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Maybe this question should be in ToB.
But anyway. I am playing SoA with ToA. My PC is a mage and is leveling up to level 18. Now I must choose a level 10 spell. But what should I take?
Any suggestions?
It seems that they are all pretty good

You're right, it should be there, since those spells are only available in ToB.

Consequently, moved. Please don't put items in SoA--possibly because of the traffic?--that belong here. Besides, the experts on that stuff check out this forum, too.

Eventually (depending on how quickly you level up), you will be able to select most if not all of the High Level Abilities. So the question is, which one do you want to get the earliest? It really depends on your playing style.

For example, if you like to hit your enemies with one big, powerful spell, Dragon's Breath is a great choice. If I recall correctly, it will kill a demilich instantly. I've used Comet before, but in most cases I'd rather use Dragon's Breath.

If you like to cast a bunch of spells as fast as you can in combat, Improved Alacrity is a great choice. If you use it in combination with Time Stop, you can do some pretty interesting things.

If you like to summon creatures to help you in combat, the planetars are about as good as you can get. You can summon more than one planetar at a time if you use a spell such as Project Image. It takes practice to coordinate your summoning spells and attacks (you don't want to cause harm to your own party), but it's a very effective playing style.

If you frequently run out of memorized spells, it's nice to pick the High Level Abilities that allow you to memorize extra spells. But personally, I'd rather have the chance to cast new spells.

I like to use Energy Blades in combination with Critical Strike when I play a multi-class character, and there are other nice ways of combining High Level Abilities when you play a multi-class character. If you're playing a single-class Mage, you don't have to worry about them, and you can concentrate on your Mage's strengths.

Naturally, all of the High Level Abilities are nice, so you need to focus on the ones you really like.

Good luck!

Thanks for the answer.
I asked because I thought I could only choose one level 10 spells (ability)

You will get to learn more in time. I prefer Dragon's Breath and either Timestop or summon planetar as my first and second level ten spells. I like using the Planetar as an extra healer/priest besides its effect in battle. It really helps.

Best wishes; Palle

Thanks. I have Timestop and Dragon breath now, and both are very good spells in combat.
What do you think of Alacrity? I was thinking about take that as my next. Will it improve my spellcasting time enough to be useful? Or should I choose planetat first?

The summon Planetar is, IMHO, the best summon, comparable to the druid Summon Elemental Prince. However, the power of Improved Alacrity should not be underestimated. It's true power comes through when you use it with Time Stop: You stop time, then you remove the pause between spells, and if you've got the Robe of Vecna and the Amulet of Power you can cast many, many, spells instantly one after the other in the space of a few seconds (practically empty out your entire lvl 1 thru 3-4) with judicious use of the pause button. Then, once time resumes, BAM! all the spells take effect and the battle's either over or near over. It's your choice really, because besides being able to Raise Dead, the Planetar's got other great spells in addition to the fact that it also makes an excellent tank. Personally, I'd suggest Improved Alacrity since used properly it allows you to do some pretty amazing things, like 8 magic missiles aimed at 1 target going off at the same time (assuming that you've managed during the course of battle to reduce the opponent's Magic Resistance to near zero via Lower Resistance, 8 magic missles is almost a guarenteed kill to just about anything and everything).

There's not much to add to the last post.

Planetar is very good. Great healing and fighting abilities. If you want to burn down the house with spells, Alacrity is the way to go though.

Alacrity and Timestop: two great flavors that go great together.

Well...

Well...if you're lazy like me, the Planetar would be the first choice, for the following reason.

Find an enemy
Memorize planetar (as many as you can), rest
Set up chain contingency with Project Image X 3 on character helpless
Cast project image
this will trigger chain contingency.
(optional) summon up some skelton warriors & swords
All 4 projected images now summon planetars untill they run out.
Sic army of planetars (and others, maybe) on enemies
gain EXP and loot.

Cheesy and cowardly? Well, yes, but swarms of pets are more fun than a barrel of ooblik.

Doesnt the patch from Bioware fix this problem so you cant summon the images? I remember trying something similar to this and meeting with failure.