Arcane Caster guide for BGEE

This is a guide to arcane spells, sorcerer spell selections, tactical spell use and arcane-using classes for BGEE, with additional advice for importing an arcane character into BG2EE. This guide will avoid most spoilers, however some spoilers such as names, classes, and locations of arcane-using NPCs will be mentioned.

Why arcane casters in BGEE?

Arcane casters are some of the most tactically useful tools in BGEE. Although other characters require less planning and situational knowledge, mages have more power to completely circumvent fights than any other class in the game. Fighters may be powerful with their accurate attacks, high damage, and low (good) armor class, but a team of level 1 characters can defeat enemies far stronger than them with a single well-placed spell.

Much like in tabletop D&D, wizards can in many situations completely obsolete other character abilities in their party. There's no need for a thief to use stealth when invisibility is available, and all the attacks in the world don't matter that much when the entire enemy team is unable to fight back.

One major concern for mages is how they should be used. It's my experience that most players tend to hold spells for potentially dangerous fights. Unless your team is very light on arcane magic, this is not advisable. You should be attempting to use spells to invalidate as many fights as possible -- each spell slot can potentially win an encounter without any damage. If you consider that you'll take 1 or 2 hits for an average enemy encounter, this makes mage spell slots roughly equivalent to or better than a cleric spell slot. Slot spells and use them often, and above all, rest when you're spent. You normally have to rest when your cleric slots are exhausted, so fielding mages is a good way to extend your time in the field.

Spells and spell selection, level 1

Level 1 is one of the more critical levels for a spellcaster because it's the one you're stuck with when you start the game. Also, due to a certain ring, you'll have a lot more level 1 slots than any other level combined. This is doubly true if you have Edwin or Baeloth on your team.

Spook is probably one of the best spells in BG, period. Although it affects only a single enemy, it has a saving throw penalty, making it outright better at disabling enemies than Chromatic Orb or Blindness. It won't affect certain enemies -- most notably undead, but all of the undead in BGEE can be dealt with handily by a party cleric or simply by bashing them with your fighters.

A lot of guides recommend Chromatic Orb, so I must go out and say that Spook is absolutely superior to it. Don't be fooled; +6 on save basically makes Chromatic Orb totally garbage. It's much better in IWD. Never use Chromatic Orb in this game.

Charm Person has its uses, but my advice is to get a magic item or character that can use it without having to spend spell slots on it. Your main use of charm person is to charm neutral characters so you can kill them.

Sleep is the bread and butter money spell of wizards in BGEE. A huge majority of the battles you will face in the game can be won with this spell, and it continues to retain value well into the latter parts of the game. It does fall off a bit by the end game, but you can simply put Spook instead into your level 1 slots. If you are a sorcerer and you are intending to import into BG2EE you may not want to get this spell as it is not very good in BG2. If you do, I recommend adding another arcane caster such as Xzar, Neera or Edwin early on so you can take advantage of this spell in BG1. If you can't find a scroll of Sleep, Color Spray does more or less the same thing (not quite as good) but can't be used from out of vision range and can hit friendly characters.

Much like Sleep, Armor is a very good spell throughout BG1 but is not as good for importing if you are a sorcerer. With 19 dexterity and Armor, you can have AC2 as a wizard, which is pretty nice early on. It lasts for 9 hours, so you can cast it when you enter the area you want to explore and it will last until you leave or decide to rest. I would devote a single level 1 slot on all of your wizards to this spell once you've got enough castings of Sleep to handle most of the fights in a given day. Shield is better in terms of protection, but it only lasts 1 game hour so it is generally not as good.

Of course no discussion would be complete without Magic Missile. It's more of a last resort when all other methods have failed, as there are not that many encounters in BG1 where Magic Missile is better than slotting Spook or Sleep. If you're a sorc, you probably want this spell since it is quite useful occasionally, and it's very nice in BG2.

If you're a wizard you should probably start with Find Familiar, as a familiar is a whole lot better at fighting in the very early parts of the game than you are. If you're a sorcerer, you'll find a scroll eventually. Familiars are very, very good in BG1, and they give you more hit points. I could probably write an entire guide just about familiars.

Grease is OK for keeping enemies caught in a web spell. If you know you're facing undead, grease is a better choice than sleep or color spray but it's not a very good spell most of the time.

Although it is extremely short duration, the +2 AC bonus from Protection from Evil stacks with all other bonuses and is thus very good for hybrid mages. This spell can also be quite nice for summoning pit fiends in BG2, but is otherwise not that great.

My sorc picks are obviously spook and magic missile. Shield is my next pick since it stacks with higher-AC bracers and immunity to magic missile is sometimes helpful. My next pick is identify, mostly because it's super convenient to have on a sorc and because level 1 spell choices aren't that tight. Lastly, it's a tie between Sleep, Friends (for shop discounts if you have high CHA), and Protection from Evil. Prot evil is generally better handled by clerics, so my choice is Sleep since it's super strong in this game.

Level 1: Sleep, Spook
Level 3: Identify
Level 5: Magic Missile
Level 7: Shield

Spells and spell selection, level 2

Level 2 is all about area controls. There are three big spells: Glitterdust, Web, and Stinking Cloud. We'll address them all simultaneously.

Glitterdust is the lightest CC of the three since enemies can still fight if blinded as long as they can get into melee with you. It still disables spellcasters and archers, which are by and large the bigger threats in the game, and gives a hefty THAC0 penalty to enemies that do manage to find your team. The biggest plus is that it reveals invisibility while still being a standard CC effect, and many mages in BG1 use improved invisibility/shadow door as their main defense. Glitterdust can also be cast into an ongoing battle; it will not affect allies. Glitterdust also works on everything that can fail a saving throw versus spell.

Web, despite what it says in the spell description, completely locks down anything that fails its save. It has a definite plus in that it continuously pulses, though a failed save only shuts down an enemy for one round. The disadvantage of web is that it hits everything in its radius continuously for a very long time, and this can be a problem for your team, particularly in narrow quarters where you may not be able to maneuver ranged attackers to stand outside the web. On the plus side, you can use items that grant Free Action to ignore web and fight normally, and there's a particularly nice two-handed sword somewhere in the game that is designed to do just that. Web works on everyone that doesn't have Free Action, which puts it in the same boat as Glitterdust -- almost everything.

Stinking Cloud is notable for its exotic save; it checks poison/death rather than spell, which makes it better for taking down enemy wizards. Like Web, it pulses continuously, knocking anything that fails its save unconscious. Note that this doesn't seem to be flagged as a sleep effect, and thus elves' 90% sleep resistance doesn't seem to help. It's not as good as the others, but it can be useful when layered over web to ensure that enemies don't get a chance to fight at all.

Horror gets an honorable mention. It's not as good as the other spells, but it is an area crowd control similar to Glitterdust. Having enemies run around in outdoor areas is highly annoying though.

Invisibility is really, really nice too. It lasts for a whopping 24 hours, so it can be really good if you cast it on someone who can contribute to your team without attacking or casting spells. Thieves with dispel illusions are one option, and bards are another. As we'll discuss in the classes section, unkitted bards are garbage, blades should be fighting and skalds and jesters are amazing invisible supports. Use your invisible character to scout entire maps! You can also just cast invisibility on your familiar to scout, too.

Vocalize is really nice in BG2 but mages don't generally silence you in BG1. Also, you should be fighting most battles on your terms in BG1 (winning before enemy can cast), since you can scout virtually all of them ahead of time with stealth or invisibility.

Mirror image is a good protection spell but there are few times where your mages will be a focus of attacks. I almost never end up using it, but it's amazing in BG2 and great in solo games. Blur is also nice as it gives bonuses to saves as well as AC; I still don't really find defensive spells to be that helpful when the enemy can't fight at all.

Melf's Acid Arrow and Aganazzar's Scorcher are your offensive spells at this level. I don't really advise using them because in most cases you will want to cast glitterdust or web instead. If you have a lot of mages, preparing one or two of these is OK but I don't like having enough spells to handle an entire map. IDK. Melf's is a pretty good spell in BG2 due to its scaling damage, so if I was going to pick one, I'd pick it over Scorcher despite Scorcher being able to hit multiple enemies. If you need a weapon to kill trolls though, just use fire arrows.

Sorc picks:
4: Glitterdust
5: Invisibility if you can't get someone else to cast it, Multiple Image otherwise
7: Multiple Image unless you already have it, Web or Melf's otherwise
9: Web. If you already have it, Melf's (get Vocalize @ level 11 in BG2)

Spells and spell selection, level 3

You won't have level 3 spells for much of the game, so level 1 and 2 are the most important levels to understand. You can win most battles without even needing level 3 spells, but let's go over what is available.

Dispel Magic is vital. Quite frankly, clerics get the rather awesome Animate Dead at this level so chances are your mages will need to load Dispel. It's great for stripping off buffs from enemies, but it's sort of not needed unless the enemy has placed some defense you can't beat with conventional magic or just power through with attacks. Since you hopefully have Glitterdust somewhere in your team spell loadout there shouldn't be a lot of need for Dispel Magic. It is very, very nice for removing negative effects on you, such as someone casting Confusion or charm on your party fighter. It happens sometimes!

If you're a sorc, consider Remove Magic as it cannot target allies. However, there are plenty of situations where you want to remove enemy CC from your team, which Remove Magic can't do.

Skull Trap is your go-to nuke. It isn't stopped by fire resistance like Fireball, and you can layer several of them in a spot to trigger all at once (though generally you won't want to). Just cast it on an area with enemies like you normally would cast a fireball and blow everything away.

Haste makes everyone on your team a killing machine, and perhaps more importantly, it makes your backline more able to kite around. Of all the "fighting support" spells, it's by far the most useful. Unfortunately, it exhausts your party afterwards. Only prepare one Haste and be prepared to rest afterwards, if you use Haste at all.

Melf's Minute Meteors is a useful anti-troll weapon, it hits as a +5 weapon (thus defeating most types of weapon resistance) and attacks very rapidly (5 APR). I really like this spell and it is pretty good for dealing a bunch of damage to one enemy, especially one resistant to weapons without high level enchantments.

Spell Thrust is critically useful. Let me punctuate this; Spell Thrust counters the huge majority of annoying spells that protect your enemies from your spells. For the most part, enemies in BG1 do not use these defensive spells, but it's still a valuable spell to have in your arsenal because the few enemies that do use anti-spell spells make you completely useless.

Slow is your first group CC effect that has a saving throw penalty. It's very powerful, and if you're running an arcane-heavy party it can really pay dividends to slot it. It greatly reduces enemy attack rate and accuracy, and you can consider it a sort of "leveled up" version of Glitterdust (it doesn't reveal invisibility though).

Sorc picks are hard here. You're stuck with only 3 in BGEE even if you eventually get 5 (where the choices are pretty easy).

6: Dispel or Remove Magic, depending on personal taste
7: Skull Trap (you can get this at 6 instead and get Dispel/Remove here)
9: Slow

A lot of these choices are predicated on having another mage. If you're the only mage in your party you probably want Spell Thrust at 7 and you'll have to let clerics handle dispelling (Skull Trap is too good to skip). Sorcs need backup to cover the niches they can't cover with their regular arsenal. My 4th and 5th picks are MMM and Spell Thrust (in reverse order, though MMM is more valuable of a spell in the long run) but Spell Thrust has alternatives in later levels.

Spells and spell selection, level 4

You don't need these spells to win the game. Level 4 is above what's needed for virtually everything, and many useful level 4 spells are unavailable except as random drops. If you're a sorc though, it's going to be the best time of your life.

Greater Malison is the most useful spell to slot as a wizard, and it's an essential pick for sorc. Lowering saving throws makes stacked web/stinking cloud really powerful, and virtually guarantees that Spook or Slow will land.

Confusion has a save penalty, making it somewhat stronger than area controls. It's especially nice when you cast it into an enemy group that can't see you, which usually causes them to fight each other. However, it's not a must-have spell; you probably already have enough area lockdown. You can slot it in wizard spell slots if you have your other needs met, though.

Sorcs get some really, really sexy stuff that is mostly unavailable. Minor Sequencer is fantastic; it allows you to preload two level 2 area controls in one spell and fire them off whenever you want. It would be great on a wild mage, but it's unlikely that you'll ever get it without hacking it into the game.

Sorcs can also get wizard eye, quite possibly the best scout in the game. Still, you can use your familiar and invisibility to accomplish the same thing, or a thief or other scouting character.

Enchanted weapon is another combat buff for multi or dual-class mages. It's a +3 weapon so it has its uses, but not really in this game. Apparently in IWDEE you can hand it off to a party member. Neat.

Stoneskin is a fairly essential part of a wizard's arsenal and renders him or her virtually immune to normal attacks. It's especially valuable in BG2 when you get a ton of free hits. The spell lasts for 12 hours too, so you don't have to use it in mid-combat.

Emotion: Hopelessness is a Sleep-like effect that works on enemies of any HD (though not on undead). It has no save penalty, so I'm not as fond of it as I am of Confusion.

Secret Word is the first potential replacement for Spell Thrust. It's the best spell protection removal in BGEE and the only one you really need until BG2. Because level 4 slots aren't generally as good as level 3 ones (at least with the spells available), I tend to prep this instead of Spell Thrust.

Sorc picks of this level are hard because you only get two. In BG2 your options open up immensely and you can get whatever you want, but here you really have to pick and choose.

8: Stoneskin
9: Minor Spell Sequencer

Again, this assumes you have another mage to handle Greater Malison while you drop a double Web/Glitterdust with your sequencer (or cast Slow). Minor Sequencer is godly for its ability to double-drop crowd controls and it's not really skippable. If you don't have another mage though you really have to give up something and Stoneskin is too good.

Once you get into BG2 you can pick up Malison and then you can go wild with whatever picks you want.

Spells and spell selection, level 5

I shouldn't be discussing what you do with sorcs at this level, since you technically can't cast level 5 spells as a sorc until BG2. If you removed the level cap, well...

Breach is the most essential level 5 spell in BG2, so if you are lucky enough to get a scroll of it, you'll be well on your way to importing. However, as far as I know there is no fixed Breach scroll in BGEE. It removes combat protections including protection from normal missiles/normal weapons, protection from magic weapons, mantle, stoneskin and so on. Very helpful.

Cloudkill is one of the few level 5 scrolls you'll find in the game. If you can manage to cast it earlier on in the game as a wild mage, it can make some tough early fights very easy. It instantly kills creatures of 6HD or below with no save. Very useful!

Chaos is another spell that you can actually find, and it is extremely good for wizards. It works on most foes, has a -4 save penalty and causes enemies to fight each other. Although it's a high level slot and there are many other good level 5 spells, it is a great spell to have if you have readied.

Lower Resistance is sort of weak in BG1; you'll need to cast it several times to weaken a target's resistance enough to make spells effective. There are also very few enemies that actually warrant its use. In BG2 it's fantastic; you'll need it.

There are a wide variety of single target -2 save or die spells at this level. Hold Monster is probably the strongest, since it works on the most things. You will probably not want to use any of them though.

Spell Immunity deserves a very special mention since it is incredibly useful in BG2.

Sorcs don't get level 5 spells in BGEE but if they could, I'd get Breach first. Spell Immunity is important for dealing with imprisonment but can be put off for later. Lower Resistance is pretty important too. Cloudkill is nice, Cone of Cold isn't bad, Chaos is good. I dunno, this isn't a BG2EE guide.

Classes for arcane casting

For the protagonist, there are a number of false choices. With the exception of unkitted bard, we will not be talking about them; just don't pick them. For stats, you generally want 18 int (for non-sorcs), 18 or 19 dex, 15 or better wis (for wishes in BG2; you can ignore wisdom if you're not importing) and some STR for throwing darts and carrying heavy stuff. You can substitute STR for CON if you want, but generally the bonus HP isn't that huge (you won't be getting hit much, hopefully) and darts have a very high attack rate so you will get a lot of damage out of 15 or better STR. All other stats you should set to 7, as it's the lowest you can go without penalties, with the exception of STR (if you get high CON) which should be as high as you can raise it for the carrying weight. If you have free stat points and decided to go with Friends as a sorc (or a bard), you can get 18 CHA and enjoy some big shop discounts.

Conjurer is the most basic, standard mage you can play. 15 guaranteed con means bonus hitpoints and it's not too hard to get reasonable stats in other areas. It might be hard to get high str while still getting 18 int, 19 dex, 15 wis and at least 15 con. You won't be able to cast divinations, which other than identify, isn't a big deal. If you're planning on being the only mage in your team, you might want to play a different mage class.

Wild mage is crazy, and a bit sub-par in BGEE. They are gods in BG2EE, so it's worth it if only to import. You can also cast Cloudkill fairly early on, though you have to get a bit lucky on wild surges. Otherwise, wild surges are frequently annoying, sometimes fun, and at least you can cast any spell you want.

Sorcerer is a very, very powerful class, especially in BGEE. If you take Sleep early, you can basically dominate the whole game with no problems. Of course, you're limited in your spell picks, so you should add another arcane caster to your team to round yourself out. In general, 2 arcane casters are better than one, so that shouldn't be a big problem.

Dragon Disciple is basically a worse sorc in this game. If you start with 18 CON you can get 20 CON which gives health regeneration (+1 at level 5, +1 from the +CON tome). If you're importing to BG2, Dragon Disciple is a lot better because you get a LOT of spells per day as a sorc (especially a high level one), 100% fire resistance is nice, bonus AC is nice, and the breath weapon isn't a spell so it can get around a few things. Also Dragon Disciple has a bigger HD than a standard sorc, so you get 1 or 2 extra HP every level. In BGEE though, losing a spell per day per spell level is really painful. Even in BG2 I'd rather have a regular sorc, but variety is the spice of life and having a 3d8 breath weapon at level 3 is pretty sick.

Mage/Cleric is nice because you have access to an enormous pool of spells. It lets you do things like ready Command and Hold Person in your cleric slots for dealing with single target threats, while also readying Sleep and Web or Glitterdust to deal with groups of foes. You're effectively a Swiss Army Knife caster, with a spell for every problem. However, you are just as poorly protected as a mage, and you are worse armed; you can't use darts. You'll have to settle for slings.

Mage/Fighter is really just not as good as other fighter combinations such as Fighter/Cleric or Fighter/Thief. You do get better THAC0 and a few spells that help fighters, such as Enchanted Weapon, but you have terrible armor class since you can't wear any kind of plate. I just don't see the point over being a fighter/cleric or fighter/druid, honestly.

Mage/Thief is a bit better since you can fill a role of trap monkey and still be an effective caster. Imoen is generally used in this role, as she has fantastic stats. Mage/Thief can also use bows or crossbows which are a very nice alternative to darts.

Fighter/Mage/Thief is more of a BG2 class, and I don't really like it in this game. You don't get enough from your classes and end up being sort of mediocre. Again, I think Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric are just better options for this kind of character. In BG2, this character is a monster due to the high volume of HLAs you get.

Previous versions of this guide discounted the vanilla bard, but apparently Beamdog saw my guide (or someone else reported the bug or something, but the nerfs to Glitterdust's range suggest that a dev has read this guide, yay) and fixed the bard song. It adds luck now. Luck is SUPER GOOD. It adds +1 to most die rolls, and this is a minor thing until you realize it adds them to spell damage. Consider the damage of Skull Trap. It deals an average of 3.5 damage per caster level (save for half). +1 luck makes it 4.33 damage per caster level instead, which is a huge jump. Likewise consider magic missiles, which deal 3.5 average damage per hit, bard song makes this 4.25. A backup caster that can reach a higher level than mages (thus dispels magic better) and who also applies constant resource-less buffs to my whole party? Bards are kinda good!

In BGEE, blade is a better kit than bard since they have the same song. Since you have to make your protagonist a blade to use one though, and because most of you are planning to import into BG2, the vanilla bard song is actually better (+3 luck at level 20!) and is probably not worth a mediocre fighter since the blade can't fight and sing at the same time. If you want a blade, just play a fighter/mage.

Skald is probably the best character to just sit around singing his bard song. I generally prefer skald to Mage/Thief, as Skald tends to have more impact on battles when not casting spells than a mage/thief does. He casts just like a normal bard, so he desn't get the top of the line spells, but in BGEE he really is one of the strongest possible picks for your hero if you have a fighting-focused team. For mage-oriented parties, the vanilla bard is better.

BGEE patch 2.0 nerfed bards singing while invisible, and for the other bards this didn't matter. For Jester, it kind of made him weak. You can't sing in the middle of an enemy group and let it start fighting now; you have to actually protect your jester and hope he causes some discord in the enemy. The jester is extremely flukey and random and I don't like him, but there are times when he randomly wins a battle all on his own because he confused the enemy party.

Arcane casting NPCs

I realize that this part is a bit controversial, as everyone has their favorite "pet" NPCs. I will try to avoid interjecting my biases, but since my "pet" NPCs don't cast arcane spells (Ajantis, Coran and Montaron), I think this section will be fairly honest. As you might notice, evil characters get way better mage allies. Baeloth, Edwin, and Xzar are all evil, while Neera and Quayle are neutral. This is a general observation with BG1; evil parties tend to be stronger. There are still a few decent choices for a good party, including Neera as primary spellcaster.

Baeloth
He's a bit hidden, but he's the best character in the game; a drow sorcerer with more spells known and spells per day than he should be able to have. He's sort of like a cheat code. I love him.

Dynaheir
She's terrible. Invoker is just such a bad class it's hard to understand why anyone would put it in the game. 13 dex is not great, but the real nail is being an invoker. She's unplayably bad in a game that has Neera, Edwin, Baeloth, Quayle etc.

Edwin
He can be picked up super early in the game and rules it. Only Baeloth comes close to Edwin. He's like a supercharged PC conjurer; he can do everything you can do, only better. Unfortunately, he has 10 dex and is rather bad at throwing darts or dodging blows, but he casts spells better than all other wizards.

Eldoth
He's a poor excuse for a bard and you get him much later than Garrick. Additionally, he has an annoying girlfriend who you have to keep in your party. Useless.

Garrick
16 dexterity is a lot better than Eldoth. Before, Garrick was a mediocre mage support when you could get Xzar or Neera or Edwin or something. Now he's amazing! You still probably want a primary caster but Garrick is a fantastic backup and his song actually helps a lot. Holy wow, what happened? When did GARRICK of all things get to be a good character?

Neera
She's pretty much an ideal wizard. 17 int (instead of 18) doesn't really matter in BG1, and she has actual quests and dialogue and is in general an interesting character. If you're already a conjurer or wildmage, you probably don't need Neera (it's better to have someone who brings more utility), but she makes a pretty good sidekick to a sorc or multiclass wizard. Wild surges are a bit annoying though, so she may turn off some people. She's definitely not someone you want to keep around in a hardcore game.

Quayle
Apparently he switched gods in BG2, but I dunno. Either way, he can pump out more raw spells than basically anyone (except maybe Baeloth) and has a diverse list of options due to his cleric/illusionist kit. He has decent stats other than a low strength, but it's high enough to avoid a damage penalty on slings. The only downside is that you get him late. He's one of the few great mage options for a good hero.

Xan
He's really only worth having for his banters with other characters. I love having him in my team, but being an enchanter makes him so unbelievably bad that he's effectively a dead spot. He's still better than Dynaheir, for what it's worth.

Xzar
He could be a lot worse. He can't cast illusion spells, but that really doesn't hurt you much -- you'll want someone else to cast invisibility, but that's it. He has 16 dex, 14 strength! He's pretty darn good, and considering he comes with Montaron (who is awesome) he's not a bad choice at all. Necromancers are a lot worse in BG2 but he's wonderful in this game.

Breaking magical defenses

Previous versions of this guide did not cover magical defenses. For the most part, enemies in BGEE don't really use complicated walls of defense. However, during my current playthrough I fought a jerk of an ogre mage who happened to throw down a complicated layer of protections similar to a BG2 mage. I had the appropriate answers readied at the time fortunately -- my paranoia and the feeling that I didn't really need multiple Greater Malisons caused me to memorize Secret Word with my second 4th level slot, breaking down his Minor Globe of Invulnerability, which then let me counter his other protections.

For new players though, what spells you need to win in a mage duel aren't obvious.

The first layer of spell protection is invisibility. It's impossible to target an enemy who is invisible, which renders him immune to targeted "I win" spells like Spook. Fighter-types also have trouble hitting an invisible enemy. This is doubly troublesome in BG2 with spells like Mislead that create illusions to fool you. The best way to answer invisibility is with True Seeing, but you are unlikely to have that ability in BGEE unless your protagonist is an Inquisitor. The next best way is with the 2nd level mage spell Detect Invisibility, which guarantees a successful cancel of any invisibility spell and reveals stealthed thieves too. The 3rd level cleric spell Invisibility Purge also does the same thing. Thieves can also use Detect Illusions to break hostile illusion spells, including invisibility, but it's based on the thief's skill. In BGEE you will probably not be able to invest many points in it even if you have two thieves. For BGEE purposes, I recommend using one cleric 3 slot for invisibility purge, even if that means you have one less animate dead spell. Glitterdust can also reveal invisible enemies, but only if they fail a save versus spell. It also won't affect anyone with a minor globe of invulnerability up. Almost all of my level 2 mage slots are glitterdust, generally.

The second layer of protections is the most troublesome. They're called "spell protections." This includes spells like Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, and Globe of Invulnerability. It also includes Spell Immunity, which thankfully no enemy uses, and Spell Shield, which is much too high level for BGEE. The main trouble is the Globe of Invulnerability series. Minor Globe of Invulnerability blocks all 3rd level spells and lower, and it only gets worse from there. The worst of it is that it blocks Dispel Magic so in most cases you have to break down the Globe because the things that make it immune to weapons can't be dispelled while it's up. Spell Thrust will work for all situations in BGEE (minor globe does not block it), as it will dispel all protections of 5th level and lower. I don't like reserving my 3rd level slots for that though, so I usually prep Secret Word in one of my 4th level slots instead. Usually Secret Word is enough to break down the most troublesome effects, after which I can get to the meat of the matter. If you have two mages, I recommend having one with Spell Thrust prepared at least once. You generally don't need more than one in BGEE. It's one of those spells I wish there were wands of, though.

The final layer is combat protections. Even if spell protections are down and you can hit your target with Spook or Hold Person or something, if your weapons can't hit you won't kill your target. Protection from various weapons, Stoneskin, Mantle, etc. are really frustrating. The easiest way around these is the ridiculously awesome Poison Weapon buff. As long as you make a successful attack roll, you poison your target even if your weapon doesn't deal damage. This applies even if you hit a mirror image! However, if you're not Dorn, a Blackguard, or an Assassin you won't have that option. Instead, you'll need to bring down spell protections first, and then bring down the combat protections. The main way of bringing down combat protections is Breach, that 5th level spell that I said was absolutely essential in BG2. For BGEE, you can just use Dispel Magic, or better yet Remove Magic. Once the stoneskin or whatever is down, just lay down the smack with weapons.

The conclusion

Mages are OP and they win everything. The end.

No seriously, they do. Pick a fight in this game, other than the final battle! There's not a single battle that mages don't dominate other than the final boss, who is crushed by clerics since animate dead is overpowered. In the early game, sleep and/or color spray just rule every fight, and those spells win battles well past where they should. After that, level 2 area controls! Nearly every fight in the game can be won with a decent Glitterdust and/or Horror.

There's very few encounters that aren't easily solved by mages, and even in those fights the ability to use wands of frost or cast magic missiles always ensures your mages are useful.

[mobmh2]

Also, i would politely make an observation about magic missile. In BGEE it doesn't make that much sense... why magic missile a gibberling when you can sleep it and his motley band after all. However, BGEE's final boss has a very well known weakness to magic missile, one or two mages, and a few magic missile spells, and down he falls. His other minions dont even get a chance to join the fight. Two mages can drop him in just like that. so its not total loss in BGEE.

[mobmh2]

I would partially dispute your argument about Fighter/mages being bad. In BGEE they are substandard. This i do not dispute. In BG2EE, however, they can spell cast themselves into insane tanks. No character can better tank a mindflayer base like a fighter/mage with an int 18+, haste, mirror image, blur, stone skin, and if your nasty about it, spell immunity. With a friendly cleric tossing a chaotic command spell on him... In fact, in BG2EE i was able to functionally destroy the game through ToB on normal D&D difficulty... but that doesn't work so well in BGEE. You dont get enough xp due to the cap to shine.

[Auspice]

Most of this guide was written before the 2.0 update that changed stuff. I changed my eval of bard, since I had experience with the class, but not with invoker or enchanter (or other non-conjurer specialist mages).

[Gogandantes]

Don't get the shade you throw on Invokers and Enchanters mate. They used to be horrible when the saving throw penalty didn't work and they still came with double prohibited schools. Since that's been fixed for ages in the EE version, I don't really get it.
Invokers are great. An extra -2 saving throw penalty on your Web and Stinking Cloud? Yes please. You're giving up on Chaos, but who has only one Mage anyway?
Enchanters borders on broken in BG1 but gets worse in BG2 because they lose out on sequencers. -2 Saving throw penalty to Sleep, Emotion and Chaos... insanity. As if those spells weren't powerful enough already. Playing with Xan in EE made me wonder why they even put an AI in the game. I 'Malison+Emotion'ed the Ducal Palace and every single Doppelganger just fell to the ground.

[Auspice]

May have been changed for version 2, I didn't actually check.

Unsure if Grease is evocation or conjuration in EE though. If opposing schools in BGEE changed to IWDEEs list (where invokers are a bit better) then yeah I should probably update the guide

[RainbowSash]

Maybe I don't understand something ridiculously obvious, but why exactly Invokers are bad? The wiki says that they have two opposing schools, but i found Grease scroll, succesfully learned and casted it, so Conjuration isn't really restricted for Invoker. Is that obsolete info?

[Snake]

So, I basically did myself up the arse when I went with a generalist mage to maybe have a wider spell selection and more utility! :D

[76561198261456064]

Great guide, Thanks!

[Talana 💃]

Great guide, Thank you

[For the Swarm]

I personally play a Dragon Disciple and I found that I save spell slots if I use Claw of Kazgaroth. (That perma-blur though...) But seriously, I have only Mirror Image, Sleep, and Identify as my noncombat spells, and you can NEVER go wrong with Melf's Acid Arrow or Flame Dart. Mage being annoying? Quicksave, charge in, learn their positions, quickload and fireball spam out of vision until they are all dead.

If it is TL;DR for you, Sorcerers in my opinion blow shit up until everything is dead, and blow it all up some more.