[3.5e] Thinking Laterally

[Kairyu]

I cast Sculpt Sound on myself, to make each echo of my footfalls sound like the wails of the damned. I then cast Invisibility to make myself vanish, and Haste to quicken my steps. And finally... I run at the enemy and just zig-zag through them like mad until they run, soil themselves, or pass out. Whichever comes first, I'm not fussy.

Got any other creative uses for spells?

[jguy]

Cast Wall of Stone several times to form squares and Shape Stone to form them into 1 giant cube. This should way about 20,000 pounds or so, more if you have a higher casting level.

Cast shrink item on the cube so it goes down to 5 pounds. Give the cube to someone with good throwing ability or fly above someone. Drop or throw the cube and let the cube grow back to normal size. You have just hit someone with a 20 ton house

[Angry Bob]

Petrify willing ally. Stone shape. remove petrification. Ally now has fifty tentacle attacks.

[jguy]

or 50 useless fleshy tubes hanging from them and a sudden loss of muscle mass and nutrients as having tentacles doesn't mean they are usable or even connected to your nervous system.

[Private-Prinny]

Prestidigitation to design a new outfit. Just use it to change the colors on the fabric. Combine with a Shiftweave for extra fun.

[Galsiah]

At lower levels I like to use Mage Hand to kill enemies with other enemies' dropped under-5-pound weapons. Also, I'm a kobold so I ride around on a Tenser's Floating Disk.

[gbprime]

Demolition Charge... This was prepared by our Dweomerkeeper (Cloistered Cleric 1 / Elf Domain Wizard 5 / Geometer 2 / Dweomerkeeper 2).

He had been casting Explosive Runes on peices of paper off and on for weeks and had saved up about 20 of them. They're safe for him to read, and he's been keeping them in his Handy Haversack. We came up to a portcullis guarded by bugbears.

He put the 20 Explosive Runes in a small box, and used a scroll of Glyph of Warding (which he can use as a Wiz spell from Geometer) to put a Dispel Ward (CL 1) on it, triggered by the presence of goblinoids. Then Mage Hand slid the box into place.

THe Glyph is activated, fires off the Dispel Ward, which statistically fails to dispel 19 of the Explosive Runes. Boom. 19 explosive runes go off, killing 3 bugbears and (More importantly) blowing a massive hole in the portcullis.

He then slides another (completely ordinary) box over to the area, and the remaining bugbears flee from it.

[opticalshadow]

a good bluff check ghost sound (or some other voice or sound emitting spell) preditigitaion and maybe light spell can convince an entire orc party that their war camp is on haunted grounds and if they dont go ghosts will come and kill them.

if you have a high sneak skill and can get to be a tiny creature (such as druid wildshape) large enough cretures can be climbed inside of, and pending on dm, un wild shaping will kill them (climb in their ear or nose or even the mouth)

get control over the undead, get some incorperal beings put them in a bag of holding (easier travel if you control them you dont really need to do it so much) have them kill things for you, almost no creatures in the mm's can actually fight incorperal creatures, a cr4 shade would theoretically stand toe to toe with the terasque indeffinitly,

[Greenish]

Sculpt Spell'ed Solid Fog as a 120' line.

What can't you do with that?

[mabriss lethe]

-Bestow Curse- You can do nearly anything with it. Really. I mean it.
Read it for yourself.

[BIGMamaSloth]

flesh to stone.
rock to mud.
purify the mud with purify food and drink.
Bottoms up!

(I remember hearing this one in several places before but can not for the life of me remember where or by who.)

[Fiery Diamond]

-Bestow Curse- You can do nearly anything with it. Really. I mean it.
Read it for yourself.

That's a real problem with that spell. I had some difficulty handling it as a DM when one of my players wanted to do stuff. I mean... is a phobia an appropriate curse? And so on. (seriously, a phobia sounds less debilitating than 50% chance on not being able to do stuff every 6 seconds, until you realize that you could give someone a phobia of their (the victim's) own abilities. Such as making a pyro-caster afraid of fire.)

[bannable]

-Bestow Curse- You can do nearly anything with it. Really. I mean it.
Read it for yourself.

See also...

What a great example of a dangerous spell.

[opticalshadow]

That's a real problem with that spell. I had some difficulty handling it as a DM when one of my players wanted to do stuff. I mean... is a phobia an appropriate curse? And so on. (seriously, a phobia sounds less debilitating than 50% chance on not being able to do stuff every 6 seconds, until you realize that you could give someone a phobia of their (the victim's) own abilities. Such as making a pyro-caster afraid of fire.)

RAW that spell like many spells can be a nightmare for dm's and some players wish to abuse that, one thing i have always told my players, and when needed i provided some example at the table, and it reallse does stop them from trying to be abuseive is this, "whatever you can do, the enemy can, and your enemy will have much more resources, numbers, and advatages then you will"

if they want to walk around with quivers full of maxed lesser shiv touch arrows and kill dragons all day and take loot fine, but don cry when you get ambushed by 10 elves with the same arrows and open fire, want to constently teleport onto sleeping enemies, go ahead, do it enough someone will catch on, and if you want to curse the leader of the invading army with the mortal terror in giving orders that take lives fine, but if his wizard curses your fighter to fear wearing armor again, you were warned.

i dont mind creativity, and i applad it, i dont mind useing those back ally cheese tactics when needed or for fun, but if every encounter you walk around with a ten foot pole made of cheese, just remember, you are out powered.

[Tetsubo 57]

or 50 useless fleshy tubes hanging from them and a sudden loss of muscle mass and nutrients as having tentacles doesn't mean they are usable or even connected to your nervous system.

I prefer, "The PC screams in unrelenting agony as they experience the pain of having their body torn asunder."

[DeadManSleeping]

flesh to stone.
rock to mud.
purify the mud with purify food and drink.
Bottoms up!

(I remember hearing this one in several places before but can not for the life of me remember where or by who.)

Short version:
Fireball
Bottoms up!

[Tetsubo 57]

Short version:
Fireball
Bottoms up!

No, no.

Flesh to stone.
Rock to mud.
Mud pool to rock.
Stone to flesh.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Or:
Rock to mud, let enemy sink a bit.
Mud to rock.
Get out the weed whacker!

[gbprime]

A much easier process would be...

Dulark's Glass Strike
Shatter
Pay a craftsman to make a stained glass window from the remains (and hurry, because it only lasts 1 hour per level!)

And no less evil.

[Jallorn]

No, no.

Flesh to stone.
Rock to mud.
Mud pool to rock.
Stone to flesh.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Or:
Rock to mud, let enemy sink a bit.
Mud to rock.
Get out the weed whacker!

nonono.

Flesh to Stone
Stone to Mud
Purify Water
Have the Barbarian drink the water, the character is technically not dead, but can also never be revived short of divine intervention.

[grimbold]

right so

flesh to stone
stone to mud
mud to water
drink your tasty drink

[Lapak]

nonono.

Flesh to Stone
Stone to Mud
Purify Water
Have the Barbarian drink the water, the character is technically not dead, but can also never be revived short of divine intervention.

I know RAW doesn't cover this, but it doesn't cover a lot of things. In any game I've played in or run they're going to be considered 'dead' as soon as you annihilate the statue (probably when you Stone to Mud, almost certainly when you Purify Water, absolutely when the water is drunk) just as surely as if you'd turned them to stone and then Disintegrated the statue and scattered the ashes. You'll need a True Resurrection or something to overcome the lack of a body, but I don't see any reasonable person assuming that the spirit stays suspended after the shell it's suspended in is utterly destroyed. Flesh to Stone is a 6th-level spell, and this ruling would make it more effectual at soul-trapping than Trap the Soul. That just doesn't scan.

[Ravens_cry]

It doesn't work.
Rock to Mud can only be cast on "natural, uncut or unworked rock of any sort."
So? Lateral thinking. Need to get somewhere and you can only take so many, say the scroll of teleport is too low level? Into the bag of holding you all go. Only one freedom of movement spell while going underwater for a a few rounds? Into the Bag of Holding you all go. Not enough seats in the folding boat? Into the Bag of Holding you all go.
Just be sure to stow, sheath and cover all pointy objects before entering Bag of Holding.

[gbprime]

It doesn't work.
Rock to Mud can only be cast on "natural, uncut or unworked rock of any sort."
So? Lateral thinking. Need to get somewhere and you can only take so many, say the scroll of teleport is too low level? Into the bag of holding you all go. Only one freedom of movement spell while going underwater for a a few rounds? Into the Bag of Holding you all go. Not enough seats in the folding boat? Into the Bag of Holding you all go.
Just be sure to stow, sheath and cover all pointy objects before entering Bag of Holding.

You can do it at 7th level too. Lesser Planar Ally. Summon a Hound Archon, have him teleport with the bag of holding you're all riding in. Just costs a bit of or a service to convince him to do this non-combat task.

That... and finding an entire party comfortable with climbing into a bag of holding while some summoned creature promises to let them back out...

[Ravens_cry]

You can do it at 7th level too. Lesser Planar Ally. Summon a Hound Archon, have him teleport with the bag of holding you're all riding in. Just costs a bit of or a service to convince him to do this non-combat task.

That... and finding an entire party comfortable with climbing into a bag of holding while some summoned creature promises to let them back out...

I think a hound archon can generally be trusted with such matters.
My favourite I heard about, not ried was the one of getting in a bag of holding, then dropping down a hole. Since your in an extra dimensional space, you're not moving, only the bag is, so you take no damage from the fall. Cat girls died for this.

[gbprime]

My favourite I heard about, not ried was the one of getting in a bag of holding, then dropping down a hole. Since your in an extra dimensional space, you're not moving, only the bag is, so you take no damage from the fall.

That works right up until you drop through a hole that has a dispelling screen set up in it to protect against flying and levitating intruders...

[Heliomance]

I know RAW doesn't cover this, but it doesn't cover a lot of things. In any game I've played in or run they're going to be considered 'dead' as soon as you annihilate the statue (probably when you Stone to Mud, almost certainly when you Purify Water, absolutely when the water is drunk) just as surely as if you'd turned them to stone and then Disintegrated the statue and scattered the ashes. You'll need a True Resurrection or something to overcome the lack of a body, but I don't see any reasonable person assuming that the spirit stays suspended after the shell it's suspended in is utterly destroyed. Flesh to Stone is a 6th-level spell, and this ruling would make it more effectual at soul-trapping than Trap the Soul. That just doesn't scan.

Actually, RAW does cover it. A Flesh to Stoned target explicitly doesn't die, no matter the damage to the statue, until they are unpetrified again.

[Ravens_cry]

That works right up until you drop through a hole that has a dispelling screen set up in it to protect against flying and levitating intruders...

Yes, but if your just dropping down a hole, in a natural cave network, if you encounter something like that your DM is being a <expletive redacted/>. It doesn't even unbalance the game as you almost certainly have to go back up at some point. It's just a bit of a short cut.

[HunterOfJello]

Invisiblity
Mage Hand
Sepia Snake Sigil

Cast Mage Hand to hold out a Sepia Snake Sigil for an enemy while you approach them invisibly. Put a failed enemy into your bag of holding, rinse and repeat.

You now have a bag of holding full of monsters that you can sell or unleash on your enemies while Invisible.

[Lapak]

Actually, RAW does cover it. A Flesh to Stoned target explicitly doesn't die, no matter the damage to the statue, until they are unpetrified again.

No, it doesn't. The spell description covers what happens if the statue is 'broken or damaged'; it says nothing about what happens if the statue is utterly destroyed or, critically, if it is itself transfigured. So the rules-as-written don't cover Rock to Mud.

If people are going to use strict readings of the rules, they have to use them as written - and the rules don't cover the situation being described.

[Heliomance]

"Utterly destroyed" is a subset of "broken or damaged".

Don't believe me? Take a statue. Take a sledgehammer to said statue. Keep going until you are left with fine dust, similar to the result of a Disintigrate spell. At what point is the transition made from "broken or damaged" to "completely destroyed"? At what point, exactly, would the soul escape?