Surprisingly Useful Spells (and mundane items, etc)

[Serpentine]

So we had a (enemy) corpse (in a city) on our hands last game. The first - and basically only - thought of what to do with it: Glass Strike. We ended up Glass Striking it, smashing it up, and then throwing the little bits into the river to wash away then get eaten by fish when the spell wore off. Before we ultimately got to that point, we went through various ideas, the main one I can still remember involving grinding the glass up and slipping it into people's pockets as a truly gruesome practical joke.

Anyone made, or thought up ways to make, interesting use out of spells?

[Nychta]

I don't know how interesting this is, but I recently used Wall of Force to good effect when our fighter was out of action.

Essentially, my sorceress sealed them in, save for a small gap at the top, where the rogue shot through.
It's become one of my favourite spells. No bottleneck? I'll Wall of Force one in! Simple and easy

[hylian chozo]

Levitate needs a willing target to work, unconscious creatures are automatically considered willing. Levitate also does not fail slowly, so when it fails, you plummet.
Not too useful, but definitely funny to watch.

[Erebus]

Does sleeping creatures for that reason concidered as willing???For levitate I mean...

[senrath]

Launch Bolt from SpC is really fun. There is something amusing about a Halfling wizard dumping a bunch of colossal bolts on the ground from a bag of holding, then launching them for 6d6 points of damage each. Too bad you can only launch one bolt at a time (it's also either a cantrip, or level 1 spell, not sure which).

[Tempest Fennac]

It's a cantrip. Can it really be used to do that? I'm going to check Crystal Keep.

EDIT: you're right. It says nothing about size being relevant at all, unless it means "a light crossbow to your character's size".

Launch Bolt(MoF p105)
<Trans, VS, 1StdAct, Medium-range>
– Launches a single crossbow bolt as if from a
light crossbow.

[senrath]

Yup. And for even more fun, enchant the bolts before launch.

[Tempest Fennac]

That does seem overpowered (unless the "light crossbow" part is dependant on size).

[Burley]

Actually, the Launch spells are all pretty great. Launch Bolt is fun, but I prefer to launch alchemist's fire around. And, Tanglefoot bags. Those things hold down everything. Launch 'em at flying creatures for tons of fun.

[Serpentine]

That reminds me, I quite like clever use of mundane items, as well. I'll see if I can add that in...

[Crimson Avenger]

Coupla months ago had the party sorcerer use launch item to tanglefoot a dragon out of the sky.

And it worked.

God, I hate rolling 1's on saving throws!

[mostlyharmful]

I don't know if it's inventive or anything but I've found that Caltrops are a solid mundane investment at low levels and a solid crowd controller at higher ones, a group I was with once emptied a half dozen bags of them infrount of a charging orc horde, they got mullered from ranged weapons and we didn't even use a spell slot. Heh.

[senrath]

I prefer marbles over caltrops. Instead of damage they force a DC 15 balance check to move through them or do anything other than stand while on them.

[Sholos]

What about marbles and caltrops?

[senrath]

Now that would just be evil. Me like.

[FlyMolo]

What about marbles and caltrops?

That's just mean. They fall down, take damage, get slowed by caltrops, spend longer trying to get out, fall down some more, take more damage.

Ouch.

[mostlyharmful]

And then we laugh at them... Mwah-ha-ha. Plus movement contoling enchantments that let you own wit simple level 1 battlefield control magics as an added extra baby!!!

[Fostire]

That's just mean. They fall down, take damage, get slowed by caltrops, spend longer trying to get out, fall down some more, take more damage.

Ouch.

Can you add poison to the caltrops?

[FlyMolo]

Oh, and as far as surprisingly useful items go, check out crawling tattoos.

With enough cash, this replaces all psions up till level 6, or nearly. Offensive spells, battlefield control, charm powers, the whole thing. Pity you can't get spells on em, though. Hey, wait! Transparency! You can! (Maybe?)