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One of my favorite types of moments"in this game is when a caster is out of "useful" spells but comes up with a very clever use of a cantrip that ends up making a big difference.
Sometimes it's a matter of wanting to keep contributing to the party after you're out of good spells, sometimes it's actually a matter of life and death. What are some of yours?
My personal favorite was when the party was fighting a master level Hungry Ghost monk that was about to land a killing blow on a PC when the druid blinded him at the *exact* right moment by dumping two gallons of water on his, preventing him from landing the attackr and giving the rest a chance to take him down.
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Not life or death but an interesting use of gear and cantrips. PCs need to distract some kobolds to sneak up a hillside; kobolds have been spotted in overlooking murder holes ready to rain down arrow fire. The PCs grab a spare shirt, mark a face on it with some glow-in-the-dark inks the wizard had and cast in succession: Penumbra, Prestidigitation and Ghost Sound.
The effect was a ghost-like sheet with a face, surrounded in shadow and very faint mist, which made the face glow. Add in the sounds of unearthly moaning (Ghost Sound) and its slow, drifting movement to block the first murder hole and suddenly "Ghost Shirt" was born.
The shirt was used to get a druid with Obscuring Mist as their last spell to the rough middle of the path up the hill where he used said spell to cover nearly the entire thing in fog. The kobolds, seeing the ghost followed by a sudden cloying mist rising (the druid used Stealth to get into position and wasn't spotted) thought the haunting was real and I rolled will saves. 2 brave kobold heroes held their post and fired blindly into the mist after they heard movement; the other 6 fled screaming "GHOOOOSSSTTTT SHIIRRRRRRRTTTTTT!" in draconic.
Needless to say, the PCs made it to the top unscathed.
by dumping two gallons of water on his, preventing him from landing the attackr and giving the rest a chance to take him down.You do know that you cannot conjure something in mid-air to use it as a weapon? That has been stated over-and-over by the devs. That brings back memories of the "Wall of food" that some of my players would use back in v1.
Create water can. It explicitly can create a downpour.
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Create water can. It explicitly can create a downpour.by dumping two gallons of water on his, preventing him from landing the attackr and giving the rest a chance to take him down.You do know that you cannot conjure something in mid-air to use it as a weapon? That has been stated over-and-over by the devs. That brings back memories of the "Wall of food" that some of my players would use back in v1.
More importantly though, is that hitting someone with water does not have any mechanical effect on the creature making the attack, except to make him wet and probably more pissed off.
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Disrupt Undead. Just...disrupt undead. It's saved our bacon so many times, especially against incorporeal enemies.
Downpour: Treat as rain (see Precipitation, below), but conceals as fog.
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Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight beyond 5 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).
:D
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Two from my personal history.
Dancing lights, followed by a good bluff roll. Created a glowing ball over each of the thug's heads, "Drop your weapons, or I let the flames explode and consume you all."
Message on a certain famous skull carrying goblin, to play the ghost of her brother. "Ekkie... Ekkie.... trust the longshanks... help them..."
If she'd put the thing down for a moment, I'd have cast prestidigitation on it to levitate it and make the eyes glow.
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Escaping enemy operative has a copy of some rather important plans in a backpack and is fleeing. Create Water to fill the backpack. Plans become glop. Hearty laughter by all
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I once had a player successfully kill a Mature Adult Black Dragon with Ray of Frost.
The whole party fought it (within a couple of rounds of killing its children), and managed to get it down into the single digit hit points...but were all unconscious save the Wizard, and the poor illusionist Wizard had no offensive spells left of any sort...but did have defensive spells up and just barely managed to kill the creature with a few Rays of Frost. It was pretty awesome.
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We had a local game that began in the ruins of a magical school...
Anyway, part of the backstory we built for the PCs (all survivors of the schoolpocalypse) was that we had all played 'lasertag' with Disrupt Undead.
One INT-challenged sorceress PC never did actually use the 'lasertag' spell against the undead we faced. When coached to do so, she'd look confused, and ask, 'why?'.
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Mage Hand SLA (no noise while casting) on a piece of chalk during a daemon summoning ritual makes things very interesting.
Out of curiosity what is the most powerful ray of frost or acid splash possible?
:DDownpour: Treat as rain (see Precipitation, below), but conceals as fog.
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Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight beyond 5 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).
It can't create enough water to fill a 5 ft. square though, much less several.
It can't create enough water to fill a 5 ft. square though, much less several.:DDownpour: Treat as rain (see Precipitation, below), but conceals as fog.
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Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight beyond 5 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).
It doesn't have to. Downpours don't "fill" the squares. It can be split around.
Water can be created in an area as small as will actually contain the liquid, or in an area three times as large—possibly creating a downpour or filling many small receptacles
Considering their enemy was "master-level", I would expect at least twenty gallons, too. Even ignoring that the spell explicitly calls it a downpour, this is a perfectly logical use of the effect.
The party were fighting a sorcerer, and were all too close for the party's wizard to risk casting most of his spells (most of them are attack spells, and with so many people in melee, he's risk hitting one of the other party members). However, he did have some cantrips available, specifically, Shadow Bite.
The wizard cast the Shadow Bite on the sorcerer. On a failed Fort save, it forces a Concentration check if the target is casting a spell (he wasn't), 50% chance to make them drop anything they were holding (empty handed), and makes them fall prone if standing, or stand if prone.
I knew there was next to no chance of success, with the sorcerer's Fortitude save, and the low save DC of the cantrip, he'd only fail on a one, but the wizard went ahead rather than sit around doing nothing.
I roll the save. 1. -_-
So, he basically cause the sorcerer to experience the effects of a bite, on shall we say, a sensitive area, and the guy fell prone. Which gave the rest of the party some nice bonuses to hit and let them finish him off that much quicker.
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Had a player use mage hand to move a knights helmet blinding him.
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Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.
It can't create enough water to fill a 5 ft. square though, much less several.:DDownpour: Treat as rain (see Precipitation, below), but conceals as fog.
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Whether in the form of a low-lying cloud or a mist rising from the ground, fog obscures all sight beyond 5 feet, including darkvision. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance).It doesn't have to. Downpours don't "fill" the squares. It can be split around.
Water can be created in an area as small as will actually contain the liquid, or in an area three times as large—possibly creating a downpour or filling many small receptaclesConsidering their enemy was "master-level", I would expect at least twenty gallons, too. Even ignoring that the spell explicitly calls it a downpour, this is a perfectly logical use of the effect.
Really, a couple gallons of water dumped on the head of someone who was not expecting it would be enough to make them at least close their eyes as they threw that punch.
Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.
A. 10 lb triggers. Because most people would trigger it as intended anyway with that slight change, and the traps doesn't have to be spoiled by a common and well known cantrip.
B. Open/close is already a cantrip.
Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.A. 10 lb triggers. Because most people would trigger it as intended anyway with that slight change, and the traps doesn't have to be spoiled by a common and well known cantrip.
B. Open/close is already a cantrip.
Mage Hand could lift a 5 lb rock up to the ceiling and drop it. That drop would be a helluvalot more pressure than 5 lbs.
Not enough to matter. Most pressure plates need to be a sustained pressure. You can't just toss a rock at a pressure plate and set it off unless it's on a hair trigger.
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You could bring a bag of holding containing lots of 5 lb metal plates (or bricks) and use mage hand to stack them one at a time on the pressure plate until it triggers.
Was in an aquatic campaign with a navel battle expected the next day, but the enemy flagship was coated with magically treated adamantine plates (hardness of 40) to make it nearly impervious to damage, so the druid wild shaped an stealthed to the enemy ship in the night and spent several hours casting create water into the ship (ship is a vessel, and a vessel is a container) the ship eventually sank and the enemy lost their flagship and moral as their admiral had to abandon ship in the night.
To the irritation of many, a constant detect magic while out of combat has allowed the group to find magic traps much faster and with less risk of failure than the rogue can.
It must have been a pretty small ship.
Even a high level druid could only make somewhere around 400 cubic meters of water in that time.
That's like 5 bedroom sized rooms worth of water. That's not going to sink a decently sized warship.
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Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.A. 10 lb triggers. Because most people would trigger it as intended anyway with that slight change, and the traps doesn't have to be spoiled by a common and well known cantrip.
B. Open/close is already a cantrip.
Mage Hand could lift a 5 lb rock up to the ceiling and drop it. That drop would be a helluvalot more pressure than 5 lbs.
By that logic, you could just have the fighter throw the rock, and you would have the added force of his strength score.
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Once had a caster of mine defuse what would have been a fight with Mage Hand. He went all "1000 years of pain" on the aggressor with it, which confused him. His reaction made everyone else laugh at him, which caused him to storm out of the tavern in anger (rather than attack the party member). Technically no mechanical effects were involved, but it worked anyway :)
By that logic, you could just have the fighter throw the rock, and you would have the added force of his strength score.Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.A. 10 lb triggers. Because most people would trigger it as intended anyway with that slight change, and the traps doesn't have to be spoiled by a common and well known cantrip.
B. Open/close is already a cantrip.
Mage Hand could lift a 5 lb rock up to the ceiling and drop it. That drop would be a helluvalot more pressure than 5 lbs.
Damn fighters stealin' mages' jobs. Can we get a nerf over here?
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Damn fighters stealin' mages' jobs. Can we get a nerf over here?By that logic, you could just have the fighter throw the rock, and you would have the added force of his strength score.Mage Hand, can be used to move a spherical 5 pound paperweight / rock to help trigger traps distantly. It can also be used to move a poking stick (any stick less than 5 pounds in weight) from a distance in order to open lids to containers and treasure chests.A. 10 lb triggers. Because most people would trigger it as intended anyway with that slight change, and the traps doesn't have to be spoiled by a common and well known cantrip.
B. Open/close is already a cantrip.
Mage Hand could lift a 5 lb rock up to the ceiling and drop it. That drop would be a helluvalot more pressure than 5 lbs.
Don't be silly. The fighter is using their abilities to be useful. Their rock throwing skills give them narrative power and they are clearly balanced with the flying invisible wizards and the dinosaur druids riding dinosaurs while summoning dinosaurs.
Had a player use mage hand to move a knights helmet blinding him.
Wouldn't work assuming the knight was wearing the helmet at the time. Mage hand only works on unarmed Unattended object. But Rule of Cool.
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Rule of Cool: Applies to magic, because magic.
Doesn't apply to anything a martial can do though because "realism".
This, class, is a classic example of "convergent evolution" in threads. Note that both threads started from completely different directions, but ended up uniting to develop a common trait.
Who here knows why threads do this? What's that, Jeepo? Yes, that's correct! By involving old arguments such as "weeaboo vs. GoT martials", these threads are attempting to start up yet more flamewars, thus ensuring they will survive long enough to find a mate and pass on their sperm.
In a certain PFS adventure, the hostage was soaked in oil and sitting on a trap.
Used Prestidigitation to clean the oil off before triggering the trap.
Spark to set enemy vampire's tent on fire, during the daytime.
Acid Splash too many to name.
Ray of Frost brown mold.
Touch of Fatigue spam with Spellstrike
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Emerald Spire, level 1. Two Kitsune and a Gnome. Dancing lights is saving the day, one foiled ambush at a time. The only person without a means of lighting up the dark is a Paladin. "Move your light twenty feet further in and a little to the right, detect evil is picking up a faint aura there."
It's the only time I've seen a paladin take longer to reload than a gunslinger, though, since detect evil takes a few rounds to be able to pinpoint locations.
** spoiler omitted **
Detect Evil wouldn't have found much of anything in the first level of emerald spire. I think there is only one cleric in the level, everything else is under 5th level and therfore has no aura.
Your GM made an error there.
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I also yelled at it about how it was so ugly it's mother tried to drown it, and smelled so bad that it's club wanted to run away.
It wasn't a very effective taunt. But it did confuse the troll for a round. Someone else tossing it a bit of soap (nat 1 when trying to draw a throwing axe and use it to attack the troll) just made things hilarious.
I was playing a witch who needed to somehow disperse an angry mob that was about to lynch an innocent NPC.
She successfully Bluffed that she was summoning "angry spirits from beyond" and then cast dancing lights to create the vaguely humanoid-shaped option. Then the party bard used ghost sound to make it moan angrily. She moved the "angry spirit" through the crowd, and this scared them. The mob dispersed, leaving their victim beaten but still alive.
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My personal favorite was when the party was fighting a master level Hungry Ghost monk that was about to land a killing blow on a PC when the druid blinded him at the *exact* right moment by dumping two gallons of water on his, preventing him from landing the attackr and giving the rest a chance to take him down.
That was your GM fudging the rules to avoid killing anyone.
Oh dude, don't tell them... That breaks the feeling of special and cool. And that is that is half the fun. :)My personal favorite was when the party was fighting a master level Hungry Ghost monk that was about to land a killing blow on a PC when the druid blinded him at the *exact* right moment by dumping two gallons of water on his, preventing him from landing the attackr and giving the rest a chance to take him down.That was your GM fudging the rules to avoid killing anyone.
It's the kind of trick that is innovative enough that I'd allow it to fly at my table as a once-off. But I'd call it a reflex save to avoid being blinded for 1 round, and only once due to the element of surprise.