What's Your Favorite Spells to Prepare on Your NPCs?

[Pipquake]

Scrying, Dream, and Sending are my favorite spells for this due to the ways you can implement powerful nonplayer characters from the PC's past into their lives while they are adventuring— and thus creating new plot hooks for the players to explore.

I was curious what other DMs prepare on their NPC's spell list to make them more memorable.

[Kane0]

Bestow Curse, Feign Death, Flaming Sphere, Conjure Mimic, Catapult, Earthen Grasp, Enemies Abound, Monologue, Arcane Eye, Storm Sphere, Modify Memory, Telekinesis

[sithlordnergal]

Dominate Person, Grease, Blink, Hold Person, Fear, Major Illusion, Minor Illusion, Ray of Enfeeblement, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Stinking Cloud, Fog Cloud, Feeblemind, Vitrolic Sphere, and Storm Sphere.

Basically, if the spell screws with the party I tend to use it. I especially enjoy Dominate Person since I can just force whoever I want to start killing the party.

[Seclora]

Bestow Curse, Feign Death, Flaming Sphere, Conjure Mimic, Catapult, Earthen Grasp, Enemies Abound, Monologue, Arcane Eye, Storm Sphere, Modify Memory, Telekinesis
Wait what?

I mean, I usually give my villains Monologue as a spell like-ability, but Conjure Mimic, that's just cruel.


I'll second Bestow Curse, Contagion is also up there. Armor of Agathys is a constant favorite for all my casters I can justify it on, as is Hex. Otherwise, I like Lightning Bolt, Spike Growth, Call Lightning, and Vitriolic Sphere for damage, with Shield and Absorb Elements being a must for melee with spells.
I have also learned that Counterspell is virtually mandatory, Or else you need Truesight, a magical weapon, and a contingency to pursue teleportation.

I try to avoid Confusion on NPCs, as well as hard crowd control. It tends to make the game not fun.

[LuccMa]

Detect Thoughts, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force. You can do SO much with those if you got a good DM.

[Democratus]

Keep in mind that the mechanics for the Contagion spell were changed last November. It's not the monster spell that it used to be.

I'm a fan of spellcaster lairs. This means lots of defenses, fall backs, and traps. For this you have: symbols, glyphs, nondetection, guards and wards, arcane gate, hold portal, and contingency.