Excruciating Wounds

[ClawlessVictory]

I'm dabbling in necromancy. Right now, I'm trying to go for a pure caster necromancer, no minions. I bumped into this silly looking spell called "Excruciating Wounds" that I never bothered using before and I'm trying to think of an application for it. I suppose if later on, when I become a total badass and start going in a more hybrid caster/fighter type direction, I could put this thing to use. I'm wondering, has anyone found this spell especially useful? I'm thinking about toting around a quickblade or something and trying it out on assorted punching bags aka zombies.

It's honestly an ugly looking spell at first glance; it's a bit loud and costs 5 mp. Wouldn't this be more practical silent and with a lower casting cost? I haven't even tried it out yet, so I'm probably jumping to conclusions. Discuss...

[Kate]

Pain is a pretty good brand. Testing it out on zombies sounds not so great though since it only affects the living.

[crate]

Excruciating wounds is very good for a necromancer of not-kiku. It works nicely as an upgrade from lethal infusion.

[ClawlessVictory]

Pain is a pretty good brand. Testing it out on zombies sounds not so great though since it only affects the living.

oh right, that's a no-brainer. Doesn't that make the spell even more useless?

[Kate]

It does not. Lots of enemies are living.

[pratamawirya]

With high Necromancy skill, pain brand really hurts.

[ClawlessVictory]

Thanks, guys. So what would be the optimal weapon to use with Excruciating Wounds? I assume something fast, so you have a better chance of connecting with the spell?

[pratamawirya]

Yeah, use the fastest weapon you have, since the damage of the brand is dependent only on your Necro skill.

[ClawlessVictory]

So which is more effective? Swinging an elven dagger with Excruciating Wounds or a Staff of Death w/ 1 Evocation / 18 necromancy?

[Guppyfry]

I'm playing a necromancer now and I always seem to drift towards melee hybrids, but I ignored this spell for awhile. I finally started using it, it's amazing. I had been using a +5+7 freezing dagger artifact and now I just use a plain dagger. Checking the weapons sheet the +0 dagger with pain brand almost triples the damage output of the artifact. I just really need to find a quick blade now, as that almost doubles the damage again.