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Old 01-29-2013, 08:22 PM   #1
Stripe
 
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Default [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Greetings! Welcome to another "which spells are best" thread!

Imagine you're playing in a group with four other players using only the Basic Set, Magic, and Dungeon Fantasy 1-3. You are taking the roll of Wizard. The other party members are fairly well balanced.

Furthermore, let's limit the exercise to just the standard 30 points to spend on Wizardly Spells (Adventurers, p. 20).

Of course, your grimoire of 30 points may have a lot to do with who the other player characters are and what type of game the GM is going to run, but this is just an exercise, an attempt to make an effective and fun DF wizard.

That all said, what spells would you chose?

These threads rarely do well, but as I'm about to make a DF wizard, I thought I'd share my spell list and see what others would chose.

Looking forward to reading through the spell lists the thread does gather!
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Old 01-29-2013, 08:53 PM   #2
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

What I try to do is pick a couple of powerful spells and then work around those.

Let's say I want Create Animal, Body of Wind, and Invisible Wizard Eye. That gives me the following, which is exactly thirty spells. And you can add from there, since those are a lot of prerequisites there already for more powerful spells. Depending on your skill level, Recover Energy might be something to look at. Another good spell to work around is Force Wall.

I generally find it less effective to grab less powerful spells and hope situations arise where they're useful. Go for ones that give you control of situations.

Seek Water
Purify Water
Create Water
Seek Earth
Shape Earth
Earth to Stone
Create Earth
Sound
Simple Illusion
Complex Illusion
Perfect Illusion
Create Object
Create Animal

Purify Air
Create Air
Shape Air
Body of Air
Windstorm
Body of Wind

Light
Hawk Vision
Continual Light
Flash
Darkness
Blur
Invisibility

Keen Vision
Apportation
Wizard Eye
Invisible Wizard Eye
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Old 01-29-2013, 10:42 PM   #3
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

assume I would get all prereqs

Mental Stun

Shape Fire

Dehydrate

Major Healing

Aura

Telepathy
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Old 01-30-2013, 04:09 AM   #4
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Thread I started a while back with more spell lists.
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Old 01-30-2013, 06:42 AM   #5
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ View Post
What I try to do is pick a couple of powerful spells and then work around those.
That's exactly what I do as well!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnome View Post
Thanks! I somehow missed that one!
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Old 01-30-2013, 09:53 AM   #6
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

For DF, as it tends to be combat intensive, Generally I try to make sure Ive got a Jet, Missle, and 'touch' spell if at all possible so that no matter which way the combat goes, Ive at least got an option. I also try to make sure that I have the skills to generate a 1d freebie.

From there I look at Defense like blocking spells or spells that enhance defenses.

Then after those I begin to look at 'buffs' and environment shaping spells.

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Old 01-30-2013, 10:02 AM   #7
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nymdok View Post
For DF, as it tends to be combat intensive, Generally I try to make sure Ive got a Jet, Missle, and 'touch' spell if at all possible so that no matter which way the combat goes, Ive at least got an option. I also try to make sure that I have the skills to generate a 1d freebie.

From there I look at Defense like blocking spells or spells that enhance defenses.

Then after those I begin to look at 'buffs' and environment shaping spells.

Nymdok
My experience is different. In DF, I find that buff spells are by far the most effective use of energy. The Knight and the Swashbuckler are the true combat experts, so let them handle the damage-dealing and help them do what they do best with spells like Might, Armor and...wait for it...GREAT HASTE! Yes, thank you, I'll take a 100 point advantage for (most likely) the rest of the combat...
You can spend two turns throwing a fireball that might get dodged anyway...or you can spend those turns turning your fighter into an absolute beast for the rest of the combat.
The other place Wizards really shine (outside of combat) is utility spells, solving problems that simply cannot be solved without magic. Spells like Seeker, Invisibility, See Invisible, History, etc.
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Old 01-30-2013, 10:07 AM   #8
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Bless! Then I would get tickle, haste, shield and missile shield. But bless comes first.
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Old 01-30-2013, 10:26 AM   #9
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamech View Post
Bless! Then I would get tickle, haste, shield and missile shield. But bless comes first.
Bless is one of the best spells in the game. The problem with it, though, is that at thirty points of spells it's difficult for our wizard to get the prerequisites. It's better to have the cleric take it, since they don't have to buy the prerequisites.

But if you can get Bless, then take Curse as well. If you can get it down to one second (which is pretty easy), it's one of the best offensive spells in the game.

Looking at Meta-Spells, Hang Spells and Maintain Spell are both amazing.



The thing to keep in mind when picking spells that there are two different resource economies going on.

The fatigue economy is for spells that cost fatigue. You should try to get your spells up to skill 20 as soon as possible, so you get rid of this. Make sure you have some awesome spells that cost 1 or 2 energy, so you can drop those to 0 and get away from the fatigue economy altogether. You are much, much more powerful when you can cast spells as much as you want instead of being tied down by some limited resource. Doing this allows you to use those big spells like Invisible Wizard Eye when you need them while still remaining useful with your energy pool drained.

The action economy is what keeps you from ever casting the less than useful spells. They serve only as prerequisite fodder. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by something like Paralyze Limb. You're never going to use it.
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Old 01-30-2013, 11:03 AM   #10
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Default Re: [DF 1-3] What Wizardly Spells Would You Take?

I like the area denial route. I made a fire mage before, a pretty straightforward blastomancer, but that was part of a sacrifice to the GM as an apology for my minotaur barbarian :)

I like the acid spells as under-used, brutal, and broadly applicable. They have really weird prerequisite chains too.

So, from the Water college:
Acid Jet, Breathe Water, Create Acid, Create Water, Dehydrate, Destroy Water, Frost, Ice Slick, Purify Water, Rain of Acid, Seek Water, Shape Water, Water Jet.

Dehydrate is for dealing with oozes (probably immune to acid). Ice Slick and Rain of Acid are area denial powers, as are Create Acid and Shape Water to a lesser extent. Water Jet can be used to shove people into hazards, Acid Jet is for self defence. Breathe Water is because it's damned useful but skip it if your party has a Druid with it.

From the Air college:
Create Air, Purify Air. Prerequisites for Breathe Water, and also useful. If the druid has Breathe Water, take these anyways and substitute Shape Air for Breathe Water - great for knocking things around.

From the Earth college:
Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Seek Earth, Shape Earth, Shape Stone.
Required for the Acid spells, but also very useful for bypassing barriers in dungeon-y environments.

From the Light and Darkness college:
Light, Continual Light.
Because if someone doesn't bring a light source, it really stinks.

From the Movement college:
Apportation, Haste, Great Haste. Yea baby.

From the Protection college:
Armor, Missile Shield, Mystic Mist, Shield.
Essentials.

I would ideally also take those 5 quirks and pick up
Analyze Magic, Counterspell, Detect Magic, Dispell Magic, and Identify Spell, because that's your damn job as a wizard.
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