Underrated Spells

[fasthd97]

Hideous laughter,command,burning gaze,gravity bow.

[Alitan]

I dunno... I see a lot of threads claiming hideous laughter is berzerkly-overpowered, so calling it underrated seems iffy.

On the other hand, in 31 years of gaming, I've seen it actually cast in a game... never. So you could be right.

[FuelDrop]

Transformation. that's right, the spell that turns your carefully built caster into a second-rate fighter. why? you may ask. a good question.
because you can cast it on your familiar. if you haven't seen my posts on what you can turn a cat familiar into at 11th level, using this spell among others, then you should. combined with any familiar and some hard-hitting touch spells, it can kick some serious butt. more details here.

btw, has anyone found a use for mass daze yet?

[loimprevisto]

In theory, magic missile + toppling spell = win... but I haven't had a chance to put it into practice yet.

[FuelDrop]

loimprevisto wrote:

In theory, magic missile + toppling spell = win... but I haven't had a chance to put it into practice yet.

they say there's more to wizardry than magic missile... but i'm not sure i believe 'them'. with lineage and perfection: quickened toppling magic missile is a first level spell, as is maximised toppling magic missile. maximised empowered toppling dazing magic missile still only costs you a 6th level slot, and lets face it that's a pretty damn good spell.

[Corlindale]

Deafening Song Bolt (Bard 5) is a surprisingly good blasting spell when you get it, and somewhat unusual for the bard list.

It can deal 9d10 sonic damage to a single target with 3 rays (at level 13 when you get it, that already averages slightly more than the standard blast formula of 1d6/level) - and here's the kicker: NO save and NO Spell Resistance. It also auto-deafens enemies for 1d6 rounds. Not too shabby.

Being on the bard list does limit metamagic application, of course, but if you really wanted to build around it you could get Magical Lineage and Spell Perfection.

Since it's entirely CL-independent, it could also be a nice scroll for the UMDers out there, to pull out against enemies with high sr and resistances to the common elements.

[Sangalor]

KaptainKrunch wrote:

What are some spells that aren't necessarily optimal for too many situations, but tend to work better than advertised?

I'd like to start off by mentioning "Speak with Dead". I took this with my oracle for flavor purposes and Ive been casting it almost every day.

There's nothing better than an interrogation spell that doesn't require the prisoner to be alive when you use it. Kill first, ask questions later.

The best part is is that RAW suggests you can use it on the same corpse a week later. So if you don't get all your questions answered you can put Murray's skull in your haversack and check him out the next weekend.

Love this spell.

Summon instrument:

- drums: carry water
- guitars: the strings can come in handy, the wood to burn
- trumpet: if you're naked and you're male, you can at least make yourself look like you're wearing the clothing of a certain tribe
- flute: connect them to build pipes
- ALL: cheap improvised weapons in any setting, e.g. a dungeon you're just escaping
...
Endless applications (for a short time) depending on what your DM allows :-P

[Corlindale]

Another Bard spell I don't see mentioned that often is Heroic Finale. At first it doesn't seem that impressive - spend a standard action to give another PC a standard action. Can have its uses, but I guess the sad implication is that whatever a non-bard does with a standard action will be of more value than the bard's own standard action.

However, things change considerably if you manage to Quicken the spell - either through a rod or Spell Perfection. Now you get to turn a swift action (and a move, if you're not performing) into a standard action, effectively getting 2 standard actions per turn by burning a 4th level spell slot and a round of performance (since there's nothing stopping you from using Heroic Finale on yourself, as far as I can see).

Depending on whether you have a performance in effect already when pulling off the trick, you might even grant 2 standard actions in a row to one of your allies, letting your full casters pull off crazy spell combos, or similar.

As far as I know there are precious few non-Time Stop ways to gain extra standard actions in PF, so this is pretty powerful and unique.

[KaptainKrunch]

Alitan wrote:

Illusory Script

Really, truly, seriously my favorite 3rd level wizard/sorcerer spell.

I don't have the skill (or the inclination to learn the skill) to dig it up and post it here... but go read it.

Dr. Who's psychic paper, done right.

Perfect forgeries.

A "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.

A permanent, re-useable suggestion.

Just Heighten that baby up every time you gain a new level of spells.

Endless utility...

Read illusory script for the first time...

Makes me want to make a Hoichi the Earless character - dunno if you've heard the story before.

But basically it'd be someone with Illusory scripts painted all over his skin.

Yeah I know that RAW doesn't suggest you can do that, but I'm the DM dang it.

[Alitan]

Well, Kaptain, if you're the DM, you can make the spell work however you want. Just make sure the suggestion on his forehead is "Trust Me."

:)