Overlooked, underappreciated, spells and powers

[Brain]

nm. above posters beat me to it

 

[darkelfo]

Prestidigitation. I have a necklace that does it at will. Dries me off in the swamp, keeps me clean, heats and chills my food and beverages, flavors my rations, polishes my constructs, picks up caltrops, lifts the gold from the piles of copper, on and on.

It's really more for roleplaying, but occasionally it comes in handy for real. My party was bogged down on a small patch of land in a huge arctic swamp for the night. With Prestidigitation I was able to dry off enough twigs and kindling to light up a fire and then add some real logs to it. Excellent and very fun spell.

 

[darkelfo]

Another spell I like is Secure Shelter -- whichever spell creates an actual cottage with bunks, a writing desk and a large table. I believe its a 3rd lvl spell. It seems like quite a waste of a 3rd lvl (4th?) spell, but its perfect for being put into a Wonderous Item -- seems pricey when you do the math, but if you make it so that it only works once per day and divide the cost by 5 its not too bad. Because of the duration (2hours/lvl) the minimum duration is enough for 8 hours of sleep. You'll never have to make camp again and in a pinch you can hole up in an instant house, firing from the windows or healing/buffing up while your foes batter the door. A built in Unseen Servant just adds to the comfort.

For special ops-type expeditions, I believe there is an upgraded version of the spell that has the same function, but it blends perfectly into the environment.

Perfect place to eat a Hero's Feast in the wild.

 

[Pickaxe]

Produce Flame. Did you know that Produce Flame scales far better than Magic Missile? Did you know that with increased # of attacks, your damage output with produce flame also increases.

The number of attacks you can make is tied to the duration, so it's a great candidate for Extend Spell.

--Axe

 

[Timeboxer]

Silent image. One of my favorite spells. One of my players who's a dwarven artificer UMD'd a scroll of this and put the main villain of the scene in an illusory cage, and when he tried to slice through it, completely blew his save while the party, who knew it was an illusion, simply attacked at him right through it...

 

[Pinotage]

The number of attacks you can make is tied to the duration, so it's a great candidate for Extend Spell.

--Axe

Does this mean that if you have a high BAB you can throw more than one per round?

Pinotage

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Does this mean that if you have a high BAB you can throw more than one per round?

Yep.

 

[Staffan]

Does this mean that if you have a high BAB you can throw more than one per round?

Yes, but each one thrown still counts toward reducing the duration. So if you want to maximize total damage, you would rather throw one per round, to avoid the -5 iterative attack penalty.

 

[Pielorinho]

Grease.

If you don't make a DC10 balance check you can't move. If you make the check you move at half speed. If you stay in the area you make reflex saves or fall down. If you fail the check by 5 or more you fall prone. Very rarely do I see a character in our campaigns have ranks in Balance that isn't a rogue.

As a fantastic little bonus, even if you make the balance check to move in the area, you lose your Dex bonus, as described under the balance skill. Which means the rogue can sneak-attack you, and the barbarian can power-attack you.

As for produce flame, I've wondered whether there's anything preventing a druid from casting it on herself before wildshaping, and thereby having one paw attack that has a little bit of extra hey-hey to it.

Daniel

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

As for produce flame, I've wondered whether there's anything preventing a druid from casting it on herself before wildshaping, and thereby having one paw attack that has a little bit of extra hey-hey to it.

I have no idea what the 3E answer to that question is, but in the first edition days, we had one druid/ranger who would do that constantly - especially while wild-shaping into an eagle and dive-bombing things with a flaming claw. Very cool.