Help me pick some spells!

[veven]

Blacktree, Orison, Lonehunter, and Jedora stay out!!


I need help picking some good spells for my BBEG to use against the party in my current campaign. It is an E6 game so that certainly helps narrow things down. Her build is wizard 1, Cleric 3, Mystic Theurge 2 (using precocious apprentice to qualify for MT early. I'm the DM, it works).
This means I'll have 2nd lvl wizard spells and 3rd lvl cleric spells. Depending on her gear she'll have 17-20 non-cantrip spells a day which is nothing to shake a stick at in E6.

The issue however, is spell selection. She is going to focus on battlefield control and debuffs while her minions (a collection of cultists, undead, and demons) do the physical work. Her right hand man is a beguiler so I'd like to mostly stay away from illusion and enchantment spells unless they are too good to pass up.

What are your favorite/the best spells available to a 3rd lvl wizard / 5th lvl cleric caster that fit my needs? Thanks for the help!

[Amidus Drexel]

What cleric domains do you have?

Cleric:
lv3- Bestow Curse (this is probably the best one - 50% chance to lose an action is pretty nasty), Dispel Magic (for obvious reasons), Blindness/Deafness (wizards get this one at lv2, but you might want a different spell for their limited slots)
lv2- Hold Person (for obvious reasons)
lv1- Doom (cast this and then another fear spell for best effect - they stack), Cause Fear (see Doom)
lv0- Create Water (to put out torches or douse any flames on your allies - see web)

Wizard
lv2- Blindness/Deafness, Scare (probably the best fear spell you can get at this level), Shatter (for their non-magic weapons), Web (this is possibly the best spell - at this level - to control the battlefield)
lv1- Reduce Person (on the fighter), Enlarge Person (on the rogue or wizard), Ray of Enfeeblement (for the Str damage), Grease
lv0- Flare, Touch of Fatigue

[Invader]

Daze, Obscuring mist, web, silence, cause fear, charm person, hypnotism, color spray (illusion), fog cloud, glitterdust, pyrotechnics.

I didn't sort them out by class but those are all good control spells.

[Amidus Drexel]

Silence is good if the caster has silent spell.

Some of the cleric domians have pretty good spells, especially Travel and Trickery and both the Air and Water domains have spells that block vision.

[Doc_Pippin]

Wizard lvl 1

Nerve Skitter (CRAZY GOOD)
Ray of cumsiness
True Strike
or lesser, shivering touch (insanely cruel)

LVL 2

Glitterdust
Wings of cover (CRAZY GOOD)
ray of stupidity
silence


Cleric spells

Lvl 3
Divine Retaliation
Mantal of evil

LVL 2

Hold person

LVL 1
Sign
Inhibit
Align Weapon, Mass

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spend a few spells on Nerveskitter and Sign from Spell Compendium to be sure he wins initiative. Casting Alarm every day will ensure that he's never surprised in his lair, and he'll even be able to have some buffs pre-cast. Those should include Shield, Mage Armor, Shield of Faith, Nightshield, and Magic Vestment to grant an Enhancement bonus to the Mage Armor and Shield armor and shield bonuses. Lesser Metamagic Rods of Extend are extremely useful for this, if they're even available in your E6 game (there are plenty of ways to craft higher-than-6th-level items in E6). A Standard Strand of Prayer Beads minus the Bead of Smiting is extremely cheap per DMG pricing, and the requisite spell for the Bead of Karma could have been accomplished via an Incantation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm). He can also cast Mage Armor on his undead and other minions.

Grease is good for controlling the battlefield, and Ice Slick from Frostburn does the same thing but it's on the Cleric list. Alter Self is extremely powerful, it can give him a significant natural armor bonus, or flight, or a burrow/swim speed, etc. Web and Glitterdust are extremely strong, and Pyrotechnics (smoke cloud version) is situationally powerful. Benign Transposition (SpC) can be extremely useful, such as if a melee character gets close to him or one of his backrow minions he can switch a beefy undead into engagement range with them. Wall of Smoke (SpC) can be used to help control the battlefield, and there's no clause about it not forming if cast across a creature's space so he could use it to force an immediate save vs its nauseating effect from multiple opponents, and his undead can pass through it unhindered.

I'd definitely give him a domain with some useful 2nd and 3rd level spells on it, along with the spontaneous casting ACF in PH2. The Cold domain would probably be the best choice for that, as it has Sleet Storm and Chill Metal. Give the Beguiler Ray of Stupidity (SpC) for one of his Advanced Learning spells, it automatically disables animal companions, turns off Combat Expertise and anything with that as a prerequisite (Improved Trip/Disarm), and makes any beefy character regret making Int a dump stat.

If your BBEG is making undead minions, he should have the feats Corpsecrafter and Destruction Retribution from LM. Have some Dire Bat Zombies swoop in on them early in the fight, each one destroyed will deal 5d6 damage to anyone within 10 ft. of its 10 ft. space, which will heal nearby undead. Make the floor of the room all loose dirt/sand/snow, maybe with fallen leaves covering it, and multiple zombies or skeletons slightly buried and waiting to spring out and surround them. Libris Mortis even has some variants for skeletons (p162) and zombies (p173) to make things a bit more interesting.

[Doc_Pippin]

Also if she is undead make he a spell-stitched one its so awesome and cheap for some bonus spell like abilities of higher lvl no LA I like Spell-stitched Necropolitian villians it stops alot of cheep PC instant win moves like Casting Hold person on the BBEG or poisoning him or so on....

[u-b]

Girallon's blessing and Blood Wind to use on those demons. Dispel Magic. Deeper Darkness (cast on an object in the bag, not prepared). Sound Burst. Protection from XXX or circle of that (you don't want any minions controlled against you). Silence.

Glitterdust, web, grease, mirror image, minor image, invisibility, enlarge person, daze, launch item.

These are in no particular order. I would not use touch (Bestow Curse) or single-target fort save (Blindness/Deafness), but from RP these are good.

[Aeryr]

Also if she is undead make he a spell-stitched one its so awesome and cheap for some bonus spell like abilities of higher lvl no LA I like Spell-stitched Necropolitian villians it stops alot of cheep PC instant win moves like Casting Hold person on the BBEG or poisoning him or so on....

Spell stitching a cleric? Cheap? :smalleek: How so?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Spell stitching a cleric? Cheap? :smalleek: How so?

For a DM, the only cost is ever plot. :smallcool:

Hello, fellow E6 DM!

You have two sources of spellcasting (Cleric 5 and Wizard 3, basically), so I would consider devoting spells from different sources to different uses of action economy. This can manifest itself in making one half the "passive/buff" side and the other half the "active" side, or making one half the "swift/immediate action" side and the other half the "standard action" side.

If you go the debuff route, DMM:Chain or something to the equivalent (assuming you, as the DM, have allowed this and are willing to throw this at your party) and send DMM:Chained versions of the best single-target debuffs the party's direction (Hold Person for one is bad, but Hold Person for a whole party is nasty). Beyond that, pick a niche and exploit it (ability debuffs, status debuffs, crowd control effects, the works).

I can't work from general to specific (not enough time), but hopefully that gives you a good launching point.

Let me know how it goes! :smallsmile:

[veven]

She'll have the deathbound domain for sure, the other one is still TBD.

Tylenol, it'll probably be quite a long time before they actually face her. It's a pbp (started in real life but too many schedule conflicts pushed it to the internet) and even if we are able to start playing in real life again I dont plan on them meeting her until the end of the second act (they are almost halfway through the first). I just wanted to have her spells ready in case they do that thing the players often do and completely throw me for a loop.