Best Spells to Mimic?

[Chilingsworth]

Ok, so another question for the playground!

My evil gish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298232) will eventually have both greater shadow evocation and shades.

I'm wondering, what are the best spells to mimic with these?

So far, I've come up with:

Forcecage
Contingency
(maybe) steal summoning

and am having trouble coming up with good conjurations to mimic because the planar binding spells don't exist in my DM's world. (Or if they do, they're NPC only... :smallannoyed:)

[herrhauptmann]

I've heard that the spell 'Streamers' is a good Evocation spell. It's from Shining South.

However, as a gish, you should be focused on buffing yourself, not spellduels with enemies, which would rule out Steal Summoning. (You'll have a lower caster level than the party wizard, and a much lower caster level than enemy casters)

[Cruiser1]

greater shadow evocation and shades.
I'm wondering, what are the best spells to mimic with these?
So far, I've come up with:
Forcecage
Contingency
(maybe) steal summoning

One very nice thing about the Shadow spells is they ignore casting time and material costs of the original spell. Therefore:

Lesser Shadow Conjuration (Phantom Steed): Get a Phantom Steed in 1 standard action instead of 10 minutes.
Lesser Shadow Conjuration (Clothier's Closet [MoE]): Create 100 gp worth of non-magical clothes that don't go away, for free without having to pay the 100 gp material component.
Greater Shadow Evocation (Forcecage): If they fail their will save, it's a free Forcecage without having to use 1500 gp of ruby dust.
Shades (Trap the Soul): Trap any creature without having to provide a 1000 gp/HD gem.

[Chronos]

Even if the planar binding spells did exist, they still wouldn't be mimicable with Shadow Conjuration. Shadow Conjuration only lets you mimic Conjuration [Summoning] and Conjuration [Creation], while the planar binding spells are Conjuration [Calling].

And there's also a category of spells that are good to mimic just because they're good to begin with. In Evocation, I'd recommend Prismatic Spray, Sending, and Wall of Fire. If you have access to other books, add Blistering Radiance, too.

[Chilingsworth]

Ok, so sending might be useful. Though we have a cleric and a wizard.
Forcecage I already listed.

Thanks for pointing out Trap the Soul, I had thought it was a necromancy spell. (also, trying that might get books thrown at me, I'll find out...)

I forgot about Prismatic Spray. :smallredface:

Thing is, I'm only going to have greater shadow evocation and shades. So, spells I'd consider should be worth 8th and 9th level spell slots... right?

Not sure if it matters, but our group consists of:

Me (bard/paladin/going for sublime chord/gish)
a wizard (intentionally not well optimized.)
a cleric
a dread necromancer
a crusader
a swordsage.

[Chronos]

Thing is, I'm only going to have greater shadow evocation and shades. So, spells I'd consider should be worth 8th and 9th level spell slots... right?
In general, yes, but don't forget about versatility. If a situation comes up that you can't handle any other way, but you can mimic a low-level spell that works for it, then it's not a waste. Blistering Radiance and Wall of Fire are both very good for killing huge armies of weak enemies, for instance, so if that happens to be what you're facing, go ahead.

[Chilingsworth]

In general, yes, but don't forget about versatility. If a situation comes up that you can't handle any other way, but you can mimic a low-level spell that works for it, then it's not a waste. Blistering Radiance and Wall of Fire are both very good for killing huge armies of weak enemies, for instance, so if that happens to be what you're facing, go ahead.

Hmm... good point. And I do expect we'll be facing an army at some point.
(We're playing the way of the wicked campaign.)