Simple. Good spells that you rarely or never cast, for whatever reason but often because other spells are "better" or tactically simpler.

Mine:

For mages -
Color Spray. Mage is never at the front.
Horror. Lance of Disruption. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. Improved Invisibility. Chaos. Otiluke's Freezing Sphere. Antimagic Shell (although I may cast it with my current F/M). Prismatic Spray.

For priests -
Sanctuary. Beast Claw. Mold Touch. Smashing Wave. Blood Rage. Animal Rage. Champion's Strength. Blade Barrier. Spiritual Wrath. Symbol of Pain.

Edit: I'm sure some of these will get more use when I finally get around to a full game in HoF mode.

[ 02-16-2005, 01:48 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Mage

Friends (always have a bard with high charisma so never bother), Grease (use web and just forget about this one) , Vocalize(totally forget about this one), Snilloc's Snowball Swarm (lots of cretures with cold resistance like undead so I forget this is even available, anyone know if it is anygood?), Lightning Bolt (good but very dangerous in tight spaces), Chaos, Great Shout,
Incendiary Cloud, Malavon's Rage, Power Word: Stun, Power Word: Blind.

Cleric

Beast Claw, Cause Disease, Glyph of Warding,
Mold Touch, Unholy Blight (Are there even any creatures of good alignment in the game worth using this on), Cloud of Pestilence (I don't believe I have ever had an evil cleric), Blood Rage (Good but dangerous), Animal Rage (Good but dangerous), Spiritual Wrath, Whirlwind, Unholy Word, Symbol of Hopelessness, Symbol of Pain</font>

[ 02-16-2005, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

I use Snilloc's against fire monsters. It's basically just as good as icestorm, but a lower level spell. Not great, but useful.


I prefer grease to web (though I use both). It fires off faster and buys me time without making a huge area impassable (AoE is smaller than web).

Why wouldn't you have your bard cast friends?


The best spells I don't use are dire charm/domination etc. Always forget and end up summoning something instead.

For my mage I dont use any buffs that affect caster only (stoneskin, mirror image).

I also dont use any time of charm/domination spells

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">I know it is helpful I just never bother to do it, there is no rhyme or reason why I don't. Thus best spells I never cast.</font>

[ 02-16-2005, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

<font color = lightgreen>Mages: Charm Person, Identify (I use a bard), Shocking Grasp, Blindness (I mean, seriously--why? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] ), Decastave (does anyone use this waste of a spell slot?), Detect Evil, Knock, Luck (wow, 1 whole point :rolleyes: ), Dire Charm, Otiluke's Sphere, Domination, Feeblemind, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Shout, Dart of Bone, Soul Eater, Great Shout, and Power Word: Blind.
These spells are essentially useless, in my opinion.

Priest/Druid: Command Word, Curse, Aid, Charm Person/Mammal, Find Traps, Goodberry, Hold Animal, Rigid Thinking, Mental Domination, Champion's Strength, Fire Seeds, Symbol of Pain (it doesn't really do very much), Circle of Bones, Blood Rage, Smashing Wave, Spiritual Wrath, Whirlwind, and Mist of Eldath.

Especially in HoF mode, spells that confuse (like Chaos) or stun (like Hold Monster) are generally more effective than direct-damage spells, because everything has so many hit points. Prismatic Spray is wonderful in HoF, because it does have a chance to petrify, etc. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img] </font>

I've never played IWD1 in HOF mode, but assuming that it's similar to IWD2, the "mental" types of spells are generally more effective than damaging spells, particularly against enemy tanks. In IWD2, this is due to the fact that tanks have lower Will saves than spellcasters. I assume that in the 2e IWD1 it ends up being somewhat parallel.


Oh, the damaging magics that I found to be effective in IWD2 were those that lasted for multiple rounds, like acid fog, spike stones, etc. Just set up a kill zone with spells like Grease, Entangle, Spike Growth, and Web in a choke point. Higher level disabling spells are great as well. Spells like Emotion Hopelessness, for example. Then start with the multi-round damaging spells. And BTW, don't waste this much firepower against a single foe. But this tactic works great against a mob. You may not create much damage in a single round, but over a decent number of rounds the damage really adds up. Particularly when you include the damage from your ranged weapons.

While I haven't used the above tactic in IWD1's HOF mode, I did use it successfully in IWD2 and see no reason that it shouldn't work in IWD1.

Great thread for those of us working on tactics/strategy in spellcasting. I'm tired of bashing my way through things. It's good to have a viewpoint from more experienced players on what is good and bad.

Keep those replies coming!

Cary

Wasn't this in the BG2 forum? Anyway, Friends.