G: Spell Point Conservation

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Updated Fri, Feb 13, 2009 by Darkgolem

Conservationis Magica:

Spell Point Conservation

By Darkgolem

A caster can get by with wands, scrolls and drinking very expensive mnemonic enhancement potions, but this can be pricey, and since they cannot apply feats to spells from items, less effective. There are times that a spell caster will have plenty of shrines available, but these situations are rare. A spell caster needs to know how to stretch their pool of spell points to the point they last from shrine to shrine, and still last provide a benefit for the adventuring party the caster belongs to.

Know what you need:

One of the best ways to conserve spell points is to cast the right spell. It seems self evident, but this concept is applied less often than you might think. Often, specific monsters that are found in one quest or another are particularly effected by certain spells, or particularly immune to other spells. Many times spells that are inappropriate for an opponent are cast, and this is very wasteful in spell points.

As an example, one of the most common groups of opponents you face are giants, humanoids, and monstrous humanoids. For giants, you will want to use solid fog for crowd control. For humanoids, you might consider web. Two common humanoids, gnolls and hobgoblins, are (at the time of the publishing of this guide, due to a bug) immune to solid fog, and because they are not giants, they usually do not have as high of a strength, making them less likely to break out of a web. Monstrous humanoids are a small group, but of note are wild men (who are monstrous humanoids), who are immune to web and solid fog. For them you want to use mind affecting spells, such as hypnotic pattern.

You cannot easily predict in a new adventure what spells you will need to cast, unless someone has done it before and tells you. First and foremost, take the time to read the title of the quest, and the dialogue given by the quest npc. Usually you can get a good idea of what is in a quest. Furthermore, if you have time, ask someone who has done the quest before what sort of enemies your going to face. Once you know what opponents you face, a good knowledge of your spells abilities and limitation will allow you to pick the right spells for the adventure, maximizing the value of the spell points you use.

Enough is Enough:

As a spell caster, your goal should be to cast just enough (and the correct) spells to turn an encounter to your favor. You don't need several crowd control spells in most circumstances, usually only one will do. The same applies for buffs.

As an example, when venturing into tombs in the desert, if with a party that has members with good saves against disease, you might consider using remove fear against mummy fear. It's important to remember that sometimes a more spell point expensive spell is worth upon occasion. In the example of the desert, if in a party that has poor saves, greater heroism might save you many spell points, instead of remove fear, because your party will be afflicted by mummy curse, mummy rot, and paralysis much less when protected by this spell. Your party cleric will have to cast remove curse and remove disease much less from this buff.

Teamwork is key:

Coordinate with your fellow spell casters. Many times I will approach an encounter, cast solid fog, and find that a fellow caster has cast web, or another (unnecessary) crowd control spell, or even worse, another of the same spell into the fight area. When preparing at a shrine, plan who will cast what spells. Often spells work well in conjunction with each other, complementing each other, and by planning who casts what, you avoid unfortunate spell combinations (such as hypnotic pattern and damage spells), and prepare potent combinations (such as cloudkill

and solid fog).

Extend is your friend:

Extend is a great feat for saving spell points. There are certain quests where you will want to have certain buffs on yourself and your fellow party members all the time, often more than one. Resist fire, for example, is required for many quests, such as taming the flames and the brood of flame. Extend can make those last much longer.

As I rise in level, I find that more and more I always have certain spells cast upon myself. Sometimes I have stacks of spells prepared, such as jump, blur, stoneskin, greater heroism, resist fire. Other times I have to keep party members buffed with various spells to be able to function properly for the quest, based upon the quest or the party makeup.

While extend adds to the cost of a spell by 50%, because it doubles the duration of a spell, if I am required to keep a group of people or myself buffed, I end up saving 30% of the spell points I otherwise would. The important thing to remember is that you should use extend whenever you are going to recast a buff immediately upon a spell fading.

Buff, Rest, Buff

A handy trick to remember is to buff, rest, buff when at a shrine. It works like this. Non casters (or casters out of spell points) should rest first. Immediately after these people rest, spell casters who did not rest should cast their buffs on those who just finished resting, and furthermore, use up all their spell points for other buffs that are not necessary afterwards. Then those who did not rest should now rest, and then cast what necessary buffs they need after they finish. This way, your use all the spell points you have just before resting, without wasting any.

The important thing to remember about this trick is that it is not an excuse to use a shrine before it is necessary. You should still wait to use shrines unless you're not planning to come back to a particular shrine, or you're out of spell points.

Boom Second, Control First:

A spell caster should look at damage as a tool not only to kill opponents, but to draw opponent's aggression. Spells use a lot of spell points to do large amounts of damage in a single casting, as opposed to weapons, which do medium to small amounts of damage over time, while being renewable (since you don't use spell points to swing a sword). Therefore, damage spells are excellent for drawing aggression.

That being the case, you can use wands and similar charged, damage delivery, items to bring opponents into a crowd control spell, THEN

allow your fellow melee types to kill opponents. You don't have to use your own spell points for this use of damage spells, since your goal is to get the attentions of several opponents with a well placed fireball or holy smite, rather than kill them. And since you only need to draw aggression one or two times in a combat, your wands will go a long way.

What is even better with this use of spell points, the technique of using damage to draw opponents into a crowd control spell is safe for both the caster and fellow party members, reducing drains upon spell points caused by recovering after a damaging combat.

Making It To The Finish Line

Learning the tricks of the trade, as a spell caster, to spell point conservation will greatly increase your effectiveness to your party and success as an adventurer. You should keep these tips in mind, and practice them as your play. Once in a while, remind yourself of these ways to save spell points. Soon you will find that you are arriving at shrines and the ends of adventures with a few spell points left, and your party having breezed through a quest, even boss fights at the end. Once you have done that, you know you have gotten the hang of spell point conservation.

What tricks do you know to make your spell points last?? Tell us in our forums!