Utility Magic: What's your favorite and why

[EroGaki]

I have never been a fan of combat magic; the act of hurling balls of exploding flame quickly becomes dull. I love playing magic-users because of the utility magic, the stuff you use outside of killing your foes and taking their stuff. If you want something dead, use a sword.

I want to know what your favorite utility magic is, and why. It can be in any form: spell, ritual (if 4E is your thing), or magic item. Feel free to share any interesting stories as to why you like the particular utility magic. The only rule to this game is that the spell should have nothing to do with killing stuff.

I'll get the ball rolling. Tenser's Floating Disk is one of my favorite spells, one every mage I run has memorized at least once. Whether it be hauling loot from a dungeon, or 30 pounds worth of eggs to throw at someones house (we did this to an evil mayor), Tenser's Floating Disk does the job.

 

[fba827]

oh, so many to mention!
But the two that come to mind immediately ...

mage hand - really, manipulating small mundane things from a distance = awesome

teleportative magics that have flavor.... like tree stride. though the mechanics never seemed "easy" to implement i like the fact that it is flavored transportation (mmmm.. maple flavor). no real "reason" other than it's a personal preference thing

anyway, i have way too many utility favorites but i'm too lazy so i'll leave this list at that for now.

 

[roguerouge]

Prestidigitation: The Everyspell. When you need to freshen up after that sewer crawl. When you want mint tea, dammit! When you want hair like an anime character. It doesn't make things; it makes everything better.

When I DMed a game for pre-teens, I had one mage who had a permanent Disc, which basically served as her character's wheelchair, Prof. X-style.

Summon Instrument: Ah... have an orchestra at your beck and call, one instrument at a time.

Benign Transposition: I just love how you get to save party members from horrible situations and put other PCs in that same position! What's not to like? Is it a battle spell if you like it for the RP potential?

Feather Fall: All it takes is for you to throw yourself off a cliff to catch someone, once, and you are forever a badass.

Create Water: In one 2e campaign, this was our most useful combat spell. It just always seemed useful, no matter what the DM dreamed up.

Arcane Mark: Perfect for your guerilla graffito campaign against the tyrant.

Endure Elements: Never let them see you sweat. Alternatively, you can dress in your noble's outfit in the arctic north.

Fool's Gold or Pyrite: I think in 2e this was a permanent one, making the possibility of economic warfare that much more possible.

 

[Rhun]

Prestidigitation and Mage Hand are probably my favorite utility spells.

 

[jamorea]

Alarm
Pretty much a must have for me. Really useful when you camp for the night.
Arcane Eye or Prying Eyes (? SRD Name, thought it was different in the book)
I love being able to scout out dungeons or bare minimum figure out which way to go if offered multiple choices.

 

[Oni]

Prestidigitation.

This spell has served my caster characters well on more than one occasion.

Everything from a bet over eating chili peppers to cleaning blood and slime off dangerously treacherous stairs up the side of a mountain to most recently intimidating a prisoner by making him smell of lizard chow.

 

[Jack7]

Rather than mention individual spells or magics (there have already been some good ones) I'll just say what types of utility magics I find most useful and enjoyable to employ.

First of all, spying, scrying, and observational/investigative magics. It fits my nature and they are invaluable in gathering information.

Security magics. Someone has already mentioned alarm. Security magics give both offensive and defensive advantages in numerous situations, leaving you the more prepared in dangerous conditions.

Communication spells. Anything hat fosters better communications, especially communications at a distance or when other forms of communication are impossible are excellent in my opinion. After gathering information you then have to disperse or transmit it.

Enchantments and charms. Extremely useful both for gathering information (interrogations) and for controlling, manipulating and mitigating behavior. I'd much rather charm and enchant some enemies, or even allies, than be forced to compete against, fight, or kill them.

 

[jmucchiello]

Feather Fall: All it takes is for you to throw yourself off a cliff to catch someone, once, and you are forever a badass.

And muss my hair? FF is ranged. I can save the falling paladin (heh) from the top of the cliff.

 

[Tuft]

I have never been a fan of combat magic; the act of hurling balls of exploding flame quickly becomes dull. I love playing magic-users because of the utility magic, the stuff you use outside of killing your foes and taking their stuff. If you want something dead, use a sword.

I very, very much agree. One character I loved very much was a wizard in the Dragonstar universe. When the fighters and rogues run around in power armor with vibroswords, laser carbines, chain guns and so on, there was not very much room for regular fireballs and lightning bolts, so I had to sink everything into utility spells. And I just loved it.


Among my favourite spells are the transformation spells; there are nothing that feels like magic as taking on both advantages and disadvantages of another shape or form. Especially the drawbacks tend to give very much flavor - having to balance getting scent as a wolf versus losing the use of your hands... that kind of thing. Or shrinking; having to see the world from the perspective of someone a couple of inches high... love that. Growing a mermaids tail, and visiting the coral reef below your exploring galleon... Ohh!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Silent Image, Ventriloquism, Minor Image. . . all that stuff, plus equivalents in other games. Some of my absolute favourite spells.