Unused spell? Do you felt it's been wasted?

[Archaven]

I was wondering if any of you guys felt frustrated that often you are left with a bunch of spells 'wasted' or should i say 'unused' due that you have your entire party in critical condition and were forced to rest?

I hate wasting in real life and each time i have a bunch of unused spells i felt frustrated. I only rest when necessary and always hated that you need to rest and get the 'proper' spells for your next encounter. That is why sometimes i will have neutralize poison, negative plane protection, cure disease spells memorized. You wouldn't know when you need them and often you wasted them without using it.

What do you think?

[Drew]

I think it pays to be prepared, but once you have enough potions and your wizard knows limited wish those spells become a waste of a spell slot.

[Felinoid]

I only memorize NPP until I get the Amulet of Power, which does the same thing all the time. Disease I just ride out, and there are antidotes or Bhaalpowers for poison. Mostly I memorize damage and healing spells, and if I have any "wasted", I just slam the next group I see before I rest.

Although, my clerics usually have a lot of wasted 2nd level spells. That burns me a bit, but they're still usable on a subsequent group before I rest. Going whole-hog can be a quite liberating experience leading to something of a slaughter. I always end up with a Silence spell I haven't used, though.

[Blog]

Yup, I tend to try to use every last spell or rechargable ability before hitting the rest button. Usually healing spells are the first to get used up. And then whatever offensive spell is left, I try to find mini encounters to waste them in... which gets me killed more often than not.

I bet if they didn't keep track of how many days you spent in-game, I wouldn't do that. Because in other RPG's that do not keep the time stored, I rest freely and very often, to keep my party in top-notch shape.

[Archaven]

What does Amulet of Power does? Where can i get it? . I've finished almost all the sidequests (yeah i'm still in chapter 2).

Are there any random encounters that i could fight? Are the 2 encounters (you have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself) in the cities scripted? After defeating both battles i don't get any random encounter anymore .

For you guys information, i'm playing on vanilla SoA with ToB installed and latest official patch. No mods though.

[Prine]

You get the amulet of power from Aran Linvail in chapter 3, either by working for him or by killing him.

I get those stupid random thug battles all the way through the game...

[Silverstar]

Once you have Wish spell and 18+ wisdom, resting is hardly required to restore spells.

I end up with some un-used spells too, but I don'T feel guilty at all. Afterall, I am playing with the heaviest mods created and if my aprty wants to survive, they must be in top-shape for each encounter. A few unused CLW, Free Action, and Chromatic Orbs will do no good against improved enemies I encounter.

Wands are pretty cool for times when I am low on spells and need a packing punch. Wand of Frost, Fire and Lİghtning are all devastating. Planar Spehere mod wands: Rod of Jagged Lİghtning (Chain-lightning version of the lightning wand), rod of something which casts 3 disintegrates/day, rod of avarda kedavra (Harry Potter anyone? Save vs death at -3 or consumed in a greenish light, heehee I feel like Lord Voldemort! ) ah and Staff of Sorcery can cast Chain Contingency and a very potent 'Improved' Disintegration 3/day, so my maegs do not need CC or Disintegrate or even Finger of Death spells much. But this is just my game.

[Warmonger]

I have never used more than half available spells, especially divine ones. Moreover, I usually don't cast most of spells I have remembered. There is no time and no need for that, as too many of them are useless afainst certain opponents.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I usually only rest when 1.) The party is fatigued or 2.) I need to pass time waiting for an event to occur. For example, you can only steal the pirate lord's gate horn at night, so if it's daytime when I finish Spellhold, then I catch some sleep at the Vulgar Monkey.

Other than that, I don't rest much. I also must say that I usually have over half of my spells still memorized when I rest. That's because in being prepared (i.e,. preparing for as many situations as possible), you usually will take spells that you don't absolutely need. For example, I always have things like a slow poison or two memorized. Well, if no one gets poisoned, I'm obviously not going to be using that spell. Also, undead specific spells like false dawn are great against undead, but far less useful otherwise. Again, if there isn't any undead, I'm not likely to use that spell. I also notice I am much more likely to use up all my healing spells early in the game, and rely on potions more. Once you get to the point that you're druid or cleric is around level 12 or so, you usually have more spells than you know what to do with.

For mages it's a little different. Basically, the lower the level of the spell, the less likely I'm going to use it. The only first level mage spells I memorize are magic missile, chromatic orb, and identify. None of which are at the top of my list of choices for most encounters. However, I do like to load up 3 magic missiles in spell sequencers for things like dragons. Cast a lower resistance, and then fire off the sequencer. A magic missile only does 2-5 damage, but the collective force of 15 is quite impressive.

[Silverstar]

^Heh, MM is a neat spell. Other useful level 1 picks are:

Spook: with huge saving penalty it is useful!

Pfrom Evil: a must for battling Improved Pitfiends. When PFE 10'radius gets dispelled, the mage/bard can save himself with a lightning cast of this.

Shield:It adds decent AC and grants immunity to Magic Misile.

I never memorize Identify though as I always have Glassess of Identification, or many spare identify scrolls around, or generally my PC's lore is enough, which is cool!

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Well, I never use a lot of Identify spells. It's just that even with the glass of ID, you often times find more than 3 things you can't identify, especially once you hit places like the Underdark. I usually take the glasses of ID and one or two memorized ID spells.

I honestly don't memorize PfE at all. I usually get it from my clerics or paladins (once they are high enough level) and protect the whole party with PfE 10' radius.

[Silverstar]

Protecting the whole party with PfE 10' is nice too, BUT Imporved PFs, liches, and smarter mages almost always manage to dispel the whole party.

Which results in big bad Pit Fiend targetting people. Now, the party should re-arrange themselves, re-group near the cleric and cleric should cast PfE 10' again. However, there are problems: Casting time of 10' is too long and by the time the cleric manages it the PF will throw a 20d6 fireball to the party, and as they are very close to each other major casualties=spell disrupted.

Oh, and that ongoing Teleport Field, courtesy of Liches, makes the re-grouping as a whole party practically impossible. So I find PfE invaluable, my mages/clerics cast this to themselves instantly, saving their own butt from Pit Fiend.

Ofcourse, that is my game.

[starwalker]

I rest early on more than I usually do late in the game. I tend to rest because my guys are all real fatigued or they need to because I'm practically out of healing and spells and my guys hitpoints are all fairly low. Otherwise I usually keep on trucking through.

I do do as mentioned though to pass time sometimes and rest then however.

[Harbourboy]

I find that I have rest every few minutes. My characters are always half dead after just about every battle and my spellcasters have used up the 3 or 4 spells that I rely on the most. 75% of their spells are unused upon resting because it's stuff like negative plane protection, identify, dispel magic, and lesser restoration which are essential to have memorised but not always used.

[Ziad]

I always use up my offensive and buffing spells quickly, because I like to play with a spellcasting heavy party. I always end up resting once every healing spell is gone, and by that time most of the other spells are used up too.

[Truper]

I never feel like unused spells are wasted. I rest when I need the healing, but I try to rest as infrequently as possible - I like to imagine that there's some urgency in getting after Irenicus.

I also try to have a fairly generic spellbook. I am always playing head games with myself to determine just how much of my omnicience it is fair to use

[Harbourboy]

to determine just how much of my omnicience it is fair to use

That is precisely the reason I waste most of my spells. I will have things like Negative Plane Protection memorised even if I know there are no undead around, because my characters don't know that and they hate being level drained.

[Nakia]

No, I don't consider my un-used spells wasted. They are there for the just-in-case situation. As I progress I fill up most of my slots with the spells I like but I always have some of the others. This is role playing and I try to play it that way.

[Aahz]

I'm a religious rester. Rest is awesome. Full healing and spell memorization for hitting the Z key? How can you not love it? I rest after using my protagonists DUHM to bash open a chest. I hate feeling like I'm not at full potential for every fight so I rarely use a spell without resting afterwards. Sometimes I cast Stoneskin with my mages and rest afterwards to get the Stoneskin back (since the duration is 12 hours). Resting is awesome.

[Archaven]

Hey thanks all for the awesome replies! Now i don't feel guilty of wasting and having a lot of unused memorized spells

Due to this i often don't rest and rest only when necessary. I also tend to finish most of my unused spells with any encounters (unfortunately i can't find any most of the time) only then i will rest in peace

I don't know about you guys but i have once having my entire party memorized the 1st level Identify spells. And i have the glass of identication myselfs which i ended up having 15 identification spells.

I really need it because i have tonnes of unidentified items with me in my chest in Copper Coronet. Once i identified it only to find how easier if i would have identified it early on my encounters

[Nakia]

After a hard battle if there is an inn nearby I figure my party deserves a rest in the best room I can get. After a hard battle I usually need a break too.

[Krypto]

I try to keep going as long as I can. If that means using darts, mirror image, and glitterdust on a lvl 9 sorc to kill 5 hobgoblins or some such, so be it. It's fun to see what tactics you can use in a situation to win when you are really limited on spell picks and aren't loaded up with your "best" spells.

I rest when I think I don't have enough firepower to win the next encounter. Basically that means I have one or two spells left, but I don't care. Not resting until you use all your spells is like telling an archer to fight till he is out of arrows. Nah, he's gonna go buy more when he's low but not wait till he's out completely.

Now if there are always spells left over, start paying attention to which ones are left all the time and in which areas you are. In subsequent plays of the game you can optimize your spell picks and not waste slots on silly things like cure disease, neg plane prot, fire res, etc when you don't need them. OTOH, if you're RP'ing it, feel free to load out everything you "think" you might need but don't hesitate to sleep when your chars would be thinking: Umm guys, I'm totally out of healing spells, maybe we can rest a bit here?

[Prine]

I have absolutely no problem hitting the Z button when I'm huddled away in the corner of a beholder hive, standing on one foot in a swamp, racing against time to escape a burning building, etc. My usual plan of attack with my mages involves firing off my entire repertoire of offensive spells, ADHWs and skull traps and flame arrows and such, then taking a light snooze afterwards. All that overkill sure is tiring.

[Aahz]

Hah, Prine has the rest and relaxation thing down. My characters are just generally indolent, care-free individuals who don't like to fret about like a pining puppy to go get Imoen or chase down Irenicus or rescue some dragon eggs. Casting identify once or twice or maybe casting friends and then shopping is really a lot of work if you sit down and think about it (which I am totally unwilling to do -- accomplishing the task is exhausting enough). When given the choice to take a nap or do physical/mental/emotional activity, my characters would much rather pitch tent.

[Prine]

Sometimes my guys will just lie down in the middle of the street and take a catnap - even when they don't need to.