Sor/Wiz 7 spells

[jasin]

Shimrod, the Earl of Coalchester, my wizard in AoW just got his first two 7th-level spells.

Which ones would you pick and why? Shimrod is trying to be the ultimate generalist, so no school is favoured, but his spell penetration and DCs are both pretty good.

I'm almost certain to take limited wish. Command undead also seems attractive what with the god of undead trying to bring about the end of the world.

 

[Zurai]

Forcecage is an excellent 7th level spell from the PHB.

If you have access to the Spell Compendium, you might want to look at Spell Matrix too.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Forcecage is an excellent 7th level spell from the PHB.

If you have access to the Spell Compendium, you might want to look at Spell Matrix too.

Forcecage is a kick ass spell, but is little expensive for my tastes.

Some of my favs:

Anti-magic Ray, Stun Ray, Avasculate.

 

[Zurai]

Unfortunately Stun Ray and Avasculate (while great) aren't terribly useful against undead, and jasin mentioned he was playing in an undead-heavy campaign. That kinda narrows down the options a lot.

Yeah, Forcecage is expensive, but it's king of the "we'll fight you later once we've handled all your friends" spells. It's also got defensive uses.

 

[Victim]

Force Cage is expensive but good.

Reverse Gravity has its uses. And it's hilarious.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm almost certain to take limited wish. Command undead also seems attractive what with the god of undead trying to bring about the end of the world.

For goodness sake don't take the 7th level spell Control Undead! It is inferior in almost every way to the 2nd level spell Command Undead which has much longer duration and NO SAVE for unintelligent undead!

Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets: One undead creature
Duration: One day/level
Saving Throw: Will negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell allows you some degree of control over an undead creature. Assuming the subject is intelligent, it perceives your words and actions in the most favorable way (treat its attitude as friendly). It will not attack you while the spell lasts. You can try to give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn’t ordinarily do. (Retries are not allowed.) An intelligent commanded undead never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing.

A nonintelligent undead creature gets no saving throw against this spell. When you control a mindless being, you can communicate only basic commands, such as “come here,” “go there,” “fight,” “stand still,” and so on. Nonintelligent undead won’t resist suicidal or obviously harmful orders.

Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the commanded undead (regardless of its Intelligence) breaks the spell.

Your commands are not telepathic. The undead creature must be able to hear you.

 

[Plane Sailing]

For 7th level spells I'd be inclined to go for Limited Wish and Spell Turning (if you thing you might face a number of magically inclined baddies).

However, Mordenkainens Sword is a pretty good fighting spell, especially if up against several opponents - and Prismatic Spray is always a fun option if you are a bit of a gambler!

 

[jasin]

For goodness sake don't take the 7th level spell Control Undead! It is inferior in almost every way to the 2nd level spell Command Undead which has much longer duration and NO SAVE for unintelligent undead!

The 2nd-level command undead is actually more like "charm undead" for intelligent undead.

Control undead would appear to be "dominate+ undead" (the + is because it doesn't mention anything about suicidal orders, so you could presumably order the undead to stand still while your friends beat the stuffing out of it).

The no save for unintelligent undead is a big plus for command undead, and I might get it regardless of what I get for 7th-level.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I really like alot of the spells at this level, but if I had to chose two, I would probably pick Finger of Death and Limited Wish.

 

[jasin]

Prismatic Spray is always a fun option if you are a bit of a gambler!

Prismatic spray has been great fun when used against us (fun because we had to mount transplanar rescue expeditions ), but it seems like a really crappy spell against monsters.

By the time 7th-level spells are available, almost everything has resistances or immunities to something (even if they're just in the form of "I only fail Fort saves on a 1"). Giving the monsters yet another chance to resist, in addition to saves and SR doesn't really strike me as a good idea.

OTOH, I'm drawing heavily on Vance for inspiration for this character, which makes prismatic spray so very fitting...