What are some good chance/luck-themed spells for Sorcerers? [closed]

Question

I'm building a gambler-themed Spellscale Sorcerer, and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good luck-themed spells. I know there's things like Unluck and the various Prismatic/Rainbow spells (the ones with random effects), but what else is there that I might have missed?

Answer 1

There are two kinds of "luck" spells that need to be considered.

Rerolling

Anecdotally, as someone with horrible luck, having these are futile. Those of us on whom probability takes steaming dumps know that no reasonable number of rerolls will ever produce a satisfactory result (also known as the lie of averages), and having reroll abilities means expending resources that could've instead been devoted to making others roll better or not having to roll at all.

That said, here are some reroll spells and what gets rerolled.

1st-level Spells

• cheat (SpC 46): A dice roll your character makes in a game he's playing; weird, unique spell.

2nd-level Spells

• insight of good fortune (PH2 115): Attack roll, saving throw, or skill or ability check.

3rd-level Spells

• alter fortune (PH2 101): Any roll.
• curse of the gypsies (Dragon #348 75): Target's natural 20s.
• unluck (SpC 227): All target's die rolls.

4th-level Spells

• battle hymn (SpC 25): Will save.
• cynosure (Dragon #338 77): Accuracy with plane shift and teleport .

9th-level Spells

• wish (PH 302): Any roll.

That's... not a lot. As with most things magical, the Clr's ability to pick new spells from the thousands available makes him better at this than a Sor, and the Brd's seeming emphasis on wacky antics lets him access a few unique ones, too. Further, Races of Destiny's spells warp destiny and choose destiny are awesome for this, but they are exclusively destiny Domain spells.

Randomness

Arguably, any spell requiring a saving throw, attack roll, or damage roll is random. Assuming, however, that the spell's effect should be random, this could easily be a Sor's whole theme as there are so many. Note that lesser confusion is only on the Brd spell list and the madness Domain.

Anecdotally, these spells make other players hate you. Not your character--he didn't make these choices--you. That's because the resources you committed to doing this could have been spent doing something reliable. When you bring Swingy the Luckmaster to the table, expect dice thrown at you.

1st-level Spells

• scramble true position (ToM 258): Randomly teleport a group of foes; good luck with the truename component, though.

2nd-level Spells

• channel the mishtai (Magic of Incarnum 99): Have your body inhabited by a random soul. Note: Some souls are terrible.
• feline distraction (Random Encounters column "Ways of the Sword: Cat's Claw Dueling Pride"): Like confusion but far more embarrassing.
• rainbow beam (SpC 165): Random type of damage.
• scattering trap (PH2 123-4): Random short-range teleportation.

3rd-level Spells

• prismatic mist (PH2 121-2): Random effect; confusion's possible.
• rain of terror (Dragon #348 76): So, in a 100-ft. radius centered on you the sky rains random stuff (e.g. ash, blood, dead bats, spiders) to, ultimately, grant you a +10 bonus on Intimidate skill checks. That's a long, awesome way to go for a skill bonus. I love this spell.

4th-level Spells

• confusion (PH 212): A classic.
• defenestrating sphere (SpC 62): Randomly move the target toward a window; a spell surely created solely so the author could use the word defenestrate.
• scramble portal (SpC 181): O, the places they'll go!
• siren's call (SW 121-2): Target heads for the sea, or wanders randomly if he doesn't know where the sea is.

5th-level Spells

• contact other plane (PH 212-3): Sometimes an answer, sometimes a lie, and sometimes you can't cast spells for a month--awesome!
• prismatic ray (SpC 162): The poor man's spray.

6th-level Spells

• guards and wards (PH 237): In the right place--the tendriculos hedge maze protecting your castle, for instance--this is hilarious. The DM's expression when your party tries to map a similarly warded area isn't nearly as funny.

7th-level Spells

• insanity (PH 244): A not-funny funny spell.
• prismatic eye (SpC 161-2): It's a moist, apple-sized floating eye that shoots rainbows. Really. Trivia: When originally published this was a 6th-level spell but was changed to a 7th-level spell in the SpC--try to talk your DM into putting it at 6th-level again. I'm of the opinion that whoever bumped it up forgot about...
• prismatic spray (PH 264): The rich man's ray.

8th-level Spells

• fimbulwinter (Fr 93-4): Some days no wind blows and the snow melts, and other days there are 30+ MPH winds and seven feet of snow! Take that, nature!
• mind of the labyrinth (DM 70): It's like mind blank for the odd and inefficient.
• prismatic wall (PH 264-5): A classic.

9th-level Spells

• prismatic sphere (PH 264-5): The classic-est.
• reality maelstrom (SpC 168): O, the places they'll all go.

Answer 2

I’m away from my books and too busy to go digging besides, but there is cheat in Spell Compendium that lets you, well, cheat at games of chance (dice, roulette, and so on). I think it’s just a reroll though.