Someone else who loves cantrips?

[stringburka]

I have a special relationship to cantrips. They have a certain cuteness to them, they are available, and even though they're easy to get, more than once have they rocked my (gaming) world.

We usually play quite low-powered games, so cantrips gets a lot of use. I've put together a small collection of spells and feats we've been using that are directly related to cantrips. I'm looking for feedback on them, and also for tips on where to find more cantrips.

These are our cantrips and feats. 18 cantrips and 5 feats.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

I really like this. Hope you don't mind if I link it for my players.

[Matthew Morris]

Cantrips never get old for me. Detect magic, read magic, light, dancing lights, arcane mark, all of them have their uses. I had a 14th level Battle Sorcerer/Ruathar/Abjurant Cheesewhore who had arcane marked on her sword "If you can read this I'm too close."

Prestidigitation is the prize though. Tromping through the sewers and then have to go meet the mayor? *snap* no problem! Courting a girl and she doesn't like red roses? *snap* no problem! Out on the trail and tired of bland rabbit stew again? *snap* no problem! Barbarian has a bad case of gas? *snap* no problem!

[stringburka]

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

I really like this. Hope you don't mind if I link it for my players.

Of course not :) Feel free to copy!

Matthew Morris wrote:

Barbarian has a bad case of gas? *snap* no problem!

As long as it's not a dwarven barbarian, then you'd have to use my Unhale ;)

[Knight who says Neek!]

You've got some nice ones on your list.
My feat for cantrips:

MY HERO ZERO
Preq: Ability to cast 0 level prepared arcane spells.
Benefit: You increase the damage of all 0-level spells you prepare by +1 dice size.

Zippity Zero
preq: Abiity ot cast 0 level spells
Benefit: You can cast a 0 level spell as a swift action. After you do so, you cannot cast another 0 level spell till the next round. Also, the next zero level spell you cast takes a full-attack action.

Zero Sum
Preq: Ability to cast 0 level spells, +2 BAB, Zippy Zero feat
Benefit: As a full-round action you can cast three 0-level spells that inflict damage. You cannot cast another zero level spell for two rounds. This feat cannot be combined with Zippity Zero feat to cast 4 on a turn.

[Bomanz]

I have always been a huge fan. 3.0 and 3.5 and now PF have all changed it of course, but back in the day of AD&D 2e, AD&D, and D&D, I would almost ALWAYS have to spend time in a major city to get the "Ring of Infinite Cantrips" crafted. Or blow a wish spell on it. Or something, but I always had to have it.

Prestidigitation is currently still my favorite one, I use it constantly with my bard.

[Slayer Dragonwing]

I love cantrips too, especially with the Pathfinder rules that allow infinite use of a certain number of cantrips per day. My personal favourite is Launch Bolt from the Spell Compendium. With it you have no need for a crossbow! There are also a lot of cool cantrips that aren't very useful with one use, but are made a lot more useful with unlimited uses. This simple change has allowed for all the flavourful cantrips to be used, instead of people just loading up on Ray of Frost and Acid Splash.

[Dorje Sylas]

I used to have a Wizard that used Acid Splash to do etching in her free time or when she hadn't use that spell before bed, back when acid damage spells did full damage to objects.

Open/Close is now actually practical, and most amusing.

"Enter," cast open/close. You can even slam a door in someone's face and then slide a chain lock into place with Mage Hand, maybe even a locking bar if it's light enough.

Infinite Cantrips make me feel magical. :-D

[Rite Publishing]

I have a special love for cantrips, I thing we might get around to doing 101 Cantrips for our 101 series.

[Name Violation]

prestidigitation, aka very very very very limited wish.

i argue for jerk moves with it, like make a pie and throw it to blind some one for a round (fort negates).

any one else ever read 3.0's tome and blood's page on fun with prestidigitate? great stuff right there

[dogurasuthanatos]

I love cantrips! I've actually been working on gathering a master list of 0-level spells from various sources of all kinds, including a few adaptations and a small selection of personal inventions. Right now, I'm somewhere around 680 or something; here are a few ideas I've had.

Feats:

Armed Cantrip
You have used a particular cantrip in battle so much that it is as familiar to you as a longsword is to an elven fighter.
Prerequisites: Base attack +6.
Benefit: Select a 0th-level spell you can cast with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. When you cast this spell, you can attack with it as you would with any manufactured weapon, allowing you multiple attacks with the spell.

Bolster Cantrip
Your cantrips are able to handle tougher creatures.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks.
Benefits: Cantrips with a Hit Die limit (such as Daze) have that limit increased by 2.

Greater Bolster Cantrip
Your cantrips are able to handle even tougher creatures.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (arcana) 9 ranks, Bolster Cantrip.
Benefits: Cantrips with a Hit Die limit (such as Daze) have that limit increased by 5. This feat overlaps (does not stack with) Bolster Cantrip.

Perfect Cantrip
Sometimes you can cast a cantrip with such skill that even archmages are impressed - you even impress yourself, however drained you feel afterward.
Prerequisites: Spellcraft 12 ranks, able to cast 3rd-level spells.
Benefit: You can make a Spellcraft check at DC 20 to cast a perfect cantrip. This boosts the save DC and caster level by +4 for that cantrip. You are fatigued for 1 round from the strain.
Special: Each time in a day you use this feat, the Spellcraft DC increases by +5 (25 for the second time, 30 for the third, and so on). The duration of the fatigue you endure also increases by one round (2 rounds for the second time, 3 rounds for the third, and so on). You cannot use this feat if you are fatigued.

Cantrips:

Blood Pain: Your bloody dagger deals increased damage.
Caustic Burst: 1 point of acid damage, 5 ft. radius.
Emberball: 1 point of fire damage, 5 ft. radius.
Raimas' Spheres: Conjure a small area of marbles.
Snowburst: 1 point of cold damage, 5 ft. radius.
Static Bomb: 1 point of electricity damage, 5 ft. radius.
Tanis' Armor Cloak: +1 bonus to Armor Class.
Tookey's Treat: Conjures a piece of candy.

Blood Pain
Necromancy
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: Your dagger
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You cut yourself with a dagger you hold as you cast the spell, coating the blade with your blood and your pain. For the duration of this spell, your dagger cuts just a little deeper, dealing an additional 1 point of damage. This stacks with any other damage the dagger deals. However, if you lose your grip on the dagger for any reason, the spell ends.
Material Component: Your blood (which deals 1 point of damage to you).
Focus: The dagger used to cut yourself.

Caustic Burst
Evocation [Acid]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 5 ft. radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
A tiny bead of slime rushes from your fingertips, streaking toward the target area before bursting into a mist of bright, hissing drops of acid. Targets in the area take 1 point of acid damage on a failed Reflex save.

Emberball
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 5 ft. radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
A tiny bead of flame rushes from your fingertips, streaking toward the target area before bursting into a flurry of bright, hot embers. Targets in the area take 1 point of fire damage on a failed Reflex save.

Raimas' Spheres
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: See text
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This spell, invented by the spelljamming sorcerer Raimas, is a nonlethal substitute for caltrops.
A Raimas' spheres spell covers one 5-foot-by-5-foot square with marbles. Each time a creature moves into an area covered by marbles (or spends a round fighting while standing in such an area), it might step on one. The marbles make a touch attack roll (base attack bonus +0) against the creature. For this attack, the creature’s deflection bonus to defense does not count. If the marbles succeed on the attack, the creature has stepped on one. The marbles deal no damage, but the target slips and is knocked prone. A charging or running creature must immediately stop if it slips on marbles. Any creature moving at half speed or slower can pick its way through a bed of marbles with no trouble.
Marbles may not be effective against unusual opponents.
For every two caster levels beyond 1st, you can affect an additional 5-foot-by-5-foot square, and the marbles' attack bonus increases by 1. Thus, you affect two squares at 3rd level (+1 melee), three at 5th level (+2 melee), four at 7th level (+3 melee), and a maximum of five at 9th level or higher (+4 melee maximum).
Multiple Raimas' spheres spells (or mundane marbles) occupying the same space have no additional effect.

Snowburst
Evocation [Cold]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 5 ft. radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
A tiny bead of ice rushes from your fingertips, streaking toward the target area before bursting into a flurry of bright, freezing snowflakes. Targets in the area take 1 point of cold damage on a failed Reflex save.

Static Bomb
Evocation [Electricity]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 5 ft. radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
A tiny bead of lightning rushes from your fingertips, streaking toward the target area before bursting into a flurry of bright, dancing sparks. Targets in the area take 1 point of electricity damage on a failed Reflex save.

Tanis' Armor Cloak
Abjuration [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
One of the first spells the hedge wizard Tanis invented for himself, this simple cantrip provides a thin cloak and vest of force that grants a +1 armor bonus to defense. Unlike mundane armor - more similar to mage armor - this spell protects against incorporeal touch attacks and has no effect on movement or arcane spellcasting.

Tookey's Treat
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: One candy
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This spell was developed by a child prodigy in the realm of arcane spellcasting. Toukeregrine (whom most people called Tookey) created this cantrip as a means of rewarding himself for a job well-done. It also helped him learn how to manage his spells - when he had no remaining energy to cast cantrips, he couldn't conjure any more candy!
Tookey's treat conjures a small candy of any variety - mint, chocolate, cinnamon, butterscotch, and many more are available, but only one piece is made. Eating the candy does not have any game effect unless the candy is given as a gift or the caster feels it is well-earned. In such a case, the candy provides a +1 morale bonus to any one skill check made within the next hour.

I would love to hear more about this project and any other projects revolving around cantrips - if this post is any indication, I would be more than happy to provide help and ideas!

[Sigurd]

Contests & Games of Skill

Being able to cast at will changes a lot of how you use a spell.

For my Gnome Wizard Cicero, I imagine a Mage Hand Lawn Bowling League in his gnomish home town.

The obvious thing, with all the gnomes around is that you have to protect against cheating through illusion etc...

There are a number of contests of skill that would be natural competitions for Mage Hand (wrestling?, carrying lit candles without letting them go out, etc...) if the spell really is free to cast and using it makes you better at casting (even just in theory) I think these would be common displays of arcane prowess.

Of course not everyone is going to let you know they can cast spells.

Still, I picture wizards & sorcerers competing in a lot of simple games.

S

[Sigurd]

Cantrip Question

My character loves cantrips too. He has 6 levels of Wizard and 1 level of Cleric (Travel & Artifice).

Leaving aside any other abilities, he gets 7 cantrips a day to use at will.

How do you make money from 7 cantrips at will?

I am not actually going to inflict this on my DM so you can get ridiculous. Is there a combination of cantrips that would make something very valuable or perform a lucrative service?

For example (pretty lame) , I can imagine him tying fishing flies, colouring the feathers, and sorting them perfectly for sale. If that were all he was going to do in a day how much would he accomplish at the speed of magic :).

Curious to see anyone's response....

[Set]

Sigurd wrote:

How do you make money from 7 cantrips at will?

I am not actually going to inflict this on my DM so you can get ridiculous. Is there a combination of cantrips that would make something very valuable or perform a lucrative service?

The thing about infinite use cantrips is that your character did not invent the concept. They've been around in whatever setting has them, probably for centuries. If he can think of a way to make oodles of cash with message spells, unless it's such a cunning idea that you can put a tail on it and call it a weasel, chances are, someone in town already has cornered that market.

Acid Splash used to create infinite free permanant acid, back in 3.5, but PF fixed that. :)

Ray of Frost remains infinite free refrigeration. Repeated shots will turn water into ice, and the ice can be hauled all over the city to lay in slabs in ice-boxes to keep meat and produce cool and fresh longer. If the city has water-pipes or conduits or aqueducts, a 1st level Wizard at one end can sit there for eight hours a day, spamming Ray of Frost, to keep the cities water supply chilly, and absorb heat as it moves through the pipes under / through / above the city, providing a limited cooling effect. In a game-world that has this available, nobody is going to get rich doing it, as any town big enough to have a 1st level Sorcerer or Wizard is going to have someone able to provide pretty much unlimited quantities of ice in this manner. (Seawater makes fine ice for preserving foodstuffs, just remember not to drink it!)

Prestidigitation and Mending could put washer-women and seamstresses out of work. A single apprentice, working off the cost of his education, could handle the laundry (and stitch minor rips and tears) in the fabric of an entire castle. As above, any magical medieval society that has access to this, is not going to fall over with its legs in the air when your PC shows up and offers this service. They've probably already got one. Or, for the idle rich, or the local wizard's guild, a magic item that casts that cantrip at will and handles the entire operation.

"What, doesn't your guild have one of these Laundry Golems? Oh, it's simply marvelous. You place your clothing on the stone, there's a puff of steam and a scent of vanilla and your clothing is clean Costs less than a fine longbow."

There are, of course, situations where the ability to non-destructively clean something is *priceless,* such as when dealing with some age-worn Osirioni script that you need to decipher right now, before the spinny blade thing finishes descending, or when you've uncovered a moldering tome of ancient lore that looks like it will crumble to dust if you move it, prompting you to spam it with mending spells to make it supple and sturdy again, to be transported away and sold for many thousands of gold pieces, but these are the sorts of situations that the GM places in your hands.

Anywho, random other cantrip stuff;

A crapload of cantrips for 3.0 that I never got around to updating.

Some of Sean Reynolds cantrip ideas;
a half dozen or so energy cantrips, similar to Ray of Frost and Acid Splash
Minor Invisibility
Aiming Line
Minor Energy Ward
Attract Fine Vermin

[Laithoron]

Put me down as another person who loves cantrips. They certainly do make even a low-level character feel much more magical. I just wish that it was possible to prepare more of them (i.e. get bonus spells for high Int/Wis/Cha, etc).

One concept that I've been considering is to have higher level spells actually extend the base functionality of a prepared cantrip.

For example, if someone has mage hand prepared as one of their cantrips, then allow them to use the more powerful greater mage hand (Spell Compendium) as a cantrip so long as they have both prepared.

Gonna list this thread for all the great links in it. Thanks for sharing, Stringburka!

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

The "Desertdweller's Wish" is the same cantrip as the "Locate Water" cantrip "Dowsing" from "Relics and Rituals." It's something I use in my own games.

I like all of these and would be happy to play with the lot. Thanks.

[Themetricsystem]

Dragon Magazine # 302 had an excellent article all about cantrips and had a handful of really cool new cantrips if you can get your hands on that.

[Matthew Morris]

Just wanted to add, another use for cantrips.

Satruday, we're fighting mites (still first level). I get initative and cast dancing lights (bard). Calling up three globes, I target them to hover over the mites' heads and call out, "Move and they explode!"

One good bluff later... we have prisoners!

Thank heaven Spellcraft and Knowlege (arcana) are trained skills ;-)

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Just wanted to add, another use for cantrips.

Satruday, we're fighting mites (still first level). I get initative and cast dancing lights (bard). Calling up three globes, I target them to hover over the mites' heads and call out, "Move and they explode!"

One good bluff later... we have prisoners!

Thank heaven Spellcraft and Knowlege (arcana) are trained skills ;-)

Oh, that's an old trick.

I did it over twenty years ago but the threat was "Stand back or my will-o'-wisps will fry your brains out!"

When a few of the orcs didn't believe me, I threw a shuriken (at night) at the biggest doubter, choreographed and covered with one of the dancing lights and the cry, "Go, my minions, and attack!"

Scored a critical hit and killed him. The other orcs were swiftly convinced and I had my "will-o'-wisps" chase them in circles while the rest of the party picked them off.

[Zotpox]

The ring of Prestidigitation is a poor man's ring of wishes and its play value can never be underestimated howeaver an eternal wand is much cheaper and obtained much earlier. This is also an intresting way to upgrade a bonded item.

[b:

Cantrips[b]]
0-Level Sorcerer/Wizard Spells (Cantrips)
Resistance
Acid Splash
Detect Magic
Detect Poison
Read Magic
Daze
Dancing Lights
Flare
Light
Ray of Frost
Ghost Sound
Bleed
Disrupt Undead
Touch of Fatigue
Mage Hand
Mending
Message
Open/Close
Arcane Mark
Prestidigitation

[KaeYoss]

Wish is my favourite cantrip, though meteor swarm will do if I just want to admonish someone.

[Teach]

KaeYoss wrote:

Wish is my favourite cantrip, though meteor swarm will do if I just want to admonish someone.

Those are not cantrips.

[KaeYoss]

Teach wrote:

KaeYoss wrote:

Wish is my favourite cantrip, though meteor swarm will do if I just want to admonish someone.

Those are not cantrips.

They are for me - and Chuck Norris.

[Slayer Dragonwing]

Octavirate Games' "Simple Tricks and Nonsense" (from RPGnow) is a great resource for Cantrips, with new spells, new feats that allow other character classes to use a limited number of Cantrips, and an expanded bonus spells chart that includes extra Cantrips for high attributes. I love it and I use it in all my games, as it requires no real work to convert it to Pathfinder.