Type: Area damage
Strategy: This is a great spell to take the place of the fireball and delayed-blast fireball. Dealing much better damage than these spells, it deals one to eight points of damage per level instead of one to six and does not max out. Hit a group of monsters with this at level 16, and you are hitting for 16 to 128 points of damage. Not bad for a single spell to knock the hit points off.
Importance: High
Type: Defense
Strategy: This is a good spell for when you are overwhelmed and cannot protect your magic users. With a cast of this spell, you cannot be hit by anything less than a +4 weapon for a few rounds. This could give your warriors time to get to your aide. However, it still only lasts for four rounds.
Importance: Moderate
Type: Area damage
Strategy: If you can hold the monsters to an area, this spell will do the damage. You get this at level 16, and it will do one to four points per level per round, so at level 16, you will do that damage for 16 rounds. Not much can survive that, but not much will just stand there and take it either. This spell is tough to use because if you misjudge, you will have some very hurt party members and some angry summoned creatures to deal with.
Importance: Moderate
Type: Hindrance
Strategy: Do you have a critter that is just in the way while you are in a battle, or one that is doing just too much damage, and you cannot get organized to deal with it? Cast maze and watch it disappear. It will go to another dimension for a good deal of time while it tries to find its way out. It's a great spell because there is no saving throw. If you're in a solo battle, this spell gives you time to recuperate.
Importance: High
Type: Dispel
Strategy: This is another spell that removes defensive spells on enemy mages. The boon on this one is that it will reduce the magic resistance of the affected target by 10 percent plus 1 percent per level of the mage casting pierce magic. Otherwise, it's just like ruby ray or reversal and a secret word.
Importance: Moderate
Type: Hindrance
Strategy: This word casts blind, but allows no saving throw. The small penalties bestowed by the spell do not do much at this high a level, though.
Importance: Low
Type: Defense
Strategy: Much like protection from the elements, this spell has its place, but you can do without it, and you should. The 75 percent resistance to the elements is not great when you can only affect one of your party members.
Importance: Low
Type: Other
Strategy: Need another mage? Cast this, and you will create a duplicate of the mage that casts spells at 60 percent of the abilities of the original mage. You control this mage as if he was a party member, and he can cast spells extraordinarily well. He's great backup if you need that extra damage from an extra mage.
Importance: High
Type: Other
Strategy: This is a lot like the other sequencer spells in your arsenal. This one will hold three spells up to level 6 and shoots them all off at one time. This is a great spell and will let you do large amounts of damage in a short time, or you can get all your defenses up in one cast.
Type: Summoning
Strategy: Another pet spell, this one summons a gigantic demon to do your bidding. Arguably the best summoning spell damage- and health-wise, the only problem is that the creature can turn on you. Be absolutely sure to have protection from evil cast on yourself.
Type: Area damage
Strategy: To us, this spell is worthless. This will create a symbol that will kill any creature of 60 hit points or less if it fails a save. Unfortunately, there aren't many creatures you will be fighting at this level with that few hit points that will likely fail a save versus death.
Type: Hindrance
Strategy: Little better than the death symbol, this spell is still negated by a saving throw. We prefer to stay away from the symbol line of spells because of this.
Importance: Moderate
Type: Hindrance
Strategy: Well, if you just have to use them, this is the one that is worth taking a chance on the save with. Again, even at a -4 on the save, we prefer to stay away from these spells.
Importance: Moderate