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Some notes on the priest spell selection in 4.2.1, having just played a priest reasonably successfully although nowhere close to a win. I'd be interested to hear thoughts from people who regularly win this game and understand balance better than I do...
Novice's Handbook
(a) Call Light
Key utility spell. Don't think I ever used it to damage light-sensitive monsters though.
(b) Detect Evil
Key utility spell. Only detecting evil is good flavour for the class.
(c) Minor Healing
Felt a little weak for the first few (15?) levels, especially compared to plentiful potions. When the character grows up a bit this is great for topping up HP if you are temporarily out of range of your enemy.
(d) Bless
I never remember to use this. I have no idea if its bonuses are actually useful at typical low levels when melee is a struggle
(e) Sense Invisible
Very handy when you don't have an item granting see invis
(f) Heroism
Only used this once or twice when annoyed by fear. Not a core spell for me.
Cleansing Power
(a) Orb of Draining
Getting this early makes the early priest game so much less of a slog. Keystone spell throughout the game even though it struggles a bit against high-HP monsters.
(b) Spear of Light
I never really used this. Early on when being able to light corridors is really really useful, this is too expensive (at least I had limited SP and didn't want to give up on one more OOD); I just kept a Rod or Wand of light around. For damage purposes, almost all light-sensitive monsters you care about are evil and OOD is way better value for the SP. Maybe if it's damage was higher and scaled a bit?
(c) Dispel Undead
Not a bad spell but getting that many undead in LoS at once is a bit niche.
(d) Dispel Evil
As per my earlier comments in another thread, this just seems like terrible value for the SP and the risk - getting lots of evil monsters into LoS and waking them all up is a big price to pay unless you are going to do huge damage on them.
(e) Protection from Evil
I read somewhere that this is useless since you never really care about monsters lower level than you - that sounded plausible to me, so I never even tried it
(f) Remove Curse
Niche spell, thematically good. I think I used it once on some ring I wanted to wear.
Healing and Sanctuary
(a) Portal
Awkward spell because it's too high range to be used as a phase door replacement but sufficiently low range that it quite often doesn't get you safe. I still used it lots because it's better than using up consumables. Does give the class a flavour different from mages.
(b) Remembrance
Convenient (and thematic) spell. Saves you hoarding restore life levels potions
(c) Word of Recall
Convenient. Saves a slot.
(d) Healing
Expensive and high failure rate means you can't rely on this spell until very late in the game (later than I got). It is handy though.
(e) Restoration
Minor convenience and thematic
(f) Clairvoyance
Great utility, seems slightly out of theme?
Battle Blessings
Note - this is the only book with spells written not in the order of spell level. Seemed odd.
(a) Enchant Weapon
This is a quirky spell. It comes so late that by the time you get it, you are almost certainly wielding and artifact or one of the better ego weapons and it's fairly unlikely you can enchant them much. So where it's really useful is enchanting stacks of arrows - this is a major convenience but feels "odd" - not quite in theme for a priest, or at least not really in theme with the other spell selection.
(b) Enchant Armour
Most of the time characters have at least one or two pieces of non-artifact gear with low plusses (possibly due to acid damage) so this spell is great for topping things back up.
(c) Smite Evil
I think this is really niche. By the time I got the book, every weapon I would consider using had multiple slays or brands; there were a few evil monsters who would resist those elements or not apply to those slays and in that case this was a slight improvement - but not huge. I know that for certain particular high dice weapons or artifacts this is potentially significant but - like I say - quite niche?
(d) Glyph of Warding
Very powerful spell and helps make priests feel unique.
(e) Demon Bane
I never got to level 42 but I think my Smite Evil comments mostly apply. This is a more powerful brand though, so it seems more significant if you happen to be fighting demons.
Wrath of the Valar
(a) Banish Evil
Fun spell, very useful, I should have used it instead of dying.
(b) Word of Destruction
Very useful in some cases
(c) Holy Word
Never tried this out. It sounds like dispel evil + heal+cure self could be useful in some circumstances.
(d) Spear of Oromë
I used this a little but failure rate was still high. It seems like it could actually be a meaningful alternative to OoD.
(e) Light of Manwë
Did not reach level
Summary:
The books and spells were well-paced. I got all dungeon books with enough of an interval between them to make them feel like exciting finds when they arrived. There were enough new spells which I found useful to keep my playstyle changing which is I think one of the fun things about pure casters. Themtically, it seem odd priests don't get Curing except as a side effect of some of the heal spells? Not really a gameplay issue but I carried CCW the whole game, you might imagine a priest wouldn't need to (at least once it had pConf).
For me Battle Blessings is the most problematic book and I don't find the enchant/brand spells entirely compelling. I wonder if instead some appropriately balanced combat enhancement spells - temporary boosts to Str/Dex/Con or even +dam or +attacks? Temporary status resists (blind/fear/conf/stun) would be a good 'alternative' to mages getting temporary element resists?
Overall a great improvement on 2.8.x priests (the last I played). Thanks for all the hard work!
Novice's Handbook
(a) Call Light
Key utility spell. Don't think I ever used it to damage light-sensitive monsters though.
(b) Detect Evil
Key utility spell. Only detecting evil is good flavour for the class.
(c) Minor Healing
Felt a little weak for the first few (15?) levels, especially compared to plentiful potions. When the character grows up a bit this is great for topping up HP if you are temporarily out of range of your enemy.
(d) Bless
I never remember to use this. I have no idea if its bonuses are actually useful at typical low levels when melee is a struggle
(e) Sense Invisible
Very handy when you don't have an item granting see invis
(f) Heroism
Only used this once or twice when annoyed by fear. Not a core spell for me.
Cleansing Power
(a) Orb of Draining
Getting this early makes the early priest game so much less of a slog. Keystone spell throughout the game even though it struggles a bit against high-HP monsters.
(b) Spear of Light
I never really used this. Early on when being able to light corridors is really really useful, this is too expensive (at least I had limited SP and didn't want to give up on one more OOD); I just kept a Rod or Wand of light around. For damage purposes, almost all light-sensitive monsters you care about are evil and OOD is way better value for the SP. Maybe if it's damage was higher and scaled a bit?
(c) Dispel Undead
Not a bad spell but getting that many undead in LoS at once is a bit niche.
(d) Dispel Evil
As per my earlier comments in another thread, this just seems like terrible value for the SP and the risk - getting lots of evil monsters into LoS and waking them all up is a big price to pay unless you are going to do huge damage on them.
(e) Protection from Evil
I read somewhere that this is useless since you never really care about monsters lower level than you - that sounded plausible to me, so I never even tried it
(f) Remove Curse
Niche spell, thematically good. I think I used it once on some ring I wanted to wear.
Healing and Sanctuary
(a) Portal
Awkward spell because it's too high range to be used as a phase door replacement but sufficiently low range that it quite often doesn't get you safe. I still used it lots because it's better than using up consumables. Does give the class a flavour different from mages.
(b) Remembrance
Convenient (and thematic) spell. Saves you hoarding restore life levels potions
(c) Word of Recall
Convenient. Saves a slot.
(d) Healing
Expensive and high failure rate means you can't rely on this spell until very late in the game (later than I got). It is handy though.
(e) Restoration
Minor convenience and thematic
(f) Clairvoyance
Great utility, seems slightly out of theme?
Battle Blessings
Note - this is the only book with spells written not in the order of spell level. Seemed odd.
(a) Enchant Weapon
This is a quirky spell. It comes so late that by the time you get it, you are almost certainly wielding and artifact or one of the better ego weapons and it's fairly unlikely you can enchant them much. So where it's really useful is enchanting stacks of arrows - this is a major convenience but feels "odd" - not quite in theme for a priest, or at least not really in theme with the other spell selection.
(b) Enchant Armour
Most of the time characters have at least one or two pieces of non-artifact gear with low plusses (possibly due to acid damage) so this spell is great for topping things back up.
(c) Smite Evil
I think this is really niche. By the time I got the book, every weapon I would consider using had multiple slays or brands; there were a few evil monsters who would resist those elements or not apply to those slays and in that case this was a slight improvement - but not huge. I know that for certain particular high dice weapons or artifacts this is potentially significant but - like I say - quite niche?
(d) Glyph of Warding
Very powerful spell and helps make priests feel unique.
(e) Demon Bane
I never got to level 42 but I think my Smite Evil comments mostly apply. This is a more powerful brand though, so it seems more significant if you happen to be fighting demons.
Wrath of the Valar
(a) Banish Evil
Fun spell, very useful, I should have used it instead of dying.
(b) Word of Destruction
Very useful in some cases
(c) Holy Word
Never tried this out. It sounds like dispel evil + heal+cure self could be useful in some circumstances.
(d) Spear of Oromë
I used this a little but failure rate was still high. It seems like it could actually be a meaningful alternative to OoD.
(e) Light of Manwë
Did not reach level
Summary:
The books and spells were well-paced. I got all dungeon books with enough of an interval between them to make them feel like exciting finds when they arrived. There were enough new spells which I found useful to keep my playstyle changing which is I think one of the fun things about pure casters. Themtically, it seem odd priests don't get Curing except as a side effect of some of the heal spells? Not really a gameplay issue but I carried CCW the whole game, you might imagine a priest wouldn't need to (at least once it had pConf).
For me Battle Blessings is the most problematic book and I don't find the enchant/brand spells entirely compelling. I wonder if instead some appropriately balanced combat enhancement spells - temporary boosts to Str/Dex/Con or even +dam or +attacks? Temporary status resists (blind/fear/conf/stun) would be a good 'alternative' to mages getting temporary element resists?
Overall a great improvement on 2.8.x priests (the last I played). Thanks for all the hard work!
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