Which class is your favorite specialist, or the one you think is best? I am going to try to solo with a wizard, and I am unsure of which class I should choose. Necromancy is necessary at high levels, and evocation is also a must. Conjuration is hard for me to go without. Transmutation is also very good (haste). Any advice would be appreciated.

i wouldn't know about "best", but IMO since divination is pretty weak in offensive magicks, i choose the specialist that's opposite school of divination, i forget which. but in this game i use the transmuter bec. they get a little something during the course of the game IIRC. the necromancy loss is pretty heavy though...

I think the only school opposing Divination is Evocation and then you also miss out on Conjuration spells, so you might just as well go with a Diviner, because he only loses Conjuration. This is also my favorite specialist, because I dislike summons. However, when soloing they might come in very handy. Fortunately Animate Dead is Necromancy and Shadow Conjuration is Illusion, so I don't think you need Conjuration all that much.

I would usually go non-specialist for a solo wizard for all the reasons mentioned above.

A solo wizard on the contrary cannot go without conjuration spells. Especially true in Heart of Fury™ mode, where your summons have immens life bars.

A specialist wizard is advisable only in a party which already has a couple of arcane casters.
A general Wizard and a Sorcerer. Or a Sorcerer couple.

In such a case a Gnome Illusionist can be used as the other guys will already have all the bases covered in Necromancy and there are few caster only Abjuration spells.

Another alternative would be to pick a race whose INT can be taken to 20 (Tiefling or Drow). IIRC, with 20 INT you'll be able to pick an extra spell during character generation, and saving throw DC's will be higher as well. Plus, the resistances of these two races will help increase your survivability, especially if you're soloing.

BTW, do you need Conjuration that hard when soloing? I know summons are really powerful in HoF, but you could also use Animate Dead and Shades (or Shadow Conjuration).

It's more for variety i guess (never really been much into conjuring myself). Besides IIRC, a greater bone golem (or is it elite bone guard?) should do pretty well already. unless there's a rival cleric or something.

If you're trying to solo with an arcane caster, and don't necessarily want a mage, you could always go with a Sorcerer. You'll get even more castings per day than a specialist mage, and with careful spell selection from all schools you could probably do even better than a mage.

If you're really going for mage and nothing but a mage, but feel you need spells from all schools, I guess you don't have much a choice: pick a generalist.

Throwing in a level of some caster classes can override the opposition school. Take a level of cleric whose domain skills benefit you and still get the +1 spell per level. Allows you to cast healing scrolls also. The mage scrolls will stay grayed out but you can still write them. This is more powergaming though. Unless your like me and have played Temple of elemental evil and prefer it's mage school rules and try to implement them in by not writing certain schools.

@Xefiel
Speaking of overriding opposition schools, does taking one level of Sorcerer allow you to do that too? I don't have the game installed right now and can't check. Anyone tried this?

I never tried but I read once that it did. I know I tried with a bard at level 2 and it didnt work. If you have 11 cha you could always take sorc1 and take identify. I got to go to school and will check when I get back, will post it sometime this weekend.

If soloing with a wizard, you may want to try with a Transmuter, later in the game a transmuter has the ability to get some extra hp's, I do not think any other class of wizard can do it....

It does work to add 1 level of sorcerer. All opposition school penalties vanish.

That's a bug making penalties stop applying if you take levels in a different spellcasting class. Even paladin, actually. The scrolls are still blurred as inaccessible, but you can cast and learn from them normally.

I believe the best class to be Diviner as he only loses Conjuration (Or was it Conjuration and Necromancy? I don't use Necromancy by default, so I can't recall.). Again, many people's way of playing mages is intense on summoning, which is not my way of playing it, so it's not like many players share my opinion.

Your chosen school isn't really relevant and so it's your prohibited schools that matter in this game. Unlike ToEE, where half your memorised spells have to be of your chosen school. Taking Diviner was not the best move. But IWD2 knows no such restriction.

I dont recall the school, but it's opposition was transmuter. Since I rarely used Transmutation spells, I thought that the class with that as its opposition would be best.

I usually don't use summoned creatures since you don't get the XP gains for anything they kill. Unless I'm playing HOF where the xp gains from enemies is so high that the occasional enemies your characters put down will be enough to keep the levels coming and you damn well need them as meat shields.

I've always gotten experience from creatures that my summons killed. I don't take any of the "Summon <insert creature>" because they're not worth the investment. The only summons spells I ever found worth getting were Greater Shadow Conjuration and Animate Dead. I considered Shades but I don't want my summons to fight at 60% attributes. Animate Dead is only useful for the longevity of the creatures and their immunity to certain spells (Horrid Wilting!). Greater Shadow Conjuration creates the best creatures though.

I'm able to summon Cornugons and Glabrezus with GSC. The only problem with Cornugons is their tendency to cause fear to my other summons and even my characters. Glabrezus just kick ass.

I've always got XP from the kills made by my summons. This is consistent with NOT getting XP for killing your enemies' summons. Animate Dead is good because the power of your summons increases along with your level (unlike Summon Monster I - which is completely obsolete by the time you reach the Palisade battle)

ABJURATION . . . . OPPOSITION: TRANSMUTATION, ILLUSION
CONJURATION . . . OPPOSITION: EVOCATION
DIVINATION . . . . OPPOSITION: CONJURATION
ENCHANTMENT . . OPPOSITION: EVOCATION
EVOCATION . . . . OPPOSITION: DIVINATION, CONJURATION
ILLUSION . . . . . . OPPOSITION: NECROMANCY, ABJURATION
NECROMANCY . . . OPPOSITION: ILLUSION, ENCHANTMENT
TRANSMUTATION . OPPOSITION: NECROMANCY, ABJURATION

I have just copy-pasted this from a list available here. Looking at the opposition schools, I dont think a specialist solo is advisable. You just cant do without Necromancy, Evocation, Conjuration and Illusion can you?

Edit: damn! All the white space got eaten up :mad: