Couple spell questions...

SexyElf · Post by **SexyElf** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:36 pm

1) What's the difference between Remove Magic and Dispel Magic.

2) Matter of opinion, for fighting the majority of monsters, which of the lesser elements is best to summon?

Angelus · Post by **Angelus** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:02 am

Remove Magic works only on enemies, Dispel Magic works on everybody in range.
No idea about the lesser elementals, I never bothered much with summnoning them.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:14 am

remove magic will get rid of enemy casted spells, like enemy stone skin, but has a percentage of failing, like if you were a 12 level mage and facing a 30th level lich, dispell magic dispells everything. get both, use remove magic or breach, get all three, for removing enemy magic protection so you can whack with sword, breach for all mages and magic reatures, always works, and gets rid of the all important elemental protections so your abu dahzim strike goes thru, but you need remove magic cause its area effect, so you can try casting at invisible tagets, breach will need atrue sight before you can cast it, and breach does not work on liches, they are immune to spells below a certain level, except remove and dispell magic. dispell magic will remove your own gihters combat protections, but you need it for whne your party members get confused or charmed.

read xyx's guide....

there are only two summons before quest level spells you really need in bg 2, I know, this has been a bone of argument between myslef and some other people, but I still stick to skeleton warriors and m swords.

monster summons 1.2.3 all suck, everyone agrees with me, pretty much....except 1, ok if you play mage, if you play sorc do not get, cause you can about half the time get orc archers, which can thicken you missile firepower...others are useless...

spiders are good, but I still hold for sorcerors, who have less spells per level, you can do better hasting skellies for same effect.

elementals, they kinda suck for mages, cause there is a significant chance tehy can turn on you, if you fail to psionically dominate them. leave tehm to clerics, or even better, get teh elemental summons staffs, earth fire and air, form various quests. recharge, bny selling and buy back froma store, and you got 10 free elementals, which I do not think have a cooling off period,,,

of them all, fire is best, has some good immunites and does ok...air is a total whimp and eath tends to get stuck in small doors..

inv stalkers are great, and are almost immune to mind flayer meelee attack and are totally immune to savve or else spells, but sucky damage, I prefer hasted mass inv skellies.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 2:56 am

@UU: you left out what is arguably the best summons- mordenkainen's sword.

Anyway my mage (Edwin) has no lesser elementals- level 5 has some good stuff, invisible stalker, 2 fire elementals- thay are simply good in a lot of situations, and I have found that only about 1 in 8 has turned on me, I have 1 monster summoning 2- but thats only because I have nothing else to do with level 4- which is IMO the worst level.

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 8:01 am

I think that in level 4 there are quite a lot of good spells!
Stoneskin!!!!
and also minor sequencer, wizard eye, greater malison ....,
and if you want to summon: spider spawn is much better than Most. Summ. II.

I don't use conjure elementals for mages: have druids do that or use the staffs.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 10:01 am

mprlock, I did mention mordenkainen sword, call them mswords...

NOT a microsoft product, tho...

but to my amazement, if you haste and mass inv skellies, they are as effective as mswords!!!

just as effective, great survivability, and thaco is ok..but youre right, nothing beats a flock of mswords hasted, except a planetar with globe up and humming.

gotta admit, the ultiamte summons may be

Dark Rooks uber chees trick, using teh limited wish spell to summon 6 vampires...

cannot be killed with death fog or death spell, and very very tough...

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 11:01 am

Sometimes hasted Earth Elementals seem to perform slightly better than hasted MS. I found that especially Dragons zap hasted MS faster than hasted EEs. If protected from fear, EEs are great Dragon bashers.

Problem with EEs is that they need lots of space, eg the different Kangaxx crypts are too small to use EEs in an effective way. But elementals don't make good lich killers anyway, they often even get zapped by the initial volley of death magic. Another problems with Elementals is that they take hours to summon and sometimes turn hostile.

Lykwid · Post by **Lykwid** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 11:55 am

Dont forget that the Skeleton warriors last until slain or you leave the area. They are also 18/00 strength. Im not positive but i think thier pretty near totally magic resistant.

-Lykwid

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:01 pm

well, just about the best wand like deviec for casting, like the iron horn of vahalla, equipped in quick slots of a mage has got to be book of clay golems....totally immune to edged or piercing damage, lasts a while and clay golems, as we all know from trying to kill them, are very tough.

as for eath elementals, try jahira with greater earth transform and hit greater whirlwind, you will be amazed....

skellies are immune to magic...100%!!!! but totally vulnerable to death magic.

once hit a buncha enemy skellies with triple inc fog in umar hills, and they just stood there and took it, you have to bash them to kill them, or use death magic...

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 10:46 am

@Lompo: Edwin is a conjuror- meaning no eye, I never use more than one sequencer at once, Edwin usualy doesn't need stonskin, and I havn't gotten Greater malison or Spider spawn yet, altough mon summ 2 usualy gives more creatures than SS.
I use elementals with mages because I'm sick of carrying all the items that summon around, unless I use them regularly. and I've already got the best staves in the game staff of the ram and staff of the magi.

@UU: sorry I didn't see the msword. Without a doubt planater is the best summons in the game.

@FL: Size is one of the considerations when I favor Fire elementals. Actualy I havn't found an msword scroll yet! so I didn't use them yet in this game.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 12:36 pm

a planetar with free action cast by cleric and globe of blades is the key to mind flayer lair...planetars are highly resistant to everything thrown by flayers except stun effects, thus free acion makes them very dangerous...greater elementals summons up against dragons or the nasty at bottom of watchers keep needs resist fear, I had a wuss of a greater earth prince panic on me, so I killed it...

no summons is perfect, except the clay golem book, or the vampire hordes,

all summons needs some major buffing for specific tasks, aall require setup, this is why skellies get gold star and m swords silver in my book, and even planetars can be out classed in many ways by hassted and invisible skellies,

I ran thru tob twice as sorc using skellies and other summons practically solo with sorc, ALL my other party members ever did was snipe with bows and slings. I thought I knew all the tricks, but very eager to pick up viccy and try out vampire hordes!!!

Dark Rook · Post by **Dark Rook** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 6:24 am

Planetars are succeptible to the melee attacks of Umber Hulks (their attacks must be considered +4 or something). |It only needs 3 Umber Hulks to killa planetar

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 6:56 am

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly
I thought I knew all the tricks, but very eager to pick up viccy and try out vampire hordes!!!

Or how about this, Viccy and her lich minions (post-Underdark)

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 9:00 am

Some random observations...

Skeleton Warriors are "only" 90% magic resistant, though they are undead and therefor have a few immunities as well.
Remove Magic is completely identical to Dispel Magic, except that it only affects enemies. Both have the same chance of success.
Invisible Stalkers do pretty decent damage.
Monster Summoning and Animal Summoning make fodder, but decent fighting fodder for the first half of the game. The animals are slightly tougher than the monsters.
Level 4 has waaay too many good spells to waste slots on summoning, unless you solo.