Chill Touch

[Aerich]

Question for those of you who've actually used this spell. Is it stackable with a weapon, or does the fact that it is a touch spell mean that you can only cause damage with the spell effect?

What I'm hoping (albeit faintly) is that you can use Cold Touch in combination with a weapon, e.g. add the Chill Touch damage and effects (Str loss or undead fear) to a normal melee attack. Otherwise, it will sit in my spell repertoire, unused and practically worthless.

In the event that it's not stackable with weapons, is it stackable with other touch spells? I have the happy thought of touching an enemy once and having it hit with Chill Touch, Lich Touch, Shocking Grasp and Vampiric Touch all in one go.

Edit: it would also be an awesome complement to some of the evil cleric (reverse healing) spells.

[ 11-22-2004, 03:03 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Otto]

I don't think you can make "chill-touch arrows" or anything like that by casting the spell and attacking with a weapon. I think you just cast and touch, and that's it.

[ 11-22-2004, 08:09 AM: Message edited by: Otto ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Otherwise, it will sit in my spell repertoire, unused and practically worthless.

What you said.

[Calagari]

I never used chill touch as it was too dangerous for my mage to be in such close contact with the enemy.

Originally posted by Aerich: Question for those of you who've actually used this spell. Is it stackable with a weapon, or does the fact that it is a touch spell mean that you can only cause damage with the spell effect? What I'm hoping (albeit faintly) is that you can use Cold Touch in combination with a weapon, e.g. add the Chill Touch damage and effects (Str loss or undead fear) to a normal melee attack. Otherwise, it will sit in my spell repertoire, unused and practically worthless. In the event that it's not stackable with weapons, is it stackable with other touch spells? I have the happy thought of touching an enemy once and having it hit with Chill Touch, Lich Touch, Shocking Grasp and Vampiric Touch all in one go. Edit: it would also be an awesome complement to some of the evil cleric (reverse healing) spells.

[Aerich]

I never used chill touch as it was too dangerous for my mage to be in such close contact with the enemy.

Same, Calagari. I can remember a lengthy discussion about the value of touch spells (specifically Shocking Grasp) a few months ago. I rarely use it, the same as I rarely use any touch spell.

However, a dual or multi class mage would have enough HP to get in there and use those under-utilized touch spells. I was hoping that touch spells can "stack", in the sense that one could cast two or more and have all the effects happen with one touch. That would minimize the risk and maximize the benefit.

I could also see touch spells being a benefit to a DC or MC Mage/Thief. It would be a good complement to a backstab, to finish off anything that survived the initial hit. The nice thing about SG is that it does decent damage and has a casting time of 1. Alternatively, you could just memorize Magic Missile and get the same result, which is why a lot of people don't bother with the 1st level touch spells.

[Lucern]

Only speaking for general D&D rules here, for I've admitted to not yet playing this masterpiece...

Perhaps this is worth testing, because it may not be in the game, but I've got the 2nd Edition player's handbook here and it says that "Chill Touch has a special effect on undead creatures. Undead touched by the caster suffer no damage or strength loss, but they must successfully save vs. spell or flee for 1d4 rounds + 1 per level of the caster."

So it basically turns them.

As for level one spells that aren't magic missile (great spell, but so stereotypical of mages hehe), Burning Hands with its +1 per character level (20 limit), and Shocking Grasp with its 1d8 +2 damage per level (no limit!) have some impressive damage. With burning hands of course you don't have to touch them.

[Aerich]

Re: the Chill Touch effect on undead - the spell description in the game says the same thing. I've never tried it though, because my general policy of not letting my mage get within arms length of the enemy goes *double* when the enemy is undead. If there's any undead that I can't deal with by normal means (weapons and Turn Undead), they'd probably save vs. spell anyway.

Now if you could combine the Chill Touch effect with Shocking Grasp, it would be worth memorizing. I'll have to try it down the road sometime. I forgot about the no upper limit on Shocking Grasp. I may have to start using it. Burning Hands isn't my favourite, because again, you have to be fairly close. Worse, you either have to be out front or accept that some of your other characters will get hurt. If I'm far enough separated from my group or in a position to cast BH without hurting anyone, I'm probably risking too much. That said, I do memorize BH on occasion, if I anticipate going up against trolls or fire-sensitive creatures.

[Q'alooaith]

I use chill touch, it's better than magic missle or shocking grasp, because you can do more than one hit with it.

Shocking grasp is quite good, but tends to fizzle what you only having one chance to hit and if you miss it goes poof..

Burning hands, well it's an area effect spell so alway's worth having on standby for that group that's gotten too close, best way to use it so you don't burn your own guy's is to have everyone but the mage fall back and have him start casting just as the move level with him.

[Calagari]

I had a level 13 fighter/cleric. As many times I used the turn undead button I never saw any results of it working. I would hear a musical tone but the skeletons just kept on coming. Maybe I was doing something wrong in the way I used it. I would hit the button as the party was being attacked. I never once saw them turn away.

Originally posted by Lucern: Only speaking for general D&D rules here, for I've admitted to not yet playing this masterpiece... Perhaps this is worth testing, because it may not be in the game, but I've got the 2nd Edition player's handbook here and it says that "Chill Touch has a special effect on undead creatures. Undead touched by the caster suffer no damage or strength loss, but they must successfully save vs. spell or flee for 1d4 rounds + 1 per level of the caster." So it basically turns them. As for level one spells that aren't magic missile (great spell, but so stereotypical of mages hehe), Burning Hands with its +1 per character level (20 limit), and Shocking Grasp with its 1d8 +2 damage per level (no limit!) have some impressive damage. With burning hands of course you don't have to touch them.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Your Cleric needs to activate Turn Undead for at least a round( 7 seconds) before it works. The Cleric must not make any aggressive motions during that round, but the Cleric can still walk around.