I'm just curious what methods other people have used to safely use spells without blowing up their own party. My sorceror just got a spell (forgive me I don't remember the name) that enables a burst of flame to start from them and fry everything around them. It seemed pretty powerful, except it killed two members of my party and wounded the rest pretty bad. I'm actually considering moving my sorceror to the front ranks and upon spotting the enemy sending him running towards the enemy (properly stoneskinned and mirror imaged) to try to set off a blast before they close to melee range.

Any thoughts?

That spell is pretty useless unless you're playing a solo magic-user. There are a few of them which you really can't fire off without hurting some of your party.

The best thing to do is to gauge the blast radius and try to set the fireball off somewhere behind the enemy without hurting yourself.

The game itself says at loading screens how to use spells of mass destruction :p with greatest effect without huring your own party too much.

Something about having a Rogue with improved evasion and sending him stealth mode into the enemy, and then launch a fireball at it.

This is most surely not completely accurate but it is the concept of what it says.

Hm, I guess you mean "sunfire". The mage or sorcerer is the MIDDLE of a fireball. I love that spell. I usually have a sorcerer and make some solos. Haste/improved invisibilty on my sorcerer. Then my sorcerer goes alone (invisible) behind enemy lines, casts "sunfire", runs (haste) a little bit. Casts a second time "sunfire". Then he's running for cover behind the party, which takes care of the remaining enemies.

After a few uses you should be able to estimate the blast radius of the Sunfire/Fireball, so you should be able to move your friends out of the blast radius before it goes off.

for true destructive power, use the spell delayed blast fireball. combined with sunfire and greater spell focus, this is a truly godlike spell because there is no cap on the maximum damage. :evil:

one word: aim

Generally you should fire fireballs and the like at isolated groups of monsters, often though, this becomes impossible. You generally can't not hit your party. The best spells are the ones that massively penalize the enemy without dealing damage, like slow (I forget if it's in the e3 rules) or fear, you can safely use those in the middle of your party since they only target enemies. Remember also that your party usually has many more hp than the enemy and it often becomes possbile to cast fireball in the middle of your fighters without any fatalities on your side.

:yot: A truly godlike spell combination involves a high level sorceror that knows the spell simulacrum, casts it five times then attacks the enemy all at once. If the sorceror is high enough level you can hit the enemy with level 7 spells 6 times every turn.

I like the strategy Yago gave but i have only used sunfire once when i was in a very desperate battle. I only had my sorcerer and Morninglord left and since my Morninglord has the spirit of flame feat and had just cast protection from fire on herself im like what the hey and cast it. It solved the battle very fast and i just had my morninglord cast 2 resurections and 2 raise deades and i was back in the game

the spell simulacrum is not in ID2 (or have i been under a rock and just missed it?)