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When I had a sorcerer, I took exploding runes and made a ton of scrolls. Our rogue covertly slipped into the enemy camp and placed exploding rune scrolls (unrolled) in front of the entrance to each tent, on spears stuck into the ground (sort of like a politician road sign but about 4 feet taller). It would be the first thing that anyone sees when they run out of the tent.
One cry of "We're under attack!!" later caused by ghost sound and the camp exploded. The DM was..........less pleased but he rolled with the punch.
Exploding runes also works well on scrolls attached to message arrows right before attacking. Robin Hood style. The second someone opens the scroll to see what the message is they just see runes in the shape of a middle finger, and they explode.
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When I had a sorcerer, I took exploding runes and made a ton of scrolls. Our rogue covertly slipped into the enemy camp and placed exploding rune scrolls (unrolled) in front of the entrance to each tent, on spears stuck into the ground (sort of like a politician road sign but about 4 feet taller). It would be the first thing that anyone sees when they run out of the tent.
One cry of "We're under attack!!" later caused by ghost sound and the camp exploded. The DM was..........less pleased but he rolled with the punch.
Exploding runes also works well on scrolls attached to message arrows right before attacking. Robin Hood style. The second someone opens the scroll to see what the message is they just see runes in the shape of a middle finger, and they explode.
I am making sure that none of my players sees this post. I can only imagine what the group rogue would do with that...
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As I said, the DM was less than pleased. This isn't the worst thing that we thought up, but it was certainly a bad one.
Another bad one was when the group used a bag of holding as a portable toilet. The DM didn't think anything of it until one of them decided to torture a goblin by tossing him into the bag.
Long story short, it was an easy +15 to an intimidate check to get the information.
When the bag became full, the group used it to poison the enemy water supply........with 1500 lbs of waste.
This is part of the reason that as a new DM the Bag of Everlasting Dung terrifies me.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/bag-o f-everlasting-dung
Hell.........imagine the look on your player's face when he gets dropped into a dung trap.........Time to make a fortitude save...........Perhaps filth fever, perhaps something worse.
The necromancer also used bags of holding to hold his undead army....... the DM may have cried that day.
Actually my group had a clever plan, scrolls of explosive rune rolled around an arrow shaft...archer fires and hits target, then mage casts Dispel Magic. Of course in my case the archer missed the target...lol.i was going to do that but my gm was going to impose very high penalties to hit.
That's a terrible way of doing it :P You're using a 3rd level spell (Dispel Magic), plus a scroll of a third level spell (Explosive Runes), plus taking penalties to range and chance to hit, plus two characters' standard actions - all to -maybe- deal 6D6 damage in a 10' radius. Why not just use a Fireball for same - or better - damage in a 20' radius, no chance to hit, vastly better range? :P
Why not just use a Fireball for same - or better - damage in a 20' radius, no chance to hit, vastly better range? :P
Last I checked, exploding runes has no save and you can make as many scrolls of it during down time as you want given enough days.
(Not scrolls as in "Scribe Scroll" but scrolls as in I write this on paper as I cast the spell and it is there at very little cost to me.)
Why not just use a Fireball for same - or better - damage in a 20' radius, no chance to hit, vastly better range? :PLast I checked, exploding runes has no save and you can make as many scrolls of it during down time as you want given enough days.
(Not scrolls as in "Scribe Scroll" but scrolls as in I write this on paper as I cast the spell and it is there at very little cost to me.)
Only the creature immediately next to Runes gets no save; everyone else gets a Reflex for half. There's still matter of Dispel Magic - I will admit I'm unsure about intentionally failing the Dispel check so I won't argue problems with that one.
Fly above an enemy city and drop scrolls into the town.
If the DM rules that burning scrolls releases the spell, drop the scrolls down enemy chimneys.
My group has abused this single spell a shameful number of times. Even to a point of setting up the road side politician signs in an outward facing circle around the camp so that we can avoid watches. You don't have to be able to read the scrolls you just have to see the runes.
If you had to read the scrolls barbarians would rule, as would anything that couldn't read.
Fly above an enemy city and drop scrolls into the town.
If the DM rules that burning scrolls releases the spell, drop the scrolls down enemy chimneys.
My group has abused this single spell a shameful number of times. Even to a point of setting up the road side politician signs in an outward facing circle around the camp so that we can avoid watches. You don't have to be able to read the scrolls you just have to see the runes.
If you had to read the scrolls barbarians would rule, as would anything that couldn't read.
Hm. I'm not sure "viewing runes is all it takes" - RAW sez: The explosive runes detonate when read
"Read" does not read as "viewed" to me. And that bat sorta swings both ways - if it means "viewed", what keeps birds, small rodents etc from triggering your protective circle of explosive runes signs?
"Read" does not read as "viewed" to me. And that bat sorta swings both ways - if it means "viewed", what keeps birds, small rodents etc from triggering your protective circle of explosive runes signs?
I would say it depends on the GM. The reason is because depending on who you ask, all magic is written in Draconic.
So if you don't Speak/Read Draconic you can't be affected by any rune spell at all. It is far more fair and frankly a better ruling if you simply say, those who clearly view the runes are subject to their effects.
Or
What about the argument that one of my players used when I was DM-ing.
"I viewed the runes long enough to discern what they were but I didn't READ the runes. Sort of like I viewed the Burger King sign, but I didn't read it. I recognized the pattern and knew it to be dangerous but I didn't READ IT. AND BY RAW I DON'T GET EXPLODED."
My response: "Ka-Boom." (Roll 6d6)
"Read" does not read as "viewed" to me. And that bat sorta swings both ways - if it means "viewed", what keeps birds, small rodents etc from triggering your protective circle of explosive runes signs?I would say it depends on the GM. The reason is because depending on who you ask, all magic is written in Draconic.
So if you don't Speak/Read Draconic you can't be affected by any rune spell at all. It is far more fair and frankly a better ruling if you simply say, those who clearly view the runes are subject to their effects.
Or
What about the argument that one of my players used when I was DM-ing.
"I viewed the runes long enough to discern what they were but I didn't READ the runes. Sort of like I viewed the Burger King sign, but I didn't read it. I recognized the pattern and knew it to be dangerous but I didn't READ IT. AND BY RAW I DON'T GET EXPLODED."
My response: "Ka-Boom." (Roll 6d6)
It is my understanding that all standard magic spellbooks and scrolls are written in the spellcaster's personal cipher of the spellcaster's language. That's where Read Magic and such come in, and why one spellcaster can't just read another spellcaster's spellbook or scrolls. Otherwise everyone who knows Draconic could just read magic. I'm not sure where that "all magic is written in Draconic" thing comes from but I've seen it used a lot.
This has little to do with the runes spells though.
See, this is why I hate gunslingers.
Here's your exploding arrow.
Pack a bit of flint and steel in a cloth sack full of gunpowder and then tie that onto the front of a blunt-tipped arrow. Guaranteed to go boom if they hit something hard. Like armor.
It is ridiculous that the game has guns but doesn't have simple exploding gunpowder bags like this. It would take your average village idiot in a room with gunpowder, cloth, flint and steel about half an hour to come up with this.
Bonus - flint and steel become shrapnel.
Exploding arrows preceded guns in the real world's military arsenal by, oh, about five hundred years.
Splined arrows can do what your truing to do. Its a 5ft burst, 1d3 piercing, ref 18 negate. There a discussion about that particular arrow in the rules section right now.
Sorry, splintercloud arrows.
Create special arrows with arrowheads that are fragile (glass or clay or whatever) and have small latches on them that can be secured down (aka containers). Place one of the below spells or the greater version on the arrowhead.
Fire arrow. Arrow breaks (aka Opens). Arrow does 1d8+ Dmg or releases a nasty spell of your choice.
Enjoy this expensive (200 GP per arrow) but potentially deadly combo.
School: abjuration
Level: sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time: 1 hour
Components: V, S, M (powdered adamantine, diamond, or mithral worth 200 gp)
Range: touch
Targets: doorway or portal touched
Duration: permanent until discharged (D)
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: no (object) and yes (see text)
You inscribe a series of runes upon the surface of a door or around the border of an entryway. They function as a glyph of warding (blast glyph), though unlike a glyph of warding, these runes are always visible. The runes count as a glyph of warding for the purpose of what spells can defeat it, placing multiple glyphs in the same area, and so on.
School: abjuration
Level: cleric 3, witch 3, inquisitor 3
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Components: V, S, M (powdered diamond worth 200 gp)
Range: touch
Area: Target or object touched or up to 5 sq. ft./level
Duration: permanent until discharged (D)
Saving Throw: see text
Spell Resistance: no (object) and yes; see text
This powerful inscription harms those who enter, pass, or open the warded area or object. A glyph of warding can guard a bridge or passage, ward a portal, trap a chest or box, and so on.
You set all of the conditions of the ward. Typically, any creature entering the warded area or opening the warded object without speaking a password (which you set when casting the spell) is subject to the magic it stores. Alternatively or in addition to a password trigger, glyphs can be set according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight) or creature type, subtype, or kind. Glyphs can also be set with respect to good, evil, law, or chaos, or to pass those of your religion. They cannot be set according to class, HD, or level.
Glyphs respond to invisible creatures normally but are not triggered by those who travel past them ethereally. Multiple glyphs cannot be cast on the same area. However, if a cabinet has three different drawers, each can be separately warded.
When casting the spell, you weave a tracery of faintly glowing lines around the warding sigil. A glyph can be placed to conform to any shape up to the limitations of your total square footage. When the spell is completed, the glyph and tracery become nearly invisible.
Glyphs cannot be affected or bypassed by such means as physical or magical probing, though they can be dispelled. Mislead, polymorph, and nondetection (and similar magical effects) can fool a glyph, though nonmagical disguises and the like can't. Read magic allows you to identify a glyph of warding with a DC 13 Knowledge (arcana) check. Identifying the glyph does not discharge it and allows you to know the basic nature of the glyph (version, type of damage caused, what spell is stored).
Note: Magic traps such as glyph of warding are hard to detect and disable. A rogue (only) can use the Perception skill to find the glyph and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 28 for glyph of warding.
Depending on the version selected, a glyph either blasts the intruder or activates a spell.
Blast Glyph: A blast glyph deals 1d8 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d8) to the intruder and to all within 5 feet of him or her. This damage is acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic (caster's choice, made at time of casting). Each creature affected can attempt a Reflex save to take half damage. Spell resistance applies against this effect.
Spell Glyph: You can store any harmful spell of 3rd level or lower that you know. All level-dependent features of the spell are based on your caster level at the time of casting the glyph. If the spell has a target, it targets the intruder. If the spell has an area or an amorphous effect, the area or effect is centered on the intruder. If the spell summons creatures, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack.
Saving throws and spell resistance operate as normal, except that the DC is based on the level of the spell stored in the glyph.
Druids used to have a spell that would be similarily useful, but I think the specifics changed from 3.5 to make it not useful for this purpose. Fire seeds i think it was. Not really sure.
In the new super genius games product Ranger Options: Knacks of Nature there is a new 2nd level ranger spell called fire bolt, which can be used to create permanent exploding arrows. There is a material cost of 25gp and it has to be attuned to a person for them to be able to use it (if they are not the caster of the spell).
5th level Fire Cleric... Glyph of Warding (3rd level Cleric Spell) + Fireball (3rd level Domain Spell)
Used something similar to this "Back in the Day's" of RoleMaster... GM had no idea where my spell points kept going until the courtyard of our villa went up in a carefully laid out MIRV of fire and ice balls when we got attacked... Took me weeks to set that up but it was worth it to see the GM's face when I triggered it :D
Come to think of it I abused the heck out of that Spell List
/sigh good times... good times
