Broken 3.0 spells and the use thereof

[Mathew_Freeman]

On friday I'm going to playing a 7th level wizard in 3.0. Now, I've been getting used to 3.5 recently, so I figured I'd ask everyone around here for their favourite slightly broken 3.0 wizard tactics, for wizards up to 7th level.

Yes, I know Haste and then attack! attack! attack! but would anyone care to be a bit more creative? Please make my brother regret letting me playing this character.

Oh, PHB spells only.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Yes, I know Haste and then attack! attack! attack!

You mean Haste and Cast! Cast! Cast!

Do you know what you will be facing?

AR

 

[FrankTrollman]

I never bother with Haste as a 7th level Wizard - those 3rd level spell slots are valuable, and spending them in order to squeeze out the rest of them in a shorter amount of time is not really that useful in my experience.

If you are in more than one encounter per day, the extra spells you get from Haste in the first encounter are simply coming out of the second encounter. If you have only one encounter per day, the extra spells you get from Haste and the haste itself are simply coming out of your party-wide precombat buff alotment.

Pre-combat buffs are great. Especially Greater Magic Weapon - cast that all the time. It's best for Arrows, as with one casting you can have the entire party operating at hyper-extended capacity for your entire adventuring day. Since you'll only have 7 spells total of levels 3 or 4, I think this is a much better expenditure of your resources than Haste is.

Polymorph Other is the best spell ever, and despite (or perhaps because of) the ludicrously poor wording on that spell and the subsequent rewritings - it should be handed out as a permanenet buff to the entire party. How exactly it functions depends entirely upon what set of rules and rulings your DM is using - and the best forms will vary accordingly. It's also good as an attack spell.

The best combat spells of your level are:

Major Image
Polymorph Other
Phantasmal Killer
Charm Monster
Solid Fog

The best Out-of-Combat spells of your level are:

Dimension Door (combine with Locate Object - it's hillarious)
Scry
Greater Magic Weapon

As you may have noticed - vurtually all good spells are Divination, Illusion, or Transmutation (at higher levels Conjuration and Necromancy both get some contenders). So there is no good reason to not specialize in one of those. Which one is completely irrelevent (as you will usually have a spell of each level from all of those schools anyway - so any one of them could be your "bonus spell" and not change your spell configuration in the slightest), and should be left to your character's "theme".

-Frank

 

[Pax]

What race, specialty school (if any), setting, allowed sourcebooks ... ?

 

[hong]

Major Image
Polymorph Other
Phantasmal Killer
Charm Monster
Solid Fog

The best Out-of-Combat spells of your level are:

Dimension Door (combine with Locate Object - it's hillarious)
Scry
Greater Magic Weapon

As you may have noticed - vurtually all good spells are Divination, Illusion, or Transmutation (at higher levels Conjuration and Necromancy both get some contenders). So there is no good reason to not specialize in one of those. Which one is completely irrelevent (as you will usually have a spell of each level from all of those schools anyway - so any one of them could be your "bonus spell" and not change your spell configuration in the slightest), and should be left to your character's "theme".

No, no, no.

What you do is take spells like gust of wind, mending, flame arrow, and ice storm. Take fireball if you must, and cast it while your buddies are in the area of effect. Take shield, and forget to cast it before every fight. Oh, and don't forget to put your lowest stat in Con, and your second-lowest stat in Dex.

Two months later, when you've convinced your DM that wizards are the worst class evar and shouldn't be allowed out of doors without a chaperone, THEN you ask whether you can play a _17th_ level wizard.


Hong "step 3: profit!" Ooi

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Get a min-maxed tank in your party and cast Haste on HIM. It doesn't burn through your spells as quickly and the extra 45-150 points of damage or so you're likely to get out of it (along with the 20-30 points of damage he won't take b/c of the AC bonus) will easily surpass anything else you could have cast.

Also consider Confusion and Improved Invisibility.

 

[FrankTrollman]

Get a min-maxed tank in your party and cast Haste on HIM. It doesn't burn through your spells as quickly and the extra 45-150 points of damage or so you're likely to get out of it (along with the 20-30 points of damage he won't take b/c of the AC bonus) will easily surpass anything else you could have cast.

Also consider Confusion and Improved Invisibility.

This is why Mass Haste is the best spell ever.

Improved Invisibility really isn't very useful to a Wizard. But putting it on the Party Rogue turns him into a killing machine the likes of which you have never seen.

What you do is take spells like gust of wind, mending, flame arrow, and ice storm. Take fireball if you must, and cast it while your buddies are in the area of effect. Take shield, and forget to cast it before every fight. Oh, and don't forget to put your lowest stat in Con, and your second-lowest stat in Dex.

Two months later, when you've convinced your DM that wizards are the worst class evar and shouldn't be allowed out of doors without a chaperone, THEN you ask whether you can play a _17th_ level wizard.

This is an interesting strategy which I think would only be workable if the DM is bad at Sense Motive.

-Frank

 

[KarinsDad]

This is an interesting strategy which I think would only be workable if the DM is bad at Sense Motive.

And bad at the rules.


Some of my favorite 3E spells and spell combinations include:

Extend Mage Armor

Extend Bull Strength plus Improved Invisibility on a Rogue who uses a two handed weapon (I prefer the Improved Invisibility to come from a Wand that I created with my Craft Wands feat, then I can give it to multiple PCs and multiple combats)

Round one: Haste/True Strike
Round two: Spectral Hand/Extend Vampiric Touch
(I know this is costly for something which is not deadly, but at high level, it's fun due to 95% hit chance and no save, and of course, nothing prevents you from casting more True Strike/Vampiric Touch combos in latter rounds, especially against foes whom combatant allies have severely damaged or enemy spell casters who have fewer hit points)

This last combo with Ghoul Touch (instead of Extend Vampiric Touch) against enemy Bards, Rogues, Sorcerers or Wizards. It is even more likely to succeed if you have Spell Focus Necromancy.

Round one: Haste/whatever
Round two: Evard's Black Tentacles/Solid Fog

Round one: Grease
Round two: Evard's Black Tentacles
(You could really bend the rules with Sculpt (from Tome and Blood) Grease, you should use Widen Spell, but Sculpt gives the larger area to you cheaper)

Round one: Web
Round two: Evard's Black Tentacles
(cast 15 feet into the Web since you can still see to cast even with 75% cover)

Round one: Haste/True Strike
Round two: Throw Tanglefoot bag/Evard's Black Tentacles

Round one: Wall of Force, Hemisphere, 6 inches off the ground
Round two: crouch down and cast Evard's Black Tentacles under edge of wall
(requires outdoors or 15 foot tall / 30 foot long/wide room)

Dispel Magic, one of the most underrated spells around.

Mirror Image is one of the best defensive spells against melee and missile users. It often prevents you from getting hit, even if an opponent is readying for you to cast.

Round one: Improved Invisibility
Round two: Silent Major (or Minor) Image
(outdoors, your opponents think you cast Dimension Door and then run off several hundred feet away to attack you. Once they get near the image, you then stop concentrating on it and start casting other spells. Since you are casting Major Image, you can have it react to their attacks and pretend to cast spells. In the meantime, you could slowly move away from your original position)

Round one: Improved Invisibility
Round two: Fly
(then you no longer even need to cast spells, just fire your light crossbow and move each round, but you need to be outdoors or in a room 15+ feet tall)

Hold Person against any non-spell caster. Combine with Spell Focus Enchantment and Coup de Grace.

Darkness in a smaller room 2 to 3 feet off the ground. With a lit torch on the ground, have your bowmen then crouch down and pepper everyone and constantly move away from anyone approaching.


Granted, many of the spell combinations can only be done once per day and Evard's does not work against Halflings or Gnomes.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Two months later, when you've convinced your DM that wizards are the worst class evar and shouldn't be allowed out of doors without a chaperone, THEN you ask whether you can play a _17th_ level wizard.

Heh. And how about we make it interesting... say, a hundred bucks a ball?

-Hyp.

 

[fusangite]

Haste is the spell. Remember: not only does it double everyone's speed, it is also a pre-combat buff because it improves the recipient's armour class by 4. A fighter benefits as much or more from haste than a mage does; I'd recommend the first Haste be cast on your tank, subsequent Hastes on yourself and those joining the tank in the front lines.

Obviously, Polymorph Self is phenomenal as you can keep shape changing at will for ages. And there is simply no reason not to be a fire giant most of the time.

Of course, Ice Storm isn't broken -- it's just really good.