Spell Discussions: Level 6

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I'm playing through with a Solo Sorc, and have reached Lvl 6. So far, I have selected Prot. from Magic Weapons and True Sight (two no brainers).

So, it's time to analyze Level 6!

Spells worth considering:

- Prot. from Mag. Weapons.
- True Sight
- Mislead
- Contigency

 

No Chain Lightning to weaken groups? No Death Fog to cancel out summoners? No Improved Haste? And what about Pierce Magic to take down Globes of Invulnerability so that you can then Breach casters and let your tanks carve them into pieces? (Not so helpful for a solo sorc, but for parties.) Or perhaps a Tenser's Transformation for when you're running low on spells, or even just want to create some carnage?

 

Improved haste is the absolute best level 6 spell (although I tend to favor melee-based parties).

 

Since we're kind of up to level 6 and haven't done one for a while we might as well make the discussion comprehensive, so....level 6 spells:

Carrion Summons
1 or 2 carrion crawlers for 7rounds +1/lvl - kind of made redundant by all the 1/2 decent summons

Chain Lightning
1d6/2lvls of the caster area effect, party friendly electricity damage

Conjure Air Elemental
summons an air elemental , strikes as a +4 weapon. Made significantly less useful by the whole having to concentrate on the summon for 3 rounds catch.

Conjure Earth Elemental
See above.

Conjure Fire Elemental
See above.

Contingency
store 1 spell from your book up to a level of 1/3 of your own (caps at lvl18 where the wizard can store up to lvl6 spells). Good for storing an invisibility or stoneskin when you start taking damage. Also it can be cast both when the game is paused and even when you have already cast a spell that round - very useful for sticky situations

Death Fog
Area effect party un-friendly spell, does 6damage/round and instantly kills summons- probably better to use the wand of cloudkill and save the slot for something better....like:

Death Spell
Wipes out summons and creature with less than 8hit dice. Party friendly

Disintegrate
Save or else, instant kill, but you loose the loot, and there are lower level spells that do effectively the same thing

Flesh to Stone
see above, you can use in conjunction with stone to flesh to get repeat xp.

Globe of Invulnerability
prevents lvl 1-4 spells from hitting the caster (bar area effect spells)

Improved Haste
upgrade to haste - only targets a single creature, but doesn't result in fatigue and it doubles the rate of attack! - so if you have a fighter who usually gets 3.5apr, he will now get 7. My 1st pick for a party caster

Invisible Stalker
8hd improved invisible summon that lasts a long time (8hrs) and strikes as a +2 weapon.

Mislead
Quick casting invisibility spell that wont dispell until the clone gets chuncked (keep it out of view and out of true sight range to avoid this) or until the 1round/lvl duration runs out. Great for keeping safe in between casting.

Pierce Magic
Reduces MR by 1%/lvl and remove 1 spell protection below lvl6...probably better to remember lower resistance and a protection removal spell, as it will be more effective and leave you more lvl 6 slots free

Power Word, Silence
prevents a mage from casting anything for 3 rounds..other spells such as acid arrow or disintegrate have similar effects. I suppose the 'ol power word doesn't allow a saving throw though.

Protection from Magic Energy
protects the caster from magical energy...I'm struggling to come up with a time that it would be more useful than say improved invisibility or mirror image in the vanilla SoA game - brilliant against Abi-Dalzims in some of the tactical mods though.

Protection from Magical Weapons
Brilliant in the later stages of the game to prevent any attacks from magical weapons (which most of the tougher enemies tend to utilize)

Spell Deflection
prevents 10 levels of spells from getting through

Stone to Flesh
counteracts flesh to stone. Probably wont need to be cast too often

Summon Nishruu
completley immune to magic and eats enemy spell caster spells, great vs mages though pretty weak against physical attacks. drains charges from magical items and will also eat a few non-charged items if you don't have a fixpack installed.

Tenser's Transformation
Doubles current hp, decreases AC & THAC0 and tries to turn the mage into some kind of a warrior - has its uses for the solo character, though it will disable casting ability.

True Sight
Wipes out all illusions including invis, mislead and project image. Simulacrum is immune. better to be left to priests and inquisitors if possible, but still an awesome spell.

Wyvern Call
Summons a Wyvern for 1round/level (read: not long), strikes as a +2 weapon and can cause poison damage...theres better summons out there

my picks:
solo: Mislead, Prot. Magical weapons, Tensers (for the healing), chain lightning, Death Spell
party: Imp. Haste, chain lightening, prot. magical weapons, Mislead, Death Spell

[Edit] Im loving the crtl+b bolding option with the new board!

 

I don't think I've taken a solo sorcerer this far yet, so the importance of some spells hasn't sunk in.

Chain Lightning I take since the only other damage spell on this level is the unfriendly Death Fog.

Contigency is useful. I haven't tried using it in the middle of a round before though.

Death Spell is awesome for getting rid of umber hulks, summoned efreeti, nishruus and maybe the odd mind flayer. Is there a list of creatures that this spell works on, because it's not immediately clear by the hit dice which monsters are susceptible to this or not.

My party mage tends to cast those spells the most. I usually leave Nishruu out this level and take the Hakeashar instead.

 

My picks:

Death Fog
Prot. from Magic Weapons
Pierce Magic
Mislead (for a solo mage)

When in a party or playing a multiclassed fighter type, pick up Improved Haste also...

 

Mandatory:

• Mislead: One of the most overpowered spells in the game. Cast and even attack while staying invisible. Turns enemies into total pushovers if they can't see through invisibility - and 98% of them can't.

Useful:

• [*]Contigency: Emergency brake when things don't go the way you planned. Totally needed to stay in control when playing no-reload games and still very helpful in normal games, but not that important when playing with a party.
• Death Spell: Gets rid of creatures with 8 or less Hit Dice and (non-gated) hostile summons. No save, ignores magic resistance (at least for summons). Will be useful from early SoA to the end of ToB, but with a large party DS is rather a convenience spell.
• Improved Haste: Doubles the attack rate of the recipient. IH turns Fighter/Mages and Blades into killing machines, while party mages buff their warriors with it. Only solo mages and sorcerers won't need IH.
• Protection from Magical Weapons: Provides 24 seconds of total immunity against magical melee and ranged attacks. Priceless when a solo mage gets ambushed. Party mages are usually much better protected, so they can skip PfMW without worrying too much.
• True Sight: Keeps dispelling all pesky illusions. In a party you can leave TS mainly to your clerics and/or Inquisitors but it's never wrong to memorize one.

Semi-useful:

• Chain Lightning: Minor damage but smart, party-friendly targeting. You can cast it on summons and party members (without harming them) to hit otherwise untargetable enemies near them.
• Death Fog: This cloud spell deals 8 points of acid damage for 15 rounds and kills all (non-gated) summons instantly - including your own. Great for lich hunting! In most situations Death Spell is more handy, but choose DF instead if you like cloud spells and don't use a lot of summons.
• Invisible Stalker: The Stalker is a half-decent summon, hard-hitting and long lasting, but Skeleton Warriors are the better choice.
• Summon Nishruu: Good against un-moded mages (like Skeleton Warriors), bad against fighters (unlike Skeleton Warriors). Has a few minor spells of its own and 100% magic resistance but will be wiped out by Death Spell and Death Fog nonetheless.

Avoid like the plague:

• Carrion Summons: A lot worse than Invisible Stalker and Animate Dead, not even better than Spider Spawn.
• Conjure Air Elemental: While the elementals are quite powerful, it's not worth to rely on summons that make you helpless for three rounds.
• Conjure Earth Elemental: See above.
• Conjure Fire Elemental: See above.
• Disintegrate: Weak save-or-else spell that can destroy loot. Horrible for this spell level.
• Flesh to Stone: Again worthless without save penalty. Only good for cheesy XP gain.
• Globe of Invulnerability: Repeat with me: This is not BG1. Mages can and will use high level spells against you.
• Pierce Magic: Okay, PM get's rid of Globe of Invulnerability, but it's still a weaker Secred Word combined with a weaker Lower Resistance. Rather use SW or LR depending on what you want - protection removal or lowering of magic resistance.
• Power Word, Silence: Silences one target for 7 rounds (instead of meager 3 like the manual claims), no save. But tough spellcasters tend to use Improved Invisibility and/or spell protections - and if they don't, you have enough other means to dispose of them.
• Protection from Magical Energy: Protects mainly against Magic Missile, Skull Trap and Horrid Wilting. Use Shield, Mirror Image and/or Spell Protection (Necromancy) instead.
• Spell Deflection: In most situations Improved Invisibility and Mislead offer much better protection, though SD helps against spell-like effects from traps and lasts quite long.
• Stone to Flesh: Use scrolls for the rare cases of petrified party members.
• Tenser's Transformation: Turns spellcasters into bad fighters while taking away their ability to cast spells. Bad deal in most cases (except for Blades perhaps).
• Wyvern Call: Better than Carrion Summons but still clearly worse than Invisible Stalker.

Solo Sorcerer picks: Mislead - Death Spell - True Sight - Protection from Magical Weapons - Contigency

Party Sorcerer picks: Improved Haste - Death Fog - Chain Lightning - Mislead - True Sight