Your Level 8 spell

[chemonz]

So with Mod 6 coming out (Christmas or next year??) soonish I was wondering what level 8 spell you plan to start out with for your sorcerer when he gets to level 16 and why. Obviously different builds will choose different spells and while we have never cast many of these spells ourselves we have had some of them cast against us. Here is the level 8 spells we know are coming out so far (from the Nov 12 WDA)

* Polar Ray
o Evocation [Cold]
o Level: Sor/Wiz 8
o Deals 1d6 per caster level (max 25d6) cold damage to an enemy with a ray of freezing ice and air.

* Sunburst
o Evocation [Light]
o Level: Sor/Wiz 8
o A globe of searing radiance explodes silently to blast targets for 6d6 of light damage in addition to permanently blinding them. Oozes and Undead take 1d6 per caster level damage. A successful Reflex save reduces the damage by half and negates the blindness. Light fearing undead may be instantly destroyed by this spell

* Charm Monster, Mass
o Enchantment (Charm) [Mind-Affecting]
o Level: Brd 6, Sor/Wiz 8
o Casts Charm Monster on multiple targets. Charmed monsters will fight as trusted allies but get additional saves every 3d6+12 seconds. A successful Will save negates this effect.

Horrid Wilting

* Necromancy
* Level: Sor/Wiz 8
* Deals 1d6 per caster level (max 20d6) damage to living targets by evaporating moisture from their bodies. Deals 1d8 per caster level (max 20d8) damage to water subtype outsiders and plants.

Shout, Greater

o Evocation [Sonic]
o Level: Brd 6, Sor/Wiz 8
o Emits an ear-splitting yell that deafens and deals 10d6 sonic damage and stuns targets in its path. A successful Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the stun.

* Summon Monster VIII
o Conjuration (Summoning)
o Level: Clr 8, Sor/Wiz 8
o Summons a bezekira to fight for you for a brief time. Casting this spell locks out casting any other Summon Monster spell for 8 minutes.

* Trap the Soul
o Conjuration (Summoning)
o Level: Sor/Wiz 8
o Forces a creature's life force and its material body into a gem on a failed Will save. Although this essentially 'kills' the target, it is not a death effect and functions on creatures such as undead (but not most constructs). This spell requires a Khyber dragonshard as a special material component, and can affect creatures of up to 30 hit dice.

Power Word: Stun

* Enchantment (Compulsion)
* Level: Sor/Wiz 8
* One creature with 450 or fewer current hit points is stunned.
o 150 or fewer HP: Stunned for a long duration
o 151 to 300 HP: Stunned for a moderate duration
o 301 to 450 HP: Stunned for a short duration


Also, not mentioned but likely to be included since it is cast by mobs is Incendiary Cloud which acts like Acid Fog but does 4d6 damage each round and would seem to be similar to wall of fire but with less damage and a much greater area of effect and concealment.


So which will you choose right now? I think my sorcerer will go with polar ray since it always seems to kill me when a mob casts it

[redoubt]

Charm monster mass.

Then I'll swap out charm monster as level 4 has a lot of cool spells.

[MrWizard]

dunno...i think there may be more spells coming too.

wilting is cool...and seeing how we are hitting new planes, it may be wise if a lot of water creatures are there?

polar ray seems like an upgrade to cone of cold...possible switch there (in 3 days of course)..at least now people may kill the dang troll at the end of trial by fire with ice now since HE HAS NO RESISTANCE and can go down in just a couple cones of cold now.

charm mass..not for me..I like to pick and choose who I target to charm...mass is a rather chaotic ending kind of spell with no choice who to pick..including regualr and orange named monsters taht have to be killed to advance.

I would stay away from anything that depends on hitdie...although fine when doing lower level dungeons, I doubt when we are doing elite 16 - 18th level dungeons the spells will be of any use at all....like ALL of the other hit dice based spells.....

wonder how many slots a sorc will get in other spell categories...if all we get is one 8th level spell....and have to wait til 2009 to get a new spell...well....BORING...

[chemonz]

Sorcerers will get one more 5th level spell, one more 6th level spell, and one more 7th level spell when they level up to 15th level and then they will get one 8th level spell at level 16. At least if they follow PnP progression, which they always have in other level increases (the only difference between DDO and PnP is the number of 1st and 2nd level spells sorcerers get)

[Samadhi]

charm monster mass - but that is primarly because my build has been skimping a little on crowd control spells recently.

honestly, though, will probably level my wizzie first and test out some of them live before grabbing one with my sorc.

[MrCow]

I will be the odd person out but I plan to go for sunburst. Most critters in DDO have low reflex saves and it has good uses for nearly everything in the game (undead/ooze nuke or blind the living).

On top of that, blindness is a fairly potent debuff effect. It halves the run speed of something, halves their hitting capabilities, gives them -2 AC, and the critters lose all DEX bonus based AC.

[chemonz]

I will be the odd person out but I plan to go for sunburst. Most critters in DDO have low reflex saves and it has good uses for nearly everything in the game (undead/ooze nuke or blind the living).

On top of that, blindness is a fairly potent debuff effect. It halves the run speed of something, halves their hitting capabilities, gives them -2 AC, and the critters lose all DEX bonus based AC.

Yeah good point it does have several uses, and it also destroys Vampires on a failed reflex save.

Greater shout is somewhat similar in that it does damage and crowd control.

Trap the soul might also be useful as it serves as an insta-death spell for normally immune creatures, but I don't know how the dragon shard thing will work. If you need one every time than it seems pretty useless as a spell, otherwise it may be an interesting "sleeper" option.

[Shade]

Probably trap the soul for me.

But might swap to polar ray depending on if I can get a nice potentcy 8 item.

[xberto]

I'm counting on a new lightning based spell, perhaps Ring of Lightning, for my seldom used Acid/Lightning spec'd Sorcerer. Currently Lightning Bolt is maxed at level 10 (10d6max) and Ball Lightning will be at 15 (15d6max). We'll need more juice!

[Blind_Skwerl]

I'm counting on a new lightning based spell, perhaps Ring of Lightning, for my seldom used Acid/Lightning spec'd Sorcerer. Currently Lightning Bolt is maxed at level 10 (10d6max) and Ball Lightning will be at 15 (15d6max). We'll need more juice!

Please tell me you named that sorc "Coppertop" or "EverReady" or something like that!

[Yshkabibble]

I really hope things are balanced. I like the fact that it seems like there will be several viable choices here.