Top 3 Favorite Spells

[Hanuman]

Hey guys, what are your top 3 favorite spells? I'm not talking just "spells I always have because they're effective", I'm talking what spell mechanics do you like the best?
Core, Source and Homebrew all welcome.

[Devronq]

Not gunna post yours first OP?

[Der_DWSage]

Well, seeing as how I tend to favor the tricky classes, mine are as follows.

Nystul's Magic Aura - Sure, there's plenty of cheesy ways to break WBL. But this one is something you can build a whole character concept around-a skeezy weapons merchant that sells chunks of useless metal as powerful magic items. And of course, the look on the DM's face when you hand the BBEG what he thinks is a maguffin, when in truth it's a spellbook filled with Explosive Runes, is priceless.

Hesitate - 'Nope. You're not hitting the party Cleric until I let you.'

Prestigiditation - Because who doesn't love turning the Barbarian's chainmail bright pink at the start of the day, and blaming it on the poor care he takes of it?

[CRtwenty]

Magic Missile... it's iconic, it sounds cool, and it NEVER misses. It's also available at level 1. Seriously this spell is like an old reliable dog. It's always gonna be there for you.

Dispel Magic... it's usable in so many situations it's ridiculous. Taking out magical traps, removing things from party members, debuffing enemy casters. It's great!

Cure Light Wounds... anybody who doesn't include this spell is deluding themselves. It's probably one of the most cast spells in the entire game. It doesn't even need an explanation.

[Devronq]

Mine would be

Improved invisibility- i rarely use normal invisibility for the fact it falls off i just love this spell in general and use it whenever possible

Wall of force- i love messing with people during a fight and trapping them in awkward places between the walls

Telekensis/mage hand- just always feel bad@#$ picking stuff up with my mind :P

[Jett Midknight]

Shape Change: The spell just feels so versatile. I love using a high level Druid for a boos, and having him cast shape change before the fight, just so he can keep swapping fighting forms. It keeps the party constantly guessing. Plus it makes it feel a lot more like a boss fight from a video game with a multi-form boss.

Anti-Magic Field: Nothing makes the party go "Oh ****" quite like suddenly having all their magic items and spell fail them. Plus it's fun to make large anti-magic arena or prisons.

Enlarge Person: Nothing feels more satisfying as a fighter than getting bigger and dealing more damage. Plus it's always fun getting to use a larger token.

[Juntao112]

Fireball, Telekinesis, and Unseen Servant

[Vixsor Lumin]

Do psionics count? If so, then my favorites are:

Entangling ectoplasm- Spider man, spider man!

Astral construct- I love using the power armor trick, so its basically the most awesome thing ever!

Astral seed- in my opinion, one of the coolest ways to come back fron the dead :smallcool:

[Felandria]

Righteous Might - Like Enlarge Person, but good.

Shocking Grasp - Excellent way to deal damage at lower levels, always fun to combine with Spectral Hand or RM.

Bestow Curse - Especially fun for us creative types who come up with unique curses, but the ones listed are useful as can be.

[NM020110]

Disjunction, Ice Assassin, Wish, if in a higher power game.

Prestidigitation, Fabricate, * Image for a more technical game.

[Hanuman]

Ah, mine would be:

Dancing Chains
http://dndtools.eu/spells/book-of-vile-darkness--37/dancing-chains--234/

Silent Image (or any image spell)
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/silentImage.htm

Detect Thoughts
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectThoughts.htm


My favorite spell combo is dancing chains + wall of stone + cloudkill, animate the chains, when enemies are located position a sculpted wall of stone with 3" slits in the bottom and murderholes at PC-height, advance to the holes, unloading on the enemies with ranged attacks and cast cloudkill when the enemies get in range, then send the chains through to grapple them, dragging them back in when they try and escape.

[ericgrau]

Well favorite and most effective are hard to separate, because who really wants to spend their turn sucking? But let's see. Augury is a lot of fun, if only to pester the DM. I've gone pretty nutso on shield other too, which was fun. And spider climb always seems to have a hundred uses that create a nice visual image as you solve the problem. I should really make more characters with the slippers just for style points.

[4BR4]

Grease (http://paizo.com/prd/spells/grease.html): lot of fun having the enemies falling down at each step or losing their weapons.

Enlarge Person (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/enlargePerson.html#_enlarge-person): what if the BBEG is too big for the narrow passage that he's blocking?

Snapdragon Dragon (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/spells/snapdragonFireworks.html#_snapdragon-fireworks): I love these nice tiny dragons, especially after made them dazing and heightened.

[Eldan]

Change self: never leave the house without it. A hat of disguise tends to be the first item I get whenever I get a choice to buy or make my own.

Silent Image: endless fun. If there's a social Problem you can't solve with illusions, you are not using enough illusions.

Blistering Invective, from Pathfinder. I just recently discovered this, but holy carp, I never thought a blasting spell could be this much fun. You intimdate People, and if you are scary enough, they catch fire.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Sphere of ultimate destruction- because come on, with a name like that how can you not love it? Summoning a big ball of disintegration is also kinda neat.

Silent Image- with a little imagination this spell is absolutely amazing, versatile and fun!

Bigbys slapping hand- summon pimp-slap? I'm all over this spell, also the de facto way to initiate a magical duel.

[Maginomicon]

Wings of Cover
Because it's 1/round nuh-uh-you-don't-hit-me

Thunderlance (or its little brother Decastave)
Because while technically a quarterstaff could do the same thing, a quarterstaff is only 8 feet long and Thunderlance/Decastave is the closest you're going to get to a lightsaber. More importantly, you underestimate the utility of a pole of force that telescopes to up to 20-feet long and has to stay in your hand. Need to get up a chimney? Point it straight down and telescope up. Need a way across a 15-foot pit? just put your hand on the ground and FWOOP you've got a pole stretching across.

Prestidigitation
Because what you might not realize is that by the effects of the spell, you can make cotton candy with it and sell it to the village children, or make Wonka's meal-in-a-pill. Also, the "slowly lift" ability can be used to justify a windless cape billowing for no reason. It's the "Minor Wish" spell!

If you include Psionics, then...

Time Hop
Because it's the "Be Not Here Right Now" Power. Chain link holding up the chandelier? Gone. Locked Door? Gone. Ex-Wife? Gone.

Call Item
Because it's the "I wish I had a _____" Power. Need a ladder to get up high or block a door? Need a bouncy ball to scope out a dark room? You got it!

Astral Construct
Because of Astral Construct Power Armor. I use these with a squad of jermlaines wearing psionic tattoos to get something silly and awesome.

[AttilaTheGeek]

Prestidigitation
Because what you might not realize is that by the effects of the spell, you can make cotton candy with it and sell it to the village children, or make Wonka's meal-in-a-pill. Also, the "slowly lift" ability can be used to justify a windless cape billowing for no reason. It's the "Minor Wish" spell!

:smallbiggrin: *points to sig*

Mine have to be Prestidigitation, Time Stop, and Silent Image, in that order. Time Stop because you stop time, and Silent Image because it does so many things.

[Waker]

Prestidigitation- Every character that I have ever played who is capable of casting it has learned this spell.
Haste- Super handy buff, useful from level five to level twenty.
Dispel Magic- Don't leave home without it.

[nedz]

Silent Image/Major Image
Lets change reality for you shall we.

Shadow Conjuration
Flexible but a bit of a pain to use — two saves.

Mirage Arcana
Lets redraw the battlefield a little completely.

[Arcanist]

Celerity (http://dndtools.eu/spells/players-handbook-ii--80/celerity--3003/): at 7th level you can now steal initiative and gain perfect control over your encounter.

Planar Binding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planarBinding.htm): The game effectively ends that this point because you can now summon an Efreeti and wish for a Scroll of Shapechange (CL 1 trillion).

Plane Shift (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planeShift.htm): I don't know... It just feels that being able to walk the planes is when D&D gets highly competitive since you are now able to fight Demons, Angels and Gods.

I like to play a Chameleon so I get Planar Binding earlier off the Demonologist spell list. To quote an old DM of mines "10 levels in and you're already bending the campaign over your leg"

[Jon_Dahl]

Mage Armor - Helps to keep magic-users alive. The duration and level are really nice.
Magic Missile - It's iconic and simple enough.
Reincarnate - Raising dead made fun!

[BWR]

Favorites based on flavor, not usefulness
Fireball - it's so iconic and classic. If there is one spell that says "D&D mage", it's Fireball.
Animate Dead - it was a tough choice, because I love just about all the Necromancy spells, but this is the core of necromancy: bringing corpses to 'life' to do your bidding
Mad Monkeys (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/spells/madMonkeys.html) - just because

[SSGoW]

Well, seeing as how I tend to favor the tricky classes, mine are as follows.

Nystul's Magic Aura - Sure, there's plenty of cheesy ways to break WBL. But this one is something you can build a whole character concept around-a skeezy weapons merchant that sells chunks of useless metal as powerful magic items. And of course, the look on the DM's face when you hand the BBEG what he thinks is a maguffin, when in truth it's a spellbook filled with Explosive Runes, is priceless.

Hesitate - 'Nope. You're not hitting the party Cleric until I let you.'

Prestigiditation - Because who doesn't love turning the Barbarian's chainmail bright pink at the start of the day, and blaming it on the poor care he takes of it?

Friend totally used Prestigiditation on my Barbarian like that, next words out of my Barbarian's mouth was "cross class ranks in spell craft. Oh and ghawfaaaaraawr!" (Ghawfaaaaraawr was one of the many rage sounds) lol

Favorite spells...

Mudslide:

Telekinesis

Create Pit (and its brothers and sisters)

[Yora]

Alter Self, Dispel Magic, and...

I have to think about a third one. Either Resist Energy or Suggestion, I guess.

[BeserkerNike]

Grease
Spiked Pit
Stone Wall

[Krobar]

Prestidigitation, because it's just too useful to NOT use daily.

Glibness, because who doesn't need +30 to Bluff?

Shapechange, because Shapechange.

[Katana1515]

1. Glitterdust! (so devastating its FABULOUS) :)

2. Mirror Image (hey BFG you know that fancy plate armour you shelled out for? well look at this!)

3. Planar Binding (not so much for its campaign destroying potential, good DMs usually head that off pretty quick, more for the sheer awesomeness of binding various outsiders to your whims generally, binding demonic assasins/spies and sending them out after your foes etc pleases my inner machiavelli)

[Der_DWSage]

Friend totally used Prestigiditation on my Barbarian like that, next words out of my Barbarian's mouth was "cross class ranks in spell craft. Oh and ghawfaaaaraawr!" (Ghawfaaaaraawr was one of the many rage sounds) lol

But that's when you use prestidigitation to clean out his filthy mouth! (Ghawfaaaaraawr being ancient draconic tongue for 'your mother once starred in an episode of Jersey Shore.' It was a different time.)

[Chronos]

Prestidigitation, AKA Minor Wish. You can do anything with that spell! some restrictions apply

Shrink Item. Always have whatever item you need, steal big bulky things easily, get things out of your way, and throw colossal darts around. Plus the days-long duration means you can get use out of old castings, while still having your full complement of slots today.

Reverse Gravity. Especially if it's Permanancied, but even if not. There are just so many fun configurations you can set up, though it takes a bit of time and architecture for the best of them.

[nyjastul69]

Magic Missile
Detect Magic
Dispel Magic

These are in no particular order.

[Seharvepernfan]

A tough question. Picking just three will be hard.

1. Ride the Lightning (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/ride-the-lightning) is probably the "coolest" spell that I like. I just wish you could use it as a move action instead.

2. Ruby Ray of Reversal.

3. A tough choice between Absorption, Reaving Dispel, Black Blade of Disaster, Black Fire, and Prismatic Spray.

[Hanuman]

1. Ride the Lightning (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/ride-the-lightning) is probably the "coolest" spell that I like. I just wish you could use it as a move action instead.
I do really like that spell which gives you fire breath and lets you shapechange into the breath weapon and re-appear at it's maximum range.

[navar100]

Bless

Bull's Strength

Blessing of Fervor (Pathfinder)

[Illarion]

Prestidigitation: Not enough could be said about this.

Celerity: It's my turn...it's always my turn.

Enervate: It hurts so much.

[Phelix-Mu]

1.) Reverse gravity. For the visuals, and for spamming. Turn it on, turn it off, turn it on.... I never really get tired of that kind of thing.

2.) Wall of stone. A single unassuming spell of great utility and out-of-combat practicality. It also manages to capture why magic breaks game balance into little pieces.

Fighter: Today I killed an entire platoon of enemies.

Caster: Nice. I built us a castle. Tomorrow I'm gonna start building castles we can sell.

Fighter:.....

3.) Frostfell. Yeah, I'm a druid junky, and my favorite fix in a 1-24 campaign that me and my friends ran was this spell. Shapable, massive damage, ongoing effects, a minor debuff, and makes your future spells stronger. A druid with a battlefield to wipe up really can hardly ask for more.

[SSGoW]

Totally using psionic-magic transparency with this and I'm going to add three psionic powers.

Matter Agitation: Because I like looking at things and making them burn (reminds me of the guy from the movie Accepted)

Entangling Ectoplasm: Because I like pissing my DM off the entire adventuring day.

Decerebrate: Kinda weak (fort negates,power resistance yes) but when I use this I can't help but say "Your soul is mine!".

[Phelix-Mu]

Totally using psionic-magic transparency with this and I'm going to add three psionic powers.

Matter Agitation: Because I like looking at things and making them burn (reminds me of the guy from the movie Accepted)

Entangling Ectoplasm: Because I like pissing my DM off the entire adventuring day.

Decerebrate: Kinda weak (fort negates,power resistance yes) but when I use this I can't help but say "Your soul is mine!".

Decerebrate and cranial deluge are both total win for flavor. It's too bad the fantasy aspect of the game limits viability, but man, psychically messing with the contents of a person's skull is pretty awesome.

[Hanuman]

For Powers from SRD, top 3:

Skate

Matter Agitation

Microcosm