Best spells to persist for Fighters?

[SinsI]

I want to explore the idea of providing heavy armor available to Fighters with a Magic Engine that can persist several spells; number and level of spells will depend on the number of Fighter levels he has and quality of Magic Engine.

One will be able to input several scrolls to activate into it and the spells will work continuously until they are dispelled or switched for something else (scrolls are used up on activation).
Spells would have to be range:personal, otherwise both arcane and divine spells are OK.

What spells should I watch out for? What would be the best low level (1-3) spells to persist?

[Karl Aegis]

I'd go with Wraithstrike.

[Honjuden]

Just to name a few: See Invisibility, Blink, Swift Fly, and Expeditious Retreat.

[Propagandalf]

Fist of Stone from the Complete Arcane.

That's a nice +6 to Str for a 1st level spell.

[DarkSonic1337]

Are you looking for Arcane or Divine?

Check the more complete lists (actually only goes up to 6th level spells. Probably made for chameleons :p)

[SinsI]

I'm looking for best spells, not laundry lists of things no one will ever choose. And they must be for Fighter wearing Heavy Armor - no matter how good something like Divine Power is for Cleric, for Fighter it is going to lose to 1st level Fist of Stone.

Also note the type of bonuses granted. 6 enchancement to Strength is not interesting if you already have Belt of Giant Strength. Not to mention that Magic Power Armor is not going to be free...

I'd go with Wraithstrike.

Good. And thematically viable - Power Armor would hit hard enough so that normal armor would hardly protect from it.

Just to name a few: See Invisibility, Blink, Swift Fly, and Expeditious Retreat.

See Invisibility has a good duration anyway. Others are decent.

[Tvtyrant]

Bite of the Werebear, Unicorn Horn, Evards Menacing tentacles, Girallons Blessing, greater mirror image, Thunderlance, Flaying Tentacles, Aura of Terror, Stone Body, Iron Body, Lightning Ring, Wraith Strike. Nets you 9 or so natural attacks, multiattack feat, power attack feat, huge stat boosts, DR, all of the immunities, two free lightning bolts s turn, hit on a touch attack with melee.

[DarkSonic1337]

I'm looking for best spells, not laundry lists of things no one will ever choose. And they must be for Fighter wearing Heavy Armor - no matter how good something like Divine Power is for Cleric, for Fighter it is going to lose to 1st level Fist of Stone.

Also note the type of bonuses granted. 6 enchancement to Strength is not interesting if you already have Belt of Giant Strength. Not to mention that Magic Power Armor is not going to be free...

Fist of Stone also grants you a slam attack. And depending on how you're getting your persists it could easily be available before you can acquire a belt of giant strength anyway.

The top 10 lists are an amazing starting point so I'd suggest looking through them. Every single suggestion in this thread has been listed in those and then some.

[Seerow]

Can you supress the persisted spells at will? If so, Giant Size for sure. If not, I would never consider it because having to strip out of my armor to not be colossal would be a giant pain.

Going to second these already mentioned spells:
-Bite of the Werebear
-Greater Mirror Image
-Wraithstrike


I would never persist Expeditious Retreat, because I could persist Haste instead getting all of Expeditious Retreats benefits, plus cool stuff. But IME if there's a caster who can cast haste in the group, it's getting cast every fight anyway, because it is a great buff and affects the full group.

I also would not persist Blink unless I also had a Ghost Touch weapon, or similar effect. Giving myself a miss chance is too annoying even with the other benefits. That said Improved Blink/Greater Blink are good picks.

I'd also put Displacement pretty high up on the priority list.



...honestly I can keep going but those are probably going to be the top of the list as far as covering your offensive and defensive options. Which ones get priority is going to depend on how many spells you can get persisted. Top defensive option is probably Greater Mirror Image, unless you rule that all of the images dying ends the persisted spell, in which case Greater Blink takes the top spot. But since you were wanting to see 3rd level spells, you're looking at Displacements 50% miss chance being your best bet.

Top offensive option is Wraithstrike, followed by Bite of the Werebear.


It's also probably worth looking through the Ranger and Paladin spell list, depending on intended fighting style. An Archer for example is going to want a lot of Ranger spells.

[Godskook]

Since this sounds like homebrew, I'd also look at spells that wouldn't be game-breaking to put into this system but aren't normally persistable. Examples include most hours/level spells, like the heart of X line of spells.

[SinsI]

Can you suppress the persisted spells at will?

You can turn off support for any persisted spell, allowing it to expire normally after that. Restoring it back is another spell scroll (or, optionally, a wand charge).

Top defensive option is probably Greater Mirror Image, unless you rule that all of the images dying ends the persisted spell

Magic Engine can only increase duration of the spell indefinitely. If anything is used up - temporary HP, images, charges - it ends.
Greater Mirror Image explicitly states that it ends if all images are destroyed.

The cost of Magic Engine would be
1000 gold * spell level^2
for each spell it can support.
(about equal to the cost of automatically resetting magical trap of the same level ).

Fist of Stone also grants you a slam attack. And depending on how you're getting your persists it could easily be available before you can acquire a belt of giant strength anyway.

Availability by fighter level - top supported spell would have to cost about 1/4 of WBL. So 1st level spell at lvl 4, 2nd level spell at lvl 7, 3rd level spell at lvl 9, 4th level spell at lvl 11, 5th level spell at lvl 13.

Since this sounds like homebrew, I'd also look at spells that wouldn't be game-breaking to put into this system but aren't normally persistable. Examples include most hours/level spells, like the heart of X line of spells.

It is a Magic Power source that activates and each round automatically refreshes duration of any inputted spell. The spell will only have the armor wearer as its target(even if it normally would affect more targets), and you don't get any fine control over it (i.e. no activating Freedom of Movement effect of Heart of Water) - essentially, the Magic Engine is the one activating and controlling the effect.

[Twurps]

From the paladin list: Rhino's rush. (If a persisted version is ruled to deal double damage on the first charge of every round, a very strickt reading might imply you get 1 double damage charge per 24 hours)

[bjoern]

Alter self. Persist it and be a tren for a day (natural armor) or an avariel (flight) if humanoid. With the dragon type , become a shadowdragon for natural armor and flight. As an outsider.....have fun.

[Necroticplague]

All the buffs that are normally 'you're a [Class] now, but you lose spellcasting' seem like obvious choices. Wraithstrike is obvious, and awesome. Haste is pretty good (Extra Attack!). Anything that provides natural weapons. Cloud of Knives (again, extra attack). Lightning Ring. Stormrage protect you from most ranged attacks. Friendly Fire and Ray Deflection protect against the rest. Hide Life, if you want to be a bit ridiculous.

[SinsI]

Rhino's rush is a one use spell ("This spell allows you to propel yourself in a single deadly charge."), no reason to persist it.

Unfortunately, as mentioned above it is the Magic Engine that would control the spells, not the Fighter.
Which means Alter self, Cloud of Knives and Lightning Ring are out, too. Though you might get a version of Alter Self scroll with a fixed parameters...

Friendly Fire and Ray Deflection are good.

Stormrage is too high level.