The following link contains a poll to determine the favorite sorcerer/wizard spells at low levels (1-3)
Note that all spells can be useful on a given situation. Just check those that you really like or use more frequently. The choice should be based on a character of the given spell level.
NOTE: After filling the poll please post “done” or anything else on this thread to keep it alive!
Looks like I'm the first. Either that, or your survey doesn't combine results. :)
Looks like I'm the first. Either that, or your survey doesn't combine results. :)
Your the first! I just posted the poll. Thank you for your response. :)
I really enjoy Grease. It's easily the best utility spell you can get for the first six or seven levels.
done
Done! Looks like I'm in the majority with my responses.
Done. Cool stuff.
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Done. We need more of these.
Task complete.
Seems like I'm not with the most popular, but more of the B-list. Still, not bad.
Detect magic as a counter for how many people have taken the poll? Haha.
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Done.
You can list spells according to their popularity among voters.
Apparently, there are
1) must-have spells (selected by approximately 2/3 of voters)
2) good spells (selected by approximately 1/2 of voters)
3) interesting spells (selected by approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of voters)
4) the rest (selected by less than 1/4 of voters)
Then you can also list schools in the same way.
All very good info for any beginner at the spellcasting business
Hm, I took the direction " The choice should be based on a character of the given spell level." to mean based on the character level the spell level is first available.
I'm not sure if that's being adhered to, given the apparently large number of people hitting 'favorite' for ALL the stat buff spells (which you can't use all of at the first level you can cast one, much less give up other spells of the same level to be able to do that), not to mention the very high ranking of Comprehend Languages and Endure Elements.
Is the intent of that direction to mean casting with your slots, or are scrolls also viable? It changes things alot for many of those spells.
I may have checked the box by mistake, but I THINK I didn't check Acid Orb as a 'favorite', yet it's still marked as getting 100% support...? (I think it's a good spell, yet at 1st level I often don't get it/prepare it due to competition from other Cantrips).
Detect magic as a counter for how many people have taken the poll? Haha.
I didn't check it. At the class level you could first cast it, there is usually better things to use for your limited spells known/memorized. Having a scroll is useful, but I didn't count that. Lots of spells aren't #1 priority when you first get that spell level, but are later very useful, either because of scaling or because of less competition with more slots/spellsknown.
Hm, I took the direction " The choice should be based on a character of the given spell level." to mean based on the character level the spell level is first available.
I'm not sure if that's being adhered to, given the apparently large number of people hitting 'favorite' for ALL the stat buff spells (which you can't use all of at the first level you can cast one, much less give up other spells of the same level to be able to do that), not to mention the very high ranking of Comprehend Languages and Endure Elements.
Is the intent of that direction to mean casting with your slots, or are scrolls also viable? It changes things alot for many of those spells.I may have checked the box by mistake, but I THINK I didn't check Acid Orb as a 'favorite', yet it's still marked as getting 100% support...? (I think it's a good spell, yet at 1st level I often don't get it/prepare it due to competition from other Cantrips).
100% of the votes in that school of that level. It only has 3 actual votes.
Detect magic as a counter for how many people have taken the poll? Haha.I didn't check it. At the class level you could first cast it, there is usually better things to use for your limited spells known/memorized. Having a scroll is useful, but I didn't count that. Lots of spells aren't #1 priority when you first get that spell level, but are later very useful, either because of scaling or because of less competition with more slots/spellsknown.
Hmmm?
YOu get detect magic right away and it is pretty much always useful. It is pretty much the only _MUST_ have.
34 responses to the poll so far! I will wait a couple of days to allow more votes and them I will try to post a compilation of the most popular schools and spells.
Thanks you for the responses so far! You haven't voted? Do it now and promote your favorite spells! LOL
Done and done.
You can list spells according to their popularity among voters.
That is exactly my evil plan! muah ha ha!
Some of the spells people chose really confused me. I guess to each his own, but I can't help but feel like a few people just clicked randomly.
Case in point--that stat buff spells. Why do people use those? I mean, they get used in my game because I don't use magic items, but they provide enhancement bonuses--why bother wasting a spell when you can just buy an item to do the same thing?
It also struck me how uninteresting I found level 3 spells to be. Haste, obviously, is ridiculously powerful, and Fly is great until Overland Flight, but mostly I just felt a great big "blah." First and second level are where its at, for me, at least.
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While initially enthusiastic about this list, the fact that magic missile and color spray are neck in neck tells me that the anonymous masses of the board cannot optimize (I know this thread is asking for 'favorite' spells, but I understand that as 'best' due to the thread this one was born in).
voted, this is really neat
While initially enthusiastic about this list, the fact that magic missile and color spray are neck in neck tells me that the anonymous masses of the board cannot optimize (I know this thread is asking for 'favorite' spells, but I understand that as 'best' due to the thread this one was born in).
I agree, and on the particular issue of Magic Missile--why do people like that crappy spell?
I have played various incarnations of D&D for 20 years, and I have never liked Magic Missile. It's lousy and weak--the only use I can see for it is hitting incorporeal enemies early on, but at that point, PCs shouldn't be facing incorporeal enemies anyway. It does crappy damage and well, all it does is damage. A crossbow does about as much, and by the time you can shoot more missiles, you have better spells that do better things.
/rant
While initially enthusiastic about this list, the fact that magic missile and color spray are neck in neck tells me that the anonymous masses of the board cannot optimize (I know this thread is asking for 'favorite' spells, but I understand that as 'best' due to the thread this one was born in).
Yes I expect people to select the BESTS (favorite) spells "on their opinion". However one (or the many) opinion might not be right and that is also something that can be extracted from this poll.
It might help some people to realize that they are overlooking some spells that many others use! But can also raise debates like this one that might help to better educate players against a spell that is being heavily picked without actually being that good!
Also if this poll receive attention for several days it might end up with very different stats compared to the ones we have right now. Of course I don't know if for the better but still will be fun to know.
EDIT: Even so I just added the word BEST to the form just in case. :)
While initially enthusiastic about this list, the fact that magic missile and color spray are neck in neck tells me that the anonymous masses of the board cannot optimize (I know this thread is asking for 'favorite' spells, but I understand that as 'best' due to the thread this one was born in).Yes I expect people to select the BESTS (favorite) spells "on their opinion". However one (or the many) opinion might not be right and that is also something that can be extracted from this poll.
It might help some people to realize that they are overlooking some spells that many others use! But can also raise debates like this one that might help to better educate players against a spell that is being heavily picked without actually being that good!
TBH, magic missile is such a bad choice for a low-level wizard that I wouldn't consider the opinion of someone arguing it is a worthy choice; as in, it clearly indicates to me they don't know what they are doing.
There are first level spells you can use to wipe an encounter (of course, saves exist, but it is still a better bet than freakin' magic missile).
Not if you already have three other people in your group casting it already. My Magus doesn't even prepare that spell any more.Detect magic as a counter for how many people have taken the poll? Haha.I didn't check it. At the class level you could first cast it, there is usually better things to use for your limited spells known/memorized. Having a scroll is useful, but I didn't count that. Lots of spells aren't #1 priority when you first get that spell level, but are later very useful, either because of scaling or because of less competition with more slots/spellsknown.Hmmm?
YOu get detect magic right away and it is pretty much always useful. It is pretty much the only _MUST_ have.
Doesn't this amount of stacking prove my point about how nigh-universal detect magic is as a spell choice?
You should also note I qualified my statement with 'pretty much' thus indicating there may be exceptions (so you contradicting me by pointing out a specific case where it may not be useful is weird).
Voted & dotted.
Vanish is missing in your poll.
Vanish is missing in your poll.
The poll is core only.
Although, oddly, a *wand* of magic missile can be an absolute lifesaver...
TBH, magic missile is such a bad choice for a low-level wizard that I wouldn't consider the opinion of someone arguing it is a worthy choice; as in, it clearly indicates to me they don't know what they are doing.There are first level spells you can use to wipe an encounter (of course, saves exist, but it is still a better bet than freakin' magic missile).
Yup. 4 man fireteam with wands of magic missile will destroy things (edit: though absolutely not cost effective). I also love the flavor of magic missile.
It just sucks as an actual memorized spell at the levels being discussed.
Hm, I took the direction " The choice should be based on a character of the given spell level." to mean based on the character level the spell level is first available. ***SNIP***
I took it as what spells do I often take on any arcane caster I have played over the years. And there have been more then a few ;)
If it is a spell that is on my list 75% of the time for the life of most of my characters it got a check. Of course some spells that are very good I skip with some characters for RP reasons.
what does 'on a character of the given spell level' mean then?
presumably it must not be characters at any and all points in their career, but 'of' a given spell level,
otherwise there would be no need to mention it in the first place or qualify the phrase with 'of a given spell level'.
like i said, that is significant because lots of spells increase in desirability when you become higher level and have both higher level spells, more lower level spells. since literally characters aren't 'of' a spell level, i understood it as meaning the level you first gain tha spell level, that's the only plausible interpretation of that phrase to me, unless you want to ignore the line completely.
(i also will skip spells just because they feel out of character, e.g. black tenctacles is great at the level you get it, but summoning eldritch tentacles may not fit the character. same goes for summoning in general)
Yes I expect people to select the BESTS (favorite) spells "on their opinion".
But I don't think everybody is going on the same assumptions about what we are voting on here. (see above)
Since not everybody is interpreting the instructions the same (never mind those who just didn't pay attention to them), they could have probably been written more clearly/less confusingly ('characters of a given spell level' is problematic literally read).100% of the votes in that school of that level. It only has 3 actual votes.
Your percentages don't mean anything, and they're just confusing people. You'd be better off removing them.
THis is confusing and less than meaningful for me as well.
I guess it would be interesting to see in the end, which schools are the most popular at each level,and of those schools which spells the most popular, but otherwise, I would want to see percentages
based on ALL people who voted, who voted for that specific spell.
EDIT: I guess you can just compare the number of votes to the number of participants, e.g. Detect Magic has 56 votes out of 75 participants, or 74% select it, but that seems like primary popularity information that should be hilighted, not popularity within those who vote for anything of that spell level and spell school. As is, I'm mostly ignoring the % figure to get any useful conclusion from this.
Doesn't this amount of stacking prove my point about how nigh-universal detect magic is as a spell choice?
well, not quite, because you suggested that detect magic was a proxy for how many people participated, and i didn't vote for it :-). at level 1, i don't think it's actually needed for enemies you will face, and there are other good cantrips which can be more useful at that level. for some class spell lists, there is not enough other good options that could displace it, but for others there definitely is alot of good options. if you have several casters in your party, i would certainly expect somebody to have it though.
my preferences: daze, virtue, resistance, eldritch fey aspect (non-core), light/dancing lights, ghost sound, acid splash/ray of cold(acid unless you have a bonus to cold/evocation dmg), disrupt undead, and mage hand, more than you can use at 1st level before you even get to detect magic. but some of those become less useful at higher levels, e.g. when everybody gets cloaks of resistance, resistance is pointless, or daze is too unreliable because of the DC/spell level and you have better things to do with your standard actions.
Doesn't this amount of stacking prove my point about how nigh-universal detect magic is as a spell choice?well, not quite, because you suggested that detect magic was a proxy for how many people participated, and i didn't vote for it :-). at level 1, i don't think it's actually needed for enemies you will face, and there are other good cantrips which can be more useful at that level. for some class spell lists, there is not enough other good options that could displace it, but for others there definitely is alot of good options. if you have several casters in your party, i would certainly expect somebody to have it though.
People are also voting for magic missile. Doesn't make it right.
Detect magic isn't for fighting enemies...
what is 'right'? this is what is popular, and i just wrote that 'detect magic as proxy for participation' is not accurate, and gave a reason why *I* may choose not to select it at level 1. it only has 74% support in fact. it's not clear what basis most people are voting on, the specific character level they first get that spell level, or over an entire adventuring career.
here are the most popular spells so far, in order of support (detect magic is a pretty popular spell): (# of votes out of 75 voters)
56 Detect Magic, 43 Prestidigitation, 34 Light, 32 Mage Hand,
46 Grease, 41 Mage Armor, 35 Color Spray, 35 Magic Missile,
48 Glitterdust, 43 Invisibility, 33 Mirror Image, 32 Scorching Ray
52 Haste, 42 Fly, 40 Fireball, 36 Dispel Magic,
when it is over it would be interesting to know how many voters actually chose the top 2 or 3 or 4 spells (depending on spell level, how many you get when you first gain that spell level) as their selections, i.e. would start (that spell level) with those spells and no others.
What's useful varies a great deal based on what kind of game you're in. I would have thought everyone understood that allready.
I didn't select detect magic either. It's useful, but I limited myself to three spells per level, and detect magic isn't in my top three.
my preferences: daze, virtue, resistance, eldritch fey aspect (non-core), light/dancing lights, ghost sound, acid splash/ray of cold(acid unless you have a bonus to cold/evocation dmg), disrupt undead, and mage hand, more than you can use at 1st level before you even get to detect magic
Emphasis mine
I'm assuming you're talking about Haunted Fey Aspect, right?
I really need to ask, what do you like about this spell? As near as I can tell, it does...uh...nothing. It gives you 1 point of DR in exchange for a standard action--I can't figure out the benefit of casting it. Help me out here.
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The lack of non-core spells skewed my votes. The fact that Summon Monster 1 is beating Mount should be a clear indication of non-optimization. Even with all attacks being secondary, a horse is a far better combatant than the majority of the SM 1 list.
100% of the votes in that school of that level.
Whale_Cancer is wright! It might not be the most logical way to present percentages information however Google forms don't allow me to customize or remove the percentages on the summary page as far as I know! I apologize for that!
For the moment the actual number of votes on each spell is a better average indication. Later tonight or at some point tomorrow after we get 100 votes (we got 88 already) I will create a spreadsheet with a "better" summary and will post it here!
I appreciate all the support from people that have been optimistic about this experiment and from those who haven't also! :)
Please keep voting!
Done. We need more of these.
voted, this is really neat
Cool poll, this is helpful for players new to the class.
Thank you all for the support!
Even if the final results are not ideal (as is common on polls) I think the poll combined with this thread will provide interesting / valuable information for low level players!
The lack of non-core spells skewed my votes. The fact that Summon Monster 1 is beating Mount should be a clear indication of non-optimization. Even with all attacks being secondary, a horse is a far better combatant than the majority of the SM 1 list.The horse from the Mount spell is not a combatant. Nor can it be ordered to fight.
Of course it can. Nothing suggests it can't. What is your evidence?
LazarX said:
The horse from the Mount spell is not a combatant. Nor can it be ordered to fight.
No but you can spook the hell out of it and a spooked horse in a corador is bad news.