Party protecting sor/wiz spells?

[Lokiron]

Hi all,

Sorcerers have some amazing personal defence spells such as greater mirror image and wings of cover. I'm getting a bit of this, but I am also on the look out for party protection.

I'm entering a game with a level 9 sorcerer into abjurant champion and I am trying to find some selfless protection spells.

Resist Energy and Dispel Magic are versatile and useful options, but I would like to know if there are other good suggestions. Any immediate spells for instance? Options for turning hits into misses or reducing damage or preventing effects on party members? Stuff that makes people go "oh hey, thanks". Tactical movement and battlefield control are also options, I suppose, but that's more due to them being always useful for a variety of problems.



Note that this is not optimization. Also "play a cleric" is terrible advice for this question. The character is largely done, with a few spells known left.

[Mordaedil]

This goes without saying maybe, but never underestimate the utility and flexibility of silent image and major image. With Silent image you can make large barriers and dangerous-looking hazards to protect your allies from direct confrontation or to do some exquisite divide and conquer tactics. With major image you can make them seem and feel even more dangerous than otherwise, with heat radiating from the fire-spewing constructs you erected or the heat of the bears that have suddenly engaged them and are roaring challenges at them.

Feather Fall is a well-known spell made explicitly for stopping fall damage, which might happen surprisingly often.

Haste, while reknowned for its offensive capability, should not be underestimated for the defensive benefit of being able to move 30 feet extra or for the bonus AC and reflex save benefit (albeit I do kinda miss old haste's +4 AC benefit) and it can easily be cast on the entire party in a single casting.

Rope Trick is a good way to save the entire party from a slow creeping death.

Dispel Magic can be cast as an Area of Effect to remove negative effects on your party members.

Wind Wall can block most projectiles, and serves as another way to divide forces.

Globe of Invulnerability, lesser can be used effectively to give your party protection from 3rd level spells, which are still probably some of your opponents favorite damage outputs.

Wall of ice can be used for divide and conquer, while wall of fire is more of a "try it" kind of defense.

Greater Invisibility is by most means a good way to protect your party's most vulnerable members while also allowing them to perfect their role to their peak.

Stone shape is another divide and conquer type defense.

[Lokiron]

This goes without saying maybe, but never underestimate the utility and flexibility of silent image and major image. With Silent image you can make large barriers and dangerous-looking hazards to protect your allies from direct confrontation or to do some exquisite divide and conquer tactics. With major image you can make them seem and feel even more dangerous than otherwise, with heat radiating from the fire-spewing constructs you erected or the heat of the bears that have suddenly engaged them and are roaring challenges at them.

Feather Fall is a well-known spell made explicitly for stopping fall damage, which might happen surprisingly often.

Haste, while reknowned for its offensive capability, should not be underestimated for the defensive benefit of being able to move 30 feet extra or for the bonus AC and reflex save benefit (albeit I do kinda miss old haste's +4 AC benefit) and it can easily be cast on the entire party in a single casting.

Rope Trick is a good way to save the entire party from a slow creeping death.

Dispel Magic can be cast as an Area of Effect to remove negative effects on your party members.

Wind Wall can block most projectiles, and serves as another way to divide forces.

Globe of Invulnerability, lesser can be used effectively to give your party protection from 3rd level spells, which are still probably some of your opponents favorite damage outputs.

Wall of ice can be used for divide and conquer, while wall of fire is more of a "try it" kind of defense.

Greater Invisibility is by most means a good way to protect your party's most vulnerable members while also allowing them to perfect their role to their peak.

Stone shape is another divide and conquer type defense.

Good suggestions, thanks.

[radthemad4]

Best defense is a good offense :smalltongue:

Anyway, Wings of Cover can also be used to protect allies if you have the Dragonblood subtype or type.

Blockade (Spell Compendium) is a 1st level spell. It's a swift action to create a 5 ft cube of wood in an adjacent square. It lasts three rounds.

Halt (Player's Handbook II) is a third level spell. It's an immediate action that stops a single target from moving for a single round (doesn't work on flying enemies and will negates)

Hesitate (PHB 2, 3rd level spell) is an immediate action that that prevents a single target from doing anything besides move actions for 1 round per level (will negates, can try to make the save in subsequent rounds)

Anyway, check out this spell finder (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/FindSpell.php) and use it to find other immediate action spells

[radthemad4]

Oh, btw, this might be handy: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?554066-Best-sor-wiz-buff-spells-castable-on-others

[ericgrau]

Hmm usually I hand out offensive buffs as a caster. The thing with defensive buffs is that it's hard to match them correctly to attacks.

Stoneskin is the best choice by far I think because physical attacks are by far the most common. Load up on diamond dust and spam it without reservation. It's not throwing money away because D&D action is incredibly brief and it won't be any more of a "waste" than an item that will be obsolete in a few levels. Usually stuff like this is a better deal, and stoneskin in particular is super good. And in a few levels the earlier WBL will be trivial too. The big downer for a sorcerer is the duration though. It's hard to cast it ahead of time except in a dungeon. And casting it in combat wastes a precious round. If you don't do a lot of dungeon fights you might skip this spell.

Mass energy resistance is good because you get more bang for your time and foes can't simply switch targets. But energy attacks aren't that common. One trick to make this spell more useful is to MAKE energy attacks more common by using area damage yourself. Fireball or scintillating sphere on a bunch of foes in melee with the party. More foes get hit, and so you get way more effectiveness out of your area damage spell. Against large groups of foes you can easily get multiple kills/assists from a single spell, much better than many SoDs. You also know which energy type to pick so you can cast this ahead of time, again to save a precious round. But if a foe with energy damage does attack, you are ready without wasting another spell known. Because a sorcerer doesn't need to decide exactly how many copies to prepare of anything.

Magic circle against evil is ok, but again the duration is a bummer. At least it's eligible for the affordable lesser rod of extend spell to bump it up to 3 hours. And then you might cast it again. Plus it's in an area to help multiple allies. Again it helps touch AC & saves which helps against a wider variety of attacks. The anti-domination part is minor icing, since domination is so rare. But that part might be helpful some day.

Mage armor and greater mage armor are of course nice if you have armorless allies or druid allies. Also eligible for a lesser rod of extend spell and has a much nicer duration. So you can shoot for 24 hours from repeat casting.

For tactical movement benign/baleful transposition (SpC) is nice. Don't forget you can swap allies with your familiar if you have one, for example to get melee to the front. Also great with quicken if you have a way to quicken. Baleful transposition against enemies is less useful than benign transposition on allies and baleful transposition is a level higher, but the thing is it also works on allies. So it might be a more efficient use of spells known if you plan on using it. Unfortunately both targets must be on connecting solid ground, which limits its usefulness against enemies.

You can't get it quite yet, but dimensional shuffle (PHB2) is an awesome party movement spell for level 5. Rearrange your whole party and yourself as you see fit within close range. And you can rearrange enemies at the same time. Up to 5 targets at CL 10. If one enemy passes his save it doesn't affect other creatures. But likewise targets must end up on solid ground.

[Quertus]

And don't forget that you can always hold an action, to make certain spells go off as needed. Especially useful for BFC walls or either Transposition, but also handy for single-target defenses.

[Awakeninfinity]

Honestly; if you can get the save DC decently high? Slow; it greatly reduces damage by cutting off full attacks and targets will saves; useful against standard warrior types- best part? It's not mind-affecting, so it works against undead and vermin.

[rel]

Some of my favorite level 1 to 5 arcane buffs that have not yet been mentioned:

Level 1
burning rage - set the fighter on fire and make him hit harder. Fire resistance is advised.

Level 2
Heroics - grant someone a free fighter bonus feat for a while

Level 3
tiny hut - people claim this is meant for sleeping in but it is castable in combat and functions as a one way mirror meaning the party can see out but no one can see in. It is basically a circle of greater invisibility that isn't breached by see invis
displacement - 50% miss chance. fairly standard
shadow phase - a much more reliable 50% miss chance

Level 4
celerity - lets you cast a spell immediately

Level 5
greater enlarge person - like enlarge person but it lasts all day
draconic might - boosts str, con and natural armour by 4. grants immunity to sleep and paralysis. I've never taken it but I've often been tempted...
arcane fusion - lets you cast two spells at once


Don't forget you can also throw debuffs at the enemy to keep the party safe