Hi,
I'd like to know your take on the spells in Drakensang. Which one's do you like, which ones you dislike and of course the whys behind your reasoning.
I'm also curious to know what spells that aren't really worth maximizing out of the ones you actually use.
Thanks in advance,
//C
About spells
I really only recently added a caster to the party, but once I did, I found him rather useful, though I do tend to use a very minimal selection of spells.
Fastness of Body, for one, I'm finding keeps the battlemage standing "tall and proud" through most battles. I kept it at level 10, thus having an effective spell modifier of 5 and found that this is sufficient for me. Anything above that just eats too much astral energy, imo.
Skeletarius at lvl 11 is also very useful. Often enough, the skelly will rush off and kill half the mobs before my party is even engaged. Since the party is not engaged in combat, Fireball (Ignif... whatever the spell is called, I keep forgetting) takes only a signle round to cast. Skelly plus two or three fireballs got me through most of Gruldur's Deep barely singed. Just don't advance the spell above lvl 11 - then it summons a skelly mage which is nowhere near as effective.
Plumbabarm is always worth it. I kep it maxed out because the AR, AT and DV reduction on enemies, and especially bosses does wonders. Instead of a long dragged out fight, all I need to do is land a few wound-inflicting blows and the bosses are down in no time.
While I still had Gwendala in the party, I maxed the Sleep of the THousand Sheep with her. It came handy when I was being dead-stubborn about sneaking past the orcs, no matter how many reloads it took.
I never used the tactics myself, but I do suppose that maxing this one out can save the collective party's butt against tougher opponents: send them off to dreamland and buy yourself some precious time to quaff potions, heal and otehrwise boost up before unsheating those weapons again.
Fireball, the all-time favorite. Keeping it at 10 (or was it 12?) - does decent damage. Not sure if advancing the apell also increases the AP cost of casting though. If yes, I'll be keeping it as it is - it does more then a decent damage. Use with caution, though - these fireballs act as fireballs should, meaning that often enough, my entire party was on the verge of killing the mage for setting them all on fire.
Fireblast (again, forgot the actual name), also at level 10 or so targets only one opponent, but does decent damage so its worth it. Same, as far as I'm concerned, applies to both Lightning spells. AP cost is low enough to unload several of them onto the mobs as a battle opener and still have enough left to summon another skelly when the first one bites the dust.
Balm of Healing, I never upped above 6 (spell modifier of 3). It's enough of a quick combat patch and usually removes a wound or two. Takes little time to cast so a nice way to prevent melee members from dying in battle.
The spell description of Clarum Purum sugessts that the modifier should be high for this spell to effefctively remove poisoning. I kept the spell on 0 and I have yet to see it fail to remove poisoning. So, definitely a spell to be in the spellbook, but not worth investing a single point into it. Works like a charm.
Of course, you can always arrange spells to suit your playstyle. This combination suits mine just fine, but I know some people like having sperate buffer/healer and offensive casters. I hardly ever buff except for the major boss fights and of course, the mage usually has an active Fastness on him, but that's about it. A fireball here and there, perhaps a lightning to spice things up, a skelly up front and Clarum and Ba;lm if/when neded. Aside from that, I gave Jost a bow and he makes quite a decent support ranged attacker once he runs out of AP.
Fastness of Body, for one, I'm finding keeps the battlemage standing "tall and proud" through most battles. I kept it at level 10, thus having an effective spell modifier of 5 and found that this is sufficient for me. Anything above that just eats too much astral energy, imo.
Skeletarius at lvl 11 is also very useful. Often enough, the skelly will rush off and kill half the mobs before my party is even engaged. Since the party is not engaged in combat, Fireball (Ignif... whatever the spell is called, I keep forgetting) takes only a signle round to cast. Skelly plus two or three fireballs got me through most of Gruldur's Deep barely singed. Just don't advance the spell above lvl 11 - then it summons a skelly mage which is nowhere near as effective.
Plumbabarm is always worth it. I kep it maxed out because the AR, AT and DV reduction on enemies, and especially bosses does wonders. Instead of a long dragged out fight, all I need to do is land a few wound-inflicting blows and the bosses are down in no time.
While I still had Gwendala in the party, I maxed the Sleep of the THousand Sheep with her. It came handy when I was being dead-stubborn about sneaking past the orcs, no matter how many reloads it took.
I never used the tactics myself, but I do suppose that maxing this one out can save the collective party's butt against tougher opponents: send them off to dreamland and buy yourself some precious time to quaff potions, heal and otehrwise boost up before unsheating those weapons again.Fireball, the all-time favorite. Keeping it at 10 (or was it 12?) - does decent damage. Not sure if advancing the apell also increases the AP cost of casting though. If yes, I'll be keeping it as it is - it does more then a decent damage. Use with caution, though - these fireballs act as fireballs should, meaning that often enough, my entire party was on the verge of killing the mage for setting them all on fire.
Fireblast (again, forgot the actual name), also at level 10 or so targets only one opponent, but does decent damage so its worth it. Same, as far as I'm concerned, applies to both Lightning spells. AP cost is low enough to unload several of them onto the mobs as a battle opener and still have enough left to summon another skelly when the first one bites the dust.
Balm of Healing, I never upped above 6 (spell modifier of 3). It's enough of a quick combat patch and usually removes a wound or two. Takes little time to cast so a nice way to prevent melee members from dying in battle.
The spell description of Clarum Purum sugessts that the modifier should be high for this spell to effefctively remove poisoning. I kept the spell on 0 and I have yet to see it fail to remove poisoning. So, definitely a spell to be in the spellbook, but not worth investing a single point into it. Works like a charm.
Of course, you can always arrange spells to suit your playstyle. This combination suits mine just fine, but I know some people like having sperate buffer/healer and offensive casters. I hardly ever buff except for the major boss fights and of course, the mage usually has an active Fastness on him, but that's about it. A fireball here and there, perhaps a lightning to spice things up, a skelly up front and Clarum and Ba;lm if/when neded. Aside from that, I gave Jost a bow and he makes quite a decent support ranged attacker once he runs out of AP.
The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.
--Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic--
--Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic--
She-Wolf wrote:I really only recently added a caster to the party, but once I did, I found him rather useful, though I do tend to use a very minimal selection of spells.
Fastness of Body, for one, I'm finding keeps the battlemage standing "tall and proud" through most battles. I kept it at level 10, thus having an effective spell modifier of 5 and found that this is sufficient for me. Anything above that just eats too much astral energy, imo.
Skeletarius at lvl 11 is also very useful. Often enough, the skelly will rush off and kill half the mobs before my party is even engaged. Since the party is not engaged in combat, Fireball (Ignif... whatever the spell is called, I keep forgetting) takes only a signle round to cast. Skelly plus two or three fireballs got me through most of Gruldur's Deep barely singed. Just don't advance the spell above lvl 11 - then it summons a skelly mage which is nowhere near as effective.
Plumbabarm is always worth it. I kep it maxed out because the AR, AT and DV reduction on enemies, and especially bosses does wonders. Instead of a long dragged out fight, all I need to do is land a few wound-inflicting blows and the bosses are down in no time.
While I still had Gwendala in the party, I maxed the Sleep of the THousand Sheep with her. It came handy when I was being dead-stubborn about sneaking past the orcs, no matter how many reloads it took.
Fireball, the all-time favorite. Keeping it at 10 (or was it 12?) - does decent damage. Not sure if advancing the apell also increases the AP cost of casting though. If yes, I'll be keeping it as it is - it does more then a decent damage. Use with caution, though - these fireballs act as fireballs should, meaning that often enough, my entire party was on the verge of killing the mage for setting them all on fire.
Fireblast (again, forgot the actual name), also at level 10 or so targets only one opponent, but does decent damage so its worth it. Same, as far as I'm concerned, applies to both Lightning spells. AP cost is low enough to unload several of them onto the mobs as a battle opener and still have enough left to summon another skelly when the first one bites the dust.
Balm of Healing, I never upped above 6 (spell modifier of 3). It's enough of a quick combat patch and usually removes a wound or two. Takes little time to cast so a nice way to prevent melee members from dying in battle.
The spell description of Clarum Purum sugessts that the modifier should be high for this spell to effefctively remove poisoning. I kept the spell on 0 and I have yet to see it fail to remove poisoning. So, definitely a spell to be in the spellbook, but not worth investing a single point into it. Works like a charm.
Of course, you can always arrange spells to suit your playstyle. This combination suits mine just fine, but I know some people like having sperate buffer/healer and offensive casters. I hardly ever buff except for the major boss fights and of course, the mage usually has an active Fastness on him, but that's about it. A fireball here and there, perhaps a lightning to spice things up, a skelly up front and Clarum and Ba;lm if/when neded. Aside from that, I gave Jost a bow and he makes quite a decent support ranged attacker once he runs out of AP.
Thanks for the input - seems my current setup isn't all that different from yours when it comes to buffs/debuffs.
I don't have a "Nuker" toon though as I'm using Gladys for buffs (with some human only debuffs like rust iron rot and corpofrigo cold shock), along with Gwendala as my casters. Gwendala handles heals, some buffs, summons, debuffs and that sleep mez. She's also the marksman of the group. I'll give Gladys lunge once it becomes available. That coupled with Master Marksman on Gwendala should be quite effective in terms of wounding.
The next time around though, I'll be opting for a metamage as my main character - focusing mainly on offensive spells. He'll pick up Master Marksman too, at some point.
On a side note, I haven't really bothered giving any of my toons resting at the house the bowyer profession yet - but I probably will once I can be bothered to locate some good arrow recipes.
//C
So how effective/useful are Iron Rot Rust and Coprofigo anyway? I'm playing a burglar (I just love playing rogue classes), so Gledys, cute as she is, got replaced with Gwendala as soon as I rescued her. Then with Gwen I used mostly Sleep, her own summon and Plumabarm and of course, Gwen was my main archer. I gave her the bowyer skill and it was imediately useful because war arrows are available early on as a recipe. There is the Tenobaal arrows recipe available right there in the swamps, too (though I've yet to use those - I'm saving them for the final boss fights).
So, I replaced Gwen with Jost (and gave him a bow) pretty late in the game, once Tallon and those good nuking spells became available. However, since I made Jost a nuker, I never, ever used Coprofigo or Iron Rust with him and I've no clue how those spells play. Useful?
So, I replaced Gwen with Jost (and gave him a bow) pretty late in the game, once Tallon and those good nuking spells became available. However, since I made Jost a nuker, I never, ever used Coprofigo or Iron Rust with him and I've no clue how those spells play. Useful?
The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.
--Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic--
--Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic--
Iron Rust Rot is situational, it only affects metal weapons. But it's very helpful vs hardhitting metal-weapon-wielding enemies. Corpofrigo is an excellent spell that I've found very useful in various situations.She-Wolf wrote:So how effective/useful are Iron Rot Rust and Coprofigo anyway? I'm playing a burglar (I just love playing rogue classes), so Gledys, cute as she is, got replaced with Gwendala as soon as I rescued her. Then with Gwen I used mostly Sleep, her own summon and Plumabarm and of course, Gwen was my main archer. I gave her the bowyer skill and it was imediately useful because war arrows are available early on as a recipe. There is the Tenobaal arrows recipe available right there in the swamps, too (though I've yet to use those - I'm saving them for the final boss fights).
So, I replaced Gwen with Jost (and gave him a bow) pretty late in the game, once Tallon and those good nuking spells became available. However, since I made Jost a nuker, I never, ever used Coprofigo or Iron Rust with him and I've no clue how those spells play. Useful?
//C
The Clarum purum spell is definatly good to have, and it does benefit from levels. When you cast it, it initially pures away poison, but the more modifier there is on the cast spell the longer your target remains immune to poison afterwards, which i find useful at the ratzinsky battle for example.
I guess the spell that turns enemies to stone and the sleepspell are both the same basicly, except when sleep you can choose to wake them up sooner, or inadvertently so if you use fireball.
I also dont understand how you think fastness of body costs too much astral energy. Its true that I havent gotten it at that high of a level yet. But it seems to me you should propably keep it as high as it needs to be to get the best modifier on it.
Fandango of fireflies can be good if you can have it at a high level and you want to support a maintank that is tanking 5 enemies or something at the same time. Since anyone who tries to attack the tank gets lower chance to hit.
Also buff up your party with psychic focus before a tough battle versus a spellcaster to gain alot of magic resistance.
If you got the Fighter elf, he can cast strength at an incredibly high level and with alot of success to totally pump everyone up for melee combat!
I guess the spell that turns enemies to stone and the sleepspell are both the same basicly, except when sleep you can choose to wake them up sooner, or inadvertently so if you use fireball.
I also dont understand how you think fastness of body costs too much astral energy. Its true that I havent gotten it at that high of a level yet. But it seems to me you should propably keep it as high as it needs to be to get the best modifier on it.
Fandango of fireflies can be good if you can have it at a high level and you want to support a maintank that is tanking 5 enemies or something at the same time. Since anyone who tries to attack the tank gets lower chance to hit.
Also buff up your party with psychic focus before a tough battle versus a spellcaster to gain alot of magic resistance.
If you got the Fighter elf, he can cast strength at an incredibly high level and with alot of success to totally pump everyone up for melee combat!