Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

I'm new to GURPS and my character is only focused on magic. I wanted to know good Spells for my Character, whether Support, Healing, Damage and other things.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Control limb is fun for all in melee combat with those of low will. At skill 15 it's only 2 points to cast on a leg and in fire and forget mode the entire leg goes "dead" for 5 rounds. No movement, no feeling, nothing. Unless you can fight on one leg while hopping and dragging the other one around, you're in trouble. No attack roll required and wiith a 6 foot enchanted staff range is reduced by 2 yards. Spend one round of concentration to guarantee they end up on the ground and hilarity ensues.

Death touch with an enchanted staff is up to 3d damage per <edit>attack</edit> plus the staff damage on a strike. No resistance but a touch is required. At skill 15 it's only 2 points for 3d damage.

--Outlaw.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Seconded, a moderately combat proficient mage with decent Staff skill and proficiency with the Deathtouch spell can be a fight-ender against normal foes.

I like open-ended spells that reward clever play, like Shape Earth or Create Water.

Recover Energy is a must since FP/ER is life for a mage.

If you're willing to buy up your Innate Attack skill to decent levels, Missile spells can be nasty. If you know a missile spell at a high enough level, you can crank out 1d missiles every turn with no FP cost. Very nasty in a low tech setting.

There are a number of old threads on this site which discuss the merits and drawbacks of various spells. Doing a site search by spell name might be helpful.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Assuming you're going to be in a game with a Game Master (GM) you know, my advice would be to ask the GM. They might tell you "this spell could be very important" or "don't bother buying that spell it likely won't be useful."

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

There's the trio of abuse from the Movement college:

* Great Haste - give yourself or an ally two maneuvers per turn. Expensive, but so worth it.
* Glue - low ST people get stuck to the floor. An excellent area denial spell.
* Grease - low DX people fall over. Another excellent area denial spell.

Glue or Grease and allies with reach 2 weapons is a great tactic for picking off foes with minimal risk.

Some other favorites (Combat):
* Burning Touch / Death Touch / Shocking Touch - melee attack spells that hit hard and mostly ignore armor. A 3d burning touch will cripple a lot of foes and set the rest entirely on fire, which generally gives crippling combat penalties.
* Blur - giving all attackers a -5 to hit someone can change a tough fight into a cakewalk.
* Concussion - the actual damage is irrelevant. The important part is stunning everything within 10 yards of the blast. Throw it behind your enemies then defeat them while they're stunned.
* Create Fire / Shape Fire - magical fire that burns without fuel. Great for destroying foes trapped in Grease or Glue effects. Shape Fire lets you move the fire and chase foes down with it.
* Missile Shield - a little expensive, but absolute protection from most missiles is worth it.

Some other favorites (Utility):
* Analyze Magic - the essential spell for discovering what an unknown magic item does.
* Continual Light - a cheap spell to cast out of combat to provide light for a week.
* Continual Mage Light - a magic light that only mages can see. Extremely useful for elfs and other races with racial magical ability.
* Earth to Stone - use Shape Earth below to make trenches and berms, then this spell to turn the berms into low stone walls.
* Plant Form Other + Heal Plant - slow and expensive out-of-combat healing that is not penalized for repeated use. Turn your friends into shrubs and heal their worst wounds.
* Prepare Game - A quick and cheap way to butcher animal or monster kills. We used to carry stacks of scrolls of this spell when hunting monsters with valuable body parts (such as dragons).
* Repair - never really worry about equipment damage again.
* Resist Cold, Resist Fire, Resist Lighting - cheap for absolute immunity to a specific element.
* Shape Earth - build walls or make holes in walls. Lots of uses.
* Walk on Air - probably the cheapest way to move in the air. Useful for avoiding floor traps, accessing high places, or fighting flyers.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Recover Energy, accept no substitutes...okay, except maybe Breath Control (skill, not spell).

Essential Food: Because Survival and Cooking are skills for losers.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Reverse Missiles is expensive to cast, but it's a great way of punishing enemies foolish enough to shoot at a wizard- and it only gets better as ranged weapon tech improves.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Since GURPS Magic and DF is balanced against TL3-4, Missile Shield and Reverse Missiles become brutally unbalanced in favor of mages as weapons technology improves.

Many, many electrons have been agitated in online discussions of how to "fix" those spells in high tech or ultra-tech games.

That means these spells are on any min/maxer combat mage's short list of defensive spells, as long as the GM doesn't take steps to reduce their effectiveness. Even then, they're usually worth it.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Apportation can effectively neutralize a foe. A failed Will resistance and they'll discover how hard it is to fight while dangling upside down in the air with one's back turned. Levitation is cheaper to cast, but is resist by ST or Will.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

If your GM allows the advantage Wild Talent (Focused, Magical, -20%; Retention, +25%) [21] it is well worth it. No worries then about not having the right spell for the job.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Flight, Missile Shield, any missile spell. Blink for reliability. And now you're an unkillable death machine. Also, you may be pixie, so you don't need flight, cause you have one an also you're small at -6 to hit you. You also may have spasm to get rid of winged melee fighters, but there is no need if you have blink.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

The Solar Power spell from the paper version of Pyramid. The spell enables a mage with the required prerequisites to store solar energy and use it to power your spells. The caster(s) can store up to Skill*2 Fatigue points. As it's an area spell, the spell becomes more cost-effective as the area increases. If it can be cast ceremonially, multiple casters can share the 4 Fatigue points per area.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

What's your point budget? Bring your IQ and Magery up high enough (total 18+) and you can buy any spell for 1pt with all the fun benefits of 15 skill (such as -1 costs). Even on a budget of 150pts you can get far too many spells. With 250pts it's easier to ask what spells NOT to get.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

Ignite, at a high enough level that it can be cast silently, is a beautiful distraction spell. Fire grabs your attention.

Illusion spells used subtly are very potent. The scent of burning in a theater or roast meat near starving men. The sound of a broken twig, or something dropped in an empty rooms. A bobbing light like a ship at anchor near rocks. The feeling of something crawling on your back.

If you can use Illusion can be used to disrupt balance a small spell could disable a troop of soldiers.

Re: Some Great Spells for Wizard Characters
 

True. The Illusion and Creation college has many spells which allow the caster to specify the exact effects, making them incredibly versatile in the hands of a clever player.