Most useless spells?

[Alex]

(...snip)
Edit: wait, I found what you're talking about! Strange my DM never gave us those 0 level spell when we used to play 1st Ed. Still I don't see any useful effects, 2nd Ed. cantrip is much more powerful. Also 1st Ed had no protection from cantrip spell so my point stands

Well, you have to look for them a bit to find. You could almost say they are a buried secret

Here are a few I would consider useful:

Dampen (Evocation)
Area of Effect: 1 cubic yd.
Casting Time: 1/2 Segment
When a cantrip of this sort is cast, the subject area is permeated by a
fog-like dampness which leaves all material within it damp to the
touch. It is useful for many sorts of things. It is hard on parchment,
and it similarly makes it and like substances hard to set aflame. Those
within the area of effect of the dampen cantrip will be enwrapped in a
light fog, and objects in this fog, while still visible, will lose their detail.
Verbal component is a low hooting or a hummed ditty, somatic is a
hand gesture upwards with writhing fingers

Cast this on the PC when he is distracted reading that ancient, brittle and fragile scroll he found in the dungeon.

Flavor (Enchantment)
Area of Effect: One object
Casting Time: 1/2 Segment
This cantrip enables the caster to give the subject a superior or better
or different flavor. Thus, mush can be made to taste as if it were lob-
ster bisque, but the dweomer will not actually affect quality or whole-
someness. Spoiled food remains spoiled; a poisoned drink would still
be deadly (though any tell-tale taste of the poison may be masked in
this fashion). The verbal component is a muttered lip-smacking
sound; the somatic gesture is a shaking motion.

This one's use is obvious.

Stitch (Alteration)
Area of Effect: Special
Casting Time: 1/2 Segment
This cantrip magically sews seams in cloth or leather. It will make new
ones, or repair old work. About 20 yards of cloth can be thus stitched,
but only about 2 yards of leather. The seam thus created is neither
stronger nor weaker than a seam done without magic. Usually a brief
rhyme is recited as the hand makes a sewing motion

Fill someone's outer clothes with itching powder and cast this so the holes suddenly become too tight to remove.

Salt (Evocation)
Area of Effect: One object
Casting Time: 1/6 segment
This cantrip causes a sprinkling of fine salt to magically appear and
descend upon the desired object - a stew, some troublesome weed
patch, or a barrel full of stock fish to be preserved. The object must be
of a reasonable size - up to perhaps 4 square yards in area or about
30 gallons liquid volume. Care must be taken to avoid over-salting if
the object involved is smaller, and if the object is larger, it will not re-
ceive much salt. Creatures adversely affected by salt (such as a giant
slug) take 1-4 points of damage from this cantrip. The verbal compo-
nent is a labial smacking, performed while the hand makes a sprin-
kling motion.

This one can be pretty cool if used somewhere with lots of snow. It might also ruin potions.

Spice (Evocation)
Area of Effect: One object
Casting Time: 1/2 segment
Unlike the flavor cantrip, this magic actually brings a particular spice
to the object of food or drink. Thus, ginger, pepper, and like spices can
be brought to add zest (or disguise). Herbs such as bay leaf, garlic,
parsley, and so forth can likewise be evoked by this cantrip. The quan-
tity is sufficient to spice food or drink for about a dozen people. The
spice (or herb) appears over the object vessel as a fine powder or
flake, falls upon it, and adds its substance to the dish or drink. A ditty
is hummed for the verbal component, while the hand makes a crum-
bling and sprinkling motion.

This one could be useful depending on how your GM plays the game. It could ward off or at least distract a vampire. Citrus zest might ward off insects.

Hairy (Alteration)
Area of Effect: One object
Casting Time: 1/10 segment
While this cantrip is not actually one of the standard usefulones which
apprentices reverse for mischievousness, it is one which is generally
used for no good purpose. It causes hair, fur, or hairlike growth to
thicken and lengthen. Thus, a head of hair, a peach, a beard, a cat, or
whatever could be affected. The growth will cause the subject mate-
rial to increase from 2-12 inches in length. The subject material must
be trimmed or cut to remove the cantrip's effect. This cantrip can be
reversed to shorten growth or effectively shave, but since the effect
on short material (growth under 1 inch in length) is complete absence
of growth for 2-12 days, it is not often used. The caster verbalizes
snicking sounds while making massaging motions for growth, or scis-
soring motions for removal.

Besides obvious pranking purposes, this spell could be cast multiple times on some creatures to actually cause them problems during combat. A bear whose fur is suddenly increased by 21 inches will probably have to watch out to avoid tripping on himself. Heck, you could probably tangle the hair between its legs. Also pretty useful if you have a few sheep.

Untie (Alteration)
Area of Effect: One object
Casting time: 1/3 segment
This permutation of a tie cantrip is simply the reverse of the magic.
The caster selects an object - thread, string, cord, etc. - which is
knotted or tied. The cantrip removes the knot or tying. Note that the
untie cantrip will cause a tangle to be nullified. The cantrip will not re-
move both a knot and a normal tying (normal knot or one caused by a
tie cantrip), but it will cause the former to disappear so that only a nor-
mal tying remains. This cantrip has no effect on magical objects. So-
matic and verbal components vary according to the desired result. In
general, a popping sound is made while the hands are moved apart
- either as if a knot were being untied or a cord snapped

Useful if you are near a catapult, ship or anything else held by knots.

Change (Alteration)
Area of Effect: One object
By means of a change cantrip, the caster alters one small object to
another, although the change must be within the same kingdom, and
only animal and vegetable objects are affected. Thus, a piece of
parchment can be changed to a brightly colored cloth square, then
the cloth can be changed to a rose by another use of the cantrip. Like-
wise, a bird can be changed into a bat, the bat to a flying squirrel by
another use of the same type of cantrip, and so forth. Each change re-
quires a change cantrip. The cantrip will not cause more than a 50%
incease or decrease in sizelvolume, and the effect will last for a base
time of 1 turn. If the change is radical, then the time will be reduced
accordingly; Le., changing a dead object to a live one is a radical
change and will last only 1 round. On the other hand, a very slight al-
teration such as color change or the like will last for l or more days. A
saving throw against this magic does not apply as long as small,
animal-intelligence, non-magical creatures of normal sort are con-
cerned. Typically, a magic word is verbalized while the hand makes a
pass over the object to be affected.

This one has a whole lot of potential. The sky is pretty much the limit.

Present (Alteration)
Area of Effect: One small item
Casting Time: 1/6 segment.
A present cantrip enables the caster to bring any small object or se-
ries of objects from within a 2-foot radius of his or her person to his or
her hand. The object or objects will appear magically in the caster’s
hand as he or she puts the hand upward or outward with a flourish and
speaks the key word to begin the dweomer. If an object as large as a
tankard is thus presented, the cantrip will be exhausted, but as many
as a dozen coins could be brought to the hand before the dweomer
failed. The caster must know the exact nature and location of the ob-
ject or objects to be presented. If they are on the person of another in-
dividual, a saving throw versus spell applies to the individual, unless
the object or objects are in plain sight.

Present the party thief his own lockpicks just to watch him cry.

Sneeze (Evocation)
Area of Effect: One creature
Casting Time: 1/2 segment
A cantrip of this nature causes an irritation in the nasal passages of
the subject. Unless the subject makes a successful saving throw ver-
sus spell, a sneeze will occur. This single sneeze will relieve the irrita-
tion. The caster verbalizes the name of an irritant substance while
touching his or her nose.

A bit of a stretch, but if you can ever approach two or more dragons (especially if they are of different colors) when they are talking, you could start a pretty nasty fight with this spell. Or you could just cast it on someone drinking a potion.

By the way, the protection from cantrips spell showed up in 1st edition together with the cantrips.

 

[Lhynn]

Cantrips were always awesome, ive kept many powerful things at bay with them outside of combat. The fact that nowadays we have damage cantrips shows that people have absolutely no imagination anymore.

 

[octavius]

That's right, list a bunch of fucking lvl 0 spells in a thread about useless high level spells.

 

[Alex]

That's right, list a bunch of fucking lvl 0 spells in a thread about useless high level spells.

Well, I was trying to prove that a level 2 spell was actually useful.

 

[laclongquan]

I dont know about you, but lately I dont try to cast Sanctuary for cleric much. Even in low level modules of NWN2. Combat generally pass to fast to waste one round for it, and the restrictions sure make me feel not wanting to bother with.

 

[Night Goat]

There was a spell in FATAL that let you elongate your nipples. I think that one takes the cake.

What if you need to tie someone up and don't have any rope?

 

[Irenaeus II]

Overpowered spells are useless to me, because I want my games to provide challenges.

 

[Eirikur]

Thermonuclear Blast

"Thermonuclear Blast, also known as Thermonuclear Attack is (technically) an offensive Spell. It causes a major nuclear explosion, with the caster at ground zero. When cast, the Hero will cause a gigantic nuclear explosion that will destroy everything in a ten-mile radius and make the area uninhabitable for several centuries thereafter. This will also destroy the Hero."

Well, ok, it may have its uses... but insta-killing oneself detracts from it, a bit.

 

[SwiftCrack]

That's a better Alt+F4 than, well, Alt+F4.

 

[Cadmus]

everything in pillows of boredity, lololol

Usually, it's those low health abilities that the game doesn't support in any way. Often many debuffs are totally worthless, I remember how useless all the Burden spells were in TES games unless you powergamed and got insane numbers on everything and then it doesn't matter what you do anyway.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Usually, it's those low health abilities that the game doesn't support in any way. Often many debuffs are totally worthless, I remember how useless all the Burden spells were in TES games unless you powergamed and got insane numbers on everything and then it doesn't matter what you do anyway.

Coincidently, we just discussed how useless these kind of perks (low health type) are in the most recent W2 news thread.

I blame the abundant supply of healing, which makes low health trivial in general.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Another shitslinger:

Magic Mirror in HOMM3, this is on expert air magic skill level:

Enemy spells cast on targeted, allied troop has a 40% chance of being redirected to a random enemy troop.

This is a level 5 spell (the highest spell level).

Literally level one spell material.

 

[Xathrodox86]

Are you sure that there isn't the possibility to try and rape something to death with your nipples? This is FATAL we're talking about, the system where you want to powergame a large anal circumference in order to stay alive.

Yes that's true. You could play a dude (or a gal) with a huge dong and an inside-out anus, meaning that you could rape anyone but were yoursel immune to rape. The drawback was that you couldn't take a dump, but hey - whatever works, right?

 

[baturinsky]

Thermonuclear Blast

"Thermonuclear Blast, also known as Thermonuclear Attack is (technically) an offensive Spell. It causes a major nuclear explosion, with the caster at ground zero. When cast, the Hero will cause a gigantic nuclear explosion that will destroy everything in a ten-mile radius and make the area uninhabitable for several centuries thereafter. This will also destroy the Hero."

Well, ok, it may have its uses... but insta-killing oneself detracts from it, a bit.

Can it be casted through some proxy?

 

[Perkel]

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 rang

It works well in tandem with blind. It does more damage than magic missle and it should take down most of low lever thief, beast or fighter hp and you can finish it via you dagger or staff

 

[laclongquan]

Do you have any cheap reliable low level method to blind them?

Blinding + Burning hands compared to Two magic missiles, or two ChromOrbs, or hell one grease and then missile/sling attack them to death.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Can it be casted through some proxy?

Nope. If you've played QFG5 you may remember that you can discuss using this spell as an option to beat the Big Bad. It's a miniature Armageddon spell, with all the downsides.

 

[Somberlain]

Stop/Doom/Death/X-Zone in a lot of Final Fantasy games because the hit chance is like 5% (except in like FF Tactics).

In FF6 Invisiblity spell makes all physical attacks miss but also makes all spells automatically hit. That's a good combination with Doom etc.

 

[Azrael the cat]

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.

Thing is, PnP is such a different beast for spell casting. It's all about creative use, not the number crunching - which is why grease is so insanely powerful in PnP (cast it on the enemy's weapon of uberness, on their spell component pouch to loosen in before your thief pickpockets it or you set it alight, on their tongue to fuck up their verbal casting...).

It's also far harder to rely on your party members to do the right thing by you, which means min maxing is a bad idea. Those touch spells come in handy with a few fighter levels (they ignore armour in PnP, so it is quite common to find enemies that your fightet-mage can't reliably hit with a weapon, but can pwn with a touch spell). Also useful for the many occasions that an npc turns hostile mid conversation - can't always control your distance in PnP.

 

[Azrael the cat]

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.



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.



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.

Nah, Gandalf is just levelling up the newbies because he's nice. Very early on the first book he confirms outright that he could use the ring to absolutely-wtf-pwn sauron, but he'd be so powerful that when he inevitably gets corrupted there won't be anything in middle earth that could stop him.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Deliberate, so it probably doesn't count, but I lol'd at the scroll of Icarun Flight in Morrowind. Laughed when the guy randomly fell of the sky, then laughed harder when I read the spell specifics on the scroll on his corpse and saw what they'd named the spell.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Conjure (...) elemental in BG2 (mage version) was beyond useless. Cast time was a massive 1 round, there were lots of summons that were more useful and worst of all you had to sit through a lengthy "mental battle" where your mage was a sitting duck and you could end up turning the summon against you.

Throw in the fact that it took up a pretty high spellslot (6) and you have, at best, a spectacular waste of time. In a solo game it was virtual suicide.

You are overlooking how long it lasts - effectively you keep the elemental until you rest. It's a full time additional party member (summons in BG2 are separated into full time extra party members and single encounter summons), and the most powerful of that kind.

 

[Perkel]

Do you have any cheap reliable low level method to blind them?

Blinding + Burning hands compared to Two magic missiles, or two ChromOrbs, or hell one grease and then missile/sling attack them to death.

2 mms ? - Worthless if you are trying to stop any non mage at level 2
2 co - better but again most of fighter type will shrug it off and will kill your mage
Greace + sling is good combo but grease has huge problem. When enemy is near you you are fucked.
Blind is single target so it also isn't perfect but it works really well and you can easily kill two levels above characters with it.

 

[MrMarbles]

You are overlooking how long it lasts - effectively you keep the elemental until you rest. It's a full time additional party member (summons in BG2 are separated into full time extra party members and single encounter summons), and the most powerful of that kind.

I thought duration was 1 turn/level, far from effectively until you rest. Also my summons usually don't survive combat encounters, but that could be down to playstyle or playing with SCS (summons are more likely to be dispelled).

 

[Daemongar]

The most useless spells for me are the deus ex machina type: you know those damn spells are only there for one measly event: the spell in U7:SI that turns you into a snake. Very useless, but they added these here plot items behind tiny little holes to keep you out of an area until you find the spell, which you don't get until you do this and that. Might as well have added a spell "Track" to use on that wooden sword and be done with it. The spell forces linearity.

The other thing are spells that seem like they would be useful out of combat, but are only allowed in combat. In Wizardry there is a Protection from Elements spell - not useless at all, but it would be kinda nice to have this going all the time. There are environmental hazards and such. Why not? Why would I want to cast this for a tiny 3rounds + 1 per power level at the start of every damn battle?