I know "everyone" raves about Chromatic Orb and indeed I've always thought highly of it.

But is it that good? Is it worth having a Chromatic Orb instead of one extra Magic Missile.
Lets compare!

- Damage
MM does 10-25 (at level 9+) - average damage: 17.5
CO does 2-16 (at level 12+) - average damage: 9

- Damage type
MM is "pure magic" while CO (at level 12+) is acid. Now acid is a good damage type but not as good as "pure magic" damage.

- Effects
MM ignores Stoneskin! But on the other hand skins aren't lost when hit by MM either.
Edited in: Lord Sarevok points out (check it out a few posts down) that the acid damage from CO also penetrates Stone Skin.

CO kills (at level 12+) if the save is failed, but it also gives the target a whopping +6 bonus to the save which means you can pretty much forget about it unless you first use Greater Malison or something similar to radically lower the enemies saves.

- Bugs
It appears the CO benefits from a bug in that the Stun, Petrification and Slay effects ignore the targets Magic Resistance.
(Baldurdash has a bugfix)

[This message has been edited by Earl Grey (edited January 07, 2002).]

If you're at least level 10 chromantic orb does acid damage which goes through stoneskin as well. I personally keep 3 magic missles memorized and 2 chromatic orbs. Don't expect the second effect to work against bosses(or much anything else) with the +6 save modifier. But you still do some damage either way so it's not a total loss like it was in BG1.

By the way, it's spelled "Chromantic" although I used to and still say "Chromanic", some reading comprehension I have ;).

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 07, 2002).]

My solo 13th lvl Blade has two slots for Magic Missile and one for Chromatic.

Once I get Greater Malison and some Contingencies maybe.. then we'll have some real fun :)

Yes, CO is useful, but why use it when you can have another MM instead? As I said, MM goes through Stone Skin too, so the acid damage of CO penetrating Stone Skin doesn't make it better than MM.

I just have the Chromantic Orbs for variety, since I never use more than 3 magic missles per day with my fighter/mage anyway. It's nice using the Orb against someone and pleasantly smerking when they get instant death.

I never said that the fact that the Orb penatrates the stoneskin made it better, just on par with Magic Missle. It's a disadvantage you can cross off the list for Chromantic Orb.

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 07, 2002).]

Strange....

I've always found Stoneskin to be quite effective in blocking magic missiles. Since they *are* missiles - of magic energy, that seems logical enough.

Chromatic orb? I'm not so sure, think it does ignore it.

MM is way better than CO

MM is fast to cast.. good interrupter too..

Well, when I'm fighting mages like cowled one, I usually cast lv.1 sheld on me, because as they exhaust themselves, lots of nasty magic missles are their favourite, though simple shield just makes them useless, hehheh.

MM is definitely good because of its speed factor (I usually fill most of my level 1 slots with it), but at high levels the enemies aren't going to be taken down by it, that's what the fighters are for. So once you've interrupted casting with a magic missile, it's nice to have that (admittedly low) chance of killing the enemy outright with a first level spell.

They both have a casting time of 1 so there's nothing better about the speed of magic missle. I don't know about the time it takes for the Orb to reach the target as compared to the magic missles, however, I think the Orb gets there a bit faster. Hmm, if you want some good pure damage shoot a magic missle, if you want a slight chance to kill/stun/pertify the target and do a small amout of damage shoot a chromantic orb. This is the reason I memorize both. If you're a pure mage and are slinging a lot of level 1 spells, take both, if only for variety.

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 08, 2002).]

I personally like the orb more. After playing the game so long the need for something different is needed. Plus the beholder in the twisted rune room seems to always die to my orbs.

er...Lord?
My gameguide sais 'chromaTic orb'
no N in chromatic, if you ask me... ;)
just had to say it, sorry!

As I said, I'm somewhat lacking in the spelling department ;). It's like in a book when you don't know how to pronounce a name of a character, so you say it anyway you like, and keep saying it that way even when someone corrects you.

Interesting topic :) I use both spells - with good effect:

-CO has some advantages when used on standard folk like robbers and pirates: I found it to have best effect on mage lvl-10 to lvl-13, usually when I arrived in spellhold - pretty often resulting in an instant death - without greater malison.

-MM is pretty great as well and an excellent allround spell. It is casted quickly and even great in melee situations, however, it never caused an instant death on an unhurt victim.

A great thing about chromatic orb, that it can instant kill creatures that are normaly immune to death magic(like trolls). When combined with greater malison it can be a real power spell against low and medium level monsters like spiders, umber hulks, vampires, mummies, yuan-ti etc...!

Thanks for the input on this subject, friends.

For a sorcerer this could be a useful discussion; not very important but still interesting for optimizing your spell selection.

Any mage really only needs one 1st level damage spell and that's...
1. Magic Missile.
The remaining four should consist of potentially useful spells and not damage spells. I currently recommend these:
2. Identify - always useful.
3. Friends - lower prices and can get you other options when interacting.
And then the last two which are really of minor use but still IMO better than another damage spell.
4. Protection from Petrification - Can be useful vs Beholders.
5. Shield - protects vs MM and gives decent AC.

I agree that the MM is a better choice. In BG2/TOB, I never really used the chromatic orb. However in BG1, I found it useful. It could stun pretty frequently, even against high level opponents (final battle in Durlags for instance).
With Celestial Fury taking care of most of my stun needs in BG2, it was no longer useful.

Don't you wish Shield had made you invulnerable to Magic Missle in BG1? Those MMs really, really, hurt in that game.

Hmm, when I cast the spell "Armor" on myself it changed my AC from 6 to 2 and lasted in between rest periods....so it's not that bad after all.