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Most Dreaded Spells

karnagekarnage Member Posts: 92
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
What spells do you hate the most when an enemy magic user pulls it on you?

Mine, by far, are these two: FOG spells, ICE STORM and CHAOS.

FOGS, all/any summoned creatures disappear, we're taking instant, damage, I pause and try to get my characters to run out of the cloud, but if I forget to turn off AI, they run right back in!

ICE STORM, same thing.

I've learned to pull back when these happen instead of trying to ZONE OF SWEET AIR or something; just get out of dodge. In the Sullendessalar (SoA), the Raksasha like to pull both of these too; I generally pull back and lo and behold, one or two will follow and get pummelled by us as they have culled themselves away from the herd.

But the worst, I think, is that CHAOS spell. Winning a battle depends on having control of your characters, and losing control of your characters is losing control of the battle.

CHARM spells are also a close runner-up, especially when they pull that on the strongest fighter who also happens to be wearing BOOTS OF SPEED ... and disastrous when pulled on the protagonist!
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Comments

  • Durlag_ThunderaxeDurlag_Thunderaxe Member Posts: 71
    Surely Horrid Wilting? Or Timestop plus Meteor Swarm?

    Chaos and Charm is easily prevented by Chaotic Commands.
  • kryptixkryptix Member Posts: 741
    The 3x skull trap spell sequencers... Ouch instant wipe
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    Insect Plague!

    Omg the first time I came across it at the Black Dragon in Suldanesselar, I didn't even know what it was. It instantly shut down spell casting in my entire party, and despite drinking copious amounts of healing potions, I lost 4 party members before the effects of the spell wore off. Absolutely devastating.
  • nanonano Member Posts: 1,632
    Power Word:Stun. Are you kidding me, I was below 90 health for ONE second. I was just about to click a healing potion! T_T

    A close second/tie would be Dispel Magic. Worse still are the Remove Magic x3 sequencers. So many buffs down the drain...
  • Night_WatchNight_Watch Member Posts: 514
    edited December 2013
    Not a spell but level drain is annoying. And the neg plane protection has such a short duration it's almost not worth memorizing.

    For spells if have to say death spells are a nuisance (especially if I don't have a death ward memorized or my summons all suddenly die)

    Contingencies are a pain too. Just a lot of -sigh- *spam breach,true seeing,secret word, etc.*

    Enchantment spells (hold, sleep, fear, charm) are a game breaker in bg1 -.-
  • jackjackjackjack Member Posts: 3,251
    edited December 2013
    Time Stop - the first time someone cast that on me, I thought I'd broken my game, my PC, and my spirit.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    edited December 2013
    Tresset said:

    Imprisonment-Bypasses MR, no save, insta-"kill", hard to reverse. Yeah, a real pain in the butt spell.

    Oh yeah... how could I forget! Given what happened in my LP! lol

    Yes I HATE that spell. Absolutely destroyed my party in Watcher's Keep, and forced me to temporarily abandon my 'playing blind' principles in order to find a way to rescue 5 (five!) Imprisoned companions...

    Oh... and in the case of Azamantes... he cast Imprisonment on Keldorn during a Timestop! That's just cruel!

    Oops and didn't mean to double post... sorry!
    Post edited by Heindrich on
  • TwaniTwani Member Posts: 640
    Imprisonment is my top hated spell, and I also hate Flesh to Stone at the lower levels. Instant kills, and occasionally lead to buggy situations where the party member once restored with freedom/stone to flesh doesn't seem to acknowledge they've been saved and need to rejoin because they get the cursed 'NPC has nothing to say to you' bug. Also, they break Bioware romances and I end up having to CLUA Console sanity back. Boo!

    Getting skull trapped to death in a sequencer or time stop gets on my nerves, too.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    At high levels, Imprisonment is my nightmare-inducing spell. I often even take "Freedom" as a sorcerer spell pick, because of the fear of it. I look for "Freedom" scrolls throughout SoA.

    At medium levels, Maze and Symbol:Stun are pretty bad. I've had party wipes to Symbol:Stun.

    At low levels, it would be Sleep if the game didn't wisely deny it to low-level enemy casters. (SCS gives it to them, but there's *no* defense at levels 1-4. Your only recourse is to hope to kill them before they can cast, maybe through stealth and backstabbing, or to use metaknowledge and memorize the locations of all Sleep casters, until level 5.)

    In the vanilla game, I think my most feared spell for low levels is Hold Person. (Rigid Thinking is pretty bad, too.) Clerics are way scarier than mages to my low level parties.
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    Horrid Wilting is a nasty one and I've lost a number of back row casters to it over the years. I have a memory of (I think) Sendai's Enclave final fight where it one-shotted Aerie during a Timestop. It's also common enough on high-level casters to get annoying, while Imprisonment is pretty rare.
  • kryptixkryptix Member Posts: 741
    Also, imprisonment requires a hit right?
  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    edited December 2013
    Absolute Immunity, Globe of Invulnerability and Protection from Magical Weapons... They just refuse to go away with anything except Spell Strike and make attacking near impossible... And don't say Dispel/Remove Magic... I've had 2 mages throw Remove Magic and a Cleric throw a Dispel at these mages and it still doesn't go away.
  • kryptixkryptix Member Posts: 741
    Kaltzor said:

    Absolute Immunity, Globe of Invulnerability and Protection from Magical Weapons... They just refuse to go away with anything except Spell Strike and make attacking near impossible... And don't say Dispel/Remove Magic... I've had 2 mages throw Remove Magic and a Cleric throw a Dispel at these mages and it still doesn't go away.

    Dispel only works reliably when your higher level than them and then that never happens since they're like level35.

    Use secret word/pierce magic/ruby ray/warding whip. Warding whip is especially nice because it keeps working. Then breach for the melee protections. Make sure you have some form of elemental damage on your weapon or poison to go through stone skin since that comes back with contingencies.

    Arrows of dispelling and carosmyr and staff of the magi are great too.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    @kryptix said:

    Also, imprisonment requires a hit right?

    No. It is just a melee range spell. No attack roll is needed.
    @Kaltzor said:

    Absolute Immunity, Globe of Invulnerability and Protection from Magical Weapons... They just refuse to go away with anything except Spell Strike and make attacking near impossible... And don't say Dispel/Remove Magic... I've had 2 mages throw Remove Magic and a Cleric throw a Dispel at these mages and it still doesn't go away.

    Spell protections like spell turning and spell trap cannot be dispelled by dispel/remove magic. You need to use the spells specifically made to remove those spells, such as ruby ray and pierce shield. Breach is better for removing combat protections like protection from magic weapons, mantles, and stoneskins since it will remove all the spells listed in its description at once and it bypasses magic resistance.
  • nanonano Member Posts: 1,632
    Since it's a melee spell, you should be able to counter it the same way you counter maze, by staying out of range. Unfortunately that doesn't work on Trap the Soul which has a range of 10.
  • kamuizinkamuizin Member Posts: 3,704
    kryptix said:

    Also, imprisonment requires a hit right?

    If only the PnP was respected to allow dodge... (i think at least you need to roll a melee hit to use this spell in PnP)... :(!

    In BG, imprisonment simply cast his 9 cast time, if you end the casting, the target is fucked (unless it's an berserker in berserker mode or the target has spell immunity: Abjuration active).

    Of course the Trap the soul version of imprisonment that Demi-liches cast is instantaneous and require no casting time.

    Kinda of remember me ascension mod, when we get immunity to imprisonment in the last battle... wow great, immunity to something that we will not be submited to anymore, very nice...
  • Smoke_JaguarSmoke_Jaguar Member Posts: 24
    Chaos/confusion spells are the most annoying to deal with imo. Sometimes I have to cast 3+ dispels to get them off, and on top of it I lose any other buffs my characters have on.

    Fear/Stun can be bad if you aren't prepared for them, but confusion is always a pain no matter what.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Imprisonment is definitely the worst for me. It's so bad that I will resort to any cheesy tactic available to neutralize whatever enemy can cast it; it's the only time I use Protection from Undead/Magic scrolls. I think the use of Imprisonment in a combat situation was a poor design choice, compounded further by the modified version that doesn't even let you interrupt it.

    As far as what I consider 'legitimate' spells, it's definitely Chaos in BG1. Pretty much every mage in the TotSC content uses it, and if you're using SCS then you run into it as early as Beregost. SILKE casts it, for crying out loud. At the lower BG1 levels, you can't really protect against it; you can only minimize its impact. This is another reason solo playthroughs are generally easier (despite people treating them as 'challenges'), because you only have to protect one character at a time. With a full party of 6, somebody is going to get affected and start ruining your day. :)
  • AramintaiAramintai Member Posts: 232
    edited December 2013
    Imprisonment is pretty meh. Just cast 5th level spell - Spell Immunity (Abjuration) and tank with a wizard while everyone else chills out in the back. It's a good spell to kill off Kangaxx early in the game, just take some +5 hitting weapon with you, Melf's Minute Meteors spam also works (at least in vanilla).
    What I do hate are spells like Creeping Doom, which late in the game can wreck your buff layers if you're not careful, because you gotta dispel them somehow. I also hate frequent Time Stop + all sorts of Contingency spells combos late in the game, especially the ones with immunity buffs, because it is tedious to strip them off. Lately, I just take Keldorn with me and smack those buffing mages with a well placed dispel.
  • tennisgolfbolltennisgolfboll Member Posts: 457
    Imprisonment. Fix it allready. Lamest game mechanic ever.
  • LathlaerLathlaer Member Posts: 475
    @tennis I quite like the mechanics and the element of fear the spell induces but one thing I would definitely change is the mechanics of rejoining of party members after casting Freedom. I mean, it's not like they were dumped and they don't know what's going on. They know they have been targeted by a spell and were freed moments after, yet they still act as if I decided to give up on them.

    Even worse when it ends a romance automatically.
  • Montresor_SPMontresor_SP Member Posts: 2,208
    Dire Charm. Nothing like having one of your fighters with the silver sword or some other vorpal weapon plus boots of speed chasing their own comrades. Grrrr...
  • karnagekarnage Member Posts: 92
    Montresor_SP said:

    Dire Charm. Nothing like having one of your fighters with the silver sword or some other vorpal weapon plus boots of speed chasing their own comrades. Grrrr...

    lol, I feel your pain!

    In Spellhold, I always make sure my newly-acquired "Boots of Speed" are NOT on the protagonist before meeting Bodhi ....
  • Mrpenfold666Mrpenfold666 Member Posts: 428
    Chaos because the same thing happens: Minsc and CHARNAME get hit, so i cant control them, minsc kills anomen, nalia and neera freak out, make jaheira run away so she can res after trying to dispel chaos which usually fails. Charname and minsc duke it out so far its 3-2 to CHARNAME and then CHARNAME dies from the enemies which are still there and death screen happens followed by me rage quitting

    that about cover it? :P
  • GamingFreakGamingFreak Member Posts: 639
    When an enemy uses timestop I curse. It's one of the reasons why I cheese Irenicus by running off screen out of his visual range, because by the time I end up fighting him at my level, he'll have Time stop and spam Horrid Wilting and Power Word, Kill, which is probably the most aggravating thing imaginable
  • GamingFreakGamingFreak Member Posts: 639
    When an enemy uses timestop I curse. It's one of the reasons why I cheese Irenicus by running off screen out of his visual range, because by the time I end up fighting him at my level, he'll have Time stop and spam Horrid Wilting and Power Word, Kill, which is probably the most aggravating thing imaginable
  • DragonspearDragonspear Member Posts: 1,838
    edited December 2013
    @Mrpenfold666

    So something interesting I found playing BGEE recently. If you know you're in a fight where charms will be used (yay metagaming), just make minsc berserk and he'll be immune to charm........you prolly want him surrounded by enemies first though. I learned this fighting the Sirines.

    Edit: Realized some I forgot a few words while typing.
    Post edited by Dragonspear on
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