Best spells in Spell Compendium - for bad guys!

[carborundum]

I'm prepping a Dungeon adventure for this weekend for our irregular mid-high level campaign and I want to make it a bit more interesting. The players use occasional spells out of the Spell Compendium and it's only fair to spice up the bad guys too. Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with the book, apart from the few spells the players use in our regular campaign, and they are still only 4th level since we started using SC.

I'd appreciate it if you would divulge your absolute-must-have spells for bad guys. I only really need 1st to 6th level spells but no-one will stop you if you do all 9!

Can we say 2 combat and 2 utility per level, arcane and divine?

Thanks any and all in advance.

 

[Carpe DM]

Consumptive Field is ridiculous, especially if made persistent. The strength just keeps going up. Make sure, though that the bad guys have a lot of people to kill to suck down the strength. This is a good one to put the screws to your party--once the bad guys know a fight is going down, they start killing and getting scarier and scarier.

Careful, though, persistent CF can turn into a really fast total party kill.

In terms of arcane, Ray of Stupidity is just *scary*, especially if combined with Parboil (from Sandstorm), which is 4th level for wizards, 5th for clerics. Party kill: twinned parboil (divine metamagic, twin spell, or sudden twin), with a backup mage throwing a parboil, then rays of stupidity to wipe out any remaining PCs.

The thing about Ray of Stupidity is that it maims caster's ability to cast spells, and drops fighters in their tracks. There's just no downside.

 

[Bad Paper]

wow, yeah, I came in here to say Greater Consumptive Field and Ray of Stupidity. ha ha, good call, Carpe DM

 

[GilaMonster]

sarcophagus of stone is scary if you can catch one member of the party apart (like the scout). Especially if the imprisoned person has no way to get through stone (hardness 8)

Double bonus if you can teleport the sarcophagus somewhere unknown after casting it (like underwater). Party's now got a time constraint if they want to rescue their imprisoned colleague.

Check the errata for the full details of the spell. Most were left out of the text.

 

[DreamChaser]

avasculate and avascular mass just for the gross factor

 

[brehobit]

Against some parties downdraft is a killer.

Mark

 

[DeathOfRats]

And even though Reciprocal Gyre has been nerfed somewhat, it is always fun to use against those persistent buffing types

 

[roguerouge]

Bone Fiddle: You conjure a semi-corporeal fiddle that plays your opponent's SKELETON for excruciating pain damage.

For when the evil bard sycophant support guy.... just wants to have fun.

 

[Nail]

For the high-level cleric, consider Owl's Insight when buffing.

 

[carborundum]

I'll definitely be using Reciprocal Gyre - that's hilarious

Thanks for the ideas, folks.