[3.5] Overlooked Spells

[Fax Celestis]

Related to this thread, what are some spells that you feel are oft passed over but don't deserve to be?

I am a particular fan of cloud of knives and legion of sentinels. Both have some very amazing uses (particularly legion of sentinels coupled with a bull-rushing dungeoncrasher fighter), but they are frequently passed over for other, more well-known spells.

[PersonMan]

Flaming Sphere is mostly unused by the people I know. Heck, even I didn't use it until just recently. I mean, it only does 2d6(Reflex for 0) damage...But then you realize that in a long fight you can cast it and use a spell+deal and extra 2d6 damage. I also used it to map out a maze and set off several traps that would have gotten us.

[NelKor]

Alot of the people in my group overlook Alter's Fortune and Unluck
Find them both to be pretty solid spells, even if Alter's has a 200 exp cost, that one reroll might just be required.

[EvilJoe15]

Regal Procession(SpC) Why sell one horse when you can sell dozens?
Fireburst, and Greater Fireburst(SpC) Very good blasts for their level.
1d8 / 1d10 per level.

[PId6]

Bigby's Grasping Hand - The best of the "Bigby's Hand" family (well, at least of the combat ones; can't really compete with the more "private-use" ones), it is fairly versatile (grapple, bull rush, or provide cover) and has an obscene grapple check (CL + Int/Cha + 14 tends to get big). Rarely used mostly because it's evocation and everyone dumps it, but I like it on my sorcerers.

[Eldariel]

This is really hard since my considerations are colored mostly by my own perception and as I'm not aware of others' awareness on a grand number of spells, it's really hard to call what's overrated (would Battlemagic Perception qualify? Anticipate Teleport? Bands of Steel? Defenestrating Sphere? Benign Transposition? All incredible spells not mentioned all that often, but ones I'd assume to be common knowledge anyways). Anyways, here's one I think gets passed over quite often:

Combust [SpC]: One of the better seeds spells for metamagic; 1d8/lvl (up to 10d8) damage from a 2nd level slot with no save or attack roll (though SR).

[Gadora]

Flaming Sphere is mostly unused by the people I know. Heck, even I didn't use it until just recently. I mean, it only does 2d6(Reflex for 0) damage...But then you realize that in a long fight you can cast it and use a spell+deal and extra 2d6 damage. I also used it to map out a maze and set off several traps that would have gotten us.

Try plopping Fell Drain on it.

Edit: Huh, I was thinking of Produce Flame. Fell Drain still would be rather fun to put on Flaming Sphere, though. Produce Flame has a wizardly counterpart in Snilloc's Snowball, from Unapproachable East. Both are decent spells for a low level character.

[arguskos]

Try plopping Fell Drain on it.

LOLERYINCOMING.

No, really, that's a good one.

One spell I dearly love but no one else seems to even know exists is Toothed Tentacle, from Lost Empires of Faerun. Sor/Wiz 2, gives you three 10-ft tentacles you can attack with on your turn at like BAB+casting mod and that deal reasonably good damage. Oh, and you can still move around on your turn while directing them. It's good times.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Howling Chain and Flight of the Dragon, like many evocation spells, sometimes get overlooked.

[arguskos]

Howling Chain and Flight of the Dragon, like many evocation spells, sometimes get overlooked.

What is Flight of the Dragon, and where's it from? I love me some Howling Chain, but don't know the other one.

Oh, the altered Black Tentacle spells from Shining South (Fiery Tentacles and Enervating Tentacles or something like that) are fun too. One does fire damage+being black tentacles, the other drains levels+black tentacles. Always good times.

[Flickerdart]

Bladeweave from SpC. Swift action to activate this 2nd level spell, and stuff you hit (and then hit again with a free touch attack) are dazed for a round. War Cry (I think also SpC, there are at least two War Cries though) is similar, but 4th level, panics instead, and you don't need a second attack.

[Keld Denar]

Radiant Assault, another decent Evocation from SpC. Its a [Light] spell, so its unresistable. Oh, and it has a will save, which means Evasion can get bent. Mettle still works, but you can't have everything. Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it...the will save ALSO DAZES YOU FOR 1d6 ROUNDS!!!!

It also appears on the cleric list. Funny thing is when you have 2 levels of RSoP, you get a free +1 Heighten and a Widen Spell effect applied. Who knew being a healbot was so satisfying?

[Glimbur]

Helping Hand. You might question the utility of a spell that sends a ghostly hand to guide people to you. Besides the obvious uses, it's hilarious to use on people who are hiding. There's no way to avoid the hand detecting you besides not giving the caster a good description (it's Evocation, not Divination, which amusingly helps here), and the spellcaster can also see the hand. Therefore, the caster knows enough to start dropping AoE's, or directing the wizard to throw Glitterdust.

[Marriclay]

The shivering touch spells were unknown among my circle of friends until I took a red dragon's dexterity down to 0 and then coup-de-graced it. I think he'll be throwing white dragons at us instead from now on.

[Riffington]

[B](well, at least of the combat ones; can't really compete with the more "private-use" ones)

Are these in BOEF?

[PId6]

Oh, right, mustn't forget this ungodly broken spell I found in Spellbook (which obviously inspired Bladeweave):

Bladesong (Brd 2, Sor/Wiz 2) - Once per round, if you hit an enemy with your weapon, you can make a touch attack against them as a free action. If the touch succeeds, they're dazed for 1 round, no save (Will negates applies to the weapon). Can you say dazelock? At high levels when touch-attacks are pretty much auto-hit, this lets you steal the turn of anyone with nearly 95% success, and daze works on nearly everything. It's also easily Quickened or Persisted if you allow Persist on Touch spells or use Reach Spell. So broken for a 2nd level spell.

Are these in BOEF?

If not, they should be.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

What is Flight of the Dragon, and where's it from? I love me some Howling Chain, but don't know the other one.

Oh, the altered Black Tentacle spells from Shining South (Fiery Tentacles and Enervating Tentacles or something like that) are fun too. One does fire damage+being black tentacles, the other drains levels+black tentacles. Always good times.

Wow, how did I turn Lord of the Sky into... That's not just a typo...

[arguskos]

Wow, how did I turn Lord of the Sky into... That's not just a typo...

Technically, the question stands. Don't recognize Lord of the Sky either.

[KillianHawkeye]

Flight of the Dragon is a transmutation spell from Draconomicon. It's basically draconic Red Bull.

EDIT: Lord of the Sky is from Dragon Magic. It gives magical flight and lightning bolts.

[Protecar]

This might not be a great spell(or maybe it's really well known, but I don't hear it mentioned), but the description is solid and the ability seems nice: Phantasmal Assailants(SC). It gets two saves(will for nothing, fort half), but if they fail both, let 'em eat 8 dex AND 8 wis damage. I was trying to sling this around with a sudden empower the other day. Soooo much stat damage!

[bobspldbckwrds]

prestidigitation!

need a torch lit? BINGO!

breaking in and need to clean up the glass? BINGO?

not wanting the gruel you are eating to taste like gruel? BINGO!

want to make the barbarian's centaur steak dinner to taste like pineapple? BINGO!

want to gather up the coins that the crowd threw to the bard while he was singing? BINGO!

easily the best cantrip, and a solid spell for RP any day.

[balistafreak]

I'm pretty sure NO ONE overlooks Prestidigitation.

Except those with no brains. Wait a minute, that's a pretty common trait.

[Starscream]

I have two favorites. None are earth-shatteringly awesome, but fun and handy. Both are in the Spell Compendium.

Manyjaws. 3rd level Sor/Wiz. Up to ten sets of jaws made of force appear, and attack who you wish for 1d6 each, Ref half. Can be maintained for up to 3 rounds.

I think this one tends to be ignored simply for the reason that direct damage spells are not considered optimal. Which is true, but I think every wizard should have at least one, and this isn't a bad choice. The jaws can affect incorporeal enemies, the damage is untyped, they automatically hit with the save only halving the damage, the fact that it can be maintained means that you can chew away quite a bit of damage over time which makes this a nice choice if you are low on spell slots, and unlike a fireball or lightning bolt there is no danger of blasting your melee-fighting party members. At the very least I'd rather carry around a wand of this than the more traditional fireball.

Entice Gift. 2nd level Sor/Wiz, Bard. The subject must succeed on a will save or give you whatever he is holding. You can act out of turn to take it.

This one is just plain fun. Against many enemies it's a nice, low level Save or Lose. Even some quite powerful monsters are wimps if they give up their weapons. Make the guard hand over the keys to your cell, a bard give up his instrument, a cleric his holy symbol (though in that case he may not actually need to be holding it). Maybe even get the BBEG to offer you the plot MacGuffin (though then you might need to make a Ref save against a hurled DMG). It's not a supremely useful spell, but such a fun way to end (or avoid) a fight.

[Thespianus]

Combust [SpC]: One of the better seeds spells for metamagic; 1d8/lvl (up to 10d8) damage from a 2nd level slot with no save or attack roll (though SR).

Well, it's a Touch Attack to deliver the spell, right?

[Marriclay]

Well, it's a Touch Attack to deliver the spell, right?

I believe so. Spectral hand makes it even better, sorta-sniping enemies

[PId6]

Well, it's a Touch Attack to deliver the spell, right?

Yes, which is actually a plus at high levels/epic since it gets around Ray Deflection.

[Thespianus]

Bladeweave from SpC. Swift action to activate this 2nd level spell, and stuff you hit (and then hit again with a free touch attack) are dazed for a round..

Where do you get the second attack from? Maybe I'm not reading the spell right, but it says that you select one target that you've hit with a melee attack during the round, and that target has to make a will save or be dazed.

Sweet spell, but you don't seem to need the second touch attack.

[Thespianus]

Yes, which is actually a plus at high levels/epic since it gets around Ray Deflection.

And the touch attack makes it work sweetly with Sneak Attacks! :)

Hunter's Eye and Combust makes for a great "Hello and welcome to the first round of combat"-gift when you win initiative.

[PId6]

Where do you get the second attack from? Maybe I'm not reading the spell right, but it says that you select one target that you've hit with a melee attack during the round, and that target has to make a will save or be dazed.

Sweet spell, but you don't seem to need the second touch attack.

It's Bladesong that needs the second touch attack, which I've talked about above. It's Bladeweave's massively more broken uncle.

[Thespianus]

One Cleric spell that I've read about but never seen used is Turn Anathema from CC (I believe).

Basically it allows you to turn Good/Evil/Chaotic/Lawful (depending on your alignment) beings as if they were undead. Given that moste higher level undeads have turn resistance, but VERY few other monsters than Undead have turn resistance, it seems to be crazy good in some situations (being attacked by a bunch of Fiendish creatures, or hordes of Dretches, etc)

Am I reading the spell wrong, or is it this (situationally) awesome?

Our Party has used Knight's Move (SpC) to great success when faced with an opponent in a tight dungeon. Our Cleric teleports to a flanking position, allowing the Rogue to take a full attack with sneak attacks on his initiative count.