The 10 spells you can't live without

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

So, which spells are must-haves for you? The standards for what's necessary are purely up to you. Some people might favor everyday stuff; but I'm the kind of person who's always thinking about future--likely very infrequent--possibilities, and so I always want that 'just in case' spell at hand.

I'm taking my entries mainly from the Rifts Book of Magic, though I'm not limiting anybody else to that selection.

Without further ado, my list:

Sustain. Some might find this boring, but I think it covers such a broad range of possible emergencies that I find it indispensable.

Invisibility: Superior. Sometimes you just need to hide. Again, broad range of uses.

Heal Self. I know, I'm boring. Like, really boring.

Invincible Armor. Have I mentioned I'm risk-averse? Yeah. Layer upon layer of defenses.

Lifeward. See above. When all else fails, this still exists as a backup to the backup (Lifeward + conventional light MDC armor + Invincible armor).

Purge Self. You never know when you might need emergency medical treatment. Why not carry the equivalent of a well-stocked pharmacy with you at all times?

Purge Other. Sadly, a valuable slot must be taken up with this somewhat redundant choice. But in a party-based game system, altruism is kind of a necessity.

Energy Sphere: it's like carrying a Ley Line in your back pocket.

Restoration. Multiple organ failure? Not a problem.

Resurrection. Been dead a month? Whatever. You've got a 45% chance of breathing again!

***

Honorable mention: Love Charm. I forgot this existed until I re-read Heroes Unlimited lately. I just love it for the ridiculous scenarios that could result from reckless overuse.

[taalismn]

Given your list and its arguments, following that one up would be quite hard.

Me, though, my Honorable Mentions would have to include Spinning Blades...it's both defense AND offense, it grows in power, and being magical in nature it's useful against critters immune to just about everything else.

Globe of Daylight....yeah, it's low level, but so many creatures of darkness HATE sunlight. Plus I LOATHE vampires, classic and sparkly kinds.

[Rifter11]

In no particular order and at the risk of being repetitive with some of them:

Energy Sphere:Makes higher level casting more likely
Invincible Armor/Armor Bizarre/Armor of Ithan for obvious reasons
Carpet of Adhesion: Turns a monster encounter into "shootin' fish in a barrel!"
Globe of Daylight: You're probably better off with a flashlight....until you find yourself being attacked by vampires and demons of darkness.
Invisibility: Superior for obvious reasons
Impervious to Energy: All the bandits are using the same laser rifle? I'm immune!
Fly as the Eagle: You won't be outracing a SAMAS but at least you're not stuck on the ground where the lava is!
Rift Teleportation: because getting from point A to point B sometimes IS an adventure

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Given your list and its arguments, following that one up would be quite hard.

Me, though, my Honorable Mentions would have to include Spinning Blades...it's both defense AND offense, it grows in power, and being magical in nature it's useful against critters immune to just about everything else.

Globe of Daylight....yeah, it's low level, but so many creatures of darkness HATE sunlight. Plus I LOATHE vampires, classic and sparkly kinds.

There are plenty of situations my high-level stuff would be useless for. I guess my mentality can be summed up as 'plan for the worst case scenario'. Whereas focusing on more low-mid level stuff that has practical, immediate, day-to-day value, might well prevent the worst case scenario from occurring.

In any case, that's one of the things I love about magic: choice paralysis.

In no particular order and at the risk of being repetitive with some of them:

Energy Sphere:Makes higher level casting more likely
Invincible Armor/Armor Bizarre/Armor of Ithan for obvious reasons
Carpet of Adhesion: Turns a monster encounter into "shootin' fish in a barrel!"
Globe of Daylight: You're probably better off with a flashlight....until you find yourself being attacked by vampires and demons of darkness.
Invisibility: Superior for obvious reasons
Impervious to Energy: All the bandits are using the same laser rifle? I'm immune!
Fly as the Eagle: You won't be outracing a SAMAS but at least you're not stuck on the ground where the lava is!
Rift Teleportation: because getting from point A to point B sometimes IS an adventure

Good list. Carpet is one of my faves, flight is always good to have, even slow flight.

[darthauthor]

My personal list.

I have been writing a lot for RIfts.
Gaming.
GMing.

My mind is a little stuck on spell 4th level and below or 6th level and below.

Part of it is how real world and detail oriented do you want to be.
Challenging to rank importance so I'll go ABC alphabetically

1. Armor of Ithan

2. Charm (use it like Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi Mind Trick to get past gate guards without a firefight)

3. Escape. Goes with the fake surrender plan.

4. Impervious to Energy - CS? pretend to surrender. Make your move at melee range. 1st round your immune

5. Invisibility - Great for sneaking, even better with NG thermal / infra-red proof suits on stealh missions.

6. Magic Net: Take them alive.

7. Magic Pigeon : Long range communication

9. Superhuman Endurance: When you need to run for two hours and max speed. Great to cover distance.

10. Sustain

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

My mind is a little stuck on spell 4th level and below or 6th level and below.

Also a good list. Spell levels 5 and 6 alone are so full of useful stuff, it's difficult picking only 10 just from them. For example, you could make an entire infiltrator/spy/thief concept just from level 6. Mask of Deceit and/or Frequency Jamming and/or Time Slip could get you through most security checkpoints. Throw in Reduce Self to squeeze into normally unreachable areas (for once, the tired trope of using air ducts to get into buildings would be realistic if you're only 6 inches tall). Compulsion could be used to send guards away or otherwise manipulate them. Teleport: Lesser could be used to steal something without carrying it on your person.

Now I'm wondering if Superhuman Speed would fully apply to a 6-inch tall character; since with roughly 3-inch legs you're not going to be moving fast naturally. But I digress.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Tell me what kind of campaign it is, I'll tell you a top 10 list.

My list for an adventuring game with lots of travel looks very different from a campaign where the party mostly stays in one place.

A politically focused game would look very different from a combat-focused game.

Spells are Tools. The Best spell depends entirely on what the job to be done is. Your list says more about what kind of campaigns you tend to play and what problems you tend to find yourself in, in than it does about what the best spells are, which is entirely situational.

Just for example, Purge Other and Purge Self are definitely useful in the abstract, I tend to prioritize them lower simply because parasites are a very rare problem in most games I've played. but that's not an indictment of the spell, it's a good tool, just a tool for a job I rarely have to do. In most games I've lived entirely without it because I've simply never needed it.

The only one I'd put as Universal is Armor of Ithan / Mystic Armor. I've never not wanted that one

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Spells are Tools. The Best spell depends entirely on what the job to be done is. Your list says more about what kind of campaigns you tend to play and what problems you tend to find yourself in, in than it does about what the best spells are, which is entirely situational.

I'd just like to point out that I intentionally omitted any use of 'best' in my opening post. It was strictly understood to be your personal favorites. Like, what would you take with you, if you didn't have a good idea of what kind of campaign it would be? What spells would you never want to be without, just going by the laws of averages?

If you know exactly what you're going to need, it defeats the purpose of the question.

Also, Purge isn't just about parasites or exotic stuff. I consider it helpful for a wide range of everyday medical uses. It's basically a portable pharmacy in a world without pharmacies. I guess many/most games don't delve too much into injury complications like infections, but in the general Rifts setting, on a broad conceptual level, it'd be nice to have available.

If you want to look at it another way, even if your party doesn't need it much, it's something you could barter with. Offer to instantly cure people of various maladies in a town lacking medicine, get something in return. Purge seems to me like a much stronger form of basic psionic healing (and it's more expensive per use), so it should be a better bargaining tool.

[Fenris2020]

Globe of Daylight
Shadow Meld
Cleanse
Ricochet Strike (because of a Fallen Cosmo-Knight I played for a long time)
Desiccate the Supernatural
Annihilate
Create Mummy
Circle of Travel
Armor of Ithan
Breathe Without Air

[Curbludgeon]

I dig Cleanse, and having one or more of Talisman, Energy Sphere, or the Vajra spells helps with PPE.

[Rifter11]

I dig Cleanse, and having one or more of Talisman, Energy Sphere, or the Vajra spells helps with PPE.

What's a Vajra spell?

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Globe of Daylight
Shadow Meld
Cleanse
Ricochet Strike (because of a Fallen Cosmo-Knight I played for a long time)
Desiccate the Supernatural
Annihilate
Create Mummy
Circle of Travel
Armor of Ithan
Breathe Without Air

Circle of Travel and Desiccate are high on my list of desirable spells. Annihilate's cool but the collateral damage scares me a little. Shadow Meld reminds me of a Heroes Unlimited magic character I'd like to import to Rifts someday. Either mystically bestowed or enchanted weapon would allow me to combine Darkness Control with some shadow magic.

I dig Cleanse, and having one or more of Talisman, Energy Sphere, or the Vajra spells helps with PPE.

What's a Vajra spell?

If I'm not mistaken, it's from Mystic China. Pretty much allows you to make a huge PPE battery that's far more useful than a Talisman.

[Blackwater Sniper]

Armor of Ithan
Attune Object to Owner
D-Phase
Dimensional Envelope
Dimensional Pockets
Time Capsule
Wink Out
Blinding flash
Mystic Alarm
Tongues
shadow meld

My Most Useful 10 plus an Honorable Mention

[AceTW]

Utility:
1st lvl Globe of Daylight. At a bare minimum, you can at least hold the drop-light.
2nd lvl Cleanse. No one wants to do laundry or bathe in a cold river.
5th lvl Sustain. Man's gotta eat, or drink, or sleep, or even breathe.
5th lvl Mend the Broken. How else is your team going to get body armor repaired in the wild?

Emergency
3rd lvl Light Healing. The lowest level/easiest way to get someone back on their feet.
7th lvl Heal Self. Of course, no one else has any medical training or gear.

Combat
2nd lvl Throwing Stones. Lowest lvl and cheapest.
3rd lvl Armor of Ithan. Great protection and being resistant to energy is always a plus.
4th lvl Carpet of Adhesion/Magic Net. These end fights before they even start.
6th lvl Call Lightning/Fireball. Classic combat spells that scale well with your level.

I've done a poor man's spread sheet with all the DPS spells. I have no real way to analyze them all since it is done long hand on paper. Which MD spell in Rifts is the most bang for your buck /DPS?

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

I've done a poor man's spread sheet with all the DPS spells. I have no real way to analyze them all since it is done long hand on paper. Which MD spell in Rifts is the most bang for your buck /DPS?

Hmm... there are still a lot of books I don't own, but from what I can tell, I'd estimate Shadow Magic to have the most cost efficiency, provided you're a Shadow Mage and get the half-cost bonus.

For example, Shadow Bolt only does 2d4 base damage, but adds 1d4 per level. So at level 10 you're looking at 12d4, or depending on how the GM would want to simplify it, maybe 1d4x10 + 8 or something like that. Cost is 6 PPE or 3 if you're a Shadow Mage.

For pure efficiency I have to think Shadow Tendril Bolts is the best magic attack by far. For a Shadow Mage, the duration is 2 melees (4 for a Shadow Lord), and the cost is 15 PPE. Each melee you shoot a shadow bolt into a nearby shadow and it splits into 4 (maximum) which then fire at one or more targets from nearby shadows. Each bolt does 2d6 damage. This attack can be repeated up to 4 times per melee.

Thus, for the cost of 15 PPE, assuming you're a Shadow Mage, you can fire 8d6 per single attack, times 4 per melee, equals 32d6, times two melees' duration, for a grand total of 64d6. Let's assume average rolls of 3 per damage dice and half of all attacks miss; you're still looking at close to 100 MD inflicted for 15 PPE spent. Taking the regular Shadow Bolt and giving it average rolls at level 10 (~20 damage per hit), you could achieve about the same levels of damage for the same costs--but you'd also have to be level 10. Whereas Shadow Tendril Bolts will do that amount of damage at level 1.

The only problem with all of that is the nightmare of rolling each 2d6 attack separately, if you wanted to do it by the book. I guess if each bolt was aimed at the same target it could be resolved as one attack; it's only necessary to treat each bolt as a separate attack when there are multiple targets. In which case I might once again condense an 8d6 roll into a 1d4x10 roll like I did above.

[AceTW]

I'll have to look closer at the Rifter article on the Shadow Mage. Those are some efficient combat spells.

I also want to add a few honorable mentions to my list.

7th lvl Sub-Particle Acceleration. 1d6x10+1per lvl. The real kicker is that it can also be used to recharge E-clips with 6 shots. Great for a team without a Techno-Wizard, Operator, or Mystic Knight/Knight of the Rose.

11th lvl Create Scroll and 13th lvl Talisman. Both of these allow a Mage to go to a Nexus and stockpile magic for later use. I think I read somewhere that a Techno-wizard can even use an iPad like device at store thousands of scrolls in its memory. The ability to store magic for later use circumvents most of the limitations that magic users have. Especially for large PPE requirements that a mage could not normally generate on his own.

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

I'll have to look closer at the Rifter article on the Shadow Mage. Those are some efficient combat spells.

I got my info from Secrets of Atlanteans, or Dimension Book 15. There's also shadow magic presented in the Library of Bletherad, but I think DB15 covers it more extensively. Including the Shadow Mage.

11th lvl Create Scroll and 13th lvl Talisman. Both of these allow a Mage to go to a Nexus and stockpile magic for later use. I think I read somewhere that a Techno-wizard can even use an iPad like device at store thousands of scrolls in its memory. The ability to store magic for later use circumvents most of the limitations that magic users have. Especially for large PPE requirements that a mage could not normally generate on his own.

The Vajra (if you don't mind dipping into Mystic China) is a spell/PPE holder along the same lines as a Talisman, but larger capacity. 300 PPE is the largest one I've seen listed. You could also put, say, Annihilate in one, along with the PPE necessary to cast the spell (if you were a Shifter, etc, and casting it at half the usual cost).

[Mersharr]

• Blinding Flash - is a spell I could not live without, in the sense that it saved my (character's) life! When a red dragon toddler rolled a nat 1 on the save, the encounter got a lot more survivable. In the NGR they call that "more luck than sense" and I will readily admit that could have gone very badly.
• Globe of Daylight
• Sense Magic - These two are weak, cheap, low-level spells, but there's a good reason pretty much every non-mystic caster knows them. They get their daily (or nightly) use
• Armor of Ithan - Doesn't need explanation
• Dimensional Pocket - The only reasons to carry something outside a dimensional pocket, are it weighs more than 30 lbs, it is too big to be held in one hand, or it is a pocket/has pockets. (I shall not count things you wear as things you carry for this.)
• Magic Net - Takes one or more targets out of the combat for at least two melee rounds, which in our group is longer than combat typically lasts. Especially useful for "capture and retrieve alive" missions
• Escape - Keep a paperclip talisman with this spell in your rear pocket AT ALL TIMES... or maybe enchant your underpants?
• Mend the Broken / Mend Machines - When you are fleeing and an MD bullet hits your engine you don't have time to stop, let it cool down, and replace parts
• Fly as the Eagle - Every character in the party should have some flight capability, if only as an emergency parachute
• Talisman - This one is already a must for recharging PPE-Clips, but its "actual" use to make little magic item that casts any one (non-illusion) invocation spell you know up to 8th level 3 times without PPE cost? Get a caster or two from your group or allies, go to a nexus (make sure at least one of you can sense Ley Line Storms before they arrive), draw those PPE and mass-produce them! Every spell you know, 3 times for every member of your party to use at will! The caster who knows exorcism got possessed? Every party member has 3 tries to free them with exorcism! Fly as the Eagle whenever, whereever! Gravity is now optional! Can't make other party members Impervious to Energy because range is self only? Give them a talisman and let them do it themself!

Honorable Mentions:

• Mystic Fulcrum - This spell has very little game relevance, but if I could cast just one spell IRL, it would be high on my list. (Not necessarily the top spot, but it's up there)
• Time Hole - Now, I've lived without that spell for a loooong time, so I really can't claim it's a spell I can't live without, but it makes a huge difference in both learning new spells from books/scrolls and actually having time for all the stuff one would usually need downtime for
• Sustain - My GM made sure I can live without this spell by making clear from the very beginning that spell-addiction is a thing in his game and he will monitor use and abuse of this. But really, read what it does! No need for food, water, or breathable air, AND greatly reduced need for sleep! For days at a time and you can cast it on two allies at once! Combines nicely with Time Hole too, since there's no food or water in there except what you carry with you.

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Which MD spell in Rifts is the most bang for your buck /DPS?

Okay, wait a minute. I just 'discovered' Lightning Arc, level 8 invocation. I've read the Book of Magic several times (or more accurately, skimmed it without reading every word), and I always tend to gloss over basic elemental attacks because they don't look impressive to me. But reading the description in detail makes me think otherwise (this one spell is the exception to the rule, however).

Lightning Arc grants: 100 feet range per level. One melee round duration, per level. 4d6 MD (+ 2 per level) damage per attack, the amount of attacks being equal to your available melee actions. The cost is 30 PPE. A warlock can cast it as a 4th level spell (which would take up one less melee action) and for 15 PPE. In either case it's extremely efficient at high levels.

Imagine for a moment that you have a 10th level mage who has HtoH: Assassin, and boxing. That's what, 8 attacks per melee? Forget that 95% of mages can't take boxing.

So, at 10th level, you've got 1,000 foot range, which is decent for magic attacks; you've got a total duration of 10 melees after one activation, meaning you can shoot MD lightning 'for free' for 2.5 minutes straight. And finally, after the initial melee round (where you waste an attack on the spell casting), you could shoot the lightning as often as 8 times per melee. At 100 feet or less you get a +4 strike bonus, beyond that it drops to +1. I would imagine that a high PP and maybe targeting should add strike bonuses? In any case, let's just assume we miss half the attacks. Further assume that a 4d6 roll will average out to 12. That means it's a grand total of 32 MD per attack, times 4 successful attacks per melee, so it's 128 MD per round for 9 consecutive rounds.

Long story short, with a 50% miss rate you could still do ~1200 MD for the cost of 30 PPE. Which is pretty insane.

(note: Warlock OCC can't take boxing or Assassin, so I'm not using the 15 PPE cost in this example)

[Grazzik]

Which MD spell in Rifts is the most bang for your buck /DPS?

Okay, wait a minute. I just 'discovered' Lightning Arc, level 8 invocation...Long story short, with a 50% miss rate you could still do ~1200 MD for the cost of 30 PPE. Which is pretty insane.

Yes, very impressive, but there are a few limitations... I would suspect that doing anything that requires hands or focus other than maintaining the spell would be difficult, such as driving or climbing. Also, the light and crackling of the lightning would need to be accounted for when sneaking or prowling. Also, it is pretty much saying "hey, I am over here, shoot me first as a clear and present danger". So, many attacks would be used up dodging.

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Yes, very impressive, but there are a few limitations... I would suspect that doing anything that requires hands or focus other than maintaining the spell would be difficult, such as driving or climbing. Also, the light and crackling of the lightning would need to be accounted for when sneaking or prowling. Also, it is pretty much saying "hey, I am over here, shoot me first as a clear and present danger". So, many attacks would be used up dodging.

Or you could just cast Invincible Armor (also 30 PPE), which at level 10 will last 30 minutes and grant 250 MD protection. Regenerates 1d6 per melee and cuts energy attack damage by half. You could couple that with ~80 MDC conventional armor underneath that, along with a Lifeward underneath that.

If you're up against conventional enemies dealing regular or magic energy damage, your effective MD is 500 + 80 + the last bit of damage is absorbed by the armor rule, so just say 600 MD.

I would stand stock-still and tank it. When you're down to your last bit of conventional armor, disengage with any number of spells; at level 10 you'd still have plenty of PPE left, having only spent 60 in the last 2-3 minutes.

While I use level 10 for the example, even at level 4, against level-appropriate enemies, all of this would still work. A Ley Line Walker would be the best candidate for it, since they can take both Assassin and boxing. Getting access to an 8th level spell at a lower level shouldn't really bother too many GMs.

The biggest question for me would be whether PP strike bonuses or anything else apply to hand-directed electrical attacks. Spells like Throwing Stones explicitly tell us that PP and targeting bonuses apply, but since electricity is shot from the fingers and not thrown like a ball, I'd be inclined to say that PP bonuses do not apply, while targeting still does. There's no physical prowess element to it, but there is the element of trying to hit a moving target or a distant target, which I'd argue falls under the auspices of WP: Targeting.

Without targeting bonuses, then the chief drawback of Lightning Arc would be the poor attack bonus beyond 100 ft.

*Edit:

I looked up Sorcerous Fury, which gives the user free lightning attacks among other things, and it says PP and targeting bonuses apply. I would argue that applies to Lightning Arc, then. Further, I just realized that Magical Adrenal Rush could be stacked with the above concept, thus giving the user in my example a total of 10 attacks per melee.

[Aermas]

This thread already covered a bunch of good ones so I'll just throw these ones out there

Supernatural Agility (grants Autododge)
Fleet Footed (double your attacks)
Magical Adernal Rush (give yourself more attacks)

[Zer0 Kay]

Create deck of cards (tarokka deck if you want a little extra oomph or a MtG or other CCG with no deck size limit if you want to be extra rediculous if your going through vamp territory have a premade deck with the top two cards have silver leave along the edges or use some other material transmogrification to make it silver)
Card Daggers
Infinite Deck of Cards
52 Cards to the face (if something doesn't have a face have some means of putting one on... sharpie?)

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

I somehow forgot about Aura of Death all this time. Makes you invisible to electronic detection (thermal vision, etc).

Makes me wonder how a tech enemy would cope with you if you did the following:

Cast simple invisibility, aura of death, fly as the eagle, and lightning arc. Fly above enemies, rain down lightning attacks while remaining invisible.

If they somehow had the ability to see the invisible, you could add chameleon on top of all the above, and hover stationary over your enemies; still remaining difficult to spot. Lightning attacks would, I suppose, give some indication of where you are; but it'd still be impossible to pinpoint your location for accurate return fire.

[darthauthor]

Your intelligence is diabolical.

[Aermas]

Add the fog cloud spell & pretend to be a rogue thunderstorm

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Your intelligence is diabolical.

I will consider that an absolute compliment. Thank you.

In all seriousness, it's a spell I never thought much of until I was reading the Mystic Knight's starting spell selection, and I wondered why it was given something like Aura of Death. It suddenly dawned on me that AoD isn't just a niche spell that allows you to walk around zombies without them noticing you; it's a full-on anti-tech, anti-psionic detection stealth suite all rolled into one relatively cheap spell. The applications for it are innumerable. From defeating security systems to playing dead to evading search parties, etc.

At low levels the PPE cost per minute is a little on the high side, but for a mid-high level character it'd be fine. You could even put it in a Talisman since it's only a level 5 spell.

[darthauthor]

Yeah.

The game I am running.

It changes the play.

Dog Boys can still sense them but infra-red. Na.

Makes for great sneaks and prowling until someone attacks.

Honestly, playing and running a Mystic Knight (or Knight of the Rose if you are so inclinded) is great.

But, not ALL their starting spells are winners. Power weapon (or was it empower weapon) is like 35 PPE for a damage of like 1d6 MD or was it S.D.C. to MD?

Anyway, it is a PPE hog that does not do that much for you compared to what they normally pack or can blast from their eyes or hand or with another spell for less PPE.

Aura of Death, however, is a winner in stealth.

[Zer0 Kay]

I somehow forgot about Aura of Death all this time. Makes you invisible to electronic detection (thermal vision, etc).

Makes me wonder how a tech enemy would cope with you if you did the following:

Cast simple invisibility, aura of death, fly as the eagle, and lightning arc. Fly above enemies, rain down lightning attacks while remaining invisible.

If they somehow had the ability to see the invisible, you could add chameleon on top of all the above, and hover stationary over your enemies; still remaining difficult to spot. Lightning attacks would, I suppose, give some indication of where you are; but it'd still be impossible to pinpoint your location for accurate return fire.

Invisibility superior makes you invisible to electronic detection also.

[MyDumpStatIsMA]

Invisibility superior makes you invisible to electronic detection also.

Right, but you can't attack without breaking it. Hence the need to combine simple invisibility with AoD to get something offensively useful.

[Aermas]

Invisibility superior makes you invisible to electronic detection also.

Right, but you can't attack without breaking it. Hence the need to combine simple invisibility with AoD to get something offensively useful.

Why not Invisibility to Sensors?

[Orin J.]

Given your list and its arguments, following that one up would be quite hard.

Me, though, my Honorable Mentions would have to include Spinning Blades...it's both defense AND offense, it grows in power, and being magical in nature it's useful against critters immune to just about everything else.

Globe of Daylight....yeah, it's low level, but so many creatures of darkness HATE sunlight. Plus I LOATHE vampires, classic and sparkly kinds.

i'm seconding globe of daylight, but not for any of taalismn's reasons. i consider it a "must-have" because you have no idea how often a group stumbles into an area with no way to see in the dark because their "see in the dark" plan was 20+ feet tall or locked in a safe because they didn't want it stolen while they're suddenly in some disused steam tunnels full of hissing things.

[Blue_Lion]

I usually play TWs so my list would be a little different.

Armor of ithan -standard tw armor/vehicle defense low PPE cost.
Mend the broken- You can use the savings on repairs to build new TW devices.
Sustain-standard TW armor/vehcile mod life support.
Invulnerability -standard TW armor mod defense, provides mdc impervious to energy, and bonus to hf.
Eyes of wolf- good choice for googles low light vision, track, identify plants and good chance to see invisibly.
Globe of daylight -needed to make converted laser rifle and tw batteries for electronics.
energy bolt- needed for tw converted laser rifle.
Invisibly superior- standard tw armor/vehicle mod.( really scarry when there is multi crew combat vehicle the gunner shoots the driver restarts the stealth.)
Toungs- speak to people
eyes of Thoth- read writing

[Blue_Lion]

Invisibility superior makes you invisible to electronic detection also.

Right, but you can't attack without breaking it. Hence the need to combine simple invisibility with AoD to get something offensively useful.

I am not so sure about that. While you are invisible the nimbus of black fire this spell creates may not be. While it covers a wide range of sensors that can be used to tell you are alive radar/sonar/motion sensors are not among those affected because they would still show dead that is moving.