What is your most ingenius use of a spell or game mechanic?

[Jesus_marley]

Everyone who plays DnD knows that player ingenuity tends to be richly rewarded ( or at least it should be).
I would like to hear some stories from players or DMs describing an unconventional use of a conventional spell or game mechanic to achieve something spectacular.

As an example, in a campaign I was playing in, a druid took barrels of (flammable) dwarven spirits, filled them with caltrops, cast Fire Seeds and placed one in each barrel. We then buried the barrels in the path of the incoming orc army. when the time was right, the druid spoke the command word and berries inside the barrels detonated. Our D20 version of claymore mines exploded upwards, shredding the hapless orcs.

If you have any experiences like this one, please post it here for the rest of us to enjoy...

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well I wouldn't call it ingenius... but we used Firetraps in 2nd Ed to stop the DM from pickpocketing us to death. As soon as all our pouches and backpacks had firetraps... somehow those city rogues avoided us. Though not one of the firetraps was activated. (weak DM I know)

A recent ingenius was when my group was bewitched by harpies song. My rogue/cleric was the only one who managed to make his save. He pretended to be charmed and acted in a zombie-manner like the others. He then cast "Command" on our group Bard... the DC wasn't hard at all... but the Bard's players was so releived when he failed his save ! The command was "Play" (pointing to his drums of course). He started his music and broke the Harpy enchantement.

 

[shilsen]

Badly wounded mage out of all but cantrips and facing a bad guy who'd killed or knocked out the rest of the party. Luckily we were in a room with a fairly vicious trap which the party had just as luckily failed to trigger. Dropped an object on the trigger plate with a mage hand and nailed the bad guy.

 

[Imret]

That belongs to our group wizard. He doesn't say much, isn't much of an in-character player...but he's the LORD of clever spell use. But the big one would be cheating Ethusial of his prize.

Ethusial was a young adult black dragon hoping to steal a gold wyrmling for...some purpose. It was a side-trek, we didn't investigate deeply, the world was ending. BUT, his couriers were ambushed, the wyrmling was injured in the fight, but all couriers and ambushers died. Our party is taking the wyrmling home, and we've driven him off twice so far. You'd be amazed how easily a ranger/rogue with a longbow can harry a dragon that won't land when you can pump off eight arrows every time he makes a breath weapon pass. But, anyway.
While the wizard is on watch after the second encounter, Ethusial takes a new tack. He barters. It's worth noting that there is ONE good-aligned party member. Eventually, the wizard agrees to sell the wyrmling for 3 scrolls (5th level+), a magical staff, and our lives. The wyrmling is stolen, two of the heroes do their utmost to keep up, and the wizard sends his hawk familiar to follow him. The dragon notices it, returns (still clutching the wyrmling), and snatches back his staff for the treachery. The hawk has followed it back, of course. Then came the greatest exchange I've heard in D&D in a while.

DM: "Alright, the hawk's back overhead, why?"
Wizard's player: "I want him diving for the dragon's right front side."
DM: "Sure...."
Wizard: "And I'll deliver my gaseous form spell through him on the wyrmling."
DM: *mouth hanging open*

Of course, that gained him the proverbial face full of acid. But we saved the wyrmling, and do gold mothers ever hand out rewards for their children's return....

 

[Wes]

The last two times we've played the party cleric has cast 'command' on an opponent and commanded them to approach. Approaching brought the enemy through several threatened squares. After a few attacks of opportunity the enemy was done for.

 

[broghammerj]

I was the party cleric in the battle royale of our campaign. A great Zhentil army marched upon Corymr full of orcs, ogre, giants, and Zhent general named Bulgar Chembril who if memory serves was some sort of mage or cleric. He was standing atop a boulder casting spells down upon our men. The halfling rogue had been criticaled with no move and no attack by a hill giant. The fighters were riddled down to single digit HP by orcs. Our mage was depleted of all spells and unconscious. I made a last ditch charge to get to Chembril. He blasted me with a lightning bolt leaving me with 1 hp left and no offensive spells........I then cast stone shape on the boulder beneath him to completely enclose and encompass him.

The next morning when I could pray for my spells I cast stone shape to retrieve his corpse. Unfortunately he was gone. I later learned that Chembril had actually killed me with his bolt. The trade off for a fudge roll was the survival of one of his favorite NPCs.

 

[Storyteller01]

This may not be the most unusual example, but the nature of it makes it funny as he[double hockey sticks].

The sorcorer and the fighter had a shtick going when faced with weak enemies. The sorceror would turn invisible and appraoch from the opposite side. When she was in place she cast Fear, herding the enemies into the Fighter.

The Funny part: Watching a 1 foot fairy Sorceror sceaming 'FEAR ME!!'.

 

[Jdvn1]

There was a Druid in one of my high level games that turned into a Fire Elemental.

Then he Dominated one of the bad guys or something and gave the command, "Hug Fire Elemental."

 

[Tinner]

Back in the day

This was one of our first "Red-Box" games back in the dark ages. The low level party was trapped in a pit that was slowly filling with acid. We didn't have time for the fighter to climb out and pull everyone to safety, so my wizard used his "pathetic" Tenser's Floating Disk spell to create the force platform that stays level with his waist. The rest of the party climbed on that. They tied a rope around the wizard, and the fighter pulled him out of the pit, dragging the rest to safety at the same time.

 

[scourger]

quick draw

I used the much-maligned Quick Draw feat in a recent game for a 2-weapon fighter to always have the right weapon at hand. He had decent enough STR & DEX to make it feasible that he would use mainly throwable melee weapons like spears, axes, hammers & daggers. On a surprise round, I could draw and throw a weapon with just the single action. If he needed to move, he would draw a single weapon and get 1.5 x STR bonus to damage--handy for the magic sword he found. Then, he could quick draw a second weapon and still get the full attack action on the next round. If the enemy closed with him, he could quick-draw two weapons and really go to town. If the enemy withdrew, he would drop the sword, and quick draw as many thrown weapons as needed for the full ranged attack. It was surprisingly effective. He carried a sling, too; which turns out is a great one-handed weapon that allows STR bonus to damage.

The only drawbacks were throwing weapons at enemies that were otherwise inaccessible (like the spear thrown at the spider hanging over the underground river as we went past on rafts) and not being able to carry enough weapons and running out of things to throw. I wore spiked gauntlets for the last stand and actually used them once when all other ammo was exhausted. Also, I started using a lot of stones for that sling once the bullets were gone.

If I ever get to play that character again, I'm loading up on free slings and as many light melee/ranged weapons as I can get & carry.

The best bonus was that RHO was a ranger half-orc and a replacement character aimed at being the last half-orc standing in a campaign that I bitterly dubbed "The Last Halfling Standing Campaign" after the DM killed off all the PCs except the halfling rogue who ran away and was able to then cheat his way into felling all the foes and saving one other PC--all in complete darkness! Heck, I needed a replacement who could hide, move silently, fight, run away, and legally see in the dark. RHO refused to commit to any course of action unless and until the halfling was similarly engaged. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think he could have slain that darn halfling had he wanted to (maybe in a grapple)!