What 7th-level spells should any Wizard prepare?

[Asmo]

Doh!
Never really thought of that possibility.
Thanx Thanee, I owe you one!

Asmo

 

[Nail]

I've not had alot of experience casting Wiz spells of this level. Still, a quick perusal (and as a long-time reader of the Storyhours) gives me this list:

• Forcecage: Why would any wizard not pick this no-save spell?
  
• Summon Monster VII: Personal preference; I like the flexibility in meat shields.
  
• Waves of Exhaustion: You all do know what no-save penalties this gives, right?

Exhausted: An exhausted character moves at half speed and takes a –6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued.

 

[Dark Dragon]

Voted for:

- Mage's Sword (cast it and let it fight on its own, while you cast other spells. It is good against incorporeal creatures and has a quite good attack bonus)

- Spell Turning (comes in handy when you're targeted by Greater Dispelling, Horrid Wilting,...)

- Greater Teleport (simply useful, even for the whole party)

Prismatic Spray is also a nice offensive spell, but allows SR and save. Waves of Exhaustion allows SR but is quite effective against non-constructs and non-undead opponents.

Forcecage is too expensive, IMO, burning 1500 GM per use may deplete the wizard's cash quickly... Limited Wish is nice, but losing XP too often hurts.

 

[dcollins]

I would be glad if someone could post the result of the 2 lvl spell poll.

In case you haven't found it yet, here it is: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=92760

As an aside, this was the first one I did, and I'm expecting to re-do it again at the end. I was a bit over-aggressive about editing out options in the poll (thought there was a 20 item limit at first). Had 13 write-in votes for Glitterdust, 7 for Web.

 

[Asmo]

Yup, found it, Thanee was kind to add some links
I´m playing a low level Arcane Trickster wannabe so it´s interesting to read what other people think is great spells.

Asmo

 

[Plane Sailing]

Limited Wish was my number one choice.

I'm surprised force cage gets so many votes. As Dark Dragon says - 1500gp per casting is a *heck* of a price, it sure ain't going to be case regularly!

Thus a wizard would sometimes want to prepare force cage because there are some days you know you're going to need it, but every day? Probably not.

Unlike Al I struggle to find good spells at this level (although I've been looking at it from a sorcerers point of view which skews things a little).

I like Mordenkainens sword (oops, Mages sword) to give a chance to hack away at things, and Summon Monster VII gives some interesting additional capabilities.

 

[Nail]

...surprised force cage gets so many votes. As Dark Dragon says - 1500gp per casting is a *heck* of a price, it sure ain't going to be case regularly.

Consider that at this level, the average encounter (EL 16 !!!!!) the treasure value per encounter is 28,000gp.

At that level, spending 1,500 gp to end the fight is hardly a problem. You're just as likely spend that kind of money on potions, scrolls, and other consumables during the fight.

(EDIT) For comparison: spending 1500gp on a fight at this level (EL 16) is only ~5% of the treasure you will gain for the fight. At level 3 (EL 3), spending 5% of the treasure is 48 gp. Whoop-dee-dee.

 

[Thanee]

From a sorcerer's point of view, I have these three spells chosen for my sorceress (not yet high enough to learn them, however ):

1) Limited Wish (no brainer)
2) Greater Teleport (no Teleport, so this is another obvious choice)
3) Spell Turning (the only one I am not so sure about, but it's nice protection and can be cast over and over again)

Force Cage is out, since she cannot learn evocations anymore (Incantatrix), otherwise, this might have been number 3), but there is still Greater Shadow Evocation one level higher, which does it for free (but also is less effective with a save to disbelieve and SR: yes). Altho 8th level spell choice is really, really tough for a sorcerer.

Bye
Thanee

 

[shilsen]

Limited Wish and Prismatic Spray for reasons already mentioned by previous posters. No.3 was Reverse Gravity - if you need to ask why, read the spell description and think about options for a few seconds.

 

[Plane Sailing]

3) Spell Turning (the only one I am not so sure about, but it's nice protection and can be cast over and over again)

I have a vague recollection of a thread in the past few months which was agonising about the relative uselessness of spell turning - something about it only protecting against a very few number of spells in reality?

Do you remember that thread?