[jsalsb]

Well, I read that everyone feels that haste does nothing to improve spellcasting initiative; but I have to humbly disagree, from my own experience. I know that in Rapax Castle if my haste caster gets the spell off right away (which he usually does because he has high natural speed and senses), then my priest and wizard (with so-so speeds and senses) casting death wish and freeze all in the same first round get their spells off successfully before the legions of Rapax adversaries get their magic screens up. If I don't cast haste, then the priest and wizard usually cast late in the round, and are much less -if at all- successful. Now, I have no actual technical knowledge about the game, but the empirical evidence seems to suggest that haste does effect spell casting in the same round, at least from the scenario I've described.

And I don't seem to remember a difference in this between normal and expert mode, but I could be mistaken there. I played my last game on expert mode about a year ago, and the game I just played now was in normal mode (my first playthrough since that year-ago game).