Bah, I beat the BG2/ToB solo, as a 161,000 capped F/M and didn't compromise my usual no resting until fatigued, or obvious cheese/exploits rules.Was it Easy? Actually, yeah it is, ridiculously so..hell my 161,000 solo fighter run went almost as easily (solo TotSC capped bards are also ridiculously easy), a few fights like Kangaxx were harder (I don't use PfU scrolls since they don't dispel on hostile action) and the guardians are ROUGH, but do-able. Bringing a party along, there's no excuse at all to use any sort of rest abuse or pre-trap cheese for any fight.
Bah, I beat the BG2/ToB solo, as a 161,000 capped F/M and didn't compromise my usual no resting until fatigued, or obvious cheese/exploits rules.Was it Easy? Actually, yeah it is, ridiculously so..hell my 161,000 solo fighter run went almost as easily (solo TotSC capped bards are also ridiculously easy), a few fights like Kangaxx were harder (I don't use PfU scrolls since they don't dispel on hostile action) and the guardians are ROUGH, but do-able. Bringing a party along, there's no excuse at all to use any sort of rest abuse or pre-trap cheese for any fight.
Can you post some videos of the solo level 8 fighter defeating the Ravager, Kangaxx or other high powered liches (without PfU or PfM), the chromatic demon, demogorgon and/or the like? I am genuinely curious how those were done without exploits or cheese. I can conceive of ways to do some of these but they involve serious exploits.
A fight like demogorgon without exploits seems pretty challenging for a level 8 fighter.
I don't use it as a trap. I just throw it in the middle of enemies. Problem solved.
And for this purpose, the fireball hits with the same damage over a larger area of effect and with a longer range. Seems like a no-brainer against all but the few fire resistant enemies.
Didn't we already have this argument? Skull Trap caps out at a higher damage rate. But if we're only taking BG1 levels into consideration, then it uses Breath Weapon which almost every creature in the game has a higher Breath Weapon save than Spell save so you get the full damage more often.
Just tried it out in BG:EE, both spells use save vs. spells.
Worst. Fucking. Change. Ever.
Yeah, just get rid of the best aspect of a spell Beamdog. Real cool guys.
Just tried it out in BG vanilla, both spells use save vs. spells.
In BG2, both spells use save vs. breath (I do have a couple of mods installed here, so I guess it could be different in vanilla).
@AHF Well it's not like I am not guilty of doing similar things for that fight. It is more that people seem to rely on the thief traps overmuch for most of the harder fights and like to stack them up to instakill things like Demogorgon. What's worse is that it is the only advice given by some people for any hard fight. I know that such repetitive advice is not as much of a problem on this site but I still see it often enough. Bounty hunters are overrated as a side effect of this phenomena.
Now my play style is a little unusual. I usually reload repeatedly after winning difficult fights to try out different strategies. Because of this I don't understand the mentality of people who are like: "Set million traps->spawn monster->watch monster splode->moving on->set million traps..." Granted that I'm sure that their play style isn't that linear but still I don't see it being that fun to waste nasty foes like they are nothing. Not to mention that it does seem a bit odd that a virtual demigod like Demogorgon would be so easily smitten within the space of 2 seconds.
Kangaxx is really easy...IMoD messes him up in 1-2 hits, as long as you have a summon item or two to buy you a few seconds of attacks, he goes down easy, the cloak of the sewers helps mitigate some of the damage Lich fights can do, though given my resting policies, I could only do one Lich per 24 hours. Ravager was tougher (Smack him with FoA till he gets slowed, then swap to Foebane, and repeat whenever he comes out of slow, and heal as needed, those 3 IH from Gaxx help a lot) (Answerer (stacking -15% magic resistance for 4 rounds) and upgraded Foebane (casts larloch's drain on hit) are your friends for ToB), but...that's what an inventory of Superior healing potions are for. Though doing it pretty much requires lugging a literally armory of equipment and potions to cover every situation.
Dwarf Fighter with ** Flail, * Mace, * Bastard sword , * Scimitar, * Two Weapon. If you use a berserker, obviously things would be A LOT easier...but I hate them for being way more powerful then they should be.
Demogorgon and Final Bad were the hardest fights due to all the enemies involved..and the fact I was running out potions. Dual-wielding speed weapons helps a lot for enemies that you don't need higher then +2 to hit, especially when combined with the gimp'd IH from the Ring of Gaxx.
Not gonna lie, I fought the Chromatic demon in the poison room, though I actually did stay and fight, rather then the flat out cheese method. (The developers have said that using the poison room is a completely legit alternate, if less obvious, method to do that fight. And as long as you stay and fight it out, rather then cheesing it, I agree).
Improved mace of disruption +2. (Gives immunity to level drain, hits as +5, deals 2-12+4 damage to undead (1d6+2 to everything else), and every hit forces a save at -4 or die on any undead...ANY undead.) Not terribly difficult to get.
It allows Foebane to more easily affect enemies with High MR. Even just 1 stack makes a HUGE difference for by-passing MR.
Speed weapons are weapons that an grant extra attack, Belm +2 (scimitar), Kuudane+2 (short sword), Light crossbow of speed+1 (X-bow), Tuigan Bow+1 (short bow) and Scarlet Ninja-to+3 (Monk only scimitar)). Though yes, they usually also have 0-1 speeds..so there's that as well.
@ZanathKariashi: How did you fight the 6 guardians leading to demogorgon w/ your lv 8 fighter? Did you use the horn of blasting on the guardians until it works and retreats outside the portal every time you kill a guardian?
Solo character has advantages too. At least you dont get frustrated when one of the npc dies. Half my party of mages are baggage sometimes. In addition, I bet each of my party member is inferior than your optimized solo fighter (I have a lower level pc, npc are stuck with crappy stats and pips in non ideal weapons, and the best equipments are not concentrated on 1 person). Furthermore, solo is always easy to escape and return the battle when something bad happens.
Just tried it out in BG vanilla, both spells use save vs. spells.
In BG2, both spells use save vs. breath (I do have a couple of mods installed here, so I guess it could be different in vanilla).
You are not playing vanilla. I'm not about to be dissuaded on this one. I use the spell heavily and was playing vanilla up until BG:EE. No TuTu, no BGT, no nothing.
Used summoned creatures via the horn of Val, genie bottle, and spider figurine to break them up, and then killed them one at a time, starting with the mother orb, who I managed to zip in and beat to death with FoA before she could start casting. After that it was actually pretty easy, I didn't even have to leave. The flails slow effect drops AC by 4 (and thac0), making it MUCH easier to hit them while drastically slowing attack speed so I could hit them 3-4 times before they could swing.
Thanks, never heard them called speed weapons before. I didn't read a lot on BG2 when I played it back around 2000. I haddn't heard things called "cheese" until this forum.
Edit:
If you dual wield Belm and Kudane do you get two extra attacks? I've only ever off handed them.
Used summoned creatures via the horn of Val, genie bottle, and spider figurine to break them up, and then killed them one at a time, starting with the mother orb, who I managed to zip in and beat to death with FoA before she could start casting. After that it was actually pretty easy, I didn't even have to leave. The flails slow effect drops AC by 4 (and thac0), making it MUCH easier to hit them while drastically slowing attack speed so I could hit them 3-4 times before they could swing.
I find this difficult to believe. I doubt the monsters can last more than 1 round. There are the archer who uses call shot, the drow who uses disabling spells, the warrior who has war cry and greater whirlwind attacks, the demon marilith and the dyrad who can level drain.
Thanks, never heard them called speed weapons before. I didn't read a lot on BG2 when I played it back around 2000. I haddn't heard things called "cheese" until this forum.
Edit:
If you dual wield Belm and Kudane do you get two extra attacks? I've only ever off handed them.
Yes, but later in the game, partially due to a number of enemies having immunities to +2 weapons, you're probably better off using a higher +x weapon in the main hand (which is the only hand that gets *any* of the extra attacks from speed weapons anyway - e.g. if you have Belm in your main hand and Kundane in your off hand, Belm gets 2 *extra* attacks, Kundane just one attack total). BTW with Use Any Item, Thieves and Bards can use the normally Monk-Specific +3 Scarlet Ninja-To :-)
@bbear you'd be surprised. They didn't fight the enemies, they just got their attention and ran (kiting is a very big part of my combat style (mostly due to my love of single class Kensai), if you pay attention to any my of strategy posts), and it worked just long enough to drop the Beholder and kill the archer who both aggro'd on me...well..the archer did, the beholder went down before it could cast time stop, so it didn't really pick a target, since it got slowed on the first hit. That Ifreet especially is actually pretty durable if you'll cast his armor spell and keep him out of melee range. I left out my simulacrum in the list above. And was actually pretty tough..though it's biggest strength was the fact it was hasted, which helped a lot...it tied up both the dryad and warrior till I was done cleaning up the more dangerous opponents.
You cannot under estimate the slow effect on the FoA...it positively demolishes enemies, works on everything, usually applies on the first or 2nd hit, and allows you to unload a ton of attack into an enemy and flee before they can swing once, not mention how badly it murders spell casters once their PfMW is gone.
It actually went pretty smoothly, the Marilith was the last one I killed, and her PfMW was gone by the time I got to her, so it was a pretty short fight, especially with me and my copy wailing on her.
Yeah, dual-wielding them gives a non-warrior 4 base attacks, which actually allows them to do comparable damage to fighters, even classes with only * in two weapon. Blades and Swashy's are especially powerful. The Scarlet Ninja-to is not only +3, it also has a nice on-hit poison attack. A blade dual-wielding speed weapons, in Offensive SPin, under improved haste, has 10 attacks per round, other rogues can pull off 9 if you equip the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, which is quite nice for a swashy who has a nice + amount to both damage and hit. If you pick your fights carefully, you can easily save the +3 and above enemies till after you get UAI.
You are not playing vanilla. I'm not about to be dissuaded on this one. I use the spell heavily and was playing vanilla up until BG:EE. No TuTu, no BGT, no nothing.
Well, I'd imagine this would be a simple enough matter to put to test! One console command that adds a couple Skull Traps later...
You are not playing vanilla. I'm not about to be dissuaded on this one. I use the spell heavily and was playing vanilla up until BG:EE. No TuTu, no BGT, no nothing.
Well, I'd imagine this would be a simple enough matter to put to test! One console command that adds a couple Skull Traps later...
Other than the fact that's not unmodded BG1 like the poster said he was playing, but BG2 which did revise some spells.
My manual for BG1 says ST has 'No Save', so I don't know if it was a Breath save or not, so the OP could still be wrong but it's not the same game ;P
I don't think Baldur's Gate 1 even had Skull Trap. I certainly don't remember ever finding one in it.
Even if it was originally save vs breath weapon, that would have been almost assuredly a bug or an oversight. There is a reason it's called save vs spell: it's used against all wizard and priest spells, both in-game and on tabletop, and basically everything else that doesn't explicitly fit to one of the other four categories. The fixed version would be right.
It's okay to prefer it using breath weapon, but if you do that, you'll have to understand that it's a bug and not supposed to be that way, and doesn't make for a valid argument to why the spell is better than Fireball.
My manual for BG1 says ST has 'No Save', so I don't know if it was a Breath save or not, so the OP could still be wrong but it's not the same game ;P
Although the BG1 manual says there's no save, the in-game description specifically mentions a Save vs. Spells:
Skull Trap (necromantic) Level: 3 Range: 20 yards Duration: Until triggered Casting Time: 3 Area of Effect: 30 foot radius Saving Throw: half Upon casting this spell, a skull is thrown by caster at the target area. The skull floats in the area until a creature comes within 20 feet of it. When this happens the skull is triggered and explodes, damaging everyone within a 30 foot radius. The damage inflicted is equal to 1 to 6 hit points per level of the caster, or half with a successful save vs spell. When casting this spell it is wise to set it far away from the party, lest they set it off accidently.
And the save is indeed vs. Spells for half. I verified it with a completely unmodified BG1 install, which I made solely to check original behavior when something seemed to be changed.
Just tried it out in BG vanilla, both spells use save vs. spells.
In BG2, both spells use save vs. breath (I do have a couple of mods installed here, so I guess it could be different in vanilla).
You are not playing vanilla. I'm not about to be dissuaded on this one. I use the spell heavily and was playing vanilla up until BG:EE. No TuTu, no BGT, no nothing.
@Quartz yeah, I am. I have a fresh install (The Orginal Saga, 3 CD) from a few days ago. Absolutely no mods installed. Unless you're talking about BG without TotSC, or an un-patched version of the game, then you're incorrect.
I guess that is a matter of interpretation then. I consider kiting to be an exploit when it is done extensively. I was trying to imagine your 8th level fighter facing off against a mage with PFMW active and seeing how that went. If you are kiting with summons, etc. that gives you a lot more flexibility.
Using the IMoD makes sense against liches so I can mentally picture those fights. I would still love to see video if it was out there for a lot of these fights since I still can't conceptualize the level 8 fighter with his level 6 simulacrum assistant winning a lot of these. I have been pretty impressed by some of the videos on this site using magic in very creative ways.
It's because of the way 2nd edition works...almost all of your benefits come by around lvl 10 (except casters, or 1 or two perks you could live without for fighter/thieves)....you get a little extra hp, profs, and thac0, but ultimately, most of your abilities are there, especially your main HD contribution.
3rd edition on the other hand is a continual, almost constant growth of power, which means high level characters will demolish lower levels the majority of time.
Gear makes a MUCH bigger difference them most people realize, and especially when you're dealing with Artifact level weapons like most of BG's high end weapons would be considered, even very low level characters can do a TON of damage.
As for kiting, it just depends. Obviously a melee character has no choice but to follow, since your weapons can strike faster and he has no way to counter it, so he's screwed no matter what he tries, unless he just decides to say screw it and leave (which would still get you XP in PnP, since you "defeated" them, even if you didn't actually kill them). Mages, it's more of making sure you have the proper gear to stop or counter whatever they have cooked up since kiting doesn't really work against them, unless you can duck out of sight before their time stop goes off, since they'll have to waste most of it moving into LoS or attempting to blast your cover out of the way, PfMW is powerful, but once it's gone, so is the mage. Archers are generally weak in melee and will be the ones more likely to attempt to kite you, so staying close to them is usually best decision.
2 Flails of ages (mostly because it's easy to get, the slow effect makes up for less then ideal thac0, and goes through all defenses except PfMW), wailing on you per turn....a single enemy is F'd, 2 enemies are pretty F'd 3+ enemies..well..are an annoyance, but no big deal as long as you focus fire on the most dangerous target or split fire if there's 2 equally dangerous targets.
Especially since I've been doing average damage calculations on certain weapons.
Usano's Blade outdamages Celestial Fury for example and is right up there with Foebane. And Staff of the Ram is the strongest weapon in the game aside from Carsomyr against a Chaotic Evil foe.
The gear AND the spells you learn are the majority of the power in this game...it's weakness is the uneven stat system which is easy to abuse. But it's D&D. No one really wants to make a character who's too weak. usually.
Meh the only thing skull trap has is uncapped damage, obviously making it better in bg2+, but for bg1 im struggling to find good uses for it. Its probably good fro trapping, but there are divine spells doing the same thing as seen above and fireball is great for sniping people BVR(beyond visual range xD ) due to its huge range and area. Clearing a horde of (deadly) kobolds with just one cast is godly.
OR you could just toss an instant cast wand of fire fireball at them. The majority of enemies will die just as easily to a 6d6 as a 9d6.
Bare in mind, while I favor Skull trap over fireball, 3rd level slots should be used for slows, dispels or hastes over any damage spell (Sleep is basically a death spell for 80% of large groups of enemies greatly limiting the point of damaging aoes, just loading up on blind once you can replace the sleeps with a wand of fire, or hell, that 100 charge wand of sleep, while wand of fire can take care of the rest). Haste alone adds more damage for the slot at lvl 5 then a 18d6 skull trap does, if you have a full group, unless you're just wasting it on a MASSIVE group of enemies you could've killed effortless without magic. Skull trap is only better if you're soloing, since haste contributes much less overall damage when used on 1 character.
Simulacrum creates copies of all the gear your character is wearing, thus it would also be packing a FoA+5. While I'll definitely be one of the first to point out that spells effect is wrong, VERY wrong...there's no real adequate way of using simulacrum without it being cheese due to crappy programming (much like Projected Image is automatic cheese since it doesn't use up your spells as it should, nor should Mislead give unlimited invisibility (it just gives you improved invisibility, as per the spell, and also creates an illusion to distract the enemy that has nothing to do with your invisibility status), since the spell is only supposed to copy your raw stats and abilities, modified for a lower level, with identical looking, but basic magical or non-functioning copies of the gear you're wearing. (The copied FoA would LOOK like the FoA, but just be a +1 flail in practice, and a robe of Vecna if you could wear one, would look pretty sweet...but not actually do ANYTHING)
I dont use wands, given the scarcity of enemies relative to the availability and power of wands obtainable in the game thats pretty cheesy. More importantly though, running on consumables is extremely painful.
I dont use wands, given the scarcity of enemies relative to the availability and power of wands obtainable in the game thats pretty cheesy. More importantly though, running on consumables is extremely painful.
Not so painful for a Bard (or at least one that doesn't have pickpockets nerfed...)
Comments
A fight like demogorgon without exploits seems pretty challenging for a level 8 fighter.
In BG2, both spells use save vs. breath (I do have a couple of mods installed here, so I guess it could be different in vanilla).
Now my play style is a little unusual. I usually reload repeatedly after winning difficult fights to try out different strategies. Because of this I don't understand the mentality of people who are like:
"Set million traps->spawn monster->watch monster splode->moving on->set million traps..."
Granted that I'm sure that their play style isn't that linear but still I don't see it being that fun to waste nasty foes like they are nothing. Not to mention that it does seem a bit odd that a virtual demigod like Demogorgon would be so easily smitten within the space of 2 seconds.
Dwarf Fighter with ** Flail, * Mace, * Bastard sword , * Scimitar, * Two Weapon. If you use a berserker, obviously things would be A LOT easier...but I hate them for being way more powerful then they should be.
Demogorgon and Final Bad were the hardest fights due to all the enemies involved..and the fact I was running out potions. Dual-wielding speed weapons helps a lot for enemies that you don't need higher then +2 to hit, especially when combined with the gimp'd IH from the Ring of Gaxx.
Not gonna lie, I fought the Chromatic demon in the poison room, though I actually did stay and fight, rather then the flat out cheese method. (The developers have said that using the poison room is a completely legit alternate, if less obvious, method to do that fight. And as long as you stay and fight it out, rather then cheesing it, I agree).
IMoD?
Does the lower magic resistance from the Answerer make the Larloch's Drain from Foebane hit harder or just against enemies with magic resistance?
Speed weapons? Just to make sure you hit first?
It allows Foebane to more easily affect enemies with High MR. Even just 1 stack makes a HUGE difference for by-passing MR.
Speed weapons are weapons that an grant extra attack, Belm +2 (scimitar), Kuudane+2 (short sword), Light crossbow of speed+1 (X-bow), Tuigan Bow+1 (short bow) and Scarlet Ninja-to+3 (Monk only scimitar)). Though yes, they usually also have 0-1 speeds..so there's that as well.
Solo character has advantages too. At least you dont get frustrated when one of the npc dies. Half my party of mages are baggage sometimes. In addition, I bet each of my party member is inferior than your optimized solo fighter (I have a lower level pc, npc are stuck with crappy stats and pips in non ideal weapons, and the best equipments are not concentrated on 1 person). Furthermore, solo is always easy to escape and return the battle when something bad happens.
@ZanathKariashi
Thanks, never heard them called speed weapons before. I didn't read a lot on BG2 when I played it back around 2000. I haddn't heard things called "cheese" until this forum.
Edit:
If you dual wield Belm and Kudane do you get two extra attacks? I've only ever off handed them.
You cannot under estimate the slow effect on the FoA...it positively demolishes enemies, works on everything, usually applies on the first or 2nd hit, and allows you to unload a ton of attack into an enemy and flee before they can swing once, not mention how badly it murders spell casters once their PfMW is gone.
It actually went pretty smoothly, the Marilith was the last one I killed, and her PfMW was gone by the time I got to her, so it was a pretty short fight, especially with me and my copy wailing on her.
Yeah, dual-wielding them gives a non-warrior 4 base attacks, which actually allows them to do comparable damage to fighters, even classes with only * in two weapon. Blades and Swashy's are especially powerful. The Scarlet Ninja-to is not only +3, it also has a nice on-hit poison attack. A blade dual-wielding speed weapons, in Offensive SPin, under improved haste, has 10 attacks per round, other rogues can pull off 9 if you equip the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, which is quite nice for a swashy who has a nice + amount to both damage and hit. If you pick your fights carefully, you can easily save the +3 and above enemies till after you get UAI.
My manual for BG1 says ST has 'No Save', so I don't know if it was a Breath save or not, so the OP could still be wrong but it's not the same game ;P
Even if it was originally save vs breath weapon, that would have been almost assuredly a bug or an oversight. There is a reason it's called save vs spell: it's used against all wizard and priest spells, both in-game and on tabletop, and basically everything else that doesn't explicitly fit to one of the other four categories. The fixed version would be right.
It's okay to prefer it using breath weapon, but if you do that, you'll have to understand that it's a bug and not supposed to be that way, and doesn't make for a valid argument to why the spell is better than Fireball.
Skull Trap (necromantic)
Level: 3
Range: 20 yards
Duration: Until triggered
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: 30 foot radius
Saving Throw: half
Upon casting this spell, a skull is thrown by caster at the target area. The skull floats in the area until a creature comes within 20 feet of it. When this happens the skull is triggered and explodes, damaging everyone within a 30 foot radius. The damage inflicted is equal to 1 to 6 hit points per level of the caster, or half with a successful save vs spell. When casting this spell it is wise to set it far away from the party, lest they set it off accidently.
And the save is indeed vs. Spells for half. I verified it with a completely unmodified BG1 install, which I made solely to check original behavior when something seemed to be changed.
Using the IMoD makes sense against liches so I can mentally picture those fights. I would still love to see video if it was out there for a lot of these fights since I still can't conceptualize the level 8 fighter with his level 6 simulacrum assistant winning a lot of these. I have been pretty impressed by some of the videos on this site using magic in very creative ways.
3rd edition on the other hand is a continual, almost constant growth of power, which means high level characters will demolish lower levels the majority of time.
Gear makes a MUCH bigger difference them most people realize, and especially when you're dealing with Artifact level weapons like most of BG's high end weapons would be considered, even very low level characters can do a TON of damage.
As for kiting, it just depends. Obviously a melee character has no choice but to follow, since your weapons can strike faster and he has no way to counter it, so he's screwed no matter what he tries, unless he just decides to say screw it and leave (which would still get you XP in PnP, since you "defeated" them, even if you didn't actually kill them). Mages, it's more of making sure you have the proper gear to stop or counter whatever they have cooked up since kiting doesn't really work against them, unless you can duck out of sight before their time stop goes off, since they'll have to waste most of it moving into LoS or attempting to blast your cover out of the way, PfMW is powerful, but once it's gone, so is the mage. Archers are generally weak in melee and will be the ones more likely to attempt to kite you, so staying close to them is usually best decision.
2 Flails of ages (mostly because it's easy to get, the slow effect makes up for less then ideal thac0, and goes through all defenses except PfMW), wailing on you per turn....a single enemy is F'd, 2 enemies are pretty F'd 3+ enemies..well..are an annoyance, but no big deal as long as you focus fire on the most dangerous target or split fire if there's 2 equally dangerous targets.
I totally agree.
Especially since I've been doing average damage calculations on certain weapons.
Usano's Blade outdamages Celestial Fury for example and is right up there with Foebane. And Staff of the Ram is the strongest weapon in the game aside from Carsomyr against a Chaotic Evil foe.
The gear AND the spells you learn are the majority of the power in this game...it's weakness is the uneven stat system which is easy to abuse. But it's D&D. No one really wants to make a character who's too weak. usually.
Bare in mind, while I favor Skull trap over fireball, 3rd level slots should be used for slows, dispels or hastes over any damage spell (Sleep is basically a death spell for 80% of large groups of enemies greatly limiting the point of damaging aoes, just loading up on blind once you can replace the sleeps with a wand of fire, or hell, that 100 charge wand of sleep, while wand of fire can take care of the rest). Haste alone adds more damage for the slot at lvl 5 then a 18d6 skull trap does, if you have a full group, unless you're just wasting it on a MASSIVE group of enemies you could've killed effortless without magic. Skull trap is only better if you're soloing, since haste contributes much less overall damage when used on 1 character.
Simulacrum creates copies of all the gear your character is wearing, thus it would also be packing a FoA+5. While I'll definitely be one of the first to point out that spells effect is wrong, VERY wrong...there's no real adequate way of using simulacrum without it being cheese due to crappy programming (much like Projected Image is automatic cheese since it doesn't use up your spells as it should, nor should Mislead give unlimited invisibility (it just gives you improved invisibility, as per the spell, and also creates an illusion to distract the enemy that has nothing to do with your invisibility status), since the spell is only supposed to copy your raw stats and abilities, modified for a lower level, with identical looking, but basic magical or non-functioning copies of the gear you're wearing. (The copied FoA would LOOK like the FoA, but just be a +1 flail in practice, and a robe of Vecna if you could wear one, would look pretty sweet...but not actually do ANYTHING)
You can pick up a 50 charge fireball wand and a 50 charge lightning wand within like 10 minutes of the start of the game.
And there is always more than enough money so you can just sell the wand to a store, and buy it back at 100 charges.
I consider wands to be infinite and waste them as fast as I can.