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In response to another question, I've decided to take the Useless Spell poll. (Max of 49 to keep people from clicking everything, but there's a huge number of potentially useless spells, so I made a long list. ;) ) Which spells do you never use and could do without?

Wow!  So, nobody but me uses Spiritual Hammer? 

It's one of my "always have" spells.  If, for example, I should meet up with a higher-type undead, that only magical weapons work on, and I haven't gotten any such weapons in the mod, yet, then a Spiritual Hammer in the hands of my Cleric/Ranger or Cleric/Fighter can make all the difference.
:violent1:

I think people prefer to load up on Hold Person or Silence 15' Radius.

But hey, I didn't realize people were using Snake Charm!

Of course now I have to come up with a mod where Reduce is an important spell. ;)

I ALWAYS have spiritual hammer.

Some designers forget to mark which creatures are "people," but spiritual hammer gives me a magic weapon sometimes before I find any magic weapons in an adventure...and I've lost track of how many times the first gargoyle shows up before the first magic sword...

Also, isn't Ironskin a good option for useless spell? Or have I been overlooking something all these years?

I thought someone did the math and it actually worked. Still, if you tell me it's useless, I believe you.

I figured putting ALL 126 spells would be too long (it's long enough as is at 50), so I did my best to guess and look at what people had already said. If I edit the poll, does it wipe out what's already up there?

There was a time when I felt like I had a solid grip on all the ins and outs of FRUA, but after all these years, I'm starting to get confused about some of the spell effects that were functional in Gold Box games but nerfed in FRUA. The way durations work when you cast a spell before combat, for instance. The pre-fight battery doesn't work nearly as well as it did in the old games. But some of the actual effects became less desirable, too. I don't remember whether Iron Skin fit that category, or not, to be honest.

I wouldn't give up my career or my family for the memory buffer I used to have, but I sure do wish it was possible to keep all three!

Power Word Blind must be the most useless spell in the history of CRPGs.

I used to have all of the spell effects/durations/etc memorized for everything I used in AD&D v 1, 2, 3, and 3.5...but now I've started playing bg2, nwn, and the gold box set in succession, and I've really confused myself.   So many of the spells are still similar in later versions that it just confuses things when going back to 1.0. :(

Heck, you want to laugh, I was playing 5th ed D&D the other day and pooped my pants when a spectre showed up.

Apparently now if they hit you you just lose max HP until you take a rest..and you get a save.

I had to explain that in 1st ed, you had no save, and would permanently lose two levels of experience! (Unless you found a 16th level cleric, of course.)

I yet have to use Invisibility to Animals and Protection from Good.
While I COULD think of situations a designer could add to an adventure...

Why would a party with high enough levels for their ranger to cast spells bother whether they are seen by animals or not? Most normal animals are only a threat on low levels. A ranger should be able to avoid fighting animals without that spell anyway.
Only would make sense if someone powerful uses animals as spies, like Strahd does in Barovia.

Protection from Good can make sense, but I'd bet situations where you fight good-aligned creatures are extremely rare. Most adventures are geared towards the more heroic player character types, story-wise - or am I wrong?
Would make sense in an adventure more designed for "evil" characters. "Good" creatures normally don't attack without a very good reason, so the chance that you will be ambushed by a group of "good" creatures is extremely low.
Unless you have a scenario where there are misguided "good" creatures or "good" characters who were put under a geas or something.

Perhaps it indicates a shortage of dinosaur modules. :)

I was gonna say that. There are a whole bunch o' dinosaur icons that never get used. I also think animals just aren't that exciting, though I'm a big-city boy and any of the country folk on here might like to argue with me. ;)

The problem (as Anne Nym so correctly points out) is that by the time you've got Hold Animal at 17th level or even Charm Person or Mammal at 13th, you've got a whole bunch of Hold Monster spells on your mage that are much more useful. So you either hack the classes to change Rangers into Druids or else have a contrived situation with a high-level ranger NPC with druid spells (as below).

I actually did have an area (in an unreleased, possibly-forthcoming mod) where you fought a whole bunch of animals and the high-level ranger NPC with the druid spells was actually vital. (PCs were 5th level or so.) Goldbox-accurate mastodons, mammoths, enormous spiders, giant mantises, rhino beetles, and even giant slugs (though you do wind up giving them dragon acid to simulate the spit attack, effectively making them easy-to-hit dragons) all work as (relatively) high-level enemies. Tigers, crocodiles, and wild boars can be mid-level enemies, and the various poisonous vermin (spiders, scorpions, and even frogs) are dangerous at low level.

Addendum: Protection from Good had one very particular use. It was effective against Tyranthraxus in Pool of Radiance--he was possessing a lawful good bronze dragon.

Quote from: Null Null on May 13, 2021, 11:46:47 AM
Addendum: Protection from Good had one very particular use. It was effective against Tyranthraxus in Pool of Radiance--he was possessing a lawful good bronze dragon.

Just goes to show how weird this alignment system is, doesn't it? The body of someone good possessed by someone evil is still considered someone good, as if the "good" is in your skins and organs or something? Or is it two minds fighting inside the body? But then Protection from Evil should have been just as effective?

5% chance it refers to the innate good inside the bronze dragon, as metallics are a 'good' group (especially in 1st ed).
5% chance the logic is the spell is protecting you from the dragon's attacks, its claws and bite and breath rather than the evil spirit directing it.
90% chance they didn't think this out. Remember, this is the same game where they misspelled the name of the final boss. (It was TYRANITHRAXUS on PC, remember?) ;)

Affect Normal Fires.

So useless that the Gold Box teams didn't implement it.