Novel uses for spells.

[Chaosolous]

What are some unique ways to use spells outside their intended purpose that you've found?

[nullpo]

Create water is great to search for invisible enemy if you know their general area

[L3wt]

I have an insanely OP one and another really quirky/fun one.

[Xenobunny]

In Divinity 2... It was teleport. Busted As F.
In THIS game... Fly. Anything with fly is literally on another plane. A lot of triggered objects in the game, not just traps or say lava surfaces, only register with a character when they are standing on or near it. So Imps, birds, mage hands, illithids, all have a leg up.
The ability to fly can let you squeeze through colliders or cross stupid distances you are not meant to cross. Jump is similar but fly breaks vertical restrictions and will path find.

There are also stacking effects by items that open specific elemental builds. Lightning charges, with the lightning ring, and any class that inflicts multiple hits in a round (MONKS) can super spam a lot of elemental charges. Try eldritch blast and lightning charges too.

DARKNESS + firewall + flammable objects (like PEOPLE) = several rounds in another plane of existence where pain is god.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

Novel uses for spells.
What are some unique ways to use spells outside their intended purpose that you've found?

Feign Death on merchant which you bribed to become an ally of yours -> lets you rob them pretty much empty; in doubt obscure area with fog and darkness to prevent witnesses spotting you

the mentioned create water

wildshape cat -> squeeze through iron bars

jealous avarice after you put lots of money via pickpocket into an enemy

chromatic orb of lighting/thunder (?) also creates a useful puddle

Glyph of Warding usage as Fireball substitution

chromatic orb and even fireball to make fire surfaces on yourself -> you standing on fire, you can drop a single healing potion -> potion breaks on fire -> heal -> repeat as often as you want in combat since dropping and transferring items do not cost any action

no feather fall? cast web -> fall on webbed area -> no fall damage

[Ichthyic]

I constantly used create water after every fight. it's a portable shower and washes off all the blood for clean visuals.

also, putting a glyph of warding at the front end of a constant damage AOE, like insect plague, and watching as your enemies finally manage to make it through your insect swarm, only to hit an explosive glyph that knocks them right back into it. so satisfying.

[Facetable]

Fav so far has been Perilous Stakes as it is designed with intention of providing healing (which its not really that effective at doing) but its damage vulnerability debuff is absurdly powerful when casting it on enemies

Casting it on bosses seems to yield best results as gives you 2x damage for your attacks and only gives them a chance for minor healing during their turn (if they manage to hit you that is *laughs in mirror image*). I'm still making my way through act 3 but I have yet to find a boss that is immune to having it cast on them

[ShockedHearts]

create water makes for a great way to clean your characters from dirt and blood. magical shower.

grease doesnt aggro anyone if you dont trip them with it. so you can surround enemies with it ahead of time and then aggro them after to have a free preemptive slick floor to take advantage of.

and lastly magic missile is the perfect combo killer. if you have multiple enemies (lets say 4) that are 2-4 HP you can have someone cast a lvl 2-3 magic missile and kill them all in one turn regardless of where they are. basically kill stealing the entire battlefield if you line it up properly.

[Sistalis]

Major illusion to either lure an Npc in a murder hook away from prying eyes or to group everyone in a nice group for a fireball suprise.

[Chillearth]

enemies seem to ignore Cloud of Daggers often and bull right through it. Very nice if you want to use a choke point, like when encountering the gnolls attacking a caravan party who are sheltering in a cave. If you take the high ground and put a COD spell on the steps up to you, many hyenas, gnolls and a flind usually run right through the cloud (which is especially satisfying if you can then shove them back through it again).

I don't know if they still do that on Tactician difficulty, but on normal difficulty they do. Although COD doesn't do a ton of damage, when it affects four or five enemies and some more than once, it adds up to a very effective low-level spell.

[PK_Thunder]

Y'all need to step up your game. Most of these tips are Rage Gaming Video levels of bad.

Here's a few more useful tips, OP.

Difficult terrain, prone, and spirit guardians all stack. You can completely lock down melee enemies with this, if they aren't immune to prone. Bonus points for including knockback.

On the subject of difficult terrain, Plant Growth is overlooked by a lot of people because 3rd level slots are basically just competing with Fireball, but Plant Growth cuts movement speed by 3/4 and does not require concentration.

Blindness can be upcast and adds one extra target each spell level. Excellent control and utility for a fiend warlock.

You can cancel concentration at any time. Just select your caster and click on the X below the portrait. You can do this outside of your own turn to remove a fire wall before allies run into it and so forth.

[Chillearth]

Originally posted by PK_Thunder:

On the subject of difficult terrain, Plant Growth is overlooked by a lot of people because 3rd level slots are basically just competing with Fireball, but Plant Growth cuts movement speed by 3/4 and does not require concentration.

I've never tried to combine Plant Growth with Spike Growth. Do those two stack (slow + damage when moving) ? If so, its a nice combo.

[PK_Thunder]

Originally posted by Chillearth:

Originally posted by PK_Thunder:

On the subject of difficult terrain, Plant Growth is overlooked by a lot of people because 3rd level slots are basically just competing with Fireball, but Plant Growth cuts movement speed by 3/4 and does not require concentration.

I've never tried to combine Plant Growth with Spike Growth. Do those two stack (slow + damage when moving) ? If so, its a nice combo.

Plant Growth overwrites spike growth. And a fair few other surfaces too.

[Señor Brown]

Originally posted by Chillearth:

enemies seem to ignore Cloud of Daggers often and bull right through it. Very nice if you want to use a choke point, like when encountering the gnolls attacking a caravan party who are sheltering in a cave. If you take the high ground and put a COD spell on the steps up to you, many hyenas, gnolls and a flind usually run right through the cloud (which is especially satisfying if you can then shove them back through it again).

I don't know if they still do that on Tactician difficulty, but on normal difficulty they do. Although COD doesn't do a ton of damage, when it affects four or five enemies and some more than once, it adds up to a very effective low-level spell.

It works on Tactician. Also pushed the gnolls back into the cloud, like you described lol. Tried using grease along with it, but the caravan party lit it on fire at the start of the fight before deciding to retreat -_-