Corruption of Spirit

[sffp]

So I finally have a kobold nec at a high enough speed/stealth/con combo that it may be a viable contender when I came upon The Corruption of Spirit book in the Black Market (150,000 smackers). That would have about bankrupted me but I hadn't seen it before so I started looking at the spells - and they all suck?

50 HP - 50 SP swap - I admit that sometimes I need extra damage to send larger HP foes when I'm low on mana, but 50 SP doesn't seem near enough for 50HP. It will cost me an action, and only let me throw 4-5 more disenchant or 2-3 more annihilate. resorting to <shudder> archer or wands feels like a better deal

Crush- feels like a flea killer and isn't really needed - usually low HP creatures aren't the problem

Vampire form - Another shapeshift where I won't be able to cast? I like to warg, but I take too much damage not to change back often

The other two I couldn't learn yet, but Curse costs 100HP and might be useful against big hitters but maybe not - seems risky to cast

Same with command - how does that actually work

I left the book in the store and bought a strength potion instead...

[Selkie]

I recently reviewed every necromancer spell book, needless to say Corruption of the Spirit didn't get a glowing review.

Corruption of the Spirit
3/10

Power Sacrifice - I used this spell a lot in combination with vampire strike. So you gain mana, you lose HP. But then you regain HP by sucking some blood. They work well together but if it's not possible then chugging a few CCW will do the trick. It's less of a faff than draining wands for a mage (which also stuns for a turn or two) so I'll probably give it 1-0 to the necro in this regard.

Crush - I just didn't understand this spell at all. It costs more than annihilate (30 compared to 20 SP) so what's the idea? It does the same damage. Utterly pointless if you ask me and a waste of a valuable page in the final dungeon spell book. I suppose the only benefit is it kills golems, undead, nonliving monsters which annihilate can't.

Vampire Form - again another pointless spell. Vampire strike is more predictable. You lose HP when you transform and you can't case other spells or chug potions. You get a few extra buffs (like hold life) but they're so minor it's not worth the effort.

Curse - I started using this a bit more towards the end. Its a bit unpredictable because it does more damage to more injured monsters but can put out around 5 d150 to very poorly monsters. I think this might be one of the most damaging spells in the game. Of course, the downside is it costs you 100HP which is around 1/8th of your total health towards end game. It's a heavy price to pay... maybe too heavy. But in those moments when you're like: "Why won't you just die?" then this spell serves a purpose.

Command - junk junk junk. Sounds fun. Is less fun than you'd expect. Very unpredictable too. For example, if you are experimenting with a summoner and you use their magic then you can summon a swarm of hostile monsters who aren't joining in the fight on your side, instead they make a beeline for @ who is stood in a dumb stupor and very exposed and susceptible. I'm sure there are some clever tricks with Command that I've not been smart enough to figure out, but so far it's a dud for me. I suppose there's a small novelty value in taking control of a powerful wyrm, but that's all it is - a novelty.

[sffp]

OTH
Deadly Powers is the bomb

Banish Spirits (teleport away all non-animals in line of sight)
Annihilate (164 damage against the living)
Fume of Mordor... (map out, darken level and detect all objects)

all awesome

Unleash Chaos and Grond's Blow aren't bad, but I like to keep everything asleep for as long as possible

Storm of Darkness looks like it's going to be useful as well, but I haven't gotten there yet.

[Selkie]

Yeah Deadly Powers is very good. Fume of Mordor is one of my all time favourite spells.

I can compare necromancer to Paladin and there are so many junk spells with necros. On the other hand a Paladin carries three books and every one of them is great, packed with spells you'll use throughout the game.

I think Corruption of the Spirit needs a bit of tweaking. A lot of the ideas are good but in real world game play they just don't quite cut the mustard. Control for example sounds very cool, but compare it with single combat and there's only one winner.

Vampire form, as you identified, doesn't work. You might as well just vampire strike.

Power sacrifice should be 100SP for 50hp, IMO.

Crush is junk.

[sffp]

I'm also finding now that I'm deeper, I don't need "Into the Shadows"

Rods of Detection, See invis and higher damage spells take the place of those early spells

[Selkie]

Originally Posted by sffp

I'm also finding now that I'm deeper, I don't need "Into the Shadows"

Rods of Detection, See invis and higher damage spells take the place of those early spells

Haha, I only used to carry it because if I didn't then I'd always end Casting the wrong spells by accident.

Edit: thinking about it, the spellbook casting letters should remain the same even if you're not carrying all the books. So it's always e for Corruption of the Spirit, for example.

[Werbaer]

Originally Posted by Selkie

Haha, I only used to carry it because if I didn't then I'd always end Casting the wrong spells by accident.

Edit: thinking about it, the spellbook casting letters should remain the same even if you're not carrying all the books. So it's always e for Corruption of the Spirit, for example.

So if you carry 2 books and 3 potions, 'pray e' should use a different item slot as 'drop e'? Not a good idea IMO.

Use inscriptions. Inscribe you Corruption book with '@m5@p5@P5@G5', and train yourself to use the number instead of the letter to cast spells (or browse or learn). Especially important if you use macros to cast specific spells.
(note: command letters may depend on keyset)

You can automate the inscriptions by putting them in class specific files.
Example for file "mage.prf":
inscribe:magic book:[First Spells]:@m1@P1@G1!k
inscribe:magic book:[Attacks and Knowledge]:@m2@P2@G2!k

[DavidMedley]

Originally Posted by Selkie

the spellbook casting letters should remain the same even if you're not carrying all the books. So it's always e for Corruption of the Spirit, for example.

Should like that's how it currently works, or should like the developers should make it work that way?

[Selkie]

Originally Posted by DavidMedley

Should like that's how it currently works, or should like the developers should make it work that way?

Should like the developers should make it that way.

Caveat - there are probably some perfectly sensible reasons why they shouldn't, and I've just not thought it through properly

[wobbly]

I just inscribe them to numbers. If you use the same save you only have to do it once. If I'm a rogue my second book is actually @m4 because that's where it goes in the mage set, but that doesn't bother me.