Most useless spells?

[SwiftCrack]

In FF6 Invisiblity spell makes all physical attacks miss but also makes all spells automatically hit. That's a good combination with Doom etc.

Yeah, Vanish/X-Zone is the most powerful combination in any game ever.

 

[Alex]

The most useless spells for me are the deus ex machina type: you know those damn spells are only there for one measly event: the spell in U7:SI that turns you into a snake. Very useless, but they added these here plot items behind tiny little holes to keep you out of an area until you find the spell, which you don't get until you do this and that. Might as well have added a spell "Track" to use on that wooden sword and be done with it. The spell forces linearity.

Absolutely agree. And it is funny that if the world had been built with the assumption that party members could have (very) different sizes, it could have been a pretty amazing spell instead. Even more so if you could actually sneak on people, if you could climb through windows as a snake, etc. This is the kind of spell that would have been useless in P&P as well unless your GM was very detail oriented (I guess you could roll a dice as well, but this would make using this spell a bit like cheating).

 

[laclongquan]

Why the hell Enlarge doesnt make halfling or deep gnome be able to use the Long bow?

 

[Jaesun]

No one has mentioned Goodberries?

 

[PunchBarkeepInFace]

Sticks to Snakes sounded awesome to me as a kid, but then you realize it is a watered-down Silence 15' Radius, which is a spell of the same level. The snakes do no damage and are just a distraction, right? Ridiculous.

Has anyone used Sticks to Snakes as anything but a novelty in Gold Box games?

 

[deuxhero]

Stop/Doom/Death/X-Zone in a lot of Final Fantasy games because the hit chance is like 5% (except in like FF Tactics).
[...]
Also, Ultima in Final Fantasy 2 was borderline useless, but that was due to some grand Japanese trolling;

Wasn't Teleport in FF2 super easy to level (use to to leave town repeatedly and sleep when you run out of MP) and (due to the fact that game has like 5 bosses who aren't just random encounters put early into the game) little is immune to it?

 

[Alex]

Why the hell Enlarge doesnt make halfling or deep gnome be able to use the Long bow?

The programmer probably didn't think of that.

No one has mentioned Goodberries?

Not a bad spell, I think. You can memorize and cast it as you jorney and save up on food for the whole trip. If you have an uneventful journey, you might be able to heal up as well! (I also heard goodberries make greatjam).

 

[laclongquan]

Nah. It's boring bad. Instead of one heal spell action you have to click to eat a few time. While the amount of healed HP is slightly better than cure light wound, the sheer inconvenience make sure we dont bother with it.

Careful module design can force us to use it, but normal campaign cant.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Wasn't Teleport in FF2 super easy to level (use to to leave town repeatedly and sleep when you run out of MP) and (due to the fact that game has like 5 bosses who aren't just random encounters put early into the game) little is immune to it?

Yeah but you don't get much other stat boosts from using Teleport. So unless you want to use the same spell to end all battles the entire game...

 

[Jason Liang]

goodberries is pretty useful, it's like a permanent cure light wounds potion spell. My go to class in NWN/ ToEE is Druid, and there are very few stinker Druid spells until you get to the higher levels. Goodberries is nice, you can spontaneously cast it into a summon, or if you don't need it you can get a permanent berry before you camp.

You have to admit, even in BG2 Jaheira is pretty bad ass.

Sticks to Snakes (Cleric spell, not druid) is pretty cool if you are ROLE PLAYING a Setite or something.

As far as useless spells go, there *are* some awful spells in Arcanum. And in the original Wizardry. Since Wizardry is 80% combat, 15% mapping and 5% monty haul, I guess this topic is pertinent. The cleric harm spells (badios!) have always been lousy. Even in D&D, the Cause Light Wounds series of spells... probably for role playing purposes only...

Oh I should not forget Kadorto. The best cleric restore life spell in WIzardry... has a chance of permanently LOSING your character (LOST!). lolz. It turns out that Mages have the safest Revive spell in Haman/ Mahaman.

Oh yeah. Zilwan is pretty stinky too. Only good to cast on 1 creature in the entire game, who you only fight once.

Oh and the Mage level 2 spells in Wizardry. Dilto and Sopic... wow, an entire spell level of useless spells.

 

[deuxhero]

Inflict is more for curing undead than harming living people, and cRPGs never have any useful undead under player command.

 

[Alex]

Inflict is more for curing undead than harming living people, and cRPGs never have any useful undead under player command.

I don't think inflict wounds healed undead originally, though.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I mean, a lot of stuff in DnD is included under the assumption the NPCs will be using it. No need for the villains to be optimized- they can always just throw more resources at you to make up for that.

 

[laclongquan]

In my last IWD2 run I make use of the summon spells to get stronger undead for use in hardest difficulty. I do remember that I dont bother to heal them much though. If I have the time to cast one such, I can replace it with a summon spell of same level, and get more use out of it. At worst the new summon will take one hit for the old, which is about the same amount of HP such healing spell would take anyway.

Of all the touch type healing spell, Heal/Harm spells are about the most useful because the amount of damage or healing it cause justify the risk you take in melee.

The only reason the cleric spells can be cast more safely in frontline than wizard spells is due to high HP and armor.

 

[Lhynn]

I don't think inflict wounds healed undead originally, though.

As far as i know negative energy always healed undeads, no matter the source.

 

[Alex]

The first edition version of Cause Light Wounds doesn't mention anything about undead. It does mention it isn't able to affect creatures only harmed by iron, silver or magical weapons. In fact, it doesn't even mention negative or positive energy. I can't find anything about undead being healed by negative energy in either the DMG or the MM. The only thing I've found is that undead creatures exist in two planes at once, usually the negative plane, but the positive one for mummies.

Now, this doesn't mean that this isn't the case. Maybe I am just not finding the correct reference, or maybe it is something detailed on a magazine. But I distinctly remember thinking 3rd edition decided to copy Final Fantasy with undead being damaged by healing spells and healed by cause wounds.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Would someone please explain Affinity to me? 9th level druid spell that does this:

You cause an object or location to emanate magical vibrations that attract either a specific kind of intelligent creature or creatures of a particular alignment, as defined by you. The particular kind of creature to be affected must be named specifically. A creature subtype is not specific enough. Likewise, the specific alignment must be named.

Creatures of the specified kind or alignment feel elated and pleased to be in the area or desire to touch or to possess the object. The compulsion to stay in the area or touch the object is overpowering. If the save is successful, the creature is released from the enchantment, but a subsequent save must be made 1d6x10 minutes later. If this save fails, the affected creature attempts to return to the area or object.

I don't know about you, but I can't imagine why a druid level 20+ would need to make someone want to hang out someplace.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Maybe they want to make a living by selling shitty art and casting this spell.

 

[upwardlymobile]

it's so bronys can create a unicorn grove where they can be at one with nature and rub peanut butter on their genitals

 

[Alex]

Would someone please explain Affinity to me? 9th level druid spell that does this:



I don't know about you, but I can't imagine why a druid level 20+ would need to make someone want to hang out someplace.

Traps.

 

[Night Goat]

Would someone please explain Affinity to me? 9th level druid spell that does this:



I don't know about you, but I can't imagine why a druid level 20+ would need to make someone want to hang out someplace.

You cause all the creatures of your own alignment to show up and now you've got an army. How is that not useful?

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Maybe they want to make a living by selling shitty art and casting this spell.

LOL! Yes! And then just hope they don't ask for their money back when the spell wears off.

it's so bronys can create a unicorn grove where they can be at one with nature and rub peanut butter on their genitals

Umm. Yeah. If bronys could actually attract unicorns, scary things could happen....

Traps.

OK, I thought there might be a real in-game reason for this.

Edit: Night Goat, yeah, that too I guess.

 

[Alex]

Nathaniel3W

That is a real in-game reason. You could easily wipe out a lair with hundreds or thousands of creatures with it.

Edit: Also, if you sell art with it to a fickle noble or something, the duration won't be a problem. Heck, he might come back because he needs a new painting just the next day since it has apparently lost its magic.

 

[Average Manatee]

You cause all the creatures of your own alignment to show up and now you've got an army. How is that not useful?

It doesn't seem to give a range for how far away creatures are attracted. It only states that a 10-ft. cube/level will make them feel elated to be in the area or to posses the object. Reading it as written, you'll never get an army out of it.

Of course high level spells like this are open to the DM's determination. Once you're casting reality bending spells that blow game balance out of the water most DMs will probably be open to charitable interpretation of the rules if you're casting spells like this instead.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Alex, right. I wasn't being sarcastic. I meant, "Oh, I knew there had to be an actual in-game reason why someone would want to cast this spell. Traps, yeah, that makes sense."

As for attracting that army, by the time you're high enough level to cast this spell, you'd have Summon Nature's Ally 9, which is also a 9th level spell. So if your DM assumes that this 9th level spell would be roughly as powerful, you could get a couple of powerful temporary meat shields out of it.