Fun with Mage Hand...

[Djeta Thernadier]

My first real post started by me. Yay!

Just wondered if anyone has any interesting examples of creative spell use? Amongst my favorite things about D&D is coming up with new ways to use old spells to work toward the advantage of my gaming party and the disadvantage of our various foes.
Two of my favorite incidents thus far have been done with Mage Hand. You're saying....Mage Hand? But that's a 0 level spell! But...but ...only up to 5 lbs! This is where a little clever brainstorming comes in handy.
So one time, we're battling this Wererat we've been after, and he's got these potions of healing on him and we think he's almost gone when he downs a potion or two and is sprung back to very good health. So , to everyone's surprise, rather than take a shot at him with magic missile on my next turn, I use Mage Hand to grab his remaining healing potion, foiling his little plan to heal himself again, while we suffer. We ended up taking him down after that.
Second time, I turned to the fairy tales of my childhood, namely Jack and the Beanstalk and used Mage Hand again to knock an Ogre off his feet. How does a 100 lb 1/2 elf take down an Ogre? By using her ornamental silk sash (sadly to it's ruin...*sniffle, sniffle*...that was a darn nice sash) as a "rope" and using mage hand to wrap it around his legs so the next time he takes a step....BAM...down he goes. This knocked the wind out of him for a round and saved the life of one of my party members, who the Ogre was really close to finishing.
So as my very first game related post, I thought I'd ask you all for your outside the box usages of spells. Anyone?

It's good to be here
~Sheri

 

[Datt]

Well first welcome to the board, and congrats on your first post!

While I have never actually done this, it is a use I can see. Fighter gets disarmed of his Longsword during combat and it gets thrown from him. Kind mage uses mage hand to lift said longsword(4 lbs) and return it to the fighter so he doesn't have to move to get it.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Thanks!

Mage hand is such an underrated spell. It can be used to help party members too. That reminded me, I used it once to get a small , yet effective dagger across the room to a fellow sorcerer who needed to use something other than spells during a combat once. I forget why his spells weren't enough this time, but I know he never carried any actual weapons on him.

The possibilities are endless...(well maybe not ENDLESS, but, well, there are a whole bunch....)

~Sheri

 

[Caliban]

Unfortunately mage hand can't affect magic items, so grabbing potions doesn't work.

Sorry.

 

[MojoGM]

Using Mage Hand to grab potions.

Hi,

I'm the GM in the group in question, and I ruled that while a potion may be magical, the container it is held in is nothing special.

So, in this case, it wasn't "affecting" a magical item, it was grabbing a container that had a magical fluid in it.

'nuff said.

 

[Squire James]

The flask the potion was in was probably not magical, so that alone might not stop a Mage Hand. What stops the Mage Hand in this example is that potions hanging on someone's hip are NOT unattended objects!

Pulling levers and "someone needs to hold that button to keep the door open", yes. Grabbing stuff from opponents, no.

I can also see a sneaky wizard stealing a small item from an open chest while the rest of the party is distracted (perhaps by someone's Bluff check), though that's bordering on Arcane Trickster territory.

 

[MojoGM]

Well, as we all know rule #0 is what counts. Sure, it "technically" was not "unattended", but close enough so as not to nit-pick and ruin a damn good moment.

It was a creative use of the spell from a very new player, so I ruled it was valid.

 

[Caliban]

Re: Using Mage Hand to grab potions.

Hi,

I'm the GM in the group in question, and I ruled that while a potion may be magical, the container it is held in is nothing special.

So, in this case, it wasn't "affecting" a magical item, it was grabbing a container that had a magical fluid in it.

'nuff said.

A reasonable ruling, but I'm afraid that mage hand can't affect "attended objects" either. If the potion was on his person, you wouldn't be able to affect it with mage hand.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, that's just the way the spell works.

 

[ejja_1]

Fun with mage hand

With the proper forsight to set up a room for combat, a mage could set up alchemical traps. Then when the moment is right use mage hand to trigger the trap, causing explosions, poison gasses to be released etc..etc....
The majority of my players rarely take mage hand, and usually only use it for comic relief.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Just recently, a couple members of our party were in a competition to prove their worth before being allowed into a band of resistance warriors. In order to win acceptance, one of their tests was to cross a swamp on a series of logs, tree stumps, small floating platforms, and trees. While everyone else was jumping, falling into the swamp, and balancing precariously on the platforms, my Bard used Mage Hand to pull vines hanging just out of reach in the trees to him, then swing like Tarzan from tree to tree. (Never mind that everyone else accused him of cheating, thats nothing new. )