[3.5] Criticize Spell Selecion

[TotallyNotEvil]

So, I'm playing a Grey Elf Wiz 5/Divine Oracle 2/Fatespinner 4/Loremaster 3/Archmage 2.

Our WBL is at around ~6th/7th level, currently rocking 30 Int. Plot stuff granted some extra stuff, currently Spell loadout is:
1st- Shield, PfE x2, Nerveskitter, Magic Missile x2, Charm, Silent Image, Lesser Acid Orb
2nd- Heart of Air, 2x Glitterdust, See Invisibility, Web, Rope Trick, Resist Energy, Invisibility, Alter Self, Mirror Image
3rd- Greater Mage Armour, Heart of Water, Phantom Steed, Haste x2, Stinking Cloud x2, Displacement
4th- Heart of Earth, Solid Fog, Dim. Anchor, Greater Invisibility, Unluck, Greater Mirror Image
5th- Heart of Fire, Cloudkill x2, Wall of Stone, Baleful Polymorph, Hold Monster
6th- Greater Dispel x2, Split Enervation, Freezing Fog, Empowered Orb of Fire
7th- Reverse Gravity, Plane Shift, Banishment, SM VII
8th- Mindblank, Split Disintegrate, Irresistible Dance.

The party is big and melee heavy, there is a low-teens druid saddled with unwanted LA (a Half Celestial without any of the good things), and besides the gish sorc/fighter, I'm the only caster.

They tend to fight melee brutes with apparently arbitrary immunities, so it's a bit of a scattershot approach. Teleport currently unreliable.

Thoughts? Tips?

[Gildedragon]

With WBL being so low I'd have dipped into Mage of the Arcane Order and/or Warweaver/spellguard to supplement things some... otherwise all your slots will go to buffing others (unless the Gish is also helping with that)

Note that instead of Greater Mage Armor: (G) Luminous Armor gives more bang for buck

Also no Greater Magic Weapon? That's a v handy one to boost your party and lasts for a while

First levelwise I feel you could do better than magic missile. Expeditious Retreat, True Strike, or Fog Cloud are just handier

[noob]

I usually put more teleports in my spell selection but that is only due to how I am a maniac about being at random places through the world.

[Gildedragon]

I'd probably put in some benign transpositions there too...

[Geigan]

I tend to tailor selection to what I encounter as I go. Always be on the lookout for spells you can shave that aren't getting bang for buck, though of course certain ones like dimensional anchor are always just nice to have on hand.

Seconds on more Benign Transposition (for a higher level slot consider dimension shuffle). Never been a fan of shield, though it's nice to have on counter if you're worried about magic missile spam. Otherwise the AC bonus doesn't do it for me for the duration. More Nerveskitter is never amiss, unless you've already got pearls of power or a wand for it (if you use the RC ruling for those).

Never been a fan of unluck, just because if you can make someone fail a save to a single target spell you could almost just as easily thrown something that would have ended them completely. Unluck is still pretty devastating on any non-spellcaster though, so maybe that's good enough for the slot.

If you want to free up some slots, you could have Elemental Body(SC) to clear up room from the Heart of X spells. They fill a similar niche, and Elemental Body can also give you flight. That's a higher level slot though.

If you need a damage spell like Orb of Fire, I tend to prefer Orb of Force to be absolutely sure it's going to land. That daze is pretty hard to pass up though.

You really want plane shift if teleport is unreliable, or are you using it as a save or lose? If the latter, you can probably get something better for that purpose.

Are outsiders frequent enough to merit banishment?

Outside of that, I think that seems like a pretty solid list. Maybe could use a bit more on the buffing side if you've got a lot of melee guys on the team, but haste is probably enough to keep em happy. Consider gaps in their capabilities that you could potentially help shore up to keep everybody useful.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Unfortunately, I'm locked out of many spells, anything that is original from SpC, Miniatures, CoC, Frostburn, Sandstorm, Stormwrack, most campaign settings.

I've all Complete Mage, Complete Divine and PHB automatically known, and three other spells. So far, all my requests have been denied, tho. Avasculate, Frostfell, Necrotic Skull Bomb, Elemental Darts, and some others, IIRC.

The GM throws enemies with a ****ton of HP, and all-round high saves, at us. It seems the most reliable method of fighting is sheer HP damage.

Plane Shift should become Limited Wish, something I had already altered and forgot, Reverse Gravity will probably become Prismatic Spray (as good or perfect flight is apparently cheap as dirt for the enemy).

Irresistible Dance has proven very resistible against anyone whom it might be useful against, same for Hold Monster, so that's probably a new Horrid Wilting or another Split Disintegrate and probably a new Baleful Polymorph. Maybe Deadly Lahar instead of Horrid Wilting?

Strong single target effects get barred by immunity or sky-high saves (and are highly inneficient on anyone not the Boss), so I'm currently looking for reliable AoEs, especially vs flying opponents.

I apparently forgot that said low-teens druid only has Druid 5 casting, the rest went into Wildshape-enhancing class. And yet he doesn't do much beyond tying up a single enemy in grapple, only turning into Animals, Outsiders being apparently banned to him, and unable to do Magical Animal.

As Trip is ridiculously unreliable, he isn't having a great time.

[Geigan]

Ah yes, I've played under this sort of GM before. My advice is to focus on buffs to make your melee the real damage dealers in between tying up enemies with difficult to circumvent battlefield control like your solid and freezing fogs. If you focus on making your melee the stars and helping direct their movements in combat you might find more purchase, since it sounds like your GM's style is geared toward rubbing beatsticks together.

Don't have a lot versus flyers specifically from those books as I can see, but if you can't bring them to you why not go to them? See if you can request Mass, Fly from Complete Arcane. That seems reasonable enough to pass muster.

Is PHB2 in the mix? Dimension Shuffle is a really nice battlefield control spell via controlling positioning. If not, consider Tactical Teleportation from Complete Mage as a substitute.

I do still like reverse gravity for that occasional encounter where the GM forgets to include flight or teleportation capabilities, but that is only an occasional help at high levels rather than a generally useful spell.

If hold monster and irresistable dance are on the outs, it sounds like you're dealing with a lot of mind-affecting immunity. Poor enchantment, why do you always fall off so hard? Oh I'm kidding, I know why.

Do you fight inside a lot? Is teleportation common? Wall of Force might be a good way to section off some enemies pretty hard.

In regards to deadly lahar, how common is fire resistance? Horrid Wilting does have the leg up of not caring about resistances.

If you're annoyed by high saves, Maze is a solid single target effect that they can't get out of with ridiculous saves. Not permanent, but would likely remove an enemy long enough for them to not be a problem. Consider also, Forcecage, though mind the material component cost.

Enlarge Person might help the Druid out. Strength and size bonuses for the trip check. Maybe Bull's Strength if they don't already have an enhancement bonus accessible in wildshape.

[lolcat]

Can you somehow get the dragonblood subtype?

To make the best of your swift actions, i'd take "blockade" to block charging-lanes and "wings of cover" to save your hide (or those of your allies if you are dragonblood subtype).

Also, benign transposition for your shuffling-needs.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by TotallyNotEvil
So, I'm playing a Grey Elf Wiz 5/Divine Oracle 2/Fatespinner 4/Loremaster 3/Archmage 2.

Out of curiosity, what are your feats for this build?

[Nifft]

I second the suggestion of buffs. In a low-wealth game, buffs are power-multipliers.

- You already have Haste prepared -- that's great.

- Overland Flight means your melee meat-shields can protect you from above, probably all day. If you Extend that spell, it's 30 hours long -- cast that before you go to sleep at night, every other day.

- Greater Magic Weapon means your melee meat-sticks punch at their expected weight class, regardless of poverty.

- Phantom Steed can provide amazing mobility, if you can cast it enough for the whole party. There's an improved version somewhere which gives multiple steeds per casting -- not sure if it's in one of your banned books, though.

- If the DM makes Outsiders particularly powerful, then what about spending some downtime using Greater Planar Binding and friends? You could get a part-time Cleric like that.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Out of curiosity, what are your feats for this build?
1- Spellcasting Prodigy
3- Skill Focus: Religion
5- WF: Longbow (Grey Elf Wiz, had to take the fifth too, DM ruling)
6- Skill Focus: Spellcraf
9- Spell Focus: Necromancy
12- Spell Focus: Transmutation
12- Empower Spell
15- Split Ray

Spellcasting Prodigy was houseruled to instead grant +2 DC to all spells instead of the usual effect, so hey, must take. Empower because why not, and Split Ray because Enervations and Spin-boosted Disintegrates are somewhat reliable.

I second the suggestion of buffs. In a low-wealth game, buffs are power-multipliers.

- You already have Haste prepared -- that's great.

- Overland Flight means your melee meat-shields can protect you from above, probably all day. If you Extend that spell, it's 30 hours long -- cast that before you go to sleep at night, every other day.

- Greater Magic Weapon means your melee meat-sticks punch at their expected weight class, regardless of poverty.

- Phantom Steed can provide amazing mobility, if you can cast it enough for the whole party. There's an improved version somewhere which gives multiple steeds per casting -- not sure if it's in one of your banned books, though.

- If the DM makes Outsiders particularly powerful, then what about spending some downtime using Greater Planar Binding and friends? You could get a part-time Cleric like that.

I totally forgot Overland Flight was a thing. Was thinking about cleric's Air Walk. Still, single target for a fifth level spell is expensive.

Just the last session I had to pop four-five Phantom Steeds for the party, which is relatively affordable.

Fortunately, our "blessings" as the chosens of a certain entity help a great deal with the lack of gear, at least the most basic of basic things, so melee has all around +4/+3 weapons, if only. So GMW isn't as great a boost as it could be.

Mass Brilliant Energy could be interesting, tho.