Posted April 12, 2015
So I found out there's a surprising amount of depth to the spells.
Some appear to be quite useless, while others are amazingly good.
I'm not going to go into excessive detail on every spell, just going to mention the more noteworthy or ones I don't fully comprehend.
Feel free to contribute your own thoughts or questions as long as they're relevant.
As of the creation of this post I'm only a Circle-4 Fire Magician, so there are still some spells beyond me, but I intend to add those as I go along.
===
First off- why do spells (or at least rune-creation) cost LP now? In Gothic 1 you simply had to buy the runes and learn the required circle to cast them. I liked the system because I felt motivated to try out the different spells and see how they work. (I can't speak for vanilla Gothic 2) Now I feel like I'm not really invited to explore the functionality of the spells to learn how they work and what I like best. It could be said that it adds replay value but honestly most spells I'm never going to use.
Another weird thing I found: I (Nameless), and many other creatures become IMMUNE to damage from certain spells once armor eclipses it, which is not how melee (and possibly ranged) works... but then some creatures are NOT immune to the minimal damage!
- - -
Fire Arrow - You can find a Fire Arrow rune in Jharkendar's swamp... why? This is almost completely pointless. You have to learn how to make the Fire Arrow rune to even become a Fire Magician! I suppose it could be said that you might potentially save a rune... but if you're at that point why would you even be using Fire Arrow anyway?
Small Lightning - I didn't test this one much before I reloaded... but why does it cost 15 mana? If we already have Fire Arrow this is nothing but a waste of mana. Seems to be a completely pointless spell.
Goblin Skeleton - I actually quite enjoyed this spell (though I was abusing an infinite-mana exploit at the time...) and I think it really does have some utility even at higher levels (not much, though). But- why is there a rune of this in Sekob's chest which you can only open in chapter 3? This spell will be borderline useless by then...
EDIT: I found out what makes Goblin Skeleton good later. First off, the obvious: super cheap distraction. Second: Trolls, which have HUGE Magic Armor, are TERRIBLE at dealing with Goblin Skeletons!
Root Snare - I haven't tested this one extensively but it seems pretty decent for keeping excess enemies out of the fight.
Summon Wolf - I just don't get this spell. Goblin Skeleton is slightly more powerful unless I'm quite mistaken but Summon Wolf costs twice as much LP and twice as much mana and is a circle higher?
Wind Fist - At first I thought this spell was useless- then I started testing it on Seekers... then I found out the spell does actually seem fairly useless... Pretty interesting in that it does melee damage rather than magic, but I'd have to be pretty hardcore to not have a character who can deal out a little melee damage already. Still think it's kind of an interesting spell, even if it isn't very useful.
Sleep - I haven't tried this one out a whole lot. I know it definitely has some use... except ONLY against humans and not even against all humans! If Steal Energy wasn't circle-2 this might have some use for fighting humans... but even then there just aren't that many human enemies in the game. Has some utility for letting you steal stuff, but there are a decent number of scrolls for this already.
Ice Lance - Love this spell. I was practically despairing at how much circle-2 spells sucked until I found out about the water mage spells. Renders fireball totally useless.
Dust Devil - Kind of an interesting spell. I still haven't tested whether this works on 'large' enemies like Golems, Demons and Trolls. If it does I'll definitely be grabbing it. If it doesn't then it still has some use for a circle-2 mage.
Steal Energy - Very weird spell. It's AMAZINGLY powerful against humans but does literally nothing against non-humans. Unfortunately by the time I can get this the vast majority of human enemies are already gone!
Create Skeleton - It may have something to do with how I'm approaching the game (I think I'm fighting things a bit stronger than I am earlier than I necessarily ought to) but I keep finding summon spells have really debatable use when I get to the circle that I can use them. I was really looking forward to getting this, but by the time I could I had spells like Ice Block and I was fighting Orcs and Dragon Snappers and Seekers- enemies that can tear skeletons apart and barely take any damage from them. This is one of the biggest reinforcers for my intention to take the series a lot slower the next time I play one. I want spells like this to be useful!
Fear - Not even sure how much I should go into detail considering I already made an entire thread dedicated solely to this spell. This spell is wonderful, which makes it a little ironic that I will absolutely NEVER get the skill to craft a rune for this, since it's so easy to find before you can even use it.
Ice Block - This spell makes most enemies susceptible to its freeze effect laughable. I was having some difficulty fighting opponents in circle-2, now I just lure them, freeze them and wail on them until they're dead.
Ball Lightning - Like Small Lightning (which rhymes with this) this is yet another spell I simply don't see the point for. Maybe this was a bit more useful before NotR but since Ice Lance exists this spell has no purpose. The mana-to-damage ratio is bad and the charge time is really slow.
Geyser - I couldn't figure this one out. It doesn't seem to have any special capability. It just charges 75 mana for 150 damage. Ouch.
Storm - Definitely among the most powerful spells in the game I've found. I went to the pass where a bunch of orcs are congregating and cast this spell twice, then ran in and they started dropping like flies.
Beliar's Wrath - Another one with a terrible mana-to-damage ratio, I just don't see the point. It's like blowing your entire supply of mana on one spell, no way could it be worth it.
Create Guardian - Kind of like a skeleton except it has good magic armor and doesn't hit as hard (since enemies I fight at this point have 150+ melee armor anyway the Stone Sentinel is just better and requires no LP).
Large Fireball - Very high damage but the mana-to-damage ratio is terrible. Maybe there are some enemies with absurdly high magic resist that I haven't verified yet?
Lightning - My next step-up from Ice Lance.
EDIT: So Trolls and Demons are immune to electricity-based spells? Fascinating.
Awaken Golem - I was pretty surprised when I actually did the numbers on this guy and determined that I would almost certainly NOT use this. Very strange summon, it attacks other summons of the same type! So if I summon two stone golems because I want more backup they immediately start duking it out. Then as soon as I bring it into combat it gets annihilated by a mere Orc Warrior in seconds! I might end up using this guy when I fight dragons (since there hasn't been an easy way to measure Dragon fire armor so far) but so far I'm not impressed.
EDIT: Tested Fire Armor on summons and it turns out almost all summons are good against fire! Screw Golems...
Destroy Undead - I thought I would end up getting this but as it is I really don't think so. Zombies are too easy to handle, Skeletons fall from one lightning bolt and Shadow Warriors are so uncommon that I probably have enough scrolls- assuming my standard spells aren't enough already.
EDIT: I am slightly more appreciative of how this functions than I was before.
Waterfist - I like the animation of this spell. Interesting twist that it's balanced between Ice Lance and Lightning and also seems to be non-lethal!
Insect Swarm - I could not figure this one out at all. I'm not sure if they never finished coding this or what. It doesn't seem to do anything except very mildly tickle an enemy and then nothing- even though it says it has some sort of duration.
Create Zombie - Almost certainly the summon I'm going to use. Zombies get pushed around by aggressive meleers pretty easily but they sure do hit hard.
Some appear to be quite useless, while others are amazingly good.
I'm not going to go into excessive detail on every spell, just going to mention the more noteworthy or ones I don't fully comprehend.
Feel free to contribute your own thoughts or questions as long as they're relevant.
As of the creation of this post I'm only a Circle-4 Fire Magician, so there are still some spells beyond me, but I intend to add those as I go along.
===
First off- why do spells (or at least rune-creation) cost LP now? In Gothic 1 you simply had to buy the runes and learn the required circle to cast them. I liked the system because I felt motivated to try out the different spells and see how they work. (I can't speak for vanilla Gothic 2) Now I feel like I'm not really invited to explore the functionality of the spells to learn how they work and what I like best. It could be said that it adds replay value but honestly most spells I'm never going to use.
Another weird thing I found: I (Nameless), and many other creatures become IMMUNE to damage from certain spells once armor eclipses it, which is not how melee (and possibly ranged) works... but then some creatures are NOT immune to the minimal damage!
- - -
Fire Arrow - You can find a Fire Arrow rune in Jharkendar's swamp... why? This is almost completely pointless. You have to learn how to make the Fire Arrow rune to even become a Fire Magician! I suppose it could be said that you might potentially save a rune... but if you're at that point why would you even be using Fire Arrow anyway?
Small Lightning - I didn't test this one much before I reloaded... but why does it cost 15 mana? If we already have Fire Arrow this is nothing but a waste of mana. Seems to be a completely pointless spell.
Goblin Skeleton - I actually quite enjoyed this spell (though I was abusing an infinite-mana exploit at the time...) and I think it really does have some utility even at higher levels (not much, though). But- why is there a rune of this in Sekob's chest which you can only open in chapter 3? This spell will be borderline useless by then...
EDIT: I found out what makes Goblin Skeleton good later. First off, the obvious: super cheap distraction. Second: Trolls, which have HUGE Magic Armor, are TERRIBLE at dealing with Goblin Skeletons!
Root Snare - I haven't tested this one extensively but it seems pretty decent for keeping excess enemies out of the fight.
Summon Wolf - I just don't get this spell. Goblin Skeleton is slightly more powerful unless I'm quite mistaken but Summon Wolf costs twice as much LP and twice as much mana and is a circle higher?
Wind Fist - At first I thought this spell was useless- then I started testing it on Seekers... then I found out the spell does actually seem fairly useless... Pretty interesting in that it does melee damage rather than magic, but I'd have to be pretty hardcore to not have a character who can deal out a little melee damage already. Still think it's kind of an interesting spell, even if it isn't very useful.
Sleep - I haven't tried this one out a whole lot. I know it definitely has some use... except ONLY against humans and not even against all humans! If Steal Energy wasn't circle-2 this might have some use for fighting humans... but even then there just aren't that many human enemies in the game. Has some utility for letting you steal stuff, but there are a decent number of scrolls for this already.
Ice Lance - Love this spell. I was practically despairing at how much circle-2 spells sucked until I found out about the water mage spells. Renders fireball totally useless.
Dust Devil - Kind of an interesting spell. I still haven't tested whether this works on 'large' enemies like Golems, Demons and Trolls. If it does I'll definitely be grabbing it. If it doesn't then it still has some use for a circle-2 mage.
Steal Energy - Very weird spell. It's AMAZINGLY powerful against humans but does literally nothing against non-humans. Unfortunately by the time I can get this the vast majority of human enemies are already gone!
Create Skeleton - It may have something to do with how I'm approaching the game (I think I'm fighting things a bit stronger than I am earlier than I necessarily ought to) but I keep finding summon spells have really debatable use when I get to the circle that I can use them. I was really looking forward to getting this, but by the time I could I had spells like Ice Block and I was fighting Orcs and Dragon Snappers and Seekers- enemies that can tear skeletons apart and barely take any damage from them. This is one of the biggest reinforcers for my intention to take the series a lot slower the next time I play one. I want spells like this to be useful!
Fear - Not even sure how much I should go into detail considering I already made an entire thread dedicated solely to this spell. This spell is wonderful, which makes it a little ironic that I will absolutely NEVER get the skill to craft a rune for this, since it's so easy to find before you can even use it.
Ice Block - This spell makes most enemies susceptible to its freeze effect laughable. I was having some difficulty fighting opponents in circle-2, now I just lure them, freeze them and wail on them until they're dead.
Ball Lightning - Like Small Lightning (which rhymes with this) this is yet another spell I simply don't see the point for. Maybe this was a bit more useful before NotR but since Ice Lance exists this spell has no purpose. The mana-to-damage ratio is bad and the charge time is really slow.
Geyser - I couldn't figure this one out. It doesn't seem to have any special capability. It just charges 75 mana for 150 damage. Ouch.
Storm - Definitely among the most powerful spells in the game I've found. I went to the pass where a bunch of orcs are congregating and cast this spell twice, then ran in and they started dropping like flies.
Beliar's Wrath - Another one with a terrible mana-to-damage ratio, I just don't see the point. It's like blowing your entire supply of mana on one spell, no way could it be worth it.
Create Guardian - Kind of like a skeleton except it has good magic armor and doesn't hit as hard (since enemies I fight at this point have 150+ melee armor anyway the Stone Sentinel is just better and requires no LP).
Large Fireball - Very high damage but the mana-to-damage ratio is terrible. Maybe there are some enemies with absurdly high magic resist that I haven't verified yet?
Lightning - My next step-up from Ice Lance.
EDIT: So Trolls and Demons are immune to electricity-based spells? Fascinating.
Awaken Golem - I was pretty surprised when I actually did the numbers on this guy and determined that I would almost certainly NOT use this. Very strange summon, it attacks other summons of the same type! So if I summon two stone golems because I want more backup they immediately start duking it out. Then as soon as I bring it into combat it gets annihilated by a mere Orc Warrior in seconds! I might end up using this guy when I fight dragons (since there hasn't been an easy way to measure Dragon fire armor so far) but so far I'm not impressed.
EDIT: Tested Fire Armor on summons and it turns out almost all summons are good against fire! Screw Golems...
Destroy Undead - I thought I would end up getting this but as it is I really don't think so. Zombies are too easy to handle, Skeletons fall from one lightning bolt and Shadow Warriors are so uncommon that I probably have enough scrolls- assuming my standard spells aren't enough already.
EDIT: I am slightly more appreciative of how this functions than I was before.
Waterfist - I like the animation of this spell. Interesting twist that it's balanced between Ice Lance and Lightning and also seems to be non-lethal!
Insect Swarm - I could not figure this one out at all. I'm not sure if they never finished coding this or what. It doesn't seem to do anything except very mildly tickle an enemy and then nothing- even though it says it has some sort of duration.
Create Zombie - Almost certainly the summon I'm going to use. Zombies get pushed around by aggressive meleers pretty easily but they sure do hit hard.
Post edited April 13, 2015 by bushwhacker2k
