The Haste Spell

wigglesg · December 2014

After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.

JuliusBorisov · December 2014

Haste (on your party members) + Slow (on enemies) = Win

You'll like the Improved Haste spell even better : )

Wilbur · December 2014

wigglesg said:
After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.

It's such a powerful spell that (if I remember correctly) on PnP rules it ages the caster one year every time it is cast.

lunar · December 2014

Wilbur said:

wigglesg said:
After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.
It's such a powerful spell that (if I remember correctly) on PnP rules it ages the caster one year every time it is cast.

Not the caster, but everyone hasted, (including the caster if he himself is hasted as well) ages one year when the spell ends. Also had to make a system shock roll (based on CON) or die, IIRC. Elves were lucky since one year is nothing to them, however they have lower CON which could kill them outright. Heh.

Wilbur · December 2014

lunar said:

Wilbur said:

wigglesg said:
After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.
It's such a powerful spell that (if I remember correctly) on PnP rules it ages the caster one year every time it is cast.
Not the caster, but everyone hasted, (including the caster if he himself is hasted as well) ages one year when the spell ends. Also had to make a system shock roll (based on CON) or die, IIRC. Elves were lucky since one year is nothing to them, however they have lower CON which could kill them outright. Heh.

You are right about the spell aging everyone affected unless under the effect of slow spell in which case it only negates the slow spell. However you cannot die from being hasted so no CON check at least in 2nd edition (unless you die of old age

).

Jace · December 2014

And in vanilla BG, it actually gave a whole extra initiative round. Everyone could attack twice as fast and mages could cast one spell every 3 seconds (instead of 6 seconds).

It was effectively a party-wide Improved Haste with a lesser version of Improved Alacrity sprinkled in.

lunar · December 2014

Wilbur said:

lunar said:

Wilbur said:

wigglesg said:
After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.
It's such a powerful spell that (if I remember correctly) on PnP rules it ages the caster one year every time it is cast.
Not the caster, but everyone hasted, (including the caster if he himself is hasted as well) ages one year when the spell ends. Also had to make a system shock roll (based on CON) or die, IIRC. Elves were lucky since one year is nothing to them, however they have lower CON which could kill them outright. Heh.

You are right about the spell aging everyone affected unless under the effect of slow spell in which case it only negates the slow spell. However you cannot die from being hasted so no CON check at least in 2nd edition (unless you die of old age ).

It was vaguely worded that magical aging was akin to polymorph and forced a system shock. It may be a houserule or dm's interpretation, I guess. This could have been used as an offensive weapon against enemies, then! Haste them all and if you survive their attacks long enough they all need to roll dice to see if they die of exhaustion, like a horse.

Djimmy · December 2014

lunar said:

Wilbur said:

wigglesg said:
After 14 years of playing Baldur's Gate I finally used the haste spell for the first time. I had no idea how much of a difference this spell could make. I always thought the haste spell only affected the target and chose not to use it.
It's such a powerful spell that (if I remember correctly) on PnP rules it ages the caster one year every time it is cast.
Not the caster, but everyone hasted, (including the caster if he himself is hasted as well) ages one year when the spell ends. Also had to make a system shock roll (based on CON) or die, IIRC. Elves were lucky since one year is nothing to them, however they have lower CON which could kill them outright. Heh.

Imagine what would Time Stop do...

wigglesg · December 2014

Well that was ridiculously easy. Just killed Durlags Demon Knight in < 20 s on core with my Inquisitor, Khalid, Jaheira, Branwen, Kiran and Imoen(dualled) all around level 7-8. I always thought the tower was meant to be difficult (I'd only previously done the upper levels) or have I come to it at too high a level?

abacus · December 2014

Try it on summons... A handful of Skeleton Warriors with Haste (or, as I prefer to call it "Vanhel's Dance Macabre") will make a mess of most things!

Also, spiders...

The Haste Spell

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