Neutralise Poison: Actually useful?

Pantalion

Looking at Neutralise Poison today, I noticed something very interesting. Since I typically ignore the spell as redundant compared to the two-level-lower Slow Poison, thought I'd share with anyone else who shares that particular bad habit.

Effect: Cures poison, disease, blindness and deafness, and, most importantly, it recovers 10 HP.

Comparing it to Cure Moderate, the level 3 cure wounds spell that is otherwise the most efficient spell, timewise, for healing, Cure Moderate recovers 14 HP with a cast time of 5, Neutralise Poison restores 10 HP with a cast time of 1, making it five times faster to cast.

So you're getting almost as much healing, except instead of waiting half a round for it you're getting it almost instantly, making Neutralise Poison almost as quick for emergency healing as drinking a potion.

Whilst it probably won't find its way into every spell slot, I for one may actually be memorising a few just in case now.

atcDave

The only thing I would have against Neutralize Poison is that I like Protection From Evil - 10' Radius, and Defensive Harmony better. So I'm usually higher level, like somewhere in BG2 before I start taking Neutralize Poison.

lunar

It also cures diseases and blindness so actually a lot more useful than slow poison. Like a cure light wounds+slow poison+cure disease+2 hp with a casting speed of 1! Cool!

Quartz

I thought Neutralize Poison was a Level 4 Priest spell? So it's more suitable to compare it to Cure Serious Wounds, which restores 17 HP.

Pantalion

@Quartz - Cure Serious is less efficient in terms of Time / Amount Healed than Cure Moderate, as it has a Casting Time of 7 for 17 HP healed, whilst Cure Moderate is the same cast time as Cure Light but restores 14 HP. Compared to Cure Serious, the difference is even more apparent; Cure Serious is just too slow for use by Mr Gency.

ajwz

Pantalion said:

Looking at Neutralise Poison today, I noticed something very interesting. Since I typically ignore the spell as redundant compared to the two-level-lower Slow Poison, thought I'd share with anyone else who shares that particular bad habit.

Effect: Cures poison, disease, blindness and deafness, and, most importantly, it recovers 10 HP.

Comparing it to Cure Moderate, the level 3 cure wounds spell that is otherwise the most efficient spell, timewise, for healing, Cure Moderate recovers 14 HP with a cast time of 5, Neutralise Poison restores 10 HP with a cast time of 1, making it five times faster to cast.

So you're getting almost as much healing, except instead of waiting half a round for it you're getting it almost instantly, making Neutralise Poison almost as quick for emergency healing as drinking a potion.

Whilst it probably won't find its way into every spell slot, I for one may actually be memorising a few just in case now.

Good catch. Took me about 8 years of playing before I finally realised Greater restoration was worth memorising too, since it also complete restores the targets HP on cast.

rdarken

Oh wow I never realized this! I always wondered why there were two spells to cure poison. I kind of thought Slow Poison was bugged in that it cured it outright.

Lennis

I memorized a Neutralize Poison as soon as I got it, in addition to slow poison. Reason: Running into wyverns on the road. If you get poisoned by them you can't just shrug it off. Losing 5 HP/round will waste even a Charname fighter with 18 constitution.

CaptRory

There's also a difference between Battlefield Utility and how a spell performs outside of combat. The faster a spell casts the better is is during battle. Outside of battle it rarely matters how long a spell takes to complete unless you're casting a lot of buffs and need to get movggn before they wear off.

This point as been touched on but no one has really come out and said it.

dib

I always use that, not just against poisons but also against diseases caused by various undead and the like.

BelgarathMTH

The trouble with using Neutralize Poison, is that there are always other 4th level priest spells that are way better. It's too costly, in that it takes up a precious 4th level spell slot. There're just too many other, better, spells at that level to use.

Protection from Evil 10' is a no-brainer. And, since it has limited duration, two are better than one. I would never even consider filling fourth level spell slots with a measly 10 point heal. A simple lesser healing potion could do just as well, and by the time you have fouth level priest spells, you should have so many of them you don't know what to do with them all.

And then, there's Call Woodland Beings, Negative Plane Protection, Free Action, Death Ward, Lesser Restoration, Protection from Lightning.

Heck, almost anything on the fourth level priest spell list is better than Neutralize Poison. It's not a bad spell in and of itself, it's just that it freaking wastes a critical fourth level spell slot.