Worst Spell used in Best Way

[Olo Demonsbane]

All right, post the worst spell you have ever picked that you used in an amazing way.

I'll start. I was fighting an ultimate buffed up fire giant. It was doing masses of damage, so I ran away. I was faster than it, and after two turns I reached a pool of water that was in my last battle. I jumped in, dived to the bottom, and cast baleful transportation. Then I healed myself to full. When he finally got out, I hit him with a targeted dispel magic, dispelling every single one of his buffs. It was pretty fantastic.

[Heliomance]

Baleful Transposition is not remotely a bad spell. It's an extremely good spell, for situations just like that, or to split up a group of enemies, or whatever.

Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP. And you can't Persist Time Stop.

[Ganurath]

I once cast Create Water inside an attacking dwarf's full plate, and after a raised eyebrow the DM said he was stunned for two rounds, no save.

[BRC]

I was once fighting a massive army of skeletons, I had a magic item that fired 3 magic missiles, so I would target the left legs of 3 skeletons and fire.

[VistaniMistress]

While playing a high cha sorceress, I got grappled by a soldier, with intentions that weren't really work safe, if you get what I mean.

Shocking grasp + called shot houserules + soldier's crotch.

[Fax Celestis]

I used create water to waterboard and interrogate a prisoner.

...I went from CG to CN after that.

[Adumbration]

I used create water to waterboard and interrogate a prisoner.

...I went from CG to CN after that.

Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

[Person_Man]

Animal Messenger: Great way to distract someone before you ambush them. "Why is that frog sitting there staring at me? And why does he have a note tied to him. Hold on, let me read it... 'I prepared Explosive Ruins today?' What does that BOOOOM!!!!"

[AngryRussian16]

Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

Well, I think there are rules and stuff for that in the BoVD, but I don't care to look at the specifics

[Fax Celestis]

Unrelated, but my high level character did the same after GETTING tortured.

...you didn't happen to be a hobgoblin invading a dwarven fortress, were you? If so, I'm sorry.

[hamishspence]

BoVD doesn't have rules for waterboarding.

Fiendish Codex 2 has "intimidating torture" any form of torture that does no actual damage.

As an Evil act, it ranks really low, comparable to casting an Evil spell, and less evil than, say, stealing from the needy.

so, unless you were already on the borderline, you could make a case that one evil act doesn't make for an alignment change- it takes a trend of evil acts.

[Fax Celestis]

Animal Messenger: Great way to distract someone before you ambush them. "Why is that frog sitting there staring at me? And why does he have a note tied to him. Hold on, let me read it... 'I prepared Explosive Ruins today?' What does that BOOOOM!!!!"

This video, around 5:30.

[FFTGeist]

Constipation + Grease spell

Problem solved?

[Olo Demonsbane]

Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP. And you can't Persist Time Stop.

Well, dont tell my DM !

EDIT: ninjaed!

[Glimbur]

Helping Hand. It's a core cleric spell, and I never see it mentioned anywhere. It creates a ghostly hand that guides a person within a few miles at most to you. I suppose the original intention was to un-split the party or some such.

Alternatively, say there's a character hiding from the party and sniping. No-one has the Spot check to make this stop, but you have seen the sniper before so you can supply a good physical description to the spell. Cast Helping Hand targetting said sniper. It winks over to him/her and gestures. That's enough to drop a Glitterdust or Maw of Chaos or whatever your favourite AoE spell of the time is.

I tried this in an epic game and it almost worked; had I had a better description of the sniper it would have.

[hamishspence]

That makes me think of OOTS use of Dancing Lights- as an alarm signal, to warn exactly how serious threat is.

[Adumbration]

As a matter of fact it was an 18th level Malconvoker at an antimagic prison, and he just got severely beaten, so it wasn't that bad. And it was a snap decision from my part - even though it was a one-shot, it might not have been the wisest course of action in terms of roleplaying.

[Olo Demonsbane]

My DM said that Continual flame could be used to create heat/fire as well if you want it too...

I had a pirate campaign, and I destroyed multiple enemy ships by casting continual flame on their deck !

EDIT: Double ninjaed!

[TK-Squared]

Also, regarding your sig, I'm pretty sure Harm can't knock people below 1HP.

Only a successful save can Harm not reduce you below 1HP

[TempusCCK]

Not that fly and magic missile are by any means a set of "bad spells"

I pride myself on having used them creatively in a couple of instances.

One time, I was being chased over the tops of buildings in a city, I had succeeded in making a rather large jump using some magic, and as the person following me made his jump, I blasted him in the chest with a full five magic missiles. Being force damage, one can assume that it's something similar to blunt damage. I likened it to a man sitting in the air holding a hammer, and with a STR mod of at least 4, whacking the guy in the chest. My assailant then smashed into the side of the building and fell to his doom.

The time I used fly creatively was during a grapple check, I was losing to a much stronger foe, so I floated up twenty feet and turned upside down, causing him to lose his grip and tumble down. Buwhaha. Gravity is MY best weapon.

[Bayar]

Not that fly and magic missile are by any means a set of "bad spells"

I pride myself on having used them creatively in a couple of instances.

One time, I was being chased over the tops of buildings in a city, I had succeeded in making a rather large jump using some magic, and as the person following me made his jump, I blasted him in the chest with a full five magic missiles. Being force damage, one can assume that it's something similar to blunt damage. I likened it to a man sitting in the air holding a hammer, and with a STR mod of at least 4, whacking the guy in the chest. My assailant then smashed into the side of the building and fell to his doom.

The time I used fly creatively was during a grapple check, I was losing to a much stronger foe, so I floated up twenty feet and turned upside down, causing him to lose his grip and tumble down. Buwhaha. Gravity is MY best weapon.

You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling

[Starscream]

This wasn't me, but in our last campaign we faced a half-dragon monstrous scorpion that, due to an apparent miscalculation, was way tougher than it should have been. I mean it slayed our most powerful combatant in the first round of combat. Even the DM was shocked.

We had a warlock in the party. In the first round he cast Summon Swarm, a least invocation which had absolutely no effect but to cause like a single hit point of damage. Seeing that we were totally outclassed, the party ran for dear life.

But the swarm of bats the warlock has summoned had the Wound ability, which causes the target to lose a hit point every round until they make a heal check or receive a cure spell. The scorpion was mindless and could make no such check.

So to everyone's utter amazement, the thing ended up just bleeding to death. A gigantic half-dragon scorpion. After getting a scratch from a bat. Sure it took several hundred rounds, but it worked. Needless to say, this was totally unplanned.

[Arbitrarity]

Only a successful save can Harm not reduce you below 1HP

Harm charges a subject with negative energy that deals 10 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level). If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount, but it cannot reduce the target’s hit points to less than 1.

Arguable. I never read it that way.

[Knaight]

This wasn't D&D, but in one game a player had their character invent a spell that controlled light string, basically a weakened animate rope. Thats it. Cue impromptu, mobile, trip wires. The best use of this, however, was in tandem with a flask of oil. One person threw the flask, and while the target was slipping around his shoe(this game varied in time levels) was tied to his bow string. Next time he tried to shoot an arrow, he pulled the bow up, yanking himself off of his feet. The oil was then lit on fire.

[TempusCCK]

You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling

Spell was already cast, I just wasn't using it for part of the duration.

[Olo Demonsbane]

I have a very high DC .

And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

[monty]

And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

It doesn't actually have a duration. The 1d4+1 rounds are "apparent time" which take place effectively instantaneously, so it has no real duration to persist.

[Draz74]

And what is the reason Persistant Spell can't be applied to time stop (other than it is so overpowered?)

FAQ ruled it. It claimed that its duration, "1d4+1 rounds [apparent time]; see text" actually means "instantaneous."

[Olo Demonsbane]

Can I use intensified extended time stop?
20 turns!

Yay metamagic reducers!

[Dixieboy]

You cant use spells with somatic components while you are grappling

It was probably cast before he was le grappled?

Edit: I should've kept reading

And a little example: Hold portal is generally considered ****, and so is open/close
However in conjunction and with the use of for example expeditious retreat they are an excellent was to get away from really big people with really pointy metal sticks

'course it was houseruled that oen could use open/close for bigger doors, thus making it slightly unfair :/