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Most useless spells?

Night Goat

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Mordenkainen's Disjunction from Dungeons & Dragons, a 9th-level spell that permanently disenchants magic items. If a player character uses it, he destroys the loot and the rest of the party hates him. If a villain uses it, he destroys tens or hundreds of thousands of GP worth of items and leaves a player character incapable of dealing with level-appropriate challenges. There are a lot of useless spells in D&D, but this one stands out because it's a 9th-level spell that's bad for the game no matter who casts it.
 
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Mordenkainen's Disjunction from Dungeons & Dragons, a 9th-level spell that permanently disenchants magic items. If a player character uses it, he destroys the loot and the rest of the party hates him. If a villain uses it, he destroys tens or hundreds of thousands of GP worth of items and leaves a player character incapable of dealing with level-appropriate challenges. There are a lot of useless spells in D&D, but this one stands out because it's a 9th-level spell that's bad for the game no matter who casts it.
TBH it's not hard to imagine scenarios where it can be useful.
 

Alex

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Mordenkainen's Disjunction from Dungeons & Dragons, a 9th-level spell that permanently disenchants magic items. If a player character uses it, he destroys the loot and the rest of the party hates him. If a villain uses it, he destroys tens or hundreds of thousands of GP worth of items and leaves a player character incapable of dealing with level-appropriate challenges. There are a lot of useless spells in D&D, but this one stands out because it's a 9th-level spell that's bad for the game no matter who casts it.

Well, if you play that way. But I would hate to play a game where having level appropriate loot is even a concern. Also, some items may have so many unwanted consequences that taking them out of the game, instead of leaving it for another NPC to steal is a good idea.
 

Zombra

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Seems a bit weird to object to a disenchantment spell in a genre that was invented by a story about destroying a magic ring. :lol:
 

Night Goat

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Well, if you play that way. But I would hate to play a game where having level appropriate loot is even a concern.
Even in such a game, it's still a dick move that will make your players hate you.

Also, some items may have so many unwanted consequences that taking them out of the game, instead of leaving it for another NPC to steal is a good idea.
If the players do get a hold of some game-breaking item, explain to them that it's bad for the game and you need to have a gentleman's agreement not to use it that way. Having an NPC steal or destroy the item (and all of the character's items, in the case of Mordenkainen's Disjunction) makes it seem like you're punishing the player for your own mistake.
 

Kirkpatrick

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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.

Worked on blasted efreeti! ;)

How about Disguise, now, that one was properly useless.
 

Alex

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Even in such a game, it's still a dick move that will make your players hate you.

Well, that is the point of the game. I mean, you get level drain, monsters that reduce abilities, monsters that destroy metal items, spheres of annihilation, monsters that disguise themselves as treasure chests, ceiling, wall or floor, magic itens that can give you a castle or leave you stranded in another plane, etc.

If the players do get a hold of some game-breaking item, explain to them that it's bad for the game and you need to have a gentleman's agreement not to use it that way. Having an NPC steal or destroy the item (and all of the character's items, in the case of Mordenkainen's Disjunction) makes it seem like you're punishing the player for your own mistake.

No, I meant that from the view of the players. Stuff like a magic wand that has a random chance of raising a whole cemetery as zombies or skeletons, or even a deck of many things. You might not want to use it yourself, but you don't want the DM to simply have an NPC steal the thing away from you and start causing trouble for the party.
 

Daemongar

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The Ultima series intentionally included spells that were cool but functionally useless, such as this one: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Eclipse
Now, I seem to recall from Ultima 6 that in order to get into the shrine of ... uh... Spirituality or whatever, you had to way for no moon or something. I think I cast this spell to force the change for the moongate so I didn't have to stand around forever. Or maybe that was Ultima IV. Either way, that may have been more than a little uselful
 
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If the players do get a hold of some game-breaking item, explain to them that it's bad for the game and you need to have a gentleman's agreement not to use it that way. Having an NPC steal or destroy the item (and all of the character's items, in the case of Mordenkainen's Disjunction) makes it seem like you're punishing the player for your own mistake.
Faggotry alert. Seriously what sort of wimps you play with?
 

Night Goat

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]No, I meant that from the view of the players. Stuff like a magic wand that has a random chance of raising a whole cemetery as zombies or skeletons, or even a deck of many things. You might not want to use it yourself, but you don't want the DM to simply have an NPC steal the thing away from you and start causing trouble for the party.
Neither of those items are things PCs can buy, so if they show up in the game it's because you put them there. And they're such obviously bad ideas that there's no one to blame but yourself if you do. The deck of many things, in particular, has a reputation as being the DM's way of saying he's done with the campaign.
 

Alex

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Neither of those items are things PCs can buy, so if they show up in the game it's because you put them there. And they're such obviously bad ideas that there's no one to blame but yourself if you do. The deck of many things, in particular, has a reputation as being the DM's way of saying he's done with the campaign.

No, look, what I mean is that the disjunction is a tool the players can have to stop the NPCs from using them item. If I was GMing, and the PCs didn't destroy an item like that, I would probably try to make it come back in the future. So, if they are smart, they won't just throw it away.

By the way, I always thought it applied to Golems as well.
 
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Zombra

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Neither of those items are things PCs can buy, so if they show up in the game it's because you put them there. And they're such obviously bad ideas that there's no one to blame but yourself if you do.
Shoulda told Tolkien and Moorcock the same thing, woulda saved them a lot of time writing those stupid books.
 
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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.

It also should remove a lot of high level spell slots from enemy casters. A good way to almost assuredly debilitate a caster who has otherwise made himself immune to other more common anti-mage shit. Not sure if BG2 implements it properly though.

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.

Uhh, mana draining spells tend to be some of the best spells for games that involve long dungeon crawls with limited resources. Not sure what game you are talking about.

Shoulda told Tolkien the same thing, woulda saved him a lot of time writing those stupid books.

The player playing Gandalf must have been pretty pissed at how he never found any good scrolls. Meanwhile the rest of the party stumbles over enchanted equipment constantly. :lol:
 

Andhaira

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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.

Well not half. And some of the ulseless looking spells did get used in the right vignette situation...in the right game. :troll:

(one spell only comes into play in Startrail for example, in the final dungeon, and it's optional. Gives you a new party member though. Bioware stole this idea for the first Baldur's Gate)
 

Night Goat

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Doesn't Disjunction have a chance to break Antimagic Fields ? That could be useful.
In 3.5 at least, there's a 1% chance per caster level of destroying an antimagic field - so, 17-20%. I guess you could potentially spend a few days casting it until it works, but usually time is more of a concern.
 

Alex

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In 3.5 at least, there's a 1% chance per caster level of destroying an antimagic field - so, 17-20%. I guess you could potentially spend a few days casting it until it works, but usually time is more of a concern.

And by then the antimagic shell spell will have worn out too, I think? By the way, what is useless is the chance of losing your spellcasting ability by trying to destroy an artifact. Way to ruin a high level wizard.
 
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Damned Registrations

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And by then the antimagic shell spell will have worn out too, I think? By the way, what is useless is the chance of losing your spellcasting ability by trying to destroy an artifact. Way to ruing a high level wizard.
I dunno, would make for a pretty badass way to retire a character in my book. "I used to be a demi-god, but I sacrificed all my powers to save the world." And you'd still be ungodly rich and unimaginably skilled at whatever you'd grabbed skills in.

Not to mention if you succeed without gimping yourself, that is a whole different level of balls you can lay claim to as a player or character.
 
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Lilura

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Infravision is pretty useless in BG1.

To make it useful, they should have penalized the player in dark environs with a to-hit penalty, or blindness in the deepest pits of Durlag's Tower.

The cone-shaped spells like Color Spray are useless to me, in that they're unwieldy to aim on isometric planes.

Some spells with level-based variables are useless at low levels, but their utility increases later on (Magic Missile).

Know Alignment was also a lost opportunity.
 

Zombra

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If you were a real badass, you could dominate a rival wizard and have him do it.
Pretty chickenshit. That's like a "master thief" threatening another thief into searching for all the traps because you're scared of a little save-or-die poison needle. Bgawwk! Man up and buff that Will save.
 

octavius

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whole lvl1 spells while you got access to lvl9?

//try to never pick dps spells, so this might be biased
Take bg for example. You pick sleep spell -> you are awesome. You abuse it on those goblins. Few levels later you dont even use this spell. Not because its weak and enemies are likely to make their save, but because everyone is resistant... Like that spell? there is upgrade at lvl3 or something so you pick it up. Now you have already 1 useless spell at lvl1. Few lvls forward same thing would happen to that on lvl3.
They should actually come with a tag: no longer working in your spellbook.

Lvl1 spells are already weak later because of low dc as comparred to lvl6-9. Making enemies resistant on top of that is bs

When Sleep has become redundant a mage with more INT than a goblin adapts, and starts using other lvl 1 spells, like Magic Missile, Enlarge or Chromatic Orb.
Anyway, this thread is not about lvl 1 spells.
 

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