The Archivist in us all

[LTwerewolf]

So we're in a campaign with 6 characters played by 5 people. I've got the mystic theurge archivist wizard going on (yes I know it's not optimized, but it's not a high op group), and my dm mentioned to me that I'll need to carry the others a bit since they're learning. Which spells on the archivist side (I already have the wizard side picked out) should I take? I'm more interested in debuffing the enemies and buffing the group than doing hardcore damage.

Our group consists of:
Dwarven warblade
Centaur warblade
Elf Wizard
Human Cleric (joy and trickery domains)
Human Duskblade

My group for the most part is one that usually takes the "kill it to death" route over shutting them down, so I want to introduce that a little more.

I get 7 level 1, 7 level 2, 6 level 3, 5 level 4, and 3 level 5 spells.

[Fable Wright]

My group for the most part is one that usually takes the "kill it to death" route over shutting them down, so I want to introduce that a little more.

Don't.

One of the things that I've noticed in my experience is that when groups discover that just shutting down enemies effectively is easier than taking them down with a single well-placed spell is that it either becomes frustrating for the people trying to take down enemies the old fashioned way. In the longstanding E6 campaign I've been playing with for the last few years, we had a more or less tier 3 party all the way through. A Dread Necromancer, a Swordsage, a Factotum, a semi-undead Warforged homebrew variant Barbarian cohort (long story), and a Barbarian/Duskblade. The Necromancer went in with debuffs, the Swordsage would kill stuff, and the Duskblade would Trip. It was pretty fun, interesting, and balanced. Each combat was exciting, and there was a lot of stuff going on. Due to circumstances unrelated to the game, the Barbarian/Duskblade quit, and we eventually found a new player who added in a Wizard. Combat immediately became less fun, for me at least. The Wizard would cast a spell or two and shut down most, if not all, of the enemies; Stinking Fog, Glitterdust, Grease, etc. After that, it was more or less cleanup for the party, and the DM actually ended a lot of the combats early, because the enemy couldn't really do anything, and cleanup was tedious. As the debuff-focused necromancer, I was miserable; I don't know about the other players, but I had a hell of a less enjoyable time after that. Combat was short, uninteractive, and I couldn't meaningfully contribute over the Wizard. Later, the player switched to a Beguiler, and it became more balanced; the Beguiler couldn't shut down entire combats singlehandedly, we had our effective roles, and so on.

For a group of new players, I could imagine introducing shutdown tactics as leading to a similar situation; they're having fun taking down enemies the traditional kill-it-to-death way. Victory feels like more of an accomplishment. Lining up the opponents for the party to take down takes that away from them. Victory is so much sweeter when your opponent is still a threat with their last round than when they can't do anything for the next several rounds. It's an easier way to victory, sure. It doesn't feel as exciting, though.

Some spells you might consider picking up are Close Wounds, Wave of Grief, Mass Conviction, Mass Shield of Faith, Healing Lorecall, Sanctuary, and Mass Aid. A lot of your party is melee, and so the mass forms of spells is really worth it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Buffs/boons for the melee would be good, such as Enlarge Person (Strength 1), Mass Snake's Swiftness (Druid 2), Haste (Time 3), etc. If you go the DMM/Naenhoon: Persist route, Elation (BoED), Mass Lesser Vigor (SC), and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (SC) are your best choices for party buffs.

For disables, Wall of Smoke (cast across occupied squares to force an immediate save), Kelpstrand (Druid 2), (Extended) Sleet/Ice Storm, and Evard's Black Tentacles (Blackwater 3) are good choices. Get a few Lesser Rods of Extend for those round/level and especially any 1-round duration spells.

If you want to deal damage, (Lesser Rod of Extended) Creeping Cold (Druid 2) is 21d6 damage over six rounds. You've also got Icelance, Splinterbolt, Lightning Bolt (Adept 3), Arc of Lightning, etc.

If you want to get books thrown at you, have everyone in the party pitch in 2,000 gp for a 1st level Pearl of Power and to go in thirds for Lesser Rods of Extend. Prepare Snowsight once each day, cast it (extended) on yourself, and use the pearls and rods to cast it on every one else as well. You and both the other Wizard and the Cleric can all cast (Extended) Obscuring Snow, which pretty much automatically defeats every encounter in the game from 3rd level on. Both of those spells are in Frostburn.

[Clericzilla]

If you want to get books thrown at you, have everyone in the party pitch in 2,000 gp for a 1st level Pearl of Power and to go in thirds for Lesser Rods of Extend. Prepare Snowsight once each day, cast it (extended) on yourself, and use the pearls and rods to cast it on every one else as well. You and both the other Wizard and the Cleric can all cast (Extended) Obscuring Snow, which pretty much automatically defeats every encounter in the game from 3rd level on. Both of those spells are in Frostburn.

This is why I like the playground...

[Story]

Coincidentally, our first session took place inside a blizzard, and we only got through with repeated use of Know Direction. I'll have to tell our Druid about those spells.