D&D 5E (2014) I need ideas of fun & creative things to do with Wizard spells

[Ancalagon]

When my wizard casts unseen servant as a ritual, he does a "montage" of what he wants the unseen servant to do ... it's almost as much work as what the unseen servant will be doing

 

[bedir than]

Magic Missile leaves its description open for the player to make the missiles look like whatever they want.

"Say hello to my in-laws! Magic Missile! Big Head version!"

Tasha's showed Magic Missile as chickens

 

[Blue]

"Unseen Servant, Hold this sheet up in front of me."

Oh look, blocks line of sight and therefore a number of single target spells. Might also meet "known square but unseen" for disadvantage on ranged attacks depending on the DM.

 

[Guest 7030100]

Throw a sheet with a couple eye-holes over your unseen servant. Voila! The budget version of create undead... and very tough undead it is, as it is even immune to turning.

 

[Ancalagon]

unseen servant is also excellent role play - it would make a lot of sense for wizards to have several "make my life easier" spells, and I'm happy to see a smattering of them in the game. Familiars, unseen servants, "lodging" spells...

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Cantrips: fire bolt, light, mage hand, prestidigitation, shocking grasp (Note: I can cast any cantrip from the wizard's spell list with a DC 10 Arcana check once per long rest, thanks to a Hat of Wizardry)

fire bolt: Bit harder with this one, but I could see it being repurposed as a flare to signal your location; starting a fire in camp (since prestidigitation is only for candles and the like); breaking ropes; I can't think of much else, this is pretty purely offense-focused
light: putting it on a stone to throw ahead of you so you can see an area (or down into a pit etc.); leaving it as a marker so you know where you've been, at least for an hour; having a "hooded lantern" with a light pebble inside; making a primitive alarm by covering a lighted object with something opaque that can be pulled away by an intruder
mage hand: literally anything you could do for fun with telekinesis, like pranks, reaching high places, pulling objects to you without getting up, etc.; using it to multitask (e.g. stir a broth while you fry the shrimp), or to provide that critical "third hand" when you're working with something (e.g. holding an object in place, pulling on something from a different direction); using it to scratch an itch you can't reach yourself
prestidigitation: obtain or construct an exactly 1 cubic foot box (preferably collapsible) and fill it with dirty clothes, that's your instant laundromat; as you say, flavoring food, but also reheating it if it's cold or chilling it if it's warm; summoning to hand small useful tools, like quills, screwdrivers, chisels, utensils, cups, all sorts of basic objects that can aid your daily life and then disappear; making a quick seal/stamp/marking device that identifies you personally; marking documents or maps in a non-permanent way for easier communication or pathfinding; play back memories ("an...illusory image that fits in your hand") rather than trying to describe what you saw. Probably a LOT more, prestidigitation is probably one of the most powerful cantrips ever created and any spellcaster with access to it should absolutely be using it near-constantly outside of combat.

Will do higher-level spells later. Probably only one or two spell levels per post. It's rather a lot to think over.

 

[Aurel Guthrie]

fire bolt: Bit harder with this one, but I could see it being repurposed as a flare to signal your location; starting a fire in camp (since prestidigitation is only for candles and the like); breaking ropes; I can't think of much else, this is pretty purely offense-focused

I quite like this idea and it might prove useful soon. We're going on an expedition to uncharted territory with various other groups, so it could work to send a signal to other groups in case of emergency, especially since she can just keep casting it to make it more visible.

light: putting it on a stone to throw ahead of you so you can see an area (or down into a pit etc.); leaving it as a marker so you know where you've been, at least for an hour; having a "hooded lantern" with a light pebble inside; making a primitive alarm by covering a lighted object with something opaque that can be pulled away by an intruder

Using Light as an alarm is really unique and I would never have thought about it! That's exactly the kind of out of the box thinking that I love.

We also managed to buy a Fly scroll that I copied, so I'll be using that on a party member so that she can fly and map out the terrain. The point of the expedition is to gather as much intel as possible, and creating a map will give us points.

Now that I'm re-reading the Light cantrip, it also says the light can be of any color. I wonder if the Light spell could be used to give different signals. Like say, I fly up high and cast a red light, and anyone who sees that might know there's enemies. I've also read about people using Dancing Lights for similar purposes, using various light formations to mean different things.

Also, I'm starting to really love Unseen Servant. My character had to sneak away from an npc in a library. She was invisible, but still had to open the front door which would've been extremely suspicious, so the Unseen Servant began to fling books from the shelves to create a distraction. That's going to give the librarian a headache.. oops

 

[Stormonu]

I’ve also seen light cast on the blade of weapon, such as a dagger, making it appear to be “magical” or allowing it to be sheathed to hide the light. Another use might be to cast it on the inside of a chest or an object (such as a gem) inside a chest to get that “Pulp fiction” sort of illumination to deceive others into believing it contains something of great worth.

In another case, the group had an uncooperative prisoner. The wizard picked up a stick and cast light on it, and proceeded to question the prisoner. Whenever the prisoner would not answer or the wizard felt the answer was a lie or incomplete, he’d increase the light coming from the stick - warning the prisoner that if it reached a certain brightness, it would be very bad for them.

I had a sorcerer who used mage hand to go fishing, having it flick the fish into the boat as it had simply leapt in at my command.

In another game, I allowed the Warlock to use Eldritch Blast to propel a rowboat as if it were a motorboat (it was desperation, but interesting enough I allowed it).