Under-rated and over-rated *priest* spells?

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Im not such a wiz of BG as you guys, so I cant post much of anything *shrugs*. But it would be surely an interesting read about spells that you post.

I found Fire Storm to be useful, and yet hardly even spoken about, since it ignores magic resistence and doesnt have any saving throws. Throw in a party member who is protected from fire by a spell and hold the monster in the area of effect to endure the punishment. Or deal out a very decent amount of damage to those with resistence(mind flayers, drow).

Good way to kill the liches.

 

Animate Dead is awesome!

 

Aerial Servant is VERY powerful, they do massive damage when they hit, for some reason, they always do 20-30 dmg per hit:I even thought they were buggy when I first tried the spell, it was that powerful. (ofcourse this was way back when I was playing BG2 first time, unmodded)

 

As Silverstar mentioned, the Aerial Servant is very powerful. The Druidic spell Summon Fire Elemental also deserves a mention as exceedingly good.

However, I feel one of the most under-rated priest spells is Righteous Magic. Not only do you gain additional hit-point and a considerable strength boost, but you also do maximum damage per hit. You hear people talk about Kai being a good ability- but it lasts barely any time in comparison to Righteous Magic, which lasts many rounds.

 

Indeed, Aerial servant can really give your enemies hell. My beginner's tactic was summon as many as I could and put them into the same room with the bad guys. Although they seem to miss quite often, they really hurt when the blow lands.

 

I also discovered Greater Command for clerics.

First of all, all of the creatures lower than the 6th level dont have a saving throw against it. As with death spell, you can quickly kill off little, yet annoying, beasties.

The second plus is that it has a casting time only of 1. Cast sanctuary with your cleric, enter the enemy zone and cast it. Before everyone will have a chance to notice you, they will be sleaping.

 

I love sunray, it really softens any group of undead and is a lifesaver in the final battle against Bohdi. It is especially satisfying when the undead targets miss their saving throw and take 1055 damage.

 

Champion's Strength...if your useless in melee caster cleric is not doing anything particularly useful, cast it on another party member who is woefully inadequate in the STR and THAC0 department (Jan Jansen prior to attempting Backstabs, Imoen while plunking away with Firetooth +3, Haer'Dalis who would REALLY benefit from better THAC0 etc etc)...

Your caster is rendered incapable of casting spells for the duration...but if you have nothing better to do...whats the harm?? I reckon its a pretty decent spell and having one memorised in a full party is a good idea. Also...using Champions Strength on Summons can have...interesting...results!

 

A few of my favorites are:

-Death Ward - Immunity to any instant death spells/effects. Used properly, this spell is incredibly valuable, plus it has a long duration.
-Chaotic Commands - Protection from mind affecting effects, Psionics in particular. Has a long duration.
-Defensive Harmony - Quick casting time, adds extra 2 AC to all party members and stacks with everything.
-Heal - haven't seen this one mentioned yet, and perhaps its because it's so obvious, but this heals all hitpoints on a target, removes most negative effects on that target.
-Harm - The damaging version of heal. Does massive damage to a single target.
-Insect Swarm - Really any in this line of druid spell are an excellent way to take an enemy caster out of the equation.

I would agree with the comments about Aerial Servant. These guys have been a great help against some of the more powerful foes in the game.

 

In can make even the Firkraag run. And it is VERY effective against mage-heavy parties(cowleds etc.)

Draw upon holy might is also very good. And what about false dawn? Is it useful against undead?

 

False Dawn is reasonably good, but most certainly not my favourite. Sunray is far better, as is Turning at higher experience levels. To be honest, I feel Heal, Harm and Aerial Servant are far superior to False Dawn and should be taken in preference as standard- unless you really feel the need to max out on anti-undead spells.

 

Armor of Faith seems to be another under rated spell in my opinion. Though I find it rather useful. I also find it useful that Jaheira can cast it. Or my Shapeshifter Druid Main in my newest game.

(PLaying my shape shifter not just as a fighter but using their spells in various ways as well.)

 

Armor of Faith stacks in unpatched games. Now that is just too awesome:you can have 127% resistance to all damage types with a few castings:can you smell the cheese? Add in a Death Ward and Chaotic Commands, and your cleric is, simply put, invulnerable!

 

~nod nod nod~ it's also a level one spell that actually gets more useful as the game progresses. While it's not all that impressive at the beginning of the game. At the end of the game it is quite effective indeed.

Also at high level for the Druids it actually lasts long enough to be beneficial after Ironskins is taken down through attacks from the enemy which is actually another way it becomes more beneficial at higher level instead of less so like most low level spells.

 

Call woodland being is one that I feel is underrated. The nymph has a very nice selection of spells, including mass cure which is a 6th level spell that you get for casting a fifth level spell! This spell is very effective until the later part of the game when saving throws become too good.

 

Call woodland beings used to be talked about a heck of a lot and for a while was a part of many major strategies that got shared because it provided an extra healer and then gooey distraction when the spells ran out.

I don't know if it still is.

 

And use as fodder after her healing spells are out.

I like Call Lightning at level 3. The damage is really good for a level 3 spell, but too bad it only works outdoors.

Bolt of Glory annoys me. It's nice because it works against demons, but it just doesn't do enough damage.

 

Yeah, but it goes right through their magic resistance.

Which I guess would lead me to my favorite divine spell, which may or may not be underated. Firestorm.
It has two great features
-It's an area spell, so it goes right through all mage protections
-It ignores magic resistance

So it needs no prep at all in terms of beating down spell traps and such and lowerign resistances.

Only bad part is that so many enemies have fire resistance.

 

Holy Smite saved my bacon more than once -- great spell.

 

Finger of Death is overrated. Why? Because you have Mental Domination as a 4th level spell! It has also -2 to saves but vs. spells, not death, and it is more difficult to resist.

Dominate those spellcasters and use their own spells!

Fun for the whole family.