Magical Stone vs. Goodberry

Lemernis

Which spell is superior?

Sorry, it's a forced choice poll. In order to see what the community consensus is on this volatile topic you must choose.

Coutelier

I never use either to be honest. But stone is... stoney. Berry sounds like something that might give a quite nasty rash.

Silverstar

Never used Magical Stone. Goodberries, however, is one of the best spells in ToEE. The companion NPCs love to take first pick of the loot, refuse to hand any of it over and then cut lines to sell it to vendors. If their inventory is filled with goodberries however...

toanwrath

Goodberry is very useful I find. I prep one or two a day with a Druid and those things last forever and can add up. In multiplayer, my brother and I wait in between fights sometimes just to top off our missing 2 or 3 HPs (which eventually add up). I have never used magic stone, I figure just use a sling or walk up and hit it.

TJ_Hooker

toanwrath said:

Goodberry is very useful I find. I prep one or two a day with a Druid and those things last forever and can add up. In multiplayer, my brother and I wait in between fights sometimes just to top off our missing 2 or 3 HPs (which eventually add up). I have never used magic stone, I figure just use a sling or walk up and hit it.

I think they would be useful if they didn't count as 'using an item', meaning eating one prevents you from using another item/ability/spell that round. At most you're healing 1HP/round for a few rounds. I could see them maybe being useful when you're level 1, when like you said you could use it to top off a few HP (when a few HP is a significant amount of your total HP) but after that I think you're better off just drinking potions, which are fairly plentiful.

Debaser

I don't think I've ever used Magical Stone. Maybe I'm missing something there but it's never come up?

Now Goodberry if you have only one healer is great. Because you can stockpile a lot every time you rest and over time have a free supply of healing aids instead of having to always buy potions.

If you have two healers It's almost always better to memorize slow poison though in my opinion so you can always deal with poison and still not have to rely on potions.

Deucetipher

Both are liabilities in combat, but at least goodberries has some minor utility outside of combat.

[Deleted User]

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Mathmick

How dare you compare the great Magical Stone spell to the worst spell in the game!

Magical Stone is THE core level 1 Druid spell. It makes Cure Light Wounds look like a bandaid, Entangle look like a field of weeds, and Shillelagh look like a stick tied to a fern.
But what makes Magical Stone the core level 1 Druid spell? Let's examine it:
First of all, it's a rock. As we all know rocks are effective at destroying scissors. Wow! Any scissors will not stand a chance.
Next, it has a picture on it. This explains that ancient cultures worshipped it thousands of years ago. When a rock gets worshipped you know it is better than other rocks. Also the picture is a boomerang, so you know it will return to you after an eight hour rest.
Take a look at that lack of saving throw. This means that the rock will not offer its target huge discounts when it is thrown, forcing the target to spend his cash.

Congratulations, now you know all you need to know about why Magical Stone is the best level 1 Druid Spell in the game. Perhaps it is the best spell in the entire game. Even better than Greyscale Pause Game and Cloud of Instant Damage to Red Guys.

Pantalion

Magic Stone is useful to.... Interrupt spellcasting and damage Shandalar, in a pinch.
Goodberry is useful to restore tiny amounts of lost HP out of combat (when all healing should occur anyway), and can be used by all six party members at a time, which works out to 6 HP healing / round for as long as required. It's not exactly a showstopper, and it's rarely necessary, but it does at least have some value, especially because the Druid's level 1 spell selection isn't that great.

Silverstar

Mathmick said:

and Shillelagh look like a stick

But it IS a stick!

toanwrath

TJ_Hooker said:

toanwrath said:

Goodberry is very useful I find. I prep one or two a day with a Druid and those things last forever and can add up. In multiplayer, my brother and I wait in between fights sometimes just to top off our missing 2 or 3 HPs (which eventually add up). I have never used magic stone, I figure just use a sling or walk up and hit it.

I think they would be useful if they didn't count as 'using an item', meaning eating one prevents you from using another item/ability/spell that round. At most you're healing 1HP/round for a few rounds. I could see them maybe being useful when you're level 1, when like you said you could use it to top off a few HP (when a few HP is a significant amount of your total HP) but after that I think you're better off just drinking potions, which are fairly plentiful.

I don't use it in combat. As I said "wait in between fights sometimes just to top off". It is terrible in combat, but if you willing to wait a little bit in between fights to heal up with those berries you made while traveling, healing can be easier.

Mathmick

Silverstar said:

Mathmick said:

and Shillelagh look like a stick

But it IS a stick!

This is true. However, the power of the Boomerang Scissor-Breaker of Cultural Worship makes it look like a slightly smaller stick than it actually is. It is of course necessary that one knows how the power of a stick scales exponentially with its size, making it appear even less powerful than the size decrease would otherwise make it look. Of course you know this though, because if you did not your intelligence score would be comparable to that of Crazy Hamster Guy. You wouldn't want to be intellectually associated with that guy though? Of course you don't.

deltago

Magic stone can interrupt spell casters. When used with Magic Missile, you can make sure every round there is spell failure. Depending on initiative, MM can hit a spell caster before he starts his casting allowing him to get his spell off. If the MM is cast along with a MS, the slight casting delay will make sure one of them interrupts the spell.

That said, both are completely pointless.

KidCarnival

Let's see... I have no memory of ever using Magic Stone, and one memory of using Goodberries to see what they look like in my inventory. This makes Goodberries more useful, because I used it more. I think.

Lemernis

I went with Magical Stone for interrupting enemy spellcasting, although I don't recall ever trying it. (I must have when I first was experimenting with all the spells back in 1999.)

I would think that an arrow would be about as effective and frees the same level one spell slot for the priest to cast something more useful (i.e., Cure Light Wounds, Command, or Doom). But then again there is no save versus the enchanted pebble. And I suppose it could be kind of neat to disrupt a mage who is using protection from normal missiles with this Magical Stone.