[Aerich]

Does it ever seem that quite a few spells are almost totally worthless and, even if they have a use, that other spells are so much more useful?

Take first and second lvl mage spells, for example. If you're not in HoF mode, what use is Chill Touch with its minimal damage and loss of strength? Any tough monster that sticks around for more than two or three rounds (making the loss of strength an actual factor) will have good saving throws and probably will not be affected. Oh, you can make a single undead run away each round if you can hit them with it first? Well unfortunately, you have to touch them to do so, which means you have to be in melee range, which means they can crush your fragile spellcaster. Right, this spell makes Turn Undead redundant...

And what about Laerloch's Minor Drain? Even necromancers can cast Magic Missile, so there's very little point to this spell, except at the very lowest levels when you only get one MM and the HP drain of Laerlochs can actually save your mage's pitiful hide.

Decastave is a little more useful, but it requires your spellcaster to actually hit something in melee combat. Yes sir, that happens all the time. Wouldn't it be better to invest in a Mirror Image so as not to get hit, or a Melf's Acid Arrow to do better (and more reliable) damage? It's not even useful for Fighter/Mages, as any respectable Fighter/Mage will have proficiency or better in a more effective weapon than a staff. Granted there is that tiny window of time in the Vale of Shadows where you may not have magical weapons but need to hit undead that can only be damaged by magical weapons, but really... anyone heard of Agannazar?

I've also never (in just four tries, admittedly) been able to get Ghoul Touch to work. Looks like a cool spell in the description, but if the enemy saves, that's it, one 2nd level spell wasted. At least web affects an area (no problem for us with Rings of Free Action and/or ranged weapons) and can "re-paralyse" on successive rounds if a save is made. Given that there are so few "single massive monster against the whole party" battles, Ghoul Touch is not very useful most of the time, and a big gamble the rest of the time. Better to cast Chromatic Orb; it's quicker, cheaper, and paralyses for a longer duration.

Infravision is even more useless. Most areas are decently lit, and any party made entirely of humans can either fumble around in the semi-dark or drink those too-numerous potions of Infravision.

And don't even get me started on Detect Evil. Why would a mage cast this? Even for role-play purposes it doesn't make much sense. In PnP RPGs, this spell is supposed to be an insult for the person subjected to it (or maybe that's Know Alignment), making them rather hostile. I cast this once in the tavern of Kuldahar, and made Lysan run away. Woo-hoo! The only possible use I can think of for this spell is for Paladins, to make sure that their Smite Evil is actually directed at evil things. Even so, it wouldn't be worth casting if Paladins didn't get it for free.

How about Lightning Bolt? You can't even cast it at the last monster in a line and hit the whole line, because it doesn't do damage until it hits its intended target. Well, cast it at the first in line, you say? All right, but unless you're in an area where the walls are super far apart, that Bolt will ricochet randomly off the walls and most likely do more damage to your party than to the enemy. I've seen it suggested that a good strategy is to send a stealthed thief near a group of enemies, drop an arrow, and target the arrow with Lightning, thus allowing the bolt to bounce around to its heart's content far away from the party. Ok, but unless you're really short of Fireballs and Skull Traps, who's going to do that?

Anyway, there's my rant, kudos to those who read it all the way through =) Feel free to add your own most-disliked spells to the list.