I'm looking for some advice on reasonable ways to resolve uses of Gust of Wind, as suggested at the end of the text for the spell:
In addition to the effects noted, a gust of wind can do anything that a sudden blast of wind would be expected to do. It can create a stinging spray of sand or dust, fan a large fire, overturn delicate awnings or hangings, heel over a small boat, and blow gases or vapors to the edge of its range.
So, taking the examples in the text for the spell itself, would there be a save for blindness if you created a stinging spray of sand or dust? If so, how long would the blindness last? Would there be no blindness, but a save for dazed? What if you used something much nastier than sand, like finely ground glass or a contact poison? Would a similar use with flour make invisible targets visible, and if so, would there be a save to avoid being coated in the flour?
How about fanning large flames? If you use it to fan a large flame, and an enemy is in an adjacent square to the fire, and standing on material that could reasonably be considered fuel for the fire, would it cause the fire to spread into the enemy's square? If so, would the enemy take fire damage, and how much? Would the enemy get a save for half damage or to negate the damage?
What would the effect of the spell be when used against a medium or larger creature that is currently using the acrobatics skill to maintain its balance because it is in the area of a grease spell or is balancing on a narrow ledge?
Could the spell be used to extinguish an ally who is currently taking damage from a burn effect, such as caused by failing his save against the attack of a fire elemental or being hit by an alchemists fire?
Finally, can anyone suggest other creative uses for the spell which are reasonably resolved in combat?
I'd say most of these would just grant an appropriate save vs the spell's DC. Use similiar level spells to determine special effects (Glitterdust's blindness for instance). There are already rules in place for catching on fire.
Generally speaking, reward players for thinking outside of the box. Conversely, don't get TOO creative with NPCs/monsters for fear of the players thinking you're just making it up as you go. A few unusual uses of a spell against them can be good though, to get their own creative juices going.
Actually, I'm asking this as a player. I just want to present my gm with a list of likely uses I would put the spell to ahead of time, with suggestions on how such uses would work, so that he does not have to handle unexpected effects with no easy reference available.
As a player, I like to balance creative uses of spells with the extra work required of the gm, and thus with causing delays in game. I'm playing a sorcerer, so spells with multiple utility are at a premium, but the disadvantage of such strategies can be uncertainty of the effects of that added utility, and detracting from the fun everyone else is having by dominating too much of the gm's time adjudicating non-obvious effects.
I agree that you use the spell's own save DC against most effects created. Remember that the effects shouldn't be more powerful than similar spells, but if they're very situational (there's not very often you have access to a lot of sand) I think they could be about as powerful.
Stinging spray of sand or glass - Reflex save or blindness for 1 round, and -4 on visual perception checks for 1 round/level
Contact poison - Reflex save or exposure to the poison.
Flour - Reflex save or visible, but has concealment (20% miss chance) since probably not the whole body was covered.
Fanning a flame - Increase light radius by 10ft., for adjacent, risk of catching on fire (DC 15 ref or 1d6 fire damage, new save every turn)
Extinguishing fire - I'd say okay to it, it's very situational.
Balance - I'd say apply the Perception penalty to the balance check.
No one else has any ideas or opinions on the ideas already posted? Hmm, I really thought this one would start an animated discussion.
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It's a 50mph wind, so flip to the Weather section (p.437 to 440) and check out what a 50 mph wind does - most of it's covered by the spell description, but the duststorm and snowstorm entries add a little. Essentially they say a 1d6 inch layer of dust/snow is left in the thing's wake - so that's a desciptive indicator you could use when blowing particulate stuff about, plus the snow entry mentions it costing 2 squares of movment to enter such a 'covered' square, and that snow (or rain) gives a -4 Perception penalty, which I'd imagine would stack with the wind penalty if you (for example) used the spell to blast the surface of a pond in a spray at the bad guys.
You could also use the spell to get a momentary respite from severe weather with an opposing Gust of Wind: say, reduce a windstorm to a mere strong wind for 6 seconds (enough to run to cover perhaps?).
On the more munchkin side of things, how about having a friend ready to lob a sack-full of pointy bits (maybe broken glass or nails or something) in front of your Gust just as you cast it? Shotgun anyone? :o
Or how about sloshing a barrel of oil in it's path... followed by a flaming torch...
Or maybe just chuck a basket of dirty landry in there... anything you want to pelt people with really.
What's terminal falling velocity for a medium sized creature? Time it right, and you could (maybe) fire one of these upwards to soften a friend's landing.
Or... which Jackie Chan film was it with the fight in the windtunnel? 'Superman!' :)
It's a great spell though, and it really feels good when you use it. Other uses it might have:
As a substitute for Hold Portal
To breath at least for a little while below surface (okay, unsure if that would work)
If used with permanency, might be able to create an actual aircraft (and that's a pretty cool idea I think!)
Remove thick smoke when you're gonna save the baby in the burning house (be careful though - a baby is Tiny!)
To keep your sorcerer's beautifully long, brown hair always waving when you want it to.
Erase your footprints in sand or snow.
Blow the contents of a room around to make it harder to search or know what's missing.
Blow a flying attacker into a wall or onto the ground.
Perpetual motion sailboat or windmill (with permanency).
Really, REALLY big smoke rings.
Make tall grass "lie" down to see what's hiding there.
Bring giant vuvuzeala to sporting events use spell to be REALLY annoying.