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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 6715806" data-attributes="member: 158">One of the exercises friends and I used to do in the 1e and 2e days, was to write up three nonstandard ways to use each spell in AD&D. It was easier to do because the effects were not as definitively described in game mechanics. Fireball had a whole paragraph about the low pressure but exact volume of flame, Leomund's secret chest went into detail about its dimensions, where the chest went, and how extraplanar creatures could access it, web had a detailed description about its volume and what would happen with out anchor points, etc.So, it was easier to get creative because the DM had to be in on the creativity as well. So, fireball was used to clear ant warrens, to sterilize tools, to summon reinforcements; summon monster was used to provide quick draft labor, to crush unsuspecting enemies (nothing in the rules back then about "solid surfaces"), to provide cover to shoot from; continual light could blind enemies (it was in the spell description, but you know it was because one of Gary's crafty game group planned it first); silence a gargoyle and push it off a roof onto someone, etc.You don't hear this kind of creativity as much today, but I don't think it's because of the rules so much as the player base doesn't engage in it as much, I think. I heard of someone using a short teleport effect in 4E to trick someone into charging a war elephant off a broken bridge, so that kind of cleverness is still around, we just don't seem to celebrate it as much.</blockquote>

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