Force-cage vs teleportation vs plane shift vs finger of death

[NecroDancer]

what spell do you think is better? This isn't for a build, I'm just wondering what spell people would pick.

Plane shift
PROS: take an enemy away from a fight, quick escape, good for interplanar travel, you get to call yourself a fricking planeswalker!
CONS: cost upwards of 250 gp, the DM may not have other planes of exsistence in the world

Force-cage
PROS: ultimate imobilizer, great defense, it's pink, you can hit enemies with spells while they are trapped
CONS: expensive to cast, some enemies can teleport out

Teleportation
PROS: Instant travel, no cost, great escape tool.
CONS: chance of failure

Finger of death
PROS: lots of damage, free zombie that lasts forever on a kill
Cons: not good out of combat.

[Erys]

Since you can only have one, I lean on teleport. That way I always have an out. :smallbiggrin:

[malachi]

Plane shift requires an attack roll and THEN a Charisma save when used offensively. That's too many chances of failure. And if you're not in a game where you have a particular reason to be hopping around in the other planes, there's not much reason to take it.

Force Cage only has a 1-time cost (components aren't consumed by the spell). It also doesn't allow a save or require an attack (although if the enemy can teleport, then they get to save each time they attempt to teleport). If you do a solid barrier, it blocks spells (which can be good or bad).

Teleport is a good get out of dodge button for you and your party. Make sure that you start taking souvenirs from everywhere you go (that's safe) to have a guaranteed safe spot.

Finger of death is 61.5 damage on a failed save. A level 13 wizard with 10 CON will have 54 HP. If that wizard instead has 12 CON, he'll have 67 HP (so less than a 50% chance to die from Finger of Death if he fails his save). That doesn't feel like good damage to me (although I haven't played that high, so maybe it is?)
Disintegrate, cast out of a lvl 7 slot, deals 99.5 damage on a failed save (or 0 on a successful one...), so maybe take that for blasting damage?

[NNescio]

I would recommend Teleport too. Free instantaneous transport has the potential to change the campaign considerably for the party, and it can save you from a TPK in emergencies. In a pinch, it can also be used to deal damage in open spaces, if you can find an appropriate object to teleport above your enemies (accuracy is a major issue though).

Finger of Death is mostly useless when compared to Disintegrate, which does the job better and has utility uses (including popping certain force constructs as well as to open holes in ceilings, walls and floors). It's only useful for the free undead minion you get, which is hard to leverage unless the DM lets you kill NPCs during offtime to amass a large undead army (which tends to be hard to transport and draws heat like crazy from good-aligned NPCs).

Force Cage is one of the best control spells. I might pick it over Teleport if the DM regularly throws strong monsters at us, but only if transportation is a non-issue in the campaign (due to easy access to teleportation circles in a high magic setting, perhaps).

Plane Shift can be very useful, but using it as a Save or Die/Lose is quite unreliable since it requires both an attack and a save. I would prioritize intraplanar travel (via Teleport) first before interplanar.

[Gastronomie]

Casters are not about competition, it's about versatility. The moment I hit Caster Level 13 I will choose at least both Teleport and Force Cage to be within my spell list.

If I were able to choose only one, it really depends on the campaign, but personally I would like to say Teleport. It's useful both in and out of combat.

[RickAllison]

Finger of Death, all the way! After all, what better workers are there for my industrial factory than creatures defined by the fact that they can only obey simple orders and are unending. Think about the possibilities!

You get all the benefits of having a horrible industrial factory, you don't have to care whether the conditions are terrible so long as the zombies aren't cut apart, and they never have to stop working. Oh, and no salaries!