Unpopular Spells you like and how/when to use them efectively.

[Habib]

This is a thread for uncommonly used spells and why you like them or how to use them (even when they are not really powerful)

I will start; I love "to hit" spells; thosa that you cast and then have ot hit the enenmy to have any efect; Like Shocking Gasp; Althoguh they are not very good to regular mages becouse of the low THACO, they are excellent on Bards; Cleric/Mages; Fighter/mages and to a lesser extent Thief/mages. Also, Shocking Gasp, becosue it does electrical damage it goes through stoneskin. It also levels in damage with you

Slay living; Harm: I like it for the same reasons, Although they are cleric spells

Cause X Wounds: I dont like spells which do a certain amount of dmamage for the entire game; eventually you find weapons which makes them obsolete.

But between this category; Goul touch is my favorite; as it Paralyses the enemy; this convines with more than 1 attack per round (haste, Blade dualweilding or A Fighter dual) is a great spell. Althoug I dont like the Lvl 1 version of it, Chill touch, which only decreses enemy Thaco by 2 per hit.


How about you; which rare spells you like and why?

[roller1234]

Cant really say anything, the spell system in BG is imho extremely good and varied. Pretty much every spell can be put to use. Short of maybe Detect Evil and infravision. But even Detect Evil has one use in the game, its pointless but nonetheless.

As for the touch spells, my favorite is probably Vampiric Touch, its not exactly working to full specifications and has more effect than stated, i recall numbers like dealing 70 damage while healing 70hp. Or something like that, i dont exactly remember but it was an impressive number. Rocks on fighter/mage.

[NocturneN]

I'm a big fan of the touch spells, too, partly why I rolled Fighter/Mage. Vampiric Touch is awesome indeed, though I sacrifice the Ghoul Touch and Shocking Grasp (Did not know it goes through stoneskin, useful advice!) for more Armor/Shield slots. Guess they would count as "uncommonly used" as pure mages often has terrible AC regardless... Another one I love for that purpose is Barkskin - a real lifesaver if playing a Kensai that hasn't been dualled yet. ^^

Other than that, I often use "Blindness" and "Doom" alot, especially against tougher opponents. Seems like many people overlook them, but Doom has no saving throw and combined with blind the enemy suffers a massive -6thac0 and -4AC. Can always toss a Greater Malison to prevent them from saving the Blind.

[Habib]

"Pretty much every spell can be put to use. Short of maybe Detect Evil and infravision. But even Detect Evil has one use in the game, its pointless but nonetheless. "

Infravision is useless; Detect Evil has a couple of uses; it allow you to predict what will happend in a couple of quests; I heard it could be used as a way to know how many enemies are in unexplored areas (as most are evil; and the numbers of arrows that will appear will be the same as the number of enemies) and its also useful to know which types of enemies could be damaged by spells like Holy smite.


I Always use doom, for me is ones of the best Lvl1 clerical spells; but I nevere use blindness; I´ll try it later .
A Lvl 1 clerical spell that I like, and I might be the only one who does is Magic Stone; yes, it does poor damage, and it takes surprisingly long to cast, but I find it useful to have one of these to interrup mages or other clerics, and clerics dont have many direct damage spells.

And I also love Armor, but only becosue it last for 8 hours; later in the game it becomes useless.

Oh, another rare one that I love is Polymorph Self; The diferent shapes you can have have all different qualities and are almost all useful in very specific situations.

[roller1234]

Imho, Infravision is quite cool. I can count more than one case where i missed a quest NPC walking out in the open in the night in bg1. Were it not for the elves, items with infravision and cheesy game menu option, which i consequently turned on, cause it was getting ridiculous, infravision would be a staple spell in my mages spell book. I would advise against too much Blindness usage if playing without Tobex, its a broken spell and doesnt do what it says as well.

[QuenGalad]

Judging by this very forum, Harm definitely does not qualify as an unpopular spell.

I like Web very much, although it's strange how much more effective it is than entanglement - I'd have expected it to be the other way around. Anyway, there are tons of fights I've won by scouting out the area, casting two webs and two cloudkills, imprisoning the enemies in a portable death trap. Then a fireball and ranged weapon or two to finish them off.

Goodberries is a standard in my parties, because I always miss the old fpp rpgs where you made an endless dungeon crawl and had to feed your party. Goodberries at least give the illusion of having some provisions.

[NocturneN]

I like Web very much, although it's strange how much more effective it is than entanglement - I'd have expected it to be the other way around. Anyway, there are tons of fights I've won by scouting out the area, casting two webs and two cloudkills, imprisoning the enemies in a portable death trap. Then a fireball and ranged weapon or two to finish them off.

That's actually one of my favorite tactics aswell. It's surprisingly effective, even Undead can be trapped by web!

I also use Detect Evil alot, but only if I have a Paladin in the group. If I don't, then I don't feel it's worth sacrificing a spell slot for.

I still use Armor and Shield on my Level 14/Level 9 Mage/Kensai; There are alot of times when you are forced into a surprice battle and having armor running on my Kensai means she atleast have -3 AC when the fighting breaks out. Spirit Armor is much better ofcourse, but it "only" lasts for 3 hrs game time. Having armor on, saves me the trouble of getting CCed without any decent defensive mechanic active. Should mention Blur aswell because it actually stacks with the armor spells! AND you get another -1 to ALL saving throws.