Most useless spells?

[octavius]

So what do you guys think are the most useless spells (that are not low level) in fantasy games?

I think I'll nominate these two:

1. Power Word: Blind in the Gold Box games. A lvl 8 spell that has no negative effect (except maybe lower their THAC0?) on enemies.
The level 7 spell Power Word: Stun is far more useful, but sadly it competes with Delayed Blast Fireball. I'd rather give up my lvl 8 slots for that lvl 7 spell.

2. Hypnotize in HoMM 3. A level 5 (top level) spell that never is a viable choice, since it affects too small stack. The similar lvl 4 spell Berzerker is far more useful.

 

[Snorkack]

The whole goddamn mind school of M&M6.

 

[baturinsky]

I'm vaguely remembering some spells in games that are not just useless, but makes things worse (buffinh enemies or debuffing you) because of bugs.

 

[Somberlain]

Energy Drain in BG2. Who would waste a level 9 spell slot to drain two levels from a target? Especially since by the time you get 9th level spells, most enemies have so many levels that losing two won't make any real difference.

 

[Akratus]

Self mind-reading
Fruit Communication
Trash Detection
Absorb Bad Luck
Ultra fast self-aging
Lamp summoning
Projectile attraction

 

[a Goat]

I remember from my 1,5 year of experience in WoW that hunter had a specific shot that could take off "physical" buffs out of enemy(which normally, couldn't be dispelled by anything).

It worked only for like 3 or 4 bosses total. Everything else(including players - warriors would hate this thing) was resistant.

 

[hoverdog]

like half the spells in Realms of Arkania. They were copypasted from the pen&paper game and had no effect or situation to use them in.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Dark Souls 2 added a lot of new very flashy and very useless sorcery spells that tended to fire projectiles all over the place, but do pretty much no actual damage. It stuck in my mind mostly because of how few spells there are to be had, so having like half the variety be worthless crap really sucked.

Though if we want to go for some classic DnD shit; Foresight is a 9th level spell and all it basically does is give you +2 to AC, savingthrows, and prevent being surprised. Not exactly stiff competition for the likes of Time Stop, Wish, Astral Projection or Gate.

I dunno if it's bugged or not in BG2, but Energy Drain is actually not too shabby in the source- it drains 2d4 levels, and each level drained translates to a -1 saving throw penalty. Since it's a ranged touch attack with no saving throw allowed, you can land something like this on a dragon pretty easily and make it highly vulnerable to spells that might otherwise be hopeless vs it's saving throws. Again, probably not your best use of the spell slot, but it has some situational utility at least, like if you want to try pulling off Dominate Monster on an ancient dragon or something crazy like that.

 

[Nael]

I remember from my 1,5 year of experience in WoW that hunter had a specific shot that could take off "physical" buffs out of enemy(which normally, couldn't be dispelled by anything).

It worked only for like 3 or 4 bosses total. Everything else(including players - warriors would hate this thing) was resistant.

This thread is about RPGs. Not "My Little Pony Simulators."

 

[rohand]

I never liked to use any touch DnD spell, like Chill Touch - too dangerous for a spellcaster to melee, and I didn't multiclass enough in Icewind Dale.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

All summons in NWN2 were beyond useless.

 

[upwardlymobile]

many of the spells in arcanum were pretty useless and call fog in particular didn't do anything at all aside from the fog graphic

also there used to be a pay mud called dragonrealms and rangers had a spell that was supposed to put a bubble around you and buff your evasion, but actually they got the sign backwards and it was debuffing you.
it was bug reported over and over but the gms pooh-poohed it and thought they were smarter than everyone else. it was about a year before they noticed that everyone was casting it on their opponents and finally fixed it

 

[laclongquan]

I never liked to use any touch DnD spell, like Chill Touch - too dangerous for a spellcaster to melee, and I didn't multiclass enough in Icewind Dale.

This! The barely useable is burning hands for dying trolls, and that's it. Any melee touch spell for wizard is beyond useless and wander into self-harm. casters are weak, and if they have to use level 1 spells, it means they are low level, and getting them to melee range of enemies? Bitch please.

All summons in NWN2 were beyond useless.

Depend on settings. At highest difficulty, they can be used as meatshield to buy a crucial 1st-strike moment for your caster. During my testing to see if low level summons can lower average party level and lead to increase XP gain, I find that they have their use. A little bit more micromanage, but not entirely useless.

On a side note, for NWN2 and mods, you can use wand of magic missile as 1st-strike ranged attack for your melee warriors if they can use it. You dont have to waste time messing with bow and sling, just jump straight into the melee, but have the option to engage before arriving.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Infinitron]

The Ultima series intentionally included spells that were cool but functionally useless, such as this one: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Eclipse

Not to mention the famous Armaggedon: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Armageddon

But I guess that's not quite the same thing.

 

[Fenris 2.0]

like half the spells in Realms of Arkania. They were copypasted from the pen&paper game and had no effect or situation to use them in.

It's kind of funny, a lot of them can be used at some place in the series, though they aren't necessarily beneficial if you use them - Necrophatia used on a dead party member would give a generic hint, Destructibo could be used to destroy some grimoires in the 3rd part; I don't remember about the obscure uses of the other Spells but IIRC only the Spell that is used to fuse beings into chimeras isn't used anywhere in the series.

Edit:
Ok, found some hints at Crystals, these Spells don't do anything:
Mutabili (this is the one I remembered)
Aeolitius
Calm Storm
Solidify
Witchsight

The others can be used somewhere^^

 

[Snorkack]

The whole goddamn mind school of M&M6.

Oh, and while we're at it: The top-tier dark magic spell 'dark containment'. The manual mystifies it big time and the only way to obtain it is to find all obelisks, solve their riddle and search through one of the game's most dangerous areas. Then you find out that the spell does absolutely, literally nothing. Top kek.

 

[Excidium II]

Rolling Flame in PoE. It never works the way you expect, and will often bounce in some p. random fashion. And of course it competes for spell slots with way better shit.

Of course it is "low-level" but everything scales up in PoE anyway and there's no higher spell that replicates its effect so i'll have that count.

For truly high-level PoE spells, I never got that high but Wall of Draining looks worthless as fuck. So much for balance.

 

[Alex]

This! The barely useable is burning hands for dying trolls, and that's it. Any melee touch spell for wizard is beyond useless and wander into self-harm. casters are weak, and if they have to use level 1 spells, it means they are low level, and getting them to melee range of enemies? Bitch please.

Well, in P&P they can be pretty useful when you aren't a direct combat situation. And you can always use stoneskin...

 

[Chunkyman]

Drain Mana

Can there be a more useless spell? Even as an enchantment it's almost completely useless, as enemies will die from being hit long before their mana is depleted. There is never a time in which a drain mana spell/enchantment is going to be better than the available alternatives.

 

[Excidium II]

Drain Mana

Can there be a more useless spell? Even as an enchantment it's almost completely useless, as enemies will die from being hit long before their mana is depleted. There is never a time in which a drain mana spell/enchantment is going to be better than the available alternatives.

It was p. useful on WoW pvp.

 

[Zombra]

Direct damage spells in Wizardry 8.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

Infravision in baldur's gate is pretty useless.

 

[Alex]

The Ultima series intentionally included spells that were cool but functionally useless, such as this one: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Eclipse

Not to mention the famous Armaggedon: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Armageddon

But I guess that's not quite the same thing.

If a little more work had been done with NPC schedules, and if the game had relied on them a bit more, some of the useless spells could have been very interesting. Like the rain spell in Ultima 7 or even the fireworks spell. The magic lock spell too was pretty useless, though it didn't need to be so. If the game calculated safe/unsafe areas dynamically, or if the NPC schedules were actually simulated, it could have been a pretty cool spell.

 

[Excidium II]

TBH useless spells in tabletop adaptations are a bit more tolerable, since they all have use in TT. The worst is when all the spells are designed specifically for a videogame and they still manage to come up with shit that is useless.