Sorcerer Spell Selection

[Louvaine]

I'll try to test them on my own, but if you see me in game before results are posted, feel free to reach out to assist!

By the way, totally happy with your research on the non-good stuff, too. No judging, just want to help you have your fun.

[blowuup]

Final Flare is fantastic with Mastery of Shaping from Archmage!

Energy Spheres is pretty bad.

[Glowfire]

Final Flare is fantastic with Mastery of Shaping from Archmage!

Energy Spheres is pretty bad.

Thanks! I won't go with Archmage but I'll have ASoC. Those Archmage feats are pretty cool though. How do you typically use Final Flare, under what circumstances/to what effect?

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I have another random spell question.


For gish-builds. Does Stone Body/Iron Body factor in at all? If you use Tenser's, both give ASF so you can't cast both on yourself unless you used one from scroll/potion (I can't remember if ASF is a thing when casting from scrolls, I think not). I'm just curious how people would apply those spells.

[Louvaine]

Conducted some testing on Bigby's with Xorena - thanks for help! Here are results.

Bigby's Forceful Hand (6th circle) is a bull rush. It knocks the target down and places dazed effect on them. This is why spell's description says "Bigby's Forceful Hand can be resisted if the target has both knockdown immunity and immunity to mind-affecting spells." And that means the target (assuming not resistant and failing checks) cannot move, cannot use items, cannot cast spells or use spell-like abilities. I'm assuming that the check is easier to pass than Bigby's Grasping Hand (7th circle). The spell also loses plenty of its potential against creatures immune to mind-affecting spells. Which is a lot of creatures on higher CR areas I'm told.

Bigby's Grasping Hand (7th circle) on the other hand (see what I did there? ) simply grapples the target. That means that target cannot move, but can still cast spells, can still use items and spell-like abilities. So stuff like Wand of Dimension Door or Elixir of Teleport is still viable for PvP. In PvE? I think it's a superior choice against some monsters. Mainly those focused on melee, where lack of ability to move will prohibit them from attacking. I have to assume that the check is more difficult to pass on Bigby's Grasping Hand (7th circle) than on Bigby's Forceful Hand (6th circle).

Hope this helps. Remember that Bigby's Hands are still a decent tank. It's not a bad trade off to pay 6th level spell slot to have a 500 HP and 30AC tank for 1round/CL.

[Zkenic]

Bigbys 6, 7, and 9 are all worth getting.

Bigbys 6 uses KD, so big monsters are often immune to it. Still, PvP its nice and in PvE just dont use it on giants as it completely shuts them down if they can be KD.

Bigbys 7 and 9 both have a paralysis effect that you cannot be immune to. Palemaster or Undead? Doesnt matter. Freedom of Movement? Doesnt matter. Just that nice juicy roll against AB+Strength (and technically and attack vs AC, but its mostly guaranteed to hit if you are going maxed charisma).

Bigbys 8 is a stunning effect which most creatures are immune to. Skip Bigbys 8.

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As for Stone Body and Iron Body, they are mainly useful if you are going to go still spell. Though situationally useful elsewhere, if you have auto-still you can cast it then keep casting your other magics. Tensor's just flat out makes you fail spell casting, so if you want to stack both, do Stone/Iron Body -> Still Tensors. Wont work the other way around.

[Glowfire]

Louvaine - Thank you, and Xorena, for testing a few things! It confirms what we thought the differences were but it's really nice to have the pro's and con's lined up like that.

Zkenic - Very insightful. There's certainly some spell combinations/ways of play I've never done so it's fun to learn of them.

[Winterborne]

One is a bull rush with knockdown and the other a grapple. Difference might be in what you can do/use as you say, maybe?

"A target that is bull rushed is knocked down and is dazed for the duration of the spell." - https://bgtscc.fandom.com/wiki/Bigby%27s_Forceful_Hand

So Bigby's Forceful Hand bull rushes. What does Grapple actually means? Like can't move? I can't find it on wiki, we'd have to test it.

Make sure you're using the correct wiki - the one you linked to does not have correct info on the Bigby spells.

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title ... ceful_Hand

Bigby 6 additionally makes that check every round or so, so you can get knocked down and then get up and run a bit, and then get knocked down again. It's not KD=>Win.

[spyvsspy]

Plus: Bigby7 and 9, there will be also a giant hand appear. While attempting to disable the spell target every round, other monsters may try to attack the giant hand. So it's very useful to break monster foes up