The Flaming Sphere Scroll Fan Club (repost)

[saekee]

Reposting an abridged version of my 2014 Hall of Fame thread from the Old Forums before it disappears.
Thank you to all who helped share different uses in the original thread that are now missing due to the thread deletion: Quezuzu, Luxgolg, Lanhelin, Spellburst, and Cdbd3rd.


Flaming Sphere

• Where to buy: Marketplace (and PH) Morna Wyrmtouched <Arcane Scroll Vendor - Level 2> in The Marketplace Bazaar - 15pp. Cheap!!!! Or use the Long Broom of Mystery from Night Revels, 5 charges/day
• Duration: 1 minute. Artificer's Knowledge does not extend this duration.
• When cast: breaks stealth and invisibility.
• Action: Follows you around like a slow-moving summon but does not count as a summon! (you can have another)
• Damage: so lousy that it is negligible.
• They are typed as Ooze!!! You may charm an 'enemy' sphere!

This scrolled spell is very useful for tactics, both for general use (see below) and moving enemies in stealth operations. It cannot get blown away by wind elementals.

Stealth Tactics
Cast it out of sight and then stealth into a location. It groups enemies like a noisemaker, setting up avoidance or CC. Very useful for stealth builds that do not have noisemakers and trapmaking! Can be used in conjunction with them!

General Stuff
Light a Grease spell!

Summon multiples if scrolled (rather useless but fun)! Easy to do if back and forth between the Long Broom and the Scrolls! Casting it creates a long cooldown of the spell, so one at a time for sp users!

Specific Quests/Uses:

Finding Dorris: Activate and draw the Pit fight audience away!

Light the tents in Siegebreaker

Move that last obstinate guardian off its pressure plate in Claw of Vulkoor. This does not cause it to see you! See this post for the penultimate one as well! If you try a regular summon, like a dog, it will count as 'spotting you'! Noisemakers work better but not everyone has four levels of rogue!

Light the Torches in Inferno of the Damned!

And More! Here are some examples without giving away the details (shortened due to limit on photos and missing links):

• Death House: Rob the old couple more easily!!!
• Pull hidden mephits in Fane of the Six!
• Kill less collared slaves in House of Broken Chains, merciful one!
• Finish Siegebreaker less painfully! So inexpensive to do!
• Distract wondering guards in Irestone Inlet (via cdbd3rd's post here
• Draw out invisible mobs preventing room completions in Prison of the Planes when they aggro onto someone outside
• Distract pursuant Drow in Offering of Blood!
• Distract the Guardians of the Spear for the Giant Skellie optional in Haunted Halls!
• Distract the Kobold Ambush in Fear Factory!
• Distract scout minotaurs in Framework! (They will not sound alarm!) Also, use in final boss fight to pull the minotaur boss! See this video here by Spellburst!
• Draw the Orthons and Barbed Devils in Sins of Attrition! (no Dungeon Alert risks here!)
• Lure curious cultists to their doom in The Mask of Deception! This works in many quests with traps and 'mobs around the corner!'
• Distract the mobs in the Drow Ritual of Servants of the Overlord! So much smoother to do this than to have them firing away at your friends! You might get hit!!!
• Distract the Ambush in Litany of the Dead! A bit tricky, but doable.

 

[TheoMoonsea]

Hi. I recently accidentally learned about this spell, and encouraged by your post, I decided to test it out because it seems very useful. I'm currently a level 9 sorcerer. I cast the spell directly, not from a scroll. And unfortunately, it seems completely broken. It does almost no damage except when, I assume, the mob rolls a one on a saving throw. It does absolutely no aggro. Zero. Mobs completely ignore it. I don't know about other functions, like burning webs, but the most important one, in my opinion - gathering aggro - definitely doesn't work.

 

[Mokune]

I havn't tried myself due to employment of other tactics but it was always interesting to see tactics others use. Really hope its behavior in drawing aggro hasn't changed as indicated above.

It is deplorable to imagine Developer time being spent changing the behavior of useful spells. It *almost* feels like a personal attack against player ingenuity which seems to be the MO.

 

[cdbd3rd]

To this day, when a FS scroll drops in a chest I fire it up and let it wander around.

Elieri has never entirely trusted them.

 

[saekee]

Hi. I recently accidentally learned about this spell, and encouraged by your post, I decided to test it out because it seems very useful. I'm currently a level 9 sorcerer. I cast the spell directly, not from a scroll. And unfortunately, it seems completely broken. It does almost no damage except when, I assume, the mob rolls a one on a saving throw. It does absolutely no aggro. Zero. Mobs completely ignore it. I don't know about other functions, like burning webs, but the most important one, in my opinion - gathering aggro - definitely doesn't work.

it draws aggro, or rather attention, of mobs when accompanying a stealthed character. This is useful for stealthy toons like ninjas that do not have access to noisemakers.

It has other fun functional uses that I have posted above, like lighting tents on fire (not an issue for a sorc!).

I discover odd uses of it continuously. For example, the annoying boss at the end of ToEE part 1 stays up high on a ledge after you drop his elementals and demon spider thingy. So I go to the earth elemental rock area, cast the flaming sphere, and stealth towards the middle. He comes down to investigate! Makes it easier for a melee!