Glitterdust - good or not?
Corvino
Member Posts: 2,269
I'm messing around with Glitterdust at the moment because I've not used it much before. The combination of an AoE blind and detect invisibility seems pretty solid even if the duration is only 4 rounds. It's doing well on low-level enemies but will probably need Greater Malison/Doom to be effective for harder fights. That said the only other decent CC spell at level 2 is Horror which doesn't scale particularly well.
I've had a look around and there seem to be those who praise Glitterdust and those who ignore it. Do you use it? Do you find it effective? Are there hidden spell mechanics that the world should know about?
I've had a look around and there seem to be those who praise Glitterdust and those who ignore it. Do you use it? Do you find it effective? Are there hidden spell mechanics that the world should know about?
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Horror is awful. Even if it works, do you really want to chase fear ridden monsters across the map?
* Glass Dust is an AOE that penalizes AC by 4 and thac0 by 2, save vs breath to avoid. Lasts 5 rounds and doesn't affect party members/allies.
As this (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/SpellsReference/ArcaneSpells.htm ) spell guide says:
"'Mass Blindness' would have been a more appropriate name for this area spell, as that sums up its best use. It will not affect the party (which is what makes it so great), and immunity to blindness is extremely rare. Get a couple if you have slots left.
Invisible enemies making their save won't be revealed by the side effect either (though)"
( it's "side effect" is that it makes invisible enemies who fail their save visible! It's basically a "save or else" limited-range Detect Invisibility and mass Blindness spell combined).
Enemies who fail their save get -4 to their attack rolls, Armour Class *and* saves. Very nice to use with a Jester, as it makes enemies much more likley to fail their save vs. the Jester's song (Confusion, more effects at level 15 and 20), neutral evil Jesters are fun...
As with all "save or else" spells, softening up potential targets with Doom (-2 to saves for single target, but multiple uses stack) and/or Greater Malison (-4 to saves with AoE but multiple uses don't stack) will make it much more likely to succeed.
Glitterdust has relatively short duration (only 4 rounds), though, so make the most of it my casting more "save or else" spells and/or use of Jester's song (if you have a Jester in your party). I think enemies invisibility is cancelled for good, though, unless they recast (though I might be wrong).
........ I'm just going to book an appointment with my psychologist.
Glitterdust is awesome, for all the reasons Oxford_Guy mentioned. Baeloth with Glitterdust is a total monster, especially for a jester. The jester song balances the short duration, because blindness will fade into confusion most of the time. Even if the "boss" of a mob doesn't get blinded/confused/both, 90 % of the minions will and you can clear them out much easier and with far less man power. Hence you have 5 group members to kill their leader, while a bored mage kills the minions with random darts he found or something. I like the implied humiliation of that.
Horror is nice indoors, but it does annoy me if enemies wander off and hide in some bush halfway across the map. Glitterdust is more versatile.
Back on track, Glitterdust is awesome. Blindness with a massive save penalty opens them up to the actual blindness spell, which if successful means they're dead with no hope of survival. Where Horror is a long term crowd control spell, Glitterdust is a prep spell, softening up your targets for a few rounds to let you pull off the other powerful tools at your disposal. It's incredibly versatile and always worth fielding against most tough encounters.
Did we ever determine whether the penalties from Blindness stack with Glitterdust?
command, doom, glitterdust, sleep, hold person, web. if anything is still moving after that, then it's the only thing that is and it's gonna get hailed on.
before i visited this forum i never appreciated non-damaging spells and CC (i didn't even know what CC meant), i just basically went magic missiles, melf's acid, fireball etc and then later included spells like breach, pierce magic etc.
so thanks guys
isn't there a sword in bg2 with silence special ability? that was an epic weapon for a fighter. invisibility>silence>ATTACK!