Best high level spells?

[The Vagabond]

As listed there, I'm asking for the very best high level spells- I'm talking about level 7, 8, and 9th level spells. And I'm not talking entirely in terms of effectiveness, but also in terms of just being freaking cool.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

It's rare that I use 9th level spells against poor helpless PCs. But when I do, I politely ignore the most broken ones in favor of glorious stuff like Maw of Chaos. It's what Meteor Swarm only wishes it could be.

[Pippin]

but also in terms of just being freaking cool.
Well Iceberg beats everyone in this respect. Plus, you can't be cooler than an iceberg.

[DeAnno]

Flashflood out of Sandstorm is money in tactical situations.

[Jormengand]

Control Weather is neat if there's an army or a fleet or something that you'd rather just didn't exist.

[Fizban]

Chain Lightning blows, but Lightning Ring (SpC) and Stored Lightning Bolt (Secrets of Sarlona) are pretty dang cool while actually doing more than 1d6/level.

[Necroticplague]

In terms of sheer power, the high-level utility spells from Core are pretty potent. Wish, Time Stop, Shapechange, Gate, are some of the most broken spells in existence. Astral Projection is pretty abusable, as is Genesis and Polymorph Any Object. Shades isn't as strong as all of those, but it's pretty dang good, especially since it's close enough to real that you can boost the realness to (or above) 100%. Foresight takes care of that whole "ambush" problem pretty much entirely on its own (though this can be redundant with Shapechanging into a dire tortoise).

[elonin]

What level would Summon bigger fish be?

[ben-zayb]

If based on memorable visuals, I'll go for:

Crushing Fist of Spite (BoVD)
Binding Chain of Fate (City of Splendors)
Avasculate and Mass Avasculate (SpC)
Deadfall (SpC)
Iceberg (Frostburn)
Fimbulwinter (Frostburn)
Animate City (RoD)

[ericgrau]

I was skimming spell compendium and hindsight seems pretty nutso. And by the level you get it, you are rich enough to afford to spam the material component.

PC: "Henchman defeated. Hey DM, what happened here over the past two weeks, in great detail right down to the conversations that were had and every little event."
DM: "..."
DM: "Plot over. Here's where he was going to meet with the main villain."

[DrMartin]

What level would Summon bigger fish be?

Summon Monster VIII can summon an Elsewhale (from planar handbook) (i bet is on the jedi spell list too)

technically not a fish, i know, but still a pretty cool visual...and leaves open a spot for a IX level spell to potentially summon an even bigger fish (there's is always a bigger fish :D )

[Magma Armor0]

Iceberg can have even more awesome visuals associated with it if you have the energy substitution feat.

[Gildedragon]

Teleport through Time

[Inevitability]

What level would Summon bigger fish be?

Gate allows you to summon any fish you want.

[Jormengand]

Gate allows you to summon any fish you want.

Unless that fish is divine or unique and doesn't want to go through. Also, it doesn't actually allow you to summon any fish at all, only call one. Also also, it has to be an extraplanar fish.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I was skimming spell compendium and hindsight seems pretty nutso. And by the level you get it, you are rich enough to afford to spam the material component.

PC: "Henchman defeated. Hey DM, what happened here over the past two weeks, in great detail right down to the conversations that were had and every little event."
DM: "..."
DM: "Plot over. Here's where he was going to meet with the main villain."I once played an Archivist with access to Divine Bard scrolls. It was wonderful.

[Troacctid]

Wish. Typical scenario:

Gimble: You know what would be great? If we could do X.
Mialee: Okay! I wish we could do X!
*poof*
Gimble: Thanks, Mialee!

[Bobby Baratheon]

Abyssal Rift isn't all that powerful for a ninth level spell, but it's got some of the most cool visuals imaginable. Still haven't found an in game use for it, but one can always hope. . . and plan. :smallamused:

[Quertus]

PaO, simulacrum, and gate are among the coolest, IMO. Oh, and Miracle and General of Undeath. But, really, the coolest are the ones you research yourself. Heal Time IX and Quertus' Metasurge VIII being the 9ths I remember making off hand.

[erok0809]

Reality maelstrom gets points for name and overall effect and visuals, although it was way better in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes. They hit it with a Colossal+ nerf bat in the spell compendium.

[ericgrau]

Wish. Typical scenario:

Eh, more like...


Gimble: You know what would be great? If we could do X.
Mialee: Okay! I wish we could do X! I'm not spending 5,000 xp on X
Jozan: *poof* <miracle>
Gimble: Thanks, Mialee Jozan!

[Inevitability]

PaO, simulacrum, and gate are among the coolest, IMO. Oh, and Miracle and General of Undeath. But, really, the coolest are the ones you research yourself. Heal Time IX and Quertus' Metasurge VIII being the 9ths I remember making off hand.

Would you mind telling us what they did? I'm somewhat curious. :smallsmile:

[Quertus]

Would you mind telling us what they did? I'm somewhat curious. :smallsmile:

Oh, well, probably not as interesting to the playground as to my characters' histories, but here goes. The Heal Time line was designed to counter the damaging effects of chronomancer spells on the time stream. So, basically a passive "save the world" spell.

The Quertus' Metasurge line of spells was based on the 2e rule that putting spells together resulted in a spell whose level was the total of the added spells. So, for example, a spell that was invisibility + mirror image would be a 4th level spell. The QMS line of spells was basically Nahal's Reckless Dwoemer stacked repeatedly with itself and/or with a modified Alternate Reality. So, roll X time on the wild surge table, take Y results. "Quertus attempts to cast <spell>. What really happens is..."

[elonin]

The Joke is found in this comic. http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0208.html

[gorfnab]

Black Labyrinth (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a)
This doesn't see much use mainly because it's a 9th level Shadowcaster Mystery. It's actually not too bad for wide effect battlefield control spell. However, casting this over a small city will cause vast amounts of chaos, so visually this could be a neat spell to set up.

[GrayDeath]

Hmmm, difficult.

I`d probably go with maw of Chaos, Time Stop and Gate.


@ SbF: The Characters CL/SL/equivalent, obviously. He always casts it at maximum, no? ^^

[Arbane]

Well Iceberg beats everyone in this respect. Plus, you can't be cooler than an iceberg.

Fimbulwinter?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Reality maelstrom gets points for name and overall effect and visuals, although it was way better in the 3.0 Manual of the Planes. They hit it with a Colossal+ nerf bat in the spell compendium.

Oh... oh wow. They destroyed that spell. Stupid nerfbat. More like reality fart now.

Anyway, most of my favorites have already been named but meteor storm needs some love. It gets pretty neat with some metamagic shenanigans.