Shadow Conjuration and Sepia Snake Sigil

[Pielorinho]

My bard is hitting 10th level tonight, and after agonizing over it for awhile, I've decided not to take Dominate Person: as powerful a spell as it is, it's got those icky slavery connotations to it, and that's just not fitting for this character. He's all about finesse, not about brute mental force.

Instead, I'm considering taking Shadow Conjuration, so that in fights against undead and similar creatures I have some options. Fog Cloud and Sleet Storm are great vs. undead, and Stinking Cloud will be wonderful against hordes of living opponents, especially when those living opponents have low fort saves.

And then I noticed another spell that qualifies under Shadow Conjuration: Sepia Snake Sigil.

If I'm reading this right, with this fourth-level spell I can create an unlimited number of SSS's (one per casting) without paying the 500gp/sigil cost that's normally associated with it. The casting time is reduced from 10 minutes down to one standard action. They're permanent until discharged. And the only drawback is that a victim gets two saves (a Will save and then a Reflex save) to avoid the effect (naturally the will save only avoids the effect 80% of the time).

So, two questions:
1) Is this correct?
2) If this is correct, am I being a munchkin to take advantage of it, or is it a reasonably-powered tactic for me to end every day on which I've still got fourth-level spell slots by casting another SSS on a scrap of paper, ready to brandish in a fight?

Oh, and a third question, for kicks:
3) Do folks have alternate favorite fourth-level bard spells? I'm pretty good now at enchantments (suggestion, charm monster, tasha's hideous laughter), and I've got a few illusions and grease and glitterdust, but don't have any fort-save attack spells.

Daniel

 

[Infiniti2000]

1) Is this correct?

Looks correct.

2) If this is correct, am I being a munchkin to take advantage of it, or is it a reasonably-powered tactic for me to end every day on which I've still got fourth-level spell slots by casting another SSS on a scrap of paper, ready to brandish in a fight?

I don't think you're being a munchkin about it, until I read that you think you can brandish the paper in a fight. What do you do, pull out the paper and say, "Read this!" ?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

2) If this is correct, am I being a munchkin to take advantage of it, or is it a reasonably-powered tactic for me to end every day on which I've still got fourth-level spell slots by casting another SSS on a scrap of paper, ready to brandish in a fight?

I'd say your foes are going to be pretty safe from this tactic.

When you cast sepia snake sigil, a small symbol appears in the text of one written work such as a book, scroll, or map. The text containing the symbol must be at least twenty-five words long. When anyone reads the text containing the symbol, the sepia snake springs into being and strikes the reader, provided there is line of effect between the symbol and the reader.

Simply seeing the enspelled text is not sufficient to trigger the spell; the subject must deliberately read it.

 

[Pielorinho]

Ah yes--I just noticed the part about "the text must be at least twenty-five words long." That's probably not something they're going to read mid-battle--I'd missed that line. Good catch, and that makes the combination much less scary!

Daniel

 

[Diirk]

Of course it makes finding scrolls a whole lot scarier... imagine looting the corpse of that wizard you just killed and find a few scrolls. "Neat", you think. "I'll cast read magic, and figure out what this is for later use.. hang on.. whats this snake? ARRghhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Just then the evil wizard turns up again and chuckles at how you fell for his illusionary corpse and booby trapped scrolls

 

[Thanee]

Heh. If you have seen some of my last threads, you will have noticed, that I, too, have chosen a Shadow Conjuration spell now (Greater version with my 14th level Sorceress).

And yeah, SSS looks pretty neat, but it will only work with books and papers, so the useage is a bit limited.

If you can use FR spells, Create Magic Tattoo is also a cool spell, tho, with only a 20% chance to work, it's a bit less useful than with the 60% I got.

Still a good way to use up your spell slots in the evening.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

4th level PHB Bard spells to consider:

Break Enchantment
Dimension Door
Freedom of Movement
Greater Invisibility

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pielorinho]

Thanee, is that spell in the MaoF book? That's the only FR book I have, and it's a good idea to mine it for uses with Shadow Conjuration. Heck, I might go through various books looking for inspiration, at least until I get a smack upside the head from the DM .

Our party sorcerer has got a mix of buffs and zap spells; as far as I know, he's eschewed any mass-effect spells, so that's an area I might want to try to cover. Any suggested tactics with Shadow Conjuration?

Edit: I've gone with Dimension Door as my other level-4 spell, and plan to use it as my "get out of grapple free" spell, although the fact that I've not taken any ranks in concentrate might make that a bad idea. Freedom of Movement is tempting powerwise (I personally consider it way overpowered), but it's kinda boring: Dimension Door gives movement, not just a passive ability. And Break Enchantment would be a lot more tempting if I didn't gain it as a bardic music ability in two levels!

Daniel

 

[two]

I honestly used "Freedom of Movement" about 100x more often than Greater Invisiblity for my bard.

The long duration is just the bomb, and not worrying about grapples/etc is just, well. Can't be overestimated.

Plus, you get to ignore all those cloud/fog/entangle/web spells.

Granted, it's kinda boring, but I can think of 5 times off the top of my head where it saved my PC's life, or at the very least made a really bad situation trivially easy to deal with.

 

[Diirk]

If you can use FR spells, Create Magic Tattoo is also a cool spell, tho, with only a 20% chance to work, it's a bit less useful than with the 60% I got.

Still a good way to use up your spell slots in the evening.

I like this one, particularly for the +1 CL bonus you can get at higher levels from it, but keep in mind you can voluntarily fail your will save for it (or tell others to not resist it when you cast on them), so its a 100% chance to work

And no, such a tactic isn't any more questionable than say, trying to resist all your own Cure XXX Wound spells.