Favortite Spells (arcane)

[TanisFrey]

That all said, I wish Chromatic Orb had been updated into post-2Ed.

What do you think the Orbs of Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Force, Sound are? Its the old Chromatic orb broken up into 6 different 3.x compatible spells.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Like I said, I do tend to use them, both in lesser and full strength forms. I just wish Chromatic Orb- as a single spell- had been greenlighted for 3.X and beyond, even if it had to be boosted in level.

It's disappearance left a gap in Roy G. Biv's (my "Rainbow Mage") arsenal.

 

[Sharkon]

I am mostly the splatters school so i go :

1)True strike

2)Schorching ray

3)Shivering touch

4)Enervation

5)Quicken ray of enfeeblement (lol...)

6)Contigency

7)Avasculate

8)Chain dispel

9)ANYSPELL ON THE SPELL-LIST

 

[Tilenas]

What do you think the Orbs of Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Force, Sound are? Its the old Chromatic orb broken up into 6 different 3.x compatible spells.

I LOVED chromatic orb, I HATE its 3.5 descendants. The lesser orbs are these stupid touch attack abominations, deal way too much damage, but don't do anything cool. Then, the big orbs actually deal less damage than maximized lesser orbs (7d6 = ~24.5 vs. 4d8 maximized = 32) when you first get them, so why bother?
So many more flavourful (and balanced) touch attack spells, like:

1st level
shocking grasp (yes, it's touch attack, but melee. also, nifty attack bonus vs armored foes)

other faves:

1st level
alarm (drawn the straw that reads 'night watch'? hell with that, I'll let my mojo do the work!)
grease (nothing beats greasing up that dungeon hallway your foes are presently hustling down towards you)
colour spray (the better sleep, remains useful much, much longer into the game)
reduce person (beefs up archers and roguish types. ironically, I find it much more useful than its reverse, unless someone is playing a monk)

2nd level
glitterdust (I can detect invisibility and inflict blindness at the same time?)
web ('nuff said about this one)
false life (takes your well-being off your companions' minds)
spectral hand (like the style)

3rd level
dispel magic (insanely fun against spellcasters because you never know what will happen)
explosive runes (OotS shows how great this spell really is)
hold person (let's cut down those goons and worry about Big Bad Evil Guy later!)
displacement (the lower your AC, the more useful it becomes. also effective vs blindsense/tremorsense, I believe)
haste (already wicked for one target, but benefits the whole group. yey!)

I'll continue this later...

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Reduce Person is nice for throwing characters, since the weapon reverts to original size when leaving your hands, thus doing more damage. In the case of archers, though, projectile weapons do damage based on the launcher size, so you're eating a die size decrease. Also, you lose strength, which is a MAJOR headache if using a high strength bow. If str dips below 10, it hurts any bow (and if it was above 10, you were probably using a strength bow). Hefty price to pay for a +2 to hit, so I have to disagree with you there.

Also, you forgot the 4th level orb spells have an effect attached, which sort of compensates for the damage. And they quickly surpass the lesser orbs, just not right away.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Aaaaannd not every spellcaster takes Maximize...or indeed, any metamagic.

 

[TanisFrey]

Aaaaannd not every spellcaster takes Maximize...or indeed, any metamagic.

I usually do not take metamagic feats for my spellcasters. The closest thing my current PC has is divine spellpower, this allows the cleric to increase effective caster level with a turn check.

 

[Nexilis]

Here are a few of my favorites for each level at the moment. I'm playing an Illusionist in a party with a Sorcerer with a love of AoE DD spells so most of my choices are a little more control/utility oriented. We're only 8th lvl at the moment so only up to 4th lvl spells for me.

0 - Prestidigitation - So useful for so many things
Amanuensis - 3.5's version of a copymachine
1 - Benign Transposition - I've used this for so many things but one of my favorite uses was swapping our squishy grappled rogue with the raging barbarian
Color Spray - Still useful long after sleep has no effect
2 - Mirror Image - Saved my ass more times then I can remember
Greater Slide - My DM likes having us fight on airships, so I like sliding mooks off of them
3 - Displacement - 50% miss chance on the same barbarian makes for fun times
Haste - A party friendly favorite
4 - Phantasmal Killer - Classic Illusion spell. Nothing better then one-shotting ogres and giants
Sensory Deprivation - Completely cut off a target from any and all sensory input, sounds good to me

 

[Tilenas]

Reduce Person is nice for throwing characters, since the weapon reverts to original size when leaving your hands, thus doing more damage. In the case of archers, though, projectile weapons do damage based on the launcher size, so you're eating a die size decrease. Also, you lose strength, which is a MAJOR headache if using a high strength bow. If str dips below 10, it hurts any bow (and if it was above 10, you were probably using a strength bow). Hefty price to pay for a +2 to hit, so I have to disagree with you there.

Right, archers who rely on strength won't be too keen on being made smaller, but throw in bonus dice (be they sneak attack or skirmish), and you have a different outlook.

Also, you forgot the 4th level orb spells have an effect attached, which sort of compensates for the damage. And they quickly surpass the lesser orbs, just not right away.

I didn't mention them because they allow a save and I was flaming against this ranged touch nonsense. Also, someone else feel they bestow effects that don't really fit their elemental component (acid sickens, fire dazes, cold blinds, lightning entangles)?

Now, back to those favourite spells:

4th level
- stone skin
- Evard's tentacles
- scrying
- confusion
- fire shield
- shout

5th level
- break enchantment
- dismissal
- cloudkill
- telekinesis
- rock to mud

6th level
- antimagic field
- legend lore
- true seeing
- geas
- chain lightning
- shadow walk
- eyebite

Having only once played a Wiz up to level 12 or so, I did not have much time to try higher level spells in the field, so I can't really make an informed judgement on those.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Right, archers who rely on strength won't be too keen on being made smaller, but throw in bonus dice (be they sneak attack or skirmish), and you have a different outlook.

As long as they're using crossbows.

Even for a rogue archer, if he's using a bow, reduce person is pretty much always a very very bad deal. Unless he has Str 12+ and purposesly walks around with a bow with a lower strength rating than he can achieve most of the time. Any other set up, and he's screwing himself over.