Your favourite mage spell from each level

[Aerich]

If you had a mage in a six-character party and could only pick one mage spell from each level, which ones would they be?

Here's mine.

1. Chromatic Orb - damage + paralysation/stunning at higher levels.
2. Web - tough choice. Stops the melee attackers in their tracks. Mirror Image would be better for solo.
3. Haste - a necessity for tough battles or escapes.
4. Stoneskin - do you have to ask why?
5. Conjure Fire Elemental - dynamite with Haste; a troll killer. Cloudkill a close second for area damage to unsuspecting monsters.
6. Chain Lightning - dam' cool damage dealer.
7. Acid Storm - nasty, nasty, nasty. Long duration, area of affect, no risk of bad luck or successful saves negating the best effects of the spell (vs. Prismatic Spray or Finger of Death).
8. Iron Body - significant invulnerabilities + massive attacks.
9. Monster Summoning VII - fodder that isn't fodder.

If you can't remember the available spells, this place lists most of them, with descriptions. http://www.gamebanshee.com/icewinddale/spells.php

[Bozos of Bones]

Well Chromatic Orb takes first place on first level, with the Armor close second, continued my Web, Skull Trap, Beltyn's Burning Blood for effect on fourth, but Greater Malison is just behind. Fifth level fav is Cone of Cold, sixth is Death Spell and Mordenkainen's Sword is on level seven. I haven't played Heart of Winter, but this is just my dime, keep the change.

[pritchke]

1. Shocking Grasp (high damage, nice killer spell, can be tricky to use)
2. Mirror Image - As multiple uses, protection for your mage, from creaturs, damage, spells, and an alternative to disarming traps.
3. Fireball (Great selection of spells at level 3, so hard to choose, I am going with the classic fireball)
4. Stoneskin (Although another level of great spells, this is the one most used)
5. Cloud Kill but Sunfire if playing solo (Sunfire is the worst for parties)
6. Death Fog
7. Acid Storm
8. Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting
9. Monster Summoning VII (Best summon spell, Power Word:Kill is OK, but I find Disintegrate to work better although not as quickly cast. They are best used against things like Cyclops, Ettins or giants, Monster Summoning VII is useful all the time and you don't have to worry about saving throws. )

[ 06-30-2004, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Xen]

1) Chromatic Orb
2) Mirror Image/Web
3) Fireball/Haste
4) Stoneskin (a real life saver)
5) Cloudkill (cheesy)
6) Chain Lightning
7) Acid Storm
8) ADHW
9) Power Word: Kill

[ashsays]

I am oly going to list 1 -7. 8th and 9th level I really never use.

1. Magic misle
2. Mirror image ( key to keeping your MU alive early in the game)
3. Skull trap
4. Otilukes resilant sphere (send out party members as scout and cast on him. All monsters will converge on the scout. Then cast all your area of effect spells. this strategy is a lock.)
5. Conjure Elemental
6. Disintergrate
7. Morenkains Sword

[Dundee Slaytern]

Chromatic Orb only makes sense if you intend to use it in conjunction with other spells that lower the enemies' saving throws. Such detrimental spells include Greater Malison, Curse, Prayer, Recitation, etc... ...

As such, I will go with the ever reliable Magic Missile for my level one spell pick. On a sidenote, Shield is a very useful spell.

Level two is an almost no-contest. Web is a huge tide-turner in many battles, especially when your entire party has Rings of Free Action( or the spell).

Haste has the unfortunate effect of making the user(s) fatigued, so I only use it as a last resort. Nah... my pick for level 3 will be the counterspell, Slow. Slow is one badly underlooked spell in IWD, but it is easily one of the most overpowered spells in the game. Not many spells have a -4 penalty to save against. Not to mention its' horrific penalties to your movement speed, AC and THAC0.

Level four has a lot of good spells... and I wish I could pick Emotion:Hopelessness but since we can only have one, I pick Stoneskin.

Lower Resistance will my level five pick. No point having uber spells if they all just bounce off the enemy. Only one creature( AFAIK) in the entire IWD game is immuned to this spell.

If I was feeling machoistic, I would choose Chain Lightning. Instead however, I shall choose Globe of Invulnerability.

Seven Eyes for my level seven spell pick. Power Word:Stun is pretty potent too, IF you have an AI script to handle it. Mordenkainen's Sword is not as potent in IWD as it is in BG2. Acid Storm is nice too.

Iron Body's penalties outweighs the benefits in my opinion. The whole point of being a Mage is to cast spells. Not to go around punching people. Resistance bonuses be damned, nothing potions will not cover and without the speed penalty too. Nah, my pick will by Mind Blank because I hate, REALLY HATE it when the enemy casts infinite Feebleminds and Hopelessness spells at me.

Again, if you have an AI script to handle it, I would go with Power Word:Kill. Otherwise, it will be Monster Summoning VII. Sidenote to pritchke, you cannot save against Power Word:Kill.

[Dragonshadow]

1) magic missile (low casting time, very damaging)
2) Melf's Acid arrow (kills troll and pretty much else. Fast)
3) Flame arrow (nice. also kils troll, etc)
4) Stoneskin. (If you don't know why.... how could you. My mage ALWAYS has a stoneskin activated. Except when shopping)
5) Sunfire (Like a fireball, but it doesn't hurt your mage. Bang.)
6) Otiluke's Freezing Sphere ("It's big, it's cold, it turns you into ice, it's Otiluke...." DId this guy think of everything or what?)
7) Mordenkeinen's Sword (you don't need to be near 'em to kill 'em)
8) Iron body (for when stoneskins fail)
9) Power word kill (death. Now. )