Must have spell for each level?

[Darsen-91]

I wish to know which are for you the best spell for each level, divided between wizard/cleric/druid list (i say these 3 because they have the biggest spell list, with quiet all spells, and because the spell choise is harder for the full caster, they can do all)._
thanks for all the tips

[darkholyPL]

You do realise that what you're asking is quite the guide, right? There are so many spells, across several books.... it's a honest to god a guide you're asking for. Which reminds me, wasn't there one already? I'm pretty sure there was, or were since I think there were several.

But a quick list from me for arcane (just because some spells are not on my list, doesn't mean they are crap, I just list essential spells imo)
lvl1:
-Mage Armour: good even without AA mythic, broken with it. Never a reason not to take it.
-Shield: shield AC and MM immunity. Again great spell.
-Grease: great spell even later on in the game. You'd be suprised how many things can slip and fall on this bad boy.
-Enlarge/Reduce person: those are always handy. You get the mass versions later on, but those single person ones are still a solid invest.

lvl2:
-Morror Image: a staple. Will save your ass more than once. Some enemies later on have true seeing tho, so watch out for them.
-Blur: again great spell, can be made into 24h buff, 20% miss chance for the enemy, great spell.
-The 'animal' buffs: Bull's Str, Cat's Grace ect. You know the ones. Handy, untill you get the mass versions of those.
-Hideus laughter can be good, but I don't consider it essential.

lvl3
-Haste: if you don't get this spell, then what are you even doing with your life? Must have.
-Heroism: very good buff, outclassed later by greater heroism and at lvl9 by heroic invocation. Still good early.
-Resist energy communal: 'someone' on your team should have this.
-Greater magic weapon: this is how you make those weapons with cool mods on them, but low enhancment relevant all game.
-Prot. form arrows comm. can be usefull for a good portion of the game, but falls off later, since enemies will use magic bows more often later.

lvl4

.....
....... aaaand I'm already bored with typing this out. See what I said about a guide level of commitment you are asking for here?
Maybe others will pick up, where I left off.

[Drake]

Depends also on what you focus on, like an enchantment specialist wizard will have a great time with enchantment cc, while an illusion or conjuration specced will use different cc.

[Abrusio]

Problem is the best spells just are mandatory. So I am just going to give one spell / level, otherwise as said above it would be really long... let's call my list the "hidden gems", spells that are not as "well-known" or "obviously good" spells, even if most players may already know and use them (there are only so many spells each level for those to stay hidden). Those are not mandatory, but are in my opinion good to know and have.

Cleric level 1 : command : can make the target fall prone or skip a turn (for those that are immune to prone). Not as good as grease but that's also a way for clerics to use their level 1 spell slots later when you have lot of low level slots and no other real uses for them (aside from cure light wounds). Can also help trigger attacks of opportunity with "approach" or "flee". It targets will, and some foes have really low will saves...

Cleric level 2 : sound burst : really low damage, but it's still really interesting as it can stun (skip a turn and penalties to AC) and uses fortitude, so it's good to disable enemy spellcasters that have often really low fortitude.

Cleric level 3 : archon's aura : it won't work all the time (requires the enemies to fail a will save), but as it is an aura, just put it on your cleric and forget about it. Well worth a slot in middle-high levels in my opinion. Metamagic Persistant spell does not work on it unfortunately.

Cleric level 4 : order's wrath/holy smite : AoE that does some damage, and can also apply a debuff (depending of the target alignement and flavor of the spell). Just be aware that it can also affect some of your party members. Use accordingly.

Cleric level 5 : greater command : same as the level 1 version, but multi target, even if not as flexible, but "halt" should do the trick most of the time.

Cleric level 6 : there are so many great spells that you want to have at that level, and in doubt filling slots with heal is never a bad idea. Banishment is not a bad one to have in this campaign... (even better with persistant spell metamagic)

Cleric level 7 : it's really a poor spell level for clerics, not many things here are worth it. I don't think dictum/holy word can really work as most enemies have more levels/hit dices than you at this point (I'll have to try and test). It could help clean some trash mobs, but even then... curious if anyone really use those. Destruction is good on paper but so many things are just immune to it, in my experience it's just not fun to use.

Cleric level 8 : holy aura/shield of law : the bonuses are not bad, but you want those two for the immunities they give you to respectively confusion and domination iirc, and they last longer than protection vs alignement at this point.

Cleric level 9 : so few spells at this level, and mass heal is really the most useful for your cleric spells there.

Hope it helps someone !

[Mephisto]

List of the arcana spells that I chose for mc sorcerer:
1 lvl:
- Magic missile: no miss chance, good early on
- true strike: +20 to attack rating, must have before casting rays
- grease: one of the best debuffs in the whole game and your best friend early on
- snowball: no sr and half on saving throw, good ray early on

2lvl:
- glitterdust: mass blind, good early on
- web: mostly for difficult terrain, good for kiting tought guys (dont forget to cast freedom of movement before)
- scorching ray: ascendant element fire + ring of piromancy + belt + sense vitals + true strike and you kill end game bosses with 2 lvl spell
- mirror image: one of the best protection spells
- sense vitals: your buddy when using rays (5d6 additional damage to each of three rays with scorching ray/hellfire ray/battering blast)

3lvl:
- battering blast: more powerful version of scorching ray with force damage
- fireball: just old good early game nuke
- displacement: good protection spell
- haste: every party needs this
- stinking cloud: the best debuff in kingmaker. Sadly, 90% of enemies are immune to it in wotr, but it is still good for those 10% that are not

4 lvl:
- fear: one of the best will debuffs in my opinion - unlike enchantment school debuffs, fear doesn't have saving throw/round and so it is almost mass save or die spell
- animate dead: the best way to obstruct a way for tought guys when your archers and ray masters deal with it
- dragons breath: mass nuke with no sr and with damage type of your choice
- enervation: good way to reduce enemies saving throws, especially when empowered + maximized, have no save

5 lvl:
- fire snake: good mid game nuke with no frendly fire
- hungry pit: good for reducing amount of enemies
- icy prison: paralysis that requires 35 str check
- baleful polymorph: one of the best save or suck debuff

6 lvl:
- chain lightning: good end game nuke with no frendly fire
- chains of light: paralysis that aims reflex, and since your dex is 1 when paralyzed, it is hard to get out of it
- eyebite: applies sickened (-2 saving throws) every turn as swift action
- hellfire ray: the best ray in the game, annihilates any boss in moments
- sirocco: more powerful version of grease, but aims fort
- greater dispell magic: you think 80 AC is too much? Well, this spells reduces it in half
- greater heroism: +4 attack, +4 skill checks

7 lvl:
- prismatic ray: if you cast it at the big group, it is for sure that a half of enemies will insta die/turn into dogs
- plague storm: I don't know if it is bugged, but it can take ~5 dex every turn from enemies, it is almost like cloudkill, but not poison and so demons are not immune to it
- waves of exhaustion: mass exhaustion

8 lvl:
- frightful aspect: -2 saving throws to all enemies around caster, very good aura
- horrid wilting: good end game nuke, unholy damage (I haven't seen any enemies that are immune to it)
- sunburst: mass blind, but unlike glitterdust, this effect is permanent
- stormbolts: very good damage + mass stun
- rift of ruin: better version of hungry pit

9 lvl:
- mass icy prison: mass paralysis
- heroic invocation: mass +4 attack
- fiery body: +6 dex, +1 DC for fire spells (hello sirocco) and a huge amount of immunities
- wail of banshee: 10 dmg per caster level, no need in maximized rod

[Wither]

I think it'd be more useful if you divide by the type of encounter you're facing.

1. Mobs with usually low safe.
AOE CC with selective meta magic. Persistence meta magic on high level, if possible.
Whatever it be, the game give you alot of these. Arance caster has grease, web, elemental+difficult surface like stone call or ice storm, pit spell, etc. Divine caster got entangle, spike spell - I don't remember the name, cave teeth.
All these target reflex and will keep your enemies at bay and give your tank some breathing room.

2. Enemies with low reflex and high save on everything else.
First and foremost you would try AOE cc from the 1st section. But these guys usually come together with freedom of movement spell. Just spam dispell/ dispell greater on them.
Other than that, use stricting coil, icy prison for arcane caster. For divine caster you have vine trap.

3. Petty casters with high reflex, high will and tons of SR. Usually comes with blur+mirror image. Don't let that dissuade your martial companion/mc. These guys has low AC and hittable, just use true sight or dispell.
Probably the most value target in every combat, since the longer your let them alive, the more nastier spell they push out on you. Usually start with Phantasmal putrefy and getting worse each round.

3. Bosses with forbidden AC. Uber save. 1 hit kill with AB 20+ higher than your tank AC.
Spam summoning is the first thing you'll do, after running away from THAT thing. Then you'd try cri fishing, probably from your main or your companion. Blessed weapon from Seelah is your core spell in this.
That unless you spec for full caster MC and can punch through boess SR&Save. Then your damage spell finally has a worthy target.

[Rudel]

Such a list makes no sense, especially because there are spell levels with substandard spells that you can exchange with heightened/bolstered meta magic spells.

[Gregorovitch]

This a far too wide question. You could write a book on it. No doubt somebody already has.

In the interests of brevity I can say that for my party I think the four most effective spells by L16, the ones that deliver the biggest bang for buck, the ones that contribute the most to my ability to win battles, are:

Mirror Image
Displacement
Haste
Phantasmal Putrification

[Uzkin]

How do ppl make (Greater) Dispel work? Whenever I try to use it against a boss, this happens:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2722756289

Sure, once per day I can use the goggles for a guaranteed dispel of a single, randomly chosen, usually meaningless, trash buff but the boss still has (zillion - 1) buffs left afterwards.

[Abrusio]

Originally posted by Uzkin:

How do ppl make (Greater) Dispel work? Whenever I try to use it against a boss, this happens:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2722756289

Sure, once per day I can use the goggles for a guaranteed dispel of a single, randomly chosen, usually meaningless, trash buff but the boss still has (zillion - 1) buffs left afterwards.

It will work for full caster lich or angel with merged spell books (at level 11 you are already CL 14-15). For Azata, the pet dragon Aivu can also do it after a while (beginning in act IV if I remember correctly, it depends of your mythic rank). I think the Aeon have a mythic power that have a similar effect but I'm not really familiar with this mythic path.

Otherwise, you can also make it work with companions/mercenaries, but they will have to be build for this role, and the earlier the harder to do, such as in act III like in your screenshot. That means boosting their caster level.

Nennio is probably the easiest one with scrolls (2 items can give her +5 CL), but it can be done with most full casters. A cloak that gives +4C L when using a scroll (in ActIV), there is also a belt that gives +1 CL when using a scroll or potion (ActII).

The feat Spell specialization gives +2 CL for the selected spell
There are goggles that gives +2 CL for all spells (ActV)
Mythic feat school mastery gives +1CL to the spell of a school

With mercenaries or maybe some companions more exotic builds :

Arcanists can get +2CL on any spell
Leyline Guardians can get +1D4CL to spells

and I may forget some other way to get CL bonuses here and there

But yeah, in act 3, greater dispel magic may not work that well.

Hope it helps !

[Uzkin]

Thanks for the info. :) Unfortunately, I'm a trickster in act 3 (well, just moved to act 4) so none of those are really an option. But I'm planning a lich run next so maybe then, finally, Dispel will be of some use. :)

[darkholyPL]

Originally posted by Uzkin:

Sure, once per day I can use the goggles for a guaranteed dispel of a single, randomly chosen, usually meaningless, trash buff but the boss still has (zillion - 1) buffs left afterwards.

There is no guarantee there, it just gives you a 20 roll on your first dispell attempt, which is NOT an automitic success, you still need to beat the DR.

[Myrmicus]

Trickster has the Trickery mythic trick. It uses your trickery skill as a Dispell (level 1), Greater Dispell (level 2), instant death (level 3).
If I remember correctly, it's Skill roll -10, with the buff DR as a difficulty (D20+skill-10 vs DR)

As for regular Dispell : D20+CL vs DR, nat 20 isn't an automatic success on a dispel roll (or any roll other than attack, for that matter).

[Drake]

To dispel stuff, I find a rogue with dispelling attack much better, since you never run out of sneak attacks.

[rumpelstiltskin]

Originally posted by Drake:

To dispel stuff, I find a rogue with dispelling attack much better, since you never run out of sneak attacks.

apparently dispelling attack has bugged dc since kingmaker, so it basically never works

[Gorwe]

Ice Prison and Polar Midnight. What a combo!