magic mouth, uses and abuses

[Joe dirt]

Magic Mouth,
You implant a message within an object in range, a message that is uttered when a trigger condition is met. Choose an object that you can see and that isn't being worn or carried by another creature. Then speak the message, which must be 25 words or less, though it can be delivered over as long as 10 minutes. Finally, determine the circumstance that will trigger the spell to deliver your message.

When that circumstance occurs, a magical mouth appears on the object and recites the message in your voice and at the same volume you spoke. If the object you chose has a mouth or something that looks like a mouth (for example, the mouth of a statue), the magical mouth appears there so that the words appear to come from the object's mouth. When you cast this spell, you can have the spell end after it delivers its message, or it can remain and repeat its message whenever the trigger occurs.

The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the object. For example, you could instruct the mouth to speak when any creature moves within 30 feet of the object or when a silver bell rings within 30 feet of it.

* - (a small bit of honeycomb and jade dust worth at least 10 gp, which the spell consumes)

please tell me why im wrong on this.
so I was thinking there are many ways to use magic mouth, but one way is for security actually. you can place magic mouth on your coin purse for example and then give it the circumstance that "ALARM" over and over is yelled if anyone other than those designated at the time of casting it touches the bag. but this could also be a door u want semi-permanent protection for.

[Mr.Spastic]

i think that it is implied the object can't be moved, hence the worn or carried denial, but your on the right track. I use them to have my enemys monologue the the pcs as they are walking through a hallway.

[Galithar]

Worn or carried at casting. It doesn't say anything about the effect being dispelled if the object moves.

Edit: it also specifies 'by another creature' meaning something worn or carried by the caster would be fine.

[Joe dirt]

i think that it is implied the object can't be moved, hence the worn or carried denial, but your on the right track. I use them to have my enemys monologue the the pcs as they are walking through a hallway.

why do you think it cant be moved after the casting? if you are referring to this line... "You implant a message within an object in range, a message that is uttered when a trigger condition is met. Choose an object that you can see and that isn't being worn or carried by another creature."

this is a line that is ONLY talking about the initial casting of the spell, what you do after you cast the spell is up to you. its a spell that is about delivering a message, and i do not read it as required to stay in one place afterward.

[Mr.Spastic]

I said I thought it was implied. I wasn't sure. But if it work that way that's cool.

[Sirithhyando]

I'm so going to cast this on a sword so that it says "Look! Being you!" when the sword is being swung. Or anything to annoy the defender. :smallbiggrin:

[Vorpalchicken]

A good way to abuse magic mouth is to cast it in the inside of your codpiece.

[Man_Over_Game]

I have it track who accesses our vault by selecting specific people that mention by name to the Magic Mouth, and it'll remember each person who accessed it since the last time I asked to report who had accessed it. It can be as detailed as I want, so that's what I'm doing.

If someone it doesn't recognize accesses it, it'll yell out "FIRE", as that generally draws more of a crowd than "HELP!". Tack on Thaumaturgy and make your voice very loud to add to the effect. Also tack on the fact that this can last up to 10 minutes.

You could also specify a specific password for each item, screaming in the same way on a faulty password if someone takes a special item from it.

Lastly, I do all of this, but have it choose not to record my actions when I give it a specific password. It was a terrible idea to choose the group quartermaster from the group's thief.

Lately, we've acquired a Bag of Holding. Cool thing is, this is all applicable with the same ability and can be cast on the bag. If you try to steal it, you now have a bag yelling louder than a car alarm, screaming "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, FIRE".

At that point, I figure most DM's won't even care about trying to steal it. Probably not worth the effort. And the value of keeping out the DM plot of "Stealing yo' sh**" with a 2nd level spell is a great investment.

[ATHATH]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?539861-The-Arcane-Programmer-Guide-(-Official-Rules-Technique-)

[Galithar]

Magic mouth is incapable of 'remembering' anything. Definitely an abuse of the spell. It could say a specific thing really loud when a specific person enters. But if that person say, cast silence before retrieving the item then the spell can't later tell you who was in the vault.

Magic mouth also has a restriction of ten minutes (which you mentioned) and 25 words. Those twenty five words can be spread over ten minutes, but there can still only be 25 of them. You could argue that one word repeated is only one word and some might let that fly. Personally as a DM I wouldn't, but it is vague enough to be up for interpretation.

[Man_Over_Game]

Magic mouth is incapable of 'remembering' anything. Definitely an abuse of the spell. It could say a specific thing really loud when a specific person enters. But if that person say, cast silence before retrieving the item then the spell can't later tell you who was in the vault.

Magic mouth also has a restriction of ten minutes (which you mentioned) and 25 words. Those twenty five words can be spread over ten minutes, but there can still only be 25 of them. You could argue that one word repeated is only one word and some might let that fly. Personally as a DM I wouldn't, but it is vague enough to be up for interpretation.

The first bullet might be a valid point. To me, "When I say Record List, I want you to say the names of John, Mike, or Sarah, which are these people, who have accessed this item since I last said Record List. If someone else accessed it since then, say "Stranger"" seems reasonable. I might let that fly as a DM. But I definitely see where other DMs might have an issue with it.

As for the second bullet, you can have it be a less than 10 minute phrase. A 2 second phrase, saying only the word "FIRE" when you're being handled by someone who doesn't give the password seems very reasonable. Since you can have the action repeat each time the condition is true, it'll just be on a loop until dispelled.

Silence is a concern, but so is Knock. Just because you have a deadbolt on your door doesn't mean someone can't get in from your window. It's about deterrent.

Few people are thieves. Get rid of the casual ones and now your chances of being stolen from decrease dramatically.

[ErHo]

A good way to abuse magic mouth is to cast it in the inside of your codpiece.

Critical Win!

[Slayn82]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off shennigans. You can cast this so you have an alibi while you go somewhere else. If someone checks, it aswers with your voice.

Corpses also are technically objects, so you can do a quick round of Weekend at Bernie's. It may be worth a shot, literally, as the enemy drops their A game on the body. A nice trick could be to bluff by making the bodies just repeat a single word whenever you say it. Something like:

Now you fools gonna meet your DOOM! - and the several corpses: "DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!", and later: You are DOOMED after all! - and again the several corpses: "DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!".

It also can be used to give orders to minions and raise alarms, if you program it like: [Whenever someone who cross this corridor without being accompanied by someone dressed with my symbol: "AHAHAHA! Rats invading my sanctum? Guards, finish this!"]

A few Magic Mouth together can probably give some quite sofisticated commands, specially since they can remain indefinitely. Each one having a single line of command, probably with an instruction to the listener so they can trigger the next one in the chain.

[Aaron Underhand]

The first bullet might be a valid point. To me, "When I say Record List, I want you to say the names of John, Mike, or Sarah, which are these people, who have accessed this item since I last said Record List. If someone else accessed it since then, say "Stranger"" seems reasonable. I might let that fly as a DM. But I definitely see where other DMs might have an issue with it.


I think the phase said is fixed, so there is an issue with this. You could try 4 magic mouths. For example mouth 1 says "Sarah" if i say 'record list" and Sarah has touched this since I last said "record list". Mouth 4 says "stranger" if i say 'record list" and anyone other than John, Sarah, or Mike has touched this since I last said "record list".

[Pienterekaak]

Since it specifies the same volume..
start recording
wait 5 seconds
cast shatter (or any other way to produce any noise that causes damage upon hearing)
put it on a command word

sonic handgrenade ftw?

[Galithar]

No spell causes damage from hearing it.
Thunderwave can damage deaf creatures for example. You could replicate the sound, but you'd need an incredibly anything goes DM to get it to cause damage.

[Man_Over_Game]

Since it specifies the same volume..
start recording
wait 5 seconds
cast shatter (or any other way to produce any noise that causes damage upon hearing)
put it on a command word

sonic handgrenade ftw?

Loud volume isn't quite the same as magical thunder damage. Those spells have magical thunder damage AND make a loud sound, but it's not because of the loud sound that Shatter destroys constructs, for instance. If physics were real from spells, Silence would be a perfect vacuum, and you don't want that to happen.

[sithlordnergal]

Ohhh, I like that idea:

Cast Magic Mouth, followed by Thunderwave as many times as you can. If that isn't an alarm then I don't know what is.

[jiriku]

In a Spelljammer-style campaign, I used magic mouth on an object that was a long cable terminating in a stylized dragon's head. I built a pipe from the ship's helm to the cannon compartment, then wired a couple dozen of these "talking serpents" with half going in one direction (head near helm, tail near cannons) and the other half wired the other direction. Each one responded to a pre-spoken phrase like "fire at the nearest target!", "status report!" or "cannons ready to fire!" by repeating what had been spoken.

The effect was that for a set of a dozen pre-selected commands or reports, the ship's captain and the cannon crew had instant communication during combat. The DM felt that this was a significant advantage in fire control, and often granted our ship a surprise round or free placement at the top of the initiative sequence because we could choose targets much more quickly than most other ships.