Death Spell

Glidderdust

Are there any enemies this spell is useful for besides the ones I'm already aware of? I started a new game with a sorceress after 1.3 was released and I'm just making sure I'm using it correctly.

Here's what I know from playing vanilla SoA years ago:

It kills all enemy summons no matter what. (first floor of the guarded compound is no problem with this spell)
All umber hulks and trolls in Chapter 2 seem to die. (de'arnise keep and trademeet are a breeze)
It kills a certain ambush party in the Underdark.
It can wipe out low level mobs if I'm too lazy to have Minsc and Jaheira hack n slash them. (goblins and orcs)

Anything else I'm missing?

mumumomo

I think your list is good.

On a solo sorc you can get this spell very early in the game and at level 12-13 it can be very useful. After that, it's more for the fun factor than for its real usefulness since the ennemies it can kill pose no problem for a level 14+ sorc.

In group, i would say it's never really useful (but always fun): d'arnise hold with a full party of level 12 characters is anyway extremely easy.

lunar

Myconids and shriekers should die, too. Also mephits of all kinds who aresuper annoying. Random thugs and bandits in the city areas can be wiped out with ease with this spell, as well. Mind flayers can be killed with deathblow hla so they are low enough lvl but I guess their mr stops the death spell cold:haven't tried it, though. Gauths may be suspectible as well, need to test.

Glidderdust

I picked it up since Jan can't use it and I won't have Imoen for a while. It's situational but extremely useful in those situations.

I read that it's useful against Sahuagin and some other creatures after chapter two. Can anyone confirm this? If not, I guess I'll find out in chapter four.

Glidderdust

lunar said:

Myconids and shriekers should die, too. Also mephits of all kinds who aresuper annoying. Random thugs and bandits in the city areas can be wiped out with ease with this spell, as well. Mind flayers can be killed with deathblow hla so they are low enough lvl but I guess their mr stops the death spell cold:haven't tried it, though. Gauths may be suspectible as well, need to test.

Good to know, I'll give it a shot when the opportunity comes up.

elminster

Gauth's are level 9 so they'll be immune to it.

You can kill Mind Flayers with it but they have 90% magic resistance. So its basically not worth trying unless you are out of other more useful spells.

It would be very effective against Sahuagin. You'll probably be able to kill some Kuo-Toa as well with it. But as you'd expect this won't work on all Sahuagin or Kuo-Toa.

dib

Add minotaurs to that list.

Glidderdust

Death Spell kills the halfling warriors in the Planar Sphere.

BelgarathMTH

@Glidderdust, thank you for that idea! I never would have thought of it, and that battle has always terrified me because of the Maze and Symbol:Stun spells. Now I know to always have Death Spells available for that battle. : )

Glidderdust

BelgarathMTH said:

@Glidderdust, thank you for that idea! I never would have thought of it, and that battle has always terrified me because of the Maze and Symbol:Stun spells. Now I know to always have Death Spells available for that battle. : )

You still have to beat the magic users using traditional means but you can one shot kill all the fighters with death spell after you bring down the magic user's defenses.

lunar

BelgarathMTH said:

@Glidderdust, thank you for that idea! I never would have thought of it, and that battle has always terrified me because of the Maze and Symbol:Stun spells. Now I know to always have Death Spells available for that battle. : )

Yeah anyone capable of casting lvl 8 spells(maze, symbol:stun) will be outright immune to death spell, because of his/her high hit dice (levels) It can clear off the cannon fodder, nameless cannibalistic halfling warriors though. Cloudkill or chaos spell works well against the nasty spellcasting halflings there. Chuck in 2-3 cloudkills (if from wand, all the better!) and stay away.

Yann1989

I do prefer the other death spell (I think it's called Death Finger) because you can use it on dragons and a lot of creatures even if they have a higher level.

However for a sorcerer I think it might be worth it to take both, because your spell automatically kills summons, which can be very handy in some hard fights

lunar

Yann1989 said:

I do prefer the other death spell (I think it's called Death Finger) because you can use it on dragons and a lot of creatures even if they have a higher level.

However for a sorcerer I think it might be worth it to take both, because your spell automatically kills summons, which can be very handy in some hard fights

Yep, finger of death spell can be suprisingly fatal. It has a nasty -2 saving throw penalty, so is hard to resist, especially after a greater malison. And it does not destroy the loot (like disintegrate or flesh to stone do) so it is THE 'save or else' spell to use against anything not immune to death magic.

lroumen

Minor plug for death fog which kills summons instantly and does acid damage that not many nasty creatures (liches and mages) are immune to.

But back to death spell which can kill more creatures outright other than summons.