Book of 3.5e Tricks (3.5e Other)
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Book of 3.5e Tricks[edit]
This page lists a bunch of different tricks you can use with various D&D spells, abilities, etc. Tricks can mean synergy between different things, or clever and creative uses of abilities. The goal is to make a list of fun clever ideas to use in a game with a DM, not necessarily to optimize. Interpreted rules are ok here -- these tricks should see some use after all.
Feel free to add tricks of the game that you have discovered and used.
Silence + Ranged Weapon
The history of this one was fun because it saw a great use. The party had to sneak into an evil wizard's castle (for some reason or another) and needed to take out watchmen without having them scream as they died. Silent sleep spells were useful, but to actually sneak over the wall, they needed a way to take out guards in the tall towers. This is when the silence javelin came into play. Silence cast on the javelin allowed it to be thrown at a guard and kill him without a noise being made.
Shrink Item + Boulder + sling
Shrink item is a spell that, DM dependent, I have a million good things to say about. One game I used it to shrink a boulder down and had the command word as a readied action right when my ally fired it from his sling. Our DM let us have our fun and decided since fireball deals 10d6 as a 3rd level spell, it would be ok to let it deal 10d8 to a single target. It is a useful way to prepare for an adventure. Have a few of those handy plus some other shrunk goodies.
For the archers in the party, Don't forget about the Balista bolt + Shrink combo. It might look really fancy, but doesn't improve damage because projectiles deal damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them.
Silent Image Tricks
A few I like to use are making illusionary pits, illusionary walls (you can use this in combat to grant yourself or an ally full concealment), illusionary wraiths (they make no sound anyways), and illusionary corpses (make it seem like you were killed when combined with invisibility).
You can also make a wall out of fire, or a similar substance. No one is actually going to risk touching it to figure out if it's real or not, so your enemies won't get a save. As always with Silent Image, don't try this one against people with ranks in Spellcraft. Hit them with Grease instead.
Unseen Servant + Cloak
On the same manner, I often had a servant nearby. As a joke I gave him a cloak so he was a 'visible' servant. Then I realized he could hold the cloak up like a wall blanket that blocked line of sight and effect. And it's not even my actions being wasted, I just need to stay within 15 ft. of the servant while is lasts.
A DM might let you pull this off once, but if they let you do it more than that, then they need to go back to DM school :P. Basically, you use Polymorph Any Object to change your ally into a furry animal. The duration is permanent (though you can just revert it afterwards). While your buddy is a fuzzy little critter, you have your druid cast a maximized Awaken on him. He will be set to 18 Int (which will reverse once you reverse the polymorph) and gain 3 Charisma (this will be permanent RAW). You could repeat this for 250 exp from your druid each time, but I'm pretty sure the DM will have something to say about that.
This isn't even close to the limit of crazy that Polymorph Any Object can pull off -- which is an essentially unlimited amount of crazy. With great power comes great responsibility. This spell is crazy power. Remember that.
Sneak Attack + Greater Invisibility
This is a well known synergy that allows a rogue to deal their sneak attack damage with every single attack they have.
The Halfling Hurler
Some people still don't know this one -- Rogues can throw acid flasks and alchemist's fire to deal sneak attack damage on the target. Both of these strike as touch attacks (no wraithstrike needed), and can be combined with the two-weapon fighting chain. Use a wand of divine power for obvious uses. Using blink (as per Ring of Blink) makes all your attacks count as sneak attacks, and there's not even a miss chance with ranged attacks (which flasks/fire are)! You can also use your bonus feat at level 10 to take Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting (this is perfectly legal) or whatever other feat you want, but I suggest Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting. Remember to carry around a wand or two of gravestrike and golemstrike (Spell Compendium) for the undead and constructs you run across.
Lots of Fire Seeds
Cast fire seeds a bunch of times to create tons of explosive holly berries. Have all of the berries use the same command word. Speak the command word when the enemy is nearby the berries (and you are far enough away) and BOOM! With an 11th level caster (minimum to cast the spell), you deal 8d8 + 88 damage (Reflex half). A cleric can easily have 3 of these prepared, which will net 24d8 + 264 damage. As you can probably guess, this spell gets more and more ridiculous. Combine with Energy Substitution at higher levels to deal with resistances.
Scythe and Hold Person
Can be done with one or two characters (or more). The first one casts Hold Person on a target, and if they fail their saving throw, then second one uses a full round action to Coup de Grace them, dealing 8d4 +4x damage modifier. If they survive this assault then they must make a DC 18 minimum Fortitude save (average DC 36 on the scythe alone) as well as the additional damage dealt by their damage modifier. This can be performed by any allies of the caster for as long as the target is paralyzed and a rogues sneak attack also triggers on the Coupe de Grace for added meanness.
Scythe is used for its respectable damage and 4x critical multiplier, as well as being only a martial weapon.
Spiked Chain combo
Gain the feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip and Combat Expertise while wielding a Spiked Chain. If anyone comes within 10ft on any side (including diagonals), you get an AoO and if you hit them, you get a trip attempt (with a bonus to your Strength score and no opportunity for retaliation). If you successfully trip them, you get a free attack on them (and they are prone, losing 4 AC vs Melee attacks). Getting up from prone triggers another AoO (followed by another trip attempt, followed by another hit for getting tripped and back to being prone). If you do this with two or more characters in overlapping threatened squares, it becomes harder for the enemy to get near you ad they will provoke 2 AoOs and the associated trip chains.
Fork in the Road
This is a common thing watched for and used by our group. If the DM says you come to, or you see a fork in the road, path, etc...PICK IT UP PEOPLE! It does 1d2 damage (at least in our group) and you now have something to eat your food with. Make your DM think about it for a moment.
Clone + Gentle Repose + Bag of Holding or Shrink Item
For the measly cost of 1000 gp and a few coppers a month, you have a cheap instant resurrection. Just store the clone in a bag of holding with some way to get out on its own. Better yet, use Shrink Item to get it to weigh 1/4000 of your weight. You weigh 200 lbs? I'm pretty sure you can carry the weight of a feather. The fun thing is letting your DM interpret the rules of your soul inhabiting the shrunken body. Ask them first of course (and if they say you will have to let it happen to find out, offer spending some gold and time to actually research what will happen). 1/16 of your size is four size categories (Medium->Small->Tiny->Diminutive->Fine) and might even stack with reduce person since they are "real" size category changes to make you Fine-, which I would assume to be like Colossal+. If you make the shrink item a permanent effect on the clone through Permanency (1500 XP), you can become normal size and shrunken freely. You will need equipment that changes size, however.
I can't even start on how useful this is. Your group might be fighting a horribly powerful monster and it, of course, goes straight for you, the arcane caster. You get chomped into little bits. Little does the baddie know, you just came back to life as this tiny little charm your mangled body was carrying. All of the sudden, this little flea unleashes magic doom on it.
Throw Little Person/Use Little Person as Battering Ram
Pretty self explanatory. If you were an ogre, and a barbarian threw a halfling that was dual wielding knives at your face, would you be happy? I think not. Also, while "NOBODY THROWS A DWARF!! ARRGHGHBBBLRRELELEL!", they do seem to have awfully sturdy heads.
This is really not that useful, nevermind how there aren't any actual rules for it unless you count the "Fling Ally" feat from Races of Stone (and why wouldn't you?) which allows you to pick up an ally one (or more) size categories smaller than you as a Move action and throw them (up to) five range increments away as a Standard action. Range increments are 5 or 15 feet.
Treat halfling as a thrown weapon, treat dwarf as a battering ram.....seems simple enough. They would be improvised weapons of course.
Use the violent thrust function of the Telekinesis spell to hurl up to 15 Beads of Force at your enemies for 5d6 damage + Resiliant Sphere with each bead. Since the beads are single-use, this is an expensive attack, but it can cause very quick damage and incapacitation. Violent thrust could also be used with explosive items, such as grenades in a modern campaign.
- Alternatively, you could enhance 50 arrows with the Greater Magic Weapon and/or Flame Arrow spells, then release them 15 at a time with violent thrusts. Each arrow would deal extra damage for little monetary cost.
One kind of vampirism
First, you petrify someone. Then use Stone to Mud, create water around the mud, purify the water, then drink your victim.
Ethical carnism
To feed obligate carnivores without murdering critters (or even having critters to murder - they might be entirely absent on a pocket plane) just import rocks and cast Stone To Flesh on demand.
Waterskins+Air
Buy a few waterskins (for 1 gp each) and before you go underwater with your heavy suit of armor you and your allies inflate them. After you are done tie them with a rope and go underwater, every time you start to run out of air open one and inhale the air in it, becoming a scuba diver. This method works great with fighter dwarves for their high constitution and heavy armor (although don't throw him in the water because "NOBODY THROWS A DWARF!! ARRGHGHBBBLRRELELEL!").
Quicken Spell + True Strike + Power Attack
Use Quicken Spell to cast True Strike, giving you a +20 to attack. Then, optinally, use Power Attack to subtract any melee attack bonus you don't think to need anymore, and enjoy adding that to your melee damage roll. (or double with 2h weapons.)
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