As I am in Baldur's Gate now and hopefully getting ready to rid the world of all pertinent bad guys I have started reflecting on my style of play. Specifically in regards to my users of magic.

I find that for the most part my mages rarely vary from Magic Missile, fireball, haste, and the occasional stinking cloud, cloud kill, monster summoning trip. Now I know that there are a heck of a lot more than these few spells but I have never gone to great lengths to try the rest.

My clerics are used almost exclusively for healing although I have been known to cast strength while my mage casts haste so I am faster And stronger. Call lightning is nice but how often are you really outside against something so big that you need to use this spell on when most big time bad guys are underground or in a building where the spell is useless.

So I guess the point to my starting this line in the forum is to ask you all what are your favorite spells and how do you like to use them? Is magic offensive or defensive? What is considered to be the best type of specialist mage or is the extra spell per level for specialization worth giving up an entire school of magic?

I'm certainly no expert and I've mainly experimented with using spells for offense (something I intend to correct)

Cleric:
- I found entangle to be very useful throughout the entire game
- summoning skeletons + monsters
- dispel magic

I haven't played around too much with the various defensive spells the
Cleric can cast - I should, cause I'm sure I'm missing out on some good stuff.

Mage

- I find grease suprisingly useful sometimes
- I also find web pretty useful
- you didn't mention skull trap - that's pretty effective
- I've experimented with the acid + flame arrow and wasn't increadibly impressed, maybe at higher levels...
- I only recently starting using haste, boy was I missing out
- standard fare like magic missle + stinking cloud + cloud kill

Currently, I'm playing a Necromancer. The only spells I can't access that I would possibly are mirror image + invisibility. In BG2 I think missing Projected Image + Simulacrum would keep me from picking a Necro.

I think a Conjurer would possibly be a better choice, the main useful spell I'd lose out on would be Identify - when I needed something identified I could temporarily include Dynahar (or whoever) in my party.

As mentioned by others, I am no expert on the game but having played through BG1, IWD and part of BG2, I'll state what works for me.

Cleric:
Healing (Especially when you don't have money for potions)
Bless, Chant, Prayer (Prayers are answered)
Remove Curse, Paralysis (Sometimes the only way to save your tanks)
Cure Disease (Ditto)
Animate Dead (See Monster Summing)
Dispell Magic
Sanctuary

Magic User:
Magic Missle (Help wear down the baddies around your tanks, plus to disrupt evil spell casters)
Chromatic Orb
Color Spray (Blind them when they get to close to you. Watch that you don't hit your own party with this one)
Grease, Web (Cast this while enemies are still at a distance, then pepper with arrows)
Agannazar's Scorcher (Need line of site clear to target!)
Blur, Mirror Image (Helps during those big boss battles)
Melf's Acid Arrow (The gift that keeps on giving)
Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill
Flame Arrow
Fireball (Usually cast from Wand of Fire)
Haste or (Oil of Speed)
Monster Summoning (Get some canon fodder)

If you can get the spells via wands, then don't waste memorization slots on the same spell. Except for Magic Missle. Experiment and then let us know what works for you.

I can't swear to it, as surprisingly I've never played a conjourer, but all schools get Divination magic up to level 4 - or so it says in the manual. Therefore, anybody can use Identify.

For Clerics, Draw Upon Holy Might, and Silence 15' Radius are bonuses. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 09-12-2002, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: Lord Brass ]

Nope. Conjurers are permanently banned from ALL Divination spells, including Identify. That doesn't mean they can't just identify it through Lore, though.

I suspected that was nonsense (as are some other mistakes in the manual), as it is hardly a debilitating factor for a specialist. Well, in BG1 at least.

I'm not a big fan of defensive so with my mages i mostly rely on
Magic Missile X2(alright!)
That Orb thinghyX2(alrightX2)
Aganazzars Schorcher
Fireball
and Monster summon
I don;t know why but this is usually enough to get me through nearly every battle.

I don't have cloud kill yet, so I'm using the Stink Bomb (hehe ok stinking cloud) a lot. However it doesn't work in close quarters...how close you say? The absolute limit seems to be...in the Bandit camp where I just fought, you can cast it and have all your enemies unconscious and have your party be just outside the area of effect....

Btw, is it me or is that "boundary line" for the area of effect for stinking cloud hard to see? Just because you don't see the green smoke right where your character is standing doesn't mean they won't fall over unconscious.

Skull bomb (er trap) seems powerful but the range on it is tricky.

Btw, where are all the ice spells?! I looked on the quick reference guide that came with TOSC and didn't see and ice spells for the mage and/or priest. And yet there's an Ice Wand...does it not list all the spells?

[ 09-13-2002, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: n00body ]

The manual lists all the spells that were implemented in the final version of the game. Originally, the game included the Cone of Cold spell. You can still hack a scroll of Cone of Cold into your Inventory, and memorize it, but I don't know if it actually works. They might not have implemented it--the Wand of Frost is supposed to cast Cone of Cold, but instead it's an Aganazzar's-made-of-ice thingy.

You get the bona-fide Cone of Cold in BG2, and the Wand of Frost is fixed as well--it now shoots snow, in a broad, fan-shaped discharge.

By the way do you actually ahve to have a skull in your possesions to cast skull trap? They are found aplenty at the....(SPOILER)
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High hedge but can you cast the spell without one in your inventory?