Definetly an invoker, because they have such spells as chromatic orb, magic missile, shield, agannazar's scorcher, stinking cloud, web, fireball, lightning bolt, and of course cloudkill. But they give up enchantment\charm, and conjuration\summoning. Although, to me thats okay.

How about you? Whats your favorite?

Conjurer, definitely. Why? Because you hardly lose anything by picking this.
When I started the game, I looked up the table, saw what spells I would lose for each class, and thought Conjurer would be the best one.

I had my character as a fighter for 3 levels then dualed him to a conjurer. That took care of the "puny mage" problem. Plus I could then equip him with a bow.

Conjurers are probably the best because you only lose out in Divination spells and the only useful one i can think of is I.D.

Illusionists are pretty good as well. they only miss out on a few spells, but some are pretty good, beltyns burning blood, finger of death are a few.

invokers are my 3rd choice, they get some good spells but miss out on some good ones too. i like summoning animals and monsters, to act as a shield, but the key is that they miss out on Melf's Acid Arrow, and Flame Arrow, two good spells, and 2 of my favorites.

Conjurer, if I had to choose, because they can use the summon spells as well as the very useful encantment spells.

Wow, a "what's the best..." question where everyone agrees!

Who'd a thunk it?

I'm definately getting a Twilight Zone feeling here.....

Enchanters are allways the best for me because I usualy have a non-specialist, dual-classed mage that can Identify stuff. Conjurers are the worst because they can't cast any fun explosive stuff. I couldn't work without Magic Missle and Fireball.

Edwin's a conjurer and he can cast the big pyrotechnics that everyone loves. Even though conjurers aparrantly don't have access to evocation spells. :confused:

CORRECTION Gunthar :
A conjurer can cast all spells execpt Divination. So they CAN cast any invoking spell you want.
It's the enchanter that can't cast spells from the Invocation-school.

That's why the conjurer is the best. He can cast the 3 best schools (enchantment, invocation and conjuration, and even necromancy and illusion) and loses only on Identify spells, which are practically useless anyway.

Pardon my mistake. I got Conjurer and Enchanter switched around. :eek: I really meant to say that I like Conjurers.

Identify is really useless after you play the game once through because I know what all the items are because of the pictures and who you pick them up from.

I.D. can be useful at the begining of BG, when you dont have alot of dough. later on in the game i always had enough money to pay.

i dont think it is useful @ all in IWD if you have a bard in your party w/ high Int. and a decent enough Wis. so you dont get a Lore penalty.

Even in BG a lore rating can replace identify spells. So it looks like the conjurers are going to win...

First, sorry to resurrect such an oldie.
But I disagree with the general opinion that conjurers are the best specialist mages because they only lose divination spells, that are "not important".
Actually, I believe ID is the most important spell in the game, there are so much objects to identify. Shops are expensive, and when you start a game, you can't afford it. More important, they can't identify everything, while the spell never fails, and on the spot. It is cheesy to equip a non-identified object because you played the game before (except arrows).
Why has Edwin more spells? It's a compensation for his not knowing ID. If you don't have another mage/bard, you just shouldn't pick a conjurer.
For this reason, I prefer Xzar. ID is the most used L1 spell. This identifying thing is the real problem when I plan a team.

Conjurer no doubt.
But I prefer pure mages at least when a mage is my main character.
I like to learn all the spells.
ID Item and later in BG2 True Seeing would be missed greatly.
Note: I always create a character in BG1 with BG2 in mind as well.

i like necromancers, i never use protection magic in BG1 - and they are the best for raising hell

I like Illusionists -- partucularily gnomish dual classed illusionists. I rarely use Necromatic spells anyhow. For a single classed Specialist, I'd have to go with a conjurer -- he can cast from the 2 heavy hitter schools (conj/summ and inv/evoc) and having high INT and WIS scoreS -- or having a bard around -- solves the problem of identifying things.

Why has Edwin more spells? That's because of his non-removable amulet that gives him bonus spells per level.

Conjurer, followed closely by Illusionist. Neither loses many really good spells. I end up with Illusionist usually because I go with a fairly small party, and sometimes don't have a normal mage to cast the ID spells.

If a conjurer can do all that, then i go with that. I can't not use magic missile, flame arrow, melf acid arrow. They are my 3 faves. Is there an ice arrow spell. I hate those ice touce ones, as range is better for a mage.

Maybe conjurer is the best, but no need a conjurer for me, because I dual-classed Imoen into Conjurer herself... The Evocer is a purely fighteresque mage class that is surely quite interesting... Except that I don't like much playing with specialist mages...

The best specialist mage in BG1 is the conjurer.
It cant use the divination spells (one serious loss: identify), but this is a fair price. Play with the conjurer if you like it, not because it is so good...

[ February 21, 2003, 10:43: Message edited by: Baronius the Sorcerer ]

For me its Necromancer. Apart from the fact that the darker majiks is obviously the best :p I find that Necromancy has some very tasty spells despite the lack of number of spells it holds.

I'm not normally all the big on specialist mages, I prefer just general mages. I do think specialists can fit into many roles and have their place, I just don't use them that often. But if I had to pick my favorite, I'd go with an Illusionist.

My reasons are easy enough, I like to roleplay and when I play I don't like using an item until it is identified thus I use the ID spell alot in the early goings until my lore skill is higher. My second favorite is in agreement with most of you all here, the Conjurer. They don't lose all that many spells (though as I mentioned above, the spells they lose are very helpful). Plus they get to summon things which I think is great in general :)

Enchanters are my fave for actual D&D(I like to chase the ladies)but for B.G.I'd have to go with the Necromancer class. It's nice to feel warm and cozy around undead!

Given the limitations of the game engine (as opposed to PnP) some specialist classes just don't work well in BG. Diviners and enchanters are especially hit hard. In BG, the huge number of conjuring spells you can cast in a single battle make me like conjurers the most -- use a multi-classed mage or bard for your Identifying needs.

I think in the BG games, choosing a specialist isn't really a matter of picking your favorite spell school, but picking your least favorite. Since you get no extra bonuses for your school of focus, just the extra spell per level, all you need to decide is which spells you can live without.

couldn't agree more with deathrabbit

Agreed. That's how I pick my specialists. The way I look at it, the spells I absolutely cannot live without are illusions, conjurations, enchantments and evocations. That seriously limits my options, so I'm left with illusionist or conjurer. I will admit that I usually go for illusionist. I can live without the necromancy spells - I don't even use many in BG2 - but identify and truesight are mainstays in my spell repitoire.

EDIT: I just noticed - this post started over three years ago...

Illusionists, Conjurors, and Invokers are the only characters I'd consider playing.

The only specialist I hate are Enchanters. I need my Magic Missile!

"Illusionists are pretty good as well. they only miss out on a few spells, but some are pretty good, beltyns burning blood, finger of death are a few."

I see you´ve played IWD to much...


Illusionists are my alltime favorite in BG. I haven´t found one spell I wanted but couldn´t learn. And cuz that´s how it is, I´ve never really tried anything else. Except for Enchanter, but they suck so...