Creative Uses of Spells: Fireball isn't supposed to do that

[moonfly7]

We've all got our favourite moments where we used a spell in a way so creative, so down right strange, that Garry Gygax set up in his grave and asked "wait, is that legal?" So let's share em if you got'em, I'll kick us off:

Back when our DM had us play a party of Bards, or: the Bardy (cringe), we were fighting an adult black dragon. We were around level 8 and only like 4 of our party was even in combat range the whole battle.
Through shenanigans and trickery I got myself into the dragon stomach, and I asked the DM "can I cast cloud of daggers in here?"
We then proceeded to turn a horrifying challenge into so much chunky salsa.

[Arkalidror]

Once, my party was travelling across a lake on a ship, and we were attacked by a Dragon Turtle. The wizard tried to use Tidal Wave to hurtle the ship to the opposite shore. Of course, what he actually did was destroy the ship. But then I repaired it. With Mending.

Oh, and another time I created a Molotov cocktail using Spiritual Weapon. (Our DM was a bit vague flexible on the rules)

[FaerieGodfather]

The highest-level "natural" character I ever played was in AD&D, using some BECMI rules-- he was a Troll/Assassin/Shaman, 15th level Troll when I retired him after Die, Vecna, Die!. He was, as his class implies... not normally inclined to open warfare.

But one time, he found himself besieging a walled city with the armies of the other PCs-- and his own clan-- and finding himself frustrated at being unable to contribute, he snuck up closer to the city walls and cast multiple, overlapping blade barrier spells among the parapets.

Then gave the order to have the warriors of his clan fired, via trebuchet, through the divine magical blender.

[moonfly7]

The highest-level "natural" character I ever played was in AD&D, using some BECMI rules-- he was a Troll/Assassin/Shaman, 15th level Troll when I retired him after Die, Vecna, Die!. He was, as his class implies... not normally inclined to open warfare.

But one time, he found himself besieging a walled city with the armies of the other PCs-- and his own clan-- and finding himself frustrated at being unable to contribute, he snuck up closer to the city walls and cast multiple, overlapping blade barrier spells among the parapets.

Then gave the order to have the warriors of his clan fired, via trebuchet, through the divine magical blender.

That reminds me of "the Godly Blender" a technique where our wizard used a magic item that basically let him paladin smite with spells via item charges, to create like, 8d4 5d6 clouds of daggers. He used that and cloud of daggers glyphs of warding to destroy 90% of our enemies.

[LordCdrMilitant]

My favorite level 20 "creative spell use" [though I'm like 99% certain I am not the first to do this, not the last, and that it may have been a planned function by the developers of Pathfinder] I did was my level 20 Dread Vampire Sorceress's Compact Large Macroparticle Accelerator:

Greater Demiplane -> void, looping around the edges along all borders, G_demiplane = 2*G, Constant Uniform Gravity Field, Timestream (years = seconds), scattered with rocks in free fall.
Permanency on the demiplane.

There were some questions about what exactly was happening to the plane with relativity and all before even getting to what happened when the objects in question left the plane. Exploded into high energy particles was the conclusion.

That campaign was reasonably entertaining, we basically made our own story as players. It brought us the deathtrap space fortress, "Execute Order 66", Fluffy the Tarrasque, Morbad the Limb Rending/Morgood the Cuddly, the eidolon attack helicopter, Godzilla as a PC, and more.

[Jay R]

In original D&D, the spell Turn Flesh to Stone could be reversed by reciting it backwards.

I was running an encounter in which I attacked the party with small flying snakes.

One player said, "I recite Sticks to Snakes backwards."

Um. Well. I couldn't see any reason why it shouldn't work. So it worked.

[Keltest]

Once, i created a pressure-powered kraken cannon by opening a gate to the plane of water. My intent was to create a geyser by opening a connection to the deepest part of the plane... which worked perfectly. At which point the DM rolled on a random encounter table to see if anything came out, and got a kraken.

The poor thing was shot directly at the red shadow dragon we were fighting, and grappled it. Needless to say, the fight became significantly less dramatic, and far more silly after that, as both sides of the fight were hurling this beaten and horribly confused kraken at each other. Eventually it fell off a cliff beyond immediate reach, and managed to crawl its way back into the plane of water over the course of several minutes.

[Zhorn]

In this week's game, DM let me expand the spell selection of things my wizard can cast through his familiar from 'range of touch' spells to include 'range of self'.

The scenario:
SKT; we had a quest to steal a magic sword from a corrupt town guard captain. Normally they were patrolling the town with a squad of a dozen other guards, and since only 2 players showed up that night (hobgoblin wizard and half-orc barbarian) we figured a pitch battle would not go down well for us (outnumbered, no healing).

Spent some time getting the barbarian a guard's uniform, the intent being to pretend he was a new recruit as a way of getting close and hope for a moment of isolation for maybe a 1-vs-1 when an opportune moment arrived. It did in an unexpected form though. He got an interview in the main guard house in the captain's office.
If a fight breaks out here, it just take 1 round for them to shout and call in an entire unit's worth of reinforcements... combat's off the table.
My wizard was outside scouting the scene with his familiar, casting message to the barbarian to keep him in the loop of any plan adjustments. And that's when he saw it, the guard captain rests his sword leaning on the desk while he's seated.

Barbarian makes sure the captain is not looking at a part of the room
Familiar gets to cast Misty Step to teleport themselves into the room in that blindspot thanks to the DM's ruling.

Familiar hides being desk, hopping along the ground to the base of the sword.
Quick calculation, familiar is strong enough to carry the sword.

So now the familiar in on the ground on his back, his owl talons gripping the sword, so long as no one else is holding the weapon my familiar is for all intents and purposes carrying the object, and has a sight-line out the window.

Barbarian distracts the captain again to get them to look to the opposite side of the room (has to do it non-violently to avoid combat so the sword isn't reached for)
Familiar bamfs out the window with another Misty Step, taking the sword with him to my wizard.

I do wonder if the DM is going to change their stance on 'range of self' for familiar castings for future games, but for now they let it stand

[Altair_the_Vexed]

I've often done some odd things with low level spells, mainly because I've had a problem with resources over the first few levels.
These are from a mix of 3.x, PF and 5e.

Open / Close cantrip cast on the belt buckle of a town guard who was chasing my bard - tripping him with his own trousers as they fell down.

Thaumaturgy to slam a window shut - on the fingers of a kobold who was trying to climb in through it.

Grease targeting an enemy, rather than the ground - then set the grease alight. (This was particularly desperate, as we didn't have much else to bypass the damage reduction of the enemy. I can remember that much, but can't remember what it actually was...)

Message to intimidate enemies with whispering voices in their heads.

[Spore]

Ah yes, abusing the warped physics of a Pathfinder game. Telekinesis does not deal much damage. Dropping items on people lets them escape with a very easy (nonscaling) reflex save. Falling damage is quite capped. But combine a weight of a few tons with a paralyzed enemy. And voila, tonight's side dish is mashed inquisitor.

(Of course Telekinesis is a 5th level spell, but just replace the part with a barbarian with enough Strength can carry and hurl much MUCH more).

[Storm_Of_Snow]

In original D&D, the spell Turn Flesh to Stone could be reversed by reciting it backwards.

On that note, Stone to Flesh either reverses a Flesh to Stone, or converts stone into what the 3.5 SRD describes as "a fleshy substance", but there's no further information.

So a bit of persuasion to make it generate a massive lump of beef, and you've got the start of the worlds biggest barbeque

[Keltest]

On that note, Stone to Flesh either reverses a Flesh to Stone, or converts stone into what the 3.5 SRD describes as "a fleshy substance", but there's no further information.

So a bit of persuasion to make it generate a massive lump of beef, and you've got the start of the worlds biggest barbeque

Stone to Flesh doesn't exist in 5e, but one of my players really wants it to so that he can convert random rocks into kidneys and hurl them at people.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Stone to Flesh doesn't exist in 5e, but one of my players really wants it to so that he can convert random rocks into kidneys and hurl them at people.

kidney-stones! ;)

[Keltest]

kidney-stones! ;)

…

Dang it. Now I need to make sure whether he was doing that on purpose or not.

[LordCdrMilitant]

…

Dang it. Now I need to make sure whether he was doing that on purpose or not.

Almost certainly on purpose ;). If it's that punny, there's little other reasonable expectation

[Malphegor]

Magnetism, a wu jen spell that allows for metal objects to be instantly dragged to your hand.

But what happens if the metal object is attached to something?

And that is how with DM approval I pulled a halfling rogue out of danger by his belt buckle into my hands.

[No brains]

At one point on top of a flooding dam, I meant to use Control Water to make a tidal wave in the dammed reseviour to sweep some monsters off the side. The DM must have imagined the water to be lower than I did, but he eventually let me sweep them off by raising the level of the puddles of rainwater beneath them. Guess it all works out.

[Rerednaw]

Back in the old days?

Wall of Force didn't need anchoring points and didn't have minimum dimensions. So in front of a charging army, a wall 1 foot wide x 100 feet across, about 3 feet above the ground, and 1 micron thick. Slice and dice...
With the wand of force continually created and destroyed a force bridge to have our army walk on water, over lava, across the chasm, etc...

And yeah there were lots of times where we broke things like that.