Unseen Servant is now limited to a STR of 2, which is, IIRC, 20 lbs.
I do use Unseen Servant to move potions around the battlefield, and to reload crossbows...
He said drag though. The spell force can drag as much as 100 lb.
Brilliant thread! Dotting.
I used to keep a portable hole, filled with water on my thief. I'd duck around a corner in a corridor, drop it behind me, then watch all the full/halfplated pursuers bubble while i calmly folded it back up.
An hour later, we're quickdrying stuff for our Next To New! stand in the bazaar.
Totally stealing that idea.
Unseen servant. It can drag enough weight to set off traps, I use an unseen servant in almost every PFS scenario I play as my wizard. He Is often dragging around a 75 lb rock with light cast on it. If there is a trap on the ground he will find it, he opens out doors, he opens our chests- if you don't use unseen servant you should- and see if your GM gets a little confused about what to do.
It can drag up to 100 lbs. So a long time ago we had a group without a Rogue and I kept Unseen Servant up dragging a 100 lb log.
Anyhow like you said it would spring traps and was used as a target for spells like Light.
Eventually we had a blacksmith add handles on it so we could use it as a Battering Ram (poor mans version of Open Locks, gave +2 circumstance bonus and allowed 2 people to help).
We also had the blacksmith add a loop so we could thread a rope though it. That way when it fell into a pit trap we could just pull it back up.
We named it "Chuck" and it was a viable member of the party.
One time the rope was lowed down by the Unseen Servant when we wedged "Chuck" between two rocks in a cavern.
In an evil campaign I was in years ago, our tielfling wizard would cast magnificent mansion for us when we slept. The spells includes some unseen servants. The wizard would occasionally murder them.
For GMs: have your enemy spell caster use dancing lights to create the glowing man image. I have yet to meet a group of players that bother to make a spellcraft check before unloading arrows and boomy-spells on this completely harmless target.
tHOUGHT SPEllcraft checks to ID spells were automatic?
The disguise check for simulacra is to see how closely it resembles the original, i.e. whether it can pass for him. If you fail it, you get a cartoonish snow man impression of the original subject. So, you could dupe the dragon, or it might look like it belongs in the Order of the Stick cartoon...recognizable as a cariacature of the original, but certainly not as anything else you like.
Sculpt Simulacra is a different matter. that's more like Alter Self for Simulacra.
Note that you can't prevent a Portable Hole from being opened from within. So trapping someone inside it is impossible...they'll just push out and force the hole to open, if they can swim at all...which will likely result in a gusher as the hole spills out.
The clay pots looks like something that would be useful with the Hand of the Apprentice.
==Aelryinth
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rock on a rope. need a grappling hook? a distance/depth gauge (tie knots in it and drop/throw the rock--keeping the end of the rope in hand, obviously)? improvised flail/whip? need to check a wide area around you for invisible attackers(twirl it)? all there and more, folks; its your handy, dandy, rock on a rope! its like a 50-foot ten-foot pole!
this marvel of equipment is easily separable allowing for all the individual uses of both rope and rocks, as well as the added benefit that people are incredibly unlikely to confiscate it (because, c'mon, its rope--every adventurer should have some--and a common rock), and its easy to repair and maintain; babarian sundered your rock? pick up another one off the ground. sundered the rope? tie it back together!
looking at the thread, it'd be a decent target for light and silence spells as well.
also, explosive runes (or that one serpent trap spell) on a small bell is great for causing chaos when surprising patrolling guards.
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A buddy of mine, as GM used an old one on his group with great effect.
The party unlocked the door and opened it. A skeleton rose up across the room. The party immediately began attacking. The GM would go down the initiative order of the party letting them throw spells and attack it. A few rounds later a player commented that the GM had been skipping his own turn. The GM said he had not. So the party continued attacking for a couple more rounds commenting how tough the skeleton was.
When it was all over with, they investigated and realized it was a regular, dead, skeleton fastened together and attached to a rope to a pully to the door.
The party wasted several spells, and and the sound of their combat alerted the guards a room or two down the hallway.
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As GM...
The party had to go to a hag's lair and rescue a man's captured family. The hag had in fact captured several villagers.
In the lair they came across buckets of body parts, pools of blood and other nasties. Also there was a small pen of noisy ducks.
The party fought and killed the hag. They investigated the disgusting buckets and feared the worst. The ducks were very agitated and noisy, entering the PCs.
Finally the fighter had had enough of the ducks and chopped the head off of one. The body immediately changed shape into the wife of the man that had sent them. The hag had polymorphed the kidnapped villagers into ducks to easier keep them captive. So the PC fighter killed one of the villagers they were sent to rescue.
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If you have a couple of levels into arcane archer, the spell allows you to cast spells that have an area affect, Which means Summon Monster Spells.. So now when you fire your arrow and it lands in a guys chest and a T-Rex jumps out of it.. Super awesome sneak attack, for an even greater sneak attack. Cast silence on an arrow, then fire your silent (metamagic)Summon Monster through said arrow, and allow it to land just behind approaching enemy. They will not know what bit them!
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I like the "suit of armor in a gelatinous cube" fake ghost or fake golem trick.
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I used to keep a portable hole, filled with water on my thief. I'd duck around a corner in a corridor, drop it behind me, then watch all the full/halfplated pursuers bubble while i calmly folded it back up.
An hour later, we're quickdrying stuff for our Next To New! stand in the bazaar.
Totally stealing that idea.
Cast invisible on the hole tho :D
Does that work? It seems possible, but also kind of logically weird. You have an invisible hole?Cast invisible on the hole tho :DI used to keep a portable hole, filled with water on my thief. I'd duck around a corner in a corridor, drop it behind me, then watch all the full/halfplated pursuers bubble while i calmly folded it back up.
An hour later, we're quickdrying stuff for our Next To New! stand in the bazaar.
Totally stealing that idea.
I was thinking that too, but technically it's a piece of black cloth soooo... I don't know.
A great trick is when you are looking for secret doors to use a candle and pour the wax along the edge between the flooor and wall. The wax will run under the open space between the floor and the secret door but will still stick enough to the edge of the door that it will outline the crease.
Another trick is to pour oil into a lock that may be trapped. Then set fire to the oil. The fire really won't be hot enough to destroy the lock or the trap mechanism, but will probably burn away any contact poison or acid bladder.
If you have a couple of levels into arcane archer, the spell allows you to cast spells that have an area affect, Which means Summon Monster Spells.. So now when you fire your arrow and it lands in a guys chest and a T-Rex jumps out of it.. Super awesome sneak attack, for an even greater sneak attack. Cast silence on an arrow, then fire your silent (metamagic)Summon Monster through said arrow, and allow it to land just behind approaching enemy. They will not know what bit them!
Summon monster is NOT an area spell.
If you have a couple of levels into arcane archer, the spell allows you to cast spells that have an area affect, Which means Summon Monster Spells.. So now when you fire your arrow and it lands in a guys chest and a T-Rex jumps out of it.. Super awesome sneak attack, for an even greater sneak attack. Cast silence on an arrow, then fire your silent (metamagic)Summon Monster through said arrow, and allow it to land just behind approaching enemy. They will not know what bit them!Summon monster is NOT an area spell.
hmm, I see that. It used to be. oh well =)
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A great trick is when you are looking for secret doors to use a candle and pour the wax along the edge between the flooor and wall. The wax will run under the open space between the floor and the secret door but will still stick enough to the edge of the door that it will outline the crease.
Another trick is to pour oil into a lock that may be trapped. Then set fire to the oil. The fire really won't be hot enough to destroy the lock or the trap mechanism, but will probably burn away any contact poison or acid bladder.
Both would just give a +2 to perception and disable device respectively. Most of the oldschool tricks worked because there were no rules to back them up.
I was thinking that too, but technically it's a piece of black cloth soooo... I don't know.Does that work? It seems possible, but also kind of logically weird. You have an invisible hole?Cast invisible on the hole tho :DI used to keep a portable hole, filled with water on my thief. I'd duck around a corner in a corridor, drop it behind me, then watch all the full/halfplated pursuers bubble while i calmly folded it back up.
An hour later, we're quickdrying stuff for our Next To New! stand in the bazaar.
Totally stealing that idea.
Silent Image over the hole - works with Create Pit too.
Both would just give a +2 to perception and disable device respectively. Most of the oldschool tricks worked because there were no rules to back them up.A great trick is when you are looking for secret doors to use a candle and pour the wax along the edge between the flooor and wall. The wax will run under the open space between the floor and the secret door but will still stick enough to the edge of the door that it will outline the crease.
Another trick is to pour oil into a lock that may be trapped. Then set fire to the oil. The fire really won't be hot enough to destroy the lock or the trap mechanism, but will probably burn away any contact poison or acid bladder.
That is sooooo depressing. Good problem solving boiled down to a couple of numerical bonuses. Sigh. My old grumpy gamer persona is coming out. I distinctly remember going through Tomb of Horrors with a couple of amazing trap players. We still died, but the tricks they pulled were awesome. By the way, I completely agree with an earlier post that pitons are terrific. Another use for them is to wedge a trap door shut or open.
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The best way to detect traps is to convince one of your more intellectually challenged team-mates to go to each 5-foot square and jump up and down on it:
*BOUNCE*BOUNCE*BOUNCE*
'Yeah, this one's safe!'
*BOUNCE*BOUNCE*BOUNCE*
'This one's safe, too!'
On the downside you go through a lot of party members, but on the upside it has a 100% success rate so far...!
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My Shadowdancer character has discovered that Create Pit and Spiked Pit are both available through the Shadow Conjuration Special Ability. As is Shadow Illusion.
I'm so waiting to do the following:
1) Be Sneaky.
2) Use Shadow Illusion (no verbal. focus, or somatic components, so doesn't break Stealth) to make an illusion of the floor on the floor.
3) Use Shadow Conjuration to make a Spiked Pit under the illusion.
4) Lure enemies over the pit.
What's even better is that it's a wonderful thing for messing up creatures who Teleport, because the pit is an extradimensional space, and can't be teleported out of. A pity that most creatures that have teleport natively also have true seeing as a constant ability.
Rock of Trapfinding - get a semi-spherical boulder weighing 40 pounds or so and roll it ahead of you (not approved for sneaky-sneaky parties).
Vial of stabilization - hold a test-tube sized vial of cure lt. wounds in the mouth... then chomp down on the vial doing 1-2 hp dmg. but healing 1d8. Works for bleeding effects too.
Not sure if this works in PF, but an old trick we used to do was to cast darkness on a pebble, and cast light (with a slightly smaller radius) on a different pebble. Now we have camp light in the wilderness without anyone around seeing us. Combine with sound bubble and you can talk all you like.
I'd add more, but a lot of my old tricks have already been mentions. Pitons, being sneaky, 10' poles, running away (I mean, strategically re-maneuvering), caltrops, marbles, sending the captured kobold in to "find" the traps (sometimes they try to run away, so it's best to make sure they're somehow attached to the 10' pole)...
Rock of Trapfinding - get a semi-spherical boulder weighing 40 pounds or so and roll it ahead of you (not approved for sneaky-sneaky parties).
It is if your cleric casts silence on it.
That is sooooo depressing. Good problem solving boiled down to a couple of numerical bonuses. Sigh. My old grumpy gamer persona is coming out. I distinctly remember going through Tomb of Horrors with a couple of amazing trap players. We still died, but the tricks they pulled were awesome. By the way, I completely agree with an earlier post that pitons are terrific. Another use for them is to wedge a trap door shut or open.Both would just give a +2 to perception and disable device respectively. Most of the oldschool tricks worked because there were no rules to back them up.A great trick is when you are looking for secret doors to use a candle and pour the wax along the edge between the flooor and wall. The wax will run under the open space between the floor and the secret door but will still stick enough to the edge of the door that it will outline the crease.
Another trick is to pour oil into a lock that may be trapped. Then set fire to the oil. The fire really won't be hot enough to destroy the lock or the trap mechanism, but will probably burn away any contact poison or acid bladder.
Lol I'd still pay it :) However, for the wax one, I'd have to start designing some secret doors that didn't go all the way to the floor...
I really don't see how burning the poison off a dart trap doesn't work though. I don't know, I feel the need to reward players when they think of that stuff. But as mentioned, then I'm totally entitled to use the preconceptions against them sometimes :)
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Not sure if this works in PF, but an old trick we used to do was to cast darkness on a pebble, and cast light (with a slightly smaller radius) on a different pebble. Now we have camp light in the wilderness without anyone around seeing us. Combine with sound bubble and you can talk all you like.
I'd add more, but a lot of my old tricks have already been mentions. Pitons, being sneaky, 10' poles, running away (I mean, strategically re-maneuvering), caltrops, marbles, sending the captured kobold in to "find" the traps (sometimes they try to run away, so it's best to make sure they're somehow attached to the 10' pole)...
This hasn't worked for some time.
As soon as the radius of the two spells touch one another, both spells are negated and gone. Counters and Dispels is part of the spell language, and has been since 1E, I believe.
One of the big current tricks is to make sure you have a Raised Continual Flame as high as you can afford, so it dispels all darkness effects in the area that are 'lower level'. A 9th level COntinual Flame spell can dispel ANY spell with the Darkness descriptor level 8 or less, and will counter and negate one of level 9, and is ALWAYS on standby.
Subtle and powerful.
==Aelryinth
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Although Darkness and Light spells can be used to counter each other if they are the same level, and can also be used to cast at the opposing spells of equal or lower level to dispel it, it doesn't work that way on spells which have previously been cast on objects.
In room 1 a wizard casts a spell with the Light discriptor on a copper piece (he doesn't care about the expense; he's got the budget!). In room 2 another wizard casts a spell with the darkness descriptor on another copper piece. The two wizards then bring both coins into room 3, allowing the areas of the spell effects to intersect.
What happens now? Do the spells dispel each other?
No! the parts of the spell areas that don't overlap continue to function as normal. In the overlapping area what happens depends on the comparative levels of each spell.
If one spell is of higher level than the other (Heighten Soell helps here) then it functions as normal and the lower level spell stops affecting the overlapping area, being overwhelmed by the higher level spell.
If both spells are of equal level the both spells cancel out in the overlapping area, while continuing to function normally in the non-overlapping parts.
Wizards get bored easily, so they take their coins back to rooms 1and 2 before the spells expire, and they still function normally.
Technically, no, that's not what happens.
As soon as their area of effects touch, they negate one another and both spells collapse. it doesn't actually have to hit the center of effect.
Note the language is DISPEL...which means they work fine as pre-cast spells. Stopping as cast is a counter...stopping once in effect is a dispel.
So, yes, they eliminate one another instantly as soon as they touch. That's what Dispel means.
They did this for exactly the reasons you are citing...to stop the whole 'overlapping illumination changes' stuff. Now, it's either all or none.
==Aelryinth
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Now, it's either all or none.
==Aelryinth
This from the PRD's description of the darkness spell seems to indicate otherwise. Spells with the light descriptor can overlap areas of darkness to return normal light levels.
Magical light sources only increase the light level in an area if they are of a higher spell level than darkness.
No, what that language is saying is they don't work at all if they are the same or lower level. Note that if they are higher level they increase it regardless of the darkness...there is no 'shade' area.
==Aelryinth
Wasn't the "bell on a string" the material component of the "Alarm" spell, anyway? (consults rulebooks) Almost; "Alarm" came along in 2e, and the material components were a small bell and some fine silver wire.
Still is:
Components V, S, F/DF (a tiny bell and a piece of very fine silver wire)
My PC’s often carry three bags, all tied by a slip knot:
Food, bones, leftovers. Drop when being chased by animals or dumb monsters. Feed to animals to make friends.
Coins- at higher levels, you often find CP & SP, and they are not always worth sorting. Scoop them into bags of 100 or so random coins (a GP or two might even be in there): drop when being chased by not-so-dumb monsters, use to toss to Inn-keeper when you have to ‘eat & run”, throw to crowd of beggars, etc. In our portable hole, we keep a shovel and bags just for this, we go thru a lot of them.
Marbles: some monsters will slip and fall, some will stop to pick them up.
Also, more useful items:
Crowbar- decent weapon, helps to open doors.
Twine/fishing line- many uses.
Have the party train with a few handsignals.
New trick I found in PF- Swarmsuit.
Cast silence on a pebble and move up next to enemy spellcasters to disrupt their spells. Throw it away when you need to be able to hear.
Or better yet put it in your pocket, just in case you want to use it again.
How so Toz? If it's in your pocket it doesn't radiate silence anymore (as your pocket breaks line of effect). It's just like using a covering to darken an everburning torch.
If cloth from a pocket breaks a silence effect, then why couldn't a spell caster just put some cloth over their mouth to cast spells in a silenced area?
How so Toz?Because the encounter I refer to has the NPCs using the silenced pebble trick. ;)
Ouch.
If cloth from a pocket breaks a silence effect, then why couldn't a spell caster just put some cloth over their mouth to cast spells in a silenced area?
Because then they would be gagged? ;P
More seriously though, a burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can't see. It can't affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don't extend around corners). The default shape for a burst effect is a sphere, but some burst spells are specifically described as cone-shaped. A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effect extends.
An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres.
The ENTIRE caster would need to break line of effect to pull of your trick, not just his mouth, since the rules account for creatures, not body parts.
This is also why you need to be within reach of a creature to make attacks of opportunity against it, even though it may be able to reach you and attack you just fine from 10 feet away.