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Could someone please tell me what is the best way to use time stop and improved alacrity?

Improved Alacrity gives you the ability to use up all of the spells in your spellbook, so to avoid having my Mage or Sorcerer become exhausted, I usually cast Project Image before using up all of my spells. That way, the clone can use every spell in the book while my spellcaster retains most of her spells.

Time Stop lasts three rounds and Improved Alacrity lasts two rounds, and both of them have a casting time of 9. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter which one you cast first, although the experts out there might disagree. After I cast Improved Alacrity, I use the space bar to pause the game after every subsequent spell I cast to prevent any lag while I move the cursor from spell to target, etc. This gives me enough time to cast as many spells as I want.

If you're asking which spells you should cast while Time Stop is in effect, multiple castings of Horrid Wilting and/or Dragon's Breath will leave most creatures in the dust. You can selectively cast Lower Resistance on one or two magic-resistant monsters, and you can create summoned creatures that will outlast the Time Stop spell such as Mordenkainen's Sword. If you're attacking an enemy Mage, be sure to cast spells that will remove his or her protection spells before you cast attack spells. If you're fighting liches, most spells won't have any effect, but Dragon's Breath will turn them into toast.

I'm not sure what else to say, because you'll probably end up using whatever battle tactics you're accustomed to using even if you use Time Stop and Improved Alacrity. They mainly let you get the jump on your opponents so you can use your existing arsenal to your best advantage.

Project Image - Improved Alacrity - Time Stop - Horrid Wilting x 3 makes most battles in Shadows of Amn a breeze. It's nice to have that kind of power, but on the other hand, it gets boring. Since Time Stop and Improved Alacrity weren't really meant to be available until you play Throne of Bhaal, maybe you should be asking this question in the TOB forum. In TOB, different battles require different strategies, so I don't think there's one "best" way to use Time Stop and Improved Alacrity. Some of the monsters you'd most like to use Time Stop against are immune to it, you know.

If you're using the Tactics mod, you probably need advice from someone besides me. I'm not as clever as the Tactics fans.

VonDondu wrote: Time Stop lasts three rounds and Improved Alacrity lasts two rounds, and both of them have a casting time of 9. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter which one you cast first, although the experts out there might disagree. After I cast Improved Alacrity, I use the space bar to pause the game after every subsequent spell I cast to prevent any lag while I move the cursor from spell to target, etc. This gives me enough time to cast as many spells as I want.

An easier and more efficient way to accomplish this is to hit the space bar and then adjust autopause from the options menu and set it to pause after every cast spell.

Some other brief notes besides VonDondus suggestions:

--It's somewhat off-topic but remember that chain contingency has no alacrity when casting. I strongly prefer it to either time stop or improved alacrity as a level 9 spell. It's always my first choice as a sorceror and I typically take 2 of them as a regular mage before other spells. In the instances you really feel that you need a time stop (which I find rare when already powerful enough to cast them...and chain contingency) and might not have one, read it off a scroll. There are actually a fair number of time stop scrolls that pop up during the game. Of course, if you don't mind the cheesy aspect of projected images having replicated scrolls in quick-slots, this should be a standby strategy to have on hand.

--all physical strikes automatically hit during a time stop. Especially if you're a fighter/mage, don't worry about going to improved alacrity in a time stop--just go beat your opponent up. I haven't really done it that much, but you can also note this attribute of time stop for a combination with shapechange-mind flayer to intelligence drain enemies.

--With improved alacrity, don't forget your lower level spells which likely have low casting time. Again be sure to have autopause on. Remember how stacked magic missiles seemed pretty potent in a minor sequencer? Throw out 8-9 in under a round to various targets. Save-or-else spells might not be such a waste (especially with items like Robe of Vecna to reduce casting time). Throw out your old webs, stinky clouds, and greater malaisons to packs of enemies. Throw down a telly field to give yourself space to do it all over again if using project image (unlikely you'll have spells left otherwise).

--I've had some problems with it in the past, but another rather malicious thing to try in a time stop is to walk around imprisoning monsters [slight spoiler for Ascension--

Spoiler

think of the lesser wyrms in improved Abazigal

]. If you want the loot an imprisoned monster has, go ahead and set traps, rest, rebuff, even come back later and then cast freedom and take it down.

Generally I Prefer to Time Stop first and then use Improved Alacrity since otherwise you'll waste aproximately half your IA to cast the Time Stop.

Start with spells that have a casting time of 5 or less (level 5 spells and below with the exception of Dragon Breath) and once you empty your spell book of those, start casting whichever high level spells are most important.

As for the Imprisonment + Freedom later to loot and kill, It's not too cheesy as it's simply one of many powerful combos. I however find it takes the flavour out of victory, so to speak.

A question I would like to add to this topic, if anybody knows, is how the spells affect the target once Time Stop finishes. Do the spells affect the person in the order you cast them, or the order the animations reach them ?? The reason I'm asking is because I'm quite fond of stacking save-or-else spells on bosses (Feeblemind, Polymorph Other, Finger of Death and so on) I'm not sure if I should cast Greater Malison before doing TS+IA or if it will work just fine if I cast it as the first spell in the IA combo. The goal is of course to have them fail saves at 2-3 and not just 1.

Many thanks. Lots of info there.

Jedi_Sauraus wrote: A question I would like to add to this topic, if anybody knows, is how the spells affect the target once Time Stop finishes. Do the spells affect the person in the order you cast them, or the order the animations reach them ?? The reason I'm asking is because I'm quite fond of stacking save-or-else spells on bosses (Feeblemind, Polymorph Other, Finger of Death and so on) I'm not sure if I should cast Greater Malison before doing TS+IA or if it will work just fine if I cast it as the first spell in the IA combo. The goal is of course to have them fail saves at 2-3 and not just 1.

I don't know for sure and don't have the game installed right now to check it out but I think that it would be when the animations happen. In the same way that in regular time cloudkills have to travel to their target or summoned creatures take a little time to actually emerge, the animation does normally add an extra lag time to certain spells beyond the casting time. By the same token, one of the annoying things about, say, unloading a volley of magic missiles during a time stop is that you don't know how many to use since they don't land until after the time stop is over and the fireworks start.

That does actually make another small argument for beating creatures up during a time stop--physical damage is made immediately and you can kill enemies outright during the stop. Oh, and just to point out a natural extension that is probably obvious, but cleric/mages should particularly think about physical attack during a time stop rather than blowing through spells that might be used elsewhere, with one exception--Harm. Have Aerie, for instance, take down any creature she can conceivably hit in two strikes.

Back to the issue of save-or-elses though, because of their typically long casting time (usually 5+), I wouldn't really use them except for a Vecna/Amulet wearing Mage--in which case I think it wouldn't be much problem to cast Improved Alacrity first, then a quick Malaison, followed by the Time Stop. You would already need some distance to cast either IA or TS in the first place, so you should still have time, with the time reduction items, to get both of those other spells off before enemies close on you. A better option though, in my view, following from my first original point of advice, would be to just load up a greater malaison in a chain contingency (or regular contingency) right before casting Time Stop. Again, it has no alacrity so you can just pause and load the contingency at any point, even in mid-battle. Combine the Malaison with, say, Ruby Ray and Breach and you should have a pretty free hand to inflict some serious damage during the stop.

Wise words indeed, I agree completly. I do usually use GM in a contingency before Time Stop, and I do know of the effectivess of Time Stop and Harm. Alot of people think of Aerie as weak, but it really shocks you when she single handedly takes down Ascenscion Abazigal or Yaga Shura in all of 2 rounds Thanks for clarifying the issue.

Another thing to add is if you have a Fighter/Mage you can cast Imroved Alacrity and then stack various HLA's for a terminator style killing machine

The first time I played SoA/ToB as a sorcerer, I relied on Time Stop for many of the difficult battles. It was a matter of casting Time Stop, then Improved Alacrity and then unloading my spellbook with the remaining 2 rounds.

The second time I played SoA/ToB as a sorcerer, I used Time Stop maybe once the whole game, however, I continued to use Improved Alacrity consistently just for fun.

The Time Stop/Improved Alacrity combo is neat the first few times you try it but extremely lame afterwards unless you're soloing I guess. Have fun with it while you can though.

RPG Guy (sorta) wrote: The second time I played SoA/ToB as a sorcerer, I used Time Stop maybe once the whole game, however, I continued to use Improved Alacrity consistently just for fun.

The Time Stop/Improved Alacrity combo is neat the first few times you try it but extremely lame afterwards unless you're soloing I guess. Have fun with it while you can though.

I generally agree--I very rarely use time stop anymore because it does just become routine. But at the same time, I actually just tend to prefer other spells these days. Who needs to unload a bunch of horrid wiltings in a time stop when you can more tactically throw out three at a time with chain contingency? Similarly, why waste the time with buffing during a stop when a spell trigger can easily be at the ready with stuff like PMW, Mislead, and so forth? Besides chain contingency though, I also tend to like Energy Blades and Power Word Kill more than time stop. Blades are a vastly underrated offensive asset (for instance, they have almost invariably been the main factor in defeating Demogorgan for me), and what better way to finish annoying dragons and such that like to Heal right when you think they're about to go down than with a quick PWK? And, of course, if no one else can spawn them, Planetars are an old standby. So just with those, if I'm going with only one primary mage, there are 5-6 level 9/HLA slots (allocating 2 to CC and maybe to PWK) that I would fill before even taking Time Stop or Improved Alacrity.

The really boring thing to me is using Dragon's Breath. For me that's a case in which it's neat to incinerate a pack of Drow or something the first couple of times, but after awhile it loses some flavour.