Good spells to cast on your possessions

[St Fan]

Hello. I’m trying to make a list of the most interesting spells characters can cast on their equipment (independently of enchanting them). Preferably of the permanent kind.

I’ve already listed a few favorites:

Arcane Mark: Nice way to invisibly brand your possessions in order to avoid theft or exchange.

Dragoneye Rune: Same as arcane mark, plus you can locate precisely the item three times per day. It becomes very hard to lose it or have it stolen.

Hardening: Although it doesn’t quite make an item invulnerable, it sure makes it much more resistant, making sunder quite unlikely. Note that there is no level cap to the hardness bonus, thus if you can booster your caster level very high, the resulting hardness can be quite impressive, especially with enchanted weapon and armors. Can be costly, though (unless you’re a dweomerkeeper).

Sequester: Not permanent, but the lengthy duration means you just have to cast it regularly every two weeks or so. Very useful if you want an item to become utterly indetectable. However, you’d better keep it on yourself all the time, or you may have trouble finding it...

Shrink Item + Permanency: Can make items very easy to hide and smuggle, especially weapons, not to mention carry them without bothering about load.


Any other I have overlooked?

[Eldariel]

Hello. I’m trying to make a list of the most interesting spells characters can cast on their equipment (independently of enchanting them). Preferably of the permanent kind.

I’ve already listed a few favorites:

Arcane Mark: Nice way to invisibly brand your possessions in order to avoid theft or exchange.

Dragoneye Rune: Same as arcane mark, plus you can locate precisely the item three times per day. It becomes very hard to lose it or have it stolen.

Hardening: Although it doesn’t quite make an item invulnerable, it sure makes it much more resistant, making sunder quite unlikely. Note that there is no level cap to the hardness bonus, thus if you can booster your caster level very high, the resulting hardness can be quite impressive, especially with enchanted weapon and armors. Can be costly, though (unless you’re a dweomerkeeper).

Sequester: Not permanent, but the lengthy duration means you just have to cast it regularly every two weeks or so. Very useful if you want an item to become utterly indetectable. However, you’d better keep it on yourself all the time, or you may have trouble finding it...

Shrink Item + Permanency: Can make items very easy to hide and smuggle, especially weapons, not to mention carry them without bothering about load.


Any other I have overlooked?

Magic Aura, of course. Not permanent but days/level level 1 spell so close enough. It's great! Sell trash as magic items of considerable power, conceal the power of all your magic items to make them harder to assail/target. The only problems with both this and Sequester are that while the item itself is nigh' undetectable, the spell cast on it registers on Arcane Sight and similar powers.

[Zaq]

Permanent spells on objects, you say? I relatively recently discovered the little nugget of weirdness that is [Leomund's] Phantom Trap (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/phantomTrap.htm). It's not the most abusable spell in the game without an awful lot of work, but it's still pretty weird overall. I made a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552506-3-5-Leomund-s-(Phantom)-Trap&p=22888145) about it a couple of months ago. Just don't cast it yourself if you have the Trapfinding class feature, because you're not exempt from being convinced that the item in question is trapped.

Not technically a spell, but you can do weird stuff with Bladeshimmer (Complete Scoundrel, pg. 114). It's a very cheap magic item that you coat an object with, and the object then becomes permanently invisible until you attack with the coated item. (It's also implied, though not spelled out in crystal clear terms, that Bladeshimmer can be intentionally wiped away, so be mindful of that, I suppose.) The intended use is to make a weapon invisible and make the target of your attack flat-footed, but that's not worth 750 gp most of the time. But I'm sure you can find a use for making other things invisible, no? (It's actually not even certain if you need to coat the entire item to make the effect happen—it's possible that you might be able to use it to make "windows" in a wall or something, but that might be a question for your GM.)

[St Fan]

Permanent spells on objects, you say? I relatively recently discovered the little nugget of weirdness that is [Leomund's] Phantom Trap (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/phantomTrap.htm). It's not the most abusable spell in the game without an awful lot of work, but it's still pretty weird overall. I made a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552506-3-5-Leomund-s-(Phantom)-Trap&p=22888145) about it a couple of months ago. Just don't cast it yourself if you have the Trapfinding class feature, because you're not exempt from being convinced that the item in question is trapped.


Yeah, when it comes to traps cast on objects with a lock, there's a whole new bag of trick opening. Not the main point of this thread, it would deserve its own. Let's just say that a creative wizard who don't want anybody to even glance at his spellbook can get really, really nasty.



Not technically a spell, but you can do weird stuff with Bladeshimmer (Complete Scoundrel, pg. 114). It's a very cheap magic item that you coat an object with, and the object then becomes permanently invisible until you attack with the coated item. (It's also implied, though not spelled out in crystal clear terms, that Bladeshimmer can be intentionally wiped away, so be mindful of that, I suppose.) The intended use is to make a weapon invisible and make the target of your attack flat-footed, but that's not worth 750 gp most of the time. But I'm sure you can find a use for making other things invisible, no? (It's actually not even certain if you need to coat the entire item to make the effect happen—it's possible that you might be able to use it to make "windows" in a wall or something, but that might be a question for your GM.)

That's interesting, cause I was wondering about the effects of having invisible objects too. Making the target flat-footed was my best guest. It should be noted that invisibility is another spell that can be made permanent on an item. I wonder what would be the effects of making an armor invisible... finding the weak spot should logically become harder...

[Nifft]

(It's actually not even certain if you need to coat the entire item to make the effect happen—it's possible that you might be able to use it to make "windows" in a wall or something, but that might be a question for your GM.)

What if you only paint it on one side of a wall?

Do you get a one-way window?

[Zaq]

What if you only paint it on one side of a wall?

Do you get a one-way window?

You're reading the same rules text as I am, and I think we can agree that the devs didn't necessarily think of this. You very well might get a one-way window. Or a two-way one. Or maybe it does nothing until you've coated the entire item. A GM is pretty well within their rights to make any of those choices. Interesting possibilities, though!

[Nifft]

You're reading the same rules text as I am, and I think we can agree that the devs didn't necessarily think of this. You very well might get a one-way window. Or a two-way one. Or maybe it does nothing until you've coated the entire item. A GM is pretty well within their rights to make any of those choices. Interesting possibilities, though!

Maybe that stuff is why helmets don't impose a Spot penalty -- literally every helmet is already coated with invisibility paint on the inside.

[Goaty14]

Arcane Mark is also good, particularly if you can get a heightened caster level on them, because then things that hit you with dispels will hit your arcane marks first. It was brought up in a thread about a Persisting Cleric getting his buffs dispelled that he could cast Arcane Mark on his underwear at his CL + 1 and any targeted dispel would hit the mark first.

[St Fan]

Arcane Mark is also good, particularly if you can get a heightened caster level on them, because then things that hit you with dispels will hit your arcane marks first. It was brought up in a thread about a Persisting Cleric getting his buffs dispelled that he could cast Arcane Mark on his underwear at his CL + 1 and any targeted dispel would hit the mark first.

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought of that. Only works against area dispel, though, not targeted dispels.

This made me realize there is really little way to protect items against targeted dispels. Even though it only lasts 1d4 rounds, it can be quite inconvenient.

The aforementioned Magic Aura sure is a way to avoid being targeted in the first place, although any wizard worth his hat would get suspicious to see absolutely no item pinging on a detect magic. Although getting ordinary items an aura is a way to increase confusion, I guess.

Making the items invisible to avoid targeting looks even more tempting with this in account, especially if you have permanent detect invisibility to not misplace them.

Invisible equipment can have plenty other advantages, of course. Like having that scantily clad and unarmed elf maiden looking all helpless being actually covered in plate armor when some evil dudes attack her.

[St Fan]

You know what, about [Leomund's] Phantom Trap, I just found the ONE lock you'd definitely want to put the spell on.


Quick-Escape: Ingeniously crafted, this armor uses special buckles, straps, and releases so it can be removed in mere moments. It is a favorite of wealthy sailors and adventurers who anticipate going near bodies of water. As a standard action, the wearer pulls and twists on a special lock, located on the shield-side hip, which causes the armor to fall away.

It's already unlikely that a rogue would manage to open it in combat (a high disable device check is required), with the illusory trap it can discourage even a mere attempt.

[unseenmage]

If 3.0 is allowed the Minor Servitor spell from Savage Species makes the item into an intelligent, free willed Construct.

Add Mineralize Warrior from Underdark and viola, removes that pesky free will for a year IIRC.

OR so long as it stays within range you can threaten to dispel the Permanent effect of Minor Servitor to obtain the item's obedience. Or just Diplomance it.

Generally GMs wont let you wield or wear creatures. However, if Pathfinder Construct rules are in play then it can be 'deactivated' by laying a hand on it and telling it to calm its bits.

[Jay R]

My lower level wizard always carries a polished stick of wood with Nystul's Magic Aura on it.. I would rather thieves steal his (fake) wand than anything he actually uses.