Favortite Spells (arcane)

[steeldragons]

I'll just go with things from a typical daily spell list my first ever character, human magic-user.

1st: Magic Missile: (2x) Gotta love it. Never misses.
Sleep: my first spell and useful when you don't want to necessarily KILL everything you encounter.
Featherfall: if you levitate, fly, or are otherwise "off ground" you really need this...at least once.
(honorable mention) Shocking grasp: always liked it, but didn't necessarily memorize/use it every day.
(honorable mention) Shield.

2nd: WEB!: Best 2nd level spell ever.
Knock: very handy to have ready.
Glitterdust
Mirror Image
Invisibility
(Other goods ones in his books and occasionally used): Levitate, Flaming Sphere, Gust of Wind, Darkness (formerlly 15' rad. now 20'!), and I would add, for pure usefulness, Continual Flame and Detect Thoughts.

3rd: Lightning Bolt: (2x) Cuz...well...bbZZZZAP!
Dispel Magic: (2x). Now you see the magic...Now you don't.
Fly: Cuz...c'mon, who doesn't want to be able to do that?
(also honorable mention for) Slow: big fan. but again not necessarily memorized daily.

4th: Dimension Door: One of my all time favorites and most used. Most likely find him with this memorized twice.
Minor Globe of Invulnerability: What you kids today call "Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser"
Ice storm: Frozen hailing wailing-winded doom from above...and below...and everywhere! Love it!
Wall of Ice: It's a wall. It's a bridge. It's a corral... It's a broach. It's a pterodactyl.

5th: Dismissal: never leave home without it.
Teleport: (2x)
Wall of Stone
(honorable mention and oft used): Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Telekinesis.
Nowadays I would most certainly want to add/include Overland Flight and Telepathic Bond.

6th: CONTINGENCY: hands down the most useful "save your butt" spell you will ever have.
"Freezing Sphere": nee "Otiluke's Freezing Sphere"
Chain Lightning: Seeing a pattern? Yeah, I always liked the "zap'em" spells.
(honorable mention and a day's study away): Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone/Stone to Flesh, Globe of Invulnerability

7th: Banishment: we went up against a LOT of extradimensional baddies.
Forcecage: pests go in and they can't get out.
(honorable mention) Limited wish and Delayed Blast Fireball (heh heh )

8th: Power Word, Stun: simply because, for the longest time, it was the only 8th level spell I had. haha. So I grew fond of it. Also, not too shabby to have when the BBEG is kickin' your party's butt and you need to make a "strategic retreat" a.k.a. Grab the dead and dying and RUN AWAY (without getting your arse's kicked any further)!

--Steel Dragons

 

[the Jester]

Note that a few of these are homebrews. I'm talking about favorites here, not "best choices".

1st: Mount and grease. Fun fun fun!
2nd: Magic mouth.
3rd: Spectral force, Jerakai's embrace* and vampiric touch.
4th: Evard's black tentacles, Otiluke's resilient sphere and bonebreak**.
5th: Sending.
6th: Disintegrate, project image and legend lore.
7th: Greater teleport and simulacrum.
8th: Marius' sidestep*** and polymorph any object.
9th: Shapechange.

*Jerakai's embrace is a homebrewed spell. It lets you grow an extra pair of arms for the duration.
**Bonebreak, also homebrewed, breaks a bone if the target fails its save. Various effects possible.
***Another homebrew. This lets you teleport 1/round, and you can end the spell by teleporting away basically as an interrupt, avoiding an attack even after it is rolled.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

*Jerakai's embrace is a homebrewed spell. It lets you grow an extra pair of arms for the duration.

Were you aware of the Girallon's Blessing spell, level 3 in Spell Compendium? It happens to do exactly the same thing, just curious.

 

[shadyizok]

lvl 1 silent image (so incredibly usefull in so many situations till even high lvl)
lvl 2 shatter (who needs a rogue to get into secure places?)
lvl 3 fly (why walk when you can ...?)
lvl 4 Evard's black tentacles of inappropiate fondling (funny as hell on both friend and foe!)
lvl 5 mirage arcana (once created my own town to rule as a king!)
lvl 6 no real favorites, so greater dispel magic I guess because of it's usefullness
lvl 7 reverse gravity
lvl 8 never got this far with my characters
lvl 9 never got this far with my characters

 

[Dandu]

I think a few words on higher levels spells would be appropriate.


6
Disintegrate
Flesh to Stone
Dispel Magic, Greater
Bigby’s Forceful Hand
Greater Heroism
Planar Binding

7

Arcane Sight, Greater
Ethereal Jaunt
Mass Hold Person
Insanity
Bigby’s Grasping Hand
Delayed Blast Fireball
Finger of Death
Maze
Reverse Gravity
Limited Wish

8

Greater Prying Eyes
Greater Shadow Evocation
Greater Planar Binding
Prismatic Wall
Mind Blank
Horrid Wilting
Bigby’s Clenched Fist
Otto’s Irresistible Dance
Polymorph Any Object

9

Dominate Monster
Prismatic Sphere
Shades
Time Stop
Astral Projection
Meteor Swarm
Wail of the Banshee
Weird
Gate
Shapechange
Foresight

 

[Quikill]

Nice responses, but here are a couple I didn't see and are great spells.

1st
Protection from Evil (prevents compulsions for a 1st level spell? sign me up)

4th
Assay Resistance/Dimensional Anchor combo (To keep the BBEG's from escaping)
Ray Deflection (to prevent those nasty ray and orb spells from getting to you)

 

[Quikill]

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