Only half-joking:
Looking again at cantrips, they seem almost too good. I started thinking that these seemingly minor things could cause all manner of havoc with a creative player due to several things, unless casting cantrips is so blindingly obvious that everyone knows the wizard just cast a spell:
1) Descriptions are short and concise, there isn't a lot of "you can't do this" or "you can't do that."
2) At-Will activation, Minor action, free action cancel.
One could, conceivably, walk around town and create all kinds of suspicious noises all over the place, occupying the city guard with reports of crimes and fighting, or use sound to suggest that a wanted criminal is roaming the back alleys, while the rogue robs the city blind. Or have entire phantom conversations taking place just around the corner, all over the city, causing rumors about the Prince to spread like wildfire. You could make some poor girl think she's the next Joan of Arc by following her into the temple and having "God" talk to her every time by using the 'whisper' function. Or make someone think they're going crazy ("my mug of ale just told me to kill everyone!") Never mind the potential for bar fights when you can sit there and make all kinds of noises, at will, around you.
Even if you reasonably decide that it's only one sound at a time: one voice, one effect of metal clanking against metal, one thud of a body hitting the ground, etc, at a time; the fact that you can produce and cancel the sounds at will makes a wizard with this cantrip a walking sound effects mixing board.
Sure, this might make a fun Skill Encounter for a game... the wizard trying to walk around town unnoticed, keeping the guards distracted with Ghost Sounds, while the rogue goes on a thieving spree. But there's no chance of failure in terms of the Ghost Sound itself, and it seems pretty flexible, and as though the wizard can do these things without fail all the time, etc....
The only major limiting factor would appear to be what the DM rules on the fly, and how obvious a wizard is when he's casting - can he be discrete? I'd have to say that they probably either don't say, or that the level of discretion is implied by the spell ("you can whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target hear the words" would sort of lose its benefit if accompanied by a lot of wand waving, gesticulating, and flashing lights.)
With Mage Hand, at least, there is a spectral hand floating in the air. But it's still a lot more flexible than before, and I could see wizards using it all the time to: pick up suspicious items that might be a trap trigger, handle potentially dangerous materials, create distractions, threaten to drop and break a valuable item if the bad guy doesn't back down, etc, etc. Also, unless it's a big, blue, glowing spectral hand, it's got to be a lot less visible than a hand attached to a human body. And the cantrip description doesn't answer questions such as, "Can I use it to hover a goblet of acid over someone from behind them while I'm talking to them, and then spill it?"
It all seems to come down to: how visible is the spectral hand (vs. a live hand with a person attached), and how discretely can I cast the spell? Which doesn't seem to be addressed.
It just seems like I'd be using these things all the time. Or at least, asking a lot questions to see how much a DM will let me use them. That's a pretty big jump from when cantrips were forgotten until the wizard ran out of all his other spells. Some of these look even better (in the hands of a creative or mischievous player) than some of the higher level utility powers they've shown us - largely because they're at will and / or somewhat subtle.
Looking again at cantrips, they seem almost too good. I started thinking that these seemingly minor things could cause all manner of havoc with a creative player due to several things, unless casting cantrips is so blindingly obvious that everyone knows the wizard just cast a spell:
1) Descriptions are short and concise, there isn't a lot of "you can't do this" or "you can't do that."
2) At-Will activation, Minor action, free action cancel.
One could, conceivably, walk around town and create all kinds of suspicious noises all over the place, occupying the city guard with reports of crimes and fighting, or use sound to suggest that a wanted criminal is roaming the back alleys, while the rogue robs the city blind. Or have entire phantom conversations taking place just around the corner, all over the city, causing rumors about the Prince to spread like wildfire. You could make some poor girl think she's the next Joan of Arc by following her into the temple and having "God" talk to her every time by using the 'whisper' function. Or make someone think they're going crazy ("my mug of ale just told me to kill everyone!") Never mind the potential for bar fights when you can sit there and make all kinds of noises, at will, around you.
Even if you reasonably decide that it's only one sound at a time: one voice, one effect of metal clanking against metal, one thud of a body hitting the ground, etc, at a time; the fact that you can produce and cancel the sounds at will makes a wizard with this cantrip a walking sound effects mixing board.
Sure, this might make a fun Skill Encounter for a game... the wizard trying to walk around town unnoticed, keeping the guards distracted with Ghost Sounds, while the rogue goes on a thieving spree. But there's no chance of failure in terms of the Ghost Sound itself, and it seems pretty flexible, and as though the wizard can do these things without fail all the time, etc....
The only major limiting factor would appear to be what the DM rules on the fly, and how obvious a wizard is when he's casting - can he be discrete? I'd have to say that they probably either don't say, or that the level of discretion is implied by the spell ("you can whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target hear the words" would sort of lose its benefit if accompanied by a lot of wand waving, gesticulating, and flashing lights.)
With Mage Hand, at least, there is a spectral hand floating in the air. But it's still a lot more flexible than before, and I could see wizards using it all the time to: pick up suspicious items that might be a trap trigger, handle potentially dangerous materials, create distractions, threaten to drop and break a valuable item if the bad guy doesn't back down, etc, etc. Also, unless it's a big, blue, glowing spectral hand, it's got to be a lot less visible than a hand attached to a human body. And the cantrip description doesn't answer questions such as, "Can I use it to hover a goblet of acid over someone from behind them while I'm talking to them, and then spill it?"
It all seems to come down to: how visible is the spectral hand (vs. a live hand with a person attached), and how discretely can I cast the spell? Which doesn't seem to be addressed.
It just seems like I'd be using these things all the time. Or at least, asking a lot questions to see how much a DM will let me use them. That's a pretty big jump from when cantrips were forgotten until the wizard ran out of all his other spells. Some of these look even better (in the hands of a creative or mischievous player) than some of the higher level utility powers they've shown us - largely because they're at will and / or somewhat subtle.
Last edited:
