Buying higher level spells, worth it?

[Zalman]

So far in my fights on Hard difficulty, Ive been relying on a combination of Control foe and Terror to make the enemies more manageable, but the problem is I sometimes need control foe specifically as the distraction and extra damage dealing is a huge help, but at my current level (only 1, never improved it), its not reliable, even against dumb/low level creatures. Its not uncommon for 2 control foe spells to fail in a row.

 

I wanted to spend on raising it but is it useful? I read few times that improving skills is not worth it and is better to get the first point of a spell only.

 

Edit: I just remembered that raising the priestly skills of the character will no doubt help this spell become more efficient, but which skill do I raise? there's Priest spells at 13, spellcraft at 7 and magery at 4 (which still needs a point of intelligence before I can raise.)

 

Any advice appreciated.

[Lilith]

In the second Avernum trilogy, Mage/Priest Spells, Spellcraft and Magery all have equivalent effects on the power of your spells: one point of any of them will improve your spells by the same amount. Mage Spells skill only affects mage spells, Priest Spells skill only affects priest spells, and the other two affect all spells. So if you want stronger spells, invest in whichever of those skills currently has the lowest skill point cost.

 

The reason spell levels aren't considered a good investment is that raising a spell by one level is equivalent to a single point in any of the above skills, but only for that one spell. It can be worth it for cheap low-level spells that you expect to use a lot throughout the game, like Bolt of Fire, but for most spells it's a big money sink for not much benefit.

[Zalman]

Thanks, although being equivalent to a skill point is not so bad, and Im desperate to improve that skill.. and I have alot more money than I need, so I might just get it.

[Zalman]

I have another question, not sure if I should start a new thread, but how do I change turn order? fights usually go like this: my 1 st fighter acts, then the priest, then the enemy who attack the priest, sine he was last to attack, I want both my melee fighters to be the last to hit the enemy to attract their hits.

[Randomizer]

There are two ways to control turn order. The first is party order where you would have to move the fighters to the back which isn't a good idea. The other in some games is in the game option screen there is a choice to use dexterity instead of party order, but that still won't work for you.