Best/Worst spells?

[Krull]

In my last post I was told there were 101 spells in the game.

I wonder which are the best and worst spells? Obviously I have my own views on these but am interested on what you think. You never know, perhaps I'm avoiding some decent spells as I have'nt realised how useful they are.

I've pinched one of Oru's party and am trying the four hobbit party (Sam, Valk & two Bishops). What I would like to know in particular is good spells for the first third of the game and which ones to avoid. I'm being selective as I know what spells I can buy in Arnika etc so have resisted selecting any of these (except, for example, Insanity as it's just too useful at the start).

Finally, with my previous party I've reached Ferro. What are the best level 6 & 7 spells to get. Are there any clunkers I should avoid?

Thanks.

[el_kalkylus]

Worst spells. This is my list:

Sonic boom, paralyze, charm, dracon breath, holy water, hypnotic lure, and itching skin (never works).

The only thing positive about these spells is that they give the caster more mana and makes you practice certain spell schools if you like to do that.

I think it's not so good to save spell picks, that only makes the journey harder. Pick noxious fumes, fireball, guardian angel, missile shield, energy blast, frost, acid splash, heal, blinding flash, and especially web. These will make your journey much easier IMHO. The earlier you get guardian angel the better.

About level 6 spells: I don't think you will have any difficulty choosing here. I usually go with resurrection (esp. in smaller parties), boiling blood, firestorm and blizzard. Usually I have some level 4-5 spells that I can choose too.

[ 10-21-2002, 01:06 AM: Message edited by: el_kalkylus ]

[Twisted Brother]

My list of worst spells:

Hypnotic Lure, Terror, Paralyse, Sonic Boom, Itching Skin, Blinding Flash (don't like them running out [img]smile.gif[/img] ), Turncoat, Dracon Breath, Holy Water, Razor Cloak, Draining Cloud.

I like: Toxic Cloud, (Acid Bomb,) Freeze All, Fire Ring, Firestorm working together. Others are useful from time to time: Boiling Blood, EarthQuake, Asphyxiation, Dehydrate, Crush, Banish, Resurrection, Death Cloud, Superman, F&I-Balls, Whipping Rocks, ...

I prefer Radius , All-Target or Single-target spells.

[Oruboris]

For that group, I remember taking a couple attack spells and heal spells just to make it to arnika, but saved as many picks as possible. Never took a spell until I checked my list and made sure it wasn't going to be available for a long time.

Some of the enemy group attacks like terror can be useful when faced by large bunches o'baddies: nice to be able to make some run away for a round or 2...

Same with hypnotic lure. Useful against large groups of low level critter up to and through the swamp.

Generally seemed to me that body of stone and guardian angel, though useful, weren't really necessary that often.

The standard buffs though, are priceless.

I like the combination of Hex with cloud spells and mega death spells like asphyxiate.

Since you can make SO much money with an alchemist/bishop, I liked to buy all the spell books I could find, even if I couldn't use 'em yet, and store them for future use. Wasted a lot of money when I forgot what books I'd left where, but still finished with over a million gold...

Oru

[el_kalkylus]

The reason why I like guardian angel so much is because I can have my fighting class in the front row and never have to worry about him being unconscious, nausious, paralyzed, lose stamina etc, when hit by an enemy. It happens alot on expert difficulty in my experience.

Edit: Of course this could affect him when the guardian angel hp runs out, but with guardian angel, the odds are much higher to survive. I am especially referring to the beginning of the game when everyone are weak.

My tactics are usually to have one fighting class, then casters, so that's why I think like this. With two fighting classes, you always have backup if one should die.

[ 10-21-2002, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: el_kalkylus ]

[Wereboar]

Whether a spell is good or bad often depends on your party.
A few words to spells listed here as 'bad':

hypnotic lure - in my experience, one of the best spells against strong, mindless creatures - for example, mauligators and hogars. Especially useful in open areas like the swamp, agains groups of wasps.

guardian angel - if you don't want you fairy mage get killed by every big attack spell, it is a must. In addition, when you have small parties with only one frontline character (currently have 1 fighter + 4 sepcialized spellcasters in expert/ironman), its very useful to protect your front-liner against ko and the like.

draining cloud - useful against large groups that casted element shield.

stone skin - if you have no tank character (like my 5 spellcaster party, with priest and alchemist as front-liners)

razor cloak - useful very early without good fighter. Useful later only without any fighter (i used razor cloak, together with protection spells, to kill that guardian golem (granite?) at the waterfall in mountain wilds with my 5 spellcasters at level 11)

Spells i only use for skill improvement: terror, blinding flash (don't like them running), itching skin (prefer damage spells)

Spells i never used: dragon breath, charm, mindread, sonic boom

Spells i very rarely used: holy water (in AP, against demons with eye for an eye, to save devine spell points). Turncoat.

[Grellan]

i'd agree with many of the previous comments reagrding spells like itching skin, paralyse, cure lesser condition, dracon breath. never really liked/used them myself.

however i found both turncoat (against the right types of enemies) and hypnotic lure reasonably useful but would more often have gone for insanity.

favourite low/mid level spells would be insanity, missile shield, whipping rocks, acid bomb, ego whip and element shield which i thought was an absolute must late in the game. also found dehydrate (lvl 5) very useful against the rapax.

never bothered with resurection cos by the time i got to a high enough level i had loads of cash and plenty of resurection powder so prefer to go for lightning, boiling blood or blizzard

[Twisted Brother]

I agree with Wereboar - different parties casts different "spell-packs", so using "best" and "worst" words about spells is not correct.

[Avenstar]

I have to disagree with anyone who thinks paralyze should be filed under the worst spell category. It is a level 1 spell people. In small/solo parties, paralyze can save your life at the early levels. It is a low cost, long duration disabling spell that will stick on just about any enemy type. It is especially useful when your running around on Ascension Peak at level 11 or so and need to disable those hard hitting elementals and scorchers. Scorchers are especially susceptable to it.

Hypnotic lure is also an underrated spell. When you are surrounded by 16 higardi, a couple sorceresses, and some plants, it is the ultimate disabling spell for the mid level party. At least 50% of the enemies will wander over and huddle around the glowing orb, allowing for you to easier use location based area effect spells such as fireball.

[Gimli]

I think a "best" spell is definitely Haste, buffs the whole group's speed by as much as 70-75 points.

I also think "sonic boom" is great for surprise round tactics. I would use it with x-ray to help get in a free round. The radius of a sonic boom is very large, and also it can draw enemies into combat who are just outside of the radius (it's very loud and can draw them to you, don't think any other area effect spells can do that). So you see the enemies with x-ray, stop far enough away from them to where they haven't noticed you, then start combat which will give you a full free surprise round. In that round I would buff up and have one character toss a sonic boom at the enemies, which makes sure they will enter the fray (the round spent buffing is wasted if they don't notice you). It's not that useful otherwise, but not a "worst" spell either, for me it was a must have for surprise tactics.