Hello all, I have been playing SoA and now I'm into ToB. I was wondering if I could get some advice on spell casting....I cant seem to really do much with my spell casters, I usually just cast a bunch of monsters to help out my tanks and healing spells. My party consists of:

Winnfield:Wizardslayer Lvl 29
Imoen Lvl 23 Mage/ Lvl 7 Thief
Jaheira Lvl 18 Fighter/ Lvl 14 Druid
Minsc Lvl 24 Ranger
Aerie Lvl 19 Cleric/ Lvl 16 Mage
Nalia Lvl 23 Mage/ Lvl 4 Thief

I would like to play thru the game again with a smaller party(3or4evil) but I have alot of probs just getting thru it with 6.I have pretty much all the spells memorized that I have come across or bought, any help would be great, Thanx

You don't use offensive spells at all? I love using flame arrow, Melf's Minute Meteroids (MMM), time stop, and others. In ToB, time stop is vital since you can try to finish off powerful enemies with a load of spells without them moving at all.

Try specializing Imoen, Aerie, and Nalia all on different types of spells. Aerie is great for protection spells since she has access to both mage and cleric spells. Give Imoen access to pretty much everything, and make Nalia concentrate on offensive spells.

Protection spells are also important. For example, if you are facing an enemy who keeps using acid attacks on you, cast protection from acid next time you go to fight them. Also, buff up before major battles (chant, aid, protection from evil, haste/improved haste, stoneskin for your spellcasters, mirror image, etc.

I disagree. Too many ToB enemies are immune to Time Stop, rendering your mage harmless and the enemy lethal. However, MMM and Flame Arrow are excellent suggestions.

The rule is, if you can't do it with six, try doing something different. Rethink your strategies. Your strategy of summon-only spells isn't working, so try something different.

put 3 horrid wiltings in to a chain contingency, set it to trigger on see enemy, do it for all 3 of your mages, and see how many enemies are still standing afterwards

cast shapeshift, cast time stop, shapeshift to mind-flayer, hit enemy repeatedly, watch time stop finish, watch enemy die from stupidity (this will kill *everything* that is not immune to time-stop, works well for dragons)

scout out a group of enemies, have your mages cast web at their feet from a point just out of sight, have each mage cast web 3 times, then fireball/cloudkill area repeatedly, have your fighters stand by to deal with any enemies who manage 9 consecutive saves (will happen a lot at high levels but great for low level troll killing)

MMM is my basic standby spell. My mages generally have it cast 24/7 (like stoneskin). But note, at high levels your mages will most likely need some strength enhancers because 15 MMMs weight quite a lot and they won't be able to hold anything else, which stops them using the staff of cheese.

Another suggestion, not just for mages – if there is any class that you don't think you are making the most of, try soloing them for a while. This will force you find out how what they can do and how to get the most of out them. The is no need to go through the whole game. Just get the character up to about level 22, (which won't take long with the quick experience accumulation) so you'll know what they could be doing for a party in the later stages of the game.

My advice for you. – before running your next party, solo a sorcerer. IFAIR Six's guide will give you some very good advice on spell selection.

at the bottom of the FAQ thread in this forum you will find a link to the 'Baldur's Gate II Spells Reference'

you might find it interesting if a little overwhelming

i'm not much of a spellcaster myself - i tend to 'save them up' for when i really need them and then end up not using them at all

Too many enemies are immune to time stop in ToB? I can only think of 2 off the top of my head, which is nothing compared to the huge amount of other powerful enemies that are not immune to time stop.

And continencies are dead useful also. I don't use spell triggers often, but they are useful as well.

Thanx all for the great advice,looks like some really good stuff, I'll give some of the stuff a try and see how it goes.I'm not sure how to do the contingency set up thing tho and never used time stop...

stoneskin stoneskin stonekin [img]smile.gif[/img] dont forget that. its my fav defense anyway [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Oh yes, magic missles even though they are first lvl spell, they are great.

Another would be haste/slow (cast both is even better)

Emotion/Fear can be a lifesaver for lower levels.

And oh yes.. skulltrap (damn skull)