What is the BEST mage spell?

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 1:21 am

transcendent two, how did you get to lvl 40? I thought teh xp cap remover for soa caused major problems installed with tob? or is there a tob x cap remover?

I am running a lvl 31 super sorc mysoelf, 8 spells per level, the spells per level I carefully reasoned out will not over load chain contingency, basically a summoner/blaster with major juju for all situations....

I have to admin, many whimpy spells can be great chained or triggered together, so I got ice storm, a really poor area effect spell, but I got it for area effect against fire based creatures...turns out to be quite decent when put into spell sequencer...summon is fun, but when you arrive in visual sight of the enemy, chain contingency abu dahzim cannot be beat.

1 setup will kill a lich instantly. no fuss, no bother.

Hostile, you have to realize, chained and triggered spells make a single spell into a triple effect super spell, for example, triggered greater malison, slow and web is a superb binder, so your tank with ring of free action can walk over the enemy force. chain contingency abu dahzim can decide most battles, even with my super weak on fighter party. currently running jan, aerie, jaheira and me, sorc from hell!

will pick up korgy only after I finish off chapter 2, and ready to move out, and by then he should be near lv 15 or so, and ready to move out. had keldy for a while, but decided to let him go back home. My journal said I was nice and really understanding about his own life.
korgy is a freebooter, and has no home he will acknowledge, so he don't give a damn and I have no quams about getting him along, so he can excersize his axe.

I am also gettting to like dragon breath and comet, both are nice, dragon is better for fire vulnerable creatuers and comet is better for everything else...

too bad you cannot chain quest level spells!!! can you imagine the carnage? As it is, timestop greater acuity and multiple dragons via project image is the ultimate in blaster effects.

I especially like the effect where you blast the loot off the body, and the naked dead corpse is blown away beyond your sight. Good thing the loot stays at the same position, as where the enemy was, cause if I had to hunt the loot down I would be teed off.

incandescent one · Post by **incandescent one** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 5:13 am

Yes, there is a TOB x-cap remover. It's available at Kevin D's sight. By the way, for triple class charachters, or mages, or druids, there is no legit way of hitting the new cap. And NOOOO bloody chance of hitting the cap with a party of any sort. You'll have to import, and that's not legit.

Me, personally, I just don't like to import, so I just bumped up the exp of the whole party using CLUA Console. That's not legit either, but then again having a cap doesn't really make sense unless you hit it.

Btw, to get to lvl 40, I think you need around 14 or 15 million exp.

Zaha · Post by **Zaha** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 10:27 am

Magic missile is good because it gets better as the caster gets stronger. That makes it usable for high level mages. I remember playing a PnP campaign where my party of mages (a theme campaign) fought a pit fiend. We thought what to do a while, and could think of nothing better at the moment than to bombard the devil with MM:s. A lot of damage in short time. Improved alacrity + time stop combo is extremely useful too, as with Robe of Vecna you have a casting time of 0 with many useful spells. This means you'll have time to throw all your low level spells at your enemies.

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 12:10 pm

With Improved alacrity/robe of vecna/am of power if not Edwin combo, I don't even feel like time stop is actually necessary - put autopause on "when spell is cast" and it's "like" time has stopped anyway - it's so cool to see the different spell effects all going towards your target one after another in a big chain.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 12:50 pm

If you have party members, the need for Stoneskin decreases quite drastically. No-one in their right mind sends Edwin to hold the front line.

Knock is pretty essential for soloers as well. Sure, there are work-arounds, but turning into the Slayer just to open that damn door to Kangaxx's basement isn't an ideal solution either.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 1:22 pm

posted by Xyx

If you have party members, the need for Stoneskin decreases quite drastically. No-one in their right mind sends Edwin to hold the front line.

Quite true, but you never know when one of the enemy may breach the front line and make it through. Or, you don't know for certain if there will be a second wave of baddies coming up from a flank or from behind the party. This doesn't happen too much in the game although I can think of one encounter in the underdark where you are fighting drow and if you stray too far from the combat area, you wind up with a slew of myconids at your back. I know, they're just myconids, but it's the suprise that counts and a mage stunned by those fungal jerks is a bad target.

Xyx, maybe I'm taking your comment out of context and if so, I apologize in advance. The aformentioned quote seems to be presumptuous of having already been through the game once before and knowing where your enemies are coming from. Of course you wouldn't send Edwin into the front ranks. But you can't say for certainty in a combat that more enemies will come up from behind. If so, that stoneskin might save your mage's rump long enough to get minsc or korgan back in time to help him. The first time I went through the game, I was constantly watching my back while in combat. Because I used stoneskins, it kept me from having to keep a tank/semi-tank close at hand to the mages in cases so reinforcements came up from the rear.

Another example I thought of where stoneskin is useful is when you face the band of gith when they come to reclaim the silver sword after the underdark. You never know when an ambush like that is going to happen, so it is always wise to keep those mages using stoneskins.

Shadowwarrior · Post by **Shadowwarrior** » Mon Oct 08, 2001 1:36 pm

One of the favourites is using a combination of project image/planetar (or deva) summoning/dispel, since project image overrides the only one deva cap. This means you can have like 10 planetars helping you! hahaha

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 12:15 pm

Originally posted by Ned Flanders:
<STRONG>The aformentioned quote seems to be presumptuous of having already been through the game once before and knowing where your enemies are coming from.</STRONG>

Hmm... wasn't what I had in mind. Even the first time I never had any real trouble keeping front liners in the front and the rest safely behind them. Even if you're "attacked from the rear", it only takes a one- or two-second shuffle for your party members to rearrange themselves.

With the way enemy AI always targets whatever is nearest, party Mages are quite safe. Even Mages can survive one melee hit or a couple of ranged hits without Stoneskin.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 2:08 pm

Xyx,

Points taken. It's always cooler when you can both be right.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 5:05 pm

Especially wit ring of gaxx on...I should have my tank take it, but since my sorc leads the party, and I often gen hit badly, the ring is necessary.

I don't know, if I pulled my sorc back to second line in the rectangle formation and let jaheria take the lead and korgy take slot 2, what will happen? any difference if a npc leads the party?

reedimus · Post by **reedimus** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 7:03 pm

time stop is my favorite. nothing makes me feel more godlike than being able to walk around while everyone else is frozen in time. the only thing I don't like about time stop is the way it is implemented in this game. mainly: no one should be immune to time stop, that is ridiculous. also, you should be able to do whatever the hell you want when time is stopped. such as: you are hanging out in wakeen's promenade outside of ribald's place and you cast time stop. run in, loot the entire store of everything you can get your greedy little hands on, run out. maybe cast invisible just before time stop ends so no one gets suspicious of the wizard toting a sack full of new goods. hell, that spell would be all you need if it were implemented right.

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Tue Oct 09, 2001 7:54 pm

The **best** spell.... I really like fireball 'cause it goes boom, but checking my characters they (mages) all say Stone Skin. All my clerics say Cure Light Wounds! So if best spell means one you'd most miss it has to be stoneskin. - Curdis

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Wed Oct 10, 2001 1:23 am

Yeah, Time Stop got nixed for BG! In PnP, nobody is immune and you get six(6!) rounds instead of three. However, I believe you cannot directly interact with your surroundings (so probably no looting

).

Zaha · Post by **Zaha** » Wed Oct 10, 2001 7:38 am

You can't handle objects during the time stop, because time is stopped for them. There's no time, so they can't move in it. Right...?

Seemingly useless spells can be used for advantage in tough situations by a creative player. A pity that few of these uses are implemented in BG2. I mean, casting deafness on a character should make him immune to Wail of the Banshee.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Wed Oct 10, 2001 10:54 am

Or silence for the banshee and blindness on a Beholder

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Wed Oct 10, 2001 2:56 pm

...and don't forget the 1001 possible uses for a funny little spell called Enlarge (helmets, breeches...). There was a good thread on stuff like that in the D&D forum.

Dalek · Post by **Dalek** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 12:08 pm

One of my favourite characters was a Fighter / Mage / Thief. With Time Stop I was able to serate Beholders, Demons and Dragons with ease. At five attacks per round for three rounds. Do the math, it's a lot of unopposed damage.

Therefore, I vote Time Stop as **best** spell because it gives the fighter part of the fighter/mage plenty of time to hack.

Disco Stew · Post by **Disco Stew** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 1:16 pm

Timestop is the best if your character has access to greater whirlwinds, otherwise imprisonment beats all.

spork · Post by **spork** » Sun Oct 14, 2001 9:58 pm

Somebody mentioned Project Image already. I think that spell is so good I feel like I cheat when I use it. My evidence that it's the best: try killing a dragon while taking no damage and using up exactly one spell. This can be done pretty easily with Project Image.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Oct 15, 2001 12:42 am

Originally posted by spork:
<STRONG>try killing a dragon while taking no damage and using up exactly one spell.</STRONG>

Exactly.

Nature's Beauty has a 35% chance of accomplishing this, Finger of Death about 12%, Feeblemind about 9%...