Do you use Ruby Ray, Disintegrate, Flesh to stone

[Zoltan]

I never use these spells because they can harm inventory (ruby ray does not but it has a random effect ability I mean it may disintegrate your opponent) My problem is, I like to cast POWERFUL 6,7 and 8 level spells but delayed fireball etc is all I cast. There's lots of protection spells I think they're totaly useless why remove 1 protection (pierce magic etc) when you can remove all of them (breach) I dont have a fully knowledge about all spells so I like to share our spell preference with experienced mages. I got 1 pure mage, 2 back up mage. Pure mage can cast 2 9th level spells, 3 8th level etc Which spells you memorize which spells are useless which to keep? I get lost in my spellbook when it's time to choose a spell there's lots of spells

[Whailor]

Depends on the play style really.. I am melee oriented person, with ranged backup and spells meant only for buffing, protection removal from targets and occasional whack or two with MMM's or MM's.. In any case, I have not used those spells. Last two because they will destroy the inventory of the target, and that's the last thing I need to happen with the big target (and what's the point to waste those on a small one). As for the first one, then it's too much of a hassle to get it off really well, so I never used it either.

But, as I said, I am mainly a melee person with ranged back-up and additional spellcasting features, so I may not be the best person to tell about the usability of those spells

[daan]

Actually, its not the ruby ray (of reversal) , that you are talking about. You are talking about Prismatic spray, which has several random effects.
To give you a few situations where you could use these spells:
-Prismatic spray can be used on larg(er) groups of people, with no real inventory ( fallen paladins, orcs, werewolfs etc.)
-Desintigrate is good for Greater Wolfweres, demons etc. its a fairly fast way of killing something which has no inventiry and is strong.
-Flesh to stone can be used for free XP, (bit cheesy), turn a powerfull enemy into stone, then Imprison/free him again and again > [img]smile.gif[/img]

There are many spells which have nice potential ....
Polymorph self : Mustard jelly = 100% Magic resistance
feeblemind/blindness : enemy cant attack anymore
Protection from fire x 2 or in combination with a ring and
Incendiary cloud. This will heal you ( does fire damage, but you have 100 + Fire resistance) and hurt the enemy ...
Sphere of Chaos Ignores Magic resistance COMPLETELY (bye bye drow)
etc. etc.
Be creative


P.s. Breach does NOT remove ALL protections, it removes all COMBAT protections, no spell-protections. No spelltrap, spell deflection etc.
And if a mage has spelltrap on, breach will reach him, but wont dispel anything, you need something like pierce shield to get rid of the spell trap first.

Hope this helps a bit [img]smile.gif[/img]

[PeeWee]

This brings up some questions about the rules...

Breach doesn't name spell immunity as a spell it can negate. So it won't negate it...and if spell immunity is set to ignore all abjuration spells for some odd reason, then it will ignore breach since breach is an abjuration spell. This means to me that the breach will not cancel out any of the spells it was intended to.

My thing is this however, pierce magic is an abjuration spell and DOES name spell immunity as a spell it can negate. What happens here? Does spell immunity ignore the pierce magic spell here?

Does anyone know the rules for this? I'm assuming that higher level spells can negate the lesser level ones in this case....AND that if a spell has in it's description what it can negate, it WILL negate that spell. My understanding is that pierce magic will work even though spell immunity protects from that school of magic.

I just need the rules and if anyone has a link to them, I'd be very grateful to see it.

This also goes with pierce shield. That spell names spell trap as a spell that can be negated. Very useful since spell trap lets the caster feed off of incoming spells for up to 30 spell lvls.

So the pierce line of spells are directed more for the better spell defenses while the breaches and others are used to negate the lesser defenses.

Use a pierce shield to get rid of a spell trap that is causing the npc to recast his buffs or harmful spells.

Use pierce magic to get rid of spell immunity when your school of spells aren't sticking like breach for example.

Once you land those two spells, you can then land breach to wipe out the rest of the buffs.

From reading the descriptions, it seems a spell will wipe out all the things in it's description so long as no higher level spell is being used to protect against that specific spell you are trying to use.

Kinda like saying: I got all these lvl 3 buffs and your breach will cancel them out but my lvl 6 buff protects against your breach, now what do you have....then you turn around and cast a spell that "specifically says it can wipe out his lvl6 buff".

I don't mind at all if someone steps in and gives me the rules for it since I'm guessing here. And if I'm somewhat right, then you know why pierce is used. I ain't saying that it is used in place of breach here. More like it's the opener for breach.

Hope that helps somewhat.

[Sir Kenyth]

I must admit, I'm terribly ineffective with powerful mages. I never seem to have enough negating spells handy and I load up almost completely with them! There also aren't enough scrolls around with the better spells. I think the reason why I have so much relative trouble with them is that enemy mages are fresh and equipped with spells meant for one battle. They don't have to worry about the long hall, so they can unleash all their big guns at once. I use my mages primarily to buff the fighters and negate enemy mage defenses. I never get a chance to use the cool offensive spells. By the time you dispel illusions and invisibility, dispel spell protections, remove combat protections, lower magic resistance, lower saving throws, etc. Hell! By that time the fights over! The fighters have squished him!

[Nifft the Nimble]

If you have ToB, you'll get Improved Alacrity which will help greatly in terms of quickly removing enemy mage's spell protections (and then HPs, and then souls).

You can also put some of these in a Sequencer or Trigger... very good to have an anti-magi trigger, two Pierce Shields and one Breach.

-- Nifft

[Haladar]

i find, that with mages, the low level spells are often the most important. You need lots of magic missiles and melfs arrow and meteors and fireball. In the medium levels, Stoneskin is a must, and then feeblemind and chaos are quite good. Good level 6 spells include death spell( great against large groups of weaker monsters) and chain lightning (for the same reason). Level seven your looking mainly at protections and sequencers, or finger of death. Level 8, if youre into it, you can get things like cacofiend, but i think that one of the best spells in the game is horrid wilting.

Note:
First time i did Firkraag (i've never done him using a cheese, so i found it a tough fight first time) i killed him with stone to flesh, so i didnt get the holy avenger or the dragon scales...lol

[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: Haladar ]

[SixOfSpades]

The Pierce Magic and Pierce Shield state in their descriptions that they penetrate the spell protections of the target, so they're great for leaving the enemy open to things like Breach, as Nifft said.

It's ok to not know your magic in BG2, but once you hit ToB, LOOK OUT! Man, one guy is SUCH a pain in the ass--as soon as he sees you, he's got:
Protection from Magic Weapons
Spell Turning
Spell Immunity: Abjuration
Then he immediately casts Stoneskin, Hastes himself and starts in with some wicked melee attacks that even a Tank can't withstand. Whenever you leave him alone for a moment, he's continually summoning Invisible Stalkers. You can't hide from him for long--he can see the whole map (which is small) and knows exactly where you are. You can't attack with your fighters, because of his Protection from Magic Weapons, and your Breach spell is blocked by his Spell Immunity--even the 9th level Spellstrike is blocked. You can't cast offensive spells directly at him--his Spell Turning will send them right back to hit you. So you've got to hit him with a Pierce Magic or two....but you can't, because he likes to cast Improved Invisibility, and you can't target Invisible creatures....so you've got to do True Sight first, and did I mention that he's got really high Magic Resistance, and when you finally manage to get him to Badly Injured, he casts Heal?

Seriously, he's a MAJOR pain in the ass. I haven't beaten him yet. And when I finally do, then I'll get to fight his Dad. Oh, joy.

[Kikakee]

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If your talking about the son of the bhall spawn who turns into a dragon, yeah that was a hard fight. I think I went after him with 2 greater fire elementals (instantly slain) and a diva. My entire party was hasted with items, and my one tank had on the cloak of miroring, and the hammer of thunderbolts.

I killed his human form relatively quick, but the whole morph into a dragon thing just threw me off guard. Ended with Valgar dead, Imoen febleminded, and every one else running around in fear except for my PC a lvl 28 mage. I run a little ways away, and summon my second diva while the dragon is fighting a frightened minsc. Then I cast a spell sequencer: breach, pierce, wilting. the next thing I know he's down, and I just have to res valgar and wait for everyone to come under my control again.

Great Battle, that one. It only took me two tries too!

[Glorfindel]

Well I must say my all time favourite OFFENSIVE spell for any mage with ONLY SoA and no cheats is Horrid Wilting.... Good good damage, no party affect [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img] Great if the mages have spell protections up [img]smile.gif[/img]