Can someone explain to me magic/ability system in this game?

[Brain]

So there are abilities you can and cannot use always.

At the moment I'm playing a wizard, and his skills bar says I have some skill that is marked as '+' and I can create other skills using some magic points. What does it mean? I can buff my other magic skill once per fight?

I mean, some deep guide built into the game would help a lot haha.

[Kafik]

Originally posted by Brain:

So there are abilities you can and cannot use always.

At the moment I'm playing a wizard, and his skills bar says I have some skill that is marked as '+' and I can create other skills using some magic points. What does it mean? I can buff my other magic skill once per fight?

I mean, some deep guide built into the game would help a lot haha.

So yeah an in game guide would be a great idea, nicely done.
When you talk about the + on the bar, do you mean on the red frame that says what bays it is like "Common", "Wizard", "Items"? That means that new things were added to that bar.
As far as casting spells some spells you can cast at a higher level when you get the spell slot available, like Magic Missile for example can be cast as a level 4 spell (again for example) to do more damage. That option will show up when you click the spell button.
I think the thing you're talking about with the create skills, is that the little button with the blue icon above your abilities? Wizards can recover one spell slot outside of combat per long rest with that button.

[jonnin]

mouse over a skill, and its going to say something that explains it sorta, not well, but sorta.
Lets break it down:
you have 2 ways to rest, a long deep rest and a short nap.
a number of your skills are per long rest, like a level 1 spell slot, or the ability to recover a spell slot.
Other abilities are per short rest; this may include things like a special weapon attack (specific to a class of weapons, like a quarter staff may have a head bonk or something that I don't recall what is for casters because we don't melee much)

and magic plays off that. As a caster levels they get spell slots, eg 2 level 1 slots at level 1 I think is the standard wizard setup. So, twice per long rest, you can cast one your many prepared wizard spells from level 1, like magic missile. Combine all that, and you see that you can really cast it 3 times once you can recover a spell slot. This quickly doubles to 4 level 1 spells and then a little later 4 level 1s and 4 level 2s and so on as you grow in power.
Also note that even more confusing, you can 'upcast' a level 1 to a level 2, making it hit harder or last longer or whatever, but if you had 4 level 1 and 4 level 2 slots, you can now cast magic missile 8 times in a row, 4 of those with an extra missile shot from the upcasting, or instead you can cast 4 MM and 4 something else level 2 like scorching rays.

Other powers you may get from potions, special events, books, gear... all work in a similar way. Most magic items that cast a spell can do it one time per long rest, eg a staff that casts scorching ray or something. Cantrip items can be spammed, like the dancing lights amulet.

And then you have other oddities. The ritual spells cost a spell slot in combat, but not out of combat, so you can do like feather fall out of combat and not use any spell slots, but in combat it would burn both a slot and an action. You can see this on them; out of combat a mouse over a ritual says action but not spell slot, while other spells still say they burn a spell slot! Another oddity are reactions: the shield spell will burn your reaction AND A SPELL SLOT to prevent you from taking a hit.

Finally, you also have actions and bonus actions. An illusion wizard, for an example, can cast the minor illusion spell as a bonus action, so you can cast like magic missile and then minor illusion in the same round with that setup. Hopefully you already get actions and bonus actions, and this is not a common thing with spell casting but a few other spells end up as bonus actions later and its important to understand them.

I know all this is complicated, but its really just a few core concepts. Your combat options center around:
per rest (long or short)
per action or bonus action per turn
spell slot consumption / or cantrip uses (no spell slot, minor attacks)
reactions
out of combat activities like ritual spells or long lasting buffs (mage armor, etc)
with the VAST majority of those activities being simply

- your ACTION per turn and whether your target(s) are worth burning a spell slot to kill.
90% or more of the time, ALL YOU NEED TO DO is decide if you want to use a spell or not. If not, you use a cantrip or some emergency behavior like throwing a potion at your friends. If you do want to use a spell, that should be an easy decision as to which (your best single target nuke, your best aoe bomb, magic missile always hit, or some buff/debuff like haste, fairy fire, etc). The other 10% of the time you may consider using items, scrolls, potions, bombs, helping a team mate, moving around (dash, jump stuff), and so on.

Spellcasting is all about resource management -- how much time you need to spend sleeping. I used to think sleeping less was good role play, given our problem, but in fact you NEED to rest frequently to see all the idiotic special camp cutscenes, so in fact playing casters and resting frequently isn't the worst way to enjoy this game.

[Brain]

Originally posted by Mal:

Originally posted by Brain:

So there are abilities you can and cannot use always.

At the moment I'm playing a wizard, and his skills bar says I have some skill that is marked as '+' and I can create other skills using some magic points. What does it mean? I can buff my other magic skill once per fight?

I mean, some deep guide built into the game would help a lot haha.

So yeah an in game guide would be a great idea, nicely done.
When you talk about the + on the bar, do you mean on the red frame that says what bays it is like "Common", "Wizard", "Items"? That means that new things were added to that bar.
As far as casting spells some spells you can cast at a higher level when you get the spell slot available, like Magic Missile for example can be cast as a level 4 spell (again for example) to do more damage. That option will show up when you click the spell button.
I think the thing you're talking about with the create skills, is that the little button with the blue icon above your abilities? Wizards can recover one spell slot outside of combat per long rest with that button.

Thank you for detailed explanation provided! I have dived into it, the + button I was talking about prior seems to be a switch between my passive abilities, like range/aoe of my magic and some passives for my teammates. However, if I leave this ability on, I won't be able to gain access to higher magic? So it's more of an option afaik. Am I right? Thanks a lot once more!

[Brain]

Originally posted by jonnin:

mouse over a skill, and its going to say something that explains it sorta, not well, but sorta.
Lets break it down:
you have 2 ways to rest, a long deep rest and a short nap.
a number of your skills are per long rest, like a level 1 spell slot, or the ability to recover a spell slot.
Other abilities are per short rest; this may include things like a special weapon attack (specific to a class of weapons, like a quarter staff may have a head bonk or something that I don't recall what is for casters because we don't melee much)

and magic plays off that. As a caster levels they get spell slots, eg 2 level 1 slots at level 1 I think is the standard wizard setup. So, twice per long rest, you can cast one your many prepared wizard spells from level 1, like magic missile. Combine all that, and you see that you can really cast it 3 times once you can recover a spell slot. This quickly doubles to 4 level 1 spells and then a little later 4 level 1s and 4 level 2s and so on as you grow in power.
Also note that even more confusing, you can 'upcast' a level 1 to a level 2, making it hit harder or last longer or whatever, but if you had 4 level 1 and 4 level 2 slots, you can now cast magic missile 8 times in a row, 4 of those with an extra missile shot from the upcasting, or instead you can cast 4 MM and 4 something else level 2 like scorching rays.

Other powers you may get from potions, special events, books, gear... all work in a similar way. Most magic items that cast a spell can do it one time per long rest, eg a staff that casts scorching ray or something. Cantrip items can be spammed, like the dancing lights amulet.

And then you have other oddities. The ritual spells cost a spell slot in combat, but not out of combat, so you can do like feather fall out of combat and not use any spell slots, but in combat it would burn both a slot and an action. You can see this on them; out of combat a mouse over a ritual says action but not spell slot, while other spells still say they burn a spell slot! Another oddity are reactions: the shield spell will burn your reaction AND A SPELL SLOT to prevent you from taking a hit.

Finally, you also have actions and bonus actions. An illusion wizard, for an example, can cast the minor illusion spell as a bonus action, so you can cast like magic missile and then minor illusion in the same round with that setup. Hopefully you already get actions and bonus actions, and this is not a common thing with spell casting but a few other spells end up as bonus actions later and its important to understand them.

I know all this is complicated, but its really just a few core concepts. Your combat options center around:
per rest (long or short)
per action or bonus action per turn
spell slot consumption / or cantrip uses (no spell slot, minor attacks)
reactions
out of combat activities like ritual spells or long lasting buffs (mage armor, etc)
with the VAST majority of those activities being simply

- your ACTION per turn and whether your target(s) are worth burning a spell slot to kill.
90% or more of the time, ALL YOU NEED TO DO is decide if you want to use a spell or not. If not, you use a cantrip or some emergency behavior like throwing a potion at your friends. If you do want to use a spell, that should be an easy decision as to which (your best single target nuke, your best aoe bomb, magic missile always hit, or some buff/debuff like haste, fairy fire, etc). The other 10% of the time you may consider using items, scrolls, potions, bombs, helping a team mate, moving around (dash, jump stuff), and so on.

Thanks a lot for such a great guide provided! Will put it down and study..
I also don't get another thing, why all my guys, including Astarion the thief, have fireball abilitiy at level 1? Is it like basic magic or something? I have imagined a thief wouldn't be able to cast a fireball lol.

[jonnin]

that is not fireball, its a cantrip that is given by one of the races. The HIGH ELF and HALF HIGH ELF get one wizard cantrip for being born, and the two NPCs who are of these races BOTH chose the fire one as their option when they were small children. Unfortunately you can't change it. This is very basic magic, but it does do 2d10 at level 5 and more damage later. the trouble is that these characters are morons and you need a high intellect to land a hit with this spell, making it mostly good for lighting up ceiling braziers in dark areas or setting off powder kegs from afar. The light&fire one is better for that, but you can't change it so meh.

Normal thief and cleric do not get these spells, its just a racial perk.

fireball is something else entirely... you will see that sooner or later...

[The Former]

It's a D&D game, so D&D rules will apply mostly 1:1. There are quite a few places where Larian took liberties, but for the most part, expect it to work the same way. As such, a quick rundown on D&D magic and abilities might be helpful.

Generally, when you're seeing a + next to spells, it's telling you the spell can be "upcast". This will take a bit of explanation.

In D&D, spells have levels. Every caster has a specific number of "spell slots" for each level. You can think of this sort of like mana. Each time you cast a spell, it uses up a spell slot.

Spells can't be cast using a spell slot of a lower level. So your spell with "II" in the corner (a 2nd level spell) can't be cast using a 1st level spell slot (1st level spells have "I" in the corner).

Spells can, however, be "upcast" with a spell slot of a higher level. For many spells, they even get a benefit from this, such as Command (a 1st level spell) getting to affect more targets in a single casting as you upcast it with higher level spell slots.

Cantrips are free and generally can't be upcast. They're immune to these rules; you can cast them any number of times per day without using a spell slot at all.

[Scheneighnay]

I think what you're referring to with the + could be a spell with multiple forms, like Chromatic Orb

In which case it opens a folder of all the forms it can take. Like Chromatic Orb can take the form of many different elements, find familiar has several familiar options, etc

[IvoryTemplar]

The ironic thing about this is OP created a troll topic talking about how great he is at the game and how everyone sucks because they save scum.

Dude doesn't even understand how combat works, but has an elitist attitude.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Mike Honcho:

The ironic thing about this is OP created a troll topic talking about how great he is at the game and how everyone sucks because they save scum.

Dude doesn't even understand how combat works, but has an elitist attitude.

We all have our moments when we feel like lording it over others, and we all have our times when we need a hand. I won't begrudge him the latter over the former.

[Brain]

Originally posted by Lockfågel, Paradoxriddaren:

It's a D&D game, so D&D rules will apply mostly 1:1. There are quite a few places where Larian took liberties, but for the most part, expect it to work the same way. As such, a quick rundown on D&D magic and abilities might be helpful.

Generally, when you're seeing a + next to spells, it's telling you the ability can be "upcast". This will take a bit of explanation.

In D&D, spells have levels. Every caster has a specific number of "spell slots" for each level. You can think of this sort of like mana. Each time you cast a spell, it uses up a spell slot.

Spells can't be cast using a spell slot of a lower level. So your spell with "II" in the corner (a 2nd level spell) can't be cast using a 1st level spell slot (1st level spells have "I" in the corner).

Spells can, however, be "upcast" with a spell slot of a higher level. For many spells, they even get a benefit from this, such as Command (a 1st level spell) getting to affect more targets in a single casting as you upcast it with higher level spell slots.

Thanks a lot! And how do I cast my let's say basic fire missle with 2nd level spell slot?

[The Former]

Originally posted by Brain:

Originally posted by Lockfågel, Paradoxriddaren:

It's a D&D game, so D&D rules will apply mostly 1:1. There are quite a few places where Larian took liberties, but for the most part, expect it to work the same way. As such, a quick rundown on D&D magic and abilities might be helpful.

Generally, when you're seeing a + next to spells, it's telling you the ability can be "upcast". This will take a bit of explanation.

In D&D, spells have levels. Every caster has a specific number of "spell slots" for each level. You can think of this sort of like mana. Each time you cast a spell, it uses up a spell slot.

Spells can't be cast using a spell slot of a lower level. So your spell with "II" in the corner (a 2nd level spell) can't be cast using a 1st level spell slot (1st level spells have "I" in the corner).

Spells can, however, be "upcast" with a spell slot of a higher level. For many spells, they even get a benefit from this, such as Command (a 1st level spell) getting to affect more targets in a single casting as you upcast it with higher level spell slots.

Thanks a lot! And how do I cast my let's say basic fire missle with 2nd level spell slot?

There should be a tab on your bar to bring up all your 2nd level spells. If you click that, it'll also show 1st level spells; clicking the spell there should upcast it with a 2nd level slot.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Brain:

Originally posted by Lockfågel, Paradoxriddaren:

It's a D&D game, so D&D rules will apply mostly 1:1. There are quite a few places where Larian took liberties, but for the most part, expect it to work the same way. As such, a quick rundown on D&D magic and abilities might be helpful.

Generally, when you're seeing a + next to spells, it's telling you the ability can be "upcast". This will take a bit of explanation.

In D&D, spells have levels. Every caster has a specific number of "spell slots" for each level. You can think of this sort of like mana. Each time you cast a spell, it uses up a spell slot.

Spells can't be cast using a spell slot of a lower level. So your spell with "II" in the corner (a 2nd level spell) can't be cast using a 1st level spell slot (1st level spells have "I" in the corner).

Spells can, however, be "upcast" with a spell slot of a higher level. For many spells, they even get a benefit from this, such as Command (a 1st level spell) getting to affect more targets in a single casting as you upcast it with higher level spell slots.

Thanks a lot! And how do I cast my let's say basic fire missle with 2nd level spell slot?

the level 0 spells, cantrips, can be cast without a spell slot, and cannot be upcast.
A better example is the magic missile:
at spell slot level 1, it sends 3 shots at the target(s) each doing 1d4 damage.
if you upcast it once, it spends a level 2 slot an sends 4 missiles (one more) doing 1d4 more damage.

upcasting is a critical tool for all casters -- allowing healers to cast their low level healing spells many, many times including the level 2 group heal, cast again at levels 3 and 4 for example. It gives you the ability to sacrifice a higher level spell for a lower, sometimes a good idea (eg using magic missile instead of scorching ray against a target you have a 10% chance to hit) and sometimes a bad idea ("this spell gets no additional effects from upcasting" like minor illusion). Sorcerers make this even more interesting by sacrificing low level spell slots to get another high level spell, or sacrificing a high level one to get many low level spells 'back' to use. As I tried to say earlier, spellcasting, esp wizard and sorcerer, thrive on good resource management. Hybrids like a warlock can always stab something worst case, but a wizard is poor at stabbing stuff and should not be doing it (unless built weird) after level 5 or so (its doable to make a fighter-mage combo, but that is outside this discussion). Casters should be either blowing stuff up (any important fight) or relaxing (lobbing a cantrip or two) in pointless trash fights. Up against 10 guys with 7-15 health in the goblin camp, you lob cantrips. Up against 8 guys + the leader of the goblins inside, maybe time for something stronger...