Compiled and formatted by me from various posts to rec.games.frp.dnd.
By cyrano@pcisys.net
I wanted to find out if any DM's or players out there know of any particularly clever use of sometimes ordinary spells and combination of spells. I'm not looking for a debate on whether or not the desired effect should have worked (since if the groups DM has declared it should work, there really is no cause for debate) but rather some contributions of interesting and amusing previously unknown use for spells.
For example: As a player of a Druid, I once had a teammate who had his arm sliced at the elbow by a vorpal sword. Since the rules did not allow for the lower level healing spells to re-attach the arm, I used a spell from either the Druid's Handbook, Tome of Magic or Spells and Magic to transform the stump and severed arm into a club (basically turning the two into wood). I can't remember the exact spell or source, sorry. I then used Plant Growth followed by a Cure Serious wounds on him. Of course he was unconscious during all this, but when he woke up, the initial spell had worn off and he now had a whole arm. The only side effect was that the DM decided that the arm was now 6 inches longer than the other one. (That'll lower your charisma slightly…lol).
Another example is when my Druid found himself underground and being chased by a horde of goblins 3 rounds away. The DM ruled that there was no plant life for me to cast entangle on to delay the goblins since we were so far below ground. So I threw down a bag of Ivy seeds I bought for just such a purpose and cast plant growth on that. I followed it by a entangle and quickly made my getaway.
By besnode@earthlink.net (Paul Suliin), 8/13/99
A PC of mine once disabled an entire pirate ship with a Sleep spell. We were being pursued on the high seas by a larger and faster ship, which was peppering us with ballista fire and closing to board. The ship was powered by both sails and oars (one of the main reasons it was faster than ours).
I cast Sleep on the bank of oarsmen on one side of the ship. As they passed out en masse their oars hit the water. Many of the oars splintered immediately from the jolt. Others were driven into the oarsmen, injuring and stunning them. Deprived of only one bank of oars, the ship immediately heeled over and began to turn toward that side, as the rowers on the other side were still working. This took the ship's sail out of the wind, and it foundered almost immediately. By the time the captain had stilled the chaos in his rowers' gallery and gotten the ship turned back into the wind, we had made our escape.
A PC cleric of mine has had several reed mats made and enchanted them with Glyph of Warding. He then carries these mats rolled up and tied atop his backpack, and uses them for impromptu defenses and traps. Basically he just unrolls a mat and lays it in front of a door where a pursuer or intruder is likely to step on it.
That same character has cast Continual Light on paint or ink to make glowing inks that he can use to mark things to be read in the dark.
By graf@arduin-delos.com 7/11/99
I've found illusion traps to be very deadly also. And they can be cast as needed, quickly.
My Druid Illusionist Jireen was doing rear-guard for her party with orcs or something chasing them, just out of sight. Party went across a bridge. She made the bridge invisible, put up an illusion of a bridge next to it…..
Next time, made a hole in the middle of the bridge and cast an illusion of normal bridge on it….
Next time, cut the supports of the bridge and replaced them with illusion….
Or cast an illusion of an open door in a solid wall….
By mjl11@le.ac.uk (Dr M.J. Lush) 6/30/99
Hugh hugh@grugach.freeserve.co.uk wrote:
Some points to ponder:
1) If you cast mount, can you kill and eat the mount? Will you go hungry again at the end of the spell's duration?
I would rule the meat dissaperard when the spell expired…. though killing the mount may dispell the spell anyway.
2) If you summon (with mount, monster summoning, etc.) a cow or some other mammal, can you milk the cow? Will the milk vanish at the end of the spell's duration? Can the milk be dispelled?
It depends if the creature was real before summoning
3) Can you eat the flesh from a stone to flesh spell?
Yes but I suspect it would not be very nice (taste/texture dependent on rock type/quality?) and _DO_NOT_ get caught in a dispell magic untill your sure all the meat has passed through you (it may be a good idea to swallow some sort of marker food like sweetcorn or whole nuts, when youve stopped passing them you know your safe again).
Come to think of it some of the stonemeat will be incorporatd in your body, the more stonemeat you eat the more of you could be susceptable to dispel magic….. ick!!!! just dont do it!
A really stupid/twisted mage could rase carnivors on stonemeat then start a buisness creating very detailed and realistic statues…. (stupid cos stone to flesh would do the same thing:)
By Me:
Put a riddle on a door, using Magic Mouth: “To pass through this door you must first answer my riddle..[insert riddle] …”. The riddle has no answer, but it delays PCs as they stand around trying to solve the riddle.