Nitro wrote: Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:46 pm
TF's have the following party friendly spells categorized by spell level. AOE spells underlined:
1: Magic Missile, Ice Dagger, Persistent Blade, Chromatic Orb
2:
Darkness (Ultravision is easy to come by), Flame Weapon, Combust, Scorching Ray
3:
Sound Lance
4: Elemental Shield,
ILMS,
Wall of Fire,
Wall of Ice, Bigbys Disrupting
5:
Ball Lightning,
Firebrand, Bigbys Interposing
6:
Chain Lightning, Bigby's Forceful,
IGMS
7: Bigby's Grasping
8: Bigby's Clenched
9:
Meteor Swarm, Bigby's Crushing
There certainly isn't a small amount of spells, both single target and AOE, that are party-friendly. A lot of TF's fall into the trap of just casting IGMS and Firebrand, both useful spells but far from the only useful ones in the repetoire. Most of the big green hand spells are very potent spammable CC, Meteor Swarm demolishes groups of enemies, damage walls can be layered and used to exploit elemental weaknesses together with empower metamagic for 100+ damage per wall and darkness is a great utility spell for the whole parties survivability.
With all due respect, to call it "fall into a trap" for just casting IGMS and Firebrand sounds like someone who'd only look at things on the paper level rather than having extensively played the path would say. And there's a reason why these two spells dominate the field, even with new spells available.
Here is an overview:
Ice Dagger is fired at short range and that's usually nowhere a TF wants to be, the same goes for Combust. At early levels, the defensive casting mode will probably cause more concentration check failures than taking actual damage from the enemies. It only starts to stabilize after reaching early teens.
ILMS is replaced in 4 levels upon getting access to IGMS.
Scorching Ray and Chromatic Orb are both ranged touch attacks, they may seem potent on paper, especially maximized, but they still have the potential to miss at low levels. The exception being unless the TF utilize ways to increase the ranged attack AB via holding a ranged weapon with +AB and/or build into more dex. An odd but possible thing for TF. But they are better off casting sure-hit spells.
The bigby spams are, in the end, CC spells, and at a less efficient level compared to darkness. And action economy is very important to TFs. Spending 1 round reducing an enemy AB by 10 vs 1 round putting one enemy out of commission by knocking him over? The interposing hand isn't used as much, but it occasionally has its uses vs high saves mobs that also have high AB. Those are often few and far in between. Made less so when the TF's own AC is often too low to have Bigby's Interposing Hand to have any considerable effect when soloing.
As for Wall of Fire/Ice spamming, while it is probably the most potent thing to do behind a doorway and protecting the TF from any melee approaches, it often takes time to build up a considerable amount before the walls one-shot any encroaching enemy. Before getting quicken or auto-quicken along with maximized/empowered Wall of Fire/Ice, the teammates often have finished the fight long before a considerable amount is built up. Usually, it takes some communication and the strategy is then used to one-shot boss creatures. Unless the TF has a considerable amount of haste potions to burn through, which is quite possible.
Sound Lance is a nice addition for more sonic damage and being fort save instead of reflex save countered many of those evasion mobs like wolves.
Chained Lightning has a diminishing effect after the first enemy, even after maximized. Here are the numbers:
120, 60, 30, 15 [Correction Edit: 120 for main target, 60 for the rest, half again at successful ref saves]
Maximized IGMS does 120 on two targets if there aren't a third. Overall, IGMS still deals more damage and Maximized Ball Lightning will likely produce better results than Chained Lightning. The only thing about the spell is the burst in single-target damage and the ability to continue moving faster than after the spell is cast. Casting IGMS and ILMS gets the TF stuck in place for longer than most other spells. But for as long as the TF is casting in darkness, chained lightning can usually be ignored at this point.
This really leaves us with the following damaging spells that top the board:
Sound Lance, maximized at 80, small AoE, vs Fort instead of Ref saves.
IGMS, maximized at 240 with two targets, engine draw distance range, weakened by multiple enemies that spread out the damage.
Firebrand, maximized at 90 with unlimited targets, but able to target on both enemies and the ground, vs Ref saves.
Ball Lightning, same as Firebrand, but can only target enemies, not the ground, vs Ref saves.
Meteor Swarm, at a rate of 3 spell components per cast, unless it's a Harper Mage Build, it is best saved for places like Endless Battlefield and the Twins.
Iceberg really deserves an honorable mention even if it's not a party friendly spell. The frost CC as well as massive, targetable AoE makes it the most potent spell to pull with. But it is to be cast with caution when near both allies and the TF.
Note that fire spells have next to no use in RDI. Hence Wall of Ice, Iceberg, and Sound Lance are nice to use especially in its tight corridors. It is the one time where IGMS may not be as potent to spam. But this is only after the hak update where these spells are added. Before then, it was mostly Ball of Lightning and IGMS spam, and the bosses having magic DI makes TF almost exclusively a darkness spam machine on that rock.
But for the majority of the time, IGMS and Firebrand with their ease of use and general immediate burst rather than needing time to build up like wall of fire and ice, not to forget the walls are stationary, IGMS have the range, firebrand has the unlimited count for AoE possibilities. There is a reason why the two are often used.
The contender would be Sound Lance, Meteor Swarm, and Iceberg. Sound Lance might not be as potent as IGMS or Firebrand, but it is a nice alternative. Meteor Swarm and Iceberg, being level 9 spells, aren't immediately accessible to lower level TFs and the component cost should be taken into consideration.
