[Rataxes]

Tsk, tsk... shame on you, Rataxes! Such lack of confidence in the Spells Reference crew! The Spells Reference uses red fonts when referring to an error in the spell's description. You may open BG2 and see that Implosion is listed as dealing 2d10 blunt damage (on top of the 10d10 fire damage, of course)... or you may trust us.

Well, it wouldn't have been the first time I found flaws in the guide, would it? Anyway, I figured that might've been the case, I did notice that it was written in red. Still,

"One of the rare Divine damage spells and sort of an improved Bigby's Clenched Fist. Only affects one target but Holds without a save, does good Blunt damage (few creatures are immune to that) and bypasses magic resistance! Insane damage dealing is best left to mages, but if you need your cleric to do it this will serve you fine.

Damage: 10D10"

isn't it pretty easy to interpret this as Implosion dealing 10d10 Blunt damage, and that's it? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Remove Fear, Silence, Animate Dead, Pro-Evil - all these have an Arcane variant, which is usually just as good.

Remove Fear - Ok, Mages will have to sacrifice more of their spell arsenal than Priests if they want to be able to provide sufficient protection from Fear for the entire party, but this one is pretty close.
Silence - The only Arcane version that is somewhat equal in power is Power Word, Silence. Who in their right mind would sacrifice a lvl 6 slot on silencing a mage though? There probably wont even be all that many spellcasters vulnerable to silence left by the time your Mage can cast lvl 6 spells Clerics get their version much earlier and they also don't have to sacrifice as much to get it, there aren't many other hot spell choices on that level.
Animate Dead - So the versions are identical, but for Mages, getting one of these means getting one less Lower MR, Breach or Spell Immunity. Clerics have to give up a Holy Smite The comparative sacrifice is even smaller since Clerics will have about twice as many Lvl 3 slots as Mages will have lvl 5 slots.
Prot from Evil - No way is Protection from Evil anywhere near as good Prot from Evil 10'Radius, not for parties anyway

Holy Smite & Harm are offensive spells... which isn't exactly where the Cleric outdoes the Mage, so I won't even bother with mentioning their Arcane replacers

Holy Smite and Harm are as useful and powerful as any Arcane spells (maybe not quite ). ADHW does about 80% more damage than HS, but HS makes up for it by being a lvl 3 spell (compared to lvl 8), and the Clerics ability to memorize more than twice as many HS as the Mage can memorize ADWH. The potential power of Harm is greater than that of any Arcane spell, even though it may have very specific uses.

Chaotic Commands is usually redundant with arctic saves.

And how do you reach arctic saves in the early/mid-game? 2-3 Potions of Invulnerability could be needed per character to attain complete immunity (how many such potions are even available?) , and even then it'd only last for 5 turns, making it very battle-specific, and even then it doesn't protect you from those saveless disabling spells.
Ok sure, low saves go a long way to compensate for the lack of CC, but there's no beating the original

?! Hindo's Doom isn't looted from Abazigal. The not upgraded version has Lesser Restoration, which is just as good when it comes to level drain. Temples abound, too.

Lesser Restoration is vastly inferior to it's greater brother, the only thing it's good for is restoring lost levels. Greater Restoration can turn a battle from certain defeat to victory in an instant. To get even a half-decent substitute for GR without a Cleric (once per day still isn't that hot), you definitely need to go to Abizigals lair.

None of these items, however, can do what a Mage is really good for - Insane Damage Dealing. If I would want a supporting character, I would probably take the Cleric over the Mage. But then again, I would probably take the Skald over the Cleric

Guess that's where the difference lies, I rarely use mages to deal damage. I find them far more useful as supporting characters - disabling enemies with Slow and Hold Monster, clearing the way for my fighters with Breach, boosting their offensive capabilities with Haste/Imp Haste, boosting their defensive capabilities with PfME, Imp Invisibility and Prot from Fire, tanking with PfMW, Blur, Mirror Image, Stoneskin and SI. Using them to deal damage is really a second priority.