There's a thread going on here where people are describing multiple ways of using the "mount" spell in a "creative" manner. Almost all of the examples being given as "creative" or "out of the box" thinking seem to me to be old, tired, hackneyed summoning cliches. But perhaps my view is skewed because I've been playing this game for 35 years and dropping blue whales on the BBEG was one of the first things any real summoner did as far back as I can remember.
So what I'm looking for are really and truly creative ways to use spells. Things that don't tend to pop up within a few weeks of just about every game that includes a spellcaster.
I would especially like to hear about truly clever uses of zero or first level spells.
I'll start with a simple one that I use a lot. Many of my arcane casters will purchase fireworks or flash powder. In order to create a distraction, diversion or lay down concealing smoke, they will mage hand the fireworks or flash powder to a location as far away from them as possible, then use spark to set off the fireworks or create the smoke cloud. That allows the party to then gain concealment or, if done well, sneak in past guards who have stepped away from their post to check on the diversion.
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If you actually look historically at a lot of older editions of Dungeons and Dragons you'll see quite a bit of recycling of not just ideas for spell use but also for a lot of the discussion that happens when editions change, classes and how they work, etc.
Just something I wanted to point out as I've found it interesting.
Deadmoon, using silent image to frighten someone or something is pretty common, using it to create a stampede to destroy an enemy camp is more creative. Is the silent image the full measure of what you did to start the stampede? Or did you include any means of creating noise or cold spell effects to make the image more convincing?
I love the aqueous orb. I'd have to look it up to see what the relevant size limits are to see if summoning a squid into an aqueous orb would actually make sense, but I love the creativity. After all, the same approach would work if you summoned aqueous orb and then tossed an open vial of ink into it. Ink is pretty cheap.
Morgen, yeah, it's that recycling that I feel makes some of the "creativity" perhaps not as creative as some feel it is. It's hard for me to imagine that in 2013 at a table with five or six gamer enthusiasts, SOMEONE hasn't run into the "drop a horse on his head" trope.
Girlfriend's elven Knife Master rogue, takes Major Arcana - Memory Lapse as a talent. After setting herself up with the Betrayer feat, as well as Underhanded and Deft Palm talents, her ideal one on one encounters became a matter of:
Rogue: "Hi, how ya doin?"
Guard: "Can I help you?"
Rogue: "Oh, I'm just making friendly conversation. You're kinda cute!"
Rogue rolls diplomacy, succeeds. Guard becomes rather goofy around the 16+ charisma elf. Rogue whips out a dagger and sneak attacks for max d8s. If he lives, combat starts, initiative is rolled, Guard takes -2 to the roll, rogue goes first. Rogue casts memory lapse, making guard forget everything up to the beginning of his last turn, Deft Palms her dagger.
Rogue: "Oh my goddess! Are you alright? Here let me help you!" [Rolls diplomacy]
Guard: "I don't.... Where'd that come from?"
Rogue knifes the guard again. Rinse lather and repeat until rogue fails initiative VS guard, or until guard makes save vs memory lapse, or he dies.
I'm not sure if it actually works that way, but it was rather unique so I let it slide. It required at minimum 4 rogue talents and 3 feats, that's a fairly heavy cost for something that only really works when there aren't other (non party) units around.
.....
Does that fit in the purview of this thread? It revolves entirely around Memory Lapse, a level 1 spell (APG 232).
Oh, another idea she had but has yet to implement. Cast Shape Change, Beast Shape 2 (or higher), or a polymorph spell on an intelligent creature. Sell it as a very high pedigree'd mount to noble or some rich merchant. Spell wears off, said creature steals away into the night. We still can't figure out if it's easier/better to do as a druid though.
Edit: Also, I didn't know about the 'drop summoned creature on its head' until I found out about it online. My groups usually followed the whole 'safe space' logic. That said, in a game I was playing in a few years back, the party's aasimar could fly, and made extensive usage out of it to harass an enemy army with various items from above. Magic Stone pebbles I think were a favorite. So the concept of 'drop something on it head' isn't entirely foreign.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Hmm. I've had characters hide under a floating disc to use it as cover from elevated archers.
Each edition has closed more spell loopholes so stuff that used to work just doesn't anymore(using fireball to create a sudden pressure difference and collapse a fragile cavern, using enlarge offensively so it didn't give the opponent any room to move, using haste to make an allied dragon more powerful through aging it, etc.)
Pre-internet, it took a long time for these kinds of tricks to make the rounds as well. Now the easy tricks are listed on websites for people to look up. Truly creative stuff is very situational and requires setup and storytelling. I've stopped a war with meld into stone, I've killed a dragon with summon nature's ally II, faerie fire, and light, and explaining either of those uses would take multiple paragraphs of setup/let me tell you about my character.
Artemis, the memory lapse use in this way would fit my expectations for this thread. I'm not sure if it would work exactly that way or not, but it's definitely in the spirit of using spells creatively. A couple of caveats though, just fwiw, in my games guards always get circumstance bonuses on things like diplomacy rolls when interacting with people, they are on guard after all, which means they should be, you know, on guard against trickery. Also, if one of my NPCs finds themselves in a situation where they are suddenly and inexplicably wounded and nobody is around but a stranger they don't know, that circumstance bonus is going to be pretty high. So I doubt this would work for several rounds in a row in my games. Worth a try to get a couple of attacks in though.
The selling of summoned or polymorphed creatures for profit or even for sneaking into a place is something that nobles and reasonably wealthy merchants would be well used to in my world. So a noble buying a "high pedigree'd mount" would not be likely to occur without some divination by the buyer to make sure they were getting what they paid for. "Once burned, twice shy" and all that.
ryric, please, take the time you need to explain. I'm all ears.
True. I tend to up the DC of the diplomacy in this instance by increasing amounts depending on how wounded they are, and once they drop to half or less it won't work due to the same reason you stated. Grievously wounded, and one (or a group) of adventurers standing around. Assumptions WILL be made. Of course, having tired or drunk guards will sometimes make it easier, especially if it's been a busy day.
If I remember right, the rogue was more or less designed as the seductress assassin type, mainly due to the mechanics of that set up. It did lead to some wonderfully funny RP moments though ("Why am I so wet?" "You forgot already? You must've hit your head on the headboard pretty hard" *knife*).
That said, I'm quite partial to using Unseen Servant to suicide itself by dragging the barrel of gunpowder into a room and igniting the fuse we put in it....
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Ok, this may be a long post.
I'll start with a story of a 3.0 party I was in. This group consisted of a bard, a monk, and a druid. In 3.0. What can I say, we were gluttons for punishment. Generally we couldn't deal with most problems head on, as you might imagine. So we came up with creative ways to use what we had. (For those less familiar with 3.0, just imagine the PF versions with less toys and abilities - monks had flurry but no full BAB when using it, bardic music was uses per day and didn't scale with level, druids had to find their AC and cast a spell on it to get one).
So we were 3rd level and in the middle of a forest. I was the druid and had no AC yet as I hadn't run into any animal I actually wanted. Some creature kept stalking us at night and screeching/loudly killing wildlife so that we had trouble getting any real rest, preventing us from recovering spells. Anytime we tried to go to the monster it was gone by the time we stumbled through the dark to get to it. (Tracking took a feat in 3.0 so that was a no-go for us). After three nights of this the bard and I were very low on spells. I had left light, faerie fire, and summon nature's ally II. (3.0 druids had no spontaneous casting). So I cast light on a rock, summoned a hawk and had it fly outward in a spiral carrying said rock until we saw the monster - which turned out to be a hatchling black dragon. Quickly casting faerie fire on the dragon, we were then able to beat it down in melee and get some sleep.
Two other tricks this group came up with involved a spell called feathers. This spell turned 1 target/level into a Small or smaller bird. I think it was meant for overland travel, and we did use it for that, but oh boy. We had to kill the general of an evil army (this was at 7th level). We estimated the general to be somewhere in the range of 14th level. The bard researched this guy in town and found out he followed a military sleep schedule and disdained magic. So the bard turned us all invisible and I turned us all into pigeons. The general's window was barred but we were small enough to fit through, so around midnight in swooped some invisible pigeons to the general's bedchamber(we had used some scrying magic to figure out the layout of his fortress earlier). Resuming our normal forms, three coup de graces, and away flew another batch of pigeons leaving a dead general in their wake. That group still measures the effectiveness of a plan on "the invisible pigeon" scale.
We used the feathers spell to good effect one more time that campaign. We had by then been joined by a sorcerer. We had found a huge army of humanoids and giants gathering in a room where they were resurrecting their evil god (we were about 15th level by this time). Sadly for us, the entire ritual chamber was awash in anti-magic, so much of our good stuff wouldn't work. We had, however, befriended a tribe of dwarves. (protip: your mountain valley tribe of frost giants is not safe against a group willing to use disintegrate to cause avalanches) So, we turned several dozen dwarves into little peeper birds, teleported our dwarf army to outside the ritual cavern (3.0 teleport had only a weight limit, so we could get many 1 pound birds). I can only imagine the suprise on the evil army's faces when they heard the chirping of many small birds coming down the tunnel only to have the onrushing bird swarm erupt into a dwarven army in their midst as they hit the anti-magic. Good times.