Most Worthless Spell

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My vote would be Infravision for arcane and Good Berries for divine. I've yet to find a good use for these two. I've found a use for every other spell mentioned (ever tried Carrion Summons on humanoids? they work great vs Mages as long as they don't get death-spelled), even Power Word:Sleep (for them low level Kobold and etc which cast Enchantment spells). Luck works fine because it increases crit rate.

@Felinoid
Good Berries disappear after a couple of hours. Additionally, to use a bunch of them you'll have to do some serious clicking.

 

Um, no, and I honestly can't imagine where you would have gotten such an idea. The spell description in both games and manuals says "Permanent", and Goodberries do not magically disappear in the unmodded game; items in the BG games do not decay. Even Drow items don't technically decay, they're just destroyed in certain area scripts. And looking to PnP, the duration is days, not hours.

And I've already addressed using large numbers with dropping and Ctrl+R. Besides, what the heck else are you going to do with your second level druid slots? 5HP is better than absolutely nothing.

 

Whew, and I thought I was the only one here that uses good berries. Yeah, they are permanent, and eatting a bunch of them to heal is a slow process. I usually gulp one down every once in a while when I'm wandering around town; it's not for in-combat healing. They are also stackable (infinitely?), and not many other 2nd level druid spells are useful.

Agree with infravision and grease. Sleep and colour spray works on groups of goblins I recall, disabling them for even a mage to whack without worrying about getting hit back.

Detect Evil and Know alignment get my votes for level 2. Luck actually helped me once when lock picking and disarming traps.

Clairvoyance for level 3, agreed.

Contagion and Emotion for level 4. Never used them. I also don't use Otikule's Sphere and Teleport field, but I think there's people out there who know how to better use them than I do.

Level 5... lots of so-so ones, but each has their own uses plausibly. I never needed protection from acid though. The lesser elementals are better than skeletons early in the game. They saved me once in the fight with Anarg in that Fallen Paladin quest, because of their immunity to normal weapons. Even monster summoning 3 didn't do as well.

Level 6... Of all the summons, I like the invisible stalker and Nishruu the most. So I rarely use Carrion ants, Elementals and Wyvern Call. I don't use Stone to Flesh because I reload and I'm afraid of NPC problems since they leave the party when petrified.

Level 7... Control Undead is both hard to find (to scribe) and doesn't work often. I'd rather turn them. Mantle I don't use when there's level 4 stoneskin. And I don't know how to cast sphere of chaos properly. I don't use demon summons much, so cacofiend is out for me.

Level 8... Same idea as level 7 - no improved mantle and summon fiend. I can never get the full potential out of those symbol spells, but I try them often.

Level 9 agreed with energy drain. It's like, so what? You still have to kill him.

 

Infravision, Detect evil & Know Alignment, Clairvoyance.

I summon fiends and cacofiends (even skeletons) in front of a lich and he casts all his nasty spells on it. These demons have good MR. It's very useful when soloing with mages.

 

I use every spell offered expect one. In fact I only scribe this spell to get the xp and than I earse it from the spell book. That spell is infravision. Why memorize that spell when there are items that provide it or use group infravision.

Now as Fel pointed out, if the desingers implemented the Darkness spell, Light spell, and penalties for attacking in the dark than infravision would serve a greater purpose especially if they eliminated group infravision.

 

Otherwise the same, but Clairvoyance is useful to have as scrolls. Makes exploring maps less painful.

Others are Power Word: Sleep (no practical use), Good Berries (bothersome to use too), and Infrasion (no benefits). Out of these all, I have to say that Infrasion is the most worthless spell simply because it grants absolutely nothing the player would need. No info or HP like the other spells. Nothing.

 

Well, it's really more of a domino effect than a simple "throw it all in". In order to make Infravision worth it, they'd have to apply the penalties for fighting in darkness. But then to keep from handicapping the predominantly human NPCs with that, you'd need access to a Light spell (or lots more items with Infravision built in). The Light spell then leads to its counter, Darkness, and things have just sort of snowballed.

 

All the real crappy spells have already been mentioned, and I haven't really got much to add on top of what's already been said.

That said, I don't find grease to be sucky at all, and I've used it in numerous occasions.

For one, it's a pretty decent disabler, for those times when you've run out of the higher level spells such as emotion (I'm not one of those who rest every second just 'cus I've run out of spells - or at least not when I ain't power gaming ). It also works pretty well in conjunction with Chaos, to keep the chaosed enemies from running too far. Lastly you can quickly tear down a group using grease to slow them in their progress and then use nukes and ranged attacks.

 

@Blog. I often use Otiluke's Sphere and Emotion. In fact, they are "usually" my picks with my sorcerer. I always place the sphere in my contingency to protect myself when I'm about to die if I have a party. Emotion is just an improved version of sleep. I have never seen anybody drop items or say stuff as per the description, just fear or sleep.

 

I found chrono orb pretty useless since magic missile is so much better, and the added effect chrono orb give never really works since your enemies always save against it's effects, but it's pretty good in BG1 when at low levels.

Good berries is also terrible, I would much rather have slow poison and hold person. Poison is great since i find myself using every so often when fighting spiders and hobgolblins who poisen you with there bows. Hold person also works every so often, and sometimes it will hold a group of guys, but it's a great spell to have for for level 2 priest spells.

 

Mods improve the utility of Know Alignment and Goodberries.

There is no such cure for the uselessness of Infravision, however.

 

Barksins, a slow poison or two, a Flame Blade or two and some Charm Person/Mammal. These spells have become a staple in my party through the earlier chapters.
By the time I have more 2nd spell druid slots than I know what to do with I have healing spells to last enough battles.

Yeah 5HP is better than nothing. And if you have managed to use this spell enough, then good for you.

The berries don't disappear, and I stand corrected for that part.

 

No one's mentioned entanglement, but I find this pretty useless. Yes, it traps enemies, but more often than not party members get caught up too, and then can't avoid other area effect spells. Looks a mess on screen and it's hard to tell who's who amid all the jolly vines. And the spell sound irritates. Web is somehow a bit better.
Know alignment - even more pointless. How on earth can this be any good at all; hmmm. what's Bodhi's alignment?...

 

Bah, entangle for the win!!

Drop one of these, a couple of cloudkills/fireballs/skull traps (you get the picture), and finish any survivors .

I'll have to agree with Scythesong Immortal in that there's a lot of better things to do with your 2nd lvl druid spells, than goodberries .

 

I don't think grease is all that bad. Even when I was high level it would still slow down even my most hardened fighters. Of course when you consider that web is only one level higher and completely immobilizes people, yeah I guess grease does suck pretty hard. And infravision goes without saying.

 

I use chrono orb after a few de-buffs to bring down saving throws. Other then that then yeah it is pretty useless.

 

Well personally I love the armour spell, nothing like having 18 dex and casting a spell to set your ac to 6!!!!! JOY!

Power Word Sleep lets down a damned good group of spells though!

 

@Chelsea:
The Armor spell stacks with dexterity as actual armor does. Armor spell + 18 DEX = AC of 2.

 

Oh I see.

*goes and stands in the corner for a bit*