I recently hit lvl 25 with my mage in SoA (xp cap removed), and I do not have access to ToB (means I cannot buy it), so no comets/alacrities. The question is - what is the greatest fighting tactics for such a mage. Now I just entered Underdark (no cheating, just did all the quests, and solo), and can cast 5 lvl9 spells, 6 lvl8... The rest hardly matters, IMO
So what is the good tactics, what are the greatest spells, especially against magic-resistant crowds of drows and mind flayers?