Your Favorite Spells And Their Creative Uses

[steeldragons]

Back in the day, I had a DM who was rather flexible when it came to spell descriptions. Preferring us to get creative and using more "cool" visuals than was sometimes portrayed in the actual description.

For example, remember the Jeff Dee picture on White Plume Mountain? The m-u is casting, what we all presumed to be, a "shield" spell to block the spikes of a manticore. It is (as was commonly seen in cartoons or comics) a visible circular barrier of, in this case, blue light.

If you'll remember, the shield spell in the original PH was simply an invisible barrier that stopped non-magical projectiles (and canceled out a magic missle spell IIRC.) But the "blue shield" coming out of the mage's hand was so much COOLER!

So, for us young teen comic/cartoon fans, that was what a shield spell looked like. Spells more often had visual effects than not.

The one I recall best (and recall using the most) was Dimension Door.

In this game, it was not the instantaneous "ping" or "bamf" that took you from one place to another, but an actual visible round (or oval) doorway of light (or a swirling vortex, or whatever) that appeared and you could move through.

Now, you could just use it on/next to yourself and thus, effectively, jump from one place to another instantaneously. But it wasn't the only use.

My particular favorite (or at least the dusty memory that I still have) was casting it in the air, above the party, in front of an incoming giant-thrown boulder. Naturally, the "out" door was positioned for the boulder to hurtle back at the giants.

heh heh. Yeah. That was a good one.

--SD

 

[Wednesday Boy]

We played in a 2nd Ed. module with a scene in a fortress made entirely of ice. At one point the hallway we needed to travel through sloped down steeply then up steeply and at the bottom of the dip was a pit full of ice spikes waiting to impale anyone who slipped into the pit.

My brother was playing a cleric and used Create Water to fill up the pit. We waited until the water froze, then strolled across and avoided the spikes!

 

[TarionzCousin]

Grease.

Many DM's take this spell as a personal challenge to create slapstick comedy as the monsters fall all over each other.

 

[Starfox]

Grease.

Many DM's take this spell as a personal challenge to create slapstick comedy as the monsters fall all over each other.

My first thought also. Useful for opening doors silently, lubricating mechanisms, and pulling heavy loads.

 

[Guest 85555]

Unseen servant has always been a great one for out of combat encounters. The possibilities with it are endless.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My particular favorite (or at least the dusty memory that I still have) was casting it in the air, above the party, in front of an incoming giant-thrown boulder. Naturally, the "out" door was positioned for the boulder to hurtle back at the giants.

Now you're thinking with portals.

Also ...

Spoiler

The pie is a lie.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Back when we were playing 2nd Ed., as a fun thought exercise our GM let our 8th-9th level characters face off against the tarrasque. It was immune to our most powerful spells but we noticed that even though Badberries does only 1 damage for each 2d4 badberries you create, the tarraque would get no saving thrown from eating them. Since the tarrasque "eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation" we commissioned an expertly roasted cow, stuffed it with loads of badberries, and hid. The tarrasque enjoyed the delicious meal we set before it and instantly dropped dead.

Then came dealing with the tarrasque's regeneration and fire immunity with only Melf's Acid Arrow available. But that's another story altogether....

(Actually it's the same story but this post is getting too long.)

 

[DMH]

Plant growth. Fungi are considered plants in 3.X and there are fungal spores everywhere. Plant growth plus entangle, animate plants, control plants, etc. means a druid in never far from armies of "vegetables".

 

[Tuft]

I absolutely love the various polymorph and shapeshift spells; from "alter self" and upwards. I like how they can enable you to explore situations in new and interesting ways, and even better is if they are a bit tricky to get out of, so that you can explore new interesting drawbacks tied to the new shape as well. ("Ok, now that you are a dog, how *do* you tell your friends about the advancing orcs?" - "Ok, you wanted to be a slime to get under the door - now, how do you climb the ladder?".)

Unfortunately, they tend to be quick and easy with few drawbacks, and everybody and their mother can list a long litany of abuses and misuses... which is sad, because to me they are the epitome of magic and the pinnacle of sense of wonder.

 

[Kaodi]

My favourite spell is possibly Fabricate. While it might be "creative" more often in an artistic sense, I bet you could use it to improvise in plenty of situations. Some might stretch the rules a bit, but I am sure you could find many great ones that do not. Imagine, for instance, the villain is escaping by climbing up a rope. While it may be strictly easier to sever the rope somehow above him, it would be much more interesting to fabricate a noose around his neck. Or, a boulder from a catapult could be turned into an anti-personnel weapon by fabricating it mid-air into a ton of fist-sized stone balls. Perhaps even a descending hail of arrows into a defensive shelter.