Creative use of spells.

[Do You Burn?]

Over the years gaming I have come across some interesting use of spells that overcame situations that normally the spell was not intended for but in the particular situation worked quite wonderfully. Let me give you an example.

The party was stuck in a desert and the pack camels were attacked and killed. Without the pack animals, the party would not be able to transport the treasure without being overly encumbered. Since the camel corpses were still fresh, the cleric cast animate dead to animate these camels as skeletons. As an additional bonus, since they were animated as skeletons and still had flesh on them they also served as walking food supplies. Just a little purify food and water on the hanging meat and you have food. Although it didn’t look appealing, it still served well in a pinch. As yet another bonus, these mounts didn’t need food, water or even rest during the journey. Strangely enough, having the camels killed worked out better with the creative use of a couple of spells.

So what other type of spells have you guys come across that were used in non-obvious ways?

[primemover003]

Too bad animating the dead is an evil act nowadays (always has been in my mind).

I've always been partial to the dispel/shatter combo.

[ASEO]

I've had some interesting uses come from introducing a Robe of Useful Items into my games over the years. I've always ruled that the patch takes 1 second to change into the item.

I had a party drop the 30ft Oak Tree patch from a Robe of Patches off a 60ft tower onto the enemy Bugbears that were banging on the tower door.

"So, this prisoner won't talk. Well, then he's no use to us. I rip off the Mule Patch and cram it in his mouth."

I usually rule that the 10x10x10 pit removes that amount of non living matieral creating the pit...I have had players try to put the pit on a dragon or giant...I think that loosing 10 cubice feet of your body would hurt...

"I drop the 10x10 Open Pit from the Robe of Useful Items in the hold of the ship then run for the pier!"

One group thought that the pit should be an extradimensional space. They wanted to place it on the back of an elephant and use the pit as a hiding area and the elephant as a Trojin Horse.

I think in the earlier editions of D&D, or maybe in a DRAGON Magazine somewhere there were a bunch of additional patches.

I seem to remember Hornet's Nest and Rooster patches being put to some good use as well.

ASEO out

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Similar to ASEO's tree patch example, my party activated a Quaal's feather token-tree in a cramped corrider in the carter ridge mines of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The DM ruled that the results were explosive (lots of splinters). In 1E one of my characters activated a wand of wonder summoning a rhino into the tiny xvart tunnels of UK2 The Sentinel. Not as explosive, but very messy.

A creative spell use I was told about probably stretched things a bit. As a readied action, a wizard placed a dimension door directly in front of a dragon's mouth just as he was about to use his breath weapon. The dimension door succeeded in diverting the breath weapon away from its intended targets, and the understrength party escaped. I don't know how realistic this use was, but it struck me as an extremely clever use of the spell.