Clever uses for cantrips

[Enlong]

What are some of your most clever uses for all of those little Cantrips/Orisons?

All I can remember myself is using Prestidigitation's Fire Finger to torch down a wooden door.

[MeklorIlavator]

Never tried this one myself, but Create Water over the head of the monologuing villain. No real mechanical effect, but it shuts up the BBEG.

[Enlong]

Nice.
I've fantasized about using Prestidigitation (personal favorite spell) to flavor the gruel from a Murland's Spoon. The one that creates pasty gruel the flavor of cardboard? Presto can change the color and taste so that you think you're eating a bowl of awesome oatmeal, or the most kickin' curry you've ever tasted.

[Deth Muncher]

Never tried this one myself, but Create Water over the head of the monologuing villain. No real mechanical effect, but it shuts up the BBEG.

Actually, I know a guy who was playing a a spellcaster who, when encountering an enemy who sealed himself inside an invincible bubble to protect himself, Created Water inside the bubble. The baddie was forced to choose between drowning or dying a stabbity death.

[jcsw]

Launch Bolt (Spell Comp.)
It launches a crossbow bolt as if you had shot it out of a crossbow. At first this seems sucky, until you realise you can technically use Gargantuan crossbow bolts...

[SilentNight]

Ghost sound in conjunction with silent image for a more realistic illusion. I do like the launch bolt thing though.

[FlyMolo]

Launch Bolt (Spell Comp.)
It launches a crossbow bolt as if you had shot it out of a crossbow. At first this seems sucky, until you realise you can technically use Gargantuan crossbow bolts...

Or colossal ones. It's not the motion of the ocean, it's the size of the rowboat. bolt.

The create water guy: Should have just waited. Unless he had a bottle of Air? (Pressure increase! yay!)

[Chronicled]

Stick. There's some amazing things you can do with this little gem of a cantrip. I think my favorite was stunning a squirrel and Sticking it to the Fighter's face.

[monty]

Or colossal ones. It's not the motion of the ocean, it's the size of the rowboat. bolt.

That's what, 6d6 damage from a 0-level spell?

[Cainen]

Never tried this one myself, but Create Water over the head of the monologuing villain. No real mechanical effect, but it shuts up the BBEG.

For extra effect - Ray of Frost.

[Enlong]

Oh, yeah. I just remembered another fun combination.

Open/close opens or closes light objects at a distance

Prestidigitation gives you slow 1 lb telekinesis (like mage hand, but it only specifies 1 lb of material, not 1 object weighing that muc, like Mage Hand does)


Purses are light objects that can be opened or closed.
Coins are 50 to the pound.

2+2= theft.

[Chronicled]

My favorite use of Prestidigitation is, while running away from the guards after a robbery, changing your black robes to white, and that schmuck on his way out of town's robes to black.

Which is why the thing that ticked me off the absolute most about 4e was that they nerfed Prestidigitation! In this case, Since you can now only have 3 copies of it up at once, and the amount recolored is now lower, there's not enough to do this trick. :smallannoyed:

[Patashu]

Never tried this one myself, but Create Water over the head of the monologuing villain. No real mechanical effect, but it shuts up the BBEG.

Conjurations have to be casted on a surface/in a container that can support them. It is a cool idea though.

[Chronicled]

Conjurations have to be casted on a surface/in a container that can support them. It is a cool idea though.

:smallconfused:

The Orb line of spells are Conjurations, and they certainly aren't cast on a surface or in a container.

[LibraryOgre]

Oh, yeah. I just remembered another fun combination.

Open/close opens or closes light objects at a distance

Prestidigitation gives you slow 1 lb telekinesis (like mage hand, but it only specifies 1 lb of material, not 1 object weighing that muc, like Mage Hand does)


Purses are light objects that can be opened or closed.
Coins are 50 to the pound.

2+2= theft.

Of course, if the person tied a knot in his purse string, or has it close to his belt, it fails, because something resists the Open/Close.

However, I did use a similar spell (in Palladium Fantasy) to de-pants someone. I asked what kind of pants he was wearing. The GM said he was wearing drawstring breeches and a belt. I opened both.

He was not happy.

[Collin152]

Actually, I know a guy who was playing a a spellcaster who, when encountering an enemy who sealed himself inside an invincible bubble to protect himself, Created Water inside the bubble. The baddie was forced to choose between drowning or dying a stabbity death.

Drink the water!
Which did he choose?

[Enlong]

My favorite use of Prestidigitation is, while running away from the guards after a robbery, changing your black robes to white, and that schmuck on his way out of town's robes to black.

Which is why the thing that ticked me off the absolute most about 4e was that they nerfed Prestidigitation! In this case, Since you can now only have 3 copies of it up at once, and the amount recolored is now lower, there's not enough to do this trick. :smallannoyed:

WHAT?!?!

Please tell me you can still flavour things, make your eyes red, and make silly stage-magic illusions that can boost your Intimidate into the stratosphere if done right (I heard of a guy who used Presto to surround his arm with black smoke and crackling electric effects to intimidate a guard.)

[The Necroswanso]

Prestidigitation to sell Oxyclean, which didn't actually exhist.

[FlyMolo]

That's what, 6d6 damage from a 0-level spell?

Yes. 6d6 damage from a cantrip.

Something else fun: Take bind vestige and imp. same. Bind Focalor. one of his powers? 3d6 reflex half every round. Close Range, but still.

Broken. I was going to build an Arena Char around this, but it'd be too cheap. "You're within 25 feet? You're probably dead."

[quiet1mi]

dancing lights in the shape of a humanoid to the players who where fighting in a forest that was haunted... drove the meta-gamers crazy as their awesome builds where doing nothing against it...

needless to say, they cast one spell to try to kill it,then maybe two more,finally as it was slowly approaching them and "grasped" a players arm , i told him that he felt nothing but a faint heat on his skin.he thought that it was going to cast a spell [they had low fort and will saves due to their dumping and flaws] so a player casted [all wizard party] benign transportation on their pet cats [they keep them around for this purpose] and they backed up and unloaded upon it...
all of their spells had no effect. as they were running low on spells they did the whole "rope trick for 8 hours" to refresh their resources and think of a strategy...they never did find out though because they kept looking thorough the monster manual for what it was... all 3 of them.

[Smiley_]

My personal favorite was the party wizard's use of ghost sounds to convince the druid that a pile of rocks contained a totemic spirit.

No easily discernible words could be made with a cantrip. for that you would need ventriloquism or some such spell, but the mumblings were enough.

[Alge'n]

Conjurations have to be casted on a surface/in a container that can support them. It is a cool idea though.

True, but Create water (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/createWater.htm) is actually an exception. It is specified in its description "Water can be created in an area as small as will actually contain the liquid, or in an area three times as large—possibly creating a downpour or filling many small receptacles."

Mage Hand is a very useful cantrip too, with a lot of uses (very useful to steal things for example). One of my players once used it to to seed distrust and confusion in a group of orcs and make them fight each other (he drove them crazy, stealing their stuff, putting all sorts of things in their food, thar was fun)

Also, wands of Acid splash in the hands of a rogue can be quite powerful. With some sort of Arcane Trickster build and Double Wand Wielder, its insane.

[Riffington]

:smallconfused:

The Orb line of spells are Conjurations, and they certainly aren't cast on a surface or in a container.

They are created on your outstretched palm, and then thrown.

[Chronicled]

They are created on your outstretched palm, and then thrown.

*palmface*

It seems I am no longer awake enough for further posting tonight.

[monty]

Conjurations have to be casted on a surface/in a container that can support them. It is a cool idea though.

The BBEG's head is a surface.

[Recaiden]

My favorite use of Prestidigitation is, while running away from the guards after a robbery, changing your black robes to white, and that schmuck on his way out of town's robes to black.

Which is why the thing that ticked me off the absolute most about 4e was that they nerfed Prestidigitation! In this case, Since you can now only have 3 copies of it up at once, and the amount recolored is now lower, there's not enough to do this trick. :smallannoyed:

That is what house rules are for. Forget that. It can do everything it could in 3.0 or 3.5.


All I can remember myself is using Prestidigitation's Fire Finger to torch down a wooden door.
I set a thatched roof on fire like this and burned down the building.
Prestidigitation is amazing.:smallbiggrin:

[LibraryOgre]

dancing lights in the shape of a humanoid to the players who where fighting in a forest that was haunted... drove the meta-gamers crazy as their awesome builds where doing nothing against it...

Our group did something similar in a 1st edition game. They had stripped several bandits of clothing and weapons, and came up on the bandit camp.

They withdrew a bit, made some mannikins out of wood, cast Audible Glamer (i.e. ghost sound for you whippersnappers) on the mannikins, to make them sound like an incoming group of guards.

The bandits rushed out to attack the "guards", letting the party get behind them and absolutely slaughter them.

[Soup of Kings]

The create water guy: Should have just waited. Unless he had a bottle of Air? (Pressure increase! yay!)

But to wait out the spell, wouldn't his Constitution need to be, like, five times the Cleric's level?


dancing lights in the shape of a humanoid to the players who where fighting in a forest that was haunted... drove the meta-gamers crazy as their awesome builds where doing nothing against it...

needless to say, they cast one spell to try to kill it,then maybe two more,finally as it was slowly approaching them and "grasped" a players arm , i told him that he felt nothing but a faint heat on his skin.he thought that it was going to cast a spell [they had low fort and will saves due to their dumping and flaws] so a player casted [all wizard party] benign transportation on their pet cats [they keep them around for this purpose] and they backed up and unloaded upon it...
all of their spells had no effect. as they were running low on spells they did the whole "rope trick for 8 hours" to refresh their resources and think of a strategy...they never did find out though because they kept looking thorough the monster manual for what it was... all 3 of them.

I'm stealing the hell out of this. My players are exactly the kind of players who would sit there looking through the MM for hours. I would roll dice and ask for meaningless saves, too, just to screw with them. Because I'm exactly that kind of DM.

[quiet1mi]

the best way to screw those players is to never mention mechanics only role playing descriptions...

[Triaxx]

A silenced Mage Hand from a Sorceror//Rogue to distract the enemies, thinking someone is knocking.

[PlatinumJester]

I once killed an NPC with Caltrops.

There is this cantrip that lets you copy a piece of writing onto another piece of paper whch could be used to cpy signatures and get free stuff.

Cure Minor Wounds = automatic stabilisation.

Dancing Lights could be used to distract midless things.

[Eldritch_Ent]

In the past, I've used prestidigitation to cause an alchemical explosion when a rival wizard was making potions. I just mixed up the color of all his msyterious potion-making liquids!

I also used it to torment a BBEG mid-speech by turning his imposing black armor into hot pink.

[Jack_Simth]

But to wait out the spell, wouldn't his Constitution need to be, like, five times the Cleric's level?



I'm stealing the hell out of this. My players are exactly the kind of players who would sit there looking through the MM for hours. I would roll dice and ask for meaningless saves, too, just to screw with them. Because I'm exactly that kind of DM.

Do note that they should get a spellcraft check to recognize a spell that's already in place and in effect. And as a Cantrip (0 level) that's just a DC 20 check.

Edit:
Also, for the Create Water trick against the guy in the sphere? Create Water isn't one of the ones that can bypass Line of Effect - doesn't really work.

[Typewriter]

I started a trend with my group where campaigns begin with our characters at a young age, and span several years growing towards adulthood. We get no character sheets, stats, HP or anything. That first session is just roleplaying, and if we know what we're going to end up playing we can end up using a few minor abilities from that class. I was playing Dvaati girls. So....creepy. Had never played a female before, so it was kind of weird. I did my best to stay in character though, and I told my DM that as I was growing up I was going to develop a crush on some boy.

After doing that for a while the boy was not a fan of me (I was creepy).

So to get my feelings across to him, I tied up a deer, cut open its chest and cast preserve organ on its heart. Then left the still beating heart in his bed.

The boy never spoke to her again (which was good because that line of roleplay bothered me anyway).:smallsmile:

[Soup of Kings]

Also, for the Create Water trick against the guy in the sphere? Create Water isn't one of the ones that can bypass Line of Effect - doesn't really work.

Damnation...

[Hal]

My players had to get some NPC guards away from a door without drawing attention to themselves. The bard was struck by inspiration. He used "Message" to whisper obscure things to one of the guards about following a bird. He then used "Summon Monster I" to send an owl past the guards and off into the woods. The guards go chasing after the thing.

I had to give them credit for that one.

[Jack_Simth]

Damnation...

Eh, don't forget that a seven foot diameter (minimum, for Resilient Sphere) holds roughly 90 cubic feet of volume (If I'm remembering my math right) - which is 673 gallons, give or take.

[SilentNight]

Launch Bolt (Spell Comp.)
It launches a crossbow bolt as if you had shot it out of a crossbow. At first this seems sucky, until you realise you can technically use Gargantuan crossbow bolts...

But how would you carry colossal crossbow bolts?

[Silence]

at 6d6 damage, you don't need to carry crossbow bolts.

[Jack_Simth]

But how would you carry colossal crossbow bolts?Horse-drawn cart, perhaps? At 16-22 inches for a medium sized crossbow bolt, a Colossal one would be running, what, 256 to 352 inches, or 21 to 30 feet long....

[quiet1mi]

using the orc/half-orc barbarian to carry it.
a really big bag of holding.

[puppyavenger]

mage-hand lets you exert 5 pounds of pressure.
how many places in you brain are there that 5 pounds of pressure will kill you/turn you into a vegtable.
With slightly more work, presto works to.
a presto, is there any sorceror who doesn't take it?

[LibraryOgre]

mage-hand lets you exert 5 pounds of pressure.
how many places in you brain are there that 5 pounds of pressure will kill you/turn you into a vegtable.
With slightly more work, presto works to.
a presto, is there any sorceror who doesn't take it?

If you can see inside someone's skull to use Mage Hand, and if their brain is already the unattended object that Mage Hand can move, then you don't need to use Mage Hand to kill them.

[monty]

mage-hand lets you exert 5 pounds of pressure.
how many places in you brain are there that 5 pounds of pressure will kill you/turn you into a vegtable.
With slightly more work, presto works to.
a presto, is there any sorceror who doesn't take it?

If you can hit their brain with Mage Hand, you can hit their brain with a rock just as easily...unless you have line of sight and effect through their skull and their brain is an unattended object.

Edit: Ninja'ed badly.

[Silence]

I once started a rockslide with magehand.

Killed thee dozen people, unfortunately including me.

[Soup of Kings]

Eh, don't forget that a seven foot diameter (minimum, for Resilient Sphere) holds roughly 90 cubic feet of volume (If I'm remembering my math right) - which is 673 gallons, give or take.

...

YOU'RE 673 GALLONS!

T_T

[manda_babylon]

Never tried this one myself, but Create Water over the head of the monologuing villain. No real mechanical effect, but it shuts up the BBEG.

I did this once. The GM was pissed off. We were running low on spells and none of our fighters were doing any good in this ridiculously overpowered encounter, so when the GM was out of the room, we talked strategy about what we could do next. We figured out we needed to distract the main villain long enough to mount an escape, and I jokingly mentioned I could dump 20 gallons of pure water on her head. Everyone else loved it, and it actually worked.


I also hit someone with a rock once using Mage Hand, and knocked them off the catwalk we were on, so he died. He wasn't even really a bad character, just annoying. Oops.

[avr]

I was hiding behind a bush & needed a momentary distraction to get away - so I created little puffs of dust on the ground, as of an invisible person running. Worked a treat.

[Deth Muncher]

Also, for the Create Water trick against the guy in the sphere? Create Water isn't one of the ones that can bypass Line of Effect - doesn't really work.

Oh, but it does, under one condition: The DM is an idjit. Trust me. This guy let so much broken shiz go on its not even funny.

Also, at the guy who asked, the BBEG popped the bubble so he wouldn't drown, and got stabbitied to death. Solo would be proud.

[Talic]

Carrying colossal bolts? Isn't that what the fighter's for? Or maybe the bag of holding?

[BRC]

It's situational, but I always thought it would be awsome.

Situation: Somebody has killed the current monarch and ascended to the throne, nobody knows that they committed regicide except you, and you don't have any proof. You however, have accsess to this person, perhaps as a bodyguard of some sort.
Step 1: get a wand of Stilled, Silenced Predistigion.
Step 2: Everytime they put the crown on, use the wand to make the crown dirty.
Step 3: Watch them spiral into insanity.

[Talic]

wait... with launch bolt, isn't there a spell that turns one arrow/bolt into many?

Ouch for that colossal bolt.

[Solo]

Death by cantrip:

1. Serve someone very salty food, reflavored with Prestidigistion.
2. Offer them water that is actualy pure/nearly pure alcohol, reflavored by Prestidigistion.
3. Watch them die or go blind.

[kladams707]

Well in our current game, early on I was playing a rogue/cleric (that's right you heard me, later in the game I changed characters to a full cleric). At one point in the adventure, I was able to spot a figure in the bushes with a sword drawn. Being part rogue I figured it might be someone trying to pull an ambush. So what would anyone w/ rogue and low level cleric spells do? Cast create water to get the figure out of hiding.

Turns out it was a creature trapped in a statue (sort of like flesh to stone I supposed). The DM had this big plan for us to come to the statue, which had a riddle engraved upon it on how to free the creature. The riddle's answer was water.:smallbiggrin: It granted us a wish, and since one of our party members decided to steal our gold, I wished for his body on a pike.

[timbuck_hunter]

On our first session together, our group needed money so we used a variety of cantrips to start a rave. Ghost sound, dancing lights, Tenser's floating disk, a Bard with perform (something or other) ranks, a couple other worthless low level spells throughout. We used an old warehouse in the Dock ward and charged admission while the rouge attempted to steal stuff all night. We didn't make much, but it got us our lvl 1 equipment we badly needed.

And we rocked.

[wodan46]

1 amusing thing I noted in 4e is that you can't get concealment/cover/invisibility if you are carrying a light source. All the Wizard needs to do is tag a target with Light(that can be sustained indefinitely) and they can't use Stealth or Invisibility to sneak attack anymore.

Essentially, a flare gun.

[Chronos]

On our first session together, our group needed money so we used a variety of cantrips to start a rave. Ghost sound, dancing lights, Tenser's floating disk, a Bard with perform (something or other) ranks, a couple other worthless low level spells throughout. We used an old warehouse in the Dock ward and charged admission while the rouge attempted to steal stuff all night. We didn't make much, but it got us our lvl 1 equipment we badly needed.

And we rocked.I think I remember hearing about that... Was a porpoise involved?

[jcsw]

But how would you carry colossal crossbow bolts?

Well the weight of a single bolt is 0.1 lbs, since you double the weight for large and halve for small, i'm assuming that a colossal crossbow bolt is 2^4 times heavier than a medium one, making it 1.6 pounds. So weight is no problem.

[Epinephrine]

The crossbow bolt is silly - sure, you can launch the colossal bolt, as if launched by a crossbow. Of your size.

[Flickerdart]

using the orc/half-orc barbarian to carry it.
a really big bag of holding.
Haha, that is pure gold. They pull out a sword. You pull out your bag and start gunning them down.

[Signmaker]

Can you inscribe Explosive Runes on a Chalkboard spell?

[MeklorIlavator]

It's situational, but I always thought it would be awsome.

Situation: Somebody has killed the current monarch and ascended to the throne, nobody knows that they committed regicide except you, and you don't have any proof. You however, have accsess to this person, perhaps as a bodyguard of some sort.
Step 1: get a wand of Stilled, Silenced Predistigion.
Step 2: Everytime they put the crown on, use the wand to make the crown dirty.
Step 3: Watch them spiral into insanity.

For extra points, use silent image spells that look like the king(or disguise spells on NPC's). And, once a rebellion rises up, have a druid gather Treants for the last battle. Or have the assassin killed by someone born by C-section.

"Out, out damn spot!"

[Yahzi]

I like to use the "Clean" function to clean teeth. It's a great way for a 1st lvl wiz to make a living as a dental hygenist.

[Vortling]

In a recent game I had a player use Mending to restore the words in a journal that was very old and in disrepair. I know it's probably not allowed by the exact wording of the spell, but it opened up some good story points and was darn clever so I let the player have it. It made her day. :smallsmile:

[llamamushroom]

First, it doesn't matter if your size crossbow can't launch the collossal bolt - haven't you ever heard of a caber toss? :smallwink:

Also, I've been wondering if Mage Hand can be used to add a massive circumstantial bonus to Intimidate, at least against men. Just let them know you've got it, and 5 lbs of pressure isn't fun down there.

[monty]

Also, I've been wondering if Mage Hand can be used to add a massive circumstantial bonus to Intimidate, at least against men. Just let them know you've got it, and 5 lbs of pressure isn't fun down there.

Not if they know anything about magic. Mage Hand only works on unattended objects.

[TempusCCK]

First, it doesn't matter if your size crossbow can't launch the collossal bolt - haven't you ever heard of a caber toss? :smallwink:

Also, I've been wondering if Mage Hand can be used to add a massive circumstantial bonus to Intimidate, at least against men. Just let them know you've got it, and 5 lbs of pressure isn't fun down there.

Actually, my sorceror in an intrigue campaign used that to great effect... capture the guy, blind and gag him, there's no way he's really attending to them anymore....

This, however, prompted my DM to create a spell called Testicular Compression and give it to one of the NPC baddies in our new campaign, which has been used on my character a few times.

Sometimes you're just too clever for your own good.

[Darkantra]

Someone else on the boards mentioned this, so credit goes to whoever they are.

Have a bard with high ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy who also knows several sinister languages like Infernal or Abyssal. Pick a target, and cast Message. There's no saving throw or spell resistance so you can do this to anyone.

Now start messing with them, and toss in an Abyssal or Infernal phrase every once a while. Repeat until the target is driven insane form the voices :smallamused:.

[LibraryOgre]

Also, I've been wondering if Mage Hand can be used to add a massive circumstantial bonus to Intimidate, at least against men. Just let them know you've got it, and 5 lbs of pressure isn't fun down there.

They are not objects. Your pants remain attended.

[jcsw]

The crossbow bolt is silly - sure, you can launch the colossal bolt, as if launched by a crossbow. Of your size.

Actually, it never says anything about what size crossbow it is, nor does it say as if fired out of *your* crossbow. (At least the one in spell comp.). It merely says as if it was launched of a light crossbow (which can be of any size).

[quiet1mi]

They are not objects. Your pants remain attended.

leave them attended too long and you will go blind :smalleek: