Creative Use of Low-level Magic.

[heirodule]

Once, when an animal was using the 'grapple' effect to hold a character in its mouth (getting set up for a swallow whole), I cast prestidigitation on the character to make him 'taste bad.'

Animal failed its save and *PETTEW!* spat the character out.

yoink

 

[Particle_Man]

Similar use of feather fall vs. boulders being thrown at us by giants. Good use of the Sorceror's 1st level spell slots!

 

[Bloosquig]

I once used a silent image to save a rather hapless friend who wandered into a giants cave and was about to be eaten. Simply told the giants, "Hey look we came with tribute" and made a nice cow appear from behind some bushes graze a bit and then walk around a nearby hill so it could disappear. When the giants dropped the bony halfling for the juicy cow we took off. Not the MOST creative maybe but it made me stand a bit taller by being one of the few, the proud, the illusionists.

Oh, and prestidigitation is an absolute powerhouse for creative folks.

 

[amazingshafeman]

I greased the surface of a tower shield belonging to a freshly slain homebrew giant as we tried to escape an avalanche, using the shield as a sled. It might have worked if the shield had a rudder. Instead, we hit a tree.

 

[pawsplay]

In 2e, I was playing one of two 3rd level wizards. We were underground, on the run from goblins, and our fighters had just lined up. Thirty goblins come charging.

"What do you have left?" he asks.
"Grease. You?"
"Flaming sphere."
And then we knew what was to be done.

We said nothing further. While everyone else was saying, "What are we going to do?" we calmly cast our spells. Thirty dead goblins in three rounds. The DM was simply horrified. We took zero damage. No one else moved a muscle.

 

[Hypersmurf]

In 1e my low level wizard was attacked by a ferocious monk. The monk charged towards me and made a kung-fu flying leap and I said "featherfall".

Monk said 'Oh damn' (or words to that effect) and I sic'd my wardogs on him as he floated to the ground.

I get the impression it wouldn't work in 3E/3.5, more's the pity:
Feather fall works only upon free-falling objects. It does not affect a sword blow or a charging or flying creature.

-Hyp.

 

[TheRelinquished]

Grease is one of the most useful low level spells I know of, even if I rarely find the occaison to use it.

I remember when I was running a bard through a 3.5 campaign, and we had to cross from one massive stone pillar to another for one reason, or another. Keep in mind, these were the sort of natural pillars that are about 40 feet wide, and 150 feet tall.

I just happened to have some really nice rope on me, so I tied a length to it and whipped out my trusty longbow, scoring a solid hit on the face that raised off of the neighboring platform. The DM saw where I was going with this and ruled that it was deeply buried enough to hold my weight. I proceeded to tied the rope around a sturdy rock formation on our side, and then pull out my lute to cast a quick grease spell on the length spanning the gorge beneath us.

All that was left was to destring my bow, swing it over the rope, hold on tight, and kick myself off the side of the pillar. I scored some ridiculous roll on the reflex save to keep straight and steady on the rope, and glided across while my companions watched me go with curious looks on their faces.

Another of my friends, the scion of the group, decided to take advantage of this, too. Only he had more of a flare for dramatics. He decided to try to skate across, hehe. The save was pretty tough, I recall, but he made it somehow. I'm pretty sure the DM gave us leeway for creativity, and made sure that everyone else used more "orthodox" methods of crossing via the rope, hehe.

 

[Jacen]

I get the impression it wouldn't work in 3E/3.5, more's the pity:
Feather fall works only upon free-falling objects. It does not affect a sword blow or a charging or flying creature.

-Hyp.

Isn't jumping person in free fall? It is only short one with plenty of forward momentum, but still.
Sword blow means that sword is in hand giving power to hit. Charging is moving along the ground legs giving "extra" power. Flying creature either uses spell or wings to push itself forward.

If I jumps up I am free falling back to ground unless I have some "wings" like big umbrella , parachute, air glider etc.

But I don't know if this would be using of rule 0, but if no force affects (except the gravity) I would judge it to be free fall.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I get the impression it wouldn't work in 3E/3.5, more's the pity:
Feather fall works only upon free-falling objects. It does not affect a sword blow or a charging or flying creature.

Yes, sadly it fell foul of the 'single spell, single purpose' mantra that sometimes seem to have affected spells in 3+e; I do miss the looseness that allowed creativity in 1e sometimes

At least featherfall can save the entire party now though...

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Never underestimate the manipulative properties of ghost sound.