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As a long-time RPG'er (I was quite familiar with the 2e spell list in the dim and distant past), but new to 3.5/Pathfinder, I just don't have the time to read EVERY single spell, so...
What would you consider to be the "short list" of most useful spells my bad guys should have handy in melee? I'm not interested in rounding out the bad guy - I know he'll have Alarm, Identify, etc. I need to know what spells he's bringing to battle! Everything from 1st to 9th...
If you agree with someone else's spell(s), please say so - the more "votes" a spell gets, the higher on my list it goes!
If anyone is familiar with psionics, I'd appreciate useful bad guy powers as well.
When the dust settles, I'll post the collected list!
Thanks!
Blindness/Deafness, but that's a spell your player might curse you for.
It is easier to help you if you post a) the highest spell level going to be used, and b) what theme(s) is appropriate for the enemy in question.
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[url=http://paizo.com/prd/spells/mageSDisjunction.htmlMage's Disjunction[/url] for 9th level. Strip buffs, temporarily depower magic items, threaten to permanently depower them in some cases. Spend several minutes recalculating stats/attack bonuses/ac/saves. Make players fear you!!
Sometimes it's just a pain to cast though, lol.
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Create pit, black tentacles, Dimensional door (for escaping), summon monster 1-9, time stop, enervate, classic fireball, wall of fire, mirror image or any if the fog spells to make him immune to sneak attack, glitter dust if they like to be invisible.
Of the bad guy knows about the players then tailor his spells to fight them if he is in a cave somewhere and never met them don't. Give him decrying if you want him to really Know them.
Mostly you want a lot of area spells that are battle field control, direct damage to a single target either never works or kills one PC right away and they won't like that, if you are in a high level game where death is trivial then go for some harder spells like flesh to stone, carry a few scrolls of higher level spell as well if can make a fight more interesting or provide some cool loot to the players if they win.
So you are wanting spells for a gish? A fighter wizard type? This is what I am taking from your "in melee" caveat. Here are some I might use for that type. If you mean "in combat," I would change this up a bit.
From wiz/sor list:
1
Protection from Chaos / Evil / Good / Law (prebuff)
Shield (prebuff)
Grease
Obscuring Mist
Shocking Grasp
Mage Armor (prebuff)
Color Spray (if you can get a decent DC on your melee caster)
Vanish (gain position, retreat)
Enlarge Person (prebuff)
Expeditious Retreat (prebuff)
Magic Weapon (prebuff)
2
Create Pit
Summon Swarm
Summon Monster II
See Invisibility (prebuff)
Darkness (assuming darkvision)
Defensive Shock (prebuff)
Invisibility
Mirror Image (prebuff)
Defending Bone (prebuff)
False Life (prebuff)
Ghoul Touch (If you can manage a high DC on your melee caster)
Bull's Strength (and other appropriate stat boost spells, prebuff)
I am holding off on going farther until you verify that I am reading your desire right about "in melee". Generally casters are much better out of melee.
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First of all, make sure to give the bad guy some minions. They'll help take the pressure off of him, which will be instrumental in getting those touch-range spells off without getting surrounded.
As for those spells, there's always Bestow Curse, especially if at least one of those minions is a spellcaster as well. Or, if your bad guy is using it for more of a punishment than in a fight, use a custom curse like sterility, baldness, or the growth of a second nose.
If your villain is a divine spellcaster, the Cure/Inflict spells will be a given.
There's always Spectral Hand for casting touch spells at a distance.
Though summoning while invisible will most likely give away his location, he'll still have that miss chance, barring PCs with See Invisibility, Invisibility Purge, or a bag of flour or two.
Alternately, he'll be harder to find & hit while flying in one of the cloud spells. It'll make for easier summoning.
If your bad guy is into theatrics, make his Shout spell a magically-amplified villain laugh. In that vein, Prestidigitation is a must for any grand entrances. A whiff of sulfur, candle-flickering breezes, the faint sound of far-off thunder to punctuate his exclamations, subtly shifting patterns on his clothing, or even a general ominous glowiness, whatever sinks your boat.
Clairvoyance or other divinations will be handy to help him find out when people will be getting ready to take him on, and a Private Sanctum will prevent people from scrying on him. For added hilarity, put Guards and Wards all over his base, and a way for him to watch what the heroes do to try to bypass them.
Add in a couple of spells to aid an escape if you want him to make a return, and hopefully that list is short enough for you. I just wanted to add some helpful explanations.
Thanks all for the advice so far. As to the questions...
HaraldKlak - I'd rather keep it as open-ended as possible. But generally spell levels 1-7. Anything from henchmen to a "boss". The amount of time we'll spend above 14th level probably won't be that long, but if anyone has any favorite 8th and 9th level spells, I'd like to hear of them, too.
Sitri - I meant a "pure" spellcaster of any school (arcane, divine, psionic), either fighting the PC party alone or contributing to the battle along with his teammates (fighter, rogue, etc.) or henchmen.
Mongoose - I like the theatrics! What kind of escape spells would you suggest?
ALL - I'm kind of looking for something like Sitri's list, maybe a dozen spells (or less) of each level that you think would be most helpful in a battle. Maybe even your favorite 2 or 3 spells per level (but I would like a mix of at least arcane and divine, and psionics would be nice).
Hellfire Ray.
Damns them to hell if they die too.
Quickened Disintegrate.
Contingency/Greater Teleportation or Plane Shift.
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Lets see:
Daze, Cause Fear, Hideous Laughter, Lesser Confusion, and Hydrolic Push.
Pyrotechnics on their torches.
Doom! No seriously, they HATE this spell.
Sanctuary to be an ass.
Summon for flanking buddies.
Bestow Curse for more troll factor.
Faire Fire, and Entangle combo.
Contagion.
Touch of Gracleness from APG is MEAN! MEAN!
Feather step and dance around rocks and glass.
Cacoponious Call is ugly.
Memory Lapse again for troll factor.
Draconic Reserve so you can melee in against elemental attacks.
Aqueous Orb to have a massive rolling ball of party tossing fun.
Ray of Sicking from UM is mean.
Murderous Command is MORE SO.
Forbid action...can include potions or healing.
Ear-Piercing Scream...deafen and stun!
Bungle...just Bungle.
Unprepared Combatant: Target takes –4 on initiative and Reflex saves.
Defensive Shock: Electricity damages your attackers.
Haunting Mists: Creatures are shaken and take Wis damage.
Etc,etc. Anything that gives a condition or drops your attacka values are optimal troll caster material.
Also the mother of all anti-melee spells.
Summon Swarm.
Seriously, drop Swarms left and right.
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Touch of Gracelessness and Bungle are my top 2 to make melee fighters cry. (If not dropping spider swarms on them.)
I have enemy Cleric Forbid Actions on friendly healers so they can't...um help! Forbidding them from casting is a geat way to shut down casters for a round. Espcially if a friend is hurting and needs critical healing.
Detect scrying, improved invisibility, enervation, lots of minions with aagic missiles.
Anything with dazing spell.
Charm monster, dominate person, slow, wall of fire.
The right line of pit spells.
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Hit up the PRD if you don't have Book X. There is a lot of bad guy troll/nasty factor in those expanded spell lists.
Look at Hydrolic Push and Aqueous Orb. Not much for damage. But if you want to push PC's around and keep them occupied while minions set up attacks, etc. They are great! Like having an Orb pick up a bunch of PC's and pushing them into traps!
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Ok, so here's my current "short list", based on the spells that showed up more than once, or seemed to be real favorites of the posters. In most cases I gave the spell a quick glance to see if I thought it was worth it, but not always. I did turn down some suggestions because I couldn't see the value of the spell, but that could be due to my newness to the system.
I couldn't quickly find all the spell's levels, so they're listed alphabetically. I guess I'll find out later if they equally cover a wide range of spell levels, and Arcane/Divine.
Would anyone like to add (or re-suggest) any others? Thanks for all your help!
Aqueous Orb
Black Tentacles
Bungle
Cacophonous Call
Confusion
Contingency + (DDoor, Teleport, Plane Shift, etc.)
Create Pit
Cure Light Wounds
Cure Moderate Wounds
Cure Serious Wounds
Darkness
Darkvision
Deeper Darkness
Defensive Shock
Dimension Door
Disintegrate
Disintegrate (especially Quickened)
Dispel Magic
Dispel Magic, Greater
Displacement
Dominate
Doom
Enervation (especially Empowered)
Expeditious Retreat
Fireball (especially Empowered)
Fly
Forbid Action
Forbid Action, Greater
Ghoul Touch
Glitterdust
Grease
Hydraulic Push
Invisibility
Invisibility,Greater
Lightning Bolt (especially Empowered)
Mage Armor
Magic Missile
Mirror Image
Murderous Command
Protection From Arrows
Resist Energy
Sanctuary
Scorching Ray
See Invisibility
Shield
Slow
Sound Burst
Spectral Hand
Stinking Cloud
Stoneskin
Summon Monster X
Summon Swarm
True Strike
Vanish
Wall of X (especially Fire)
You might consider examining the spells your players tend to use. Let them do the research of figuring out what the effective spells and melee combinations are ...
... and shamelessly steal them!
MI
Would like to +1 to black tentacles, invisibility, mirror image, doom, slow, confusion, enervation, and add QUICKENED magic missile, baleful polymorph, polymorph any object, contingency, teleport, word of recall, entangle, heal, harm and haste. I would soften the recommendation on cure spells, though. It takes primarily a truly impressive defense to let a caster gain hit points from casting a cure spell vs a whole party's actions for a round, so it's usually just a loss.
Seconding Blindness/Deafness. You can wreck an enemy with it, especially spellcasters (making them at LEAST burn a round to get rid of it).
As well, any spell you'd like to have on a PC probably does well on the BBEG. All of the suggestion here are good, though I second the meh attitude on Cure spells, unless you have the guy *poof* away and come back or something (and hope your PCs don't just heal up and be ready for round two).
Magic missile has a few legitimate uses. Chief among these is that with quicken spell, you get to do it in addition to whatever else. It generally blows the other first level spells out of the water. Group damage has to be pretty damn convincing. Several fireballs across a group does hurt. One, generally not so much, and then it is better to take one out than spreading the damage out.
Quickened Snowball may be a better bet.
Lower guaranteed damage at only 5d6, but the possible Staggering is enough to make up for it I think.
Perhaps. Magic missile needing no attack roll and being force are pretty big draws, though.
Great advice, all, and thanks! The combos/strategies are very helpful.
Problem with using the player's spells is that out of 2 games with 10 total PC's, only one is a Wizard who isn't picking optimized spells (*very* new to "D&D"). In the game I don't DM I'm a Psion, so I have some good ideas there. The only other (generic) magic-user is an Oracle, again without a lot of aggressive spells.
The only reason I included the Cure X spells is for when the magic-user is part of a team, or has minions. Our groups were so used to being healed several times as they fought the bad guys to < 0 HP that the first time the bad guys had a Cleric that kept bringing the other bad guys back up to full HP, it really shook the players! Altho I do realize channel energy can do that, allowing the Cleric to use their spell slots for other things.
Anyone else want to throw in their 2 CP? Especially on the higher-level spells (for later)?
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You got a realy nasty list going on there Zen. Making that your top spells for baddies will really ramp up their danger factor.
Rashagar is dead on the money. Smart foes will mix spell effects up. OR have minion casters do a 1/2 pounch on the PCs.
Interesting combo I found.
Obsuring Mist and an Ice Elemental (from Bestiary) Ice Elementals can sense foes JUST FINE in the mist. In fact you might look into summons tha thave blind sense/scent/etc and drop darkness.
The classic Drow combo of Darkness and sneak attacks must be considered.
Same goes with Darkness and Black Tentcales. Not only are you blind, but you are grappled!
A lot of fights can turn south with just the right/wrong summon. Bone Fiends are clasic for this.
Or Air elemenals that chase down the party casters to toss them around and prevent them from doing much.
Thanks, LoneCleric, but it's not "my" list, I'm just compiling it...and doing it for any other "new-to-PF" DM's.
And thanks for the combos!
I did want to remind everyone, this could be a (generic) spellcaster :
1. As a single BBEG against the group
2. As a part of a well-rounded opposing party (with a Fighter, Rogue, etc. of the spellcaster's level)
3. As a not-quite-so "Big" BEG with lower-level minions
Etc, etc.
So these spells will be more useful in some of these situations than others. Like, if *every* minion had bunches of Magic Missile, I think that would improve MM's effectiveness...
Also, please keep adding votes for spells already on the list you really like. They'll become the "short list" of the "short list"!
Or negative votes, too (but please explain why).
Sissyl - I can see the reasons for most of the spells you suggested to add (don't know how I missed Teleport!), but not for Baleful Polymorph and Polymorph Any Object - care to give some examples of why you like them / how you'd use them?
Any thing that when the fight is done you have to get it fixed, So thing that causes Blind/deafness, Disease, Curse, febullmind, and negitive levels.
Baleful Polymorph and Polymorph Any Object
Also, keep in mind that just picking spells isn't enough -- you need to know how to use them. Spells like color spray, for instance, win fights -- IF you have someone around who can hack up the victims while they're stunned. It's not a good spell for solo BBEGs.
Spell selection is part of tactics. Figure out how your spells work in the overall context of what your BBEG is doing with them,and how he's going to do it.
These are open-to-all questions :
Ok, I get Baleful Polymorph - turn the BBEG into a cute bunny.
But what about Polymorph Any Object (mentioned at least twice) - what kinds of things do you like to use it for?
Likewise for Major Image - I get what it does, but how do people like to use it?
And are there any especially good (or bad) levels of Summon Monster?
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Hellfire Ray.
Damns them to hell if they die too.
Honestly, this spell is cruise control for getting players to hate a villain. Especially if they use it on innocent bystanders in acts of utter, petty cruelty.
Also, implosion shouldn't be overlooked for the shockingly visceral chain reaction of death that it is.
Polymorph any object is good for turning people you don't like into things like tiny porcelain dolls, heaps of sand, goblin babies, balls of hairy flesh, or whatever else you find amusing. It is especially good for people with bad Fort saves. Note also that the duration factor is pretty irrelevant in combat. Turn people into humiliating stuff, or smash the vase you turned someone into, or put on the humanhide glove you turned their bard into, and see the heroes hate your guts. Plus, there are a good many other things you can do with it: Instant cupboard to monster, turn a bridge to jello under someone, making spell components, or using it as for example flesh to stone. It is truly one of the most versatile spells in the game.
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Polymorph any object is good for turning people you don't like into things like tiny porcelain dolls, heaps of sand, goblin babies, balls of hairy flesh, or whatever else you find amusing. It is especially good for people with bad Fort saves.
While the longevity of that spell is frustratingly short in many cases, it's also long enough for...
I generally prefer the somewhat lighter "museum/garden of victims"* approach, because damn.
*The 3PP spell be a tree is perfect for that. Pure nightmarish "I have no mouth and I must scream" territory. Well, after shape wood is used to remove the mouth at least. Or a hatchet...
Honestly, this spell is cruise control for getting players to hate a villain. Especially if they use it on innocent bystanders in acts of utter, petty cruelty.Hellfire Ray.
Damns them to hell if they die too.
It also opens up a good side-quest to rescue those souls, probably backed up by a few celestials coming to right this type of wrong.
Ok, here's the current list, sorted by Arcane/Divine, and by level. I'll update it some more if/when I get answers to the previous questions.
+ means it is popular
* means it is really popular
Please continue to vote, and indicate metamagic options like Quickened or Empowered!
Since the "short" list is now over 100 spells (!), would anyone like to start voting on "meh" spells they think should be REMOVED? Especially the "Summon Monster N" spells, which I listed in each level (that's 18 spells right there - is every one of them really worth it?)...
ARCANE
+1/Bungle
1/Expeditious Retreat
+1/Grease
1/Hydraulic Push
1/Mage Armor
+1/Magic Missile (esp. Quickened)
*1/Obscuring Mist
1/Shield
1/Snowball
1/Summon Monster 1
1/True Strike
1/Vanish
*2/Blindness/Deafness
+2/Create Pit
+2/Darkness
+2/Darkvision
2/Defensive Shock
2/Fog Cloud
2/Glitterdust
+2/Invisibility
+2/Mirror Image
2/Protection From Arrows
2/Resist Energy
+2/Scorching Ray (esp. Empowered)
+2/See Invisibility
2/Spectral Hand
2/Summon Monster 2
*2/Summon Swarm
2/Web
3/Aqueous Orb
+3/Dispel Magic
3/Displacement
3/Fireball (esp. Empowered)
3/Fly
3/Haste
+3/Lightning Bolt (esp. Empowered)
3/Major Image
+3/Slow
+3/Stinking Cloud
3/Summon Monster 3
*4/Black Tentacles
+4/Confusion
4/Dimension Door
*4/Enervation (esp. Empowered)
*4/Invisibility,Greater
4/Solid Fog
4/Stoneskin
4/Summon Monster 4
4/Wall of Fire
+5/Baleful Polymorph
5/Dominate Person
+5/Feeblemind
5/Summon Monster 5
5/Teleport
5/Wall of Stone
6/Acid Fog
6/Contingency + (DimDoor, Teleport, Plane Shift, etc.)
6/Disintegrate
+6/Dispel Magic, Greater
6/Enemy Hammer
+6/Hellfire Ray
6/Repulsion
6/Summon Monster 6
7/Prismatic Ray
7/Summon Monster 7
7/Waves of Exhaustion
8/Orb of the Void
*8/Polymorph Any Object
8/Summon Monster 8
9/Summon Monster 9
9/Time Stop
9/Wall of [Magic] Suppression
DIVINE
*1/Obscuring Mist
1/Doom
1/Forbid Action
1/Sanctuary
1/Summon Monster 1
1/Murderous Command
+2/Darkness
*2/Sound Burst
+2/Ghoul Touch
2/Summon Monster 2
*3/Blindness/Deafness
3/Deeper Dark
+3/Dispel Magic
3/Summon Monster 3
4/Summon Monster 4
5/Forbid Action, Greater
5/Wall of Stone
+6/Dispel Magic, Greater
6/Harm
6/Heal
+6/Hellfire Ray
6/Summon Monster 6
6/Word of Recall
7/Repulsion
7/Summon Monster 7
8/Orb of the Void
8/Summon Monster 8
9/Summon Monster 9
A lot of the reason why there are so many spells is that we don't have a level for this, nor a situation. If you want to slash the list down, you could consider removing most of the buff spells. Unless they are extremely potent, such as haste or mirror image, you simply won't have time to use them in combat. Try to replace a few with magic items, such as bracers of armour instead of mage armour, that wins you rounds. Since the list we are compiling is for the BBEG himself, shift some of the non personal buffs to minions, possibly with wands. Then understand that the BBEG is always on the losing end of the action economy, so losing a round to casting darkness if it is then matched by someone in the hero group removing it is ALWAYS a loss for the villain. Many of the spells above are fine, just not in the classic situation of party vs BBEG, possibly with minions. Next up is area damage. Truth be told, even a maximized fireball isn't a very impressive threat to a party of the appropriate level. I would remove fireball and lightning bolt, metamagicked or not. As for Summon Monster, I don't have the data in front of me, but it gets complex fast, and depends a lot on feats. What I can say is that I and II are pretty much novelties compared to III. The mid levels are usually said to be decent, but the highest levels don't quite match up to specs.
Oh yeah, true strike isn't exactly a powerhouse.
On Polymorph Any Object, the duration generally isn't an issue at all even if you stick with JUST the spell (no after spell actions like smashing a vase).
Turn someone into a fish out of water, and watch them drown. Duration: Permanent so it's not like they can hope to luck out and be able to hold their breath that long.
Then serve them up fried, with a slice of lemon. =)
Do you want to nuke your players and turn them into garbage at high levels?
People I know consider the use of this spell as breaking the gentleman's agreement between the players and the GM. Use with caution.
You might consider examining the spells your players tend to use. Let them do the research of figuring out what the effective spells and melee combinations are ...
... and shamelessly steal them!
MI
Actually, I prefer to not use the spells my players use. They have thought about the spell which means they have probably thought of ways the bad guy might counter or work around the affect.
But when I pick a spell they have never used, it often means they have spent no significant time thinking about how to get around or deal with it. A troll with shock shield and eruptive pustules, almost stopped the fight since they didn't remember what the spells did to them or how to deal with them.
Ok, here's the current list, sorted by Arcane/Divine, and by level. I'll update it some more if/when I get answers to the previous questions.
+ means it is popular
* means it is really popularPlease continue to vote, and indicate metamagic options like Quickened or Empowered!
Since the "short" list is now over 100 spells (!), would anyone like to start voting on "meh" spells they think should be REMOVED? Especially the "Summon Monster N" spells, which I listed in each level (that's 18 spells right there - is every one of them really worth it?)...
I won't vote any off (except maybe true strike, though there are times even for that one). But I will say most of those buffs are not good IN COMBAT. They are excellent spells, but the BBEG should have used them prior to the arrival of the PC's.
When the alarm goes off and the guards rush in saying "there are intruders in the palace." That's when mister BBEG should start his long term buffs, then the mid term buffs, then when he hears them getting close the short term buffs just before they bust into the throne room.
Thanks all for the info, but I must repeat :
This isn't all about a single BBEG combat.
It could be the (generic) "spellcaster" in a well-balanced opposing party. Then buffs for his/her comrades could come in handy.
It could include minions, and I want spells for them to be on this list, too.
There's no specific level or situation because I'm trying to make the list as generic as possible, to cover many different scenarios I (or anyone else) might come up with, as the party goes from 1st level to 20th.
But I want to weed out the hundreds and hundreds of PF spells down to just the ones that those of you with more experience consider to be the most effective for a spellcaster to have when facing the PC's (in any situation).
With that in mind, maybe the list *can't* be much shorter, since it does cover many different possibilities.
But please continue to offer advice/opinions about spells you like or dislike, this has been VERY helpful!
P.S. - yeah, Mage's Disjunction doesn't exist in my world :)
Aroden's Spell Bane and select the parties most common buff or offense spells.
*Requires NPC to have knowledge about plaeyr tactics
Aroden's Spell Bane and select the parties most common buff or offense spells.
*Requires NPC to have knowledge about plaeyr tactics
Which actually says a lot about Aroden. Interesting.
Thanks all for the info, but I must repeat :
This isn't all about a single BBEG combat.
It could be the (generic) "spellcaster" in a well-balanced opposing party. Then buffs for his/her comrades could come in handy.
It could include minions, and I want spells for them to be on this list, too.
There's no specific level or situation because I'm trying to make the list as generic as possible, to cover many different scenarios I (or anyone else) might come up with, as the party goes from 1st level to 20th. ...
Ok, your first couple of posts I thought sounded like it was just for the BBEG. Even if it is not, most of the statements still stand. Almost any spell can be good in the right circumstances. (I've even had a high level caster that made very good use of true strike which most people shun.)
Action economy and the decrease length of the remaining fight will still make it so buffs in combat are usually not that great of a choice. There are a few exceptions. A very short duration spell that affects all of his allies like haste can be excellent. Invis or Greater Invis on a backstab or himself can be worth while. But usually only the first round or 2 are worth buff spells. Then you need to switch to attack/damage/control/evasion spells.
I don’t think the exact spells are really that important. The type of spells seems to have more impact on play.
As a GM, I usually avoid the summon monster (or natures ally) line because I almost always have more than enough to keep track of. If I double or triple the number of creatures the PC's are facing with a few summon spells, my workload goes up a lot without much gain in fun.
I don't like save or die (SoD) spells for the NPC's, especially if they are not the BBEG. A bad save early can leave the player with nothing to do the rest of the evening until a new PC can be made and introduced into the game. Now that is somewhat less true at higher levels if they consistently carry around raise/resurrection spells prepared or scrolls.
I am a little more willing to use save or suck (SoS) spells, especially for minor fights. "Ok, your fighter with the lousy will save was held through almost the entire fight with the guard patrol. So maybe you should invest in improving your will save." PC isn't dead and hopefully didn't lose out on too much play time.
Mostly I prefer stacking control and/or debuff spells on the PC's. It still gives them that sense of fear. They are getting messed up by failing saves. Bad things are happening to them. But they are not out of the fight, dead, or ineffective.
Ex1: Not too long ago the THW barbarian got hit with ray of enfeeblement, ray of sickening, enervation, doom, and bestow curse in the course of a fight. The player was sweating bullets because he had all of these penalties stacked on his character. However, they still managed to complete the mission. The necromancer’s AC and hp were so poor it really wasn’t that hard a kill.
Ex2: One time the party started at medium-long distance from several midlevel casters. The casters started throwing multiple obscuring mist, walls, darkness, wind wall, pit, grease, illusions, etc… covering the approaches. The players were running into walls and pits. Falling down in the grease. Wasting attacks on illusions. The players got a serious case of hate going for those casters because they had so much trouble getting to them to end the fight. They were really satisfied when they finally beat them unconscious even though it was 4 casters that were each a level lower than the party with almost no melee support. They had time and position so were still a problem.
Sometimes a module will have a group that has 1 low level caster in a group that the PC will face. Any of the actual attack spells the caster can use will probably not have much effect. Then I will have them use things like fire shield, eruptive pustules, shock shield, armor spines, etc… So the PC that kills them still takes some damage for some effect.
Sometimes you can set up a special situation to make use of a particular spell. Goblin swarm in the woods. Goblins are cowardly plus a swarm attack still won’t have much effect on a mid level party. So goblins running around sneaking, sniping, and sneaking again. Several are low level rogues. Several are low level sorcs. One is a high level sorc. Rather than blasting away with serious spells and making himself a target to quickly eliminate. The main sorc is using the same spells as the others just with more effect. When you get hit with several rays of enfeeblement, how do you tell which was the maximized, empowered, heightened ray of enfeeblement? OR he could be using true strike and arrow attacks. That would be a nothing d6 damage wow. Except that he has dragon bile poison on his arrows.
Do you want to nuke your players and turn them into garbage at high levels?
People I know consider the use of this spell as breaking the gentleman's agreement between the players and the GM. Use with caution.
Yeah...once Mage's Disjunction comes into play I usually don't feel as bad using cheap tactics against the DM as well. Fair is fair after all.
Kinda the same deal if the GM starts tossing 3.5 classes unavailable to us into the picture. I don't usually use my Barbarian's ability to sunder anything in combat, but when there's some a#$@$++ (Crusader) who can Vital Strike for some 8d6+60 that ignores DR I feel no qualms about making him attack me next round with his bare hands, naked, with no buffs up (gotta love Spell Sunder).
Only thing I missed was the stupid shield because I rolled a 1 (6th freakin' 1 I rolled that combat. =/).
Though that one didn't so much piss me off (as Disjunction would have) as it did make me fear for my character's life (it was near the end of a long fight, he only had like 80 HP left in Rage).
I used black tentacles, ring of fire (pointed inward, where the tentacles were), and grease outside to make the heroes live more difficult.
Bestow Curse is real nice, especially if its subtle and long lasting (that mage you killed reduced your charisma score by 6; the only hint is the ugly looks everyone is giving you, how the prices seem to rise when you try to buy something, and the tavern wenches never bother you anymore).
Any energy drain attack is a hallmark of "way evil dude". This goes double for evil clerics negative energy burst (which, admittedly, does drain levels, but its still pretty evil).
Kydeem, Gator (and others) - thanks for the specific examples of tactics and combining spells, they also help a lot.
Kydeem - I'd be curious to know the situation where True Strike was useful at high levels?
ALL : having to deal with a PC with Summon Monster, I would add to the list
1/Protection From X (for low-level bad guy scenarios)
4/Control Summoned Creature
4/Dismissal (5th for Arcane)
7/8 Banishment (maybe)
Any others? Or thoughts on the above list?
I understand/agree with the points everyone's making about the buff spells, but I guess I over-emphasized the "IN the battle" part - I also want to know what buff spells everyone thinks are best so that I know what buffs the bad guys have on them going in to the battle.