A Humble Guide to Healing and Offensive Casting with Favored Souls

[Silverleafeon]

"Please pardon our mess while we upgrade this area for your future pleasure."
This thread now under update construction, have over 50 possible links to add as well as upgrade/downgrades, etc, etc, etc..

Hi all,

Thank you for those who have posted before me on this grand subject.
Since my join date, I have played a few clerics, then exclusively favored souls.

Research, lots of playing time, and some curious swapping (including deleting and reincarnating) about gives a humble perspective on what works, what doesn't, and what myths need busting up.

Without further ago, I present my own humble opinions and welcome other's thoughts.

Many thanks to all who are helping make this guide even better!!



A few questions I have run across, and possible points to ponder:

Question: I am thinking about playing a favored soul (or cleric) but I don't want to heal others. {After 3 minutes of discusion:} in fact I would
rather not buff anyone else either. Wondering about it all?

Possible Answer: Definately comes to mind that some folks look towards the favored soul when self sufficency is more their true desires. Warforged arcane, Monks, Rangers, and Paladins are self sufficent classes. Rangers are expected to buff with resist energy and remove poison during raids when possible as well as self heal sometimes. Paladins have no real expectations upon them and can shine in the end game against devils. Favored Souls are wonderful at soloing, but when joins a raid one must understand that there will be certain expectations of you either providing strong melee damage and/or being about to provide healing for the party. Healing in and of itself is priceless and only clerics/favored souls can easily provide generous amounts of it; therein lies expectactions and hopes.

Question: I am about to purchase the Favored Soul class, cause I think its so cool, could you point me towards the perfect build?

Possible Answer: We think the Favored Soul class is cool too!
The fatal flaw that the designers have placed upon this class is that we must choose between multiple desirable options.
Therefore, with our power also comes specialization and planning.
There are certain places where you must choose between one or more good options; these choices will affect future choices.
In my humble opinion there will never be a "perfect" favored soul build, yet I am begining to see that there are many, many interesting builds and ideas to work with.
The main reason this thread was started is to point you in the direction of more desirable choices and plant signposts on the trapfalls.

Question: I see you True Resurrected multiple Favored Souls, is this necessary for a optimum build?

Possible Answer: Definately not. I did this for fun. The Favored Soul is powerful right out of the box (even with a 28 point build if you are careful). There is no need to True Resurrect a Favored Soul simply for power. There are some players who like spell casters who want 1-3 past lifes each of Favored Soul, Sorcerer, and Wizard; these people probably should consider starting with two past lifes of Favored Soul since it is an easy class to solo and level up. {Warning: The amount of xp required to level up a second True Ressurection character (Legend) is kinda of double the normal amount.}
Diaries of a True Reincarnate (Divine): http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=263354
Diaries of a True Renicarnate (Arcane): http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=226992

Choosing Religions:

Your religion determines your capstone and your bonuses with a particular weapon.
Your race restricts you from taking certain religions. The five most prominent are:

Lord of the Blades - greatsword bonuses ; bladeworn transformation (big melee bonuses but you cannot be healed for 24 seconds) every 10 minutes ; shield spell at will ; available to warforged race only

Silver Flame - longbow and free searing light every 6 seconds (doing about 100 ish with critical at 300 ish) ; banishment effect that does not seem to work very well every 10 minutes need to test more ; available to all

Sovereign Host - longsword ; free cure light wounds every 6 seconds (healing for about 40+ hp each time: higher amounts have been suggested, more research required) ; total healing once every 10 minutes {good substitute for greater restoration} ; available to all

Undying Court - scimitars class bonuses which can stack with racial bonuses ; raise dead quicker than anyone else every 10 minutes ; command undead spell at will as a capstone ; available to elves only

Volukoor - shortswords and free invisibility every 6 seconds ; summon monster which is very effective at the level you gain it out ; available to drow race only



Which is best?
Well that is not an easy question which means the designers did their job well...




Choosing Alignment:

Important: A character's alignment can now be changed for 350 turbine points~meaning if you ever pull an uber alignment restricted item: you can change your alignment to be able to use it at that time if necessary.

The experts insist the True Neutral is best because if you pull an evil / chaotic / good / lawful really powerful item, you can still use it.
However that path means that you must invest in the Use Magic Device skill to wield some items, which is a significant investment.
True neutral has the advantage of having a slightly better armor class which as healer you should have given up on when you get blade barrier.
True neutrals are suppose to take less damage. Having played both true neutral and lawful good with the same class, I can easily say whatever differences one recieves in damage is minor imho taking a the birds eye view of things.

Choosing Lawful Good or Chaotic Good allows you to easily wield Good weapons such as a Holy burst Pure Good (maybe frosty burst and force damage crafted on it) weapon. These are the other two choices that experts recommend.

A compound percision Holy Pure Good Frost Force longbow (with appropriate arrows) or this nature combined with free searing light is actually very effective. It will eliminating those stubborn archers who will not run thru your blade barrier as well as be a boss beater since the arrows can be silver, cold iron, and so forth. (Iron and Clay Golemns are the main monsters that I know of that are immune to light).




Choosing game settings:

Figure out the social panel and find the anonymous button, you might need it.
(Turn it off when you are questing if you get too many tells asking for party joining.)


Open up your control panel, we have a lot of work to do there.

First, find the button that says Full Screen and uncheck it. This will allow you to goggle quest and map information, such as these helpful links:
The Lost Quest Guide
Nice Maps
More Nice Maps
Shroud Puzzle Help
More Shroud Puzzle Help
Video Library of Quests
Map Shop


Next, turn down the sound settings and turn up the brightness settings.

Find the enable voice chat and turn it on. (A microphone is not necessary but you must hear the voice chat. If you don't like their attitude leave as soon as it's easy to do so.)

Find the key mapping area, after awhile, you will want to try out reconfiguring the keyboard.
(Leave a, w, s, e, r, t, b, m, space bar, mouse button, shift button, tab, backspace, and arrow keys along)
Attach a lot of the rest of the keyboard to your hot keys, allowing you quicker spell casting. Things just happen too fast to mouse click things, and there are way too many options for a single hotbar. This also prevents a party wipe because you accidently hit the plus/minus key instead of the zero key (turn your hot bar unto a different number and ruining all your healing spells.

[Silverleafeon]

***Under Construction - Unfinished***

Great Links to look at many items
Good Favored Soul end game gear
Definative Static Rewards and Unique Loot Thread #1
New and Improved Definitive Collectables List




Care of scrolls and wands and other loot:

Buying quivers and filling them with bolts and arrows of any sort is important to protect your very expensive scrolls.
Also buy lots and lots (think 500 to 1000 units) of each level of spell material components.
All of these are light and will provide simple things to break when you take major damage.




Basic Stuff you should consider:

Potions of lesser restoration and cure serious wounds (they work underwater and don't exchange your equipment - yes I have jumped in the water to escape things more than once, lol)

Striding Boots as fast as you can afford.

A continuous feather fall item along with a underwater action item.

A deathblock item (even if you have the deathblock spell since beholders will quickly remove spells from you)

A disease immunity item (areas heavy with undead frequently pass out things like mummy rot and this will prevent that)

A poison immunity item (to stop many effects including cloud kill spells)

All the remove wands as well as cure wands, restoration/greater restoration/heal scrolls.

Try to carry devotion shields till you can get some good potency weapons, the boosts are worth it. Healing is considered damage and is affected by potency. Both a Superior Potency 6 and Greater Potency 7 weapon (minimum level 14) are good to have. Any healing clickies actually at the moment provide a higher bonus than is listed (50% is actually 75%).

A heavy fort item as soon as it is available (multiple critical hits are the quickest way that you will die)

Ability enhancement items, especially Strength (easy to find a slot for), Constitution (harder to work in), Wisdom (essential to casting) and Charisma (necessary because you are pushing wisdom upward instead of this).

Try to get good armor thru level 12 (such as mithral plate), then switch your focus to robes depending upon how much you melee and are being hit.

You will want to collect 20 Elven Relics from Gianthold and get an Elven Robe that grants you +1 DC to your Blade Barrier Spell, Arcane Lore which is +6% to critical hits of your spell and + .25 critical hit damage multiplier.

You will want to obtain various pieces of equipment that boost your spell points, especially since favored souls get double the normal amounts for spell point bonuses. The highest possible is an Arch Magi which increases sp by 200 points (+400 sp for you) which as you can expect is rather hard to obtain; however less valuable versions are easier to get.

There are a few quests concerning dragons and some of these dragon cast dispelling breathe which remove your buffs including whatever energy protection you have, so for these quest robes of greater fire/cold/acid/lighting types will be added security.

Certain quests make spear block / axe block / hammer block equipment desirable, but expect to get hit by arrows the most on a typical quest. This comes on robes, armor and shields. Please note that if you have the lowest ac in the group and are stand in the open forward of the arcane caster you will attract the attention of most archers. By having a spear block item to wear, you can actually be sort of tanking for the party as you can afford to get hit by arrows more than most. If you shield block when you are not casting often the arrows will not even hurt.




Crafting Equipment

Crafting Help
More Crafting Help
Crafting Calculator
Farming for the Force Bonus



Very hard to obtain and desirable equipment:

TOD Items discussion

If you collect 25 Blue Dragon Scales from Gianthold Tor, you can obtain a blue dragon armor robe which has greater arcane lore and other nice features to it. It is a problematic piece of equipment since no normal merchants will repair it. So every time it takes a lot of damage you will have to take it to gianthold and pay 3 dragon relics to have it repaired. However, there is a merchant in the rear behind the potion vendor who will repair this armor for a stiff price in platinum. {I still wonder what would happen if you obtained 400 Favor with the Free Agents to allow you access to master repairman.}

Another option to the Blue Dragon Scale is the Skiver from Necropolis 4. This has greater arcane lore along with arch magi power enhancement (+400 spell point bonus for you). It is a dagger that can be carried in your offhand.

There is necklaces found in quests in the Devil's Battle ground that provides Superior Potency 6.
There are belts in the Devil's Battle ground that have clickies to provide great bonuses to even your 8th level spells.
The Tod raid for this adventure area provides lots of these items as well a chance a ring to match them.

[Silverleafeon]

underconstruction

Two Weapon Fighting Favored Souls - It is been stated that update 5 will not affect Favored Souls as much as other classes due to the lower amounts of attacks they recieve which makes sense. Here is a good thread on the subject, see what they eventually decide: TWF Casting Favored Soul. It has also been said that since all high melee damage characters (DPS) are going to be decreasing in values, that the Favored Soul DPS will be more valuable in the process.
Angel of Battle: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=268751

Two Handed Fighting Favored Souls - the warforged race offers a nice base for this class (Greatsword) and I respect it well although I have very little experience at building or playing it. Here is a thread on that subject: Greatsword Warforged Favored Soul

Turtle tank Favored Souls - your shield blocking DR (over 15), warforged armor DR, Favored Soul capstone DR (10), feat bonus shield blocking DR (which is worth +3 per each feat up to +6), and extra blocking DR from Divine Power's increase of BAB will all stack together creating a potential of lots of blocking DR. Tossing out a single quickened blade barrier is an easy way to make lots of monster angry with you and/or one can try to increase you cross class intimidate. More than one Favored Soul has desired to create variations of this. {Just remember any favored soul who is casting can use this option while casting with various degrees of success as even a poor defensive shield block is often enough to stop arrows.}
The Soul Survivor: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=268346

Ranged Favored Souls A favored soul 18 / ranger 2 build has been reported to be "the most fun I have ever had with a character" See more details here: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=236715

Pure healing favored souls - this fails for many reasons. Favored Souls should almost always push either strength for melee or wisdom for casting. Never push Charisma as mathematically the benefits are so small it will hardly matter. Sooner or later, you will find yourself in a situation where you must kill the monsters yourself (such as being the last one not blown off the top of the Tempest Spine raid - no kidding I have had that happen more than once). The key to building a correct healing favored soul is to copy a offensive casting favored soul and identify their luxury features then option in your healing features instead. Yes, this was my first pick for a cleric and a favored soul, but it does fail...

Healing trap master favored souls - this also fails for two reasons. This build itself is possible to make so efficiently that you exceed ordinary typical rogues. Its failure to be a good build is ironic. The first problem is that you must push intelligence to obtain enough skill points to properly build it. This means using the drow race to begin with an intelligence of 20. This means you are trading the ability to cast offensively for the ability to remove traps and pick locks as your wisdom will be about 10. Your spell selection will lag 3 levels behind a cleric which way too many. You will neglect concentration which is the first and foremost skill for a favored soul to pick. This means you will need to run quicken to cast all the time. But the total irony of this build is the rogue (and other trap masters) much like healers can and will pick and choose which groups they want to join. They are very proud of the fact that they can disarm traps and will tell you to stay back and let the professional do the job. If you start comparing skill bonuses they will be quite upset if yours are better. Estimating that half the quests need traps plus knowing by experience that in those quests about half the time a trap master will join the group, my experience has been that only a small amount of the time will you actually be able to disarm traps. The amount of times the party will want you to heal them is 100% of the time. The amount of times a good offensive spell will greatly help the party is very likely to happen more than once in a quest. Also, trap masters are very busy doing entirely different thing in different places than healers so your character will be very over burdened. Yes, this was one of my second picks for a cleric and a favored soul, but it does fail...

Buffing healing favored souls - this build works against what the experts tell you to do to save spell points for healing. One should let other classes do most of the buffing to save spell points for the quest itself when possible. As indicated before never neglect offensive casting. Yes there are certain buffs (protection and aiding spells that linger on a character) that you definitely want to choose, and I will try to identify them in the spell selection area. However concentrating only on these two will fail...

Offensive casting favored souls - this is where the gold is and where you want to find out what work for you. {This is where you start building a healer type as well.} Most offensive spells can be separated in three types - those that do damage only, those that mostly have effect on your foes, and those have both in various amount. Those that have effects are usually affected by spell resistance (each spell indicates whether or not it is affected by spell resistance in its description). Spell resistance means that usually before a monster is forced to make a saving throw, you must roll a caster check (like an attack roll) to affect them. Some builds will focus on increasing this roll and others will not depending on how much you want which spells to work best.

[Silverleafeon]

Underconstruction

Overview: Unlike many other classes, favored souls do not have a set one or two races that are best for the class. Due to religion restrictions, racial advantages, and so forth, a favored souls choice of race is determined by the favored souls focus and specilization.

Drow - this is the cheapest way to get a better build than the normal 28 point build. It boosts dexterity (which you should care less about unless you are pursuing two weapon fighting), lowers constitution (which you really want lots of), increases intelligence (which is nice for skills as favored souls don't get as many as they want), and increases charisma (which is nice but not real important as you don't need to start with charisma higher than 14 anyway).

Dwarf - this give you a better chance of staying on your feet in battle (you cannot cast while prone) and increase your constitution (a good thing) while decreasing your charisma (not really a problem). Small characters do have problems climbing up rocky surfaces and I have not tested how slow the dwarf is compared to other races. {Keeping up with the rest of the party and spell point conservation eventually becomes your biggest concerns.}

Elf: at first glance this doesn't look so tempting. Their stat bonuses are +2 dexterity and -2 Constitution. However, if you are seeking two weapon fighting as shown in this build here: The really good favored soul the dexterity bonus is very helpful to reach that dexterity 15, and the constitution penalty only means 20 less hit points at level 20. But where the elf really begins to shine is that it has racial weapons which will stack with the favored soul class weapon bonuses. If you are wielding a weapon in both hands that has racial bonuses plus class bonuses, you begin to see the possiblities. There seems to be a potential arcane archery build as well, but its probably rather complex to design.

Halfling - at first glance the ideal race for healers to choose with those dragonmarks. Twenty levels later, one realizes that halflings have trouble climbing up rocky surfaces, they have a decrease in strength (which is very needed for carrying things and occasional melee), they have an increase in dexterity (which is worthless), they look very cute, they are more lucky than normal with loot, they have better racial items than most races, they have many great ways to spend their enhancements. When all is said and done, halflings have so much to spend action points, feats, and skills points upon that they cannot begin to do everything they want to. (But all the options are kinda fun to have.) The halfling dragonmarks will cost 3 feats and 10 action points to gain about 5 heal spells, 7 Cure Serious Wounds, and 9 Cure Light Wounds. These are all on the same timer. They cannot be interrupted by a beholder (but scrolls and wands cannot be interrupted by a beholder either). For a fighter/rogue/sorcerer this might seem very attractive. For a favored soul, the dragonmarks are handy but are replaceable with any of these: Mental Toughness/Improved Mental Toughness/Scrolls/Wands/Clickies/Capstone spells. {The other dragonmarks are rarely taken compared to this one.} Overall, a fun race to play, and worth considering, but watch your strength and jumping because keeping up is so important.

Human - the ideal race for a favored soul, since this race adapts well to a variety of forms and favored souls are tricky to build. The extra feat and skill points are truly welcome.

Warforged - while the decrease to both charisma and wisdom are really bad for a favored soul, there are definite advantages to this race. Your capstone DR stacks with your racial DR, you are immune to various effects, you fear rust monsters, you can swim underwater all day long. Oddly enough, since people relate warforged with being harder to heal, and favored souls as offensive casters, you might have a bit of humor at times at people's silly attitudes as they lump all that together incorrectly worry about how much you can heal them (which is always at the back of their minds).

[Silverleafeon]

Strength - most important to the melee favored soul and actually important to the casting favored soul. Simply put, if you are wearing light armor and have a light load, you have a significant boost to your running speed (about 10 to 15% I estimate thru testing). To maintain a light load, you need a higher strength or less inventory. Often when your character loots lots of heavy armor this will quickly become an issue. To circumvent this and just in general, make sure that you have striding boots as fast as you can afford. If you have a heavy load, you character will become very hampered. (Mobility becomes your true armor at higher levels - starting at 12th when you gain access to the blade barrier spell). One of your major enemies is tripping which is a strength vs. strength check.
Start with a minimum of 10 and hopefully 12 for casters.

Constitution - if you die there is a big problem. You can raise others from the dead, but you cannot cast that spell on yourself. Sometimes you can be taken back to a shrine, other times a light monk or paladin will raise you from the dead. Expect the questing to go way downhill when you die. Hit points prevent dying and constitution grants you hit points.
Start with a 14 before racial adjustments.

Dexterity - here is something you just don't need for most all builds.
Start with a 08 before racial adjustments.

Intelligence - this affects skill points which clerics and favored souls have little of. Work backward with this, by figuring out which skills you really want, whether you will buy a +2 supreme tomb at 7th level, and which race you are choosing.
Start with an 08, 10, or 12 before racial adjustments.

Wisdom - this is your most important ability score if you are a caster favored soul. It determines how easily monsters can resist your spells.
Start with a minimum of 17 and hopefully 18 for casters.
Push only Wisdom at each level up opportunity for casters.

Charisma - this determines a modest amount of spell points and whether or not you can cast spells. Sounds important, and it is but not as much as wisdom. Mathematically it has been shown one could start with a very low charisma and boost it well above the desired 19 (for casting level 9 spells) thru various methods. {"Charisma gives 9 + (cha mod x level) sp. At level 20, that's 29 per 2 points, nice to have but hardly worth investment."}
Start with either a 12, 13 or 14 charisma (buy a +6 charisma boosting item and take a charisma boosting enhancement or two making you easily ok)

[Silverleafeon]

Class skills (in order of importance):
{Your base skill points are 2 per level (with Intelligence of 10). It adjusts from there with Humans receiving a +1 bonus.}

Concentration: What you absolutely need for a favored soul caster is concentration. Take this skill at every level, keeping it as high as you can. Even if you have quicken turned on continuously (you should turn it off occasionally at least for buffing before battles), you still need concentration to cast scrolls in combat.

Jump: Next most important skill is jump. As I said before mobility is your armor. A moving target always takes much less damage. This helps you jump over and around traps, when the party does not have a trap master. It has been said that most all traps have a way to avoid them if you are careful and clever. So many times, keeping up with the party is so important. If you are being surrounded or knocked down, jump as soon as you can, this will save your life so many times.

Diplomacy: A possible skill is diplomacy. Without items and near max diplomacy skill ranks, you can actually keep the devils in the devil's battle ground (level 18 thru 20 content) from attacking you. I have used it and seen it work there. Diplomacy is considered an attack and will dispel invisibility cast on you. I have noticed that higher diplomacy seems to make creatures less aggressive towards passive healers even when you are not pressing the diplomacy button (which is quick and easy to use). Dropping blade barriers will make a lot of creatures angry with you (called aggro), so this can be a way to get rid of this aggro. However a lot of times, you want everyone angry at you while you jump and run back and forth thru your blade barrier.

Heal: What you don't want is the heal skill, this is totally useless to you. Cast cure spells on hurt characters at the shrine before you shrine (mass cure works well there) buff them too if party members are smart enough to wait for you then shrine.




Cross class skills (in order of importance):
{Cross class skill cost double to buy: 2 skill point=1 rank hence they are much less effecient to purchase.}

Balance: If you are flat on your back, you cannot cast spells. However I have found that when wearing robes (for no acp penalty) a balance of 6 full cc ranks works fairly well enough. {The game may have been adjusted to reduce balance requirements.} This was with only a minor balance item, so really a good balance item of +12 to +15 along with no/low acp penalties and the freedom of movement spell should do fine most of the time even in high level play. Multiple lions with improved trip will get you down and keep you down no matter what your balance is. (Which is why you jump while casting a lot).

Use Magic Device (UMD): This is skill is an all or nothing skill. You either decide to have it and max it all you can or don't take any ranks in it. It has three basic uses. First, it will allow you to cast wizard spells, which is very handy if you are soloing. Second, it will allow you to bypass alignment restrictions (which will be discussed in detail later on). Third, it will allow you to gain access to cheaper equipment with racial restrictions and use them. Greensteel items, items/potions of Heroism/greater heroism and the DDO store Bunny hat (equip wand) are ways to increase your UMD bonus. The big disadvantage of bypassing restrictions is that it usually requires a 2 to 4 step process to do, making it unsuitable for battlefield conditions.

Tumble: By taking just 1 full rank of tumble, you will open up this option. At high levels, tumble items/spells are available to help out. There is the gianthold raid where upwards/downwards false gravity will make you take falling damage (feather fall is no help there), and some time tumble will help you keep blocking thru traps and such, but jumping is more important for traps. {It no longer helps you move thru solid fog.} Overall, something to consider a small investment of 2 cross class ranks to open it up.

Haggle: Money is important yes, but make a deal with a haggle bard to sell your high level loot; be generous and give them a commission (5%) along with a bit of praise. Haggle items are available to buy as well. Never train this skill, you simply cannot afford to and if you are an excellent healer everyone will want you to party with them (giving you more loot than you can carry--literally). Haggle bards (haggle 50 to 70+ skill bonus) are a great source to help purchase bundles of scrolls and wands, so do both at the same time.

Listen and Spot: Sigh another skill, we would love to enhance, but cannot afford to do so. Buy some spot bonus goggles and watch with envy as the ranger shoots arrows to kill things you cannot even see.

Intimidate: For the favored soul who longs to be an intimidation tank. Common threads on the subject debate how high is high enough. Myself, I have no idea.




Choosing Enhancements:

Fortunately, one can reset your enhancements every 3 days with a reasonable amount of gold, and when you reach level 20, the fee drops to zero. Most player will reset their enhancements at least three times: when you obtain the Empower spell feat, whenever smiting becomes more or less important, and again at level 20.

Due to escalating costs, some enhancements are not worth buying to maximum. However the ones that you definitely ought to consider buying are:

Life Magic 1 thru 4
Favored Soul Energy of the Scion 1 thru 4
Favored Soul Improved Empowering 1 thru 3
Favored Soul Wand and Scroll Masterly 1
Favored Soul Charisma 1 & 2
Favored Soul Wisdom 1 & 2
Favored Soul Ascendency
Favored Soul Spell Penetration 1

Depending on your feat choices, race, and religion:
Human Adaptability 1
Racial Toughness 1 & 2
Favored Soul Toughness 1 & 2
Unyielding Sovereignty good as Greater Restoration and full healing for warforged barbarians
Bladeworn Transformation awesume melee bonuses

Depending on your spell selection:
Favored Soul Improved Spell Penetration 2 & 3
Favored Soul Smiting 1 thru 4
Favored Soul Prayer of Smiting 1 & 2
Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Smiting 1 & 2

[Silverleafeon]

Feats you really want and wonder how you went so long without them:

Quicken: For fast casting of any spell with no interruptions, quicken feat does the job and does it well. It makes heal and mass heal your most efficient ways to heal. It makes blade barrier your supreme spell, and make you consider odd little spells like obscuring mist. (Obtain by level 12).

Maximize: This is so different from pen and paper D&D. Read it and realize that it simply doubles damage. At early levels where your healing spells just don't seem to heal good enough, this feat makes your healing work right. This spell will not affect Heal and Mass Heal. (Obtain by level 3).

Empower: This is the feat that you can reduce the spell point (sp) cost of. This spell will not affect Heal and Mass Heal. This is your signature feat that the game designers felt defines favored souls. (Obtain by level 12).

Extend: This feat should be turned on and off as desired. Think then do. It is definitely worth having if only to extend blade barrier long enough for you to round up lots of foes. At low levels, it extends your long duration spells long enough to last happy amounts. At high levels, it extends your short duration spells long enough to last happy amounts. (Obtain at level 1 to 6).




Feats you probably will think twice before taking then take them anyway.

Toughness: It bears repeating that if you die, everything falls apart. They can die lots, but if you die, the end may be near. If you take toughness, favored souls get class enhancements and certain races (human included) get additional race enhancements. This means for a feat and a modest amount of action points one can add about 100 hit points to your character. This is significant survivability and makes you begin to see why humans are a good choice overall to play. (Obtain at level 1).

Heighten: A favored soul has very limited spell selection and this will make a lower level spell useful again at high levels. When spell points conservation is an issue it is to be used with care and not turned on all the time. This will affect Heal by increasing its spell point cost, however it will not affect cures, mass cures, or mass heal spells. This will make your blade barriers more effective than ever, and restore your hold person as well as other spells to a respectable position again. (Obtain at level 15 or 18).




Feat pairs you might consider for enhancing your offensive casting:

Spell penetration, Greater spell penetration: Make sure you take the enhancements first before these. These increase you caster roll on effects spells that generally neutralize or kill your foes. Think about whether the 10% better chance of success is worth the feat price.

Spell focus Evocation, Greater spell focus Evocation: For the Evoker Favored Soul build which focuses on your blade barrier. These increase the chances of the foe not saving against an evocation (blowing up things) spell by 5% each. Alone each is not so much, but together the build increase blade barrier dc save difficulty by 30% which is significant.




Melee feats: no advice here from me, look, and ask




Energy Resistance Class Feats:

Energy Resistance discussion

There are 5 energy types with resistances that can be applied to them, but you are granted 3 feats that grant stackable resistance of 10 to three of them. When you cast Resist Fire upon yourself and have the resist fire feat, you gain Resist Fire 40 (Resist Spell = 30 fire resist + Resist Fire feat 10 fire resist = 40 total).

There are two smart schools of thought on the subject.

Both agree that the Fire Resist feat should be taken at 5th level.

The block low damage school of thought decides that certain energies (Acid and Sonic) mostly come in low amounts that occur very often, and by taking these resist feats you will never have to worry about these damages again. (Including worrying about dispel magic which monsters will cast on you.)
Take Fire Resist feat at 5th level,
Acid Resist feat at 10th level,
and Sonic Resist feat at 15th level.

The block high damage school of thought decides that those same energies can be prevented by other means (forcing you to almost always cast resist acid and at higher levels sonic on yourself after each shrine). Therefore, they want the resist 40 combined amounts to help them with the stronger damaging spells (cold, fire and lighting). (Monsters casting Greater Dispel magic and your own forgetfullness can be a problem here; however the powerful spells will hurt less.)

Acid hits are usually in multiple low amounts therefore an acid greater resist robe/ resist acid spell will generally prevent them.
Take Resist Cold at level 15.
Take Resist Fire at level 5.
Take Resist Lighting at level 10. (This helps with chain lightning spells and so forth.)
Sonic hits are usually found in traps, stunning spells, and multiple low amounts, therefore a sonic greater resist robe / resist sonic spell will generally prevent them.




Myth buster feat notes:

Improved critical slashing is a feat intended for weapons, not your blade barrier. It will not improve your blade barrier. Instead, go to gianthold and obtain an additional 20 elven relics (after you turn in your first 20 for flagging). Trade this in for an robe that will help your spellcasting critical hits.

Enlarge spell is not a useless feat. My latest character has used it and loved it. Most divine spells (with the exception of Firestorm) have very limited range. It is a luxury feat, but it has so many uses although I only turn it on when I know that I am casting out of range. The Shroud part 4 is a good example of a place where it proved very useful for an occasional turn on heal turn off, when you have no idea which direction the out of range character is at. Running along cliff tops in the vale banishing everything in sight is another example. A third good example is solo slaying beholders from a distance with Holy Smite + light spell combos. Usually, beholders will antimagic you if you come into divine spell range, but will ignore you from enlarge spell distance. Solo fans and healing experts might love it. All in all, it's a grand luxury feat to think about.

Weapon proficiency: A Heavy Repeating Crossbow will not repeat unless you have this feat for it. {I actually like the Heavy Repeating Crossbow when it is used with a greensteel/or/frost crafted strong weapon as it suits my playing style; but rapid reloading not recommended by me as it is reported to gain only 5% ish more attacking for a feat you need elsewhere.} Whether any other weapons suffer more than the -4 to hit with, I do not know. There will be certain situations such as attacking a portal where your attack bonuses are not nearly as important as your damage capacity//or your ranged capacity would be better suited to some unusual weapon that is handy; hence don't be afraid to use a weapon you are not proficent with.

Mental toughness, Improved mental toughness: These two have recommendations swinging all over the place about them. Taking one of these will increase you spell points by 105 spell points. A level 20 favored soul can easily have close to 2,400 spell points without a greensteel item and without these feats. That is a lot of spell points. I guess really, if you want the few extra spell points and don't have any feats you like better, take them. But think twice about it and watch your spell point totals carefully during questing. Wands and scrolls are your friends especially for topping off healing, so use them and you will find it will greatly increase your spell point conservation.

Dragonmarks: These are race restrictive and these usually require 2 or 3 feats and up to 10 action points. This is an expensive luxury investment (unless you are a halfling) and must be carefully considered. It is a way to add favor to your character.

Empowered Healing: This is the only way to metamagically boost your heal and mass heal spells. Typically the heal spell should approach 300 ish healing with this turned off and about 450 ish healing with it turned on. If this is quickened and empowered healing is turned off, your heal spells costs less spell points and will typically easily heal any target other than a barbarian (warforged or otherwise) in full rage to full health {simply follow up the heal with another spell in this case}. The key to using quickened Mass Heal a lot (yes my characters have been to the devil's battleground) is anticipation. Sense the flow of the battlefield, know your foes, and your allies. The few times that I have turned on Empower, Empowered Healing, and Maximize is places like the Shroud part 4 (where I had to use spell point potions (sp pots) to restore spell points while doing so.) Having all three of these feat is a nice luxury to be able to adjust, but often I find myself just leaving empower and maximize continuously on (with Empowered Healing turned off). Using lower level cures/mass cures with higher metamagic feats is an important concept, because the lower level spells have faster casting time and less cool down time.

Past Life: Acolyte of Divine Secrets: This is a grand feat to help you level up a True Resurrection character from levels 3-6ish to 15-18ish especially while you have some smiting enhancements. It is particually effective vs. foes with evasion. At 10th level, this light spell was doing 81 to 90ish damage attacks on the boss Inevitable in VON part 3, contributing greatly to the damage done. {Without item bonuses and with Maximum and Empower spell feats turned on.} The 10 per rest usually is quite sufficient to go from shrine to shrine when one is in a group. The six second timer means that you will cast one other spell alternating with this one. Its casting time is fast even without quicken. (Golems of all types are the main things you will encounter that are immune to light.)

Echew Materials: will not overide the material component costs of Stoneskin or Death Pact. Warning - avoid this feat and don't listen to anyone who promotes this course of action.

[Silverleafeon]

{Your spell list is the same as a clerics but you must carefully choose 4 each of the first 5 levels and 3 each of the next 4 levels for a total of 32 spells. One spell can be exchanged every 3 days (a long time to wait if you have multiple spells to swap) for increasingly expensive amounts of gold as you gain levels. Expect to start paying over 125,000 gp at high levels to exchange a spell. Hence, we have to be very careful in or choices!}

Avoid these spells

Bane: The later spell Prayer is preferable - avoid.

Bless: The later spell Prayer is preferable - avoid.

Cause Fear: Players frown on having to chase foes down - avoid.

Doom: There will be better spells of this nature later on, save you spell points for command and cures - avoid.

Inflict light wounds: This does too little damage to bother with. If you want this necromancy route, wait - avoid.

Protection from Evil: Get the mass version of this instead - avoid.

Shield of Faith: This will not stack well with future equipment. You have too many spells to swap without these to deal with - Avoid.

Summon Monster I: Nice as summoning spells are, the quickly lose effectiveness. However, scrolls and items are you friends here, especially for Summon Monster 3 and 5. {Be aware Beholders and other spell casters can turn your pets against you.} Definitely do not choose any summoning spells except possibly one very high level spell. Summon Monster 8 has the advantage of being invisible, allowing other party members to see thru it. Summon Monster 9 is a CR 14 creature which is very hard to see around, causing problems for other members. However it is quite sturdy until you reach the Devil's Battlefield. Both of these will draw attention away from your blade barrier which is a disadvantage. They will also draw creatures that you may not want to attracted the attention of. Always ask before summoning these creatures in raids or adventures that you are not familiar with - Avoid this one.


Situational - take but swap these out sometime in the future

Command: Your comrades fear this spell a lot when your foes use it on them - take it early and use on big dumb brutes. Keep it until you obtain greater command and then swap it out at that point.

Cure light wounds: your first healing spell, which does not scale very well - take it first level. Keep it until you have two better cures such as cure moderate and cure serious wounds then swap it out.


Wand only

Remove fear: The remove and cure spells are always effective from a wand. Since they affect your allies they scale nicely as you level up and they quick enough to activate. This will save you spell points and spell slots - Avoid the spell but make sure you get a wand of this spell and hotbar it. (House J and/or Marketplace can provide you with these wands at the merchandise).


Golden Spells - take have keep and use

Divine Favor: Your melee friends would love to have this (but its only for you) - take it sometime and keep it forever even if you have very few occasions to wield a weapon. In places such as the shroud part 1, healers are expect to beat on the portals.

Nightshield: Wow what a spell! It blocks magic missile, and provides the hard to acquire resistance bonuses - take it, keep it, and always cast it on yourself after you shrine.


Future spells - obtain/swap these in at a later time

Obscuring Mist: Another interesting spell to give on pause. Remember how confused you are when those kobold cast it. Well if you cast it, yes some of your foes will wander randomly thru it. It does not affect your allies as far as I can tell and grants a 20% miss chance to your opponents rolls. This is liking casting mass blur on the battlefield. Quicken really makes this shine - ponder for later on.

Nimbus of Light: An interesting spell to give one pause. The addition eventually means that this spells will do 1d8 +20 damage (averaging 24.5 damage compared to searing lights 5d8 = 22.5 damage). The cool down time of this spell is much faster than Searing Light. With proper enhancements, equipment, and metamagics running, you can expect 110 ish damage with critical hits 300 ish - ponder for later on with an angel of light build. (There are times when you face a boss after a shrine, and light is rarely reduced or blocked.)

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid these spells

Close Wounds: This is a pen and paper D&D spell that really is not needed in DDO. Cure Moderate Wounds is as fast as you can press buttons anyway - Avoid.

Deific Vengeance: Wait and get Holy Smite instead - Avoid.

Find Traps: Well, this is part of the Trap finding Healer version that ultimately fails - Avoid.

Seek eternal rest: This is a clerical only spell. It does you no good at all since you cannot turn undead - Avoid.

Spawn Screen: Helps keep you from creating lots more wraiths when you have a total party kill by wraiths. Restart the quest or go somewhere else - Avoid.

Summon Monster II: See my notes on Summon Monster I - Avoid.


Debatable, Possibly take, but have Wand as well

Lesser Restoration: Like all remove/restore spells, there are wands and scrolls for this one. The restoration series is a tricky spell set to consider, but in the end, a wand seems best here - Maybe avoid but definitely buy the wand version either way.

Inflict Moderate Wounds: only consider if you party with a Wizard pale master frequently as this spell heals them


Wand only

Aid: You can buy a wand version of this. Prayer is better so wait and choose it instead for a spell - Avoid.

Bear's Endurance/Bull Strength/Eagles Splendor/Owl's Wisdom: You can and should buy a wand version of these. Eventually player will have these bonuses as permanent items which do not stack with these spells - Avoid.

Remove paralysis: Another remove spells that fits best in backpack on a wand - Avoid and definitely buy the wand version.


Golden Spells - take, have, keep and use

Cure Moderate Wounds: A great spell that will do nice healing with metamagics. The big advantage to keeping this spell is that there is not a whole lot of second level spells that are desirable at higher levels. One alternative is that if you often party with a necromancer wizard that goes into undead form swap this for Inflict Moderate Wounds to heal them (otherwise an inflict wand will do instead for the rare occasions when that happens) - Take and possible keep always. Be sure and buy wands of this as well.

Hold Person: Can you say Auto Critical Hits and neutralization all in one spell. Too bad divine types don't get a mass version of this - Take, and if you have Heighten Spell possibly keep forever. Heighten spell feat will make this work at higher levels.

Resist Energy: One of the most asked for spells that you can buff with. When you get it, cast it on yourself in town, but don't finish casting. There will be 5 squares to choose from. Remove all 5 of them in order and place them on a hot bar. Use these to 5 cast from, not the original spell - Take and keep forever.

Soundburst: Your first very effective mass neutralize foes spell and a good one for many, many levels. Save healing by stunning your foes - Take quickly and keep possibly forever. Heighten spell feat will make this work at higher levels.

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid these spells

Bestow Curse: Get a curse spewing weapon (which will be more effective) instead - Avoid.

Blindness: Interesting, but you can do better than this - Avoid.

Contagion: The melee will probably kill it before it feels your spell effects; you can find better spells than this - Avoid.

Inflict Serious Wounds: Necromancy. You can do much better than this - Avoid.


Experimental - maybe take after have quicken, but don't count on it working

Glyph of Warding: The first of the symbol spells. Symbol spells are slow to cast, last a long time if not triggered, and all of them run on the same 120 second timer. This means that having multiple Symbols Spells are not wise as the timer makes the duplicates useless. You can probably find room in your spell selection for one symbol, if you desire after you have quicken - Consider one symbol spell only after quicken.


Situational - consider taking, but be willing to swap out later on

Aid Mass: Effective at medium levels, this spell affect a large area all at once with hit points and a nice bonus. Good to have until you get your mass cure spells. At higher levels, wizard and mage spells will overwrite everything this spell does - Consider taking then swapping out as you start doing raids and obtain cure spells. (A good swap would be this for Remove Curse, because this becomes less effective as Remove Curse become more used.)

Dispel Magic: A possibility overlooked by many, as monsters do have spells on them that can be removed include death ward. Unfortunately this version of the spell will become almost useless at high levels - Ponder your build, probably avoid, or take and swap out by the time you get blade barrier.

Protection from energy: This spell is useful, but inferior to Resist Energy and Mass Protection from Elements which is the pair of spells you should end up with at high levels. Don't make the mistake of casting this spell when resist energy was requested. For now if you can fit it in, this can help especially soloing - Take, then swap out for Mass Protection from Elements.

Searing Light: Very effective against undead, but against everything else, Nimbus of Light eventually (level 20) is better. If you choose the Silver Flame religion, you do not need this spell to take advantage of your capstone. The capstone (which costs 2 action points) has its own hotbar square. It's cool down is 6 seconds, but it is essentially the same spell with any metamagic feats that are active. It's spell point cost is zero. With lots of bonuses running you can expect damage to be 100 ish with critical hits at 300+ ish. Either way, light is one of the few things that affects almost everything including monsters with improved evasion and archers who refuse to run thru your blade barrier.


Scroll or Item

Summon Monster III: See my notes on Summon Monster I - I would never choose this for a spell slot, but pets are wonderful things to have around.


Wands only

Remove Blindness: A wand will suffice for now here and later on Heal with fix this sort of thing - Avoid but buy a wand with this spell on it.

Remove Disease: Buy a wand for this, also the Heal spell will cure this as well - Avoid.

Water Breathing: Buy this wand, set it in your backpack, and go buy an underwater action item when you can afford it - Avoid, but buy the wand containing this spell.


Golden Spells - take, have, and use

Magic Circle Against Evil: The spell description does not do this spell justice. These bonuses are reported to stack with anything. The spell itself does protect against Command and Greater Command (tested by my character and reported by others). Melee characters complain a lot about Command spells - Take this spell, keep it and cast it as one of your buff spell group.

Avoid till fixed, not working as intended Prayer: A luck bonus! Luck bonuses are very rare, this is a good buff spell to toss out every once in awhile. It makes the melees happy and its impressive to cast - Take, keep always, and use.

Remove Curse: This effect cannot be removed by Heal, and at higher levels certain monsters grant curses that prevent healing spells from working correctly. Hence you will at times cast this spell a lot and probably need both the wand and spell version of it for good measure. Ponder using wand only I'm not sure if it is enough - Probably take and keep; buy the wand as well.

Cure Serious Wounds: A quality spell, which with proper bonuses will be most effective. Choose this or Cure Critical Wounds and work on swapping out Cure Light Wounds. (Be sure and buy the wand version of this spell from the House of Wizardly in House J.)

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid these spells

Chaos Hammer: Until higher levels, a good amount of monsters are chaotic, rendering this spell less than desirable until higher levels when it will not do as much damage as you would like - Avoid.

Dismissal: Instant kill to outsiders, but inferior to the spell banishment (or blade barrier). One of my characters soloed Invaders several times and never used this spell once - Avoid.

Inflict Critical Wounds: you will do more damage with holy smite than this - Avoid.

Poison: the target will probably die from a barbarian's axe before it feels the effects of this spell. Bosses are particularly resistant to effects so taking it for them will not always work. There are weapons that can grant effects if you care to try them out - Avoid.

Summon Monster IV: See my notes on Summon Monster I - Avoid.

Symbol of Flames: Another Symbol Spell and probably not a good choice. Symbols are tricky so choose carefully - Avoid this one.

Unholy Blight: you will likely be the target of this spell but hardly ever find a target to use it upon - Avoid.


Wands only

Neutralize Poison: Buy the wand for this spell and use the Heal Spell to cure poison - Avoid and buy the wand this spell contains.

Avoid till fixed, not working as intended {Have actual link somewhere, designer said so.} Recitation: Unlike prayer this does not help with damage and skills. In the broad scope of things, eventually your melee allies will rarely miss making +1 luck damage much better than +2 luck to hit. Buy this in a wand and carry it around if anyone asks for it - Avoid, and buy wand if asked for spell.

Shield of Faith, Mass: Other things grant deflection bonuses, including nice items which one does not always have - ponder and see what your group asks for but probably avoid. (Should the tank always want this try the regular Shield of Faith spell instead.) Consider buying a wand instead.


Scrolls only

Restoration: The second in the line of restorations spells. The big advantage to this is that it restores all ability damage at once and one level drained. The disadvantage is that if you had cast death ward you might not need this spell. The recommended approach is to just have scrolls of this spell. In dealing with beholders, scrolls are castable within the anti magic aura - Avoid if you can afford scrolls of this spell.


Debatable - consider taking, but be willing to swap out later on

Death Ward: Deathblock items are nice, but inferior to the Death Ward spell which blocks level drains and inflict spells. However, a beholder's anti magic aura with remove this spell quickly, but possibly after it has blocked a spell. This spell will be eventually replace by Mass Death Ward, but it is worth considering - Possibly take and eventually swap for Mass Death Ward.

Order's Wrath: Save vs. stun with damage as well. This a grand spell, but at times it does not affect things. It's much trickier to cast then Holy Smite as it lies down in a certain manner every time. So very close up and far away foes cannot be affect by it. Sound burst is more likely to stun more foes but does less damage. It's actually fun to cast, just to hear players say "wow, what is that spell!" - Think about taking but be willing to swap out as damage/stun returns diminish.


Cannot afford multiple wands yet, use this:

Panacea: an excellent substitute for all around healing if your budget cannot afford all the wands that I am suggesting. When you have the heal spell and/or more money swap this spell out - Maybe take if poor, but otherwise avoid.


Golden, take, have, and use

Cure Critical Wounds: A quality healing spell, good to pair off with Heal for individual healing, although Cure Serious Wounds is an acceptable substitute. Pick one of these two and swap out cure light wounds for something else. This is the first cure wand that is not easily purchased, but found in treasure chests.

Divine Power: Like Divine Favor, this spell is too good to ignore. The question is when you take it - how much melee fighting will your character will? - Take sooner or later and keep.

Freedom of Movement: This buff spell will be requested a lot. It is highly recommended that you cast it upon yourself after using a rest shrine. It prevents webbing, earth grab, sleet storm and other annoying problems - Take and keep.

Holy Smite: most foes are evil and this spell affects a wide area. this is a great blasting spell - Take and possibly keep forever. {Bear in mind that in the Devil's Battleground, you are the outsider, not them.}

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid

Inflict Light Wounds, Mass: Blade Barrier and other spells are better - Avoid.


Scroll
Summon Monster V: See my notes on Summon Monster I - Here is the big rock guy with earth grab. If you ever solo and watch him in action, it is actually rather impressive how he helps out. Get some scrolls of this one, its pretty good for a pet.


Debatable, ponder first

Slay Living: This is a close range spell, but if instant kill is your goal, here is where you begin. Make sure and enhance your spell penetration bonuses.

Spell Resistance: Only clerics and favored souls can grant this. Many sources claim that most everything spell resistance prevents can be stopped by other sources. It may be far too much spell point cost to cast this spell for what benefits you receive. Research first and consider Magic Circle Against Evil as a cheaper substitute. This will not have any effect on direct damaging spells.

Stalwart Pact: This looks good till you realize that many things go right thru DR 5 / Magic (yes your foes do carry magic weapons) at the level you are playing at when you get this spell. Since you have mass cures, this spell is not likely worth the spell point cost. Many players are unwilling to wait long enough for you to cast this spell anyway. However, it does provide temporary hit points when things get rough and will reduce damage from some monsters that do not use weapons. Not really worth a spell slot and the spell points required to cast it on everyone.

Symbol of Pain: An interesting combination with blade barrier, but I have yet to see it properly work. (Maybe because I am too busy jumping around to look.) Symbols are tricky - Consider after you get quicken as this is a level where you might could fit it in.



Potentially take and replace later


Flame Strike: Often used by clerics and actually a nice blasting spell. Think about replacing with Firestorm at later levels - Possibly Take.

Protection From Elements: better than protection from energy, but remember this is not a substitute for casting resist energy. Upgrade protection from energy to this if you desire, then either way upgrade again to Mass Protection from Elements later on.


Potentially very good

Break Enchantment: A wonderful spell which can remove many status effect including petrifaction. If the ally is within enemy firewalls or enemy blade barriers it will remove them as well. It can fail unlike your remove wands or heal spell which always work on some things. Usually it does not fail even on level 18 quests - Greatly consider taking.

True Seeing: Ignored by me till recently as earlier characters had DM's vision, I had requests for this spell later on. This spell eliminates things like blur on foes and allows you to see secret doors. It is a good buff to have around - Take or definitely have scrolls for this.


Golden, and always useful

Cure Light Wounds Mass: The first of the mass cure spells. It's odd how many people criticize this spell. I like it, but it heals a lot more for me since I'll have greater/superior devotion/potency item + life magic 4 + empower + maximize. Its casting time is quicker as is its cool down time. The only concern I have about it is that that each cure mass has a certain radius it affect and the mass cure critical wounds is a significantly bigger circle than mass cure light wounds.

Greater Command: This spells is awesome. Bring the giants to their knees. - Take as soon as you can and keep as heighten will continue to make it useful later on.

Raise Dead: Your first resurrection type spell. You may have been using a few scrolls before now especially if you got greater command first - Take and swap for Resurrection when you can.

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid

Bear's Endurance, Mass/Bull's Strength, Mass/Eagle's Splendor, Mass/Owl's Wisdom: - while these are nice buffs, it's not your job to buff everyone in a raid. Items will not stack with this spell - Avoid.

Create Undead: Another summon spell that is outdated far too quickly - Avoid.

Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass: Your blade barrier is much better.

Greater Glyph of Warding: Bigger explosions, but this is another symbol spell, with all its complications. Cometfall is much better - Avoid.

Summon Monster VI: See my notes on Summon Monster I - Avoid.

Symbol of Fear: Your melee allies hate having to chase down foes - Avoid.

Undeath to death: Killing up to 4 undead, nah use blade barrier instead - Avoid.

Word of Recall: A nice teleporting spell for the cleric to cherish. We on the other hand cannot afford such luxury - Avoid.


Scroll

Heroes Feast: A nice buff clerics cast, but favored souls only scroll.


Highly Debatable/Experimental

Greater Dispel Magic: For the Destruction expert, this spell might help remove death wards. However, there is so much to choose from this level - Avoid.

Harm: A strong spell, but unless you have a good plan to use it, there are many others here that are better - Avoid.

Symbol of Persuasion: Your only charm spell and it is in such an awful level. I have tried this in various places. Summery - it can be removed by break enchantment when you no longer want a monster to be charmed, but sometimes that creates multiple removes. It often either charms everything or nothing, leaving your party needing to pull other foes into your charmed foes. I have never had it work on the devil's battlefield yet, although others have suggested to do that (perhaps my spell penetration was too low and as a healer I was rather busy). Its range of casting is very short, requiring the use of enlarge spell if you want the best effects to sneak up on things.


Potentially very good

Banishment: A much better version of dismissal which will work very well in the vale. I tried it a few times in the shroud and got the immune warning. Creatures in the Devil's Battle are immune to this spell because they are not outsiders there (you are).

Cometfall: The spell everyone wishes they had room for. At times this spell is better than blade barrier since you cannot count on your allies to pull things thru your blade barrier - Consider taking this.

Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass: The second mass cure spell and you definitely need at least two (not including mass heal). However, it does compete with Cometfall and others for the coveted third spell slot - Consider taking this.


Golden, and always useful

Blade Barrier: One of your best spells, learn to use it. This spell is complex- a creature only takes damage when they leave this spell or enter it. LESS IS MORE - Multiple blade barrier spells count as one large blade barrier spell {yes, I have tested this-they must not touch}, so it is possible to fill a room up with blade barriers that your foes will never take damage from because they never leave the spell's area. - Take at 12th and keep.

Heal: Your best healing spell- Take it right after blade barrier and keep it forever.

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid

Inflict Serious Wounds, Mass: There are just too many better things to choose from here - Avoid.

Restoration, Mass: I don't think I have every run across a situation where everyone had stats/negative levels and lived to tell about it. Maybe a cleric would choose this, but not us - Avoid.

Summon Monster VII: See my notes on Summon Monster I - Avoid.


Scroll

Greater Restoration: a great spell. oddly enough the most likely time you will need to cast is within a beholder's anti magic field. Scrolls are the key to this spell. By now you can afford to buy them - Avoid and buy plenty of scrolls with this spell on them.


Highly Debatable/Experimental

Spell Resistance, Mass: The experts feel that Spell Resistance is useless and better covered with Magic Circle. Other sources claim that it does help in a few situations. The melees will feel better with it. - Look at your spell selection and see what you have and don't have, if you don't need other things then ponder and research some more. Thread debating this subject

Symbol of Stunning: Another symbol spell, and I think I have more confidence in a heighten soundburst spell working than this - Likely Avoid or experiment with.

Symbol of Weakness: Experiment with this or other symbols one at a time, but don't count on them working - Likely Avoid or experiment with.


Golden, and always useful

Cure Serious Wounds Mass: Greater Potency 7 club/daggers are available which would boost this spell and enable you to use it for raid as your second mass cure spell. It is an option - Consider taking this spell as one of your two mass cure spells.

Destruction: probably the best all around instant kill spell - although you can live without it, it is very nice to have. Consult your build before taking as some spell penetration enhancements/feats may be needed. (Epic creatures are said to be warded against instant kill spells such as this; I do not know if Greater Dispel Magic will remove these wards.)

Resurrection: now is the time to swap Raise Dead for this spell. If you are concerned about the cool down timer on one resurrection spell, buy a few scrolls. The odds that when multiple resurrections are need quickly maybe you need to recall out, talk over your game plan and try again - Take and swap for True Resurrection when it's available but carry some scrolls of this just in case.

Protection from elements, mass: a great spell, but a not substitute for resist energy - Take and keep. Refresh your casting every so often as needed during quests. discussion

[Silverleafeon]

Avoid

Holy Aura: A buff replaced by Magic Circle Against Evil - Avoid {however recheck for Updates that may fix it.}

Inflict Critical Wounds, Mass: You can do better than this - Avoid.

Symbol of Death: This does too little for the level you are at - Avoid.


Debatable, but very usable:

Cure critical wounds, mass: my favorite of them all, but you need an item to boost it with. Wander in the regions of the Devil's Battleground and you will find two clickies that you seek - Consider taking as raid healing is needed.

Firestorm: A spell that most scorn simply because its fire and devils are immune to fire. However at high levels there are still quite a few monsters not immune to fire. After going to Inspired Quarter and the party pulling two of the fire robes there, one of my characters ended up with one of them simply because none of the melee wanted/need such item. So I knew Firestorm was coming and I decided to use experiment with it. Typically the combination yields damage at 300 ish with critical at 500 ish. Those saving with evasion were greeted with a second blast. The range of this spell is huge compared to most divine spells (like it has enlarge built in). The casting time is very quick with quicken. The area of effect is room filling. There is a delay from casting till it lands, but if you anticipate it can work with you. Cast blade barrier at the door entrance, let someone open the door and cast firestorm follow by Holy Smite. Whatever survives, the melee will clean up while you jump out of the way. - Consider using this if you have the proper equipment.

Summon Monster VIII: Finally, your first possible Summoning Spell but not often used. However, it has fans from those who use it and really like it. This ghostly lion's advantages are that your allies can see thru it; it has evasion; and it likes to trip things.


Golden, and always useful

Death Pact: As I said before, and shall repeat one last time, if you die everything goes downhill from there. I have cast this spell a lot and been thankful. Be sure and move away from the battle before you accept your raise dead spell then heal yourself immediately afterwards. (Don't wait to long as it will expire.) This has saved me in raids and important quests. It is expensive to cast, so I sometimes don't cast it (Warning - Eschew Materials feat will not overide this cost, nor will it overide the Stoneskin cost.) - Take and keep.

Death Ward, Mass: One of your few important buff spells. But when you raid, don't cast this or Mass Protection from elements right away. Wait and see if anyone else casts it first - Take and keep.

[Silverleafeon]

Debatable, but very usable:

Implosion: A spell with a lot of fame, both good and bad. The cool down timer is 60 second. You need to be up front and near lots of foes which will not suit some players style. It works very effectively right after you get it, then is reported to stop working as well after a few levels. I just remember seeing all those monster saving against my spell and not dying. It did not last very long either. I consider energy drain better. - Consider and tailor to your build.

Summon Monster IX: the best of the best summon creatures. However even this one will not survive long in the Devil's Battleground - Consider it if you like pets as I do; its mighty handy elsewhere. Be aware, it will block your allies vision greatly at times, and it loves to "help" you solve puzzles.


Golden, and always useful

Energy Drain: This is effective in several ways, to soften up foes and such - Definitely consider taking.

Heal, Mass: This spell is very good if quickened. Anticipation is the key - Take and keep.

True Resurrection: This spell is grand, you definitely want it. You can finally cast a resurrection spell that does not require a heal afterwards. - Take as soon as you can.

[Impaqt]

Seriously? 16 posts? Overkill much?

[Silverleafeon]

LOL, it does look like a lot with all of them in a row with reserved typed on them.
I had to go back and double up a few of them.
Too bad I don't know how to color code and such.
Please pardon any poor english usage/spelling.

Thanks for looking, I have read some very good stuff written by you!

[Consumer]

Stuff you need:

Try to carry devotion shields till you can get some good potency weapons, the boosts are worth it. Healing is considered damage and is affected by potency.

Try to get good armor thru level 12, then switch your focus to robes (such are arrow blocking) depending upon how much you melee and are being hit.

I stopped reading here, arrow blocking robes, really?

[HarveyMilk]

He means speak block?