Karond's Caster Guides

Gameplay Mechanics Explained and Helpful Advice on Technical Issues

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Theodore01
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Karond's Caster Guides

Unread post by Theodore01 »

Seems Karonds excellent guides (The Guide to the Cleric/FS Spellbook, The Guide to the Wizard/Sorcerer Spellbook) are both missing. :o

Is there any chance that they could be restored ?
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Steve
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Steve »

FORMATTED!!!

This is a guideabout the arcane spells. I've colourcoded the spells to make it easier to spot the value of the spells. Like this:

Orange= This spell is not very good
Green = A mediocre or decent spell
Blue = A great spell and a strong choice
Purple = A fantastic must pick spell

This guide is mostly tailored to sorcerers, since their spell choice is limited. Some of the orange spells are decent with wizards, and they often contain that information. Take note that some evil spells, like undead summons, gives others autoconsent to PvP you. Also, don't take the colours too seriously. The colours are there for a power perspective, but every spellcaster usually has some spells they use just for fun too. Last, don't be fooled into taking only blue spells, as the best spellbook is the one that complements itself at all spell levels. You want a balance between protection, spells that can kill an opponent outright, damage spells that do different types of damage (and requires different saves to save against them) and spells that will help your party. Always keep that in mind.

Level 1 spells

Alarm: Okay, its a fun spell. Not that useful, but fun. What it does is send you a little message in the combat log saying that someone walked over your alarm.

Blades of Fire: Don't bother. You're likely to only get 9 seconds worth out of the 12 seconds due to the combat engine, and even if that wasn't the case, 12 seconds is not worth the casting of a spell. Not even if you're a gish that fights. Extending this spell doesn't help it either.

Burning Hands: AoE spell for the earliest levels. Reaches its peak at level 2 and 4, otherwise other spells are better. Yeah, don't take this spell either.

Cause Fear: Only works in the early levels. Even then, you want monsters to fall asleep or get stunned, not to run away from you. It's just annoying to chase the targets down. Avoid.

Charm Person: Charm targets one individual and is a bad choice because others do it much better by targeting more than one, like sleep below.

Color Spray: Like sleep, its good for lowlevels and bad after that. Don't get stuck with this spell, just let the wizards get all flashy with this in the early levels while you patiently wait for something more.

Comprehend Languages: A spell with some use in roleplay and such, a utility spell. The server has alot of languages now, and if you cast this you'll understand all that gibberish of theirs. Sadly, its duration isn't that good.

Detect Undead: No, this isn't a useful spell. You want to kill them, or to protect against them, not know where they spawned.

Endure Elements: Awful spell. It's good at the first few levels due to its long duration, but after that its a 20 HP bonus that is highly situational. Don't use it.

Enlarge Person: You don't want to be enlarged. That makes you easier to hit. Some gishes and fighters may like it, but only in environments where they're very unlikely to die in the first place. At best, its situational. At worst, its a detriment. Most spellcasters should not bother, unless you're a gish.

Expeditious Retreat: Nice spell for soloing. Means you can save your uses of haste for some other spells, since the speed bonus is the important part anyway for a caster. You want to be able to move out of combat or stay out of combat fast. Great to extend when running around the server. Solid pick.

Exterminate: Situational bad spell only for lowlevels. It has no save, but is so specialised as to be of little use.

Grease: A strong lowlevel spell, that works well against most things since its reflex based. The area is quite big, and the knockdown effect prevents people from casting spells. Enemies don't get their spellcraft rank bonuses against grease either, which can make its DC a bit higher than it seems. You know that text that comes up that says: "never underestimate the power of a wellplaced low level spell?" Yeah, they where talking about Grease.

Identify: It's a neat spell for identifying items. If you've some lore, usually casting this is all it requires to identify something. Of course, you can do this at a merchant too so its just a goldsaving tool. Not a mainstay spell.

Lesser Orbs: They do the most damage out of the level 1 spells (although, that might be nerfed soon), they can crit for more damage and they are good in that they bypass SR. Still, you need to get very close to use this. As such its not a spell that you spam, but a situational spell for when enemies get really close. This spell can be a good source of acid/fire for trolls.

Low Light Vision: No. I can cast the cantrip light, thank you very much.

Magic Missile: Excellent spell that has a long range and does irresistable damage. The damage is delayed a bit, but its not much of an issue. Good all-around spell.

Magic Weapon: Doesn't stack with levels. Avoid!

Negative Energy Ray: Decent damage, medium range. The will save is there in the description, but it seems to do the same amount of damage (full damage) whether or not the monster saves against it. It's not a bad pick, but its not the best one either.

Protection from Alignment: The long duration is great for the early levels, and later you use it for the protection against mindspells. It's a good spell because its a level 1 spell, a spell slot in which you barely have anything of use. Thus, its great to spam this one on everyone in the party when hunting monsters that can use mind affecting spells.

Ray of Enfeeblement: Great spell, since there is no save. If you maximize this spell, its a straight 11 STR damage. Often, that means -6 ab to a fighter, and this helps you a lot in duels and such. To other classes, you may just heavily encumber them. That works greatly to your advantage as well. Very good pick, seriously consider it.

Reduce Person: This spell] is a bit undignified. Still, it raises your AC by 1. It does some other things too, but you cast this spell only for the AC. You can avoid the negative effects with things like deathward. One point of AC can matter.

Shield +4 AC is good. This bonus counts as an enchantment bonus, which means that if you wear a heavy shield (2 AC) it will stack with this spell. If you wear a heavy shield +4, it won't stack. Most sorcerers wants to use this spell since they don't use shields, and thus here you can make up for some of that AC.

Shocking Grasp: It's an orb spell, but worse. You do less damage and you can't crit. RP-spell at most.

Sleep: Good for lowlevel dungeons. Bad for sorcerers in general since you don't want to get stuck with this spell. It's more for wizards than sorcerers.

Summon Creature I: Duration is bad. The summon is bad. It won't scale well. In fact, you should never pick this spell. It won't even help you in the early levels. It's one upside is that it can be used on a wand and then summoned whenever you need to set off a trap or trick the big bad boss into using a powerful spell against it while you remain out of sight. However, neither of those uses requires you to have the spell memorized.

True Strike: Help with one attack? No thank you. This is not useful for you since ranged and melee touch attacks tend to hit most of the time anyway. If you're a gish, you don't want to cast this either since then the main issue is that you're spending a round of casting to make sure the next set of attacks could hit. Most of the time, you do more damage by attacking both rounds.

Level 2 spells

Aganazaar's Scorcher While the damage is decent, its situational. It is however slightly better than scorching ray, and its a fire damage spell. Sometimes that's what you need in your spellbook.

All the ability spells: This includes all the spells that give +4 to a single ability for 1 min/level. They're all great. Either they help with your HP, your AC or your encumbrance, or they can maximize the DCs of your spells. Don't pick all the spells however, but choose carefully among them and just get 1-2. If you plan to use items that give a +2/+3, think even more about what you get out of it. Eagle's splendour is nice if you're a DC sorcerer, but most other sorcerers want a +3 charisma item and shouldn't take the spell. Cat's grace and Bear's Endurance are probably the best choices for a mage.

Animalistic Power: It does many things at once, sure, but nothing great. Most of what it does you should have items for. At best, you can cast this on a summon.

Balagarn's Iron Horn: The knockdown is good, but this spell is so tricky to use. First, you need to be almost in touch range. Second, it doesn't respond well to moving targets, since its a small cone effect. It's good against low strength targets and requires no save, but you need to be too close for it to work.

Bladeweave: This can be nice if you're a gish character. DC 16 daze is decent on a weapon that hits often, and at higher levels you're just hoping that they roll a 1. The duration is acceptable for this kind of spell, but any serious spellcasting sorcerer should avoid it.

Blindness/Deafness: The effects are great against low fortitude targets, but the DCs will be lacking since its a level 2 spell. Nice at early levels, not so much later on.

Blind Sight: Lets you see invisible foes (which frankly, is mostly useful in PvP or against frost giants and duergar priests) and negates darkness for you. A strong solid pick that's nice to cast as soon as you rest.

Cloud of Bewilderment: A great spell against low fortitude targets. This works best against spellcasters, but its also nice against HIPSing rogues who lack the fortitude to resist. Sure, the DC is lower since its a lowlevel spell, but it can still be enough and you can augment that (with cloudkill, for instance).

Combust: The fact that the spell allows a save every round diminishes its value. Often, its a 2D6+10 damage spell with no save, that can deal some more damage. If you're interested in that kind of a deal, you should pick melf's acid arrow instead.

Curse of Impending Blades: It's a no save, -2 to AC spell. Great for boss encounters, but not for you. It's a tool that helps your party members, so its situational. It's also a great spell for the DM staff to use with the lowlevel monsters. Everyone hates to be cursed.

Darkness: 20% concealment, or 50% concealment against ranged attackers. Highly situational. Enemies lacking magical help can't see you in the darkness unless you attack. It's a cool spell for mages, but it forces you to stand still so a higher level spell like displacement is vastly superior for this purpose.

Death Armor: If you're hit, they take some irresistable damage, typically around 7 damage per hit. Worth it? Probably not, since the duration is so short. However, damage shields are nice to have when you've a stoneskin or similar on you. Just know that if the target cannot even deal 1 damage to you because of a stoneskin/premonition, this spell won't deal any damage to your enemy.

Dispel Magic, Lesser: Another spell that doesn't scale, and its actually a rare occurence when you're a lowlevel and want to dispel a lowlevel monster. Bad choice.

False Life: Better at lowlevels, but its basically some nice HP gain. This stacks with greater heroism, but not with vampiric touch. Gishes likes this spell, and some mages do as well who want a little extra HP in exchange for a level 2 slot.

Fireburst: Great damage spell at this level, mostly useful if you get surrounded. If you're facing monsters of more or less equal level, getting surrounded is a bad strategy, so its mostly a good spell for cleaning up monsters of a lower level than you.

Frost Breath This is a subpar version of the electrical loop, because its a cone and can hurt party members. It is not bad, but it doesn't scale that well and is not a long-term choice.

Gedlee's Electric Loop: A solid choice, better than fireburst. At 12D6 of damage, its valuable, and the stun effect as a reflex save is great against almost all monsters, be they fighters or spellcasters. It does however lose value the more you level up.

Ghostly Visage: Another good lowlevel spell for lowlevels. It's one saving grace is the duration at a minute per level. This means you can cast this and always have 10% concealment, when your more powerful spells drop. However, that's a low probability scenario.

Ghoul Touch: A spell that requires you to be in touch range, and allows the enemy alot of bonuses to save against it. It's worst part is that it allows a save every round. Don't take this spell.

Gust of Wind: It's a nice spell for the ability to automatically disperse cloud spells, but then it stops. There are far better spell choices available to even consider Gust of Wind. At most, you can knockdown someone when they're casting, but the DC is too low to try.

Ice Darts The spell allows no save, and does excellent damage. Its multiple darts can score critical hits for even more damage too. Maximized its 81 damage without a critical. If you've arcane scholar levels, empowered ice darts will outperform any level 3 damage spell. To make it better, its range is great and it bypasses SR too.

Invisibility: Invisibility, straight and simple. Can save you from alot of monsters, is great to have when running quests and is usually cast at your familiar as soon as you've rested so you are sure to get their bonus all the time without risking constitution loss.

Knock: It opens chests, but not the ones you want help opening (highlevel ones). When you're soloing, this spell can help save you some offensive spells, but it's definitely not worth it for a sorcerer. It's a wizard spell.

Melf's Acid Arrow: This is a spell that never really stops scaling, so its useful at the highest levels. For a level 30 caster it does 13D6 of acid damage, and that's kinda neat. However, the spell is easily resisted by someone with a 5/- acid, and it deals the damage slowly. Since it isn't burst damage, you should use it on enemies that will last for some time.

Mirror Image: A fantastic defensive spell that everyone should take. It will take away some of the hits scored against you, which actually make this spell more powerful than stoneskin and the like. Be wary though since it only works for the first attack in the round. This means a savy fighter can use expose on you (autohit), get neglected by a mirror image, and follow it up with knockdown to put you down on the ground more or less automatically.

Protection from Arrows: This spell acts as a stoneskin, but is more situational in that you are only protected against ranged attacks like arrows and bolts. You don't want to be in melee, so if you can avoid that this is a great spell. However, its usefulness is diminished quite a bit on this server as very few monsters use a crossbow, bow or sling. Otherwise I would highlight this spell as blue.

Rainbow Beam At an average of 45 damage, this orb like spell is not that bad. The element is random, and it can dazzle. But, the touchrange limits its usefulness. A mediocre spell, best suited to wizards.

Resist Energy: It's a situational 30 HP bonus. You do not want to waste a spell on that, since such protection is better covered by other spells or even items.

Scare: Obvious lowlevel spell that has no use at all as you approach level 6.

Scorching Ray: It's 12D6 to a single target, no save. Neat, sure, and its fire damage which can sometimes be very useful. There are however more important offensive spells, and you should only really take this if you really really need a fire spell.

See Invisibility: See invisibility is cool and all, but its overshadowed a bit by blindsight who enables you to also see through darkness. Still, that seldom factors in and its a solid spell anyway. The duration enables any paranoid mage to cast this at the start of their buffing routine.

Snake's Swiftness: Probably the worst level 2 spell in the game. THE WORST. Are you listening? THE WORST.

Summon Creature II: The usefulness of this spell is only to have someone take the hit from a trap, or just summon it against some monster you know will use a powerful spell as soon as he spots a target. However, summon creature I is better for that, and even that spell is bad. Wands can cover it.

Tasha's Hideous Laughter: It's a save or die kind of spell for the lowlevels, but its hampered by the need to be of the same race or take a 4 DC penalty. Thus, its mostly a PvP thing for the very early levels, since most monsters tend to not be of the same race as you. Enchantment specialists can make some decent use out of it, but its a mediocre spell at its heart.

Touch of Idiocy: This spell is great. You can maximize it in order to reduce an enemy's mental abilities by a straight 6 which will take away many spells for them. Also, don't believe the wiki. This spell actually stacks with itself. So casting 2-3 of these maximized and you can completely neutralize a spellcaster. This is the flashy way of winning a confrontation. Flashy sorcerers are the best anyway.

Web: A good spell that covers alot of ground, and stops targets dead in their tracks if they fail a reflex save. The best part about this spell is that it more or less halves your movement even if you save, while the sad part is the short duration. SR also applies. It's a bit redundant to take both this and grease. Choose one.

Whispering Wind: A wizard spell mostly, as a sorcerer you can't afford a spell that is basically just a way to play tricks with other players. It's a neat fun spell, but it lacks serious usage.

Level 3 spells

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance: This spell is good at what it does, but its duration is awful which limits its use and its highly situational. As a sorcerer, your detection skills aren't that good usually. For wizards, its alot better, but its a PvP spell. Its also a bit redundant as you only need this against HIPS targets, and most of those are susceptible to other more valuable spells like wail of the banshee.

Deep Slumber: Actually a very solid spell choice in the early levels, but that's for wizards. You don't want to get stuck with this spell as a sorcerer. Avoid.

Dispel Magic: Doesn't scale well, and is barely useful at the level 10-15 mark.

Displacement: A great spell that gives you 50% concealment. It's often superior to improved invisibility, since what you want out of it is the 50% concealment and its one level lower than improved invisibility. This allows it to be more useful as an extended spell, and makes your spellbook better as a result.

Fireball: 15D6 straight damage. Decent range. Standard issue. Usually not worth it for a sorcerer with arcane scholar levels, since empowered ice darts outperforms it. It's use is questionable for most characters, but its a trademark spell.

Flame Arrow: The only reason this spell isn't purple is because of the DC. Not every mage focuses on DCs. However, this spell never stops scaling and does quite a bit of damage to a single target. With arcane scholar levels, the maximized and empowered versions outperform the damage spells above it.

Haste: A great spell that speeds you up and adds +1 AC. Useful when soloing, sure, but its a magnificent spell to cast on an entire party. The damage potential you can get out of that is astonishing, especially if your party contains many melee characters. A must pick.

Heroism: It lasts a very long time. It's very good at the early levels. It's awful at the later levels since it doesn't stack with its greater version. It's also a spell that's easily aquired on scrolls for a very cheap price, diminishing the utility of this spell alot.

Hold Person: A holding spell that allows a save every round to get out of it. Once you get out, the spell ends and you take no further saves. The spell is not even useful for an enchantment specialist.

Improved Mage Armor: A great spell since it breaks the rules. The server has a maximum enchantment of +4 on magical items, and this one goes beyong that by 2. As such, its great for mages that want to stay alive and its also a fantastic spell to cast on your party members. No other spell increases armor better than this one.

Invisibility Sphere: It's an invisibility spell, true, but its hard for party members to stay within the area of effect for this spell to be useful. There are also very few situations when its needed to move the entire party invisible past some monsters.

Keen Edge: Stay away from this spell. It's only useful for a gish that uses a slashing or piercing weapon. Even then, you better be a wizard or you're wasting a valuable level 3 spell.

Lightning Bolt: Doesn't hurt party members, which is a plus. Difficult to use accurately as enemies seldom line up to face you. It's area effect is thus not that good.

Magic Circle against Alignment: Alright. Protection from alignment is great. This spell does the same thing, but covers allies too. Great? No. It's an aura, and its a level 3 spell. When you've protection from alignment, there is no reason to not use that spell. Save your level 3 spells for better things.

Magic Weapon, Greater: A solid choice for you to use on party members, but you may not get much damage out of it. It's better for gishes, where its absolutely a necessity. For everyone else, its not worth it.
Mass Curse of Impending Blades: This spell is nice when enemies group up, and its more valuable the more enemies there are. It has no save, and at the end of the day its a speed spell that allows your allies to cut down the enemy faster and thus take less damage in return. It's not a spell that is useful for solo play, so carefully consider your options before picking this one as a sorcerer.

Mestil's Acid Breath: It's a fireball, but with a cone and with acid damage. Unfortunately, that makes it a bad spell since you just lost the range advantage of a fireball.

Negative Energy Burst: It's a watered down fireball, that makes up for it by potentially dealing strength damage as well. That's very nice since there aren't any other spells that deal ability damage as well as regular damage. Nice for a necromancer, and some sorcerers can certainly consider it. If they save, the STR damage is halved, meaning that the targets will always take STR damage.

Non-detection:[/b] This spell protects you against the messages a player recieve about your magic auras from analyze dweomer. However, it's a straight caster level against caster level, which means that it's far better on those with a high value than a mediocre value. The value of the spell itself is negliable, and definitely not worth the consideration of a sorcerer.

Power Word Maladroit: Awful spell. Not only does it not work unless the enemy is low on HP, you are then draining dexterity which is not that good of an ability to drain. What are you doing, lowering his AC? Just finish him off already!

Power Word Weaken: Also an awful spell. This spell lowers the targets strength if he has low hit points. Preventing him from escaping? Use a maximized ray of enfeeblement instead.

Protection from Energy: Another +30 HP that is very situational. Avoid this spell, its never worth casting.

Rage: Think of this spell as casting inferior versions of a combined mass bulls strength and mass bears endurance. Only with an AC loss for the entire party built in. On the bright side, it stacks with items and other spells. On the bad side, there are no useful uses of this spell at all.

Rainbow Blast: There are level 2 spells that outdamage this one. It also has a reflex save for half damage, and as a line its difficult to use correctly. This spell is not worth your consideration.

Scintillating Sphere: A copy of the fireball spell, but with electricity damage. You can likely find better damage spells than this one, like flame arrow.

Slow: Negates haste. Can drop someones movement in half. It also reduces their attacks per round and drops the AB and AC by 1. As a lowlevel spell, its easy to resist however and its single target.

Snake's Swiftness, Mass: An improved version of a useless spell, unsurprisingly turns out to also be useless. You can get haste and that one lasts past 6 seconds. This one doesnt.

Spiderskin: It's +5 AC, which is great. It can also aid you if you're a HIPS character, and the bonuses against poison is just a small bonus. This spell is a good choice for anyone who wants a good AC. It also has the advantage that unlike the other spells that boost natural AC in your spellbook, this one won't get shut down automatically by a breach.

Stinking Cloud: A great spell against low fortitude targets. Daze doesn't prohobit them from moving, but they can't do any other actions but walk. The best part is that an enemy actually needs to save against this spell twice to avoid its effects, once they've failed the initial save. That's because the spell applies for 2 rounds per failed save.

Summon Creature III: Don't take this spell. The summon doesn't last long, its awful, and there are much better options available. It's not even useful at level 7.

Tongues An RP spell that can help you understand all the languages. The duration is fantastic. Nice for a wizard, but probably not a good choice for your sorcerer. Try to use scrolls instead.

Vampiric Touch: Maximized this does 90 damage. That's a solid damage investment, but it also adds 90 bonus HP to you. Since spellcasters often have little HP, this source of bonus HP can be very good to have. It's touchrange though, so be careful. However, if you use this on a target that is stuck in a holding spell, they won't actually reach you so it becomes a great way to regain some lost HP in dungeon crawls. It's almost a heal but with inbuilt damage. If you can't find some easy target and are particularly cheeky, try using it on a party member.

Weapon of Impact: Nice for a gish wizard, sure, but not for anyone else. Stay away.

Level 4 spells

Animate Dead: Longlasting summon, good for the early levels. After that, it becomes redundant. Don't take it as a sorcerer. As a wizard, if this fits your alignment, use it early.

Assay Resistance: This spell is situational for overcoming SR, but its excellent at what it does. It's very useful against bosslike creatures who often have good SR, or against drow. If your casterlevel is a bit low, you should seriously consider this spell.

Bestow Curse: The penalty isn't worthwhile for you to bother. Use other spells that do more or less the same thing but requires no save instead.

Charm Monster: A bad spell, plain and simple. It allows you to take over a foe, sure, but the DCs are weak unless you're a dedicated enchanter. Plus, you often already have a summon with you and this spell will replace that one.

Confusion: Useful if you can get it on powerful fighters, but DCs are low and its effect is random. There is a 50% chance of them attacking you anyway. It has an area effect, however consider that it's enchantment, the school that has the most bonuses against it (slippery mind, hardiness vs enchantments, still mind etc.).

Contagion: Uses a set DC so its useless. Even if that wasn't the case, the randomness of what ability it drains is a letdown.
Crushing Despair: Bards get more out of this than you stacked with curse song. For you, its an awful spell that at best will lower someones AB. You've much better spells available for that purpose, and those don't even require the target to fail a save first.

Deez's Repulsive Shadow Barrier: This is a gish spell, and made for those characters that don't have the caster level to effectively use things like displacement. It's a powered up version of ghostly visage with an added shield (+4 AC) spell on top, and its decent at that. 20% concealment is kinda nice, and it lasts long. It's a gish spell though, any serious caster should avoid it.

Dimension Anchor: This spell will prevent someone from teleporting or to use ethereal spells. Nice? Yeah, in PvP. But often you would rather want to just kill them, unless they're intentionally running away from you. As an evil spellcaster, you could target this at your hired PC mercenary and say "Sorry, you've failed me for the last time" before you teleport out of some impossible situation. Good times.

Dimension Door: A decent spell, and your enemy can't detect you with see invisibility or such either. You can however only stay within the area. The best use of it is to have a single rune available that you cast mark rune on for every area you enter. Thus, you can cast this later as a getaway spell. However, that's only useful for PvP since against most monsters a regular invisibility or ethereal effect suffices nicely.

Elemental Shield: This is a strong spell, that works very well in tandem with a stoneskin-like spell. However, if your enemy can't deal 1 damage to you because of damage reduction, this spell won't hurt them. Still, this one helps abit with protection against fire/cold based damage, and can deal massive amounts of damage to unsuspecting foes. A premonition and this one and rogues can't touch you.

Energy Buffer: Yet another useless situational HP boost. This time its 60 HP. A scroll casting this is neat, but as a memorized spell? No thanks.

Enervation: A great spell, that can actually score a critical for 2D4 level damage. Maximized or empowered, this can screw with alot of targets, and it lowers their saves as well. Still, this is a spell for the flashy kind of mage who wants to toy with his victims.

Evard's Black Tentacles: This is a great holding spell, that scales very well. It uses a melee touch attack and should hit easily, and since its D4 tentacles you get alot of chances to hit. Everytime you hit, your enemies take a fortitude save or become paralyzed and unable to perform any action. If you're focusing on DCs, this spell is a must pick.

Fear: A good spell for any DC focused spellcaster, not so for anyone else. If they fail the save, they're helpless for a long time and the best part about is that its an area of effect spell so it can hurt alot of foes. Take care though, because if you cast this in melee you can actually scare yourself!

Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser: This spell will not block spells that allow no SR. It will also not block any cloud spells, like grease. So what good spells remain that you want blocked? Exactly, there aren't any.

Greater Invisibility: This is a great spell that combines the invisibility spell and the displacement spell into one. While it does everything that displacement does, its one level higher and is such only worth it if you really can't afford displacement. You need one of the two. Sadly, the invisibility effect doesn't last long with this spell so its not going to take over the usefulness of invisibility.

Greater Resistance: Solid when its available, loses value as you get higher level spells. This won't stack with other spells that does the same thing.

Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm: A utility spell in that is strong against a single target, and diludes itself to cause more damage to more targets if they're present. Is it good? Sort of. It's the best single target spell that you can cast with some range at this level, but a metamagiced lower level spell is often much more effective. On the plus side it never hits a party member.

Ice Storm: Lots of damage, never stops to scale, and its an area effect with no save. A lovely spell, but it requires caution since it hurts partymembers. Being an archmage can remedy that, however. Be aware that the damage is delayed, so you do require some skill in using this spell perfectly. This spell is nice to use with metamagic as well.

Orbs: The choice of orbs, unlike their lesser versions, actually matter since they all provide a secondary effect except the orb of force (which also deals less damage). This spell is touchrange, but it can score a critical for alot of damage. The best secondary effects are found with the electrical or fire version, since they stop your target for 1 round. The cold version works nicely against spellcasters since being blinded makes them unable to use spells that require a target (like, IGMS). The cold one is also great against fire creatures. The orb of force has irresistable damage, but that's usually not worth it compared to the others (however, the orb of force has a greater range to make up for that). Stay with either an electricity or fire orb, unless you're a frost mage or live in the underdark in which case picking cold is better. Only one orb is enough. I tend to favor electricity since you've so many firebased spells anyway, and its effect is the best particularly if you're going for archmage and mastery of elements.

Phantasmal Killer: Nothing can save an enemy from this spell, unless they've high saves. Death immunity doesn't work against it. However, requiring two saves hampers it. Rogues still suffer under it, sure, especially since it can be quickened, but its too marginal to see serious use.

Polymorph Self: One of the best lowlevel spells there is, this is a first choice for any wizard who is grinding their way to higher levels. For sorcerers though, its not. You should try to find a scroll of this instead, since using this spell at higher levels reduces you from an epic powerful caster to a lowlevel monster.

Reduce Person, Mass: This spell is only useful for a bunch of people in the white mask theatre if they want to do a play about halflings. Using the spell on yourself is one thing as with the single target version, but to reduce your party members as well is not that beneficial to them. The one exception is if you're all spellcasters.

Remove Curse: The use of this spell is a lowcase scenario. Resting can take away some curses. For the rest, just get a scroll for it if you're a sorcerer, or memorize it as a wizard. No curse is that dangerous to live with.

Shadow Conjuration: A bad spell. Sure, it offers choice, but not the choice you want. The spells you can use from this are marginal at best, and not worth the casting of a level 4 spell. Avoid it.

Shout: A solid alternative to the orb spells. It's a cone effect, and it deals the same amount of damage as an orb, so its an orb that can hit more people. It requires a save though to balance this out. The deafening effect is strong against spellcasters.

Spell Breach, Lesser: A good spell that can be quickened for a higher utility. This spells automatically strips certain spells of a target, and it does so with a priority order in mind. The best spells are often removed first. Often, you don't need to take away more than 2 spells from a target to accomplish what you want.

Spell Mantle, Least: You need to take at least one spell mantle spell as a sorcerer. Is this the one? Perhaps, if you really need the higher level spell slots for something else. This spell greatly benefits by being either cast as a level 4 spell, or cast as an empowered spell. Don't maximize it.

Stoneskin: A great spell early on, but later on there are so many better spells available to protect you. However, this spell is the only one that you can cast on your allies to help them. That increases its utility. It can also be stacked with greater stoneskin, but that's only a nice thing in the midlevels.

Summon Creature IV: Summons an animal that will likely die if you look menacingly at it. Don't pick this spell at all.

Trace Teleport: An extremely situational spell that is not worth it. If you find yourself in the fantasy equivalent of a highspeed car chase and your fellow fighter yells "follow that mage!", then sure, this spell is what you want. But as a sorcerer? Forget about it, use a scroll in that case. The same goes for a wizard, its a waste to memorize this at all.

Wall of Fire: Short duration, inferior damage. A bad spell? Well, its not burst damage. You can potentially cast this and run back and forth over the wall and make enemies follow and take the damage multiple times. This works particularly well against undead. That's situational however, and something a wizard considers but not a sorcerer. A sorcerer only needs specialized spells like this if the cost of their little use is minimized by its great effect. That's not the case here.

Wrack: This spell functions like a lower level solipsism, a target that fails the save will likely die. While it is a mere level 4, it's helped by the fact that its a necromancy spell. A DC caster, especially a necromancer, can consider it. It may be too much of a sacrfice to pick this spell as a sorcerer though.
Last edited by Steve on Sun Jan 03, 2016 8:50 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

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Level 5 spells

Arc of Lightning: This is a fairly strong spell, that deals out its damage to anything between two targets. It also ignores SR, which puts this spell apart from the rest of the choices at this level since it ignores spell mantles. You may hit yourself though, so watch out.

Bigby's Interposing Hand: This spell can help you in a duel, but you shouldn't rely on it. No, instead this spell is at its best as a party tool for facing very tough enemies like bosses. Casting this spell on a boss will greatly help your allies to stay alive.

Cacophonic Burst: A decent damage spell. The range is great, and that's about it actually since it allows an SR check unlike arc lightning. However, it will strike more foes than arc lightning does.

Cloudkill: The fact that this server has changed its school from necromancy to conjuration is a tiny nerf, even if its correct in PnP. However, its still a very strong spell choice simply because it works even if you save against it. If you save, you take half damage. If you fail the save, you take full damage. CON damage is respectable, and a maximized cloudkill will deal 4 CON damage on a failed save. That's around 60 damage a round, and the longer an enemy stays in the cloud the more likely they're to fail the save. So the spell reinforces itself. It works best if you can prevent your enemies from moving, with a bigby, web, tentacle, grease etc..It also ignores SR, which is a big bonus. You won't kill something with bonus HP, but that doesn't matter. Just finish them off with a lowlevel spell. Nothing quite says joy as when your epic enemy fighter goes down to a ray of frost.

Cone of Cold: Cones are bad, and so is this spell. It requires you to get too close, and may miss your targets when they move about. I would not recommend this spell even to a frostmage. Just avoid it.

Dismissal: This spell is very good at what it does, affecting animal companions, familiars, all summons, outsiders and elementals. You get a bonus to the DC equal to your caster level minus the level of the target. It's area of effect is mediocre, but against many targets its an autokill to to their low will saves. Elder elementals, for example, have a will save of 4 (fire/earth) or 8 (air/water). Very situational, so consider it carefully. Scrolls is a fine substitute against most targets.

Dominate Person: Can be somewhat useful to an enchanter, but the rest of us should just move past this spell. It's a bit lacklustre, and filled with bugs.

Duelward:
This spell gives you the feat reactive counterspelling for 1 use only. If you succeed at a counterspell it always has a cost, since you lose another spell in the process. Due to this, a spell mantle of any kind is generally superior. It's duration is good though, and that's the only reason to use it, but take care since it stops working after the first spell, be that a magic missile or a crushing hand, and it won't help against AoE spells. As such, it's mediocre at best.

Feeblemind: Oh feeblemind, how good you could have been if you weren't both a divination and a range attack spell. If a spellcaster fails this save, their mental abilities become lower than a barbarian orc with a head trauma. It's extremely good. However, its willbased and most spellcasters will save against that. You can use it against someone else to lower their will saves, but for those targets the spell is a waste of time.

Firebrand: A superb damage spell at this level, and it is a very powerful spell when empowered or maximized. Few spells at any level come close to the damage potential of firebrand, and as another huge boost it can never hit party members. A very strong choice that everyone should consider.

Fireburst, Greater: It does very nice damage at this level, but you need to be careful both in not hurting party members and in not getting too many enemies to surround you. The range sadly makes this spell obsolete when it comes to other better choices available.

Flaywind Burst: This spell does inferior magical damage, but its use comes from the knockdown effect. It doesn't require SR, so it will ignore things like spell mantles and as such is very useful in trying to disrupt a casting enemy mage. It's also reflexbased, which is often the worst save of any spellcaster. Can be a decent pick as a disruption spell that also has some built in damage, but most sorcerers do avoid it.

Glass Doppelganger: You can only copy low to midlevel creatures. They will be very brittle as they'll get a low HP. It also occupies a summon slot, and you don't want that. Avoid it.
Hold Monster: It could have been a good spell, but since it allows a save every round to get out of it, it loses alot of value. Once a creature gets out, no further saves are taken. That's an awful bargain for you.

Mind Blank, Lesser: This is a solid choice of a spell. Mind immunity is a strong bonus, but this spell can only be targeted on yourself. It's mostly for PvP, since for PvM the level 1 spell protection from alignment is better.

Mind Fog: It's not a horrible spell per see, its just that its a preparation spell for other spells. You cast it to ensure that other spells will work better. However, most of the time the targets that fail against this will also fail against whatever you were going to cast second. So you're better off just casting the better spell. The exception is if you can combine it with cloud of bewilderment or something to good effect. This spell continues to last for an average of 7 rounds after someone exits the cloud, and that's a very nice thing.

Planar Binding, Lesser: With the increased duration of the summons on this server, this spell has lost most of its value. The other use of the spell, as a holding spell, is mediocre but of limited use. Unlike what the wiki says, it's a save once or stay paralyzed for the duration. It even works on elementals. Because of this, it can be a cheap bigby like spell against certain foes, but that means it's a wizard spell.

Power Word Disable: At best, this spell does 50 damage. At worst, it does nothing. Most of the time it will do nothing. Never take this spell.

Reduce Person, Greater: The regular version lasts long enough, this is just a spell with an overkill for duration. Since it occupies a higher slot, its not useful at all.

Shadow Door: This is a flashy way of going invisible, and its usually not worth it. Its only for the caster, so its of limited use.

Shroud of Flame: You want to think that this is a spell that will go out of control. It does 2D6 damage each round, but as soon as you save the damage stops coming. Its a gamble, and its only nice against low reflex targets that will survive for some time. But, this spell is an orange spell simply because a straight 5/- fire reduction is enough to seriously limit the usefulness of this spell.

Sound Blast: This is an improved version of the cone of cold. It does the same thing, but its fortitude based and does 21 more damage on average. Cones are generally bad, but the extra damage is sweet. Unfortunately, fortitude tends to be the highest save of any monster and that limits its usefulness.

spell Mantle, Lesser: Probably the best spell mantle in the game. If you empower this spell, it will always deflect two spells before dissipating. The better mantles do this better of course, but any savy enemy mage will just cast a breach when they see someone using a higher level mantle. This mantle however provides exactly what you want when empowered, it can be quickened by every mage and its on a midlevel slot.

Summon Creature V: This spell summons a bad doggie that noone takes seriously. There is nothing good about this spell at all.

Teleport: Teleport takes into account your caster level. Sure, you can use a scroll and most of the time you'll succeed. But by choosing this spell you save the money from the scrolls, but it will also allow you to maximize its use. Only a spellcaster with teleport as a castable spell has any serious chance of making a UD to surface or vice versa teleport. Also, you need this spell memorized if you want a good chance to teleport while in combat.

Vitriolic Sphere: The damage is quite subpar to many lowlevel spells, and relies on the extra damage in the following rounds to make up for it. It also requires the target to fail a save to be even slightly worthwhile. You should avoid it.

Wall of Dispel Magic: Dispel magic is bad, and this one isn't much better. The chances of you draining anything away is low. If it was a breach wall it would have been good, but it isn't. It has a cool visual effect, but that's about it.

Level 6 spells

Acid Fog: It used to be better, but the server nerfed it. Now, its a small damage cloud that can lower your movement while in the cloud, provided you fail a save. Not that great, but it can be annoying for some characters in PvM if monsters use it.

Analyze Dweomer: A spell that automatically gives you a little list in the combat log of all the spells that a target is buffed with. Neat, but mostly against players since monsters don't buff that much. It's also a wizard spell, and best used on a scroll or similar.

Bigby's Forceful Hand: The forceful hand is very powerful against any target that isn't STR-based. And against most of those targets, it still works 50% of the time. The best ability of this spell is that even if a target saves one round, he still has to save the next round as well or be knocked down. Even should he be immune to knockdown, it will stun him. This lasts for as long as the spell lasts, and thats a considerable amount of time. It won't work on very large targets (like dragons), but for all others its fantastic. For arcane scholars, this spell can be quickened and the quickened bigbys forceful hand is the most powerful spell in the game.

Chain Lightning: The damage is decent, it can't hit party members and it spreads very nicely in a group. What's not to like? Well, the saves for one. It only does full damage to the first target, and any others can if they make a save only take 25% of that. It also allows for SR.

Circle of Death: An awful spell that only hurts masses of lowlevel undead. Lowlevel undead tend to be easy to vanquish anyway. A single firebrand would kill more of them.

Create Undead: A decent summon if you're around level 11, but then it quickly fades in usefulness. Good duration though, but random summons.

Disintegrate: The highest singletarget damage spell in the game, provided you fail a save against it. That's what makes the spell a bit mediocre too. On the plus side, you can slay trolls with it. Is that a plus? Well, a very marginal one. A bigger bonus is that it can score a critical hit. A maximized version of this that scores a critical, and its target fails the save, will deal 480 damage.

Dispel Magic, Greater: Even if this spell has been strengthened, its use is still not great. It's a nice spell in the level 15 range, but the cap on the caster level prohibits it from being useful.

Ethereal Visage: A bad spell since its duration is so short. It's a lesser version of the globe of invulnerability joined together with a powered up version of stoneskin and a lesser version of displacement. It does many things, but none of them very well and not for very long. For a wizard, you can extend this spell and combine it with premonition. That way, Ethereal Visage takes precedence and shrugs off the first 20 damage from an attack, allowing premonition to last longer.

Extract Water Elemental: This spell does inferior damage. It tries to make up for it by promising to give you a bad summon if you kill something with the spell. Yeah, don't take that deal.

Flesh to Stone: This is actually a pretty neat spell. There is no immunity to save against this, but there is an SR check. Arcane scholars can however quicken this spell. In essence, its a save or die spell that turns its enemies into statues. How cool is that? Very cool.

Globe of Invulnerability: It does not stop cloud spells or spells that don't require SR. Truth be told, it doesn't stop that many valuable spells at all. It's not a bad spell per see, its just overshadowed by many others. Its duration also prohobits it from seeing casual use.

Heroism, Greater: Excellent duration, and this spell is a powerhouse for any mage. Not only does it increase your saves by a good amount, it also helps with your skillpoints and some small bonus to HP. Casting this on a melee party member is also of great effect, and can cause alot of damage to monsters. No other effect can replace it, and it stacks with everything.

Isaac's Greater Missile Storm: The trademark spell of NWN2. This spell does quite a bit of damage to a single target, and can also be used against groups. Its a great spell because its so hard to resist magical damage, hence the spell is useful against every target unlike the elemental spells. The spell allows no save as well, making it an extremely reliable source of damage. Maximized or empowered versions are frightening.

Legend Lore: The level 1 spell identify does almost the same. Your bonus is higher here, sure, but the difference to the level 1 version is that this spell *might* let you indentify epic items while the level 1 spell won't. However, that is rarely a scenario in which this spell is worth using, since a merchant can identify that item for you for a mere 50 to 100 goldpieces.

Mass Ability Spells: This includes all the spells that give +4 to a single ability for the entire party, like mass bear's endurance. These spells are not worth it for a sorcerer, since the level 6 slots are so contended. It can be decent for a wizard if they're going to buff up the entire party, as it can save them alot of spells. For that very reason, the physical abilities are the best.

Mass Contagion: Disease don't matter that much, its effect is never really worth it, especially if its the only effect taking place. You're better of trying to lower ability scores with spells that provide no save.

Planar Binding: Since other summons have their durations improved on this server, this spell serves no use anymore. It's a bad summon whose only strength used to be duration. The other effect, paralyze an outsider, is decent and unlike what the wiki says it's a save once or be paralyzed for the entire duration. This even works on elementals. Still, a test at +5 DC is still a test, and less reliable than for example the bigby spells.

spell Breach, Greater: It is a solid effect that does not rely on your caster level or anything to neutralise an arcane mage. However, most mages wants a mordekainen and this spell is merely a substitute for that. You can pick this if you're a gish that find little use with mordekainen due to your mediocre caster level, but most others should avoid this spell.

Stone Body: This is a cleric spell that you should avoid, simply because it provides 50% arcane spell failure. It's a good defensive spell, but not worth it. Even if you manage to get autostill 0-9 to prevent this effect, the spell remains awful. Why? Because Iron body is then a superior choice.

Stoneskin, Greater: An improved stoneskin for yourself. Wizards like to use this as soon as they're able, but sorcerers can't afford a mediocre protection spell. You should only take this spell if you really can't afford premonition. And almost everyone can afford to get premonition.

Stone to Flesh: A great effect, but rarely used. It doesn't require a caster level, so its a very nice scroll to have around. But as a memorized spell? No.

Summon Creature VI: You summon a bear with a low duration and mediocre combat ability. Never worth it.

Superior Resistance: The effect is fantastic, and it lasts for a long time too. A great spell and an alternative to greater heroism. You should not pick both as a sorcerer. It won't stack with similar spells, and just be cautious since there is a +20 cap on saving throws from items and spells. Spellcraft factors in to that cap.

Tenser's Transformation: You get a little bit of AC and some other neat things, in exchange for the inability to cast spells. That seems like a bad trade, except for a gish who buffs up and then casts this. Either way, gishes may also be very cautious of this spell since no spellcasting is a deathtrap waiting to happen.

True Seeing: This spell is an improved form of blindsight, and allows you to see ethereal effects and sanctuary effects. Nothing of that is very useful.

Undeath to Death: This spell won't kill as many undead as circle of death, but it can kill midlevel undead unlike the circle. Still, its a fairly useless spell. It's not really worth it at epic levels
Last edited by Steve on Sun Jan 03, 2016 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Steve »

Level 7 spells

Avasculate: Okay, its a ranged touch attack so it can roll a 1 and its range is mediocre, but its a very reliable spell It simply just cuts the targets HP in half. The save is only there to see if the target gets stunned for 1 round as well. Avasculate can do alot of damage, but all the bosses on this server are protected against the full effect of this spell

Banishment: This is an awful spell because the level 5 dismissal is far superior. It has +2 DC yes, but dismissal gets a bonus to its DC when facing lower level targets, which Banishment doesn't get. Banishment is also capped on how many targets it can affect, unlike dismissal. Don't use this spell

Bigby's Grasping Hand: A very strong spell that can also be extended to allow greater spellbook flexibility. It simply prevent a target from moving, and that is a deathsign for anyone who is not a ranged attacker. It's very difficult to resist this spell and if you're a DC mage it gets even harder to resist against it.

Control Undead: You can take over any undead with this, but many of them have good will saves. Still, it occupied a summon slot and this spell could potentially become more powerful than anything you could cast. It's duration is also extremely good. However, its not a good sorcerer spell and its only useful for a DC wizard who wants to gamble a bit.

Delayed Blast Fireball: The only ambush spell in the game. You cast a few on the ground, wait, your victim passes by and all the spells fire at once giving you the power of several spellcasters at once in a limited amount of time. The duration is rather short, so this use of the spell is limited. Otherwise, it can function like a double fireball, but other damage spells outshine it.

Energy Immunity: This is a great spell that will protect you against any single element 100%. It can be breached, which is a weakness, but its effect is very powerful since it shuts down alot of spells against you. It's especially good in PvM, since most monsters are themed in doing specific kinds of damage.

Ethereal Jaunt: A fantastic spell that allows you to escape almost everything. The only thing that can hurt you is an area of effect. Excellent to cast to allow yourself to buff up or to evade a certain death. Almost all mages want one ethereal spell so its either this one or Greater Sanctuary (level 9 spell same as Etherealness). Most people prefer ethereal jaunt however since its a lower level spell and can be extended so you'll easier find a good use for it.

Finger of Death: Standard save or die spell Very nice for necromancers, mediocre range though. Most sorcerers look for other spells, since its single target and the level 7 slots are full of good choices.

Greater Teleport: It's the same as teleport, but it costs quite a bit more to cast for the benefit of avoiding the autofail on the roll of a 1. It also gives you a tiny bonus to your roll. Worth it? No, not really. It's reliable, but its also a higher slot and as a sorcerer you just can't afford that.

Hiss of Sleep: It's a mass holding spell of sorts, that stops working on a target as soon as they're attacked. Can disrupt alot of foes, but some classes and races are immune to this by default. It's more or less only for dedicated enchanters, and it won't hit party members either.

Hold Person, Mass: Allows a save every round. A bad spell that not even enchanters should consider since they've hiss of sleep.

Mordenkainen's Sword: It's actually not that bad since it has alot of immunities, but its duration is short and thus its seldom worth to use it. You want to buff your summons, and you can only do that with some efficiency if their duration is at least a minute per level.

Prismatic Spray: It's a decent spell that has had its damage doubled on this server. It's very random, and pretty much only for a evocation specialist since all of its outcomes require saves. Out of the 8 abilities, 3 are fairly bad and the rest are very good. A gambling spell but it helps alot that its an area of effect. Something good is bound to happen to some targets.

Shadow Conjuration, Greater: The only serious use you get out of this spell is the improved version of web. With a +5 DC compared to the web spell this one can seriously hinder a large group from moving at all.

Shadow Shield: A great defensive spell that not only protects you against one of the most dangerous spell schools, it also provides a permanent stoneskin and a permanent spiderskin. It can easily be breached, but the benefits are so good that its hard to resist.

Solipsism: A "save or do nothing" spell that is willbased. Should never be underestimated, since its effectively game over for the target if they fail. Most such spells have fortitude saves which plays into the strength of a melee character, but this spell changes all that. Its visual is also great, trapping the enemy in a box of light.

Spell Mantle: This is the most powerful mantle, simply because you can empower this (or maximize as an arcane scholar). It will provide you with a defence against quite a few spells, but it can't be quickened. The best use of it is casting it once before entering a dangerous PvM fight.

Summon Creature VII: A huge elemental with good duration. Don't take this spell since there are better summons out there and they're worth it.


Level 8 spells


Bigby's Clenched Fist: This spell can do alot of damage over the course of many rounds, and meanwhile it attempts to stun its target as well to prevent escape. Even if they save once, they need to succeed again in the next round and so on. However the spell can't be in effect at the same time as any other bigby spell and most of those are a superior choice. An enemy that succeds on a save or is immune to stun can move about as normal while this spell takes effect, limiting its effectiveness.

Blackstaff: If it was a breach effect and not a dispel effect it could be considered a rather cool spell As it is however, its a lesser version of greater magic weapon that forces you to use a quarterstaff in melee, to produce a bad effect. Don't even consider picking this spell

Blindness/Deafness, Mass: The area of effect is not that great, but the effect is. It's a fortitude against blindness and deafness. Blindness is great against spellcasters, since they can't use targetting spells while blinded. Deafness is also great against them, since they suffer a 20% spell failure. Bards won't be able to use their songs either. A decent spell and the masterpiece of any gnome illusionist.

Charm Monster, Mass: Not a very good spell at best its a disruption effect for an enchanter specialist. Monsters will become non-hostile, until you attack them again.

Create Greater Undead: This spell has a mediocre duration at 2 rounds/lvl, and its random. It can either summon a decent undead warrior who carries a +3 greatsword, or it will summon a mediocre warlock who does little damage. A gamble, but its a very good summon if you can get the warrior and buff him up. The warlock can be useful if you can keep it alive, but usually what you want out of a summon is a meatshield, and thus the warlock is often frowned upon. Both summons regenerate for 5 HP per round as vampires, so they're quite adept at staying alive to serve you. Be aware that using this spell is autoconsent to PvP.

Deadly Lahar: The best part is that it requires no SR, and thus avoids mantles and such. The worst part is that its a spell that the target must fail against to work adequately. The description however is wrong in how it works. This is how it works. If they save, they take 9D6 damage. If they fail, they take 18D6 damage, then half that amount for 2 rounds. For example, if they fail and you do 60 damage, the spell will do 30 more damage after 1 round and another 30 damage in the second round, for a total of 120 damage. So its actually either 9D6 or 38D6, making this spell a gamble. Also, should they fail the save they're slowed for 2 rounds. The slow effect is great since it reduces attacks coming at you and decreases their movement speed, but is this spell worth it? For a DC specialist, perhaps, and for anyone who wants to gamble. An arcane scholar can empower this spell and if an enemy fails the save that's a massive 57D6 damage (average of 200 damage).

Greater Rainbow Blast: This spell is a bit awkward since its a straight line of damage. Targets usually don't line up that way, and the random elemental damage is actually a bad thing since it can then be resisted better by a multitude of creatures. The damage is decent, however.

Greater Shout: A very good spell as well, this one is a cone that does sonic damage. While the damage in itself is below horrid wilting and its area of effect is lesser, this spell makes up for it by providing the secondary effect of deafness. Now, what makes this spell so great is that if the target fails their save they're deaf for 4D6 rounds. If they make the save, they're deaf for 2D6 rounds. Being deaf is a huge detriment to spellcasters since it provides a 20% arcane spell failure. To make it even better this spell stacks with itself. Yeah, if you cast 5 of these on a single target, they'll get 100% arcane spell failure for a few rounds.

Horrid Wilting: A great spell that can be empowered if you've arcane scholar levels for even more efficiency. It will never hurt you, and its area of effect is quite big. It is a fortitude save, but the damage is also magical so its useful against everything. A very strong choice for a DC spellcaster, especially a necromancer.

Incendiary Cloud: Inferior damage, since its hard to make monsters stay within a specific area. Even if you can hold them down, a spell like cloudkill will do more damage. It's saving grace is the no SR and that it works well against undead who are usually susceptible to fire, but it won't justify a sorcerer slot for that. Hell, its not even worth it for a wizard against undead.

Iron Body: This spell provides you with great stuff, but it comes loaded with 50% arcane spell failure. You can only avoid that by going with autostill 0-9, however, those builds usually include palemaster and that class gets the biggest benefits of this spell already. As such, its extremely rare to find a good use of this spell for you.

Mind Blank: A good spell that provides you and your entire party with immunity against mind spells. Of course, you often have good will saves yourself, but your fellow party members might not. However, wasting a few protections of alignment will basically get you the same thing, so this spell is at its peak when there is alot of people in your party and you're going to face monsters/players of a neutral alignment.

Planar Binding, Greater: The summon is very weak for a creature at this spell level, and the alternative use of the spell to paralyze outsiders is weak as well since it allows a save every round to get out of it. Avoid this spell

Polar Ray: It's an average of 105 damage to the face, no save, with a chance of a critical hit. Thats almost the same as most warlock blasts, so why waste a spell slot for this? Well, you only do that if you've arcane scholar levels, because that allows you to empower the spell for great effect to an average of 156 damage. Frost mages are also particularly fond of this deadly spell

Power Word Petrify: This spell only functions if the target has 100 HP or less, and if they do, it kills them. Wouldn't you rather want a spell that does more than 100 damage, thus having a much higher utility? Yes you would, and thats why you avoid this spell even if it doesn't require a save.

Power Word Stun: This spell only functions if the target has 150 HP or less. It then stuns them for some time. This can be a decent spell to follow up a heavy damage assault with, since it requires no save. It would then prevent the target from healing itself. It is however a bit mediocre since you can't quicken it, and if the target heals between your damage spell and the casting of this you will have wasted a round. <span style="color: #FF40FF">Premonition: [/color] This spell is so good at defending your HP total. Yes, it can be breached and yes its only for you, but the 30/adamantine reduction is fantastic and ensures you will only get interrupted on a critical. It's also more or less a must pick because the other level 8 spells lack the "oomph" that the other spell levels has.

Protection from Spells: Another good defensive spell for you and your party, against all the save-based spells out there. The duration is long, so there is no need to extend it (if you do, you should pick shades instead). A solid pick.

Summon Creature VIII: The greater elemental is a solid choice. It has many good immunities, it can take some punishment and it lasts for a very long time. The difference between this and an elder elemental is not that big.

Sunburst: It's a reflexsave or be blinded. That works greatly against other spellcasters since their worst save is typically reflex, and if they're blind they can't cast targetting spells at you. This spell can also do very nice damage to undead, particularly if you've arcane scholar levels so it can be empowered.

Wall of Greater Dispel Magic: The visual is great, but the effect is lacklustre at the epic levels. This is a nice spell in the midlevel range, but its hard to find an efficient use for it. It's not everyday that you face more than one buffed up spellcaster in PvM, thus its hard to justify the spell

Level 9 spells

Bigby's Crushing Hand: It holds a single enemy in check, and its extremely hard to resist that holding effect too. It also deals quite a bit of long-term damage, and this spell can singlehandedly kill a creature on its own even if it takes some time. A great choice.

Burst of Glacial Wrath: A cone that will never kill anything. It just prefers to be flashy, so you can interrogate the targets if they're PCs. Still, the damage is lacklustre for a spell of this level.

Dominate Monster: Can be cast on any target, and you can actually have this and a summon active at the same time for double carnage. It's duration is not that bad, but its very situational. Works great in areas where monsters don't deal much damage, but are hard to kill. However, this spell is green only for an enchanter specialist, or a very high DC spellcaster. It's mostly a wizard spell since sorcerers are hardpressed to afford this spell out of the three choices they get.

Energy Drain: This ranged touch attack can score a critical, and if it does you deal 4D6 negative levels. That's massive, and the chances for that increases with the improved critical ranged touch attack feat to 10%. Negative levels will affect AB, Saves, HP and such, and it severely hampers its target. Sadly, you may need to dispel some targets first due to the good amount of spells/abilities out there that can protect against it, and it won't work against all targets.

Etherealness: This is a strong spell that will help you and your party members avoid certain death. But, if you cast this and later change areas or move up to spawns some distance away, they'll just ignore your protections! So be cautious. Most people pick either this spell or ethereal jaunt for their spellbook, since going ethereal is a very good life-saver.

Gate: The summon is not that bad. The sad part is that the horned devil wastes alot of time casting bad spells. The angel is better in that regard, which you get if you're a good character. If you get the angel this spell is green, since the angel can cast powerful spells like heal or implosion and automatically fires a powerword stun at enemies when the word will work. Regardless, the duration is low and that limits its use.

Hold Monster, Mass: Holding spell that allows a save every round to get out. Then it stops working. Like all hold X spells, its useless.

Meteor Swarm: A powerful damage spell for this level, especially for those lacking arcane scholar levels. The area of effect is huge, and it won't hurt you or your party members (provided they stay close to you). 40D6 damage to a single target, or spread the damage out all the way around you to several targets. A solid pick.

Mordenkainen's Disjunction: You may not use it that often, but when you do, oh man is this a great spell It automatically removes up to 6 spells, in particular the nice spells of spell resistance, mantles and shadow shield (clearing the way for death magic), as well as having a great chance of taking away other spells as well. This is the spell that makes spell battles such a tough endeavour for other classes to go up against arcane mages. Its main use will always be PvP, but in that area it reigns supreme.

Power Word Kill: Kills someone with 100 HP or less. Yeah, you want a spell that does more than 100 damage instead, so it can be of use more often and will always work. Avoid this spell

Shades: It's a great spell that combines the effects of premonition, shield and protection from spells into one. The duration is also great. However, its slightly redundant for sorcerers. At some point, you want to recast your premonition when it goes out. If you have shades instead of premonition, you will lose a level 9 spell instead of a level 8 spell in that case. That's not a nice trade, and picking both spells is very redundant. A wizard can get some nice use out of it though, by having a single slot for it and saving the other slots for something more useful.

Shadow Simulacrum: A great summon spell It won't work against bosses. However, it will work against everything else and most of the time it will improve upon its target by adding concealment. This spell is a great PvP spell that can completely shut down melee characters. It's of little use against spellcasting characters though, since it won't cast spells (but it does work well vs warlocks). Some people exploit this spell by having your familiar cast it on a foe. By doing that, the familiar becomes the master of the summon and as such it doesn't prevent you from getting another summon. It's thus possible to copy a target twice. Keep in mind that in PvP, you can always tell your shadow simulacrum to not use a lot of consumables and just start attacking at once through the behaviour tab.

Shapechange: This is a fun spell and not overly useful since you can't cast spells while transformed. The best use of this spell is the Iron Golem, since its immune against every spell that isn't a cloud like grease or a no SR spell Want to have a mage duel you said? Sure thing! *transforms*. Take note however that no abilities or stats from any items transfer during a shapechange.

Spell Mantle, Greater: A mediocre spell at best. The regular spell mantle is better since it will outshine this with metamagic use. It's also so easy to dispel this spell with a lesser breach, as this one is always the first spell to be removed. Still, it provides a powerful effect and it can work in PvM. Sorcerers should really find another mantle though.

Summon creature IX: A very strong summon spell that provides an excellent meatshield for you to hide behind. It has alot of immunities, can be buffed greatly and of course it has a good duration. Greater magic weapon only adds damage, not ab, to this summon but otherwise its really good.

Wail of the Banshee: The masterpiece of any necromancer, this spell is wonderful. It will never hurt you or your party members, and will always affect any creature in the area, even if they're hidden so its a great spell against rogues in PvP. It's also fantastic in PvM, especially for necromancers and DC mages. Its area of effect is truly spectacular, and the high DC save or die is lethal.

Weird: Death magic won't save you against weird. However, high saves will. The fact that it requires two failed saves to work diminishes its usefulness, and its only really nice for an illusionist. Most characters should avoid this spell though.
Last edited by Steve on Sun Jan 03, 2016 9:02 am, edited 2 times in total.

ARTHAYER ZORASTRYL — A Magistrati & Magefriend [Bio] * [The Wanderings of...]
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Aelcar
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Aelcar »

I do Steve!!

Wonderful :)
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by freekender »

Thanks a lot Steve! Those guides are extremely useful :D
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And more...
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Steve »

You are welcome. I'm formatting them now—since Karond's such a nice guy I thought I'd help him out (and get browny points as well...ahahahahah!).
Also, I'll search out the Cleric/Favored Soul lets as well.

Don't think the Cleric/Favored Soul spellbook is going to happen—Google didn't cache the first page with the list, and no other Search Engine caches backup up BGTSCC. Oh well!

ARTHAYER ZORASTRYL — A Magistrati & Magefriend [Bio] * [The Wanderings of...]
PANLOS PAWFOOT — The Essential Nature of...
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Karond
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Karond »

That's okay, I'll rewrite the cleric one then. Thanks Steve :)
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Maecius »

:mrgreen: Good work Steve! Let me or one of the DMs know once this has been reposted and we'll get it stickied.

And I'll try not to accidentally delete it again!
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by gallimar »

Waiting for cleric one, to also include the new spells!!!
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http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=153&t=47938
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Re: Karond's Caster Guides - please,can these be restored ?

Unread post by Karond »

gallimar wrote:Waiting for cleric one, to also include the new spells!!!
I'll try to get it done. Lots of things going on with the update.
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