Your Favorite Spells And Their Creative Uses

[Diamond Cross]

As a Wizard, it's always best to find creative ways to use your spells.

Take for example, the spell Mending. It says you can use it to completely repair one object.

However, it doesn't place any other limitations on it, except that it doesn't restore magical abilities. So even though it doesn't ahve any offensive capabilities, it is actually one of the most useful and creatively used spell in the game.

For example, it doesn't matter how large the object is, it's just one object. While you probably wouldn't be able to fully repair a ship, you could conceivably repair a sail or some boards to stop a leak.

In playing DDO, one of my new favorite spells has become Mass Charm Monster. I especially like to cast it in large groups where there's enemy casters. The enemy caster usually makes his save, but then he's facing three to five additional enemies to fight including the party. So he's going to be hurt really good or be taken down. But After the fight you pretty much have to break the charm on one monster at a time, but it's fun to watch those monster turn on their former friend.

So, what other creative uses for your spells have you come up with?

 

[Jimlock]

My best spell BY FAR is none other than the 1st lvl:

SILENT IMAGE

you can create an illusion of ANYTHING that comes to mind......


-Distract the guards.

-Scare someone away.

-Make someone follow a direction you wish.

-Make yourself or another stand in the midst of a dangerous situation and see how it turns out (perhaps it was a good idea you did not enter yourself!)

-Hide inside/behind the illusion

-Create false evidence (tricky one... but possible if there is a good excuse for the item not being there again... or when one cannot reach it)

-Create an illusion of yourself standing guard, while you are perched hidden upon a tree.

-Dazzle the crowd.

-Bring back the dead (tricky one too... "but i swear i saw her among the mercenaries!")

-Cover a trap/hole

-Make a trap appear and stop them from approaching

....


just a BRILLIANT spell...

 

[Bullgrit]

When I was DMing a game:

The party sorcerer was always using mending on the party gear. It was just a role-playing part he took up.

Seeing this pattern, I thought it would be neat if his mending spell could be used for some actual, real in-game benefit. In one dungeon they were investigating, there was a small ceramic statue that had been shattered on the stone floor. If the statue was intact, it was a clue to a moderately dangerous trap later in the dungeon.

The sorcerer never even considered using mending on the statue. In fact, the whole thing was dismissed as just worthless debris by the whole party.

<sigh>

Bullgrit

 

[Pinotage]

I once has a rogue/wizard that was interogating another thief that was believed to be lying. She used the dancing lights spell to create 4 lights which she called 'truth' balls. She then proceeded to ask the thief questions, winking one of the lights out everytime he answered a question and she believed he was lying. She rolled good on her Bluff check, the thief believed the balls where what she said they were, and she got the information she was after.

Pinotage

 

[AeroDm]

In 3e the reduce spell wouldn't reverse if doing so would cause damage. I once had an evil villain capture and hold hostage a player (while he was away for several sessions) and use reduce and a collar with spikes pointing inwards to make it permanent.

I also played a duskblade in a group for which dancing lights just wasn't going to be useful very often given their playstyle. I decided that each combat he finished by shooting dancing lights into the air while chanting the Final Fantasy victory chimes. About three sessions in, it became symbolic of the group's victory and it was sort of fun to see four guys trying to sing the FF chimes with poor rhythm.

 

[nedjer]

Transmute Rock to Mud

 

[Living Legend]

Enlarge/Shrink from 2e (or the name was close to that)

My favorite thing to do was cast reduce on a tree branch or step a bad guy was standing on, or shrink his sword or make his armor too big. I remember in a high level campaign and evil wizard rolled some boulders down a mountain at us. I shrunk it down to the size of fieldstone and we moved on, much to the chagrin of the DM, who thought that would screw us up a bit.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, Silent Image is grotesquely powerful, given a creative illusionist. (And I suspect players not interested in working out creative uses of illusions don't tend to play illusionists.)

A cantrip that can give effective mass invisibility -- everyone hugs the wall and the illusionist creates an identical wall right in front of them -- is amazing, and that's one of the least exciting uses of it.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

My elven wizardress likes to polymorph opponants into lamp oil, throw a torch on the oil, count to ten, then cast dispell magic.

I've had many different adjudications as to what happens. From severe 3rd degree burns head to toe, to the person coming back 1 size category smaller...

She likes to be cruel about her spells, she started out as a Neutral character, and has shifted to Neutral Evil.

She has written several spells in regards to partial disitegration, organ summoning, and versions of baleful teleport - where not the entire person teleports...

 

[Ravilah]

Recently, in the game I'm running, the party needed an upstart lord to sign over his (supposed) right to his inheritance. They had vowed not to physically harm him, so the fighter had to use his rather mediocre Intimidate skill.

To give the fighter a situation bonus, the wizard disguised self into a small, creepy child, then cast mirror image, and then had all these creepy children dance around the man, chanting.

I gave them a major bonus, because that would certainly creep me out!