Favorites...(spoilers)

[teardropmina]

ok, we've had many of this kind of threads, even recently, but I would like to talk about some "specific" favorites, which haven't been covered for a while (in the name of not raising old threads... )
Standard SoA mainly, some Tactics spoilers maybe (anyone who likes to reply, if want to mention ToB stuff please add ToB spoiler warnings, TIA)

1. favorite recuritable NPC:
Mazzy. mainly fight with shield and sword style: short sword (SS of backstabbing and then cutthroat) + Shield of Harmony in most situations. Even without boosting strength and speed through items, she can boost her own strength and speed; plus she can cast lay on hands [to herself] and invoke courage [to the whole party].

2. favorite priest spells:
a. Insect Plague: the anti-mage spell
b. Chaotic Command (too bad it's not an AoE spell; that'll be too much I guess [img]tongue.gif[/img] )
c. Holy Smite: in higher lvl and in later stage of the game (well into ToB and to the end, more and more powerful and useful).

3. favorite wizard spells
a. Skull trap: seem odd ehh? well, any seemingly unwinable battle (playing standard SoA as newbie or later playing tactics) can be resolved by this spell; probably not using it very often, but it's nice to know it's there
b. Protection From Magic Energy: go in a tough mage or lich battle, and laugh at their ADHWs (especially those chain contingency see enemy Tactics ones)
c. Breach (however, not really appreciated in Tactics since the smarter mage's SI + invisibility trick make them untargetable and therefore unbreachable)

4. favorite summons
* early in the game (actually still quite valuable all way to the end),
Fire Elementals and the Air Elemental from Staff of Air.
* later in the game, Skeleton Warriors and Mordy swords.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

1. Either Jahiera or Viconia, for their personalities and the voiceacting... I like the way they sound, and have actually made a custom soundset that uses several of their sounds, including both of their battlecries. I also love Jan for the banter.

2. Chaotic Commands. First spell of the day. I also like Sunray and, of course, we have to mention Nature's Beauty, Iron Skins, Insect Plague, and Energy Blades, the four spells that make druids unstoppable against NPC enemies.

3. Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and Magic Missile, the staple of any decent mage. Also in running are Spell Immunity, Flame Arrow, and PfME.

4. Well, fire elementals got me through the first half of the Chronicles... but they can't hold a candle to Planetars. Skeleton Warriors also bear mentioning here.

[Armen]

1. favorite recruitable NPC:
Jahiera I think - in the only game that I've finished she became a bit of a one-dimensional sling-and-buff character tactically but she gets some great lines and i really liked her subplots and i think i didn't even see all of it (the romance didn't get past the underdark)

I was going to say Minsc for obvious reasons [img]smile.gif[/img] but he seemed to be a bit of a damage magnet which wound me up a bit.

2. favorite priest spells:
Insect Plague is marvelous spell

3. favorite wizard spells
I really haven't got myelf into magic yet (although i have realised that doing so will involve a PC upgrade) so mothing particularly creative here but no support mage should leave home without Improved Haste and Breach

4. favorite summons
None really - I usually ended up killing my own summons rather than waiting for them to expire!

[JrKASperov]

1. Edwin, for his oh so evil acting while really he is a bad loser . His accent is great too, and I love his arrogance.

2. I tend to use Hold Person a lot. Great spell.

3. Must be Time Stop. Stop time, unleash hell, see enemies fall...

4. I think those fire elementals are cute. I hardly ever use summons though.

[IranicuS]

1. well...2 actually...edwin (ofcourse) and hear dalis( cause all the nonsense he says)...
2 mass cure and for druids insect plague
3 well time stop...and spell sequence( lvl 7) with 2 fireball and skull trap... [img]tongue.gif[/img] ...also disintegrate is it works...
4 well my celebros (or something) which i gained when I was a ranger...does remember me a little to drizzt his panther...

[Jaradu]

1) Wow... I seriously can't think! For some reason I'm edging towards Anomen though. Of course, I rarely (if ever) have a party without Jan.

2) Ressurection if I can't be bothered to reload. Else, Chaotic Commands.

3) Protection from magic - I can go get a drink while my party safely hacks away at Kangaxx.

4)Hmmmm... I have a thing for hakeshars.

[teardropmina]

Originally posted by Illumina Drathiran'ar: 3. Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and Magic Missile, the staple of any decent mage. Also in running are Spell Immunity, Flame Arrow, and PfME. 4. Well, fire elementals got me through the first half of the Chronicles... but they can't hold a candle to Planetars. Skeleton Warriors also bear mentioning here.

ehhh...forgot about Stoneskin that's the most frequently casted wizard spell, and it becomes like sorta 2nd nature to me. that's why I forgot to mention it I guess [img]tongue.gif[/img] as for ToB summons, yeah, they're much better than standard SoA ones, also prettier to look at

Originally posted by Jaradu: 3) Protection from magic - I can go get a drink while my party safely hacks away at Kangaxx.

eh, I think the green scroll doesn't count as either wizard or priest spell?

[Jaradu]

eh, I think the green scroll doesn't count as either wizard or priest spell?

Ah, touche . In that case, either: Meteor Swarm, Horror Wilting, or Timestop. Don't make me choose [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ZFR]

1. Valygar.

2. Healing spells, also insect plague, flame strike, implosion, sunray

3. Offensive ones, excluding AoE which harm party members and excluding instant death spells... eg. magic missile, flame arrow, melfs acid arrow, MMM, ADHW and others... I dont use mirror image and stoneskin because my mages are always at the back during fights and dont get into damage anyway so I think those spells a waste..

4. Spiderspawn for early levels... Planetar and devas for higher.. I also like djinnis for the way they look.

[Skunk]

Surprised that no-one mentioned the mage spell 'Chaos'.
Always gets most (if not all) of the other team running around in circles while you pick them off at leisure.