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I'm playing a dwarf rogue right now, and noticing some weird aspects of the spell selection. For example:
* Nothing in book 2 is worthwhile. They're all too hard, too expensive, too late (c.f. Spear of Light), or too important to accept a 5% failure rate (c.f. Teleport Self). Speaking of which, it's a bit weird that Teleport Self isn't replicated in Mordenkainen's, like the priest spell repetition.
* Satisfy Hunger is the second-hardest spell in the town spellbooks. The hardest is Lesser Recharging. An 18/100 INT, level-40 rogue still has a failure rate over 20% for Satisfy Hunger. Yes, this is typically a spell you don't absolutely have to cast right this second, but it's really weird that it's so hard. Why isn't it easier than Haste Self at least?
* Kelek's Grimoire has one spell rogues can learn: Bedlam, the non-damaging confusion ball. I get that rogues don't get (good) attack magic, but it's a bit of a kick in the pants that the only spell rogues can learn from the ultimate spellbook is the only spell in that book that is basically worthless.
* Raal's Tome of Destruction is similarly not-very-worthwhile, though there it mostly comes down to the spells the rogues get having horrible casting costs and failure rates. One or the other would make them occasionally worth considering (and thus dedicating an inventory slot to) but not both.
* Meanwhile, Mordenkainen's and Tenser's are both solid spellbooks, and I'm sure Resistances would be useful if I didn't have elemental-immunity randarts coming out of my ears.
Basically, I don't get the philosophy behind the spell selection and cost/failure rate decisions for Kelek's and Raal's. There's no sense in having attack spells that the caster can't use reliably and/or frequently (at least one of the two), since the caster in this case has perfectly functional weapons they can use instead. And status ailment spells are notoriously bad. So why would a rogue ever carry those books? The ultimate spellbook just doesn't feel very ultimate in this case. Raal's of course I wasn't really worried about in any case, but it'd be nice to be able to successfully cast spells from it more than 1 in 3 times, and be able to try more than thrice before having to rest.
It's not that gameplay is too hard here, mind you. It's just weird.
* Nothing in book 2 is worthwhile. They're all too hard, too expensive, too late (c.f. Spear of Light), or too important to accept a 5% failure rate (c.f. Teleport Self). Speaking of which, it's a bit weird that Teleport Self isn't replicated in Mordenkainen's, like the priest spell repetition.
* Satisfy Hunger is the second-hardest spell in the town spellbooks. The hardest is Lesser Recharging. An 18/100 INT, level-40 rogue still has a failure rate over 20% for Satisfy Hunger. Yes, this is typically a spell you don't absolutely have to cast right this second, but it's really weird that it's so hard. Why isn't it easier than Haste Self at least?
* Kelek's Grimoire has one spell rogues can learn: Bedlam, the non-damaging confusion ball. I get that rogues don't get (good) attack magic, but it's a bit of a kick in the pants that the only spell rogues can learn from the ultimate spellbook is the only spell in that book that is basically worthless.
* Raal's Tome of Destruction is similarly not-very-worthwhile, though there it mostly comes down to the spells the rogues get having horrible casting costs and failure rates. One or the other would make them occasionally worth considering (and thus dedicating an inventory slot to) but not both.
* Meanwhile, Mordenkainen's and Tenser's are both solid spellbooks, and I'm sure Resistances would be useful if I didn't have elemental-immunity randarts coming out of my ears.
Basically, I don't get the philosophy behind the spell selection and cost/failure rate decisions for Kelek's and Raal's. There's no sense in having attack spells that the caster can't use reliably and/or frequently (at least one of the two), since the caster in this case has perfectly functional weapons they can use instead. And status ailment spells are notoriously bad. So why would a rogue ever carry those books? The ultimate spellbook just doesn't feel very ultimate in this case. Raal's of course I wasn't really worried about in any case, but it'd be nice to be able to successfully cast spells from it more than 1 in 3 times, and be able to try more than thrice before having to rest.
It's not that gameplay is too hard here, mind you. It's just weird.
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