter and was still being a pain and annoying it, so when we came to fight this beast i circled around the back while said beastie tried to eat the party i spotted Alfred and made a perfect shot on Alfreds wrist and severed it because it had a ring on it which looked magical.

I didnt want to go near the collector as it was turning my group members into kebabs so i used the force... erm i mean their mental racial abilites to summon the bleeding severed wrist to me and use the rings to save the day!

ufo
2007-08-03, 08:29 AM
For example, you now have to summon stuff onto a surface that can support it, so no Mount-squishy goodness :smallfrown:

Huh? My Player's Handbook (3.5) says nothing about this. It doesn't say much about magic at all, really.

Ikkitosen
2007-08-03, 08:31 AM
Huh? My Player's Handbook (3.5) says nothing about this. It doesn't say much about magic at all, really.

Errata, FAQ and the like tend to be where these little ruiners turn up. Ask Lord Silvanos or one of the other encyclopedic memory/reference guys around here :smallwink:

Zim
2007-08-03, 08:34 AM
Back in 3.0 (before they changed the magic rules), we played Tomb of Horrors. The party was attacked by a Juggernaught, which proceeded to steamroll much of the party into fine red goo.

Desperately, the cohort cleric and Alienist threw together a hasty plan. The cleric cast stone shape on the floor to turn it into a pit large enough to trap the Juggernaught, and the Alienist summoned several pseudonatural whales to splatter onto it. Although the whales could not harm it, they ended up gumming up its gears with whale guts. Ewww.... I'm pretty certain that my DM shared this story with some WotC designers and the rules about summoning creatures into unsuitable environments were changed.

Another time, also back in 3.0, we were facing off against a grey render. My half-orc barbarian tossed a Quall's tree token in its mouth. Use your imagination. This was probably also shared with certain game designers and probably lead to another rules change...I never get to have any fun...or at least not the same fun twice. :smallbiggrin:

Sajek
2007-08-03, 09:04 AM
My character was once stuck in the wilderness at night and cast light on an arrow and shot it into the air like a flare.

Swooper
2007-08-03, 09:36 AM
Back in 3.0 (before they changed the magic rules)
Which changes are you referring to? I fairly recently updated to 3.5 and can't remember any changes to the magic system as a whole; only some tweaks to individual spells and spell schools.

Zim
2007-08-03, 09:46 AM
That would be the
a)you can't summon an aquatic creature into a non-aquatic enviroment, the b) you can't summon non-flying object in mid air -they need a solid surface to rest on,
and c) a summoned object must be able to fit into the space its called into, otherwise it will only grow as large as the space permits or fail rules.

Paraphrased, not RAW. Cheers!:smallsmile:

Swooper
2007-08-03, 10:29 AM
Ah. Well I knew about those. Shame really, I remember my barking mad conjurer back in 3.0 summoning a fiendish octopus on top of the city walls, spurting ink at the guards (I'm pretty sure it didn't say that only worked underwater). Fun times. I had a pretty good laugh that session... :smallbiggrin:

Leon
2007-08-03, 10:42 AM
Seen a Celestial Badger summoned twice to dig a boat off a sand bank (same sand bank..... they were not the best sailors)

kpenguin
2007-08-03, 10:52 AM
That would be the
a)you can't summon an aquatic creature into a non-aquatic enviroment, the b) you can't summon non-flying object in mid air -they need a solid surface to rest on,
and c) a summoned object must be able to fit into the space its called into, otherwise it will only grow as large as the space permits or fail rules.

Paraphrased, not RAW. Cheers!:smallsmile:

Those were only mentioned in the Summon Monster spell entries, so they might not apply to Mount.

PlatinumJester
2007-08-03, 11:33 AM
There is one dubious character which has fitted into most of out game group's campaigns the person is known as Alfred, im sure if i get some of his description wrong platinum jester will correct me but basicly he was the master of the spork and was immortal and a retard, i think he had long pink hair but im not sure.


He didn't have long pink and he wasn't always a retard but a highly intelligent wizard (ironic huh) but was turned retarded when a player crossed decided (due to him beig a newbie and not knowing any rules) to cross out the 8 out of 18 to make it 1.


As for alternative uses for spells:

Number 1: Summon Undead 1 + Chain of Eyes. Scout out the area (inc: underwater).

Number 2: Web as a safety net or an easy was to climb up walls (kind of)

Number 3: Detonate but use it on a crappy little animal like a rabbit so that it fails it save.

Number 4: Telepathic Bond - hate a person in your party? Then use it on them in their sleep and then freak them out by talking to them and pretending to be their conscience.

Number 5: Tenser's Floating disk. Use to get height bonus or fill with alchemists fire before dispelling (big bang)

Number 6: Mage Hand Greater: good for picking pockets, lifting up skirts, steal arrows out of an enemy archer's quiver or removing swords from sheaths when no one is looking. Or just pick up an alchemist's fire and chuck it.

Yeril
2007-08-03, 11:38 AM
Number 6: Mage Hand Greater: good for picking pockets, lifting up skirts, steal arrows out of an enemy archer's quiver or removing swords from sheaths when no one is looking. Or just pick up an alchemist's fire and chuck it.

SOLD :amused:

PlatinumJester
2007-08-03, 11:44 AM
Mage Hand is the best cantrip apart from Caltrops (which once saved my life when a soldier with 1hp trod on one and died :smallbiggrin:)

Tallis
2007-08-03, 11:46 AM
In an old game I played there was a crazy old wizard who tended to get spells just a little bit wrong. He cast anvilfall ( the reverse of featherfall) on a dragon. Instead of making the dragon fall it summoned a giant anvil above his head. SPLAT!! He ended up using that spell a lot in that battle actually.

Leicontis
2007-08-03, 12:24 PM
Once, our party was in a half-flooded sunken temple. We needed to fight our way through some water elementals in the area with the deepest part of the water, which was over-our-heads deep. Our party sorcerer solved the problem by summoning a Tenser's Floating Disk for each party member, allowing him to hover us all over the water and into position. That was an interesting battle...

Roderick_BR
2007-08-03, 02:07 PM
My friend did this: Charisma Check to seduce the guard, True Strike, and finally, Ray of Frost at 0 range on his eyes to blind him.

TheAlmightyOne
2007-08-03, 02:11 PM
I cast teleport on an enraged dire bear so it appeared in a small village with a population of about 10. There were no survivors.

MountainKing
2007-08-03, 03:06 PM
Once, as my first character in D&D (Barennd, Dwarven druid), I tried using Soften Earth and Stone to try and weaken the base of a cliff so as to try and collapse the cliff face and create a slope we could climb up. Instead, my DM railroaded us into waiting for kobolds to repair the bridge (which was destroyed at the time).

Chronos
2007-08-03, 04:26 PM
Mage Hand is the best cantrip apart from Caltrops (which once saved my life when a soldier with 1hp trod on one and died )Mage Hand is great, but it still doesn't compare to the versatility of Prestidigitation. Remember, Pres can still move objects at a distance, and a 1 lb weight limit isn't too much worse than a 5 lb limit (either will serve for grabbing the keys off the hook across the room, for instance).

Golthur
2007-08-03, 06:51 PM
I've used mount as a food source in one campaign... :eek:

SalientGreen
2007-08-03, 07:31 PM
I've used Prestidigitation to soil the pants of a mage I just conceded a spell duel to just before he walked back into the crowded tavern....

Arbitrarity
2007-08-03, 07:36 PM
Prestidigitation: The spell for everything.

It's like limited wish, except more limited!

Laundry, soiling, dampness, pulling clothes, freezing people's shorts... it's all an option!

(Seriously, changing someone's metal armour to be 22.2 degrees celsius colder is cold. Note that it's also good for soup.)

NullAshton
2007-08-03, 08:36 PM
The trouble with threads like this is that after so many rules iterations the authors have closed most of the loopholes there "inventive uses" exploit.

For example, you now have to summon stuff onto a surface that can support it, so no Mount-squishy goodness :smallfrown:

I just randomly had a thought.... what if you summon it on the ceiling? The ceiling CAN support it, after all... just that gravity isn't pointing the right way at the time.

Curmudgeon
2007-08-03, 09:59 PM
I just randomly had a thought.... what if you summon it on the ceiling? The ceiling CAN support it, after all... just that gravity isn't pointing the right way at the time. You've obviously never built a house. Except in areas where hurricane tie-downs are required -- which includes everywhere using Middle Ages technology -- it's pretty much just gravity that holds a ceiling on top of the walls. There are a few smooth-shank nails to keep things from shifting sideways, but reverse the gravity and the weight of the roof plus a ton of summoned monster will have that ceiling incapable of supporting anything except air directly. (Your first clue will be your summoned critter heading for the skies in the very next second.)

Thanatos 51-50
2007-08-03, 10:13 PM
A solitary key floats in the center of a cylndrical room. My Paladan has Fly active on him.
He can't get to the key because the wind in the room is too strong and he can't fly at the key to grab it.

The Party's sorceress casts a Wind Wall and molds it so that it loops from one side of the portal, around the key, and back to the other side. It was clear sailing in and out.

This has since made me think about using Force Wall to cross chasms, or a permnant Force wall as a coloquial "leap of faith"/Invisible Bridge.

Sornjss Lichdom
2007-08-03, 10:15 PM
well theres a quick escape, reverse graviaty or fake graviaty (from SC) and you got your self a quick way out of any bar fight.

Iudex Fatarum
2007-08-04, 01:43 AM
I've seen prestidigitation used in some strange ways, pretend to be blind by changing eye color, gtting circumstance bonuses on hide by chaning to the color of the surroundings.

ThorFluff
2007-08-04, 02:41 AM
Bridge of sound(savage spieces) over appropriate chasm, cover with cloth.
Wait for the enemy, dismiss bridge of sound. Or you could do it the other way, Bridge of sound across to room, in the ceiling, load lots of crap on it, dismiss when enemy comes.

Yechezkiel
2007-08-04, 02:55 AM
Hate to ruin these great alternate uses but

"A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it. "

So no dropping them and:

"Summoning: A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower. It is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again."

No eating them. This is all in the SRD and PHB sections before all the spells that a lot of people never seem to know exist.

Ikkitosen is completely right about these threads.

JackMage666
2007-08-04, 03:26 AM
I used Alter Self to actually disguise myself as another race, rather than looking for the most broken way to use it.

I know, revolutionary!

Mr the Geoff
2007-08-04, 04:25 AM
We were faced of in a ridiculously level inappropriate encounter with the pit fiend bbeg of our campaign with orders to "keep it busy for a few minutes" until the high level npc cleric could get there to dispel it.

None of the melee could hit its AC, none of the casters could beat its SR and were low on spells anyway. TH pit fiend is getting dangerously bored of using the paladin as a club to beat the barbarian with and is about to properly unleash the pwn (DM was having fun rather than using the MM tactics, as we were the "meddling kids" that had blown it's cover and it wanted to kill us slowly).

The cleric needs to find a way to get the pit fiend to drop the paladin, who is in very bad shape at this point, so he comes up with a stroke of genious.

Create water, 20 odd gallons, right between the eyes. No save, no SR, one wet and annoyed pit fiend. Pit fiend throws the paladin at the cleric, cleric has the hp to survive a couple of rounds of being chewed, buys us the time for the npc to get there.

Extra_Crispy
2007-08-04, 05:22 AM
Recently a friend cast grease on an intelligent elf bane sword that had taken control of the ungodly powerful fighter. Took the sword right out of his hands.

Back in AD&D, there was a spell (item, i think) that allowed you to put an object of #lbs weight per level into another item. Put a very large rock into a piece of cloth, tie said cloth to an arrow. The item in the cloth comes out upon (if i remember right) impact. The DM at the time was using a hit location table that was published in Dragon Magazine a long time ago. So my friend shoots an arrow at a adult white dragon that is flying into attack, roles a 20. Location eye, the rock inlarges and is too big to fit in eye socket = dead dragon with one arrow shot.

Ice storm to put out a building fire.

One of the funniest has to be though when I was running dragon mountain, again back in AD&D. The party had decided to cast some wall spells to defend a villiage that was about to be attacked by a horde of Kobolds. They surrounded the Inn with the walls but left the top open where they stood with any able villiagers. They were planning to use ranged fire for as long as possible on the Kobolds. The dwarf fighter had no ranged so he decided to meed the horde head on and stayed outside. The Kobolds overwhelmed him, pulled him to the ground and was about to drag him away as a sacrifice when one of the mages fireballed his friend the dwarf. Killing all the Kobolds that were trying to carry him off and melting the 10lbs of butter the dwarf had in his back pack. For some reason the player ALWAYS bought 10 pounds of butter when he made a character. Anyway the dwarf was effectivily out of the fight as he almost could not stand, could not hold weapons in his hands, but he also could not be grabbed on to as he was too slippery.

Extra_Crispy
2007-08-04, 05:27 AM
Recently a friend cast grease on an intelligent elf bane sword that had taken control of the ungodly powerful fighter. Took the sword right out of his hands.

Back in AD&D, there was a spell (item, i think) that allowed you to put an object of #lbs weight per level into another item. Put a very large rock into a piece of cloth, tie said cloth to an arrow. The item in the cloth comes out upon (if i remember right) impact. The DM at the time was using a hit location table that was published in Dragon Magazine a long time ago. So my friend shoots an arrow at a adult white dragon that is flying into attack, roles a 20. Location eye, the rock inlarges and is too big to fit in eye socket = dead dragon with one arrow shot.

Ice storm to put out a building fire.

One of the funniest has to be though when I was running dragon mountain, again back in AD&D. The party had decided to cast some wall spells to defend a villiage that was about to be attacked by a horde of Kobolds. They surrounded the Inn with the walls but left the top open where they stood with any able villiagers. They were planning to use ranged fire for as long as possible on the Kobolds. The dwarf fighter had no ranged so he decided to meed the horde head on and stayed outside. The Kobolds overwhelmed him, pulled him to the ground and was about to drag him away as a sacrifice when one of the mages fireballed his friend the dwarf. Killing all the Kobolds that were trying to carry him off and melting the 10lbs of butter the dwarf had in his back pack. For some reason the player ALWAYS bought 10 pounds of butter when he made a character. Anyway the dwarf was effectivily out of the fight as he almost could not stand, could not hold weapons in his hands, but he also could not be grabbed on to as he was too slippery.

Green Bean
2007-08-04, 05:40 AM
A sorcerer in a game I was in used Fabricate to convince the cleric his god had abandoned him. He was a bit of a jerk (the character, not the player)

Irreverent Fool
2007-08-04, 05:54 AM
In the World's Largest Dungeon, summoned creatures cannot return to their home plane and simply become entirely free-willed (and a little upset) when the summoning spell's duration ends. We'd found a room with shallow pools of continuously clean water we began using as base.

We were running out of food. I started summoning dolphins.


Iron Wall + Fabricate (Cannonballs) + Telekinesis = Who needs a cannon?


Prestidigitation to turn the red hearts on a card to black to make them look like the rest of the spades and win a game of poker with a flush before anyone looked too closely.


Energy Transformation Field (SpC) with the 'Suggestion' spell keyed to it as a trap. The suggestion is that the victim cast their highest level spell. Tends to drain spellcasters.


Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion cast on a door, effectively keeping anyone from entering the room that is actually beyond that door.


Casting Spider Climb requires the subject eat a spider. This is a great way to get the party to trust you. Then feed them black widows. Does this qualify as alternate spell use?

Greymarch
2007-08-04, 01:13 PM
Technically this was in HackMaster, but the spells are pretty much the same.

Party was running from a large pack of Dire Wolves, and the Magic-user cast Mount and the Sleep on it. He sprinkled it with some BBQ sauce and the Dire Wolves were distracted long enough for us to get away!

And I've been getting a lot of use out of my Whisper Gnomes ability to use Mage Hand. The DM keeps forgetting about it because it's a racial ability and not a class one.

So far my Bard has been pretty much just using Prestigitation for lighting effects when he performs...

CrazedGoblin
2007-08-04, 01:21 PM
I just randomly had a thought.... what if you summon it on the ceiling? The ceiling CAN support it, after all... just that gravity isn't pointing the right way at the time.

hahah! i have to try this :smallbiggrin:

Peregrine
2007-08-04, 01:28 PM
I once tried interrogating a bad guy by prestidigitating his shoes a few degrees warmer, and telling him he would slowly burst into flames if he didn't start answering questions. It was better than what the rest of the party wanted to do, which involved actual torture. I felt like the only actually Good character in the party... after this ploy of mine failed, I left the room (well, cave) in disgust, unable to convince the others to lay off. The paladin, err, conveniently stepped outside too, when the amputations began.

And why did my ploy fail? Because the DM said, "He knows magic doesn't work like that." Now, this bad guy was, to the best of our knowledge, just a barbarian. No casting ability or relevant Knowledge or Spellcraft skill. No Bluff or Intimidate rolls on my part. Just a DM-mandated failure. :smallmad:

I want to some day use flare for what it sounds like: a flare, for signalling purposes or the like.

Citizen Joe
2007-08-04, 04:26 PM
The paladin, err, conveniently stepped outside too, when the amputations began.

And why did my ploy fail? Because the DM said, "He knows magic doesn't work like that."

And now he knows how knives work.

I was going to use a low charisma character that would approach someone in that situation and say, "I'm not exactly diplomatic or have any skills at bluffing, and I don't really know how to torture properly. So I'm just going to cut off a few of your fingers first, before I start asking questions."

captain_decadence
2007-08-04, 09:21 PM
Our party was being attacked by the BBEG who had just made a dramatic entrance with his billowy cloak and lots of laughing. My cleric looks at him and casts "Create Water" right on his head. It was meant to distract him enough that he couldn't cast (maybe a call for a concentration check). It didn't work, but he was thoroughly soaked and a little ridiculous after that.

Prestidigitation was used to weaken an already rickety bed so that when someone tried to lie in it, it would break. Mostly a practical joke.

I had a dwarf who was absolutely insane, and a rather high leveled spellcaster (both divine and arcane) who had the hobby of making pots out of clay. So he used the spell "Flesh to Stone" then "Stone to Mud" then a quick Craft:Pottery check and finally a "Burning Hands". His pottery wasn't really that great, but few people ever told him that.

Leicontis
2007-08-04, 10:23 PM
That foot-warming trick with Prestidigitation reminds me of the Psion I'm playing right now - he took the Matter Agitation power partially to use to give people hot-foots. On one occasion, after he had killed one orcish raider with the power, he continued concentrating (and thus the orc kept sizzling and scorching) and held the corpse in front of the surviving raider as an inducement to talk. Threatening people with spontaneous combustion works remarkably well at loosening their tongues. I still don't know what I'll do if anyone ever refuses to talk...

sparkey477
2007-08-05, 12:08 PM
Durring a game about a month ago we had managed to kill an awakened roc socerer, and our wizad insisted on turning part of it into a magic item after a bit of math and spell work, it became the Drumstick of Wisdom, a +2 greatclub that increases wisdom and can be eaten.:smallbiggrin:

Golthur
2007-08-05, 12:45 PM
"Summoning: A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower. It is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again."

No eating them. This is all in the SRD and PHB sections before all the spells that a lot of people never seem to know exist.

Ikkitosen is completely right about these threads.

Who said it was dead?

Prometheus
2007-08-05, 01:02 PM
Stomp psionic power on a pinned foe, a frozen lake, or a skylight.

Darkness spell to put a room full of birds to sleep (and steal the box that generates them).

Soften Earth and Stone to drop a stalagtite on someone.

Bless Water on a vampire's goblet full of blood.

Gentle Repose to preserve blood for vampire to drink later

Gentle Repose to preserve the paralysis powers of carrion crawler tentacles, Tendriculous acid, centipede poison, etc.

Ring of Water Elemental Control's unlimited use of Create Water to make a lake.

Gaseous Form as a means of transportation in a windy room.

Detect Magic/Evil/Poison etc to identify and vague shape of foes behind a door.

Clone, as a last-minute substitute for teleportation (suicide)

Invisibility to exacerbate or protect from vulnerability to light (DM's call)

Suggestion/Charm/Dominate to get someone to accept a Levitate spell which you subsequently use to drown them, whether or not they still want it.

Pyrotechnics to make a pile of hot coals look like a pile of rocks.

tie a large weight to someone's arms and their feet to the floor and cast Reverse Gravity

Silence and Invisibility Sphere

Transmute Metal to Wood to completely disable the springs of a catapult

Quickened Wall of Force to deflect a shot.

Temporal Stasis to prevent resurrection spells.

A handful of Goodberries to bloat someone's stomach.

Web to climb a wall and Tenser's Floating Surfboard (previously mentioned) I've done before - lots of fun.

Fluff
2007-08-05, 03:27 PM
ROFL! Check my sig for the ones that made me laugh the most.

BCOVertigo
2007-08-05, 04:13 PM
This isn't so much an inventive spell use as an observation. Almost every spell can be improved with proper use of False Theurgy (skill trick from Comp. Scoundrel).

Want to get away from a fight? Make that Invisibility look like a Planeshift and they won't even try to look for you. Any illusion becomes much more convincing when it has a PC's spellcraft roll backing it up. On the flip side, nobody will worry about the monster you just summoned if the mage tells them it's an illusion. And finally, proving warforged aren't people by making that Teleport look like a Fabricate.

All it costs is two skill points and will put the "WTF?" factor back into magic.

Edit: Teleport can't pull people what was I thinking? A cookie to whoever gives me the spell that works in that situation!

Jack_Simth
2007-08-05, 04:18 PM
Edit: Teleport can't pull people what was I thinking? A cookie to whoever gives me the spell that works in that situation!Gate will do the job, if they're already on another plane.


As for inventive uses of spells.... how about Rope Trick for keeping a boat from sinking? Doesn't work on overly large boats, but the Rope will support 16,000 pounds....

AdversusVeritas
2007-08-06, 08:16 AM
In a Ravenloft game, we discovered this spider-like creature that spun razor sharp webs that could dismember you if you walked through them. What's worse is that these webs were transparent to the point of being practically invisible. I used prestidigitation to soil the webs enough that the fighter could see them and cut them down.

In another campaign, the DM let me use prestigitation to change the way nonliving things smelled. Our characters were on the run from the city guard, so when a villager threatened to alert the guards to our presence, I used the spell it to make his clothes smell like he had been drinking heavily. The guards weren't so willing to listen after that.

PlatinumJester
2007-08-06, 09:24 AM
You could use message on a commoner and pretend to be his conscience. You could make him do anything you wanted like leave his life savings in a forest as a donation to Obad Hai or Ehlonna or if you were hungry you could make him leave food. Basically a way to get provisions without having to pay.