For a Sorcerer: Farsight or Wizard Eye?

Rik_Kirtaniya

Well, here's another of my "For a Sorcerer" polls.

I have often faced a dilemma selecting one out of these two. Both of these are level 4 Divination spells, used to achieve the same purpose, with somewhat (yet significantly) different functionalities. They have many uses: Scouting, Ranged spell attacks, Remote Summons Control and later controlling Projected Images from a safe distance, so it's wise to select one of them. So, which would you prefer?

sarevok57

to be perfectly honest, i've never used wizard eye before ( or if i have, it was a looooooong time ago), but i have used farsight and farsight can be an INCREDIBLE spell if you know what you are doing, also clerics get this spell as well, so that's pretty killer

Grond0

Farsight lasts longer and can't be dispelled or destroyed - nor can the mage be attacked via their spell. A potential advantage of Wizard Eye is the ability to move the focus, but that's not usually much use for experienced players unless they are role playing unfamiliarity with the area.

Rik_Kirtaniya

So Wizard Eye for the newbies and Farsight for the veterans?

Michelle

For a solo Sorcerer I would say neither, there are more than enough scrolls to do both throughout the game if you stretch them out with Project Image or Simulacrum. There are too many useful spells at level 4.

For a party or if you absolutely have to I would say Farsight. Here again you can use scrolls for the Wizard Eye if needed, it works well with PI.

Vheissu

A cloak of non-detection plus rings/potions of invisibility is a way of doing this without using a level 4 spell slot. Or even invisibility as a 2nd level spell slot, it's a cheap and effective panic button.

On the other hand, a couple offensive spells have an astonishingly long range, so the advantage of wizard eye/far sight is you can fire spells at creatures an entire screen away.

I vaguely recall wizard eye being kind of an exploit. You can tell it to attack (losing invisibility) and it was surprisingly hard to kill. Not sure if this was changed in the enhanced edition.

Rik_Kirtaniya

Vheissu said:

I vaguely recall wizard eye being kind of an exploit. You can tell it to attack (losing invisibility) and it was surprisingly hard to kill. Not sure if this was changed in the enhanced edition.

Never tried the vanilla game, but I can tell Wizard Eye is not invulnerable in the EE. I once ordered it to attack by mistake (actually it was leading a group of summons, and I selected group attack), and the enemy killed it with just one hit! I suddenly lost long-distance communication with my summons, though we still won the battle quite easily!

Jaheiras_Witness

Neither for sure. So many good level 4 spells to pick from (Stoneskin, Imp Invis, MGoI, Emotion, Greater Malison, Teleport Field etc), no need to go for such niche spells.

In a direct choice between the two I would go for Wizard Eye.

Skatan

Wizard's eye is such a cool spell. A lot of spells feels very OP, but wizard eye is just spot on. I like to use it for guiding summons, just as you did, but to be frank I wouldn't pick it for a sorcerer. So if I had to choose I'd say
farsight, but as said above, I would only use them with a mage and not with a sorc, unless for RP reasons.

Edit 1: let's see if my poll reply will become visible.
Edit 2: nope.. it didn't.

Joan_Daro

Actually I'd prefer "neither".
The farsight spell is also in the priest's scrolls and the priest (or even the paladin) in the team can always spare a 4th slot easily.
If there isn't a priest in the team then considering the amount of damage a sorcerer can deal with one single PI, I'd prefer wizard eye, which can follow the PI around the map.

Abi_Dalzim

I definitely would favor Wizard Eye for use with Project Image. I've never used Farsight much, so maybe it could fill that gap adequately, but I dunno, I'd prefer the flexibility of having something you can move around freely. An epic sorcerer spamming Project Image is easily the most powerful thing in the game, with the ability to throw basically anything and everything at the enemy while just expending a single spell in practice.

gorgonzola

As i often play with mods that make a lot of enemies see trought invisibility i prefer fs, in vanilla both are useful.

ariakas2

I always take farsight. Dispell immunity is a big plus. I play scs though.

Joey

Neither.

For me the appeal of a sorcerer is the sheer balls-to-the-wall power of it. I don't want to waste time looking ahead and planning like some pussy wizard.

booinyoureyes

This is why Torm invented Keldorn

laptopman666

A fun use with farsight, summon skeletons who are immune to poison and cold, then cast cloudkill or any other poison clouds, and spells such as ice storm, etc, works on mindflayers as well due to the fact they cannot mentally affect skeletons... heh, although offensive spells wont be as effective due to magic resistance

Rik_Kirtaniya

I wonder, does Farsight actually increase the caster's visual range, or is it that it just makes the distant objects visible?

This is because I have tried casting spells whose Range states "Visual Range of the Caster" using Farsight, hoping that I'll be able to cast it from a distance into the Farsighted region, but the caster always keeps on moving close to the target before casting, basically foiling my plans. Am I doing something wrong, or is it actually just like this?

laptopman666

Rik_Kirtaniya said:

I wonder, does Farsight actually increase the caster's visual range, or is it that it just makes the distant objects visible?

This is because I have tried casting spells whose Range states "Visual Range of the Caster" using Farsight, hoping that I'll be able to cast it from a distance into the Farsighted region, but the caster always keeps on moving close to the target before casting, basically foiling my plans. Am I doing something wrong, or is it actually just like this?

its been a very long time since i used the tactic so i honestly dont remember how i made it work, i believe certain spells just dont have the "range" to throw them at the farsight target, maybe try getting closer while being safe? sorry, very rusty hehe.