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Let's talk IWD:EE HoF Solo Sorcerer spell selection :)

CarnifexCarnifex Member Posts: 16
edited September 2020 in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Hello,

I've decided to do a HoF Solo Sorcerer run from level 1 and have been pondering my spell selection. I'll list what I've come up with below, would love your input! Been focusing on buffs, debuffs and summons because direct damage is rather underwhelming in HoF and summons don’t take bonus damage from enemies in HoF and are of equal health to their enemy counterpart.

[1]

Shield: Some AC and MM immunity.
Protection from Evil: Early AC and saves, and protection when summoning nasties.
Spook: Early CC, -6 on the save at level 12. Not bad.
Charm Person: May need to land one or two to survive early game.
Grease : Need to slow stuff down early game.

Thoughts:

Won't need identify/friends, I'll have enough gold anyway because I'm soloing. Soloing as a sorcerer. Not very draining on the coffers. Skipping Burning Hands, will use Melf's Minute Meteors for finishing off trolls. Chromatic Orb rarely does what I want it to do, sadly.

[2]

Mirror Image: Exceptional defensive spell.
Blur: Great defensive spell.
Resist Fear: Get feared, get dead.
Knock: Treasure!
Invisibility: Great for scouting and positioning, re-buffing. Good oh-shit button in some situations, fast cast time.

Thoughts:

Debated Glitterdust, will try to live without that blind until Power Word: Blind. Melf's Acid Arrow might be nice for interrupting casters, but again, I think Melf's Minute Meteors can handle that as well. Initially picked web, but decided against it when I noticed there's no penalty to the save in IWD:EE. Not sure I'll need Invisibility with contingencies and other high level stuff that helps in bad situations. If someone can convince me to skip it I might opt for Web or Glitterdust instead. I can always cast Greater Malison in conjunction with Web. Might even need web to even survive early game on HoF.

[3]

Melf's Minute Meteor's: Troll killer. Mage interrupter. Epic duration.
Slow: -4 on the save, -8 with Greater Malison. Party friendly. Yes, please.
Remove Magic: Party friendly buff remover. What's not to like ?
Protection from Fire: Immune to fire. 1 turn/level.
X: Haste/Spell Thrust/Protection from Normal Missiles/Protection from Cold/Dire Charm

Thoughts:

Fifth slot open for debate. Haste will get replaced by Improved Haste, rendering it rather useless though. Not sure I'll get enough mileage out of Protection from Normal Missiles for it to be worth a slot. Not sure I'll need spell thrust in IWD, the game isn't very mage heavy. Dire charm might be useful early on, but as it doesn't have a save penalty, I'm not sure how useful it will be late game. It's been a while since I played, so I'm not sure Protection from Cold is worth it. Not alot of cold spells being flinged IIRC. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

[4]

Stoneskin: Staple defensive mage buff.
Improved Invisibility: Staple defensive mage buff.
Greater Malison: -4 to saves ? I'll take it.
Emotion: Hopelessness: Useful CC if it lands.
Spider Spawn: First useful summon. Used to be bugged, but I assume it's fixed?

Thoughts:

Might swap Emotion: Hopelessness for Courage or Hope to buff summons. Will be playing neutral for the ferret familiar for early pickpocketing, the Neutral Robe of the Archmagi availabe at Orrick (swapping for Robe of the Watcher late game) then so won't be picking up Spirit Armor just for the saves bonus. Minor Globe of Invulnerability will get replaced by Globe of Invulnerability so skipping that.

[5]

Chaos: Great debuff.
Lower Resistance: Useful vs some tough opponents.
Domination: Land this on a toughie to even the odds.
Spell immunity: Very versatile protection spell.
Demi-shadow monsters: Summon of choice for this level. Scales with level

Thoughts:

Not sure how strong the Conjure Elemental spells are, so opted for demi-shadow monsters as it scales with level. Feeblemind is useful if it lands, but there are only so many slots available. Protection from Normal Weapons will be replaced by Protection from Magical weapons. I'm relying on Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur and Improved Invisibility to keep me safe until then. As the game isn't as arcane intensive as say, BG2 SoA/ToB I don't think I have room for Breach. I'd rather pick Domination over Feeblemind as a dominated enemy is more useful.

[6]

Improved Haste: YES.
Contingency: YES.
Protection from Magical Weapons: YES
Globe of Invulnerability: YES
Summon Nishruu: Summon of choice for this level.

Thoughts:

So many great level 6 spells. Skipping Mislead because Project Image and Simulacrum. Skipping Disintegrate because I'm relying mainly on summons for damage and at level 6 spells there's alot of competition for the spell slots. Skipped Invisible Stalker in favour of Summon Nishruu. Same goes for Shades. Had to skip Protection from Energy even though it's a nice spell. Same goes for Trollish Fortitude and Pierce Magic. I'd love to hear your input on my reasoning!

[7]

Project image: More me ? Sure!
Spell Sequencer: Great spell.
Ruby Ray of Reversal: Great debuff
Summon Hakeashar: Summon of choice for this level.

Thoughts:

Skipped Khelben's Warding Whip in favour of Ruby Ray of Reversal, not sure it's the right call though. Skipped Cacofiend for Hakeashar, again not sure if it's the right move. Don't Have Room for Spell Turning as I see it. Skipping Protection from the Elements, don't think I should be taking that much elemental damage (hopefully). No room for Seven Eyes. Finger of Death is fun, but again, I'm restricted to four spells and my summons should be doing most of the damage so it's a pass on this one too for now.

[8]

Simulacrum: What's not to love ?
Spell Trigger: Instacast three level 6 spells ? Okay!
Power Word: AoE Blind with no save.
Summon Fiend: No room for gate, so banking on this guy to get the job done.

Thoughts:

Alot of neat spells left out here. Symbol: Stun, Maze, Mind Blank, Pierce Shield, Abi Dhalzim's Horrid Wilting. Again, thoughts here are very welcome!

[9]

Timestop: I don't think I need to explain this one.
Chain Contingency: Extremely useful.
Wish: Awesome spell. Super fun.
Wail of the Banshee: A rare concession, me doing (potential) damage.

Thoughts:

The choice of Wail of the Banshee might be subject to change, lots of undead in the game, doesn't penetrate MR, not sure how many enemies have death ward or similar effects active. Might swap for Spell Strike, Summon Monsters VII, Gate (in which case I'll reconsider Summon Fiend).

Closing comments

I have a few considerations after jotting this down:

- First summons at level 8. Too late ?
- Too many summon spells. Will I need them all ?
- Overlooked spells. Did I miss any crucial and/or very useful spells in my selection ?

Looking forward to hear from you all :)

Best Regards,

Carnifex

Comments

  • CarnifexCarnifex Member Posts: 16
    edited September 2020
    After posting this on /r/icewinddale, I've revised my spell selection somewhat:

    1: Protection from evil, shield, grease, magic missile, spook
    2: Blur, mirror image, resist fear, knock, invisibility
    3: Haste, slow, melf's minute meteors, remove magic, skull trap
    4: Stoneskin, improved invisibility, minor globe of invulnerability, greater malison, spirit armor
    5: Chaos, lower resistance, spell immunity, breach, demi-shadow monsters
    6: Disintegrate, pfmw, shades, pfme, true sight
    7: Project image, mass invisibility, spell sequencer, spell turning
    8: Simulacrum, pierce shield, power word: blind, abi dhalzim's horrid wilting
    9: Chain contingency, time stop, spellstrike, wish

    Incorporated haste, mass invis for aoe improve invis on summons, a massive amount of ways to penetrate spell defenses, cut back on the amount of summons and added skull trap, disintegrate and abi dhalzim's for damage/kill.

    A few considerations :

    - Skip true sight / detect invis ? Use simulacrum + scroll required ?
    - Skip breach / pierce magic / spell thrust / khelben's / ruby ray / spell turning ? Use simulacrum + scroll when needed ?

    Since I can't recall that many magic heavy or invisibility heavy fights I wonder if the Simulacrum + scroll combo would suffice, leaving room for other useful spells instead.

    Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

    Best regards,

    /B
    Post edited by Carnifex on
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    edited September 2020
    I'd skip the demon summoning spells. You don't get the xp for their kills (unless that's changed) and you'll need protection from evil everytime you summon one. I also don't like nishruu or hakeashar personally in IWD since they're best against mages. Carrion summons or wyvern summons might be interesting in HoF mode because of the paralyzation/poison possibilities (especially hasted or improved hasted).
  • oakheartoakheart Member Posts: 65
    Skull trap is a must-have for me. Very satisfying to carefully set a bunch up and watch it get triggered (especially good with a conjured fire elemental). Likewise, invisibility for scouting. Identify is also useful throughout the game. And Gate...I love it. Summon a pit fiend in the middle of a room, close the door, and let it get on with it. Good stuff.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,320
    Your spell selection looks to me as though it's optimized for the standard game rather than HoF (though of course your preferences always reflect your gameplay style). Your original idea with more summons at lower levels and more use of disablers looked better to me. A few specific comments:
    - personally I would prefer chromatic orb or blind to spook at first level - while the save penalty is nice, you won't actually be able to do much damage to a single enemy dashing around for a few rounds.
    - I don't think you'll get much value out of breach. Something like dominate would probably be used much more. I don't remember magic resistance being a big issue either, but my memory may be unreliable there (feeblemind is a potential alternative).
    - you might consider improved haste and/or Tenser's at level 6 to give an alternative method of defeating enemies in situations where summons are difficult to use. As you've got minor globe I wouldn't take PfME and true sight and disintegrate could be swapped out.
    - with all the other protections you're using, spell turning looks a bit superfluous. If you did delete disintegrate you could use FoD instead, while mordy swords are a great summons because they're invulnerable against many enemies.
    - I wouldn't take both pierce shield and lower resistance. The high damage from incendiary cloud looks a more attractive option than wilting to me.
    - rather than spellstrike, I'd open up a new potential killing method with shapechange or imprisonment.
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    edited October 2020
    Grond0 wrote: »
    Your spell selection looks to me as though it's optimized for the standard game rather than HoF (though of course your preferences always reflect your gameplay style). Your original idea with more summons at lower levels and more use of disablers looked better to me.
    Yes this is exactly right. The spell selection is also too tilted toward spells like breach, lower resistance, spell turning, etc that were crucial in BG2 but barely matter in IWD. The name of the game in HoF mode is disabling enemies so your melee characters can dish out hundreds/thousands of points of damage without you needing to burn through any further spell slots, or alternatively to create summons powerful enough to stand toe-to-toe with enemies as you watch passively.
  • HafirHafir Member Posts: 97
    Fire elemental is very good for trolls and have long duration what is very usefull. Soon on my youtube channel "TheHafir" I will present that option on HoF mode, subscribe to not miss that.
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