Spell Damage: Clone of Cold, Sun Fire (spoilers ahead)

[mbz]

According to Xyx's Spell Reference (404 Members, the Level 5 spell Cone of Cold is "Not really an improvement over lower level area damage spells". But in my opinion, there are not many useful lower level area damage spells aside from Skull Trap, which makes Cone of Cold a viable option for the wizard.

There are 5 area damage spells below level 5 in the mage book: Fireball, Skull Trap, Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, Sun Fire.

Ice Storm has a pathetic damage at any level, Fireball is capped at 10d6. So both aren't good damage spells.
-Skull Trap is supposed to deal 1d6 per level of caster. Assuming the caster is Level 31, the damage is 54 on average with save.
-Cone of Cold is supposed to deal 1d4 +1 per level of caster. So the damage should be the SAME on average with save (with less fluctuation).
-Sun Fire damage reaches its peak at level 15. 15d6 on average would be 26 damage with save.

26 damage compared to 54 damage. Sun Fire should shy away from Cone of Cold!

But the truth is more complicated. Without the Baldurdash fixes applied (I've tested them without the fixes. I'm not sure what happens even if they are applied), Skull Trap and Cone of Cold do far less damage than they are supposed to, arround 38 or something with save. I have never seen a skull trap nor a cold cone do over 50 damage.

Other than that, Sun Fire bypasses MR (both friendly and enemy - with courtesy to Lark) even without being triggered, and the trigger is far easier to control than Cone of Cold.

Cone of Cold WILL bypass MR (both friendly and enemy) only when triggered. It will only work on 3 directions: left, right, and downwards - which is when the caster is facing right, left, and upwards respectively. Facing any other direction or anything in between will fizzle the trigger. The length, according to xyx, depends on the caster's level, capped at 20. In any event, the caster will neither be hit nor hurt.

With the pros and cons of Cone of Cold considered, I have no idea which spell to choose as a sorceror.

Maybe I should install the spell level-50 patch for a change...

[Onkel Bob]

I don't really have anything to add, except that the spell is called Cone of Cold. All I know is it worked pretty well in Eye of the Beholder.

[mbz]

thanks for correcting my spelling

[Rabain]

I always find spells like Cone of Cold similar to types like Agnazzars Scorcher. They look good until you try using them in combat.

More often than not by the time your mage has finished casting the spell the target has moved and invariably the mage ends up frying some friendlies.

I don't know about you guys but I usually end up using Skull Trap in a similar way to Fireball: launching it directly at enemies rather than setting it and trying to draw enemies into it.

Forget Clone of Cold, Clown of Cold would be much better...and probably scarier.

[mbz]

[quote="Rabain"]
More often than not by the time your mage has finished casting the spell the target has moved and invariably the mage ends up frying some friendlies.[QUOTE]

Not when you have the Robe the Vecna

I personally love Skull Traps more than any other area damage spell ( but I would also need damage spells at other levels). I sequence them, trigger them, and use them on suicide missions (with mirror image on ofcourse)

[Sator]

I was really fond of CoC in IWD2, mainly due to it doing Cold damage, to which not many enemies are resistant. All them nasty demons and hell-spawn usually are completely immune to fire, thus spells like Fireball lose much of their appeal even if they did not have a damage cap. I'm not quite sure how many fire-resisting enemies we have in BG2, but i can bet my scroll of Summon Noober that they're much more than the cold-resisting ones.

[weak-ling]

You forgot one lower level area damage spell: Cloudkill (1d10 per round, no save) As this one is powerful but stationary and thus has limited use I won't discuss it. It can easily be cast with a wand an therefore shouldn't even be considered for a sorc.

Fireball and Ice Storm are out (not enough damage). This leaves us with three spells: Skull Trap, Cone of Cold and Sunfire.

As far as I know all spell damage is capped at level 20. Considering that I get the following damage values (assuming that you have a mage higher than level 20, the monster makes its save, average damage):

Skull Trap:
range 14, radius 13
1d6 per level, save for half, capped at 20d6
(20*3.5)/2 = 35

Cone of Cold:
Range: 11. The cone starts at the caster and extends to range 20. (I don't know exactly what that means)
1d4+1 per level, save for half, capped at 20d4+20
(20*2.5 + 20)/2 = 35

Sunfire:
no range, radius 12
bypasses magic resistance
1d6 per level, save for half, capped at 15d6
(15*3.5)/2 = 26,25


Conclusion:
Skull Trap and Cone of Cold deal the same amount of damage but in my opinion Skull Trap has the better shaped area which makes it easier to target for me. Besides, it's a lvl3 spell while Cone of Cold is lvl5. Sunfire deals less damage than the others but it ignores resistance and is a bit more versatile than Skull Trap because it can be used in close quarters.

My area damage spell choices for a sorc:
Skull Trap
Sunfire
Delayed Blast Fireball (maybe, only if I have a spare lv7 slot, not too powerful)
Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting

[mbz]

@weak-ling:
Thanks for the clarification. I forgot about cloudkill...
CoC or Sunfire is a matter of personal choice I guess. And besides, Coc can destroy loot.

I chose Delayed Blast partially because there aren't any other good spell choices at Level 7, and also because I chose Incendiary Cloud at Level 8 (insane damage over time-and will bypass MR when contingencied.).

[Celacena]

did you say incendiary cloud bypasses MR when contigencied?

can you explain how you can use it? If targeted on self, then would it fry the party/any allies?

[Onkel Bob]

did you say incendiary cloud bypasses MR when contigencied?

can you explain how you can use it? If targeted on self, then would it fry the party/any allies?

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldu ... 79690.html

[Lancelot122]

As far as I'm concerned, Cone of Cold is a weak, weak spell in Baldur's Gate II. I was a huge fan of it on pen and paper, but it's just not good at all in the bg series!

The good damage spell choice at lvl 5 is Sunfire, it's a no contest. Ennemies dodge CoF way to often, even when they are right in the middle of it ... This spell looks good only in theory, while in game, it does s***.

And I find skulltrap a lil buggy, I do use it, but I find fireball better in alot of situations, because of the better range and area of effect. But that maybe just me, I also hate when skulltrap doesnt trigger with like ten monsters around it, wich happen way to often for my liking...