Useless Useful Spell: Difference between revisions
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** ''Wish'' often seems like is should be treated as a Useless Useful Spell, as it's traditional for the DM to scrutinize all wishes for [[Jackass Genie|ways to punish]] the wisher. [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]...
*** There are, however, "stock" uses for Wish (and its divine cousin Miracle) which are reliable and usually not subject to any [[Jerkass Genie]] tendencies the DM may have. These include permanent stat boosts (expensive as hell, but worth it for high level characters), the creation of magic items (though by now you can probably craft them yourself with less XP cost), and duplicating pretty much any lower level spell. That last one is why high level spellcasters ''love'' to have a Wish or Miracle available. Sure, trading a 9th level spell for an 8th or lower level one sounds like a lousy deal, but the fact that it can grant access to spells you don't have prepared, don't know, or aren't even available to your class makes it a great tool in an emergency.
* In addition to most of the above 3.5 examples, [[Pathfinder]] has a sword cane item that does 1d6 damage, costs 45 GP and requires good senses to realize it's not a normal cane. Clubs which are "shaped pieces of wood" deal 1d6 damage, are free and absolutely indistinguishable from a cane ''because they are'' (this is part of why canes were fashion accessories at one point: They make fantastic clubs or, with the right embellishments, maces).
* In some ways the blast weapons of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' is starting to turn this way. Most blast weapons are quite powerful, especially heavy ordinance weapons, but due to the new way of resolving Blast weapons, you'd be pretty lucky if the shot land anywhere near your intended target (it's entirely possible that the shot will make a "return to sender" move, and there's a good chance of it happening too!). While a Space Marine can be very accurate with his aim-based Krak Missile, he is a worse shot than a drunk stormtrooper when it comes to firing the explosive Frag variant. Both missiles are fired from the same weapon.
** Also, there are very powerful weapons called meltas that basically take any vehicle or [[Elite Mook]] and melt them into slag. However, nearly all meltas in the game have a 12" range (pretty much the shortest range outside of some irregular Tyranid ones) and only obtain their extra armour penetration ability within half that. While Space Marines with insane defenses can quite happily walk up to an enemy Heavy Support unit and annihilate it with one of these, more physically frail units like Eldar will often find themselves floored by [[More Dakka|the entire enemy's weapons]] before they can fire them.
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