Some get better, some stay the same

[pcgiant]

Infravision is always a good spell, even if you're level 20. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

Seriously, the useful level 1 spells are, in my opinion: Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Spook, Friends, Protection from Evil. The rest aren't that good, except in rare situations.

[Lord Lothar]

Originally posted by pcgiant: Infravision is always a good spell, even if you're level 20. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] Seriously, the useful level 1 spells are, in my opinion: Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Spook, Friends, Protection from Evil. The rest aren't that good, except in rare situations.

Pssh, you forgot Identify.

[pcgiant]

Originally posted by pcgiant: Infravision is always a good spell, even if you're level 20. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] Seriously, the useful level 1 spells are, in my opinion: Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Spook, Friends, Protection from Evil. The rest aren't that good, except in rare situations.

[ 09-03-2003, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: pcgiant ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Deja'Vu... I could have sworn I have stated this correction before.

For the record, Magic Missiles do not remove Stoneskins. I repeat. Magic Missiles do not remove Stoneskins. Only Physical Damage will remove Stoneskins. Magic Missiles deal Magic Damage.

Chromatic Orb has a chance to petrify at level 10-11, and instant-kill at 12+.

[Faceman]

well, along with Chromatic Orb not petrifying this is the second time I've been fooled by the manual. Although I should know from common use that MM does not disable Stoneskins but rather go through them I trusted the manual again.
The spell description for Stoneskin in the last lines clearly states:

It is important to note that this will not protect the wizard from any magical attacks such as fireball, however, it will protect him from physical magical attacks such as magic missile.

Now I wonder about the definition of MM. Does it do physical dmg or magical dmg? Should the Stoneskin text be changed or the MM effects? Anybody here know about the correct answer in PnP?

[ 09-04-2003, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: Faceman ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Trust No Manual

Read Alson's Spell Reference Guide. Link can be found in the FAQ.

[Olorin]

Originally posted by Faceman: almost forgot about another nice "sideeffect" of magic missile (which BTW is my lvl1 spell of choice). As every missile counts as one attack it takes down stoneskins pretty quickly if no counterspells are available or working. With the fivefold attack you can have a lvl20 wizards stoneskin down in just two rounds. Not even Mazzy with Tugian can do it that fast.

Actually, Mazzy can take out a stoneskin in just one shot with the Arrows of Dispelling [img]smile.gif[/img]

I like to keep a mixture of chromatic orbs and magic missiles in my level one slots. Magic missiles are safer to use for spell disrupting if the enemy has magic resistance, since they have to resist each missle separately. Chromatic orbs are good for hitting mid level enemies to disrupt spellcasting and maybe get the added effect. Whilst my spell casters are in the level range for the petrify effect, I remove the CO's to avoid petrifying boots of speed (very frustrating!). I have been able to kill dragons in short order using a first round barrage of anti-magic resistance and saving throw spells, followed by a minor sequencer with 3 CO's at high enough level to get the insta-kill effect.

At lower levels, CO's are good to throw at melee enemies--they are unlikely to have any resistance to the damage, and if they fail their save, a couple rounds of being stunned or paralyzed will allow your tanks to finish them. Even without the special effect, the CO does almost as much damage as a MM of the same level.

[Assassin]

Slow. Better than quite a few spells in my opinion. Does all sorts of things, and has a -4 to save modifier. By comparison, Chromatic Orb gives a whooping +6 to enemy saves. Not to mention that it has a low cast time, is available at level 3, and its save modifier can be combined with Greater Malison. Slow'ing the enemy also gives you an advantage in that you can run away faster than them, if you get in trouble.

[ 09-05-2003, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: Assassin ]

[Lord]

Originally posted by Lord Lothar: quote: Originally posted by pcgiant: Infravision is always a good spell, even if you're level 20. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] Seriously, the useful level 1 spells are, in my opinion: Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Spook, Friends, Protection from Evil. The rest aren't that good, except in rare situations.

Pssh, you forgot Identify. [/QUOTE]Identify? I have not memorized that spell even once in all of ToB, and most of SoA. To me, it's a waste of a spell slot since you can get a spell caster's/thief's lore high enough to ID just about any item once you get to a higher level. And a high level Bard with good intell/wisdom should be able to ID pretty much all items. And also, giving a store 100 gold to ID an item isn't a big loss since gold is very abundant in the game. You could also just go use a scroll of identify or glasses of IDing (although I've only gotten 1 of these so far...i think from a certain spell) .

[Devv]

I am still using magic missile even when I get late into the game. I don't understand why people like the friends spell though? 18 charisma, so what? Is that good for shop keepers and nothing else? I didn't realise that chromatic orb was so powerful, I only thought it worked ont hings like goblins. Sounds to me like they should have made it not work on higher level monsters.

"Protection from evil" is always a nice one however the priest spell "prot from evil 10 radius" does the job even nicer. Protection from petrify is cool and spook works well. With 8 slots I would have something like 5 magic missiles, 1 protection from perification and 2 spooks.