Using Power Word spells?
Arvia
Member Posts: 2,101
I've never really paid attention to them, but now in my first SCS run it happened that, whenever I was careless enough to let Dynaheir's health drop, some enemy mage knocked her out with Power Word: Sleep, so I started to think if it's worth using them myself. Right now I'm in SoD and don't have access to the higher ones yet, but I'm wondering.
I mean, no saving throw?
If only there weren't those restrictions of not affecting creatures whose current HP are above a certain number.
So, does anyone use those spells? If so, is there a way to show enemy HP, or do you have to know how many HP your opponents have and estimate by their health bar if they're in the needed range, or do you just guess and cast, hoping for the best? (which I wouldn't do, wasting precious time if the enemy is unaffected)
I mean, no saving throw?
If only there weren't those restrictions of not affecting creatures whose current HP are above a certain number.
So, does anyone use those spells? If so, is there a way to show enemy HP, or do you have to know how many HP your opponents have and estimate by their health bar if they're in the needed range, or do you just guess and cast, hoping for the best? (which I wouldn't do, wasting precious time if the enemy is unaffected)
5
Comments
True. Blind and Kill are very powerful with no saving throw, but I wouldn't waste a spell slot for them when I can cast level 8 or 9, there are too many more important spells there.
If I have slots to spare, I could imagine taking someone out with PW Sleep, like a caster who could still do something really nasty before I take him out, especially if he has PfMW or something active. But whoever is powerful enough for that will probably be protected from level 2 spells one way or another.
Power Word Stun looks useful though, but that leads me back to my initial question, how am I supposed to know he's below 90 HP?
PW: Sleep is probably best used as a disabler or a finisher at very low levels when mages don't have much or anything in the way of spell defenses.
even in ToB power word stun can still be useful, with enemies hitting like freight trains, making it so they can't move for 1-4 rounds could easily be the difference between life and death
also, power word blind works great to, in fact, unfortunately it works too great, and it also affects your party members as well, which i didn't care for, if it wasn't for that, I would have Jan use power word blind all the time ( since he can't learn finger of death of horrid wilting ) so i give jan power word stun and bigby's clenched fist for his level 7 and 8 spells
For lvl 7, it's Project Image for me, plus Khelben's RW, plus RRR.
For lvl 8, it's Incendiary Cloud, plus Bigby's.
For lvl 9 (and I have only 1 spell under 3 mln of XP), it's Time Stop of course.
On my divine casters, there is hardly anything better than Holy Word (goes through spell protections, makes spell casters such as liches even deaf) and Firestorm (goes through MR).
Trying not to use it either.
I use PW: blind a reasonable amount to disable enemies with potentially nasty attacks (like dragons for instance, following use of lower resistance through contingency or sequencer). Playing solo, the lack of a saving throw, the very few enemies with immunity and the instant casting make it an attractive way to give yourself the time to prepare something more permanent.
It didn't work. Still 21 HP left, no effect. How exactly does a level 6 mage have 49 HP to start with?
if its an actual shaman don't they roll d8 for HPs? and if so with 16 con, they can have up to 60 HP at level 6 which is maximum
although if the kobold is actually a mage with that many HP, then that is just the choice of the mod creator, even though SCS "claims" it is fair, that term "fair" is used very loosely especially from the last time i tried any SCS type mods back in the day