by Thrawn » April 15th, 2013, 12:15 pm
When the party is decked out (after about quest 8-10) -
1 Courage
+2 attack never loses it's luster. When used on a battle axe instead of a shortsword wielding hero, it's only a 50% increase instead of a 100% increase, but it still converts to an average of 1 extra skull per swing in a big fight.
2/3 Heal Body and Water of Healing
As the game goes on, the heroes will stock up on armor, meaning there will be less hits except in the "big fights". They will stock up on healing potions which become one of the biggest commodities in the game. As a result, these spells basically become commodities as well. Instead of being the lifeline for the heroes, they instead become 2 less healing potions per game that need to be used, allowing the group to stock away more. This is still extremely valuable. Over the course of 34 quests through the first 3 sets, this is 68 healing potions saved. That should get the group through at least 2-3 quests in the barbarian or elf packs.
4 Tempest
As the game goes on, you see more big battles, where freezing the main villain for a turn is even more important than early on. Casters are the main target, but other "bosses" can be equally advantageous to freeze for a round. I find using the spell ring for 2 rounds of peace using this spell becomes fairly common with a good wizard (and frustrating for Zargon who never gets to throw cool chaos spells around.)
5 Genie
Although a 5 die attack is still very nice, when the other heroes can be swinging 4 dice every turn (if they go the battleaxe route), it no longer is the same kind of advantage as it is in the early game when the normal attack is 2 dice. It still hit's at range, and that extra 5 die attack can come in handy when a group beatdown is required on a big baddie, but it just isn't the same as when the caster is the only one rolling the handfull of dice.
6 Sleep
Sleep doesn't really change much until later spell packs where there are creatures tailor made to be sleep targets. It's still a middle of the road spell, although I move it up spots due to other spells becoming less useful.
7 Ball of Flame
This spell really falls off late game. It's the equivalent of an average battleaxe hit (2 skulls), except the monster is twice as likely to defend per die. The wizard isn't hitting for much damage still, but the elf is probably worse off in most cases by using this spell over just attacking unless the defender has really high defense. It still has it's uses either to snipe or to damage high defense enemies, but normal attacks will have passed up the usefulness of this spell.
8/9/10 Veil of Mist, Pass Through Rock, Swift Wind
These are still situational. However, there will be more need to save oneself as the game progresses, and some of the other spells just fall off in usefulness. They don't get stronger, but when a situation comes up where one is needed, it's huge.
11 Rock Skin
When most heros have 5-6 dice in defense, the temporary 1 extra die doesn't mean quite as much. I usually end up seeing the wizard casting it on themself early just to hopefully avoid a wound or two before in burns out. With healing potions so prevailant at this point, that 1 or 2 wounds of attrition doesn't mean quite as much though.
12 Fire of Wrath
This spell really falls off a ton. It can be used to snipe, and is somewhat useful against high defense targets, but the damage is so far outclassed by the normal attacks of the game, that the spell is pretty much forgettable after the early game. It often goes unused at the end of quests.
