What are some inventive uses of spells?

[afro-slav]

What are some inventive uses of spells?

Examples:

maybe using some prestidigiation spells to stop or at least hamper arrows going your way

lulling an opponent with hypnosis ( no PP cost) and hacking away or sneaking attack until they make their save


So what are some of your ideas?

Thanks,

afro-slav

 

[slaughterj]

Take any object that bothers you and prop it up so it is a "barrier," then Burst Barrier it.

 

[urdinaran]

Well, its not exactly an inventive way of using the spell; you use it exactly as it should be used:

Foxing (Free Companies)

Basically, you get some hair, nail clippings, etc. from the target of the soell. You then Craft (whatever) a voodoo doll with the item or items. When the spell is cast (they can be far away), their touch causes food or drink to go bad; thus they cannot eat or drink, they cannot even prepare food. The target will eventually starve/dehydrate. It only costs 1 pp per day to maintain.

This is a great spell for an evil NPC; It can be attained at about 6th level I believe.

 

[Voltumna]

disguise your friend (barbarian) as a dog (wolf) with the awful ritual of the werehyena. then once there, reverse the sepell with a counterspell.

 

[Green Karl]

In the Conan game I am in where I play a Sorcerer I used Hidden Hands once to hit a guy with both the oars on a row boat... hehe that was funny

Also one time the GM had us in the long-wide Hallway, where near this door some big heavy chains were smacking us around. We ran away from them... but then the badguy had a bunch of troops come out and form a line and he hide behind them. I used Hidden Hand again to smack said badguy with the big heavy chains as they had been used as weapons against us before

Oh and some thief was listening at my tavern room door and I Burst Barriers on him heheh that was funny.

Have I mentioned that I love Great TK and Burst Barrier I also use Enthrall and Hypnotis a lot of guards so the rest of the party can smack them down while I am staring at them. I have also gone into Wizards Combat with some minor Deamons or Wizards so that they 'Freeze' up and the rest of the party can smack them around. Now I have gained a few Corruption points for this, but its not like the party really trust me anyway

 

[afro-slav]

Hidden hands? Which book is that spell listed in?

Thanks,

Afro-Slav

 

[Decurio]

What are some inventive uses of spells?

Examples:

maybe using some prestidigiation spells to stop or at least hamper arrows going your way

lulling an opponent with hypnosis ( no PP cost) and hacking away or sneaking attack until they make their save


So what are some of your ideas?

Thanks,

afro-slav

AS, to build off of your suggestion, I don't think Prestidigitation could directly affect the arrows, BUT-you can use Burst Barrier for all sorts of nasty things. Try bursting the bows (or the bowstrings!) of those archers (even low leverl scholars should be able to break bows using that spell...); you can also destroy enemies' weapons, their armor, the saddle straps on cavalry, the wooden hafts on hafted weapons (e.g., axes, spears, etc)-anything that can be an 'object.'

Try destroying someone's armor with Burst Barrier and then sending two globes of Kothic demon-fire at them (or two arrows for the budget minded sorcerer)...that'll teach those uneducated simpletons not to mess with the wisdom of the Darkness-and this is at third level, mind you...

Styles noone talks about much but which have had tremendous use in our game (my players have taken a piratical bent lately) are the Sea Witchery and Weather Witching styles from Pirate Isles; they're a little more specialized in scope but if you're campaign involves ships at all, it would be worth it to have your scholar check those out. nasty stuff!

Your scholars should be grabbing the Immortality style ASAP! With Life Drain, Witch's Vigour, and that Strength spell (can't recall the name and Im on campus...sorry), this style goes a long way to offsetting the frailty of the scholar class.

 

[Green Karl]

Hidden hands? Which book is that spell listed in?

Thanks,

Afro-Slav

Greater Telekinesis - Hidden Hand is where you can use it to attack with up to two weapons that you are not touching or some such (I don’t have my book with me right now so I can’t give you the correct description of this). Anyway we (GM and me) ruled that it caught people generally flat-footed.

I will look up the correct wording tonight

 

[afro-slav]

In the first edition book they do have greater telekinesis but there is no sudtitle of hidden hands. Is that in the AE edition?

 

[Turim]

It seems Green Karl is referring to the Hidden Death mode of Greater Telekinesis. However, the description of HD says the items "must be about the sorcerer's person". It also mentions "the objects seeming to appear out of nowhere into his hand". I personally don't think this description fits well with oars or big chains. Found Objects could probably throw several oars, though.

 

[afro-slav]

Hidden Death as opposed to hidden hands.

Thanks

 

[Green Karl]

D'oh... like I said I did not have my book on me and we have not played in a while

 

[Green Karl]

OK re-reading Greater TK... Hidden Death is not how I was throwing things around... instead was using Found Objects - "the objects to be hurled may be anywhere within range and are picked up and hurled without the sorcerer having to touch them"

Like I said I should not post from memory

 

[afro-slav]

No problem.

 

[Voltumna]

you can use Burst Barrier for all sorts of nasty things. Try bursting the bows (or the bowstrings!) of those archers (even low leverl scholars should be able to break bows using that spell...); you can also destroy enemies' weapons, their armor, the saddle straps on cavalry, the wooden hafts on hafted weapons (e.g., axes, spears, etc)-anything that can be an 'object.'

Try destroying someone's armor with Burst Barrier and then sending two globes of Kothic demon-fire at them (or two arrows for the budget minded sorcerer)...that'll teach those uneducated simpletons not to mess with the wisdom of the Darkness-and this is at third level, mind you...

Can Burst Barrier be used that way?

 

[LilithsThrall]

you can use Burst Barrier for all sorts of nasty things. Try bursting the bows (or the bowstrings!) of those archers (even low leverl scholars should be able to break bows using that spell...); you can also destroy enemies' weapons, their armor, the saddle straps on cavalry, the wooden hafts on hafted weapons (e.g., axes, spears, etc)-anything that can be an 'object.'

Try destroying someone's armor with Burst Barrier and then sending two globes of Kothic demon-fire at them (or two arrows for the budget minded sorcerer)...that'll teach those uneducated simpletons not to mess with the wisdom of the Darkness-and this is at third level, mind you...

Can Burst Barrier be used that way?

Not in 2nd edition. Second edition states under the spell description
Target: One door, portcullis, wall, chest, or other -barrier-
Obviously, a hafted weapon, saddle straps, etc. is not a barrier.
I don't know about first edition, but none of the spell suggestions above work in 2nd ed.
Entrance, for example, gives a saving throw to break out of it equal to the damage inflicted on the target - so the target is just about guaranteed to break out of the entrance on the first hit.
But then, 2nd edition Sorcery has been nerfed to be all but unplayable.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Burst Barrier: 1st ed also limits targets to "One door, portcullis, wall, chest, or other barrier" in the stats block, however, in the text description it reads more ambiguously "ot other object that that for some reason merits the sorcerer's displeasure".
Anyway, since the name of the spell if Burst Barrier, it should also be used in that spirit.

Entrance: 1st ed doesn't have the damage-based saving throw, but anyway the description reads "Note that an entranced creature is not stunned, so attackers gain no special advantage against it".

(I'm quoting from 1st printing atm, since my AE is buried in some box.)

There's an interesting instance of a spell in the Conan story "The Scarlet Citadel". There's a portcullis that can only be opened from the outside by operating a bolt. The sorcerer doesn't Burst the Barrier, he doesn't operate the bolt by Telekinesis either, instead he casts Raise Corpse on the slain gaoler that lies outside the iron bars, and commands it to open the gate before he lets the corpse collapse again. Pretty cool.