Weirdest magics that became plot-relevant?

[dspeyer]

I was reading through one of the Mostly Useless Magic Item threads...

And thinking about my recent game where a Conjure Boron Can Opener spell proved vital to keeping a microelectronics industry going in a high-tech city amidst a postapocalyptic wasteland...

So what's the most useless sounding spell or magic item that actually proved important in one of your campaigns?

[Mr.Sandman]

I had a hobo wizard give our wizard the spell 'Transmute Rock to Puppies' from his spellbook as a joke. It was a flavor spell he used to give himself some company, and I figured the party would use it maybe once. Cue constant, excitable puppies providing flanking bonuses and wasting enemy AOOs.

[ImproperJustice]

I doubt it is in the “useless” category, but our Bard’s frequent use of Awaken is starting to become concerning.

She has a baby dinosaur, a horse, and a flower all awakened now, and I think she is gonna keep going.

Same with Sending. Lots of folks acknowledge its useful, but wow do my groups use it a lot.

Often times our plots involve working with Nobility and Mages, and once you have sending you suddenly can have all manner of NPCs on speed dial.

It also starts becoming a plot hammer. Why hire messengers when a mid level caster you can find in any major city is now a switchboard.

[Lord Haart]

Once fought an evil Bard. It was 3.5, and the Bard had some inverse-Bard Song that debuffed his enemies (that is, our party). The evil Bard used a high-level magic violin, which made the debuffs ridiculously huge — like, -10 to attack, AC and all saving throws?

Of course, my own humble halfling Bard/Cleric girl had no chance of countering THAT with her own humble Bardic Song.

On the other hand, she knew an even more humble cantrip: Create Water. You know, the one that fills a container with water?

Turns out it has a range of Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels), so you don't have to actually touch the container in question, just see it.


Also turns out, you can't play a magical violin all that well if it's full of water.

[King of Nowhere]

Once, a powerful npc gave the party a small bell to call for help in need. It was part of a conjoined set of two, you ring one, the other rings too.
I'm ashamed i didn't see the implication straight away.
A network of post offices using those to communicate in morse code was soon retconned into exhistsnce

[Reathin]

My storyteller once gave us a "set" of Kitten Swarm armor. The kittens it was composed of were apparently indestructible and just sort of...crawled over the "wearer", meowing adorably.

We got it very late in the campaign, which was an Exalted story that involved us seizing control of the Imperial Manse (read: re-usable elemental nuclear arsenal) from the Scarlet Empress herself. It was, bar none, the most powerful defense we had, despite the Lunar whose skin could become living metal and my own character's force field and magical defenses.

[RedMage125]

Also turns out, you can't play a magical violin all that well if it's full of water.

That is f-ing amazing. I salute you! Brilliant solution.

[Wizard_Lizard]

My party got a foldable boat. They now use it to store AFT players.
No, the fact that it is foldable never really comes up, they just have the 18str Goliath barbarian drag around a boat for no apparent reason.

[Spriteless]

Party got a portable hole. Party jumped into the portable hole. Monk picked it up and ran to the top of the tower. Party ran through the tower portion of the module backwards.

I am unsure if that is using a portable hole as intended. It was a nice change to have the most mobile member of the party, rather than the least, decide where the party could go. Once someone got access to flight, it became even better.

As the DM for that campaign, I gotta say, Pathfinder does not make it easy for players going about tasks out of order.

[Alcore]

stone to flesh


An orc Shaman used it on the castle the PCs were guarding. They did not appreciate the orcish army feasting on their castle... and how they chewed through the walls in a day. They did enjoy the image of the orcs camped outside grilling and having a pleasant time. The spell was given a few more innovative uses.