Low level spell combos/tactics

[Ave Rage]

I'm talking about 4th lv. spells and lower. Things like casting Darkness and having a bat familiar tell you where people are or fog cloud/true strike/melf's acid arrow. I'm playing the wizard for a group of people(new to game kind of) who don't think of a wizard as anything more than a portable cannon. I want to show them how you can use the wizard's wide array of spells to fight other than just Mirrior Image + fireball.

It'd also be cool to hear how you used the tactics in game. Like "We were backed up into a corner with 10 archers aiming at us when I threw down a 'Web' spell inbetween the two groups, giving us cover and control of the battle."

Thanks for helping.

 

[gloomymarshes]

I casted knock on an enemy warrior once, had a nice dm, and he ruled all straps/other fastening thingies on his armor opened, causing the armor to fall off

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I'm talking about 4th lv. spells and lower. Things like casting Darkness and having a bat familiar tell you where people are

I never even thought of that but seeings I have a scroll of darkness AND a bat familiar...thank you


I use mage hand to move my sash or rope to my enemy and trip em' frequently I love Mage hand. And our Dm ruled that mage hand can't affect magic items like potions, but could affect the bottle that the potion was in, so I once used it to grab the bad guys' potion of healing from him during a battle.

 

[Steverooo]

I don't know the level of the spells (and it was 1e, anyway, so they've all changed), but once upon a time, in a competition module, I "got stuck" playing the Mage... I HATE Mages! This one had stinky spells, too! His most powerful were Invisibility & Magic Missile. Anyway, the set-up was that a town hired us to retrieve some villagers from a band of 20+ Trolls... more than we could possibly fight...

So the plan was, take days to get enough Invisibility spells to cover the entire party (back in the days when it lasted indefinitely, until you took a hostile action), then rope up, go in, and try to get the survivors out. The plan worked, up to the point where we roped up and went in... I cast some Explosive Runes around the entrance, we went in, and the trolls made short work of most of the PCs. We ran, and they pursued...

At the end of the adventure, two Fighter-types and I were all that was left, and they were visible and attacking. They went down, and the Trolls closed in. My Mage took one of the Fighter's trident, stuck the hilt in the ground, ripped a blank page from his spellbook, cast Explosive Runes on it, then affixed it to the tines of the trident while all were covered by the Invisibility.

He then went "Bluh-bluh-bluh!", stepped away from the trident-holding-a-page-aloft, and as the Trolls turned to see who was making the noise... BOOM! The damage was enough to take the ones who had followed us out, and the Mage was able to bandage the two Fighters (who had been outside the radius) up, and escape.

We rescued zero villagers, and lost most of the party (thus didn't win the module), but three of us survived, thanks to the wimpy little Mage!

 

[Ave Rage]

GloomyMarshes: that was nice of your dm. I think maybe you should make your own spells. Seems like a good one. Give magical armor a save against the spell though. Maybe it would supress the power of the armor as well? The Knock spell unlocks 2 portions of a door (so two locks, or a lock and a magic spell cast on it) So maybe the armor version of the spell would limit the sheild/armor abilities.


Djeta: That's a pretty cool trick. Have a cleric use a "hand of the mage" ( I think that's what it's called, grants unlimited use of "mage hand" ) to distribute healing potions throughout the battle.


Steverooo: Thanks. Very awesome idea.

 

[Steverooo]

Here's another awesome combo for a Druid or high-level Ranger... It's not original; someone else put me onto it...

Briar Web (Masters of the Wild, IIRC), and Summon Swarm. Briar Web harms anyone attempting to move, and Summon Swarm harms anyone who doesn't. I believe BW is 2nd level, donno 'bout SS...

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Briar Web (Masters of the Wild, IIRC), and Summon Swarm. Briar Web harms anyone attempting to move, and Summon Swarm harms anyone who doesn't. I believe BW is 2nd level, donno 'bout SS...

plus entangle!!! (kahuna misses her druid...)

 

[apsuman]

Web plus grease in a lot of situations is useful.

Cast web at the end of a slope, then grease the slope. Tada! Everyone slide toward the web.

(from 3.0) Cast web on a group of nasties. Then cast grease on their weapons to disarm them. Basically, they waste an additional movement to pick up the weapon. And if they were not stuck before they dropped it they are now.

Grease the floor under the nasties and then web them. They fall and get stuck. Then have to balance AND try to break the strans just to stand.


Make a horizonal wall of ice over a chasm. Then as opponent(s) X get in the middle of the wall cast a flaming wall around them. Now they must get burned getting out, or fall to the depths below as the flems erode the ice.


g!

 

[Dinkeldog]

Enlarge person is one of our current favorite spells. Also, having a summon monster/nature's ally in such a way as to provide flanking opportunities is always appreciated by fighters and rogues.

 

[gloomymarshes]

Rope trick is one of the best 2nd level spells out there, as it lets you and your party rest almost anywhere. But that's just single spell. A good combo would be spectral hand + vampiric touch, or truestrike + vampiric touch. Maybe cast expeditious retreat before you attempt the latter, so you can run away quickly (Wizards don't prefer a greatclub to the head). Also, sleep is basically a save or die spell at the really low levels. To get nearly unhittable, cast mirror image, blur, displacement, shield and mage armor. High AC, and a high chance of either striking a mirrored image or a displaced one