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Quickfall"Halt Dead" :DLooking at this thread title, I was expecting to see stuff like "Summon Self". :)Locate Terrain
Animate Party.
Dispel Notions.
Endure Recrimination.
Time Stumble.
Create Greater Awkward Moment.
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Not a spell but a feat. Disable Dweomer.
I could see the use of that if you know someone is pursuing you. Definitely not worth a feat slot and it seems like something you should be able to do anyways...
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Insect plague....can be escaped by... 5 foot stepping away from it.
Giant insect summons creatures FAR weaker than are useful at that level, including the spontaneous summon natures ally spell you can probably swap it out for. And to top it off they attack the cloest creature, not who you tell them.
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Quickfall"Halt Dead" :DLooking at this thread title, I was expecting to see stuff like "Summon Self". :)Locate TerrainAnimate Party.
Dispel Notions.
Endure Recrimination.
Time Stumble.
Create Greater Awkward Moment.
Greater Waiting.
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Airball
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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There was a Dragon article years back with a bunch of terrible spells like these joke spells.
Drawmij's Instant Death - kills Drawmij, wherever he is.
for example.
We once found a spell called "exploding familiar." The range was Personal.
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Which one's worse, Bigby's Groping Hand and Evard's Invasive Tentacles? I've (luckily) never seen either one in play, but I've heard both mentioned around gaming tables.
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Wizard Level 4 - Minor Creation (why not just buy it or find it)
Because sometimes I need 10 cubic feet of crop dust to blow a tower apart with, and I need it to appear now.
Dust explosions are nasty.
My biggest problem with the spell is it either lasts too long, or doesn't quite last long enough. Dropped a level and 10 minutes per level would be about perfect.
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Power Word Contemplate"Halt Dead" :DLooking at this thread title, I was expecting to see stuff like "Summon Self". :)Locate Terrain
Locate Hands
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Locate HandsPower Word Contemplate"Halt Dead" :DLooking at this thread title, I was expecting to see stuff like "Summon Self". :)Locate Terrain
The one with somatic components?
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Sine of the Dawnflower (Provides the sine of the angle between the sun and vertical.)
Useful for navigation of course.
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Otto's Irresistible Danes sounds pretty good to me. There are some who consider D&D (and by extension Pathfinder) a "Wicked Game", and as I recall, the model in Chris Isaak's wonderful video was Danish.
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Tensor's Fleeting Disk (A cantrip version of Floating Disk with a one round duration.)
This one is so painfully close to being cool. Just a little more time...
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Which one's worse, Bigby's Groping Hand and Evard's Invasive Tentacles? I've (luckily) never seen either one in play, but I've heard both mentioned around gaming tables.
For the use of a variant of the second, see it demonstrated by Order of the Stick: Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
Speak with Bread might be a joke spell, but there's a 2nd level Ranger spell in the APG called Allfood which makes an object of up to 5lbs per level edible (or a collection of similar objects like a pile of rocks). That's not useless, but it could obviously lead to a lot of silly antics.
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Someone's clearly never adventured across the desert before. It's a significant advantage if your opponents expect you to show up either exhausted from your trip, or sporting nothing but Hot Weather outfit, but instead you show up ready to fight sporting some full plate.
I can think of at least a half dozen PFS scenarios where you're half-screwed if you don't have access to Endure Elements.
It's not a necro if it's less than a year old, right?
Anyway, I'm embarassed that no on mentioned the absolute most worthless spell in the game, Mantle of Calm. It nerfs your attack ability, and in return all you get is a Will save ability to cancel a rage effect on any barbarians who hit you. AYFKM. It's level 3, not an equally useless level 1, and the only saving grace is that it only lasts 1rd per level, so you don't have to suffer from your self inflicted debuff for very long.
For high-level useless new spells I'll go with Mantle of Doubt. I might take this at 4th level. 8th?!
What other garbage has been published in recent splat books?
Summon Münster
(I would like to hang with Herman)
Geb's Hummer
The Erotic Fantasy version can be fun
Arcane Anthology content!:
Linked Legacy
Even if you don't metagame, for the cost of a 1 round casting time spell of 1st level, you may use the effect of this spell instead of a free action!
The Pathfinder version of Rope Trick.
It was fantastically useful in D&D 3.5 - in Pathfinder it was nerfed so hard that it actually contradicts itself.
You cannot remove the rope by any method, yet has a weight limit before the rope snaps off. So which statement is true? You can't hide the rope by any means. Does this include casting it in a rope warehouse that has thousands of dangling ropes?
You can also use allfood to eat your way through high hardness materials.
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Create Greater Awkward Moment.At my preferred LGS, there is a regular patron who seems to have this as a Supernatural Ability that is a constant 10' radius area effect.
Funny, they only seem to have the troglodytes stench effect at my FLGS.
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Destroy Robot. Maybe this is useful to Druids, but for Wizards it's a huge downgrade from Disintegration in every way. Why!!!???
Using Allfood to eat his way through doors, walls, etc would please my Feral Gnasher a lot. Maybe I could find a wand or some scrolls and get the Ninja to use UMD for me.
I wouldn't say that Rope Trick is useless. It gives you shelter and would keep you safe from a lot of threats. Most animals and many less intelligent melee threats can't or won't climb the rope.
I see a spell and I think of magic items that make it useful.
True Strike sucks only because you need a level of Sorc or Wizard to cast it.
97. The Bone Altar
This alter is made entirely of bones and cement. There is, painted on the front in blood,”GORUM”.
Hook: If any fighter places a weapon on the altar and kneels in prayer in front of it, the weapon is blessed with True Strike, 3 times per day, when the fighter says Gorum. A successful knowledge religion DC 20 will reveal this. Note that a multi classed character, paladin, ranger, or such, only gets one true strike a day, total. Thus a paladin could get their holy sword to gain one true strike a day.
Symbol of Mirroring, on a small mirrored pendant that 3 times a day can cast the spell(command word activated) and moves with the wearer. If the whole party is melee mad then bowmen won't be able to stop them from closing.
Ceremony is one of the main inspirations for my ritual system.
Go to Rituals.
97. The Bone Altar
This alter is made entirely of bones and cement. There is, painted on the front in blood,”GORUM”.
Hook: If any fighter places a weapon on the altar and kneels in prayer in front of it, the weapon is blessed with True Strike, 3 times per day, when the fighter says Gorum. A successful knowledge religion DC 20 will reveal this. Note that a multi classed character, paladin, ranger, or such, only gets one true strike a day, total. Thus a paladin could get their holy sword to gain one true strike a day.
So Average Joe Fighter gets 3 true strikes from Gorum, but Gorum's own devoted Anti-paladin only gets one?
That's how it is in the Cleaves. It has to be playtested.
If you want chosen of Gorum to get 3 per weapon too, be the GM, or talk to your GM.
All these worthless spells are good in a staff.
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Not a spell but a feat. Disable Dweomer.I could see the use of that if you know someone is pursuing you. Definitely not worth a feat slot and it seems like something you should be able to do anyways...
I fail to see how this would be useful. It takes about twice as long to disable and only lasts 1d4 rounds. So 6 to 24 seconds. What can I use a magic disabled for 24 seconds that that takes me possibly twice as long to setup.
"Hey don't mind me tinkering here with this thing am about to give back to you. So you can inspect it. Oh and please don't hurt me while I tinker with it.
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Silk to Steel
Easily one of the worst spells. Let's take a look: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/spells/silkToSteel.html#si lk-to-steel
The idea is that you can turn your scarf into a whip so you have a weapon when you normally wouldn't. These situations tend to be when in an audience with the grand duke or something.
- A whip is v easy to conceal anyway, wrapped around as part of the belt not many people will tell.
- If you are sneaking an assassination weapon into a place, why use a whip? 1d3 non-lethal? Is the hope to trip the mark to death?
- you can't pre-cast it. 1 round/level so you need to castit right when you use it...
- V, S, (and Scarf F) components so you can't cast it subtly anyway. Everyone can tell you are up to something.
- Does not give proficiency, so only useable with the Bard. 2nd level spontaneous slot, no thanks. And a Bard at that level has at least 8 other things he can be doing with his time instead of this.
- not magic, just an ordinary whip.
- a waste of a really cool name.
Find a use for this spell, I double-dog dare you. Cannot be done. Utterly useless.
Wizard Level 1 - Endure Elements (buy a coat or get into the shade in 20 years of rpg on and off have never had a use for this)
I actually would say that in some environments, shade isn't good enough. I am currently in a game in which we are moving quite a distance over land through either savana, or jungle, and the in the savana you only have so much shade for long distances, and in the jungle the humidity can become so bad you will probably end up dead. We nearly did a few times. And this was all while we apparently are on a tight time schedule. So the cleric has been preparing endure elements and communal endure elements every single day, dedicating a good number of their spell slots to them to ensure we don't die of exposure, along with all our pack animals and NPC companions.
Similarly, I am in an extreme cold game. We don't have enough slots to do the same in the extreme cold, but it is definitely worse in cold weather. Cold environments are deadly stuff and will slow you to an absolute crawl unless you prepare lots of endure elements.
While it is situational, the moment you encounter an environmental effect you are likely to eventually fail the save against eventually, and that failure will devastate you and your party, you will want it. Or you will probably die. And that is not an understatement.
Silk to Steel is not completely useless as it can be used to also defend yourself. Admittedly a+2 sheild bonus is not much but ,it is not totally useless. It also increases the strength of the scarf to that of steel so you could probably use it to hold something. Maybe use it to make a trap. Use the scarf to hold an object up that it could not ordinarily hold and wait for the duration to expire. None of these things really make it worth a second level spell, but at least they can be used for something.
The most useless spell has to be Gentle Breeze. It is a first level spell that exactly duplicates the cantrip Breeze except it does not require a material component and if you memorize more than one can be cast on more than one target. To me not having to have carry a miniature fan and being able to memorize multiple instances of the spell to cast on the whole party is not worth making it into a 1st level spell. If the target was one creature or object per level than maybe it may be worth making into a spell.
Breeze is a rare cantrip, which is something you normally cannot take without DM permission and a damn good excuse. They are abnormally high-tuned compared to their 1st-level counterparts.
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Breeze is a rare cantrip, which is something you normally cannot take without DM permission and a damn good excuse. They are abnormally high-tuned compared to their 1st-level counterparts.
Yep.
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Silk to Steel is not completely useless as it can be used to also defend yourself. Admittedly a+2 sheild bonus is not much but ,it is not totally useless. It also increases the strength of the scarf to that of steel so you could probably use it to hold something. Maybe use it to make a trap. Use the scarf to hold an object up that it could not ordinarily hold and wait for the duration to expire. None of these things really make it worth a second level spell, but at least they can be used for something.
I see what you mean, but why not just buy a whip if you are a Bard? They are 5 silver pieces. If you have the whip proficiency and feats to be able to grab something, then why not have a whip?
Maybe there is a case when you are in prison and you have no weapons but you do have your coat and scarf. It's so niche. I know it does something, +2 shield AC for a couple of rounds, but my benchmark is whether you would ever take it rather than any other spell. And you wouldn't. Nobody sensible would ever build their character to take it, so I'm putting it in the worthless pile for this thread.
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Silk to Steel is not completely useless as it can be used to also defend yourself. Admittedly a+2 sheild bonus is not much but ,it is not totally useless. It also increases the strength of the scarf to that of steel so you could probably use it to hold something. Maybe use it to make a trap. Use the scarf to hold an object up that it could not ordinarily hold and wait for the duration to expire. None of these things really make it worth a second level spell, but at least they can be used for something.
I see what you mean, but why not just buy a whip if you are a Bard? They are 5 silver pieces. If you have the whip proficiency and feats to be able to grab something, then why not have a whip?
Maybe there is a case when you are in prison and you have no weapons but you do have your coat and scarf. It's so niche. I know it does something, +2 shield AC for a couple of rounds, but my benchmark is whether you would ever take it rather than any other spell. And you wouldn't. Nobody sensible would ever build their character to take it, so I'm putting it in the worthless pile for this thread.
There are plenty of other places were you wouldn't be allowed weapons.
wall of fire suffers from the same problem as blade barrier: it's a pain to lay down and keep track of on a battle mat... if only someone could come up with an easy extendable/retractable curtain-like template (instead of the typical player response to drop something on the mat and knock most minis on their asses...)Yarn works well or having a dry-erase surface to play on.
Coloured pipe cleaners.
There are also flexible rulers that hold their shape for drafting.
Skinsend...well I suppose it could be of use at higher levels when you or more likely other allies have spells that can counteract some of the dangers of using this spell.
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There are plenty of other places were you wouldn't be allowed weapons.Silk to Steel is not completely useless as it can be used to also defend yourself. Admittedly a+2 sheild bonus is not much but ,it is not totally useless. It also increases the strength of the scarf to that of steel so you could probably use it to hold something. Maybe use it to make a trap. Use the scarf to hold an object up that it could not ordinarily hold and wait for the duration to expire. None of these things really make it worth a second level spell, but at least they can be used for something.
I see what you mean, but why not just buy a whip if you are a Bard? They are 5 silver pieces. If you have the whip proficiency and feats to be able to grab something, then why not have a whip?
Maybe there is a case when you are in prison and you have no weapons but you do have your coat and scarf. It's so niche. I know it does something, +2 shield AC for a couple of rounds, but my benchmark is whether you would ever take it rather than any other spell. And you wouldn't. Nobody sensible would ever build their character to take it, so I'm putting it in the worthless pile for this thread.
Yes, I used the example of an audience with a duke in my original post. The duration means it cannot be cast in preparation, the V, S, components mean it is difficult to do in secret, the standard casting time means it can't be done instantly as a reaction to something untoward. And it's a mundane whip so not magic and only 1d3 non-lethal so no good for assassination.
Put it this way - also on the level 2 spell list for all the classes which can use Silk to Steel is Hidden Blades. This spell makes your weapon invisible and for 10 minutes per level! With this spell you can definitely go to areas without weapons and hang around for an hour or so if you want before pulling it out and striking down the target. Pretty good effect, I probably still wouldn't use a precious slot on it and it is better in every way that Silk to Steel. I can understand niche spells which are seldom used, but S2S is not fit for purpose and 99% you would want Hidden Blades.
And if we are running high level enough that See Invisibility is standard, we are not using either spell at all.
Since Wall of Stone is so trivial to smash through, except at very low levels when you're fighting Warrior 2's or something like that nobody's going to take the time to move around the wall. They're going to barrel right through it.
Except, they likely won't.
You need a hammer or pick to get through a wall.
Core Rulebook, Additional Rules, Smashing An Object
Wall of Stone is good for at least a few rounds to block off things. Cut LoS on a spellcaster until they can teleport and destroy the wall can be a lifesaver.
Instant Armor is so close to being cool on many levels, but too many stipulations make it garbage. 1 Min/Level. It's a Force Armor, but it replaces your existing armor, and if you are a Cleric that's likely to cast this, that's probably an overall downgrade most of the time. Needs to either be 10 Mins/1 Hr per level or just a straight up Force Armor Bonus to AC that increases by level (+5 from 1st-5th, +6 from 6th-8th, etc. . .)
You also have to deal with armor check penalty and weight.
chainmail: AC +6, medium, -5 ACP, 20' move, 40#
banded mail: AC +7, heavy, -7 ACP, 20' move, 35#
half plate: AC +8, heavy, -7 ACP, 20' move, 50#
full plate:AC +9, heavy, -6 ACP, 20' move, 50#
Since clerics are not proficient with heavy armor, they get -6 or -7 (from ACP) on their attack due to this. Since there is no point to this, they will never do full or half plate instead of +X chainmail. Unless 5# is crucial, they wont do banded mail either.
hmmm... pup shape gives them -4 to STR, but I don't read nothing there that says they'll stop being dangerous... a pup shaped dire lion still pounces and rakes, albeit iwth lower damage diceLower damage die - and no accuracy. Not just from the -4 strength (cancelled out by the size difference), but they lose most of their HD.
It'd be an especially great spell for an evil party who would have no compunctions at killing the now 8-10hp animal.
With the loss of HD is also loss of stat booster per 4HD, and feat per 2HD.
As for targeting, if you make an area with low continuous damage and then pup shape within that area, and you don't need to make a save to target and it still dies.
/cevah