0-level spells?

[InVinoVeritas]

Open/Close and Mage Hand are great at springing traps at a distance. They're also very useful when you've got just the right thing in just the right place--such as a door holding back a wall of water or sand, or for getting the alchemist's fire in just the right place, guaranteed...

Also, no gnome should ever get caught in the big city. One snap of the fingers, and suddenly his hair's a different color, he's wearing completely different clothes, heck, his eyes and skin are different colors. Leave messages behind. Animate an origami paper crane to deliver a note--or an Explosive Rune. Change water to wine. Need something to hide behind? Conjure up a paper screen. Prestidigitation is huge--you just have to always focus on the environment as much as the actors within it.

Dancing Lights: Instant movable light. Balls of flame rising from your hand. They're torches, distractions, and tools for intimidation and fascination.

I love 0-level spells.

 

[EvilGM]

Prestidigitation = best. spell. evah!

Try taking an NPC or creature that has no spell casting abilities and give them a few 0-level spells each day. See what you come up with. There are many versatile spells in there, but they are often overlooked.

 

[Voadam]

Light for low level games

Detect magic for all levels all the time

Cure minor wounds gets used a bunch

Prestidigitation for clearing off blood spatters after a battle.

I actually used daze successfully with my 1st level beguiler

 

[jeffh]

My last group of players was quite fond of a non-core one I found somewhere that basically cleans you up and makes you all presentable-like.

Detect Magic is obviously a staple. I'm surprised how few people have mentioned Mage Hand as that's probably the nextthird-most used core one that I've seen, though usually more for flavour than game-relevant purposes. (EDIT: The #2 spot would have to go to Cure Minor Wounds.)

I made decent use of what is now Disrupt Undead in an undead-heavy game. Guidance turns out to be very good in the Temple of Elemental Evil computer game, but I've never seen it matter in real-life play.

On the other end of the scale, Open/Close is pretty useless - nearly redundant with Mage Hand, in fact - and I would be surprised if Flare has ever been cast in its entire history. These are the kind of wastes of ink that give zero-level spells the bad name evident in the first post of this thread.

 

[Storm Raven]

3.0 Tome and Blood was the first place where the concept of sneak attacking with spells and touch attacks came up. :\

3.5 has it in complete arcane.

I am against the idea since IMO the damage of sneak attack is well balanced by the fact those who have sneak attatck may not overcome decent AC's.

On the other hand, the character who has taken levels in a spell casting class gives up davancing his sneak attack damage by at least a level, and usually has to take a BAB hit to do so, so it balances out to a great extent.

 

[TarionzCousin]

My last group of players was quite fond of a non-core one I found somewhere that basically cleans you up and makes you all presentable-like.

Prestidigitation can do this.

There's a great write-up on Prestidigitation in Tome and Blood--even if it's technically 3.0.

 

[Set]

My last group of players was quite fond of a non-core one I found somewhere that basically cleans you up and makes you all presentable-like.

Probably Hygeine, from Book of Eldritch Might III, in addition to cleaning you up, it gives you a +1 to your next save vs. disease. Quite a few nice cantrips in that book; Animated Tattoo, Keep Dry, Keep Fresh, Transcribe, Web Splat, Comrade's Trail, etc.

For core, Prestidigitation, Cure Minor Wounds, Mending and Detect Magic see the most use from my casters.

One caster liked to use a cantrip he'd researched, 'Lesser Summoning,' which basically acted as a Summon Monster 0 spell (1 Rat, Lizard, Weasel or Cat, or 1d3 Bats, for 1 round).

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't think you read his comment correctly. Seems to me he was talking about how DMs handle communication without the spell.

You are correct, I misread his comment. I'll go back and edit what I said.

 

[solkan_uk]

I like prestidigitation, but I can't motivate my players to use 0th level spells, except for the occaisional cure minor wounds, and they even tend to overlook that for any other healing available.

Next game I start I plan on allowing free access to cantrips once a caster can access 2nd level spells. See how that goes (will probably restrict wizards/clerics to their memorisation limit of different spells to balance it a little).

The biggest questions of balance are Cure Minor Wounds, which would become essentially infinite healing if given time, and the attack spells, Acid Splash etc, (though 1d3 damage, even as a touch attack, shouldn't make them too threatening). I might have to draft in some of the Pain of Healing rules from Iron Kingdoms to ensure healing doesn't get out of hand too much.

Though in retrospect, I don't actually have that much of a problem with being able to heal between encounters, at least in some games I run.

 

[Hussar]

THat's not a half bad idea actually. Certainly cuts down on the adventure for 30 minutes and rest for 24 hours stuff that usually happens at lower levels. 10hp/minute of resting. Works for me. Rest for 20 minutes after combat and everyone's back to full hp. Saves healing for actual combat.

Me likies this idea. Yoink.