Cannon Fodder Casters

[Rystil Arden]

You want to use the BoVD? Hmmm, throw some mooks with Love's Pain at them and other mooks who are just using Illusions that look the same. When they wonder why the spells aren't doing anything, have the BBEG explain to them that every time the spell is cast, their dearest love one is experiencing excruciating pain and will eventually die, so the heroes better surrender if they love their dearest love ones. This works best if one of the PCs dearly loves another PC and they only use the real spells on that pair, allowing the party to see it work.

 

[kaomera]

Ray of Enfeeblement does not stack with itself. It's an enhancement penalty. As for learning an attack spell over Arcane Eye, well, enemies and PCs have different priorities. Assuming general mook conditions, the enemy mook isn't going to be around long enough to get use out of sending out eyes on a long scouting mission, while the PC will. The enemy could indeed get good use out of Magic Missile, though.

Admittedly, it's very strong to have mooks use Magic Missile. But I guess I may not understand what you meant by sucker bet. To me, it's a gamble where your expected return is significantly lower than your wager. I can't see that in the least here. Lame because without the Shield spell it may be an automatic KO? I can see that. But not a sucker bet.

Ah! Thanx for the catch on RoE. (Not to get too off-topic, but by my reading it's actually an untyped bonus, not that it matters.) I'm just more used to thinking about stacking for bonuses, I guess.

As for priorities and sucker bets: Obviously YMMV. I think of NPCs either as the DM or as the character. As the DM Magic Missile is a "sucker bet" in that I don't think it provides enough "fun-factor" (for me as DM or for the players) to be worth managing that many extra figures. As the NPC I'm not usually thinking "Hey, I'm gonna get in one fight today and then I'll die; and I certainly never had any reason to cast my spells otherwise!", and therefore I'm going to think more the way I would when designing a PC. And I lean twords support / information gathering spells for that reason. An Alarm spell or two and a few mook diviners isn't going to do much in combat, but it sure ensures that the BBEG has time to cast all his buffs!

1) Are touch spells generally worth it?

Possibly. Ensuring that you can actually get the spell off can be very dicey, but if they do they can be very good. However you're pretty much ensuring that the mooks will be a fireball target (like they wouldn't already... ), and they aren't likely to survive to get a second spell off (if they would anyway).

2) What spells work well for mooks that PC's might not consider for themselves?

I think that depends a lot on what spells your PCs are likely to choose...

3) What spells grant the best bang for the buck?

Grease, Color Spray, Obscuring Mist or Silent Image, Enlarge or Reduce Person, Ray of Feeb, Web or Gust of Wind if they can somehow manage 2nd level spells (scrolls?). For Clerics it's mostly buffs / unbuffs...

4) What spells are best spot counters to things the players might use?

3rd level is what they are!

5) What spells are potentially overwhelmingly effective?

Magic Missile, maybe? 9 or so 1st level casters is still EL6...