Favorite obscure spells

[IIzak]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering, what are some of your favorite obscure spells, that most people may not know of? They can be from any of the books, I'm just looking for interesting spells that might come in useful. The suggestions are for an NPC, so its alright if the spell has a flavor that skews more towards evil or sinister. Thanks!

[Rebel7284]

Friendly Fire
Blockade
Wings of Cover
Invoke Magic

[Luckmann]

Loresong from Dragon.. 335..? ...comes to mind. I'm not sure how obscure it is, but it is often overlooked and seldomly listed, but it's a great bard spell.

[Zombulian]

Spell Compendium isn’t exactly obscure but a lot of my favorite spells are in there.
Dark Way is really neat.
Launch Bolt is conditionally very cool.
Wall of Smoke is great.
Scholar’s Touch is kinda dumb but I like it anyway.

[Troacctid]

Boccob's rolling cloud (D338). It's like a Close range cone version of fireball, except anyone who fails the Reflex save has to make an additional save or be dazed. Furthermore, instead of just dealing fire damage, it deals a mix of fire, electricity, and untyped damage, so it can benefit from bonuses to fire spells like Bloodline of Fire and Fiery Burst without leaving you hosed against enemies who are resistant or immune to fire. 3rd level sor/wiz.

Shockwave (ShC) is similar. It deals a little less damage, but it's all nonlethal force damage, and the enemies are dazed after failing only one save rather than two. It's not as good against undead and constructs, but it's great for urban campaigns where you might not want to blow up half a city block to get at the bad guys. 3rd level sor/wiz.

Flame sands is from the Wyrms of the North web enhancement series (as a signature spell of Iymrith: Dragon of Statues, Doom of the Desert, and BBEG extraordinaire best known for her prominent role in the Storm King's Thunder adventure path). It's an excellent blasting spell. SR: No for 1d6 fire damage/level against a single target within Medium range. Ranged touch to hit, Fort half. But the key is that it can be fired once per round for 1 round/level, and since there's no action listed for choosing the target each round, it defaults to a move action, which is some nice action economy. 4th level sor/wiz, 3rd level druid.

Speaking of action economy, channeled pyroburst (CM) can be cast as a full-round action to deal extra damage in a larger radius or as a swift action to deal reduced damage to a single target. I like the flexibility it offers. 4th level sor/wiz, 4th level duskblade.

...I've been working on a warmage handbook lately so I'm in a bit of a blasty mindset. Okay, one more that's not a blasting spell: call faithful servants (BE). This spell summons 1d4 minor celestials (your choice of lantern archons, coure eladrin, or musteval guardinals) who will serve you loyally for a full year, no payment required. You can have a number of HD's worth of them at a time equal to twice your caster level. I don't know if you've ever looked at those guys's statblocks, but they have some really good utility abilities. And note that because they're called, not summoned, the lantern archons have full use of their at-will greater teleport. The only catch is that in order to cast the spell, you need a celestial component, but that's easy enough to finagle with a quick casting of lesser holy transformation, provided you can achieve a long enough duration. 5th level sor/wiz, 6th level cleric, 6th level in the Celestial domain.

[Phhase]

Oof. If we're allowed to use the Spell Compendium:

Shadow Well: Enemy falls into their shadow and is isolated in a pocket shadow plane.

Avascular Mass: The ultimate villain spell. Target loses half of their current HP, and explodes into a sticky Web-like mass of flesh that also forces concentration checks.

Claws of Darkness: Gives you ludicrously long claws, deals cold damage and Slows enemies you hit.

Sudden Stalagmite: Suddenly, a Stalagmite (Stabby noises)!

[RatElemental]

Decollate is pretty interesting, but that's a pathfinder one.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Defenestration Sphere is great if only for flavor of it.

[Elkad]

Another vote for Blockade. It's like Caltrops (another favorite), but better.

And I don't know if it's obscure, but I have a huge love of both Anticipate Teleportation and Benign Transposition. Both individually and in combination (for hiding/timestopping party members).

[sleepyphoenixx]

Light of Xymor (DoF) is pretty neat since it's the only light spell that counts as natural daylight afaik.

[Malphegor]

If you've got a means to cast Blockade at will, you can easily turn the game into Minecraft-style pillar building.

The Channeled Xburst spells are generally pretty rad- KAME... HAME... HAAAAH!

I quite like Create Trap from Races of the Dragon. 12 hour duration CR1 trap, conjurable within medium range (100ft+).
The long duration in particular for a level 1 spell makes me want to have a versatile spellcaster who only uses 1st level spells and just casts this all the time as a trapmaster.

[Khedrac]

Parboil (Sandstorm/Spell Compendium) - it's an AoE spell that does Int damage.

To a lesser extent Radiant Assault (Spell Comp) - it's the large AoE spell that has a Will Save so is greate for groups of rogues.

[RatElemental]

Oh another neat pathfinder one is recorporeal incarnation, basically lets one creature wear another's corpse as a disguise.

I had an idea for a campaign that revolved around npcs slowly being replaced by constructs using the spell to slip into the life of the victim, but I haven't had a chance to run that yet.

[Fizban]

Flashflood (Sandstorm), because sometimes you just want to smash a 120' cone with 100,000 cubic feet of water.

Toribrand's Glasse (Waterdeep), because instead of trying to figure out what happens when you harden things and making up special alchemical glass that's crazy expensive and better than mithril and adamantine, you could just have a spell that makes stone or iron transparent.

Antifire Sphere/Anticold Sphere (Sandstorm/Frostburn), because dragons already weren't that scary, so how about a spell that makes the whole party immune to the most common energy types while also making them untouchable, a level before Antilife Shell even exists and two levels before Energy Immunity?

Traveler's Mount (SpC), because hacking mount speeds is hilarious, and also fills in the spread of travel speeds leading up to Shadow/Wind Walk.

Alarm, because being silently informed that someone just entered an area without having to risk any sort of minon, materiel, or even concentrate, can be used to so much better effect than just moderately defending a camp.

[Rijan_Sai]

Shadow Miracle...:smallbiggrin:

On a (slightly) more serious note, Legion of Sentinels is up there for me! Not an "amazing" spell by any means, (and the formatting is rather atrocious…), but a giant sphere (especially Widened!) where every 5' square/cube hits with an AoO? Nice! Especially as a choke-point holder!

Also, I have to admit, I have a bit of a soft spot in the black pit of my heart for the Necrotic Cyst line of spells... which brings me to one of my new favorites:
Bite of the King (I literally came across this one while looking to see if any Necrotic spell would be my favorite from them... (Burst and Eruption are rather fun! And Empowerment looks like it might be a decent candidate for some DMM: Persist...))
It may have Fort: Negates and SR: Yes and be *escapable, but just the description on the visuals, (and not completely horrible DoT; average 33/round for a minimum* 15 rounds...)

...Okay, some of those might not be "obscure," but I still like them!
Side note: if Explosive Rune Field was Abjuation [Force] like it's namesake, instead of Conjuration [Fire] I would have a whole lot more love for it!

[Thurbane]

I like some of the BoVD stuff, especially the weird/squicky spells. Extendable grappling tongues, turning arms into snakes, rain of frogs/fish, giant fists punching down from the sky etc.

Heartache is an amazing save or suck for 1st level; extend it for 2 rounds of a helpless opponent (hello coup-de-grace!).

Aberrate is another favourite of mine: changes type to aberration (which has its own exploits), and a small bump to natural AC (1 spell level less than barkskin, and the AC bonus eventually overtakes that spell at higher levels). 10 minutes a level is good for a 1st level buff.

I also love the fact that there are three distinct spells dealing with detachable hands/fingers: Grim Revenge, Lahm's Finger Darts and Spider Hand. :smalltongue:

[gorfnab]

Regal Procession (SC) - transport your party, create a distraction, clog up a city street, find lots of traps in a dungeon, block off a chunk of battlefield (Wall of Horse), list or sink a small ship (a standard light quarter horse can weigh around 1000lbs), make it appear to anyone following your party that your party is larger that previously encountered, create a grand entrance (the horses come with adornments and banners), etc. The Invisible Spell metamagic feat can make this even more fun if your DM allows it.

[One Step Two]

The newer Power Words from the Races of the Dragon are some of my favourites, no saves allowed and inflicts a moderately useful debuff, though depending on HP might only last for as short as 1 round, but they're neat.

Other fun spells include Battletide rfom Players guide to Faerun, curse enemies and buff yourself (if you follow Bane), and I'm also a fan of Vipergout from the spell compendium, spitting out Snakes to attack your enemies is hilarious.

[Zombulian]

Loresong from Dragon.. 335..? ...comes to mind. I'm not sure how obscure it is, but it is often overlooked and seldomly listed, but it's a great bard spell.

There’s another Dragon Magazine Bard spell that is really neat... I can’t remember what it’s called. It lets you use Perform in the place of Concentration checks. It’s featured prominently in a few goofy Warblade builds.


Boccob's rolling cloud (D338). It's like a Close range cone version of fireball, except anyone who fails the Reflex save has to make an additional save or be dazed. Furthermore, instead of just dealing fire damage, it deals a mix of fire, electricity, and untyped damage, so it can benefit from bonuses to fire spells like Bloodline of Fire and Fiery Burst without leaving you hosed against enemies who are resistant or immune to fire. 3rd level sor/wiz.

Shockwave (ShC) is similar. It deals a little less damage, but it's all nonlethal force damage, and the enemies are dazed after failing only one save rather than two. It's not as good against undead and constructs, but it's great for urban campaigns where you might not want to blow up half a city block to get at the bad guys. 3rd level sor/wiz.

Flame sands is from the Wyrms of the North web enhancement series (as a signature spell of Iymrith: Dragon of Statues, Doom of the Desert, and BBEG extraordinaire best known for her prominent role in the Storm King's Thunder adventure path). It's an excellent blasting spell. SR: No for 1d6 fire damage/level against a single target within Medium range. Ranged touch to hit, Fort half. But the key is that it can be fired once per round for 1 round/level, and since there's no action listed for choosing the target each round, it defaults to a move action, which is some nice action economy. 4th level sor/wiz, 3rd level druid.

Speaking of action economy, channeled pyroburst (CM) can be cast as a full-round action to deal extra damage in a larger radius or as a swift action to deal reduced damage to a single target. I like the flexibility it offers. 4th level sor/wiz, 4th level duskblade.

...I've been working on a warmage handbook lately so I'm in a bit of a blasty mindset. Okay, one more that's not a blasting spell: call faithful servants (BE). This spell summons 1d4 minor celestials (your choice of lantern archons, coure eladrin, or musteval guardinals) who will serve you loyally for a full year, no payment required. You can have a number of HD's worth of them at a time equal to twice your caster level. I don't know if you've ever looked at those guys's statblocks, but they have some really good utility abilities. And note that because they're called, not summoned, the lantern archons have full use of their at-will greater teleport. The only catch is that in order to cast the spell, you need a celestial component, but that's easy enough to finagle with a quick casting of lesser holy transformation, provided you can achieve a long enough duration. 5th level sor/wiz, 6th level cleric, 6th level in the Celestial domain.

You mentioned Sharkbolt in the other obscurity thread. Where is that from?


Shadow Miracle...:smallbiggrin:

On a (slightly) more serious note, Legion of Sentinels is up there for me! Not an "amazing" spell by any means, (and the formatting is rather atrocious…), but a giant sphere (especially Widened!) where every 5' square/cube hits with an AoO? Nice! Especially as a choke-point holder!

Also, I have to admit, I have a bit of a soft spot in the black pit of my heart for the Necrotic Cyst line of spells... which brings me to one of my new favorites:
Bite of the King (I literally came across this one while looking to see if any Necrotic spell would be my favorite from them... (Burst and Eruption are rather fun! And Empowerment looks like it might be a decent candidate for some DMM: Persist...))
It may have Fort: Negates and SR: Yes and be *escapable, but just the description on the visuals, (and not completely horrible DoT; average 33/round for a minimum* 15 rounds...)

...Okay, some of those might not be "obscure," but I still like them!
Side note: if Explosive Rune Field was Abjuation [Force] like it's namesake, instead of Conjuration [Fire] I would have a whole lot more love for it!

Related to extra-dimensional belly space: Hoard Gullet is a hilarious utility spell.

[EisenKreutzer]

Gutwrench from BovD has always been a favourite of mine, if for nothing else than the absolutely gruesome visuals of the effect.

[Bphill561]

Research Aid from dragon magazine #342. It requires an initiate feat following Boccob (or using Forgotten realms deity equivalents, a deity of magic) or getting it as as scroll or magic item, but it cuts magic item crafting times in half. In most campaigns I have played in, time is always the most limiting resource when trying to craft something (verse xp or gp). If you can mix in a level of Maester for 2000gp of crafting a day, you are effectively at 4,000gp worth of crafting a day with the spell.


Shadow Miracle...:smallbiggrin:

On a (slightly) more serious note, Legion of Sentinels is up there for me! Not an "amazing" spell by any means, (and the formatting is rather atrocious…), but a giant sphere (especially Widened!) where every 5' square/cube hits with an AoO? Nice! Especially as a choke-point holder!

Also, I have to admit, I have a bit of a soft spot in the black pit of my heart for the Necrotic Cyst line of spells... which brings me to one of my new favorites:
Bite of the King (I literally came across this one while looking to see if any Necrotic spell would be my favorite from them... (Burst and Eruption are rather fun! And Empowerment looks like it might be a decent candidate for some DMM: Persist...))
It may have Fort: Negates and SR: Yes and be *escapable, but just the description on the visuals, (and not completely horrible DoT; average 33/round for a minimum* 15 rounds...)

...Okay, some of those might not be "obscure," but I still like them!
Side note: if Explosive Rune Field was Abjuation [Force] like it's namesake, instead of Conjuration [Fire] I would have a whole lot more love for it!

I mentioned this a few times before, but Shadow Miracle has some pretty obscure effects. The last option of non-xp miracle effects lets you copy things equivalent to the examples listed preceding it. True naming, shadow magic mysteries, warlock invocations, and a number of alternative magic systems have listed spell level equivalents attached to them for purposes of DC's and how they interact with magic (such as dispel or spells that autoblock effects of spells up to certain levels). True naming has an utterance that repairs a destroyed magic item. Shadow magic has a mystery that applies empower metamagic for free to all shadow mysteries and darkness spells such as your shadow miracle. So there are a number of things from those alternative magic systems that cannot be replicated with spells. I will have to look into psionics, the magic mantle may cause psionics to work exactly as spells for purpose of interacting with other spells.

[Palanan]

I never see Master Air mentioned around here, possibly because it's quite old. It came in quite handy though, especially when my druid picked up the Tattoo Magic feat, thus giving other party members emergency flight when they needed it.

Also, speaking of Gutwrench, a distant relation is Gutsnake, which also seems to be fairly obscure.

[RatElemental]

Yet another pathfinder one, but Battlemind Link gets a special mention from me just for having a cool name, with really cool flavor too.

Lets you mind meld with an ally to fight in perfect sync: you share initiative (the higher of your two individual rolls), and the same thing happens if you both make the same kind of attack on a target (melee, ranged or spell), you both roll and take the highest.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Away from my books ATM and it has been a while so I forget the name, but I had a lot of fun as DM with the specialist Cleric spell in Tirants of Hell for Prince Levistus' clerics, the one that lets you freeze and capture the souls of the people you kill. It was a cool (heh) plot point, prevented the party just raising the assassinated targets and when the party arrived in hell to thwart the frozen prince's escape several were overjoyed to learn where their friends were (having failed every, single, Spellcraft or Knowledge Religion check to learn of the spell's existence and BURNING the scroll of it I let them find unread). They even incorporated the jailbreak into their plan. But that's more of a "cool DM device" than a useful spell, I admit.

[Thurbane]

Aberrate is another favourite of mine: changes type to aberration (which has its own exploits), and a small bump to natural AC (1 spell level less than barkskin, and the AC bonus eventually overtakes that spell at higher levels). 10 minutes a level is good for a 1st level buff.

Only just realized that Aberrate has a Fiend component, which means "The caster must be an outsider from the Lower Planes to cast this spell." :smalleek:

I don't suppose Tiefling is going to count, since you have the Native subtype. :smallfrown:

[nedz]

Arrow Mind - useful for very low level rogue/sorcerers who don't want to waste a feat on Weapon Finesse (or don't yet qualify) but would like to hit something.

Listening Lorecall - long duration blindsense

Bite of the Werewolf - excellent buff

Corporeal Instability - hilarious save or suck

[Kalkra]

Only just realized that Aberrate has a Fiend component, which means "The caster must be an outsider from the Lower Planes to cast this spell." :smalleek:

I don't suppose Tiefling is going to count, since you have the Native subtype. :smallfrown:

Most uses of Abberate involve cheese. Once you're going there, get it on an item.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Protective Interposition isnt necessarily obscure, but combine it with Greater Status and you have a plane wide swift action teleport surprise.

[Afghanistan]

Door to Great Evil is a 4th level Paladin Spell from the Ghostwalk book. It has a wonderful effect of just forcing you to have a random encounter at your ECL:


This spell functions like teleport except as noted above and as follows. When you cast this spell, you select one of two variants.

Send Yourself: You teleport yourself, your gear, and your special mount (if any). You do not designate a destination; you are automatically transported to the nearest location on the same plane where your talents as a holy soldier are needed. There is always at least one evil creature (or one creature committing an evil act) at this location. Fighting this creature or creatures is always an appropriate action—you are not required to parley, and killing such creatures is always justified according to the rules of your faith. The encounter level is less than or equal to your character level minus 2; thus, if you are a 14th-level paladin, you face an encounter of EL 12 or below. If you are of a race that has a level adjustment (such as a dark elf ), use your effective character level instead of your actual character level for the purpose of determining the encounter level for this spell.

Door to great evil guarantees safe arrival for you (on solid ground, not within a raging fire or underwater, no chance of a mishap, and so on), but it does not provide you with a way to return. You do, however, have a vague awareness of the distance traveled and know the direction you must go to return to the location where the spell was cast.

Send Another: This version of the spell functions as above, except that instead of teleporting yourself, you send another willing paladin with her gear and special mount (if any) in your place. The challenge to the paladin is based on her character level, not yours. All other factors in the spell description above that refer to "you" instead refer to the target paladin in this version.

This spell is why I am actually a very big supporter of the Archivist class because it essentially FORCES your party to go through extra encounters per day that your group and yourself can prepare yourself for and rake in the XP all under the pretenses of being on a crusade. The spell unfortunately has the target requirements "You or willing Paladin touched" which kind of limits your party design, but I'm confident that you can more than make up the level lost for having everyone dip a level or 2 in Paladin to be able to harvest XP by the truckload.

[Elkad]

Door to Great Evil is a 4th level Paladin Spell from the Ghostwalk book. It has a wonderful effect of just forcing you to have a random encounter at your ECL:

This spell is why I am actually a very big supporter of the Archivist class because it essentially FORCES your party to go through extra encounters per day that your group and yourself can prepare yourself for and rake in the XP all under the pretenses of being on a crusade. The spell unfortunately has the target requirements "You or willing Paladin touched" which kind of limits your party design, but I'm confident that you can more than make up the level lost for having everyone dip a level or 2 in Paladin to be able to harvest XP by the truckload.

Yup.

12th level party takes a break for a 10 days.

They get back together, and describe how they did spell research or created items or worked on their strongholds.

The paladin says "I bought a wand of Door to Evil and beat 50 solo encounters. I'm level 19 now, almost 20. Who wants to be my cohort?"

[vasilidor]

there is a book in pathfinder called 1001 spells. in it I found a spell that for the cost of 15000 gp will net you the services of an adult dragon for one hour. after that hour what happens next depends on how well you treated said dragon, and how much it likes you (it is not automatically hostile unless you are on the opposing good evil alignment charts, or were rude).