Best use of time stop

XerxesV

By the time you get Time Stop you're already strong enough to handle most of the dangers in the game. But it is really cool, and can be very useful.

What are your best combinations of spells to maximize its effectiveness?

I was always proud of Time Stop-Improved Haste- Black Blade of Disaster - Tensers Transformation. If you cast haste first you can cause serious damage in your last round of stopped time. Then again, two melee fighters at that point can handle a fight without a mage helping.

How do power-gamers use TS?

Kaltzor

Fill level 1 spells with Magic Missile...

Time Stop -> Improved Alacrity -> All of the Magic Missiles

Totally worth it.

Mathmick

Kaltzor said:

Fill level 1 spells with Magic Missile...

Time Stop -> Improved Alacrity -> All of the Magic Missiles

Totally worth it.

Especially with Amulet of Power -> instant 0.6 cast-time spells all day.

elminster

Time stop -> Death Spell / Horrid Wilting. At higher levels you can use Improved Alacrity/Amulet of Power/Robe of Vecna to cast spells even faster. Its a spell thats particularly great with wild mages since you can get it in the Underdark and use it regardless of your level.

ZanathKariashi

@XerxesV

Tenser's is unneeded, unless you're fighting a TS immune enemy who also has a lot of trash (otherwise leave out time stop entirely since it's not going to help anyway). You auto-hit during Time-stop and BBoD is already a instant-death-stick pretty much, so Tenser's doesn't really add anything of value (it just sets your thac0 to that of fighters, gives a minor HP boost, and +2hit/damage, and prevents additional spell-casting for up to 20 rounds)).

Palanthis

Use it when you really need to go to the toilet in the middle of a long fight.

Or you can cast it with improved Alacrrity and the robe of Vecna, which allows you to cast a lot of spells at once and the fight might be over when time stop ends. Then you can go to the toilet.

For my part, i don't really have a set plan with it, but i almost always cast it on the opening a fight, and then pause to check up the battle and see what spells are needed against this particular set of opponents : damage spells, protection spells for the team, crowd control or summons.

sarevok57

this is what I used to do ( requires robe of vecna and amulet or power) time stop, improved alacrity, x3 horrid wiltings, time stop, improved alacrity ( if you timed it right, the second improved alacrity will overlap perfectly over the first one because the first one will run out while you are casting the 2nd one) then every other spell I have in the book, ( I think you can hit 5 more horrid wiltings then get time stop again, improved alacrity > then empty out spell book, but you can only ever have 5 level 9 spells, so one of those will need to be a scroll of time stop if you want to do the triple whammy, and Edwin cant wear the amulet of power so his spell time is a little slower)

Durenas

I once used timestop-improved alacrity and then dumped my entire spellbook in one round... and my game crashed.

sarevok57

ah back in the days when bg2 was a hardware titan game, I remember the first day I could play bg2 without lag, and it was AMAZING, and from that day on, I always had to play any game i ever played at frame rate 60 or else I could never play them < that was such a great P4 pc, it rocked bg2's world> (:

XerxesV

Great ideas. Thanks for the advice. Horrid wilting seems to be a very useful spell. I guess at the highest levels dragon breath or comet would be ideal since they don't hurt your own party (inexplicably).

I guess you can also use some of the sequencers to help cast more magic missiles. TS might also work to overcome a liches defenses. TS- spell strike, warding whip, ruby ray etc.

ShadowHunter

robe of Vecna + improved alacrity + time stop + your entire spellbook + automatic pause after each spell casted = OBLITERATION

Permidion_Stark

My favourite use of time stop is when a particular enemy throws it at me:

When you walk in on the lich lurking in the crypt behind the bar in the Gate District, he starts throwing all kinds of fancy spells at you, including Time Stop. But if you keep walking straight back into the bar when he starts casting you can ignore what he is doing and he will never get round to actually targeting you with offensive spells. This gives your thief plenty of time to stroll in, collect Daystar and stroll out again. The lich is so busy gating in something nasty that he doesn't even notice you doing it.

Corvino

Is there ever an explanation offered for the Crooked Crane Lich, or is it just "this is Amn, there are Liches everywhere"?

I can understand wanting to spend the rest of your unnatural existance in the pub, but is there lore?

Drugar

I think Unfinished Business adds dialogue to the innkeeper suggesting he's the minion of the lich and this is his hideout.
Don't know how official that component is.

I think it's mostly your explanation yes.

XerxesV

Incidentally, I think time stop is really cool from a role playing perspective. You have everyone around you at your mercy. You must feel like a god. It's no wonder so many high level mages are insane.

I'm always intimidated by liches casting TS. You know they're going to symbol death, symbol fear your whole party and you just have to sit there and wait for it to happen. I like to turn the tables and gloat over weak 1hd enemies: just stop time, cast flesh to stone, and stand there with your arms crossed looking them in the eye. That has to be a huge power trip.

Durenas

I have always really hated enemies which are immune to time stop. I'm like "Really? I'm stopping TIME, and you can just keep on going through time stopped air particles?" I know, I know, I can do this too, but still!

Lord_Tansheron

I mainly use Time Stop defensively, i.e. to be able to do something without them fighting back. I go around dispelling everyone, for example, or I pick off the most dangerous targets before they have a chance to react.

I do sometimes use TS to unleash a battery of spells, but that's actually fairly rare. After all, losing all my party members' damage sort of sucks

XerxesV

@lord_tansheron that's a good idea. Maybe I can finally catch my horror stricken party with boots of speed who won't stand still long enough to dispel.

Southpaw

Time Stop. And them you can nick the duchess' knickers...once... if you know what I mean.

kamuizin

Time Stop +Improved Alcharity+Robe of Vecna+amulet of power (if possible):

Now cast your entire spell book.

meagloth

What always bugged me about time stop was that it didn't actually stop time. I buff al my characters for a big battle then all of it wears of during time stop.

sarevok57

@XerxesV dragon's breath and comet will actually deal less damage than horrid wilting (which sounds crazy but that is usually the scenario), plus horrid wilting doesn't hurt party members ( unlike heart of winter, uh, that was a big no no) and it takes up only level 8 slots, and there is really no other great level 8 spell, but now adays I never memorize time stop, not even remotely necessary, I used to have one improved alacrity and then have the rest set to wish, and always have 1-4 wishes active at one time, but then I changed again to just having chain contingency in all my level 9 slots, because that spell has casting time 0 ( in fact you can cast the spell while paused and it brings you to the contingency screen) and set all 3 to horrid wilting and enemy sighted, this strategy is perfect for casters who don't have robe of vecnas and amulets of power, you can get 3 spells off in a nano, plus you can even set in cleric spells if you have cleric/mages

Lord_Tansheron

@Sarevok: Keep in mind that Dragon's Breath bypasses magic resistance, which is highly useful. I'm not sure if Comet does it, too, without mods.

Anton

Timestop + Shapechange:Mindflayer = yummy braaains

XerxesV

@sarevok57 good lord man! That's insane meta-gaming. I used to think I was good at bg, but since I joined the forum I've seen the truth. You guys are grandmaster strategists.

kamuizin

Lord_Tansheron said:

@Sarevok: Keep in mind that Dragon's Breath bypasses magic resistance, which is highly useful. I'm not sure if Comet does it, too, without mods.

Both do, while comet does half the damage from dragon's breath, it's made of pure magic damage instead of fire damage, that can be resisted by some enemies, and comet give a little stun if i'm not wrong.

DeathKnight

Best use of timestop for me, is for it to be the outcome of wish, because enemies normally immune to it are affected by that one. Also, a great timestop use is inside the combination thing for the known exploit for getting endless mage spells without resting. Or summoning the Dao for wish independently just because you felt like, and because you can communicate with it even if the time is stopped. One of the best spells out there.

ZanathKariashi

Time stop doesn't actually stop time though, it wraps the caster in a temporal acceleration field that allows the caster to move so fast that it appears as if time has stopped (and protects them from being atomized by the friction of moving so fast or suffering ill effects of having their metabolic processes sped up).

Enemies with omnipresence however can simply attune themselves to your spell and gain it's benefits as well.

(Balthazar being an exception, since unlike the other examples, he isn't immune to time-stop. He has a reactive ability that speeds him up to your level if he detects you attempting to "stop time", but he is still bound by 1 ability per round limit and can still be time-stopped with proper timing, where as true near-gods (Demon Princes/Arch-Devils) and gods are unaffected completely).

Luigirules

Find out which member of your party member is the most hung.

I'm guessing it won't be someone who uses a two-handed sword...compensating much?

pixie359

Work out which enemies have the biggest footprint by seeing how many times your character can run round them in 1 time stop.

Does not work for all enemies.

lunar

In time stop all of your attacks will hit, attack an enemy with melf's minute meteors. Or better, energy blades. When the time stop finishes, all of them will hit and possibly kill the target. (So much damage!)

Shapechanging into a mindflayer in time stop allows you to kill most enemies in a few hits by sucking their brains out.

A cleric/mage can get nasty via timestop+HARM combo. It will auto hit and bring even a dragon down to 1 hit point. (Provided the spell is not resisted via magic resistance or turned down by spell protections) There is no saving throw.