What 9th-level spells should any Wizard prepare?

[Terwox]

shapechange, foresight, and disjunction.
shapechange because... it's shapechange. be a 200'x200'x200' block of adamantium and fall from 400 feet up. do it. that's lame but it has very good effects.
foresight is good because you can teleport away if something horrible is about to happen.
disjunction is good because, well, it just strips away buffs and cancel magic items, and make fights that much easier. good stuff. kinda unwieldy with the burst, though.

 

[Hypersmurf]

it's shapechange. be a 200'x200'x200' block of adamantium and fall from 400 feet up. do it.

In 3.5, you can't.

Shapechange lets you become creatures. A block of adamantine (adamantine. adamantine.) is not a creature.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

Oops, forgot to check Time Stop!

1) Shapechange
.
.
.
.
.
2) Gate
3) Mordenkainen's Disjunction
3.5) Time Stop
4) Dominate Monster

I was tempted to vote for Foresight, too, but it depends so much on how it is interpreted.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Someone]

Shapechange, Shapechange, Gate, Time stop. Add Disjunction if you have another slot.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Shapechange - too useful!
Wish - good in many situations... as a last ditch.
Disjunction - again a party saver.
Time stop - like everyone else says.

 

[hong]

Heightened true strike. They'll never see it coming!

 

[EvilGM]

Wish - flexibility and power... the xp cost bites, but what can ya do?
Time Stop - precious time
Disjunction - most powerful destroy/dispel magic
Shapechange - nutty powerful

Meteor Swarm and Wail of the Banshee are nice, but I prefer flexibility over attack spells at this level.

 

[Iku Rex]

In 3.5, you can't.

Shapechange lets you become creatures.

That's why you make it an animated block of adamantine. Though you have to settle for a Gargantuan object. (125 tons.)

 

[Humanophile]

Gate, Timestop, Shapechange, and spare copies of the above.

Coincidentally, I'm surprised so many people are saying "Wish". Not to sound munchkinny, but isn't Gating in a Solar very much the same thing for 20% the XP?

 

[Humanophile]

That's why you make it an animated block of adamantine. Though you have to settle for a Gargantuan object. (125 tons.)

Really ain't as good a tactic as you seem to think.

To everyone under you, you do 20d6. Granted no save, but this doesn't seem too extreme for a 9th level spell. Especially when you consider the drawbacks.

First, you have to be in optimal conditions. Low ceilings or flying foes? Best of luck. (And if you're not flying while in open areas, what the #^$& are you doing in a high level encounter?)

Plus, when you do land, you take 20d6 - 20 damage. You might be able to get up to three of those d6's ignored, but that's still ~40 points of ouch under optimal conditions.

Not that it can't be useful when you want to inflict wide-scale damage, but even scope of carnage can be outdone by a lower level wizard with Widen. So it's an option while the spell is running, but nothing to get all worked up over.