Oh boy, this is where things get interesting.

Clairvoyance (D)
-You rarely ever need to cast this. Helpful when you're trying to go from 1 side of the map to the other, but you can't see it. I like to have the whole map revealed without personally exploring it, so yeah. Use scrolls or have a mage memorize it to cast it the few times you need to.

Detect Illusion (D)
-I never bothered with this.

Dire Charm (Enc)
-Like the level 1 Charm Person spell, I never bothered with this.

Dispel Magic (Abj)
-This is a must-have. Even more so if you're solo. I used to look for certain spells that remove certain conditions, but I should've just stopped and casted this instead. Removes just about anything screwing with my party.

Fireball (Evo)
-Ah yes, good ol' Fireball. Good spell, especially for taking out a bunch of troll corpses with a huge radius. Perhaps others would like to elaborate more. This is one of those spells "every game's gotta have" if you know what I mean.

Flame Arrow (C)
-I used to like this, but the damage gap is way too big. With 3 arrows (max in SoA cap), you get 15-90 damage + the save for half damage. I rarely ever used it, as there are better alternatives. IF you think about it, the max damage is actually 45 for 3 arrows. Because if they are going to fail the save, you might as well use an instant death spell instead. Ya?

Ghost Armor (C)
-This is the upgraded version of level 1's armor. Only get this if you aren't going to have room to take the level 4 version Spirit Armor. As that is superior to this in every way.

Haste (Alt)
-This is a must-have. I don't care what you say. If the party doesn't all have Boots of Speed, everyone moves damn slow. But a constant casting of this will fix that problem. Also, if you're going to get Animate Dead, you'll DEFINITELY want this. 5 hasted Skeleton Warriors will wreak havoc.

Hold Person (Enc)
-They get no penalty to their save, and it has to be some sort of humanoid. And the area of effect is also small. Party friendly though. It's ok, I suppose there could be some uses for it.

Hold Undead (N)
-Not much to say about this. Does anyone even use this?

Invisibility 10' radius (I)
-I suppose this could be useful if you use invisibility like you would for the level 2 spell.

Lightning Bolt (Evo)
-This spell is dangerous and rather difficult to work with. However, there is 1 rather interesting use if you've got a cloak of reflection. A possibility of infinite lightning bolts from 1 casting. But I don't know how effective that would be.

Melf's Minute Meteors (Evo/Alt)
-This ain't too bad actually. I've read an Assassin's special poison ability will work on these meteors. Also, killing Kangaxx is easier with this. I used to throw these at enemies when my spells were ineffective.

Minor Spell Deflection (Abj)
-Not much for me to say. It's pretty weak.

Monster Summoning I (C)
-Also pretty weak, later becomes useless.

Non-detection (Abj)
-There's a cloak with this effect available early on. Either way, I can't think of many times that'd I would actually use this.

Protection from Cold (Abj)
-I haven't seen cold attacks used very often at all. If ever...

Protection from Fire (Abj)
-Yeah, lots of fiery action going on. This wouldn't be too bad with a fire resistance ring if you plan to use the Agannazar's Scorcher tactic. Complete invulnerability to normal fire attacks, and absorbs 50% of magical sources. Wouldn't that mean you'd immune to fire? Because you absorb 50, take 50... no damage. Unless by absorb, they don't mean actually absorb/healing... Bleh.

Protection from Normal Missiles (Abj)
-I think this is pretty useless. There aren't that many ranged attackers out there. And if there are, you send a fighter up to them and they'll switch over to melee.

Remove Magic (Abj)
-The offense version of Dispel Magic. A proper casting of Dispel Magic would do exactly what this spell does. I guess some would like this better than Dispel, but I need Dispel to remove negative effects on my characters. And there's no point in having 2 of the somewhat same spell.

Skull Trap (N)
-MUST HAVE!

Slow (Alt)
-This is pretty damn good. Makes things so much easier for your physical fighting characters, and they move slow as hell. Not to mention an awesome -4 penalty when they gotta make the save.

Spell Thrust (Abj)
-The first of the spell protection removers. It's weak, as expected. Won't do much for ya later into the game.

Vampiric Touch (N)
-This is good. I used to enjoy using this when I had them in my special abilities. Even though you can only gain hp once every 5 turns, it still deals good damage. Mainly used it when I was hurt and needed some quick healing. I wouldn't take this as a spell though, just use it from the special abilities. By the time you lose it, you won't need it anymore, anyway.


Alrighty, deciding the top 5.. there are actually quite a few good spells to choose between on this level. So I'm just going to list the spells I think would actually be worthy, then choose the top 5 after weighing out the pros/cons.

Dispel Magic
Fireball
Haste
Melf's Minute Meteors
Protection from Fire
Skull Trap
Slow

1 more thing on the Protection from Fire. I believe it stacks with a level 2 priest spell, which adds another 50% to your fire resist. Now you have 100% resist without the help of equipment. You can turn yourself into a suicide bomber by running into the crowd and casting fireball on yourself. Or better yet, sequence 3 of them.

Personally, I think that you need:

- Slow

- Fireball/Skull trap. Personally, I think that Fireball is better than Skull trap. Skull trap might have a higher damage cap, but the blast radius is smaller, and the casting range is unforgiving. I love to blast critters out of the range of my sight with fireball.

- Melf's Minor Meteors. If you're playing solo sorc, you really need this spell. Otherwise you have to do things the hard way (lower resist times 4). Good on stoneskinned mages as well.

Hence you're left with two optionals.

Good choices are:

- Lightning Bolt. Yeah, I know it's a little unpredictable, but if you pre-prepare, you can reap awesome damage on rebounds.

- Dispel magic.

- Protection from Fire. Try casting this on Fire Elementals.

- Vampiric Touch

- Hold Person

- Haste

I tend to go:
Haste - must have for summons (especially Skeletons)
Flame arrow (more damage than MM/melf's acid arrows - easy cast and forget type spell)
Melf's Minute Meteors - I used to use this almost exclusively for Golems (after trapping them in doorways), but It's quite good in upping your physical damage output and for use in cast and attack.
Remove *or* Dispell Magic - Depends on whether I have an Inquisitor
Slow - never used it before IA - however I have since found it to be very effective


I tend to skip fireball/lightning bolt and just use the wands. Less damage than casting at higher level, but more convenient.
Vampric touch - horrible in that you need to get up close and personal, which no self respecting wizard should do (awesome in IA, but thats not for this forum).
Invis 10" has its uses (especially in a thief heavy party), but its hardly required.

I'm going to be controversial and say that Haste is the only real must have - all the others have alternatives aplenty. To me its really a bit of a 'meh spell level.

eheheh
level 3 already?

here we go!

- Fireball
- Dispel
- Skull Trap
- Flame Arrow
- Haste

I do believe this were the top5 spells I used while playing BG2 ^^

Imp. Invisibility and the meteors are fine though!

Improved Invisibility as level 4. Invisibility 10' isn't quite the same thing, as attacking with this one dispels the invisibility completely (for a party-friendly Imp. Invsibility you need the level 7 Mass Invisibility, which is bugged in BG2, just like Imp. Inv). I find Invisibility 10' to be pretty useless - I usually only send one character to scout, and there aren't many situations where you need to have the whole party slip by an enemy.

Melf's Minute Meteors, combined with a high dex and boots of speed are devastating to enemy mages. They tend to go right through protections (stoneskin, etc.), and the high rate of fire means that it's tough for them to get a spell off before it's disrupted.

Flame arrow is a fun little spell if you're playing with friendly-fire on, but otherwise fireball is probably better damage-wise.

Clairvoyance...if you're really that desperate to reveal the map without exploring it, just cheat. It's not like you haven't seen all the maps already, and it saves time. I like exploring them all, though; make sure to kill all the random spawns. :evil:

Haste is a must-have, but only once. Given the fatigue it generates, it should be the last spell you cast before you rest.

Hold Person is great...as a level 2 priest spell. You've got much more options for L3 mage, so stick it in your cleric's spell list instead.

Lightning Bolt is incredibly useful if you've got time to line it up correctly using scouting (I particularly like having Imoen bounce hers down a hallway in ID to fry a bunch of gobbos), but is otherwise far too dangerous.

Melf's Minute Meteors is crucial for a gish, and worth it for others. The high enchantment and fast rate of fire are somewhat overpowered IMO for a spell of this level.

Protection from Normal Missiles is something of a BG1 holdover. In BG2, if you do go up against missilers, they usually have magic arrows anyway. And even if they don't you can use Stoneskin or Mirror Image to prevent spell disruption.

Skull Trap is better than Fireball in a strict combat sense, since it won't be ignored by the numerous fire-based enemies in the game. But its short range makes it useless for bombing. I usually go about half and half.

If you're really worried about hitting yourself with lightning, use the Cloak of Reflection/Deflection, or protect the entire party with Globes of Lesser Invulnerability with Limited Wish.

I really want to see what happens when you fire of a lightning bolt while wearing a Cloak of Deflection... millions of lightning bolts?

I really want to see what happens when you fire of a lightning bolt while wearing a Cloak of Deflection... millions of lightning bolts?I think that it just bounces off you...not 100% on that though.

Though if you set it up right, I believe its possible to get a "lightning wall" going up between either an adjacent wall of another mirrored character. Insta kill?

Skull Trap is THE area of effect damage spell. It's the only level 3 spell that can match up with Abi Dalzhim's Horrid Wilting. Not having it in your arsenal would be foolish. The only problem is the trap part. Even though it says skull TRAP, it only works as a trap against yourself. It doesn't seem to ever trigger when an enemy runs through it. But when I run through it...

Once I got Skull Trap, I never took Fireball again. No point in having 2 area of effect spells, when 1 is inferior. The only thing Fireball has going for it is the ability to shoot 1 fireball off the screen to hurt enemies. They tend to start coming after me when they get hit once. There's also better alternatives for this.

Larger blast radius means you gotta be even more careful with your party members in tight spots, and there sure are a lot of them.


And what does casting Protection from Fire on Fire Elementals do?


Flame Arrow is just too weak. Skull Trap will do the same damage when Flame Arrow gets another arrow, but otherwise do more in between the level gaps. It's fire damage and limited to 1 target. There are better single target spells at lower levels.


Alright, well, I've got a decision now for the top 5.

Party:
Dispel Magic
Haste
Melf's Minute Meteors
Skull Trap
Slow

Solo:
Dispel Magic
Haste
Melf's Minute Meteors
Protection from Fire
Skull Trap


This layout makes the mage quite versatile. The Protection from Fire is one of the components to complete chaos at higher levels. It's not party friendly, hence it'd be perfect for solo. Having Slow on solo won't help you much anyway, you won't be fighting physically. Though having them move slower could be useful, but you have haste, so improve your own pace, to even out the race.


I still can't see it with Lightning. Could be useful solo once you get the Cloak and/or Globe of invulnerability. But that's too much just to use an unpredictable spell.

Never casted Clairvoyance before... it reveals the map like farsight does?

I heard that detect illusion is the same as the thief ability...

Dire charm seems to work better when they cast it on my party than when I cast it on them :(

I used flame arrow in solo one on one melee fights. I'm not good enough to target fireballs and skull traps to just hit him without catching me in it also (you can't count squares like in the old games). Which means the awesome damage of skull trap heavily hurts my sorcerer too. Good point about substituting this spell with lower level spells, it might take more time, but still gets the job done.

Never actually checked to see if the mage version of hold person is any different than the cleric version. Same goes for the resist fire and protection from fire. I don't use those often, and rely on items that grant resistance instead.

The first time I casted Invisibility 10'Radius, I thought, hey I haven't heard that incantation before...

Monster summoning I is good for making cannon fodder to absorb enemy spells. You can get 4 kobolds in one casting if you're lucky, 1 if you're not. Don't count on them to deal damage of course. No room for it at level 3 though.

Slow... I try to use slow against groups of fighters, but usually I end up casting web and damage spells instead. Still a great spell though.

Vampire Touch, great innate healing ability.

syuu:

And what does casting Protection from Fire on Fire Elementals do?
Pushes their Fire Res over 100, which means that they are healed by fire. Then you can hit them with fireballs to heal.

blog:

Monster summoning I is good for making cannon fodder to absorb enemy spells. You can get 4 kobolds in one casting if you're lucky, 1 if you're not. Don't count on them to deal damage of course. No room for it at level 3 though.
LOL!

I actually used Monster Summoning I for a while, and it's not too bad. The fodder is actually ok, especially the kobold archers (yeah, I was stunned too.) And you can get four kobolds from just one casting if you're lucky (2 kobolds count as one summon when the spell is cast. Don't ask me why).

I love executing 'Death by Kobold' on my enemies. Paralyze them, and then have my kobold archers pick them off. I can almost imagine the AI as a human player, screaming "Oh no, ****, no, no, unfreeze dammit!", before dying in the most humiliating fashion possible.

As I learnt the hard way, don't underestimate the kobolds. Never underestimate the kobolds.

[ August 07, 2007, 11:08: Message edited by: The Mountain Hare ]

syuusaru, you top seven list is what I use.

I never bother with Lightning Bolt, I find it too dangerous.

The most used spell for me is Haste. I find that a lot of obstacles is easily overcome with speeded fighters and archers.

I am quite fond of using Slow in combination with Chaos, when there is a lot of enemies.

My gripe with picking 'Haste' is that I usually used 'Improved Haste'. Not only does it DOUBLE attack (instead of just adding one), it has no fatigue effect. And it's one of the only half decent spells in Lvl 6 (but that's for another thread, eh?)

Lightning bolt may be 'unpredictable', but you're guaranteed some pretty good damage on just one strike. And if you're in a narrow corridor, you can deal a huge amount of damage to just one foe. I'd argue that lightning bolt is the spell which deals the most damage in a single casting.

Yeah the idea with haste is to cast in on summons to increase their rate of movement (this is especially important with skeleton warriors). Also the extra attack per round is quite helpful in the larger battles that you rest straight after anyway. Also the whole 1 casting affects the entire party thing is awesome (I reckon I'd go mad if I had to cast Imp. Haste on each party member before every moderately sized battle).

Oh I agree. There is not many areas where you can't rest, and I would be seriously annoyed if I had to cast Improved Haste on every party member.

I am usally very careful and not very keen on using spells that are not party friendly, and lightning bolt certainly isn't.

Oh, I forgot to mention Dire Charm.

Try surviving Tactics without the ability to charm your high HP, high damage opponents.

A reminder that this is for the SoA without any mods.


About Protection from Fire, I thought you were talking about enemy fire elementals. I'm not sure casting fireballs would work. Chances are it would turn on you for hitting it, like most of the other summons. Even if it does heal it, it still thinks you hit it.

If Dire Charm works on Tactics enemies, who are a real bad bunch, then it should (and does) work on the enemies in vanilla BG2.

I just brought up the Tactics example to demonstrate that Dire Charm (and any Charm spell) is often underestimated, and is a life saver. With really tough enemies, it's often better to turn them to your side, instead of hammering away (and getting hammered by) at them.

As for Fireball, I don't think Elementals turn if hit by an AoE spell. You may want to check this though. It may vary with the patch and fixes.

The thing is, if these "really tough" enemies are susceptible to charming, they're also susceptible to instant death. Which a level 1 spell could pull off with some luck. If not, there are higher level spells that could do it. Besides, those strong enemies will come by later on in the game, when you're also a higher level yourself.

And the thing with the mod is that you probably won't encounter the same enemies or as you would in the vanilla game. Then again, I don't know anything about the mods as I don't play them.


And it really doesn't matter about those summons. They suck either way, not worth waiting 3 rounds everytime you want to summon them, and have a chance of them turning on you instead.

Fire Elementals are always worth summoning. Although you might want to keep a Staff of Fire around, just incase they turn :) .

Well there you go, you gotta add more things to it cover up its holes. That's a disadvantage in itself. Have fun waiting 3 rounds every time you summon one, and once you get to 5, a death spell comes along.

Jeesh. By the way you're acting, you'd think we were arguing about whether we should attempt to genocide the Jews.

Flame Arrow is just too weak. Skull Trap will do the same damage when Flame Arrow gets another arrow, but otherwise do more in between the level gaps. It's fire damage and limited to 1 target. There are better single target spells at lower levels.I would ordinarily agree, but put 3 flame arrows in a sequencer for an insta chunk spell.

At level 15 and above its something like 45d6, quite insane.

Flame Arrow is also just convinient - you can skull trap of fireball an enemy already engaged in melee with your fighters.
Have fun waiting 3 rounds every time you summon one, and once you get to 5, a death spell comes along.I'd only cast it from a druid or the staff for this reason, but otherwise its a pretty awesome spell- they're tough, last a while and can even do a bit of damage. (practically) All summoning spells are effected by Death Spell, that is expected.

Here are some of my observations from my experience regarding what people have said and asked in this discussion: (I just got done soloing as a dual classed thief/mage)

Detect Illusion- good for dispelling invisibility and project image. My character's detect illusion ability from being a thief never seemed to work. If this is not a passive ability and I actually have to do something to activate it, I'd like to know.

Skull Trap- someone mentioned that their character(s) were the only ones to trigger the trap and that the enemy never would. In my experience this has not been the case. Friend and foe alike get nuked by this baby.

Haste- IRC, the haste spell from Arbane's Shortword does not end in fatigue for the person whom it is cast upon.

Melf's Minute Meteors- great for cutting through MR and damaging enemies that are otherwise immune to your attacks. Demon Knights and so forth.

Dispel Magic- great spell, just make sure that your foe does not have spell turning, otherwise you just wiped out your own protections.

Hold Person- let your Clerics take this one. Most 2nd level cleric spells suck, anyway, so what else are they going to take?

Lightning Bolt- I've gotten a bad guy between me and a wall while I had the cloak of reflection equipped and let loose a bolt. It doesn't happen like you hope it would. Generally, the bolt hits them once, bounces off the wall at an angle and goes away not to hit either of you again. Or, it bounces back and might hit them again and hit you but it passes on and you get a message saying that the spell was ineffective against you. (Granted, I might have a mod installed that nerfs the cloak and I didn't realize it. If that is the case, I shake my fist at the heavens.)

Non-Detection- The Cloak of Non-Detection didn't seem to work so why would I try this spell? If I am correct, the cloak/spell should protect you from having your invisibility dispelled, is that correct?

Protection From Normal Missiles- good from those who have played through the game and bunch of times and know from hindsight that the incoming projectiles are in fact not magical. Good for Irenicus' dungeon and the like.

Vampiric Touch- "You've got the touch! You've got the POWER!!" This can harm liches, right? I swear I used this against a lich (one of the ones guarding Kangaxx's body parts) when I was desperate for something to damage him.

That's about all I got. I reserve the right to be wrong on some of this, but not all. Discuss.

[ August 11, 2007, 00:40: Message edited by: Giles Barskins ]

My character's detect illusion ability from being a thief. If this is not a passive ability and I actually have to do something to activate it, I'd like to know. It functions via the Detect Traps button, but its range is damn near point-blank. Handy for a flanking thief taking out the back row's Mirror Image or Mislead or whatever, but less so for back row characters like the M/T that shouldn't be that near the enemy.

TIP: Attacking disrupts your detecting, but detecting doesn't disrupt your attacking, so attack something and *then* turn on the detection for double duty.

[ August 11, 2007, 00:45: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

Non-detection works fine for me. I put on the cloak, hide in shadows or cast invisibility, and then walk through some hostile mages. They cast true sight to try to find me, but no cigar. Then I backstab :)

Don't know why it wouldn't work for you - maybe the order of using invisible and nondetection matters?

It's the waiting 3 rounds and having a chance of the Elemental turning on you that makes it annoying to use. Hence I avoid using those elementals altogether in the mage book.


Like I said, Skull Trap will always do the same or more damage than Flame Arrow. At level 15, 45d6 applies for Skull Trap too. Except it's magic and not mainly fire oriented. At level 17, it becomes 51d6, while Flame Arrow is still at 45d6. This is assuming you're loading them up in sequencers as you have. Now if you've casted Haste on your party, there shouldn't be a problem with running away before the detonation.


A lich is immune to all spells level 5 and lower. I don't think Vampiric Touch is any exception. but who knows. I'd assume if Breach doesn't work, why would something even lower work?


Forgot to genocide me some jews hehehehe

[ August 11, 2007, 04:19: Message edited by: syuusaru ]

Vampiric Touch- "You've got the touch! You've got the POWER!!" This can harm liches, right? I swear I used this against a lich (one of the ones guarding Kangaxx's body parts) when I was desperate for something to damage him.In the vanilla game it probably wont do any damage to the lich (as it does not bypass magic resistance and most liches are immune to lvl 3 spells), but I think it will still heal you (there's a fix/tweak for this in the ToB mod Improved Anvil).

@syuusaru - but the Flame arrow can be used 1/2 way through a battle when your fighters are already engaged with the enemy. It wont turn or kill your summons either.

It's the waiting 3 rounds and having a chance of the Elemental turning on you that makes it annoying to use. Hence I avoid using those elementals altogether in the mage book.Agree 100%, its definitely a job for a druid or the staff (where you don't have to wait the 3 rounds). Having said that there are a few times early on where its more than worth the cast from a scroll - It's not used frequently enough to memorise though.

syuu:

It's the waiting 3 rounds and having a chance of the Elemental turning on you that makes it annoying to use. Hence I avoid using those elementals altogether in the mage book.
The relatively long casting time isn't a problem, as I cast this spell before battles. The elemental turning is a pain in the ass, but I usually summon in a room (so that I can run and close the door), or keep a staff of fire equipped.

And again, I know that there are strings attached (as you are naturally going to point out), but IMHO is more than balances out. A summon which is immune to fire, approx. 90hp, hits as 4+ enchanted, has an awesome THAC0, is immune to normal weapons, whose extra fire damage penetrates Stoneskin, and who sticks around for a long time.

Well worth the pain in the ass.

There's only one place I tend to summon a Fire Elemental with a mage. That's during the Unseeing Eye quest, after you've taken out the undead village and pass into the beholder lair. In the 1st room, there is a scroll of summon Fire Elemental - so I summon it, and if it doesn''t turn, send it ahead to get the Gauth's attention :)

@ Giles Barskins

Non-Detection- The Cloak of Non-Detection didn't seem to work so why would I try this spell? If I am correct, the cloak/spell should protect you from having your invisibility dispelled, is that correct? The cloak of Non-Detection works only if the character using it is under stealth (Thieves, Rangers and Monks).

It will not work with invisibility from spells/potions/items, but there are 2 exceptions: it would make non-detectable anyone with invisibility from the Rings of Air Control and from the SotMagi as well (probably a bug).

The spell Non-Detection is different.
It gives immunity to Divination spells, again only for characters who use stealth (or the rings of Air Control/SotM), but ONLY for one round, since then the spell gets "consumed".

For example instant Divination spell like Detect Invisibility or Oracle will remove the Non-Detection spell, protecting the invisibility of your character, but True Sight/Seeing will reveal him in the second round.

Clairvoyance (D)
I agree, a silly spell.

Detect Illusion (D)
Look above

Dire Charm (Enc)
Look above

Dispel Magic (Abj)
The Dispel Magic spell is good to have. Yet it removes all of your buffs, and is impossible to cast it in heavy melee properly. I'd say, for a solo sorcerer - Remove Magic.

Fireball (Evo)
The spell is really inferior to Skull trap. And if you have G3 Fixpack installed, the range of the Skull Trap gets normal, so Fireball is out of question. Good only in Irenicus' dungeon.

Flame Arrow (C)
The spell is good for a Bard of any kind. Because of the more arrows. I think a bard can have 5 arrows in SoA xp capped.

Ghost Armor (C)
yep, Spirit armor is the spell...

Haste (Alt)
-This is a must-have.

Hold Person (Enc)
Save-or-else...a useless spell

Hold Undead (N)
This spell can be used on vampires&the like, yet it is a save-or-else spell. Yet, it may work, and after that killing a vampire is pretty easy.

Invisibility 10' radius (I)
The spell is great for a party. And the scrolls in SoA are very rare. So for a mage - a must-have pick on creation. For a solo-sorcerer - no. For a party sorcerer - yes.

Lightning Bolt (Evo)
The spell has its uses. Yet it is no for a solo-sorcerer.

Melf's Minute Meteors (Evo/Alt)
This spell is great. First, the meteors are +6 weapon(in the spell description is written +5 which is not correct), so they can hit an enemy through Absolute Immunity(like Jon irenicus). Second, each meteor carries fire damage Evocation spell lvl 3. In short, this can help rid quickly of enemy's Spell Deflection/Turning/trap spells. 10 meteors hitting and even a Spell trap is down.
The drawback for a solo sorcerer is called Staff of the Magi. While the last meteor is cast, all of the nice bonuses of the SoTM are lost.
This spell is a must-have for a solo sorcerer, yet should be used with caution.

Minor Spell Deflection (Abj)
The spell has its uses early in the game, in a party, when there aren't simply enough spell deflection/turning scrolls for every spellcaster in the party. The Minor Spell deflection can absorb up to 7th level spell so it is far better than the Minor Spell Turning.

Monster Summoning I (C)
-Also pretty weak, later becomes useless.

Non-detection (Abj)
-There's a cloak with this effect available early on. Either way, I can't think of many times that'd I would actually use this.

Protection from Cold (Abj)
This spell is important. Yet a no-no for a solo sorcerer. But a spell scroll is important to keep, since it will be often cast by a Simulacrum on the protagonist.

Protection from Fire (Abj)
Look above. Despite of the spell descriptions, protection from Fire and Cold grant 100% resistance to any form of fire/cold attack, whether magical or non-magical.

Protection from Normal Missiles (Abj)
-I think this is pretty useless.

Remove Magic (Abj)
The far-better version of Dispel Magic. A must have. Scrolls of Dispel Magic are scattered throughout, while those of Remove magic are very rare. Anyone asked himself why?

Skull Trap (N)
-MUST HAVE!
The spell is great not only in combat, but also in setting enormous traps and stuffing 3 of these in a spell sequencer will clear every enemy in a single blast. Yet, a protection is needed otherwise you PC will get blasted away too. The Protection from Magic energy(6th level spell) solves this problem.

Slow (Alt)
The spell seems good, yet I don't have a place for it.

Spell Thrust (Abj)
A nice spell to lower down an enemy's Spell Shield. Useful vs Irenicus.

Vampiric Touch (N)
The spell is a must-have for a solo sorcerer. The additional HP are never useless. And, the spell deals Magical damage, and very few enemies are immune to that.

My picks for a solo-sorcerer:

Haste-Skull Trap-Remove Magic-Melf's Minute Meteors-Vampiric Touch

I would memorise several Slow (ST -4), only one Haste (fatigue).

Group Invisibility is very useful (Jan knows this rare spell). It allows for some nice tricks, for example against beholders.

Having 1 fireball is always useful to get rid of annoying kobold commandos, spiders, etc, but after level 10, the damage stalls. I never use skull trap, because it's supposed to be a trap.
Lightning Bolt is too dangerous, and the cloak of Reflection can be saturated and fail you.

I found that protection from "normal" missiles actually works against magic missiles, since then I try to have one memorised.

The manual states:
"By means of this spell, the wizard bestows total invulnerability to hurled and projected missiles such as arrows, axes, bolts, javelins, small stones,
and spears. Note, however, that this spell does not provide protection from such magical attacks as Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, or Magic Missiles."
A bit ambiguous, isn't it?

Like saros says, protection from fire grants 100% protection. But I prefer to have a cleric memorise this; the same for Hold.

Melf's Minute Meteors: to me, they're cheesy.

I leave Dispel Magic for Clerics, who progress faster (you want a high level in BG2), but Remove Magic is a must.

I confess I never use Hold Undead, but should.

The most important L3 spell is Slow.

Well, it depends on what mods are you using. In my installation, Protection from Normal Missiles grants immunity ONLY to normal missiles. On the other hand, protection from Magical Weapons grants immutity to enchanted projectiles too.
The clerical spell Protection from Fire grants protection for 3+1 round/level. The mage spell prot from Fire grants protection for 1 turn/level of the caster. So the mage spell is far better since it lasts 9-10 times longer.
Haste is good if memorized several times, because it can be cast on summons, and, despite fatigue, if your group consist mainly of casters, then this is a minor drawback.

Specifically, protection from normal missiles worked against Tarnor's gang in the sewers (Throwing Axe +2). But that wouldn't surprise me that it depends on the version.

[EDIT 24/11: I've just read that it is a bug fixed in the fixpack, so I remove the spell from the list!]


The description for Protection from fire says it lasts 1 turn by level, but it also says the spell covers 50% damage for Mages. The pdf manual doesn't say the same thing for both points, so maybe one should check what happens in the game. Anyway, the cleric duration is enough for tough battles.

I never thought about casting Haste on summons. If you do that, of course, you would memorise more Haste. But every party needs some fighters, so fatigue is important.

Once more:

The clerical or wizard spell Protection from Fire grants 100% resistance to normal AND magical fire no matter what is written in the spell description.

Same is true for the mage spell Protection from Cold - grants 100% resistance to normal and magical cold.

Mandatory:
Skull Trap: Best damage dealing spell until Abi-Dhalzim's Horrid Wilting - and that says a lot. Okay, nukes a relatively small area, but nothing is perfect. Can be used to set traps. Haste: Allows you to outrun the enemies and makes summons and party members alike considerably more dangerous - convenient and powerful. Make use of Haste a lot regardless of playing solo or with a party.
Useful:
Dispel Magic: Dispels positive and negative effects on enemies and party members alike, will be useful from BG1 to TOB. When playing with a large party, you're mage won't level up quickly - and so your DM will not be guaranteed to work. Leave the main dispelling to your clerics (or inquisitors), but keeping a single DM memorized is probably a wise decision. Melf's Minute Meteors: Great against enemies with magic resistance and spellcasters. A must for solo mages and still very useful for party spellcasters. Remove Magic: The aggressive variant of Dispel Magic, targets enemies only. Get it when you solo, otherwise pick Dispel Magic. Slow: Makes your foes slower, more vulnerable and less dangerous. Pretty reliable due to the -4 saving throw penalty. Great spell, when you have a party with a lot of melee fighters, otherwise not that important. Vampiric Touch: Interesting way to gain some bonus hit points temporarily. It may be a touch spell, but you don't need to cast it on actual foes: It will work on squirrels, doors, chests or even on yourself (Pretty absurd!). The spell description claims that the maximum drain for a level-12-caster should range from 6 to 36, but it did always around 30 damage for me. Get VT as Bhaalspawn power in case you play a pure mage or sorcerer.
Semi-useful:
Dire Charm: Identical to Charm Person without the save bonus. I dislike most save-or-else spells, but it has its uses in heavily modded games. Fireball: Easier to control than Skull Trap and much more suited for sneaky off-screen bombardement, but caps at meager 10D6 damage. Furthermore, fire resistance is pretty common. Use it until Skull Trap gets more damaging than Fireball. Flame Arrow: Deals decent, party friendly damage to a single target, but still clearly inferior to Skull Trap. Needs to be used in a sequencer to be worthwhile. Invisibility 10' Radius: Usually one invisible scout is enough, but in some fights this spell can offer interesting tactical possibilities. Lightning Bolt: This spell has the potential to do absurd amounts of damage, but it's hard to control and downright dangerous for the caster and his party. Personally, I lack the crazy reflecting skills to make decent use of LB, but if you have them, go for it. Protection from Fire: Grants (contrary to the spell describtion) 100% fire resistance. Handy in some situations, but I don't see great potential: For example even with PfF your casting will still get interrupted in an Incendiary Cloud and protected summons will still turn hostile when hit by your fireballs in an unmodded game (I think the gMinion-mod changes this.).
Avoid like the plague:
Clairvoyance: As if we hadn't seen the maps before... Detect Illusion: Gets rid off invisibility, mirror image, reflected image and non-detection. Meager effect for a level 3 spell, totally redundant when you get True Sight. Ghost Armor: Lowering of the armor class alone isn't that useful, not even for a Fighter/Mage. Hold Person: Better effect, but much smaller radius and much less reliable than Slow. Take Slow or even Dire Charm instead and let your clerics cast HP. Hold Undead: Would be at least somewhat viable in a handful of situations if it had a (major) save penalty. Minor Spell Deflection: Use Improved Invisibility instead for much better results. Monster Summoning I: Any cannon fodder between the mage and the enemy is useful, but go for Spider Spawn instead when you need cheap summons. Non-Detection: Get the Cloak of Non-Detection if you need this effect (Contrary to what has been said before, the CoND did protect invisibility in my game.). Protection from Cold: Cold attacks are scarce. Skip. Protection from Normal Missiles: Stoneskin and Mirror Image are absolutely enough to protect against normal missiles. Spell Thrust: Right, cheapest way to remove Spell Shield, but still far from half-decent.

Solo Sorcerer picks: Melf's Minute Meteors - Skull Trap - Haste - Remove Magic - Vampiric Touch

Party Sorcerer picks: Haste - Melf's Minute Meteors - Slow - Skull Trap - Dispel Magic

[ October 28, 2007, 15:09: Message edited by: Ascendency-Down ]

Ascendency:

Protection from Normal Missiles: Stoneskin and Mirror Image are absolutely enough to protect against normal missiles.
LIES! ALL LIES!

Just a few simple things. When to use a deathspell and when to use something like flame arrow.

Casters, Fighters, and Rogue types all have different low saves. I don't think I need to go into a lot of detail because you should be catching on to what my point is gonna be.

Use instant-death spells against people with weak saves vs. death. Use Damage spells against guys with high saves vs. death but low saves vs. spells. or even use dire charm (because it works on non-humans!!), or polymorph on guys with weak saves vs. polymorph.

The way I see it is what class focuses on what stat and what stat improves what save. So generally you want to use stuff that's instant death vs. a rogue, or damage vs. a fighter/mage.

As for the defensive spells I get them all and use them all eventually. Protection from arrows is awesome.

My top 5 in order:

Haste... amazing spell
Melf's Minute Meteors, as they do damage against things that normally take none other spells or weapons.
Fireball
nothing
nothing

I actually don't use fireball all too often either. Always have it ready, don't always cast it. The other spells I don't use often unless my character is one that needs it regularily, ie; Fighter/Mage multi/dual.