Having just finished my first playthrough of KotC, I am eager to try a more challenging run. I am not ready to play ironman mode, but maybe I can manage something like "only one rest per bonfire" or playing without a specific character. However, before I begin what will probably end in a disaster and a lot of frustration, I want to find out if I missed some unexpectedly good spell, so I am here to ask you which are, in your opinion, the most useful/powerful spells for each level.
Based on my experience, that's what I came up with for the mage list:
I didn't experiment enough with the cleric list, so my conclusions are far simpler:
This game truly captured me, it's a feeling that I missed for a long time. I hope there is still someone willing to discuss it, even after all this time.
Based on my experience, that's what I came up with for the mage list:
Lvl 1: Sleep and Magic Missile. Sleep is useful only during the first few levels, but in this case "useful" means that it's capable of ending a fight with a single slot, since most of the enemies don't have high will saves. Magic Missile never shined in the entire playthrough, but it was always useful to kill a low hp enemy before a potentially devastating attack. In the beginning I thought Entangle, Ray of Enfeeblement and Enlarge Person could be useful, but: I think I used Entangle only once, since Web is available almost immediately and its effect is far more impactful, while for Ray of Enfeeblement and Enlarge Person I never found myself wanting to waste a turn or a slot on them.
Lvl 2: Glitterdust and Web, with Glitterdust as the clear winner. Web is helpful in diluting the encounters, but I almost never found myself needing it, because usually you have other ways to handle the situation or you need other spells to handle the extremely dangerous ambushes (but I don't know I could have defeated Tyranixxus without this spell). Glitterdust was my to-go spell until level 15, I think: the blind condition is very strong, with a debuff to AC and the miss chance on every attack, it targets will save, which is low for most of the enemies and, since it doesn't care for spell resistence, you can use it on the first dragons (I managed to defeat the first dragon only thanks to this spell, since all I had at that point was a single 2th level slot). Even if the target makes its will save, it still dispels any invisibility effect.
Lvl 3: Haste and Fireball. Haste is probably the spell I used the most on my wizard, since I had two knights in the party and those two additional attacks really adds up; however, I think that in my next playthrough I will slap the speed enchantment on my falchion as soon as possible and never use this spell. Fireball is perfect for KotC, since this game REALLY loves throwing against you a bunch of realtively weak monsters that you have to dispatch quickly to not get overwhelmed. I never found Dispel Magic useful, because whenever I needed to dispel something, my chance was usually 5% or 10% at best. I thought I would have used Displacement and Slow a lot more, but I always sticked to Haste; however, with the speed enchantment, I think I would use Slow a lot more, since with giants it can avoid A LOT of damage.
Lvl 4: Confusion. I never used anything else from this level, because this was such a game changer that every other spell seemed a waste of a slot. I like Stoneskin and Greater Invisibility, but I never used them because Confusion always was the best option in my eyes. It can disable half the enemies and consequently use them to kill the other half, it's amazing. Thinking about it now, probably Stoneskin could save the wizard in some of the thougher ambushes, but I still always preferred Confusion in those situations.
Lvl 5: Cone of Cold. It has a great area and cold is a useful type of damage, however, to me, Confusion still seemed the better option until the very last level. I empowered it a lot, because I found 7th level spells pretty lackluster.
Lvl 6: Freezing Sphere and Greater Heroism. I didn't find any 6th level spell particularly useful, so I just used those slots to deal some damage. I used Greater Heroism only against Tyranixxus, because without this buff my hit chance was abysmal (10 or 15% at best), during any other encounter (except for maybe a couple dragons and the greater balor) my to-hit bonus was high enough that my knights were able to hit every enemy even with their last attacks, so I didn't find any use for Greater Heroism outside the very last fights.
Lvl 7: Discharge. Just like with 6th level spells, I didn't find anything particularly useful, but Discharge was still a reliant way to deal damage, even to very high-ac monsters that were almost impossible to hit for my knights. Mass Hold Person was cool, but to me Confusion remained the superior choice. I used Power Word: Blind a couple of times, but 8th level spells quickly rendered it obsolete. Probably in my next playthrough I will use Waves of Exhaustion more, since it's a very good debuff.
Lvl 8: Irresistible Dance and Dehydrate. Irresistible Dance is what allowed me to finish the game, it's as simple as that. I would have never been able to defeat some of the dragons (including Tyranixxus) and the highest CR enemies without this monster of a spell. It can't miss (you just have to pass SR, but that's never been a problem to me at high levels, probably because I took both the SR penetration feats) and it renders the enemy completely helpless for 2-6 rounds (usually 3 or 4), enough for you to kill it without problems or to dispatch the other weaker enemies. The only selling point for Dehydrate is its wide area of effect, which was useful against Tyranixxus, it's probably not that useful if you can squeeze the Widen Spell metamagic feat.
Lvl 9: Dominate Monster, Greater Disintegrate and Irresistible Dance again. Dominate Monster is broken, there is not that much to say about it. You can spam three uses on the same monster until it cracks and that's particularly useful against dragons, balor and the very last fight. I used Greater Disintegrate only three times, but boy was it useful those three times. It completely annihilates liches without giving them any chance to survive and that alone makes it worth it to me. However, in the end, to me the best use of 9th level slots is still Irresistible Dance, that spell is too strong. I didn't find the other spells particularly useful: Mass Hold Monster is good, but usually you need to disable low level monsters, so Confusion still gets the job done; Acid Blast is just another way to deal damage; Energy Drain is amazing (-12 to everything without any save is almost as strong as Irresistible Dance effect), but I found it to be too unreliable if compared to Irresistible Dance.
Lvl 2: Glitterdust and Web, with Glitterdust as the clear winner. Web is helpful in diluting the encounters, but I almost never found myself needing it, because usually you have other ways to handle the situation or you need other spells to handle the extremely dangerous ambushes (but I don't know I could have defeated Tyranixxus without this spell). Glitterdust was my to-go spell until level 15, I think: the blind condition is very strong, with a debuff to AC and the miss chance on every attack, it targets will save, which is low for most of the enemies and, since it doesn't care for spell resistence, you can use it on the first dragons (I managed to defeat the first dragon only thanks to this spell, since all I had at that point was a single 2th level slot). Even if the target makes its will save, it still dispels any invisibility effect.
Lvl 3: Haste and Fireball. Haste is probably the spell I used the most on my wizard, since I had two knights in the party and those two additional attacks really adds up; however, I think that in my next playthrough I will slap the speed enchantment on my falchion as soon as possible and never use this spell. Fireball is perfect for KotC, since this game REALLY loves throwing against you a bunch of realtively weak monsters that you have to dispatch quickly to not get overwhelmed. I never found Dispel Magic useful, because whenever I needed to dispel something, my chance was usually 5% or 10% at best. I thought I would have used Displacement and Slow a lot more, but I always sticked to Haste; however, with the speed enchantment, I think I would use Slow a lot more, since with giants it can avoid A LOT of damage.
Lvl 4: Confusion. I never used anything else from this level, because this was such a game changer that every other spell seemed a waste of a slot. I like Stoneskin and Greater Invisibility, but I never used them because Confusion always was the best option in my eyes. It can disable half the enemies and consequently use them to kill the other half, it's amazing. Thinking about it now, probably Stoneskin could save the wizard in some of the thougher ambushes, but I still always preferred Confusion in those situations.
Lvl 5: Cone of Cold. It has a great area and cold is a useful type of damage, however, to me, Confusion still seemed the better option until the very last level. I empowered it a lot, because I found 7th level spells pretty lackluster.
Lvl 6: Freezing Sphere and Greater Heroism. I didn't find any 6th level spell particularly useful, so I just used those slots to deal some damage. I used Greater Heroism only against Tyranixxus, because without this buff my hit chance was abysmal (10 or 15% at best), during any other encounter (except for maybe a couple dragons and the greater balor) my to-hit bonus was high enough that my knights were able to hit every enemy even with their last attacks, so I didn't find any use for Greater Heroism outside the very last fights.
Lvl 7: Discharge. Just like with 6th level spells, I didn't find anything particularly useful, but Discharge was still a reliant way to deal damage, even to very high-ac monsters that were almost impossible to hit for my knights. Mass Hold Person was cool, but to me Confusion remained the superior choice. I used Power Word: Blind a couple of times, but 8th level spells quickly rendered it obsolete. Probably in my next playthrough I will use Waves of Exhaustion more, since it's a very good debuff.
Lvl 8: Irresistible Dance and Dehydrate. Irresistible Dance is what allowed me to finish the game, it's as simple as that. I would have never been able to defeat some of the dragons (including Tyranixxus) and the highest CR enemies without this monster of a spell. It can't miss (you just have to pass SR, but that's never been a problem to me at high levels, probably because I took both the SR penetration feats) and it renders the enemy completely helpless for 2-6 rounds (usually 3 or 4), enough for you to kill it without problems or to dispatch the other weaker enemies. The only selling point for Dehydrate is its wide area of effect, which was useful against Tyranixxus, it's probably not that useful if you can squeeze the Widen Spell metamagic feat.
Lvl 9: Dominate Monster, Greater Disintegrate and Irresistible Dance again. Dominate Monster is broken, there is not that much to say about it. You can spam three uses on the same monster until it cracks and that's particularly useful against dragons, balor and the very last fight. I used Greater Disintegrate only three times, but boy was it useful those three times. It completely annihilates liches without giving them any chance to survive and that alone makes it worth it to me. However, in the end, to me the best use of 9th level slots is still Irresistible Dance, that spell is too strong. I didn't find the other spells particularly useful: Mass Hold Monster is good, but usually you need to disable low level monsters, so Confusion still gets the job done; Acid Blast is just another way to deal damage; Energy Drain is amazing (-12 to everything without any save is almost as strong as Irresistible Dance effect), but I found it to be too unreliable if compared to Irresistible Dance.
I didn't experiment enough with the cleric list, so my conclusions are far simpler:
Lvl 1: Bless and Summon Fire. Bless is fine if you have nothing better to do; Summon Fire gives the enemy a target and that's useful to absorb some damage.
Lvl 2: Lesser Restoration and Sound Burst. A lot of monsters love to damage your abilities, but you can just spal this spell on a wand and forget about it; Sound Burst can be useful if you are lucky, but overcoming fort saves is far harder than dealing with will saves. I didn't find any use for the energy protection spells, because I preferred to use magic items to deal with resistances.
Lvl 3: Nothing. Sometimes I used Remove Blindness, but that's it.
Lvl 4: Nothing. Sometimes I used Restoration, but not that frequently.
Lvl 5: Mass Cure Light. It doesn't cure too much, but it's helpful to not get overwhelmed by area effects.
Lvl 6: Heal and Harm. To me this was the first very good spell level for the cleric, and oh boy was it good. Heal has been fundamental in every hard fight just for the hp healing alone, if you add in the fact that it can cure almost any condition it's enough to justify, alone, the entire class. Harm has been less useful than Heal, but it's amazing in the end game against very high-ac enemies.
Lvl 7: Mass Death Ward. Enemies spamming death arrows become more common the more you advance in the game, so it's good to have a way to prevent that "10000 damage" from appearing.
Lvl 8: Fire Storm. I used it sometimes, but it has far too many drawbacks: it's area is nothing to write home about, it's range is abysmal and it's casting time makes it hard to use the spell when you really need it.
Lvl 9: Mass Heal, Mass Harm and True Resurrection. Mass Heal is unbelievably good, because during the end game it's not that uncommon to find yourself with all your characters at 10 hp at the same time; Mass Harm can be used to dispatch medium cr monsters while dealing damage to bosses (and a lot of damage as well). True resurrection at this point of the game is not that different from a simple Resurrection, but it is still good to have.
Lvl 2: Lesser Restoration and Sound Burst. A lot of monsters love to damage your abilities, but you can just spal this spell on a wand and forget about it; Sound Burst can be useful if you are lucky, but overcoming fort saves is far harder than dealing with will saves. I didn't find any use for the energy protection spells, because I preferred to use magic items to deal with resistances.
Lvl 3: Nothing. Sometimes I used Remove Blindness, but that's it.
Lvl 4: Nothing. Sometimes I used Restoration, but not that frequently.
Lvl 5: Mass Cure Light. It doesn't cure too much, but it's helpful to not get overwhelmed by area effects.
Lvl 6: Heal and Harm. To me this was the first very good spell level for the cleric, and oh boy was it good. Heal has been fundamental in every hard fight just for the hp healing alone, if you add in the fact that it can cure almost any condition it's enough to justify, alone, the entire class. Harm has been less useful than Heal, but it's amazing in the end game against very high-ac enemies.
Lvl 7: Mass Death Ward. Enemies spamming death arrows become more common the more you advance in the game, so it's good to have a way to prevent that "10000 damage" from appearing.
Lvl 8: Fire Storm. I used it sometimes, but it has far too many drawbacks: it's area is nothing to write home about, it's range is abysmal and it's casting time makes it hard to use the spell when you really need it.
Lvl 9: Mass Heal, Mass Harm and True Resurrection. Mass Heal is unbelievably good, because during the end game it's not that uncommon to find yourself with all your characters at 10 hp at the same time; Mass Harm can be used to dispatch medium cr monsters while dealing damage to bosses (and a lot of damage as well). True resurrection at this point of the game is not that different from a simple Resurrection, but it is still good to have.
This game truly captured me, it's a feeling that I missed for a long time. I hope there is still someone willing to discuss it, even after all this time.
