Book of alchemy

[mopl]

Currently playing an OgTm, and I found an early book of Alchemy. I wonder if I should learn some spells...

  Code:

k - a book of Alchemy   
   
    Spells                             Type                      Level
    a - Sublimation of Blood         Necromancy                    2
    b - Alistair's Intoxication      Transmutation/Poison          4
    c - Condensation Shield          Ice                           4
    d - Petrify                      Transmutation/Earth           4
    e - Ignite Poison                Fire/Transmutation            5
    f - Irradiate                    Conjuration/Transmutation     5

• SoB : not useful because I'll only cast buffs/forms and probably won't need to replenish mana
• Ignite poison : I'll learn it depending on the Lair branches, it kills Spider Nest and can be useful in Snake
• Condensation Shield : I'll learn it if I find Ozo armour, not tworth to train Ice just fo it imho
• Alistair's Intoxication

  alistair's intoxication[1/1]: L4 Transmutation-Poison spell. Has a (40 + power/3)% (max 73%) chance of confusing each natural, non-poison resistant monster in line of sight with greater than animal intelligence. Has a (60 - power/3)% chance of affecting you, even with rPois, if you do not have a source of clarity. Also drains 1-3 points of intelligence 5% of the time.

  Never used it. I have an amulet of clarity, which seems to be mandatory. Is it useful ?
• Petrify

  petrify[1/5]: Turns the target to stone after a brief period of slowness. While it's petrified it takes a lot less damage but can't do anything. Lv. 4 Tmut/Earth, in the books of Hinderance, Geomancy, and Alchemy.

  Same thing, never used it and wonder about success rate
• Irradiate

  L5 Tm/Cj. Does nontrivial damage to all adjacent enemies, at the cost of significant contam (zero to yellow in 2-4 casts).
  [dis astranagant] It's like Iron Shot, but with even less range and a chance to give you cancer

  It seems to require some Conjuration investment, which can be expensive for Og. Damage to only adjacent enemies make me feel like it's useless. Any thoughts ?

[notcluie]

irradiate damage is legitimately ridiculous even with bad spellpower
i guess you could use it like an axe (but you could also use hydra form)
all the other spells are pretty bad though

[cerebovssquire]

Alistair's is pretty good. I suppose if you have the slots it's the correct choice to get condensation shield even with no Ice Magic, but the gain from it will be marginal and I would just ignore it.

[milski]

irradiate damage is legitimately ridiculous even with bad spellpower
i guess you could use it like an axe (but you could also use hydra form)
all the other spells are pretty bad though

I don't know the exact numbers, but when I played blasters and tried out Irradiate, it seemed to be hitting about as hard as a similarly spell-powered Iron Shot, but it couldn't miss, hit in an AoE, and (apparently, there's limited indication) inflicted some kind of significant stat reductions to the enemies (damage, AC, EV, not sure). If you are in any way, shape, or form willing to get into melee with enemies, it's not a bad idea to use Irradiate, though I'm unsure if it's guaranteed safe to cast Haste+Irradiate back to back.