Magic for Beginners

[Midget Gems]

Which, in your opinion, are the best spells for a low-level magic user? At higher levels there is an abundance of great spells to amuse and entertain us, but what about the early stages when spell choice is limited? Here are a few thoughts of my own, plus has anyone out there found some good strategies they want to share with us.

For a Mage there are several good spells to choose from. Magic Missile is possibly everyone's favorite, this along with Chromatic Orb and Burning Hands improve with your level so they are still useful later in the game. I found Burning Hands to be very useful against Trolls. Shield and Blur can both give good protection against missiles, at one point in the 'Hand' I had my Mage leading the party to protect my fighters from enemy archers ! On the other hand Larloch's Minor Drain is a big disappointment, surely this type of spell ought to improve with level otherwise the HP gain is pathetic (by the way whatever happened to Larloch's Major Drain).

But what about Priests and Druids, they don't get much to get excited about at low levels. Apart from Cure Light Wounds, my favorite low-level spells from BG1 were Command Word, Entangle and Chant, but all of these have been down-graded in IWD. In most cases the changes make the spells more realistic, so I guess that I can't complain, but Command Word is now totally useless. In BG1 I was often able to knock down dangerous opponents for long enough to turn them into a pin-cushion, even spell-casters with Mirror Image were a push-over, but not anymore. The IWD version of Command Word must surely be incorrect, the duration is easily less than 1 turn. So what does that leave us with, good old Bless, Curse and Protection from Evil, but no worthwhile attacking spells (unless you count Magic Stone), just protection and cures. I did hear that HOW adds some better spells, is this true since I don't have it (yet)?

As you may have guessed, I like to use lots of magic and my new party has a whole load of multi-class spell-casters to make life interesting, but maybe I overdid it by giving all six an option to use spells. Any opinions or comments gratefully received, thanks.

[Lavindathar]

I think Magic Missiles is the best low level spell, but Entangle is also decent spell early on...(preffered the BG1 version, as now I can get caught!!)

I never used Command Word on either IWD or BG1, but I think early good spells on IWD is magic stone, as you are fighting against the undead early on!

Burning hands in IWD can now hurt your own if you aint careful, so I'd go with Magic Missiles and Magic Stone (Mage and Cleric, excluding Healing/Buffer Magic).

[Micah Foehammer]

HOW adds a great first level clerical spell and a very nice 2nd level druidical spell, but i will leave them unnamed so as not to spoil the surprise. BUt it seems to me that you neglected Draw upon holy might, silence 15' radius and hold person as excellent 2nd level clerical spell.

I agree about the mage spells mostly - these are my favorites:

First level: Magic Missile / Chromatic Orb / Burning hands / Shield(!)
and maybe Shocking grasp

Second Level: Acid Arrow / Aganazzar's Scorcher / Stinking Cloud and
Mirror Image / Web / Resist Fear and Vocalize

Third Level: Skull Trap(!) / Slow


Shield is great for blocking magic missiles which can bring down a stoneskin in a hurry! Skull trap has a smaller damage radius than fireball, but has a higher damage cap! In addition, in a tight confined area, Skull Trap can be used much closer to the party with fear of killing someone with "friendly fire". In HOW, you can forget about BLUR - just trust me. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Nifft the Nimble]

I just got IWD last night, but some low-level cleric and druid spells look much more exciting than those I remember from BG2:

* Magic Stone: Look at the damage on that thing! And vs. undead -- wow! Better than Magic Missile, that's for sure.
* Protection from Evil: effect applies vs. everything, not just evil: -2 AC, +2 Saving Throws, immune to Charm
* Flame Blade: uses a weapon proficiency, which is very good for fighter/druids, but not so good for straight druids. Good damage though.
* Entangle: I have a heavily missile-oriented party, and the IWD version doesn't say it's a save vs. spell at +2, just a regular save.

Hmm, that's all I can remember off the top of my head. I'm using only Druid spells right now. My current (and first ever ) party is:

1/2 elf Bard
1/2 elf Druid
human Thief (will dual to Mage)
human Ranger (will dual to Cleric)

My Thief and Bard are leveling up nicely. When is the best time to dual my Ranger? My Thief isn't going to dual until he has 100 in Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps.

-- Nifft

[Micah Foehammer]

Remember that xp cap for IWD is 1.8 million per character, but the practical limit (the xp per character that you are likely to attain with a six person party if you do ALL the quests) is more like 1.2 million for 6.

Since you have a party of four, you will likely get to 1.8 million per character. For a dual class character, you don't want him to go any higher than half of that or its unlikely that you will ever regain your ranger abilities. So, 900,000 xp is likely an upper limit for the ranger. That would be 10th level. Since the clerical level has to exceed the ranger level to regain the ranger abilities, that means you have to hit 11th level cleric. You're in luck, an 11th level cleric needs 675,000 xp. [img]smile.gif[/img] However, JUST to play it safe, I would dual the ranger at 9th level (which is where he stops getting full hit points anyway). That would be at 600,000 xp. That way you would be absolutely certain of getting your ranger class back, and possibly be able to get your cleric to 13th level (1,125,000 xp) and give you an extra 3 and 4th level spell. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Azred]

Color Spray is essential in IWD; there are so many goblins, orcs, and lizardmen against which to use this spell. Sleep and Burning Hands are also must-haves.

Second Level: Horror, Invisibility, Stinking Cloud, and Web.

Third Level: Dispel Magic, Skull Trap, and Slow.

That should do it for beginners; by the time your mages may memorize 4th level spells you should have an advanced enough understanding to choose your spells wisely.

[Midget Gems]

Thanks for your replies. I had forgotten that Magic Stone is a much better spell in IWD, so I am using it against the Undead up in the Vale. Draw on Unholy Might is also quite nice if it improves at higher levels.

The main reason I was asking about these spells is because my new party has several users of priest spells, in particular I am planning to dual a Cleric to Mage quite soon so she will always have these low level spells in reserve. I was going to dual early because I'm only doing IWD, plus I never like the idea of having a whimpy low-level character during the harder areas. To complicate the situation even more I was also going to dual my specialist 'trap-finder' Thief to Cleric so that I would still have the same balance to the party. The party will eventually look like this :-

Paladin - Team Leader
Ranger - Archer
Fighter/Druid - Odd Jobs
Thief/Cleric (DC) - Trap specialist
Cleric/Mage(DC) - Combat magic
Fighter/Mage/Thief - Crossbows, lockpick and non-combat magic

As you can tell this party is pretty unconventional, but just to really spice things up, I have given all of the party members poor ability scores - they each have 80 points.
Wish me luck !

[Ar-Cunin]

When it comes to priest-spells I always use 1 lvl Sanctuary - especially around undead. Cast spell - walk forward - turn undead. Those you can't kill outright you can "herd" into a corner. Then you can use fireball, skull trap ect.

Another tactic is to use both a paldin and a cleric - then you block the enemies at narrow point (doorway). Then rain missile fire or spells down upon them.

[Leafy]

I Agree, Sanctuary is a great low-level Preist spell. Possibly one of the cheesiest! Remember how difficult the desecrated temple full of Verbeeg seemed at first? now imagine a preist under sanctuary walking all the way to the end and back! At higher levels, a sanctuaried preist can waltz into an area of undead and just blow them up. The Burial Isle in HOW is almost TOO easy with a high level cleric. Almost, except for those equally cheesy Whailing Virgins (i swear they cheat; nothing save a cursed cloak will defend against them).
Call upon Holy Might is also an essential preist spell. at higher levels, the cleric/fighter can raise his strength to levels as high as 25. Added Damage and To Hit bonuses. This is what makes the Cleric/Ranger with no sheild so deadly.
In HOW, the Druid's Alicorn is a nice spell also. It seemed ineffectual to me at first, but with HoF mode, i realized that even this small advantage made the difference.

[Hayashi]

Web is a useful mage spell to have, and IIRC it is a level 2 spell.
It is an effective spell especially in those areas where you encounter hordes of enemies. It is better than Entangle imo as it totally prevents the affected monster from moving *and* attacking, whereas Entangle just prevents them from moving, but not attacking.