My wizard took Firebolt as a Cantrip instead of Light. In DnD 5.0, you can use cantrips as often as you like. Instead of having an actual light source, he just shoots firebolts ahead of him.
So my shadowrun character has a spell that allows them to pretty much use vegetation to make calls. One day a group of people snuck by in the night, and got too close to a friend's car, as they were asleep. So instead of using the flower I had to make a call, I set the spell to force 5 and made every tree in the clearing start ringing. Needless to say, the friend woke up.
I haven't gotten to spring it on my player's yet, but there's a spell from Pathfinder's Advanced Race Guide called marid's mastery. It gives a small bonus if both the target and its opponent are touching water. If either is touching the ground? -4 penalty to attack and damage rolls.
Here's the thing: The spell is intended as a buff. The saving throw is "Will negates (harmless)" All I plan to tell the players when I spring this on them? "You feel helpful magic washing over you."
Strictly speaking, the harmless tag in no way means that they don't get to save; it doesn't even change how they perceive the spell. It's a shorthand tag for "you probably don't want to bother saving against this" and comes up for a select few abilities, but that's it.
Just a thought, because some players might not be fond of you throwing, effectively, a no-save debuff on them. Marid's Mastery is a very good debuffing spell, but it's no different from any other spell-- it can be Spellcraft'd, saved against, or both. Just be sure you know your players on that one.
I know mage hand is only supposed to be able to to pick stuff up and carry it, but I used the force from mage hand to deliver a remote Thousand Years of Death on a female foe. The DM allowed it and said the foe was so shocked she dropped her weapon, disarming her for a few rounds.
Took the cantrip minor illusion, and spent a lot of gold on wool...
Anyway partway through the campaign my rogue has bit off a bit more than he can chew, so instead of a move or attack action he used a cantrip to "drop" a 5 foot boulder from the sky onto him. Everyone had to save against beleiving the rogue had died... unfortunately Everyone fell for it, including the party.
so once the rogue reappeared to finish off the murlocs (my word for them can't remember what exactly they were) with some quick attacks with his rapier, he had to fast talk the cleric to keep from being smashed in the head with the cleric's mace.
Summon Monster II, small Air Elemental. Order into whirlwind form. Have it pick up the party, who voluntarily fails their saves (a 'small' air elemental makes a whirlwind 20 feet high and 20 feet across, plenty of room for everyone). Let it carry everyone at 480 feet per round at an all-out run.
Don't know if this counts but (non-D&D game) my character had a spell that allowed her to levitate. Pretty straight-forwards spell that was pretty useless. Our group had one very... malicious... member who had already tried to outright kill the party at least twice and we had made it very clear that, should we come to value the EXP we gain from killing him more than having him as an ally, we would gladly take it. He didn't get the hint.
The morning after his second attempt at killing us via blaming his violent outburst on 'getting drunk'... which we knew wasn't true IC because we had been in a church with no beer at all around and just a bottle of communion wine (which is what he claimed to have gotten drunk off of), someone set fire to the church while we were resting on the second floor. Cut off we made our way to the roof and I said I would cast the spell on our party members as they jumped down (it could only target one person at a time). The first two came and jumped and then this guy went to jump. True to my word I cast the spell on him, then I dismissed it immediately causing him to fall five stories into the fire below.
I don't know if that counts though since the spell did exactly what it was intended to do and it was the REMOVAL of the spell that was unexpected. IC my character stated that the guy had almost openly killed her twice and she wasn't going to risk a third time.
Another, probably more accurate, example was when my cleric was in a group that had to invade a bar. Lots of enemies waiting in the dark. Her response? Cast a spell that was normally meant to just make objects glitter a bit ON THE ENTIRE BAR! It, effectively, became a flash-bang grenade giving our guys a huge edge. The GM called bull until I pointed out that, legally, all the guys WERE in 20 feet of the door, he HAD described it as dark, and a building is, TECHNICALLY, an object.
Here's the thing: The spell is intended as a buff. The saving throw is "Will negates (harmless)" All I plan to tell the players when I spring this on them? "You feel helpful magic washing over you."
Just a thought, because some players might not be fond of you throwing, effectively, a no-save debuff on them. Marid's Mastery is a very good debuffing spell, but it's no different from any other spell-- it can be Spellcraft'd, saved against, or both. Just be sure you know your players on that one.
Oh geeze, the nipple tweaks mage hand could deliver...
Sadly, the elven ranger shot an arrow through her head before I could think of another tactic.
Grease can be used as lube.
Control Weather can be used to summon dramatically-appropriate thunder.
Took the cantrip minor illusion, and spent a lot of gold on wool...
Anyway partway through the campaign my rogue has bit off a bit more than he can chew, so instead of a move or attack action he used a cantrip to "drop" a 5 foot boulder from the sky onto him. Everyone had to save against beleiving the rogue had died... unfortunately Everyone fell for it, including the party.
so once the rogue reappeared to finish off the murlocs (my word for them can't remember what exactly they were) with some quick attacks with his rapier, he had to fast talk the cleric to keep from being smashed in the head with the cleric's mace.
Watch out, it's kind of a bumpy ride.
The morning after his second attempt at killing us via blaming his violent outburst on 'getting drunk'... which we knew wasn't true IC because we had been in a church with no beer at all around and just a bottle of communion wine (which is what he claimed to have gotten drunk off of), someone set fire to the church while we were resting on the second floor. Cut off we made our way to the roof and I said I would cast the spell on our party members as they jumped down (it could only target one person at a time). The first two came and jumped and then this guy went to jump. True to my word I cast the spell on him, then I dismissed it immediately causing him to fall five stories into the fire below.
I don't know if that counts though since the spell did exactly what it was intended to do and it was the REMOVAL of the spell that was unexpected. IC my character stated that the guy had almost openly killed her twice and she wasn't going to risk a third time.
Another, probably more accurate, example was when my cleric was in a group that had to invade a bar. Lots of enemies waiting in the dark. Her response? Cast a spell that was normally meant to just make objects glitter a bit ON THE ENTIRE BAR! It, effectively, became a flash-bang grenade giving our guys a huge edge. The GM called bull until I pointed out that, legally, all the guys WERE in 20 feet of the door, he HAD described it as dark, and a building is, TECHNICALLY, an object.