Favorite 9th level spells

[(Un)Inspired]

I was gonna post a joke about resistances to the other elements should grant you immunities to other ridiculous things but I can't. There's just nothing comparable. This is powerful, high level stupidity were dealing with here.

[Phelix-Mu]

I was gonna post a joke about resistances to the other elements should grant you immunities to other ridiculous things but I can't. There's just nothing comparable. This is powerful, high level stupidity were dealing with here.

Sonic resistance 1 grants immunity to spells with verbal components.

[Vedhin]

I was gonna post a joke about resistances to the other elements should grant you immunities to other ridiculous things but I can't. There's just nothing comparable. This is powerful, high level stupidity were dealing with here.

Can I sig this? 2nd thing you've posted this thread that people want to sig.

[zeboss]

I once used Shapechange to kill the big undead dragon boss by flying up to him, shapechanging into a flea, crawling inside of him, and then shapechanging into a colossal squid... inside of him.

[Hangwind]

Polymorph Any Object SHOULD be a 9th level. Mostly because my DM found out that, by RAW, I can Polymorph a mountain from the Elemental plane of earth into a pebble. I can then fly above the BBEG's castle, toss it, and cast dispel.

[Sith_Happens]

Fixed that.
This of course, just goes to prove that Prestidigitation is broken. A 0th level spell should not beat a 9th level spell.

How does Prestidigitation protect from lava?

[Vedhin]

How does Prestidigitation protect from lava?

Prestidigitation grants fire resistance 2. Resistance to fire grants lava immunity.

[Rubik]

Teleport Through Time, because time travel only multiplies the crazy and insane antics i can do. I'm not talking about game breaking antics, although they do break the game occasionally, i'm talking about doing stupids hilarious things because i can. Although that material component is rather hard to come by so it an occasional thing only, just in case we ever actually need to go back in time.

Eschew Materials and (of course) a Spell-to-Power erudite can bypass the material component and travel back wherever, whenever.

[(Un)Inspired]

Can I sig this? 2nd thing you've posted this thread that people want to sig.

Sure go right ahead I'm just happy to contribute.

Sonic resistance 1 grants immunity to spells with verbal components.

Perfect. This is exactly what I was looking for.

[Thrawn183]

That's a rather moronic rule on behalf of the game. I can see resistance maybe aiding more than normal (a little), but why aren't there similar rules for exposure to acid or coldfire or something?

Realistically, immunity should count, obviously. But resistance? Resistance should allow you to close with the lava (something that is normally very painful for normal people, as the air temp near lava is brutal). But immunity to contact? That just sounds dumb. Resistance doesn't even grant immunity to mundane fires, right? While any sizable resistance will negate most normal flame sources, it's not immunity.

Gah. Well, to the houserules with thee!

I've always seen a large difference between magical and mundane fire. Immersion in lava for 6 seconds does 20d6 but a fireball can do 10d6 instantly. That says to me that magical fire is more akin to being on the surface of the sun than mere lava. I've always ruled that any energy resistance provides total immunity to mundane fire and heat effects in addition to lava. I like what it allows me to do with low CR monsters in fiery environments: I get to have pillars of flame and creatures swimming in rivers of lava instead of the equivalent of a super weak oven.

You're probably right about the other elements issue.

[AMFV]

Metafaculty would probably be my favorite, but there are so many very good choices. And then a lot of not-so-good but very flavorful choices. Depending on class and the like. Genesis is pretty sweet as well.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Eschew Materials and (of course) a Spell-to-Power erudite can bypass the material component and travel back wherever, whenever.

Actually, since oil of timelessness is a material component and has a cost, none of the components can be ignored with eschew materials.

Edit: hold on, i was reading a slightly paraphrased version of the feat apparently. It could be interpreted that you only need the materials with a gp cost.

Edit2: I read the old 3.0 metamagic feat, that feat wouldn't have worked, but the up-to-date feat would. By RAW.

However since I find the material component so flavorful and I would rather not have one or two libraries thrown at me, I use the component anyway.

[Slipperychicken]

Polymorph Any Object SHOULD be a 9th level. Mostly because my DM found out that, by RAW, I can Polymorph a mountain from the Elemental plane of earth into a pebble. I can then fly above the BBEG's castle, toss it, and cast dispel.

Was that mountain under the limit of 100 cubic feet per level?

PaO

Target: One creature, or one nonmagical object of up to 100 cu. ft./level

Also, if that works, you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by simply getting a pebble, and then polymorphing it into a mountain once you were over the castle.

Another thing: If the BBEG in an ECL 15 game doesn't have good air defenses, he wasn't very deserving of the title "BBEG" in the first place.

[ericgrau]

Prestidigitation grants fire resistance 2. Resistance to fire grants lava immunity.

Actually it says it can cause dampness and dampness grants fire resistance 2. So pour a small amount of water on yourself before jumping into lava and you're good to go.

[Hangwind]

Was that mountain under the limit of 100 cubic feet per level?



Also, if that works, you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by simply getting a pebble, and then polymorphing it into a mountain once you were over the castle.

Another thing: If the BBEG in an ECL 15 game doesn't have good air defenses, he wasn't very deserving of the title "BBEG" in the first place.

Ooops. We were in Epic and using a ritual to boost the casters ecl, but i don't think by that much.

[Vedhin]

Actually it says it can cause dampness and dampness grants fire resistance 2. So pour a small amount of water on yourself before jumping into lava and you're good to go.

Pouring water on something doesn't make it damp, by RAW.

[Pickford]

ericgrau:

Foresight reminds me of sixth sense from the Lone Wolf book series, which was the most powerful discipline by far. Imagine a choose your own adventure book with advanced warning.

Sixth Sense was always my first pick too. Technically Foresight is even better than you've suggested. The spell specifies that you receive warnings of impending danger and provides guidance on what action to take to avoid the danger. Well, if for example, a volcano is going to explode and there's no possible action to save yourself short of walking out of range, which may take 6 weeks, then you have to get the warning 6 weeks out. Pretty nifty eh?

[Icewraith]

Impending danger

"Impending" danger is immediate danger. Hence, the spell grants immunity to surprise, being flat footed, and defenses, but doesn't say anything about long-term effects (there are other divination spells for those). It won't warn you about a volcano exploding unless you're in the vicinity of the volcano and it's about to explode.

DM interpretations will vary slightly, but warnings about anything more than a couple rounds out would appear to contradict "impending".

Also, even if it worked that way... if you can cast Foresight and the only way you have to get out of an exploding volcano (you don't even have to get out really, just survive) is walking, you shouldn't have lived long enough to attain 9th level spells in the first place. Also it's unlikely your DM can accurately predict the sequence of campaign events six weeks into the future when someone is slinging around 9th level spells, so the best you can hope for in terms of accuracy is a couple rounds, tops.

Anyways, in a game with less focus on immunity to effects at high levels, Wierd would have been ridiculously powerful. It may be the reason you don't find a whole lot of high level anythings that aren't immune to mind-affecting, death, and stun effects, because anything that wasn't already got permastunned by an adventuring group with Weird and killed hundreds of years ago.

[HaikenEdge]

I'm really partial to mindrape, but only because I like doing it to random NPCs, finding out their entire backstory, then rewriting their backstories into ones I like. I make a point of mindraping one or more commoners in every village/town/city/castle I visit, just so I have friends everywhere.

[Snowbluff]

I'm really partial to mindrape, but only because I like doing it to random NPCs, finding out their entire backstory, then rewriting their backstories into ones I like. I make a point of mindraping one or more commoners in every village/town/city/castle I visit, just so I have friends everywhere.

Your wizard must have been the loneliest guy ever before hitting 17th level. XD

[HaikenEdge]

Your wizard must have been the loneliest guy ever before hitting 17th level. XD

Spell-to-power Erudite, but yeah, kind of. Sure, he has the adventuring party, but when the entire party is evil, you're never sure if you can trust them.

You don't get to be a 17th level manifester/caster without having some psychological scars/trauma; if you were well-adjusted, you wouldn't be an adventurer in the first place, you'd be a commoner, getting mindraped.

[Chronos]

Anyways, in a game with less focus on immunity to effects at high levels, Wierd would have been ridiculously powerful.

Nope. Compare it to, say, Wail of the Banshee. Both target as many creatures as you could need to, and both give targets a save to completely shrug off the effect. If that save fails, though, Wail of the Banshee just outright kills the targets, while Weird does nothing but stun them for a round and give them a trivial amount of Str and HP damage, unless they fail another save. The only advantage Weird has is that it lacks the [Death] and [Sonic] tags, but in return it gets the [Fear] and [Mind-Affecting] tags, which is about a wash.

[Draz74]

Nope. Compare it to, say, Wail of the Banshee. Both target as many creatures as you could need to, and both give targets a save to completely shrug off the effect. If that save fails, though, Wail of the Banshee just outright kills the targets, while Weird does nothing but stun them for a round and give them a trivial amount of Str and HP damage, unless they fail another save. The only advantage Weird has is that it lacks the [Death] and [Sonic] tags, but in return it gets the [Fear] and [Mind-Affecting] tags, which is about a wash.

Weird also has the advantages of not involving friendly fire, and having an origin point at Medium range (while WotB is Close). But then, it's also restricted to targets within about a 15-ft radius, while WotB has a 40-ft radius.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Did you say mind affecting? That is a horrible trade off. mind affecting is a very common immunity.

[Elderand]

Other 9th I really like, at least thematicly

Maw of chaos
Abyssal army
Black blade of disaster
Heavenly host
Heallish horde
Sphere of ultimate destruction
Plague of undead

[Icewraith]

Missed that making the will save bypasses the stun, since you don't roll the fort save at all. May be a case of accidental houserules or errata, since I remember the spell description being slightly different - however it worked out, we had the stun going off even if the target made the will save. Whoopsies.

Also... "nothing but stun them for a round"? That's still a great effect to guarantee on a failed save, especially since there's no friendly fire built in as mentioned above.

Edit: I was postulating that anything at high level had developed mind-affecting immunity as a defense against a (as it appeared at the time) guaranteed no firendly fire aoe stun. The original post acknowledged the immunity downsides of the spell.

Think of it as the characters living in a world where the spell had already selected out anything weak to it.

[eggynack]

Also... "nothing but stun them for a round"? That's still a great effect to guarantee on a failed save, especially since there's no friendly fire built in as mentioned above.

If it requires a failed save, it's nowhere near guaranteed. Hell, the two descriptors mean that it wouldn't be guaranteed without a required save. Stunning for a round is nice, but a save or stun for a round is something you were getting off of orbs of fire five spell levels ago, or occasionally even off of daze nine spell levels ago. The only advantage that weird has is that it affects targets in an area, but you could be doing far better with area based SoL's. Hell, just read something like frostfell, which kills on a failed save, deals a ton of damage on a successful save, and has far better descriptors, and you'll see how weak save or a round of stun is.

[Icewraith]

(snip)

Anyways, in a game with less focus on immunity to effects at high levels, Weird would have been ridiculously powerful. It may be the reason you don't find a whole lot of high level anythings that aren't immune to mind-affecting, death, and stun effects, because anything that wasn't already got permastunned by an adventuring group with Weird and killed hundreds of years ago.

Note also that as I stated above, my group was applying the stun incorrectly, which significantly increased the power of the spell.

Still it's a cool idea... you don't dredge up one guy's nightmares, you pull out everyone's worst nightmare simultaneously and hit them with it.

[Chronos]

Now, in second edition, Weird was quite cool back then. You dredged up an image of the target's worst fear, and then the target literally had to go through combat with that thing. It took extreme amounts of DM adjudication and slowed everything at the table to a crawl, of course, so it's no surprise that it got changed, but the cool factor was undeniable.

[Phelix-Mu]

Now, in second edition, Weird was quite cool back then. You dredged up an image of the target's worst fear, and then the target literally had to go through combat with that thing. It took extreme amounts of DM adjudication and slowed everything at the table to a crawl, of course, so it's no surprise that it got changed, but the cool factor was undeniable.

*currently dredging up the old spell description for conversion and preparing to make play at my table slow to a crawl*