I am writing this post to gush about how amazing the Rain spell is. I have become convinced that Rain is one of the most powerful spells in the game. This thread is dedicated to awesome tactics and interesting things you have noticed about Rain.

• Rain can stun a large number of enemies when hit with lightning (staff of magus: air damage is the easiest).
• Rain stacks with itself. Cast multiple Rains to widen the puddle.
• Rain can be cast on enemies before combat starts. Far Out Man or Sneaking makes this extremely effective.
• Rain has amazing synergy with Aerotheurge and Expert Marksman characters.
• Rain prevents Bomb Skeletons from exploding themselves (but they can still be exploded by fire damage).
• Rain counts towards Elemental Affinity: Water.
• Electrocuted puddles partially destroy Rain. Cast Rain more often than you Electrocute it to continue widening the puddle.
• Electrocuted puddles have a charge that determines how long the puddle stays electrocuted. Resistant enemies use up this charge faster. Stun Immune enemies (and Lightning Rod) use up this charge the fastest.
• Rain has a cooldown of 6 Turns at 5 Intelligence, 5 Turns at 6 Intelligence, 4 Turns at 8 Intelligence, 3 Turns at 10 Intelligence, 2 Turns at 12 Intelligence, and 1 Turn at 14 Intelligence.

I like it too. Early in the game you can use Bitter cold (3 AP air spell) to automatically freeze just about anything that gets wet, and at a range no less.

I don't think it's OP though. There are several abilities that are easy to use and provide amazing results. Blind comes to mind - it's cheap and easy to use, and blinded enemies just sit there like idiots. Sure, they could run around or try to attack, but they don't. It's low level, so by the time you are high level you are crushing the saving throws of most mobs and you can cast it every round. I've blinded all the bosses, even the final boss, and they just sit there while you destroy them.

Another amazing spell is boulder dash (or whatever it's called now). It provides AOE knockdown, causes damage, and creates an ooze field for handy ignition. Knockdown is one of the only status affects that you don't get a save to resist every turn so it's great for crowd control.

Anyway, keep in mind some combinations only become OP if you have the right party and circumstances to exploit it. And when they do, I for one like this is game lets you milk it and be awesome, rather than come up with some reason to nerf it.

But would not you need to get the lighting rod talent to avoid being stun, unless you are running a full ranger party. I find stunning to be particularly annoying and to often have collateral effect.

I agree that boulder dash is amazing. Not only it has all the qualities mentioned above but the limited aoe is also useful to avoid hitting your party members.

I have not tried blind but petrification works nicely as well to disable an enemy.

If you have lighting rod, do you run lighting strike and are able to lock down enemies.

Blind really is amazing, and is probably broken right now because enemies should not just be standing around while blind. The fact that it works on bosses really allows it to shine. But pound for pound, Rain still outperforms it. Stunning 3-5 guys for 8 AP is some of the most efficient CC in the game, and only gets better if you have multiple people in the party who are running Rain and can make the puddle larger and larger.
You can get Lightning Rod as early as Level 11 with a normal character, and Level 7 as a Lone Wolf, and it really is as powerful as it seems. It is one of those talents that makes an enormous difference something I recommend even for melee characters. A 2 Handed Warrior with Aerotheurge 5 and Man-At-Arms 5 is the most powerful character in the game.

Until level 11/7 your melee characters should focus on murdering people outside the electric puddles. Rogues have the advantage of swapping from daggers to bows after all the non-stunned people are dead.Lightning Rod + Air Resistance lets you run lightning strike with impunity, throw around chain lightnings like nothing, get full effectiveness out of storms, and even stand in static clouds during combat. Out of combat you instantly disperse static clouds which can allow your party members to pass safely through them.

All the touch disabling spells (shock, frozen, petrify) are amazing, especially with far out man. Their high chance to work and cheap AP became very valuable later in the game for me when I could cast two or three of these and still do something else.

One thing that bugs me: Petrify doesn't reduce damage taken, but frozen does. I guess petrify leaves an air hole where you can poke in your sword? Lol.