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View Full Version : Fun with D&D arcane magic, what's the wildest thing you have done using a spell?



Bicorn
2018-06-30, 04:06 PM
Say what you want about D&D magic system to me it's the most pratical and functional magic system we have

It can be balanced and it's quite versatile, I love using my Vancian Magic.

Have you ever sued arcane magic in a weird or insane way? Tell us about it!

Jay R
2018-06-30, 05:36 PM
When the first AD&D Monster Manual came out, the picture of a gold dragon was a classic oriental dragon. We once took advantage of that fact.

I was play-testing a tournament dungeon. We walked into an immense cavern, and saw a gold dragon 100 feet above us, who came down in full stoop, breathing fire. The DM even said that it looked like the gold dragon in the MM.

We cast dispel magic, and ducked back into the cavern. The DM pointed out that dispel magic doesn't work on dragon breath.

"I know, but look at your Monster Manual. Gold Dragons have no wings. Now he can't fly."

So a huge monster basically threw itself down to the ground from one hundred feet up, killing itself.

[This has now been changed. They have wings.]

Rerem115
2018-06-30, 08:03 PM
I've used Major Image to both hide the party from sight and to create the most fantastic light show + backup band my Bard ever imagined.

Malimar
2018-06-30, 10:04 PM
There was a big hole in a dam, pouring water. The hole was just the right size for me to conjure a house (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/secure-shelter/) in it to stop up the flow until proper repairs could be done.

Nifft
2018-06-30, 11:03 PM
It can be balanced and it's quite versatile, I love using my Vancian Magic.

"It's just that the balanced parts aren't versatile, and the versatile parts aren't balanced."

Cespenar
2018-07-02, 04:38 AM
One of my friends had a pretty wild idea in a game some 15 years ago.

"I ready an action to cast Pyrotechnics as the dragon breathes fire, turning it into clouds of smoke in its throat."

Mordaedil
2018-07-02, 06:19 AM
I've used Major Image to both hide the party from sight and to create the most fantastic light show + backup band my Bard ever imagined.

In a similar vein, I cast Major Image from a wand to create a field of bears.

Jay R
2018-07-02, 10:20 PM
In original D&D, Transmute Rock to Mud was the same spell as Transmute Mud to Rock, only recited backwards.

As a DM, I attacked a party with snakes. The cleric said, "I recite Turn Sticks to Snakes backwards."

Cespenar
2018-07-03, 02:19 AM
In original D&D, Transmute Rock to Mud was the same spell as Transmute Mud to Rock, only recited backwards.

As a DM, I attacked a party with snakes. The cleric said, "I recite Turn Sticks to Snakes backwards."

Wow. You gotta let that fly.

braveheart
2018-07-03, 01:26 PM
I did a pf campaign where early on I established that every time someone cast an arcane spell, there was a spell level squared percent chance that something else would appear along with the spell effects, unfortunately the campaign stopped when the party was lvl 7, but there were a few fire elementals left in the center of a fire ball's radius

Rodimal
2018-07-03, 01:48 PM
I once spent several days using all my Sorcerer's spell slots (with the DM's permission) to cast Explosive Runes on a bunch of basically thank you cards that were going with each of the tribute gifts for the imperial guards a powerful Lord we were trying to eliminate (the lord himself was an Ancient Green dragon). Took out most of the guards in the Surprise round.

I then killed the dragon with around 140 Maximized Magic Missiles in a combat round (our version of Wild Magic allowed for it, long story). Kinda anti-climatic, but Awesome.

Stelio Kontos
2018-07-03, 04:17 PM
I once killed a guy with a desk.

Rerem115
2018-07-03, 04:25 PM
I once killed a guy with a desk.

I think I know how you did this; if it's how I think it is, I killed half a dozen demons with a handful of silver coins the same way.

Stelio Kontos
2018-07-03, 05:08 PM
Nothing that exotic (well, maybe?). My wizard ran a furniture business on the side, and what better way to transport the merchandise than Shrink Item?

Well, one thing led to another, massive fight, running out of spells, everyone teetering on the brink of death, so I threw my miniature desk at the guy and said the command word to cancel the spell. One very high attack roll later...

Rerem115
2018-07-03, 05:11 PM
Nothing that exotic (well, maybe?). My wizard ran a furniture business on the side, and what better way to transport the merchandise than Shrink Item?

Well, one thing led to another, massive fight, running out of spells, everyone teetering on the brink of death, so I threw my miniature desk at the guy and said the command word to cancel the spell. One very high attack roll later...

Ah, okay. Not quite Animate Object, but the same effect. I tip my hat to you, sir.

LeMooseImperium
2018-07-03, 11:38 PM
Y'know, some of the 5e spells are not balanced.
"Polymorph"?
Have the party rogue drop a rat or other small animal in some article of an enemy's clothing.
Then Polymorph it into a bear.


Mwahahahahaha.

Also Wall of Force is ridiculous.

Cespenar
2018-07-04, 02:12 AM
Y'know, some of the 5e spells are not balanced.
"Polymorph"?
Have the party rogue drop a rat or other small animal in some article of an enemy's clothing.
Then Polymorph it into a bear.


Mwahahahahaha.

Also Wall of Force is ridiculous.

5e polymorph has a "equal or lower CR/level" clause that stops you from doing that, though.

Not that it's less broken of a spell.

NichG
2018-07-04, 02:40 AM
Overlapping Energy Transformation Fields + Summon Monster to make a super-critical spell engine in order to forcibly unseal a planet-sized volcano on the Elemental Plane of Fire.

LeMooseImperium
2018-07-04, 09:45 AM
5e polymorph has a "equal or lower CR/level" clause that stops you from doing that, though.

Not that it's less broken of a spell.

There are a couple low CR swarms and high CR small animals too.

ross
2018-07-04, 07:33 PM
Polymorph any object -> replace atoms with densest element that exists in campaign

Ultimate shrink item -> reduce below schwarzschild radius

run

LibraryOgre
2018-07-04, 09:29 PM
Killed a dragon with Levitate.

(Levitate big rock. Get dragon to stick head out of cave. Cancel levitate.)

John Campbell
2018-07-08, 11:04 AM
It never actually got implemented, but one of my parties at one point had a plan along these lines:

1. Catch a sack full of mice.

2. Fly high above the enemy capital on their magic carpet.

3. Cast stoneskin on all the mice. (AD&D 2E, so stoneskin just straight-up nullified the next x attacks.)

4. Dangle the mice off the edge of the carpet.

5. Polymorph other the mice into T. rexes.

6. Tyrannosaurs rain down on the city from several miles up, taking no falling damage because stoneskin (the same cannot be said for whatever they land on), then, frightened, confused, and still immune to the next several attacks, begin rampaging around in the streets.

7. Profit!

Braininthejar2
2018-07-08, 11:27 AM
Once assassinated a guy by casting reduce item on a sharp piece of chicken bone and dropping it into his meal.

Once intimidated a guy into serving me by using ghost sound to cause his deceased boss' voice to echo from inside my sleeve.

Also, rod of widen + cloudkill is a traumatic battle-ender against armies of mundanes.

Lunali
2018-07-09, 08:49 PM
5e polymorph has a "equal or lower CR/level" clause that stops you from doing that, though.

Not that it's less broken of a spell.

Yea, now you have to find a bear to polymorph into a mouse to throw at someone, then undo it, totally different.

Perch
2018-07-21, 08:57 AM
I once used Stone to Flesh on an evil Stone Elemental.

The Dm said the golem turned intro a flesh golem look a like but then I said "but stone elementals don't have bones do they?"

So it collapsed into a meat puddle due to a total lack of bone structure.

theMycon
2018-07-21, 09:34 AM
While trying to escape a rampaging large Earth Elemental (3 level 5 PCs, 2 lvl 4 DM PCs), we found ourselves caged in by a 20' wide lava flow.

The scout might have been able to jump it, but that was it- nobody else had an above average Str, any ranks to jump, and no flight. Everyone else geared up to fight, but my druid had a cunning plan. I cast summon Nature's Ally III...

... And summoned 3 small Earth elementals directly into the lava, one every 5'. Then everyone simply stepped carefully on the elementals, and then we proceeded to bolt.

Spore
2018-07-21, 02:41 PM
I once killed a guy with a desk.

I crushed an inquisitor with an iron maiden. So metal...

John Campbell
2018-07-21, 05:13 PM
I crushed an inquisitor with an iron maiden. So metal...

I beat a guy to death with a motorcycle one time. That was Shadowrun magic, not D&D, though.

Requilac
2018-07-21, 10:25 PM
I was in a group playing D&D 5e once and my party got into some shenanigans with our group's familiars. This player was a cleric/wizard multiclass who had a crab as his familiar (basically a magic animal companion). One of the features that you can do with a familiar in 5e is that you can cast a spell with a range of touch through your familiar remotely as if the familiar had casted it. So suddenly mundane looking animals can cast spells, seemingly out of nowhere if they couldn't see the caster. After our wizard/cleric buddy used it to cast Shocking Grasp on an enemy, we asked ourselves why we couldn't do more.

And thus brought the rise of the Demon Crab of Chult. Said player casted Enlarge/Reduce on the crab, and commanded it to attack some patrolling gobling troops while the PC hid 100 ft. away, sometimes under the effects of Greater Invisibility . The goblins thought they could easily take the giant crab down, but realized they were wrong once the giant crab started casting Shocking Grasp, Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse and Blight . Eventually the goblins won, but it was all for null, because approximately an hour and ten minutes later the Death Crab reappeared as the PC summoned it again with another casting of Find Familiar .

And then the rest of the group, who luckily all had Find Familiar, summoned crabs and repeated this plan with four different crab and people pairs. Soon this settlement of goblins was under constant siege by a pack of Giant Crustacean Guerillas hitting them with necromancy and lightning. And worst of all, they would not die, and would come back only about an hour within dying.

Eventually the four of us contacted the goblin leader and proclaimed that we had summoned Demon Crabs which revived in the Abyss once you killed them. We then preceded to threaten them with summoning an army of these Demon Crabs and commanding them to strike the goblins if they didn't stop ambushing travelers.

I am amazed that our DM let us get away with that.

Hooligan
2018-07-21, 11:11 PM
Badly injured swamp hag tries to flee the encounter by diving into the river and swimming upstream. Sleep. Sleeping hag is borne downstream into the dockside waterwheel. Hag is mulched by the waterwheel.

Dispel Magic on enemy wizards using Fly.

Barbarian shoves vampire into holy water pool. Neatly cover pool with a Wall of Force lid.

Amaril
2018-07-21, 11:44 PM
I once used gust of wind to blow fire from a burning building onto a group of trolls. Fight didn't last much longer :smalltongue:

Mith
2018-07-22, 12:39 AM
I was in a group playing D&D 5e once and my party got into some shenanigans with our group's familiars. This player was a cleric/wizard multiclass who had a crab as his familiar (basically a magic animal companion). One of the features that you can do with a familiar in 5e is that you can cast a spell with a range of touch through your familiar remotely as if the familiar had casted it. So suddenly mundane looking animals can cast spells, seemingly out of nowhere if they couldn't see the caster. After our wizard/cleric buddy used it to cast Shocking Grasp on an enemy, we asked ourselves why we couldn't do more.

And thus brought the rise of the Demon Crab of Chult. Said player casted Enlarge/Reduce on the crab, and commanded it to attack some patrolling gobling troops while the PC hid 100 ft. away, sometimes under the effects of Greater Invisibility . The goblins thought they could easily take the giant crab down, but realized they were wrong once the giant crab started casting Shocking Grasp, Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse and Blight . Eventually the goblins won, but it was all for null, because approximately an hour and ten minutes later the Death Crab reappeared as the PC summoned it again with another casting of Find Familiar .

And then the rest of the group, who luckily all had Find Familiar, summoned crabs and repeated this plan with four different crab and people pairs. Soon this settlement of goblins was under constant siege by a pack of Giant Crustacean Guerillas hitting them with necromancy and lightning. And worst of all, they would not die, and would come back only about an hour within dying.

Eventually the four of us contacted the goblin leader and proclaimed that we had summoned Demon Crabs which revived in the Abyss once you killed them. We then preceded to threaten them with summoning an army of these Demon Crabs and commanding them to strike the goblins if they didn't stop ambushing travelers.

I am amazed that our DM let us get away with that.

Why are you surprised? Extortion is a valid tactic.

Requilac
2018-07-22, 08:27 AM
Why are you surprised? Extortion is a valid tactic.

But does this extortion typically involve pretending that your magical pets are Demon Crabs which cast spells and revive in the Abyss?

Spore
2018-07-22, 10:31 AM
I beat a guy to death with a motorcycle one time. That was Shadowrun magic, not D&D, though.

That was one of the feats I was looking forward too in Vampire the Masquerade (motorcycle is one object used as an example for my Brujah (example to throw with Strength + Potence = 6). Sadly AJ, the bike masher never came to be =/ But that is basically "fistomancy" and besides the point of this thread anyway.

But we had a murder mystery plot and I cast Detect Poison on the victim's pillow. The poison trail led to the killer. Rather than finding more clues and puzzle pieces, my wizard used prestidigitation to color the poison trail and use that as incriminating evidence. I mean it certainly helped that the rogue convinced the giants that I was right but....technically I solved a plot point with two cantrips.

Seclora
2018-07-23, 12:04 AM
I used prestidigitation to create a stirling engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine) using mercury in an adamantine piston. It was a bit of a stretch, but it's definitely the coolest thing I've ever pulled off in game using a spell.

Spore
2018-07-23, 08:57 AM
I used prestidigitation to create a stirling engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine) using mercury in an adamantine piston. It was a bit of a stretch, but it's definitely the coolest thing I've ever pulled off in game using a spell.

Putting that Knowledge (engineering) to good use I see. :smallbiggrin:

RedMage125
2018-07-26, 08:49 AM
I once ran a 3.5e game at GenCon where the party was transported through a portal to a snowy landscape, and had to fight a Frost Giant Hexblade in waist-deep snow. One particularly clever party paralyzed the giant and then dropped a Wall Of Fire on him, while the melee individuals continued to beat on him. The Bard's turn comes up and he decides to cast Grease on the giant.

Now I know by RAW that Grease is not explicitly flammable, but it doesn't say it isn't, so I went to the RPGA rep and asked what I should do. he asked what the situation was, and I told him that even if I didn't allow the spell to do any more harm, the giant was not going to live to see another turn in initiative (he was below 1/4 hp). He shrugged, and told me to allow it.

And that's how they deep-fried a Frost Giant.

DMThac0
2018-07-26, 01:14 PM
Showing a bunch of new players the ropes in what it means to be able to pull off anything you can imagine. I was in Sunless Citadel, we had gotten to an area swarmed with goblins. I asked one of the party to bring me a dead goblin, I cast animate dead, then had another party member cast minor illusion on it's face to help it look like a kobold, we then set it on fire and I made it run at the goblins.

Time Stop + Force Cage + Delayed Blast Fireball was always a good one too.

solidork
2018-07-26, 04:42 PM
We chased some Duergar slavers into the underdark after they kidnapped some villagers, killing off the old and weak that couldn't keep up the pace. They made it to their fortress before we caught up with them, so we decided to at least talk to them before alpha striking. When the guy shouting from the battletops said that we should buy the villagers back because the Duergar leaders would kill them for losing a shipment, my War Cleric burned both his Channel Divinities for a +20 and chucked a single copper piece a hundred feet and hit him square between the eyes.

MagneticKitty
2018-07-27, 03:13 PM
Last game we dropped a flying dragon using hypnotic pattern, then caught her using feather fall so it didn't snap her out of it.

The same wizard also reduced a door (enlarge reduce) to get through it.

Nothing too special I suppose.

Malimar
2018-07-27, 03:29 PM
The same wizard also reduced a door (enlarge reduce) to get through it.
My favorite use of time hop (send something a few rounds into the future) is to get through a door.

Jay R
2018-07-29, 09:02 AM
But does this extortion typically involve pretending that your magical pets are Demon Crabs which cast spells and revive in the Abyss?

Not that specific, no, but an extortion plot that involves enough power to destroy many of your enemies is a reasonably effective scenario.

Yes, a giant magic-wielding crab is a higher caliber weapon than an Uzi, but the principle is the same.