Irrational love for particular spells.

abacus

Does anyone else have particular spells that they *really* like using... generally for reasons other than gaming power I mean? (A good rule of thumb is whether it'd be worth fitting it in a sorcerer...)

I have two:
- Clairvoyance - I really like having a fully visible map.
- Death Spell - ok, so by the time you get it the enemies it affects are weak enough for a couple if fighters to run through in short order, but there's something very cool about just switching off a dozen hobgoblins in a single round! (Mage's kill count catches up really quickly at this point!)

Metalloman

Combo Stone Skin + Skull Trap burst! ;D

lunar

Prismatic spray looks so pretty. It is not a very powerful spell (although it CAN pack quite a punch) but I fancy using it.
I love death spell too. It is gruesomely satisfactory to snuff out masses of annoying enemies. Umber hulks, myconids, myconid spawning fungus thingies, they all fall instantly.

Aozgolo108

Polymorph offers endless amounts of hilarity while still being very useful.

JuliusBorisov

Flesh to Stone and a second later a kick with a staff. It looks great although the equipment is lost. But it's so cool - to see these pieces...

Kaltzor

As much as I love Magic Missile and Fireball I've found myself not really using them lately... Mostly because Chromatic Orb and Skull Trap do thier jobs better...

jackjack

Chant, Bless, and Aid. I've never thought about why.

abacus

Death Spell is also my favourite cast for Edwin. Even though it's not from his school, it fits his character perfectly:
"You are weak, so you die!"

No save. No hope. Just a big fat TFC.
(Thanks For Coming)

Just a shame it's competing against PfMW & True Sight

Quartz

Kaltzor said:

As much as I love Magic Missile and Fireball I've found myself not really using them lately... Mostly because Chromatic Orb and Skull Trap do thier jobs better...

Yup.

Pure damage spells are overrated in general. (Which yes I'm aware includes Skull Trap before someone tries to correct me) After absolute years of playing mage childishly, I've discovered Crowd Control is far more important for a mage than raw damage. Where most people would memorize 2-3 Fireballs I memorize 2-3 Slows. Not only is it usually more effective in the long run, I also don't have to worry about hurting anyone in my party.

Also guys, Death Spell is fantastic. It insta-kills summons, no save. I typically memorize 1-2 of them.

Heindrich

Web. I love a well placed Web. Basically wins the battle right then and there. When foes get more resistances in BG 2, it still works if I Greater Mallison first.

moody_mage

Death Spell. Specifically used against the Mindflayers that have kidnapped Phaere and get pulled out of their transit by Solufein.

HandofTyr

Black blade. Especially with the 10th level spells fitting into level 9 slots it's really not up to par with other options, but it's so cool. It does have some fringe powergaming uses too (mostly back stab). I do wish they'd given it a neat special effect on the sprite/paper doll/whatever the correct term is.

ChildofBhaal599

I gave insightful because I didn't know clairvoyance does that

If I were obvious I would say horrid wilting. Other than that I just love regular haste. Speeding up the entire party to close distance and get as many hits as I can fast. Not as effective against SCS mages as vanilla mages though until I get off a breach

Coutelier

jackjack said:

Chant, Bless, and Aid. I've never thought about why.

They're very handy. A few times I've been in fights where a few characters have been killed, but then reloading and casting one of those somehow makes all the difference.

I do still love Magic Missile, because it's quick and is good at disrupting enemy casters at the start of a battle, and possibly killing them (usually everyone trains their ranged weapons on enemy casters at the start, but on the occasions when that's not possible or there's quite a few of them).

Also, the Antichickenator. Why do you even need a name for that? Unless students turning themselves into chickens is a real serious problem in mage schools across Faerun.

Frond

I'm going with Magic Missile here. Rarely do I use it after a certain point in SoA but last night I beat Firkraag with just my Blade PC and Edwin using just a few buffs, two Lower Resistances and a whole lot of Magic Missile.

booinyoureyes

OKay, this is a dumb answer (lol) since the spell doesn't work this way, but I like to imagine "Stone to Flesh" as making statues come to life like in the Gargoyles cartoon from the 90s

egon

Quartz said:

Kaltzor said:

As much as I love Magic Missile and Fireball I've found myself not really using them lately... Mostly because Chromatic Orb and Skull Trap do thier jobs better...

Yup.

Pure damage spells are overrated in general. (Which yes I'm aware includes Skull Trap before someone tries to correct me) After absolute years of playing mage childishly, I've discovered Crowd Control is far more important for a mage than raw damage. Where most people would memorize 2-3 Fireballs I memorize 2-3 Slows. Not only is it usually more effective in the long run, I also don't have to worry about hurting anyone in my party.

Also guys, Death Spell is fantastic. It insta-kills summons, no save. I typically memorize 1-2 of them.

Amen to that. When I realized that Chromatic Orb could instakill pretty much anything I never leave home without it. Magic Missiles are good to interupt enemy spell casters though (rapid fire with Robe of Vecna). Fireballs were good in BG1 to get ride of spiders and other tiny hoard monsters but in BG2 everyone seems to have Fire Resistance coming out of their every Boo-touched crevice.

Another thing I'm almost illegally in love with is Jaheira's insect spell, well, all of them actually. Not only are they amazing at stopping spell casters, they can also cause enemies to panic to be killed off by my archers. Life is good.

RedWizard

@Frond
Magic Missiles on a Minor Sequencer after 3x Lower Resistance are actually by far the most reliable way to defeat the Shadow Dragon and Firky during Chapter 2. Then you spam some more and bam, dead dragons. I love, how humiliating it must be for a dragon to be defeated not just by a band of supposedly "lesser races" and also a level 1 spell.

nano

Well, I'm the child of a god and I still fear magic missile sequencers so I can't blame ol Firky that much. Those things are scary.

Frond

RedWizard said:

@Frond
Magic Missiles on a Minor Sequencer after 3x Lower Resistance are actually by far the most reliable way to defeat the Shadow Dragon and Firky during Chapter 2. Then you spam some more and bam, dead dragons. I love, how humiliating it must be for a dragon to be defeated not just by a band of supposedly "lesser races" and also a level 1 spell.

Haha agreed. Must have been humilating for him. I used the same tatic on the Shadow Dragon as well. Mirror Image, Resist Fear, Stoneskin, SI:A, and 2 magic resist potions and my blade was immune to all his attacks.

Back on topic, I also really love the spell Areial Servant. Super cool to summon a few of those with Vic and a small skelly army with Edwin, Dorn, and my blade. Goodly fighters beware!

demented

Chromatic orb and doom. Two first level spells, when combined can cause so much damage.

kryptix

I always have a few magic missiles even at high levels for mordy's swords because 2-3 kills them for cheap rather than wasting ADHW...

Tresset

Nahal's Reckless Dweomer. So much fun!

iAmGoatBoy

Insect plague. Absolutely love it. Can't count the number of times I've been struggling to take out a tricky party, then I've had Jaheira cast this bad boy and watched the casters stop owning me and instead blunder impotently onto my swords.

I also like the combo of True Sight and Pierce Shield, which I find takes care of all but the trickiest mages.

PawnSlayer

Mordenkainen's Sword - immune to almost everything except Death Spell, I adore summoning them two at a time and shutting them in a room full of mindflayers.

Bless is a great way of giving yourself a quick boost before a battle.

Resist Fear - very useful against anyone who uses Horror, which is annoing at all hell.

I don't mind cheesing tough battles, so I have a soft spot for Cloud Kill and Death Fog for those - shut the enemy in a room with them, watch them die (Samia's party falls often to this trick; she backstabbed you so it makes total sense that she suffer an unfair death).

kryptix

Is it SCS that does this? I haven't noticed any NPCs being stuck by a closed door this time.

Millardkillmoore

Web: Using it to lock enemies down before they even know you're there, then dropping a Cloudkill on them, and raining down every fireball in your spellbook to speed up the process remains an effective room-clearing strategy from the time you get it all the way to the end of ToB.

Mordenkainen's Sword: Best summoning spell in the game and not even a level nine slot.

Magic Missile: Reasons should be obvious.

kryptix

Incendiary cloud with 127 fire resist on all my melee and club of detonation is actually rather fun...

Onestep

In BG1, Sleep. It turns 70% of the random encounters in the game into a joke.

In BG2... Probably Horrid Wilting. I mean, I know it's the the go-to blasting spell, but it's just so good overall. My favorite trick is shoving three into a Chain Contingency and setting it to go off when I first see an enemy.

CrevsDaak

I can't one simply fuck everyone with Spell Shield, the most bugged vanilla spell ever, the most useful protection spell against dragons in vanilla, IT WAS WONDROUS!!!!!!
So....

SPELL SHIELD, do you accept Crevs as your bride....
Crevs- I do not!
Ok, fuck up.....
Still, SPELL SHIELD is the best protection spell ever in vanilla.

nano

I like lightning bolt because you have to be freaking crazy to use it. This is the spell of a madman who doesn't care about bystanders, party members, or even himself; he just wants his enemy dead. This is the spell you cast when all hope is lost and the best possible outcome is that you take someone with you. This is the spell you cast as a giant middle finger to the rest of the world and it's the way every wizard should die.