Strange and interesting uses for spells.

[whitelaughter]

What weird thoughts have you had on spells?

While reading Geomancy, it struck me that a glassmith could use molten glass as the symbolic representation, and so duplicate almost anything by asking 'where is the material in this item'. (Ok, my first thought was for a cool map, telling the glass to show the local mountains, rivers, roads etc).

The spell is Temporal, so the glass can cool into the magical form.

 

How about you?

[HreshtIronBorne]

Okay, maybe not a Spell per se but, one of our group members came up with the most ridiculous defense stratagem ever when we were on the Cradle Adventure.

At one point we were preparing the defense and the party wind lord and group leader decides to tie together trees with the toughest ropes we can find and whip them around with air elementals doing little tornados. Our GM thought it was too AWESOME not to try, so he got to hurl basically a whole bunch of giant strength mega bolases at the attackers as they came into view. It was tons of fun. Turned the first row into a blender before getting blasted to bits or throwing it at the bunch of invaders. The details are fuzzy. 

[Akhôrahil]

Berserk protects you from drowning.

[Gallowglass]

I once had a player allow himself to be possessed by an ancient Pol-Joni ancestor that our shaman summoned, so that he could win a horse race.

[Godlearner]

We had people casting Fanatism on opponents to keep them from parrying and casting defensive spells.

[Akhôrahil]

14 hours ago, Godlearner said:

We had people casting Fanatism on opponents to keep them from parrying and casting defensive spells.

My players are looking to pick it up purely to counter demoralization - no-one actually wants the fanatic state.

[D]

i've used dark wall with a torch behind it for a character to do shadow puppets. 

[Godlearner]

Alternating Darkwall and Lightwall can have very interesting affects on Trolls and Trollkin.

[whitelaughter]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:31 AM, Akhôrahil said:

Berserk protects you from drowning.

Yes, it occurred to me that if you tie a Berserk up, you could use an extended Berserk to overcome a disease!

[Shiningbrow]

Sorcerous illusions with Movement make for wonderful advertising... especially if you've got a lot of Free INT to drop into the lighting side of things. Have your Sun temple have a permanent rising sun motif on the top for all to see.

[g33k]

Hallucinate creates an "illusion" (temporary reality) that's only visible/tangible for the casting Eurmali, e.g. a horse only they can ride, a rope only they can climb, a bridge only they can walk upon, etc.

Leading -- quite directly -- to such ideas as the Eurmali giving piggy-back rides (across their Hallucinated bridge) to the rest of the party (to whom no bridge is visible).

. . .

Not sure if this is so much a "strange use" for the spell, as it is the weirdness of "Illusion" in Glorantha, Trickster magic generally, and Hallucinate in particular.

[PhilHibbs]

9 hours ago, g33k said:

Hallucinate ...

Leading -- quite directly -- to such ideas as the Eurmali giving piggy-back rides (across their Hallucinated bridge) to the rest of the party (to whom no bridge is visible).

Love the piggy back idea! My kind of trickster would just run across and shout "follow me it's perfectly safe!" though. Now the players would know that he cast Hallucinate so they are entirely free to let their characters conclude that he can't be trusted based on previous form.

[PhilHibbs]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:58 PM, Godlearner said:

We had people casting Fanatism on opponents to keep them from parrying and casting defensive spells.

Fanaticism on the mount is also an option to prevent fleeing. And on the rider, unless they have a super Ride skill they don't even get the benefit of the attack skill increase (I'd need to check the wording on that though).

[g33k]

6 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Love the piggy back idea! My kind of trickster would just run across and shout "follow me it's perfectly safe!" though. Now the players would know that he cast Hallucinate so they are entirely free to let their characters conclude that he can't be trusted based on previous form.

IMG, Tricksters are *at least* as likely to covet the "you owe me your life" dynamic -- and the sheer *image* of the burly Orlanthi clinging onto them for dear life -- for all the downstream effects...

as they are the fatal-pratfall "Wile E. Coyote" no-such-bridge event.

Plus, y'know, Bonded Tricksters &c.

[Kloster]

On 12/15/2022 at 12:58 AM, Godlearner said:

We had people casting Fanatism on opponents to keep them from parrying and casting defensive spells.

Especially efficient on mounted opponents, because most of them will not benefit of the increased attack roll. This one is an old RQ classical trick (I think it was in Runemasters).

Edited December 18, 2022 by Kloster
typing mistake

[Jon Hunter]

I have a treasure seeking NPC who uses find air to detect secret rooms within ruins. 

 

[Nevun]

I don't know if it exists at all but it has occurred to me in the past that smiths should have a heat/fire immunity and form the heated metal with their hands like clay.

That said, there's something primal and warlike about subduing earth by beating it with a club and fire.

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 12/18/2022 at 7:40 PM, Nevun said:

I don't know if it exists at all but it has occurred to me in the past that smiths should have a heat/fire immunity and form the heated metal with their hands like clay.

That said, there's something primal and warlike about subduing earth by beating it with a club and fire.

There is a Shape Metal rune spell which, as I read it, allows doing exactly that.  I'm not sure that is has to be heated though, will re read.  / 

I did - and its last sentence is "Even if the metal is at its melting point, the user takes no damage.".  Red book of magic page 78.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Squaredeal Sten
I looked it up, added the quote.

[PhilHibbs]

On 12/17/2022 at 5:33 PM, PhilHibbs said:

Fanaticism on the mount is also an option to prevent fleeing. And on the rider, unless they have a super Ride skill they don't even get the benefit of the attack skill increase (I'd need to check the wording on that though).

19 hours ago, Kloster said:

Especially efficient on mounted opponents, because most of them will not benefit of the increased attack roll. This one is an old RQ classical trick (I think it was in Runemasters).

RQG p.219:

Quote

An adventurer’s effectiveness in mounted combat is
equal to the lesser of their Ride skill or their skill with the
weapon being used.

Pretty ambiguous! If it said "their combat skill is limited by their ride skill", then I'd say that Fanaticism can increase their chance, as Fanaticism says "chance to hit" not "skill". If it said "their chance to hit or parry is limited by their ride skill", then I'd say it is not. But "effectiveness in mounted combat" could be either.

On the other hand, Bladesharp also says "chance to hit" and I'd allow that to boost hit chance above Ride, so maybe I should allow Fanaticism to as well.

In the past, we've always ruled that Fanaticism cannot increase your chance to hit past your Ride skill. Intuitively it makes sense, you're focusing on furious attack, not control of your mount, and you're going to be all over the place and off balance.

There's nothing in RuneMasters about it, although it does say "Befuddle the horse".

Edited December 19, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

In case it gets lost in the rest of the post above...

Befuddle the charging horse!

*Update*: You can't.

Edited December 21, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[soltakss]

Derak the Dark Troll bound wraiths to the bones of his living lead skeleton, just because they made a really scary special effect.

[Kloster]

17 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

There's nothing in RuneMasters about it, although it does say "Befuddle the horse".

It was sooooo long ago. My mistake.

[Darius West]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:14 PM, whitelaughter said:

How about you?

The Lhankor Mhy detect spells can be quite specific.  Why learn detect book when you can learn detect parchment or detect ink, and why learn either of them when you can learn detect script.  As for Detect Silver and Detect Gold, they can act as a good way of finding people who don't know your their enemy yet, as the silver or gold that moves is likely being carried.

18 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

In case it gets lost in the rest of the post above...

Befuddle the charging horse!

Sorry, unintelligent beasts can't be befuddled last time I checked.

 

Oh, as to the One Ring, our Trickster ate it.  Swallow!  Is it destroyed?  *shrug*

[PhilHibbs]

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

Oh, as to the One Ring, our Trickster ate it.  Swallow!  Is it destroyed?  *shrug*

It'll end up somewhere. When my Trickster was beheaded, everything that he had ever swallowed came out the other end.

[Bill the barbarian]

13 hours ago, Darius West said:

Sorry, unintelligent beasts can't be befuddled last time I checked.

 

Ah, but if it has a credit card (how else can it be charging?) it must be sentient, they don't give credit to just anybod... 

Never mind!