Good spells for trolling/vandalism

[zlefin]

Over time, I've noticed a few spells that are very well suited to vandalism/trolling people/malicious mischief; and I was wondering what other ones there are that would work well. I don't have any real characters like that to use them, but they might serve as useful vehicles for a sidequest at some point, or just some world-building. It's also just plain interesting to think about.

First up, as a result of the recent cantrip thread, I took a closer look at all the cantrips. Arcane mark is a standard action, quite fast to do, and it lets you leave a permanent mark. The fact that it's recognizably you (the text seem to imply you can only have one form to the mark you use, rather than just writing whatever you want each time) makes it like tagging. You could leave this on peoples doors, notable possessions, walkways. Another interesting tidbit is that it seems not too hard to apply it to people, even if it only lasts one month on them, that's still a long time. It's range 0 ft, but still only a standard action. It doesn't check for willingness, ignores SR, and doesn't seem to require a touch attack; so as long as you get close you can leave a mark on someone for a month, or at least until that person gets someone to use the 1st level erase spell, and that spell doesn't work every cast.

Another interesting one is Illusory Wall the 4th level spell. It lets you create a permanent illusion, with no cost other than the spell slot for the day, and once again it's a mere standard action. You could mess up someones shop or house by leaving these walls in the middle of it. You could try to "shrink" their walls by an inch each month. Even if the person fully knows its an illusion, the visual effect is still there and gets in the way of normal viewing to some extent (not sure on the exact rules for that). I'm not sure how much freedom there is in terms of what kinds of walls you can create, whether they could have designs or such; but you could at least make incongruous wall types I'd assume (like a stone wall in a wooden building). Another fun use is just making random walls in the middle of towns, roads, and such.

what other spells are well suited to this level of obnoxiousness?

[Thurbane]

If you looks at the Jesters spells list (Dragon Compendium), their spell list is very much focused on mischief.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Magic mouth. Prerecord a bunch of taunts/distractions on paper slips, wood chips, pebbles, whatever you want, with the trigger condition "being removed from bag" (or "contact with the ground" if you want to play it safe). Keep them in a bag, and remove them one at a time as a move action (or give them to the guy with Quick Draw) as a distraction, diversion, or simple annoyance. Or blow up the bag to have them go off all at once (ideally via explosive runes for extra humiliation).

EDIT: And of course you can leave 10 minute messages playing in public spaces; essentially a commercial or talking billboard.

[KrimsonNekros]

Grease. There are so many possible applications if you just think outside the box a little.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

"I prepared explosive runes this morning."

Greater/bestow curse? I believe gender-bending is one possibility out of nigh infinite.

[Jack_Simth]

Invisible Spell. It's a metamagic feat from Cityscape. Makes a spell invisible.

Apply to Wall of Stone (invisible wall), Illusions of any stripe (if your target has See Invisibility, Arcane Sight, Detect Magic, or similar), Grease, et cetera.

The Will save mechanic on the Shadow Conjouration line makes it particularly interesting when used with Wall spells. An Invisible Spell (Greater Shadow Conjuration(Wall of Stone)) is an invisible illusion, and folks who make their save when interacting with it have a chance of walking through unhindered....

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Sculpt Spell grease? Create thousands of cubic feet of oily goo that will collapse and splash everywhere. Do it in an enclosed room and watch the inhabitants thereof ride the really slippery wave out (whether they want to or not).

[KrimsonNekros]

Greater/bestow curse? I believe gender-bending is one possibility out of nigh infinite.

Is it really a curse if the victim wants it though?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Is it really a curse if the victim wants it though?

Offensive spells can be used for non-offensive purposes, and bestow curse and its greater sibling are the same, just as spell traps can be used for beneficial spells, like cure light wounds.

Tell me, would you consider turning someone's hair purple to be a prank, given there are people out there who willingly dye their hair unusual shades?

[tiercel]

Offensive spells can be used for non-offensive purposes, and bestow curse and its greater sibling are the same, just as spell traps can be used for beneficial spells, like cure light wounds.

Tell me, would you consider turning someone's hair purple to be a prank, given there are people out there who willingly dye their hair unusual shades?

Now I’m totally picturing:

I curse you to have the gender, body type, and appearance of age of your choice — permanently!

Holy compensated curses, Batman! The church of Olidammara (say) must be doing a brisk under-the-table trade in gender reassignment, diet obviation, and youth serum.

(In this case, it would be remove curse that would be the real trolling spell, especially cast surreptitiously at high-society parties.)

[unseenmage]

Grease. There are so many possible applications if you just think outside the box a little.

"Slip."
- In Another World With My Smartphone


Also, using Prestidigitation to change the flavor of the party's dinner is fun.
Especially when the character doing it was a ghoul bard with a penchant for licking the unlickable

[Segev]

Now I’m totally picturing:

I curse you to have the gender, body type, and appearance of age of your choice — permanently!

Holy compensated curses, Batman! The church of Olidammara (say) must be doing a brisk under-the-table trade in gender reassignment, diet obviation, and youth serum.

(In this case, it would be remove curse that would be the real trolling spell, especially cast surreptitiously at high-society parties.)

Hah. I'd thought about the beneficent application of bestow curse (particularly on the topic of sex-changes for those with dysphoria) before, but the notion of using it to "curse" people to be lighter, or have bigger/smaller *ahem* attributes as they may desire, or to be younger never occurred to me. Nor had using remove curse as a tool for trolling when you know a plurality of the beautiful rich are literally cursed with beauty.



At higher levels, reverse gravity is a great practical joker's tool. For mostly-harmless fun, put it over an obvious pit trap where the ceiling is 10 feet or less over the hall floor and doesn't change elevation wrt itself: people try to jump over the pit and fall to the ceiling above. For greater mischief, make literally-upside-down rooms, or cast it just about anywhere things are trying to be civilized.

Invisible solid fog could be extremey confusing.

I'm kind-of surprised some classic prestidigitation pranks, like making it look like somebody's soiled or wet themselves, haven't been mentioned. Since it can soil things, you can also make it look like they spilled food on themselves.

Create water can be used to douse people, since you can literally make it appear anywhere in range. Two gallons of water over somebody's head isn't going to hurt them or have much mechanical effect, but is probably going to be quite annoying and embarassing, especially if they have an hours-of-work hair do.

Summon monster or summon nature's ally to call forth rats or other unpleasant creatures at a dinner party and let them loose.

Unseen servant can be put to work setting up any number of pranks you need plausible deniability for...or just need people not to see you setting up.

Disguise self and other such magics can make you look like another person while you perform embarassing or otherwise trollish acts to pin on him. There's not a voice version of the spell, but apparently Brent Spiner used to do this to Patrick Stewart, calling Mrs. Stewart while mimicking Patrick's voice to do things like tell her he'd be home late and not to wait on him for dinner. Maybe ghost sound can mimic particular voices, perhaps with an appropriate Perform or Disguise check?

Illusory script on signs or posters to make them look like what they really say to a particular group of people, and say something utterly humiliating or hillarious about them to anybody else. Preferably in a way that gets the group that sees the truth to endorse the posters' claims. Can also be used to misdirect guards to the wrong address, switch sign posts for only specified targets, etc.

Tasha's uncontrollable hideous laughter cast on a noble or other prominent person at an important and serious speech, timed so it sounds like he's mocking or contradicting a point just made.

Suggestion: "Kilts are manly, and this is the manliest kilt ever made; you should wear it to prove your virility," while holding up a frilly dress with a solid bustier or corset component.

Suggestion: "Since mud facials are so imporant to beauty, you should make sure to wear one to the ball."

Mass suggestion: "That bard/politician/speechmaker just worked a subtle inuendo and insult into his words that targets you, personally, or your identity group!"

Use a mage hand to apply up to five pounds of hand-shaped force to the clothing around the backside of the barmaid when the target of your prank walks by her. Also works with noblewomen. Swap genders of fondling targets as appropriate to maximally embarass your pranking target.

Silent image jump scares leaping around corners and out of the ground.

Major image of a fart sound and smell around the victim of your prank.

Warp wood to do the "thumb tack in the chair" trick. Though mage hand or unseen servant and a caltrop can probably do this just as well.

Animate objects to have chairs ready actions to move out from under people as they're about to sit down.

[jintoya]

"Slip."
- In Another World With My Smartphone


Also, using Prestidigitation to change the flavor of the party's dinner is fun.
Especially when the character doing it was a ghoul bard with a penchant for licking the unlickable

Used this to make the nobles who look down on my character have slightly green toned skin (a gross green, not a nice green) and just feel oily, reapply it whenever you see them and they have to spend money having it continually negated, as a curse it's more expensive, but at that point "I curse your left hand to become disembodied!" Then run off with the hand, keep it in a jar and add things that feel gross to the jar on occasion... Can't undo the curse without the hand present... Or a regenerate spell.