Creative spell use

What are some of the most creative uses your players have come up with
for spells?

I'm specifically thinking along the lines of verbs for the "command"
spell or illusions through the various "image" line of spells, but as
creative players have shown time and again, they can often think
outside of the box and apply more rigid ones in odd situations as
well.

I'm trying to think of a specific recent case in my group, but it
seems they haven't been very inspiring of late - all I can remember
right now is a character commanding an orc to "catch" as the party
hurled a large boulder its way.

On Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:07:29 -0700 (PDT), BakaMatt
wrote:

>What are some of the most creative uses your players have come up with
>for spells?
>
>I'm specifically thinking along the lines of verbs for the "command"
>spell or illusions through the various "image" line of spells, but as
>creative players have shown time and again, they can often think
>outside of the box and apply more rigid ones in odd situations as
>well.
>
>I'm trying to think of a specific recent case in my group, but it
>seems they haven't been very inspiring of late - all I can remember
>right now is a character commanding an orc to "catch" as the party
>hurled a large boulder its way.


Well, in 3.5 the wording in COMMAND limits your verb options to just
the ones they give in the spell description. It says "You may select
from the following options. <List>" But back in 1E (when you weren't
so limited), playing in a game that included Called Shots (much harder
to hit, but a lot more damage if you made it), a nice COMMAND was
"Undress". Because if you have watched people in the SCA coming off
the list field (or any other group that actually fights in armor),
almost every time the very FIRST thing they do is drop what's in their
hands and take off their helmet. So with one person using the COMMAND
"Undress" and another one (or more) waiting with "Called Shot to the
Head" (now unarmored, AC 10), one could do a LOT of damage.

I don't recall the exact details now, but a called shot to the head
was something along the lines of a -8 penalty to hit while the damage
you did was multiplied x4 if you DID hit. But if the fighter in full
plate drops his weapon and shield and takes off his helmet, you just
got that entire "to hit" penalty back. His head just got 8 places
less armored. So for a first level spell you did the equivalent of
triple the damage your teammate would do (your friend swinging the
weapon gets credit for what he would have done without the spell, you
get credit for the increase.)