Spell Tricks and Combos A to Z

[Eldragon]

Spells are a great tool, but lets face it, not everyone knows a great way to use most spells. Covering every spell in the PHB*, post a great combination of spells,feats, and tactics that makes any monster (or PC) tremble in fear!

*Specify if your combination requires 3.0 or 3.5

Acid Fog (3.0)

Cast Acid Fog and a Quickened Darkness Spell into a small room. Have the party meatshield guard the only exit to the room.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well... Wall of Force and Area damage spells vs Ground Bound foes make for deadly combos. Trap 'em in a small enough area and a simple Wall of Fire will kill them all. Better... Cook them all.

If you have a good sneak attacking Rogue... have a Cleric/Druid cast blindsight on him and then use Darkness in the area (3.0 real Darkness not that area blur spell from 3.5). He will sneak attack all the time.

 

[Plane Sailing]

3.0 -> Solid Fog and Blade Barrier

Hold Person and Wall of Fire

Extended Ice Storm (lasts for 2 full rounds)

 

[XCorvis]

Here's one I got to use last night.

A dead end corridor + acid fog + repulsion.

 

[Eldragon]

Well... Wall of Force and Area damage spells vs Ground Bound foes make for deadly combos. Trap 'em in a small enough area and a simple Wall of Fire will kill them all. Better... Cook them all.

Real shame that 3.5 made wall of force operate only as a plane. Probably for the best however. The above combo (one of my favorites) is rather hard to get away from. But it also takes 2 rounds to cast.

Here's another good one: A Druid's best friend.
Transmute Metal to Wood->Repel Wood->Wall of Thorns. Those Pesky Meatshields in their half-plate wont stand a chance.

 

[Chris Tavares]

Some friends back in school came up with Dwamiji's Inconspicuous Fireball. You need multiple casters to pull this off:

Darkness, Silence, and Fireball

Things go black, and when the darkness drops everything in it's been singed.

 

[jaults]

We've had some luck with Spike Stones, followed by Greater Command: Flee. It is the most fun when there are limited places for the bad guys to flee to, so you can Spike Stone their entire escape route.

Jason

 

[Zappo]

A to Z? Ok...

(3.5) Acid Arrow
Not a very good combat spell, Acid Arrow does shine in specialized circumstances.
Unlike Magic Missile, this spell allows you to target anything, not only living creatures. Dealing 2d4 acid damage per round, it will melt through anything weaker than wood very easily (though personally I would rule that glass is immune to acid, despite the low hardness). While this isn't terribly useful for PCs, its huge range means that a rat bastard DM can use it to damage or destroy the PCs' equipment in surprise attacks as soon as they put it down.
The Spell Specialization feat (from T&B) increases the damage by 2, bringing it to 4-10 - but I'm not sure whether it would increase it on the second and subsequent rounds as well. If so, it would be a pretty good combo.
Acid Arrow is one of the preciously few direct damage spells that ignore spell resistance. This is a very noteworthy quality; but since so many outsiders also have acid resistance, it could be worth getting some way to turn the damage into, say, sonic (via metamagic or Archmage PrC ability, for example).
Putting an Acid Arrow on a caster who lacks the Concentration skill will be a major hindrance, forcing a DC 12 (or so) check for any spell or spell-like ability. Examples include low-DC outsiders and fey.

Finally, a Persistant (T&B) Acid Arrow does 28800d4 damage, for an average 72000 damage, on a 6th level slot, no save or resistance, just wait, and if that isn't nasty I bloody well don't know what is. Actually, no. I was wrong.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Finally, a Persistant (T&B) Acid Arrow does 28800d4 damage, for an average 72000 damage, on a 6th level slot, no save or resistance, just wait, and if that isn't nasty I bloody well don't know what is.

Since when is an acid arrow a valid target for persistent? It's not a fixed range or personal spell.

 

[Zappo]

Damn, that's what you get for going from memory about feats... is at least the Spell Specialization thing working? My T&B is, uhm, in about the other side of Europe right now.