Useful Spells

[TheBlueFox]

I'm trying to dabble in magery and hocus pocus, but I'm having a hard time determining what is useful and what is not, especially at lower levels.

Sleep is god tier for the first....100% of the game, but aside from that, magic missile, and Identify, I have a hard time knowing what kind of spells I should use.

I'd like some advice on both Divine spells as well as Arcane, so I can kinda see what is useful.

Command and Hold Person on clerics is wonderful, And Resist fear as well for spellcasters. But what about silence 15'? Is divine hammer better than draw upon holy might?

Is entangle worth using? It seems it's not very party friendly and the cast time is rather high, hard to land if a fight has already started, and what on a druid should I take aside from entangle and cure?

For mages, are spells like shocking grasp and burning hands good? Or just screw it and stick with CC at low level.

[Vyvian]

Entangle can be useful but it's mostly annoying. It lasts a LONG time and if you have those vines flitting about in a path you need to walk on, standing around waiting for them to go away can be a bit annoying. ;)

I've never used the "hands" spell. Magic Missile is very good for a really long time.

[lpconfig]

Web is great for stuff that can not be sleeped.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

It's good to have both mage and cleric in party. But also keep at least 2 capable fighters in BG1 one of them should be a powerful tank.

As for spells it's useful to spam Haste on your fighters, if you have any other possitive effect spells like blessing spam them too. In BG 1 you absolutely have to have protection from petrification. Cure spell and restore spell are useful. Resist fear and remove fear is a must have. As well as cure poison or slow poison. Spam hold spells often, there are many pathetic swarm type of monsters in BG1 so it's useful. Get freedom spell or whatever the name for protection from entanglement. Well and of course attack spells like magic missile or acid arrow. I blast archers with them. So far thats all that comes to mind.

[TheBlueFox]

A friend of mine was trying to make a Necromancer, since he saw it in the list of classes under mage subtypes, and asked me about what spells to take. I told him to start off with some utility like sleep, but I couldn't tell him what could be useful later on except skull trap, and thats kind of like... a landmine? You sorta set that up and run people into it?

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

Yeah i almost forgot. Spam summon spells like crazy.

[TheBlueFox]

Summon Monster? you can use that while invisible right, and not break invis?

[Happyscientist]

hmm I generally avoid spells with touch range because I dont like getting that close to enemies with my easy to kill casters. I also try to avoid anything that could potentially harm the party (ai likes to charge enemies even if thats where you are throwing a fireball). That said if you find a wand with an AoE I'd hang on to it, I just wouldnt use up memory spots for something that I might not use between rests.

Web and entangle hold the same problems as fireball in that it can hit your party.

Remove fear and slow poison are pretty important, most of the time you wont be using them but when you do need them you'll be very sorry if you don't have them.

Deafen and glitter dust can potentially help but they are by no means a sure thing.

Good berry is nice to have, it helps patch up smaller wounds so you dont have to waste cure spells and you can save the berrys you get from it for later if you dont need them now.

Avoid find familiar like the plauge. The thing will die and you will lose con!


Other than that Id say just play around and see what works for you.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by TheBlueFox:

Summon Monster? you can use that while invisible right, and not break invis?

As far as i know yes. Unless it's a potion. Not sure about potion actually.

But invisibility or improved invisibility is extremely useful when coupled with non detection. Don't remember what level you need for those spells though.

Summoning is a great way to combat mages or slow and distract enemies. Just swarm the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with monsters. Works like a charm. But i think they limited summonig with one of the earlier patches. Again not sure.

[lpconfig]

I think that the best way to screw over mages is to poison them. Darts of wounding or bolts / arrows of biting.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by lpconfig:

I think that the best way to screw over mages is to poison them. Darts of wounding or bolts / arrows of biting.

Breach and sword in the face works too. But that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ demilich in BG2... damn. I barelly killed him with summoning spam 1st time and 2nd time by lucky hold spell that he didnt resist after i used wand of wonders.

[TheBlueFox]

I've been curious about Charm Person. Is it useful? It says the enemy gets a +3 to their save, but I'm not familiar with AD&D saves, I know there's like... 5 of them? Save Vs wand, Breath, death, spell, and...something? What would this land on? Fighters? Mages?

[Happyscientist]

Originally posted by ᅚ:

Originally posted by lpconfig:

I think that the best way to screw over mages is to poison them. Darts of wounding or bolts / arrows of biting.

Breach and sword in the face works too. But that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ demilich in BG2... damn. I barelly killed him with summoning spam 1st time and 2nd time by lucky hold spell that he didnt resist after i used wand of wonders.

which reminds me healing spells should damage undead, up to you to decide if its worth it.

[Radeye]

Mirror image is pretty nice when you're fighting enemies with missile weapons.

Chromatic orb when it gets the stun added to it (level 5 I think)

Aganazzar's scorcher can do some serious AoE damage if you line if up right

Minor Spell Sequencer, tossing 10 magic missiles at once =D

[Happyscientist]

Originally posted by TheBlueFox:

I've been curious about Charm Person. Is it useful? It says the enemy gets a +3 to their save, but I'm not familiar with AD&D saves, I know there's like... 5 of them? Save Vs wand, Breath, death, spell, and...something? What would this land on? Fighters? Mages?

I'd aim for the archers, they are surprisingly lethal in this game.