style="color: rgb(154, 185, 124);">Conservationis Magica:

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Spell Point Conservation

style="font-style: italic;">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. href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=Exclusive_Screenshots&id=Hypnotic_Pattern&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Hypnotic Pattern"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Exclusive_Screenshots/Hypnotic_Pattern.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">



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 href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album07&id=cloudkill&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Cloudkill Spell"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album07/cloudkill.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="left">
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 style="font-family: tahoma;" size="-1"> href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Exclusive_Screenshots&id=Fireball&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Boom goes the Fireball"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Exclusive_Screenshots/Fireball.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right"> style="font-family: tahoma;" size="-1">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.

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