3rd Level
Hold Person
The name of this spell should not be taken literally. Hold person makes its victims rigid-- if they're falling, for instance, it cannot
"freeze" them in mid-fall and suspend them in the air. (However, see the hold monster
entry below.)
Item
Use this spell on a weapon if the party is on the verge of being captured. In
its cloth-like state, the shrunken weapon can be concealed up the caster's
sleeve or it can be tucked underneath his belt or in his trousers. The wizard can
later use the enlarged weapon to surprise his captors or, if the wizard's hands
are bound, he may be able to use the weapon to cut himself free. Similarly, the
spell can be used to conceal a grappling hook or a thief's pick. (The wizard
should be careful where he hides a shrunken weapon; if a shrunken long sword is
tucked inside his pants and is enlarged before it is removed, the result could
be extremely painful. )
Melf's Minute Meteors
One of the most frequently overlooked functions of Melf's minute meteors (or any flame-producing spell, such as fireball) is its ability to ignite combustible materials. In the right situations,
this ability is capable of producing a startling amount of damage, rivaling and
often exceeding the damage caused by spells of much higher levels.
Tongues
This spell can be quite useful to the wizard for discreetly communicating with
other characters, but only if he understands exactly how it works. Tongues acts as a selective translator, not as a universal translator-- that is, not
everyone in the spell's area of effect understands the translated language.
For instance, imagine that a wizard can speak only common. All other members
of his party also speak only common. The party encounters a group of two dwarves
and one gnome; the dwarves speak only dwarvish, the gnome speaks only gnomish.
The wizard casts tongues and speaks to the gnome; the gnome automatically understands what the wizard
says, but the dwarves and the other party members do not--as far as they can
tell, the wizard is speaking gnomish. Assuming the wizard is of sufficiently high
level (he can speak one additional tongue for every three levels of
experience) and the spell's duration has not yet expired, he can also address the
dwarves. Both dwarves will understand the wizard, but the gnome and the rest of the
party will not.
If a dwarf and a gnome begin chattering at the wizard at the same time, and
the wizard is of sufficiently high level and the spell's duration hasn't expired,
the wizard can understand them both. The other party members, however, will
hear nothing but babble
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