Praise of Death (spell)

Skaffen

No time like Christmas Eve I guess to sing praises for the Death Spell.

In tons of runs in the last decade I never really used it. It always seemed a bit situational so it was usually in my spellbook but hardly memorized vs. the true seeing and improved haste goodness. This time I thought It would go well with the evil sorceress CHARNAME. To make maximum use of it I picked it early as my first 6th level spell. And boy has it seen use...

Never having to worry about trolls not falling and stopping attacks to give them a chance to fall down is worth the spell slot alone. A lot of the monsters you encounter in SoA are in the level limit and it will stay useful till the end to take out summons in one shot. Plus it's party friendly - I love having Korgan run through the dungeons with his speed boots drawing everyone together for the killing blow. I wonder why I never bothered with it before...


Stricken to live, hell on earth
Shackled and bound we lie
Praise of death, life's a dream
We're only living to die

nano

You should try Death Fog too; it takes out summons and also does damage. Eats up mages and liches because protection from acid is relatively rare. It doesn't kill low level stuff, but I like it because liches are scarier than trolls.

Scuffles

I swear it seemed like I just killed the Mind Flayers that kidnapped what's-her-name in the Underdark with death spell. Doesn't seem like it should work what with them having magic resistance and all that but I wanted to use it to pop the Umber Hulks.. then suddenly they're all dead. Was weird.

Skaffen

Death Fog was my go-to damage spell at level 6 - but it has the drawback that if you use a lot of summons you have to be careful they don´t get damaged and turn on you.

So far Dorn with poison weapon was enough that I didn´t have any trouble in any of the mage fights so far.

Moczo

Scuffles said:

I swear it seemed like I just killed the Mind Flayers that kidnapped what's-her-name in the Underdark with death spell. Doesn't seem like it should work what with them having magic resistance and all that but I wanted to use it to pop the Umber Hulks.. then suddenly they're all dead. Was weird.

Because of the way that battle is set up, those particular Flayers are counted as 'summoned'. Pleasant surprise for me too!

Moczo

Scuffles said:

I swear it seemed like I just killed the Mind Flayers that kidnapped what's-her-name in the Underdark with death spell. Doesn't seem like it should work what with them having magic resistance and all that but I wanted to use it to pop the Umber Hulks.. then suddenly they're all dead. Was weird.

Because of the way that battle is set up, those particular Flayers are counted as 'summoned'. Pleasant surprise for me too!

Lathlaer

There are two things Death Spell has over Death Fog:

1) It's party-friendly (especially party with summons)
2) doesn't leave a mess

Good when you use cloud-out-of-sight tactics but that's not my style

ArminW

The one poblem, however, is that I'd really wish at higher levels the spell would *actually* work as advertised.
It is supposed to kill summoned creatures automatically, but it doesn't do so on the numerous "scripted" summons you encounter later.
Things summoned during cutscenes obviously don't count as such. Cheap cheese, Mr. Irenicus... :-P

element

I love the spell and never leave home without it

enqenq

Lathlaer said:

There are two things Death Spell has over Death Fog:

1) It's party-friendly (especially party with summons)
2) doesn't leave a mess

Good when you use cloud-out-of-sight tactics but that's not my style

I suppose this might be what you meant with 2) but:

3) No waiting to quicksave afterward

Lathlaer

@emqenq
Yes, that is precisely what I meant. Also both points can be extended to being able to use in cowded areas without worrying of killing some bystanders

BronxH

Agreed, it is a great spell, plenty of monsters are below 9HD. It wipes out random encounters, trolls (any), most of the shadow thieves, Umber hulks and it can even kill vampires in Bodhi's lair (not the named ones though).
If you are really lucky and it goes through their magic resistance, Death can instakill Mind Flayers and Ulitharids.

mylegbig

BronxH said:

If you are really lucky and it goes through their magic resistance, Death can instakill Mind Flayers and Ulitharids.

Didn't know that one.

Lathlaer

@BronxH Heh, makes you wish there was a higher level (7th-9th) spell which would lower resistance in a 30 ft. area, eh?

Corvino

IIRC the fighter HLAs deathblow and greater deathblow have very similar effects, and can be used very effectively by high APR archers (or abused by combining them with fireseeds) to wipe out mind flayer lairs etc. Greater deathblow goes all the way up to level 12, and if used with ranged/melee probably bypasses MR.