Most Worthless Spell

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I'm eventually going to turn this into a poll, but I want to get some nominations first, as I will inevitably miss some really sucky spells, because if they suck you don't use them, and therefore they are easy to forget.

I'll take suggestions for all spells in the game, whether they be priest, druid, or mage.

You should definitely take spell level into account when making your decision. Low level spells are obviously going to be less powerful than higher level spells. So I'm looking for spells that suck relative to the other choices you have available to you at that level.

For example, the 1st level priest spell Protection from Evil is utterly worthless compared the 4th level priest spell Protection from Evil 10' Radius. However, 4th level is also way higher than 1st level, so you would expect it to be significantly better.

My nominations:

Clairvoyance - I never use it. Wizard Eye is far more useful

Carrion Summons - this one will probably win my vote for mage spells. Considering there are lower level spells that provide BETTER SUMMONS than this spell, I can't see why anyone would memorize it.

For divine spells, I believe I have to go with a druid spell called (I think) Good Berries. It's the one that creates 5 berries in your backpack, each one capable of healing 1 hp of damage. This one gets the nomination because it's level 2, yet it is only capable of healing 5 hp, whereas the first level spell cure light wounds cures 8 hp. Plus you don't have go fiddling around with your inventory.

 

Har har.

Infravision

What in the world were they thinking when they implemented that spell into the game in the first place? Is it a private joke?

 

The absolute, utterly, most useless spell in all of monkeyville is - *BEAP* We are experiencing some technical difficulties. Your program shall resume shortly. *BEAP* - Oh my gosh! That is the most useless spell ever! Wow, your totally right!

But in all seriousness, I'd say the most useless spell I've ever had the displeasure of using was the 1st level wizard conjuration spell Grease. I mean seriously, by the time your playing BG2 you've got spells that actually stop enemies in their tracks.

 

Arcane spells:

1st level
Sleep - in SoA this spell makes no difference what so ever.

neither does

Color Spray

2nd level
Power Word Sleep - affects only creatures with 20 hp or less, meaning even a thief or bard could finish them in melee real quick... as could a single Magic Missile.

9th level
Energy Drain - the target loses two levels. How many times must this spell be cast on something big and dangerous to be of any help. Imo, should be a 6th level spell or so, but it wouldnt see much use then either.

Divine magic

2nd level
Goodberries - are vile.

Chant - is even worse, though, cause it seems to do nothing at all. In my games the +1 boni arent applied to hit or saving throws.

 

Sleep and Color spray become obsolete in Soa and Tob not because there worthless spells but because they're designed for use at low levels. The truly worthless spells i figured are one you'd never use at all since they're just that bad, like infravision and Power Word:Sleep mentioned above.

I think the Mage conjure elemental spells fit the bill since most of the time all you do is summon a hostile elemental, and unlike other summons you can't use it in the heat of battle since it stuns both the elemental and the caster for something like 10 rounds.

 

I gotta agree with Ike, infravision serves no purpose whatsoever. Hard to think of any other spell right now; don't have the manual.

 

Shocking Grasp, even used by a F/M. Conjure <blank> Elemental is right out.

 

I'm thinking along the same lines as zerox. Sleep and color spray are designed as low level spells and have their uses at low levels. That having been said, I completely agree with infravision and conjure elemental.

Energy Drain is a good pick because it is such a high level spell, but no one ever seems to use it.

@Dendri - I never knew chant didn't work. I never actually checked to see if my saving throws and THAC0s improved - I just assumed that they did.

 

I always have one memorised i guess its just handy to have the map revealed quickly, it offers no real tactical advantages just is nice to see the whole map without spending the time to drag a wizard eye around, anyways once you have played through a few times wizard eye is almost useless as you know where the enemies are anyway and stealthed characters can just be used to control summons. I thought Chant worked, i only memorise it for a lack of other decent level 2 Cleric spells. Hmm Infrasion is probably the worst spell. What about Friends ive never used that before but it sounds crappy, does it actually charm the target?

 

"Friends" increases the casters charima which might lead to cheaper shop prices and friendlier NPC reactions.

 

Infravision is the most useless spell ever. The only advantage provided by Infravision that I know of is making it easier to see enemies to target when you're in a dark area. But with the "Group Infravision" option on, you only need one person to have infravision. And even if you don't take Korgan, Viconia, Aerie, or Jan, you can just create your character as one of those races if it's so important to you. Even in BG1, there were twice as many options for NPCs and you could still create your PC as an elf/dwarf/gnome. Now if they'd implemented darkness penalties (which would likely also involve spells like Darkness and Light, and maybe torches), it might actually be something to use. But as it is it's just worthless.

Arcane elemental conjures are also somewhat useless since by the time you get control, your enemies would be dead from the tanks. However, you could summon them ahead of a big fight and gain control before the battle was even joined. Elementals also make for easy XP if they get out of control.

But I don't count out things like Color Spray or Sleep. Sure they almost never work on their own, but they can be used in conjunction with spells like Greater Malison which apply penalties to saving throws. So while they're not really worth it, it's a bit of a step to call them completely worthless.

 

All the famous spells (timestop, project image, etc. etc.) that make arcane spells so overpowered as to make me hate taking any character that can cast them!

 

wasnt there an ongoing joke about a terrasque being revelaed if you had infravision on in the desert thing in TOB on the BIS boards?

 

Well if that were true, almost any non human would pick up on it.

 

Lessee... Sleep. Color Spray, Infravision, Goodberries, Carrion Summons, most of power words.
All of these, frankly speaking, suck. Now, what doesn't suck, is Magic Missile. There's something all these sucky spells should learn from, something that is useful all the time from beginning till the end.

 

Summon undead is a terrible mage spell as its available much earlier to clerics (level 3 spell instead of level 5) and sucks in BG2 compared to the 1 skeleton per level you would receive in BG1 and isnt worth taking until your level is high enough to summon skeletal warriors (15+), anyway an absolute waste of a spell slot when it is only a level 3 Cleric spell.

 

Detect evil gets my vote, since anything hostile gets killed no matter what. and if a townfolk were evil, you'd lose reputation points anyways for killing them. Goodberries made me laugh, why use a spell for 4 hit points gained(and not all at once even). I never thought about how crappy level drain was. At level 9 it should completely drain somebody. It's even weaker than level three vampiric touch. I never liked chill touch either, as it only lowers THACO by 2 after you spent all that time swinging at them.

 

I don't have really have a problem with Goodberries. It's a pain in the butt to use them, but I've found that the 2nd level Druid spells all pretty much stink, with the exception of Slow Poison (and how many times are you going to use that?) So yeah, I have my Druid cast Goodberries often.

I'd say Protection from Lightning isn't so great (you don't see lightning damage too often). Same goes for Protection from Cold.

 

Aye, Goodberries may only be 5 points of healing, but it's a storable 5 points of healing, and more than nothing. And if you screw with the item file you can carry hundreds in just one slot. The perfect thing for a bloody day when you've got to get through just one more fight and you've used up all your spells; I'd rather turn to my easily replaced Goodberry stock than my healing potions. (If I'm getting impatient I'll just drop the appropriate number of Goodberries on the ground and Ctrl+R.) They're also useful if you know you're going to need every single HP from the start of the fight, and don't want to waste a full potion for 2 or 3 HP.

 

Luck is a poor spell, one cast per person and only increases THACO by 1 point and has a very short duration. Chill touc is also crappy, caster has to roll to hit then the target gets a save and then it hardly does anything, pretty pointless. And disintegrate comes to mind as it has a very high chance to destroy all items of the target and your hardly likely to use disintergrate on a goblin so chances are your going to be missing out on something.