Spell Advice (extensive)

[Alex]

I've beaten BA 1 and most of 2 before I lost my save on an old hard drive. I mostly know things but I've used Weapon dmg, tanks, and buff spells predominantly to this point with very few spells used offensively. I barely know how to play a mage and to main one would take me far from my element.
Right now Its going good. I've got a 4 man band with dual class mage, and a bard and I figured that'd make me learn to lean into spells. Than my bard hit level 11 and now I can over come battle attrition with out even resting or using healing spells so I'm not going to have to lean on magic... So I'm hoping some one can teach me to mage here cuz its over whelming and I've already got viable options for the whole game.

[Armanz]

Mages are not that useful in IWD *except* for their borderline gamebreaking lvl 3 spells (+ Web maybe). You want that Haste, Slow & Fireball on lvl 3. Additionally lvl 2 Web and you're pretty much set, that's the strategy for basically every fight with space that you can prepare for.

Use Web twice (thrice if you don't have a Druid that would use Entangle) and then Cloudkill once you have that. Fireball that ♥♥♥♥ and then Slow it (You use Haste before the fight starts). Everything coming through just beat it down the old fashioned way. Additional spells to watch out for are Chromatic Orb later on for it's useful effects, Magic Missile to pierce through Mirror Images and both to quickly disrupt spells. You want Stoneskin and Mirror Image on your Mage for protection and you want to ignore all the spell defense breaching spells. Chaos & Confusion are good additions later on for big crowds. Emotions Hope and Courage are useful buffs. Also use any summons at your leisure as cannon fodder and distractions.