Best Sorcerer Spells?

[Godfire]

I'm playing a Sorcerer and I need help with the spell selection. I've read a bunch of different guides and forum posts, but the advice isn't consistent. Here's what I've pieced together:

1. Blindness, Shield, Magic Missile, Spook, Sleep
2. Mirror Image, Web, Melf's Acid Arrow, Resist Fear, Knock
3. Skull Trap, Melf's Minute Meteors, Haste, Dispel Magic, Slow
4. Stoneskin, Spiderspawn, Improved Invisibility, Greater Malison, Emotion
5. Spell Immunity, Animate Dead, Breach, Clouldkill, Chaos
6. Death Spell, Protection from Magical Weapons, True Sight, Summon Nishruu, Globe of Invulnerability
7. Project Image, Mordenkainen's Sword, Spell Sequencer, Summon Haskeashar, Khelben's Warding Whip
8. Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Bigby's Clenched Fist, Symbol (Stun), Incendiary Cloud
9. Time Stop, Spell Strike, Wish, Shape Change


I'm not planning to solo, but I want to build my Sorcerer as if I were (i.e. powerful enough to handle anything). Any advice on spell choice or learning order is appreciated.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

BG2EE only or including BGEE?

Trying to fill all the roles from crowd control to damage dealer and also adding a bit of solo powers into the mix isn't easy.

Originally posted by SupaHawtFiya:

I'm not planning to solo, but I want to build my Sorcerer as if I were (i.e. powerful enough to handle anything).

That makes it a much more difficult decision for sure, because a party oriented sorcerer could become a specialist and ignore even more stuff other classes can handle better.

Such as, cleric and paladin could provide protection from evil 10' radius eventually, but why would your all purpose sorcerer not learn "Protection from Evil" as 1st level spell?

Magic missile's damage scales with level, but chromatic orb adds some nice side-effects as you level up.

Do you really want to be unable to cast the normal and long-lasting "Invisibility" spell? I know some people collect invisibility potions for that, but you've not learned Invisibility 10' Radius either, which is one awesome way to protect the full party before trying to rest in unsafe places.

Lower Resistance is missing. None of the Pierce Magic/Pierce Shield spells available.

Hakeashar and Nishruu have a very limited purpose, especially if you're not solo.

[Improper Use]

I'd pick the Armor and Shield spell. I'd also go for tensers (health buff).

and

Simulacrum

[Joneleth]

1.Magic Missile / Identify / Chromatic Orb / Grease / Find Familiar
2. Melf's Acid Arrow / Mirror Image / Resist Fear / Web / Knock / Ray of Enfeeblement
3. Flame Arrow / Slow / Remove Magic / Dispell Magic / Haste / Fireball
4. Stoneskin / greater Malison / Spider Spawn / Fireshield (Red) / Minor Sequencer
5. Lower Resistance / Spell Immunity / Sunfire / Breach / Spell Shield
6. Prot From Magic Wea. / Prot From Mgc Energy / Death Spell / Contingency / Pierce Magic
7. Spell Sequencer / Finger of Death / Mordenkainen's Sword / Delayed Blast Fireball / ?
8. Abi-Dalzim's HW / Spell Trigger / Protection from Energy / Simulacrum / Symbol Stun
9. Chain Contingency / Time Stop / Wish / Imprisonment / Meteor Swarm / Shapechange (if still works on irenicus and others when u change into flayer)

[Godfire]

Originally posted by Tatsumaki - Fubuki:

1.Magic Missile / Identify / Chromatic Orb / Grease / Find Familiar
2. Melf's Acid Arrow / Mirror Image / Resist Fear / Web / Knock / Ray of Enfeeblement
3. Flame Arrow / Slow / Remove Magic / Dispell Magic / Haste / Fireball
4. Stoneskin / greater Malison / Spider Spawn / Fireshield (Red) / Minor Sequencer
5. Lower Resistance / Spell Immunity / Sunfire / Breach / Spell Shield
6. Prot From Magic Wea. / Prot From Mgc Energy / Death Spell / Contingency / Pierce Magic
7. Spell Sequencer / Finger of Death / Mordenkainen's Sword / Delayed Blast Fireball / ?
8. Abi-Dalzim's HW / Spell Trigger / Protection from Energy / Simulacrum / Symbol Stun
9. Chain Contingency / Time Stop / Wish / Imprisonment / Meteor Swarm / Shapechange (if still works on irenicus and others when u change into flayer)

Thanks for the spell list! A few quick questions:

1.) I've heard you only need to cast Find Familiar once so should you really use up a spell slot geting it?

2.) Out of curiousity, why no Blindness, Shield, or Sleep? I read those were critical.

3.) You've got 6 spells for level 2. Which should I toss?

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Sleep is godly in BG1 but completely useless in BG2.....so...just for efficencies sake, you could use something else and just use the wand of sleep during BG1, even though it's not quite as good as the spell.

On the other hand....the final level 1 pick is something of a floater that you could really take anything as long as it was useful for something and not easily replaced by gold/items/just leveling up.

your original list was fine aside for you really need lower resistance and pierce magic.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Find Familiar would be a wasted spell slot indeed.

Shield doesn't add much other than early protection against magic missiles. As you level up, you learn other protections. And your party is with you, btw.

Blindless is not critical, but just one out of many helpful spells to weaken/hinder enemies.

From the level 2 spells, I find Web, Mirror Image, Knock, Invisibility and Resist Fear very good. And Strength for BGEE, if nobody else in the party learns it.

[Joneleth]

Find familiar just for soloing. İf you want to full party member you can skip knock also.
İf you want to play LOB mode spell select order its very important also spending your money for correct items.

[Teralitha]

Whatever suits your playstyle...... there is no correct list. If you want to be powerful enough to handle anything, then you should have contingency and sequencer spells going also... although they are annoying to recast after every battle. I personally dont agree with your spell list at all. Many of those spells are useless at higher levels.

[guttahtrash]

I agree with Teralitha. Most guides have spell picks designed for a solo sorerer run. The spellpicks for that are going to be different than running a party. Sorcerers.net has a chart for spells in a vanilla game which shows which spells are party-friendly and which spells are not. It also lists divine spells. I'm not sure how much of this has changed for the EE games, but it's a cool reference to check out.

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/SpellsReference/AreaSpellChart.htm

[ÄmJii]

I'd drop Emotion, Summon Nishru/Hakeashar and Bigby's Clenched Fist for Sequencers, Chain Lightning (party-friendly AoE), Pierce Magic.
Drop Cloudkill for Lower Resistance, or you'll regret it later on.

I'd also consider swapping Shape Change for Chain Contingency, depending on whether or not they've changed C.Contingency. Besides that, you'll be casting mostly HLA spells at 9th level anyways.

[Nevasith]

lvl1
I'd drop identify from level one - for bg2 you can get magic glasses that will do this for you and in bg1 you will quickly get the gold to stock up on id scrolls. Also for reliable wish casting you should have max wisdom - that with positive int modifier will help. If you beat bg1 you would even get a +3 bonus to it!

lvl 2
If you have a party, drop knock and take blur (blur gives bonus to saving throws)

lvl 3
skull trap instead of fireball - it does magic damage instead of fire and many enemies have fire resistance.

lvl 4
drop fire shield and take improved invisibility (useless vs mages but great in all other situations) Use contigency condition "helpless" to trigger improved invisibility - big help in some situations!

lvl 5
I might risk and swap sunfire for animate dead - I'm not fond of fire damage and sunfire pretty much requires you to get yourself surrounded by enemies for max effectivenes - sure, stone skin and protection from magic weapons makes you invulnerable so it's not a suicide move - just remember that you might need some magic proof support (skelly warriors do that quite nicely)

[ZaMu]

LVL 1
1 Shield, 1 PfP, 3 Blind, 5 MM, 7 Spook

LVL 2
4 Web, 5 Mirror Image, 7 Resist Fear, 9 Blur, 11 MAA

LVL 3
6 Melf’s Minute Meteors, 7 Skull Trap, 9 PfF (Slow or Flame Arrow if DD), 11 Haste, 22 Remove Magic

LVL 4
8 Stoneskin, 9 Improved Invisibility, 11 Spirit Armor, 13 Minor Sequencer, 23 Wizard’s Eye

LVL 5
10 Animate Dead, 11 Breach, 13 Spell Immunity, 15 Lower Resistance, 23 Spell Shield

LVL 6
12 Death Spell, 13 True Sight, 15 PfME, 21 PfMW, 30 Contingency

LVL 7
14 Project Image, 15 Mordenkainen’s Sword, 17 Ruby Ray, 22 Spell Sequencer, 31 Limited Wish

LVL 8
16 ADHW, 17 Spell Trigger, 19 Pierce Shield, 23 Simulacrum

LVL 9
18 Time Stop, 19 CC 20 Spellstrike, 25 Wish

[MasterBobcat]

Originally posted by ZaMu:

LVL 5
10 Animate Dead, 11 Breach, 13 Spell Immunity, 15 Lower Resistance, 23 Spell Shield

LVL 6
12 Death Spell, 13 True Sight, 15 PfME, 21 PfMW, 30 Contingency

I only have minor quibbles, because I like most of your picks.

Animate Dead summons weak, basic skeletons until level 15, when it upgrades to a Skeleton Warrior. So I would reorder your Level 5 picks to 10 Breach, 11 Spell Immunity, 13 Lower Resist and 15 Animate Dead.

I like to use a Sorc or Bard as my primary tank, and have 1-2 other Mages for utility and nuking, so I would move PfMW into the 13 pick, and Spell Deflection in 21 or 30. True Sight is worth passing to one of the other Mages to handle.

[Nikloss]

You want spells you'd use a lot. One time fire and forget spells you can leave for your party members, play into the strengths of the class.
Otherwise you'll just be a wizard but stuck with a few spells and little damage output.

Truesight i'd have a cleric use for instance.