Spells and Abilities Guide for BG2EE

This is a guide that is intended to describe the usefulness of the various spells and special abilities found in Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition. Feel free of course to try all these spells and abilities yourself this is just my opinion of them all. I'll try as well to discuss various strategies to use with different spells (especially spells that would otherwise look like garbage).

You can also find my NPC Guide to BG2EE on Steam as well.

Keep in mind that this guide is specific to BG2EE. Some spell have been changed compared to the original so it may not necessarily reflect how usable every spell is in the case of the original BG2.

For instance I've seen many people referencing this guide http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/SpellsReference/Main.htm. However, while it is fairly accurate it hasn't been updated for the enhanced edition. So there are cases where the spells no longer function as described. My hope is that this guide can act as a replacement for players of BG2EE but considering how much work must have gone into that guide they are some big shoes to fill.

Arcane Spells - Level 1

Armor

- It lasts an amazing 45 turns. However, if you travel to another area (with your map) it will disappear. Ultimately though you'll rarely don't need 45 minutes of protection and frankly at this stage you'll be wanting better protection for your mages.


Blindness

- It can be still useful but a lot of the games more difficult enemies are immune to blindness. Yes if successful it will increase the enemies AC and Thac0 by 4 each, which basically means they will have a much harder time hitting your characters and avoiding your melee and ranged attacks, but the mages you run into will save against it so it really loses its reliability in BG2EE. Get Glitterdust instead (because at least it gives a chance of hitting more than one enemy). Also consider using Greater Malison before using this because it will make it more likely to work.


Burning Hands

Its a good troll killer. Besides that I wouldn't bother with it.


Charm Person

- Useless. Unlike in BGEE charming people rarely leads to different encounter results (like added dialogue). I can think of one instance when it does matter and lets just say I wouldn't be using a charm spell with a +3 bonus for enemies to save against it during that particular battle. Take something better like Dire Charm, Mental Domination (Cleric Spell) or Domination over this.


Chill Touch

In most cases this spell isn't going to be all that useful. The only real use it has is that you can use an exploit in the game and use it as part of a Minor Sequencer in order to give yourself a different weapon than the sword spider form grants (with Polymorph Self). Realistically though its not a spell you are likely to get any use out of.


Chromatic Orb

- Without lowering an enemies save it really isn't all that great. I mean sure you could keep casting this and eventually it will work. But even without a +6 bonus for enemies the chances of it working are fairly slim against many of the more difficult enemies. The opportunity cost of casting it (you only get 1 cast/round unless you have Improved Alacrity active) just doesn't make it that worth it. Since it does acid damage at higher levels you can use it for troll slaying.

Color Spray

- If you want to knock out people before you steal from them it may still work but a lot of the better pickpocket targets are going to be too high a level. So I'd pass on it.


Find Familiar

- Fantastic spell because it will boost your mages health total considerably at lower levels. You can also have it fight for you, though to be honest its safer to ask it to stay in your pack. Its not a spell that you will end up casting more than once so you don't have to learn it, but you aren't likely to use most first level spells anyways so it won't hurt to do so.


Friends

- Great little spell that lets you boost your mages charisma up as needed. Not really worth keeping on hand at all times though. Best used for buying from stores if your mage (or bard) has a high amount of charisma.


Grease

- I wouldn't use it unless you have plans to use a summon (like Wyverns from Wyvern Call) that are immune to its effects. The saving throw bonus makes it pretty unreliable frankly.


Identify

- Not worth spending a level 1 slot on it. I would recommend either getting the Glasses of Identification (one of which you can buy from the merchant found in the floor above Gaelen Boyle in the slums) or taking Haer'Dalis in your party if you want a better means of identifying items. Also most stores offer an identification service anyways, and you can get money fairly easily, so its not that useful of a spell.


Infravision

- Totally a worthless spell. You can get its benefits by turning on group infravision and having an elf, half-elf, halfling, gnome, dwarf, or half-orc in your party.


Larloch's Minor Drain

- Its nice that it is quick casting. However, practically speaking its not very useful because it does a pitiful amount of damage.


Magic Missile

- Bread and butter damage spell for its level. It gets obviously beaten in damage by higher level spells but its always good to have a few of these handy just to finish weakened enemies off. Its also still decent at disrupting enemy spellcasting and still very good at removing an enemies Mirror Image spell.


Nahal's Reckless Dweomer

- This is the game when Nahal's Reckless Dweomer becomes a lot more useful. The great thing about it is that it lets you cast any spell you have in your spellbook, even if you couldn't otherwise normally cast it (because its too high a level). How often you see opportunities like this will depend on what level you enter some of the later chapters, but its still a great choice regardless.


Protection from Evil

- 4th level Protection From Evil 10' Radius is longer lasting than this and more practical. Not worth it for a mage.


Protection from Petrification

- This is such a situational spell in BG2EE that I can't think of when you ever really need it. There might be a single obscure encounter somewhere in the game where an enemy uses it against you. But I can't think of any. I wouldn't bother with it.


Reflected Image

- Get Mirror Image (level 2) instead as well as either Shield or Armor. Pass on this one.


Shield

- Arguably the best defensive spell for level 1 mages. Its quick casting, it gives a phenominal amount of AC against ranged attacks (2, which is the equivalent of Splint Mail +1), it makes you immune to magic missiles (great for making mages waste casting the spell on your mage), and it lasts for 5 turns ("1 hour" in game time which is 5 minutes in real life).


Shocking Grasp

- Like Chill Touch I wouldn't bother with it.


Sleep

- This was an amazing spell in BGEE. In BG2EE it is almost the most worthless spell at this spell level. You just won't encounter many enemies who will be affected by it.


Spook

- Great spell that like Blindness can be useful against casters (and is going to be more effective against everyone really). Keep in mind though that the enemy will run around after you use it on them so you may have to hunt after them if they leave your line of sight. It eventually has a -6 penalty for enemies trying to save against it so it by far eclipses blindness in terms of usability against casters.

Arcane Spells - Level 2

Agannazar's Scorcher

The amount of damage it does is highly variable and it will hurt party members if they walk into the flame (or if the flame moves into them). Its basically only good for killing trolls (and for that Melf's is frankly better).


Blur

Good defensive spell. Nothing really highly impressive about it but its a solid choice for its level.


Chaos Shield

A staple spell for any wild mage (especially Neera) regardless of whether they are using Nahal's Reckless Dweomer or not.


Deafness

Not very useful. You are better off disrupting a mage by using ranged weapons like a bow or by using other spells.


Detect Invisibility

Useful to have on hand for when you are fighting enemies who cast invisibility (but where you don't want to use up a higher level divination spell). However, Glitterdust does everything it does and more. So get Glitterdust instead.


Ghoul Touch

Like Chill Touch it now at least treats the attack as if you have proficiency, so thats good. It also can be used as part of a spell trigger to be used after you use Polymorph Self to transform into a spider. Doing so makes you attack frequently with a paralyzing effect (for the duration of Ghoul Touch). Generally however unless you are a fighter/mage its not worth it. Even if you are its too much micromanagement to make it worth using.


Glitterdust

Staple spell for this level. Excellent area of effect debuff spell. Blindness makes it harder for enemies to hit you and easier for you to hit them. On top of this it counters invisibility. You really can't go wrong by taking this spell.


Horror

Its a good area of effect debuff spell. I don't like it because enemies run around everywhere but if you are looking for a spell to remove the threat some enemies pose it can be worth it. Immunity to panic is I would say a more common immunity for the games difficult characters than blindness (undead for instance are immune to panic but not to blindness).


Invisibility

Good if you want to use a party member as a scout. Also good for fighter/mages since you get a +4 bonus to your Thac0 when you attack from stealth/invisibility.


Knock

This spell has more usability in BG2EE because there aren't a lot of thieves available. If you are using Nalia for opening locks then she should have a few of these available. Otherwise I'd probably recommend getting a thief instead.


Know Alignment

Fun spell to have around if you are just wanting to see what the alignments are for different people you come across. If you are going to use it its probably better to use this with your cleric or druid though. It just isn't worth using up a second level spell slot. Also the fact that it has a save vs spell (even with a -2 penalty) was just a kick to the crotch by the games original developers.


Luck

Good if you've got a thief in your party that doesn't quite have high enough ability yet to unlock a chest or remove a trap (Nalia). It will only effectively add 5 to a skill but its better than nothing. Still, its generally not worth memorizing.


Melf's Acid Arrow

Decent damage spell. If you are looking for something that does damage each round (rather than all at once) its a good spell to pick. Generally though I think you'll find with the second level spells that there are better options. Its a good troll killer however.


Mirror Image

Great defensive spell that is high recommended. Just remember that elemental and poison damage (as well as on hit effects like level drain) will bypass it so its still good to find a way to also lower your armour class.

As of version 2.5 you can be hurt by direct poison damage while it is active, but you can't have the poison effect placed on you.



Power Word: Sleep

Save yourself the slot and pick something else.


Ray of Enfeeblement

The problem with this spell is that enemies that have really high strength are unlikely to have it work on them. Take a spell like Web instead.


Resist Fear

Good spell to have on hand if you don't have a cleric in your party. Otherwise stick with a cleric's Remove Fear spell.


Stinking Cloud

Not as good as Web because it gives a bonus to save against it. The only benefit I can think of in its case is that it requires a save vs death. Since your warriors will have very good save vs death they are very likely to save against it. Unfortunately enemies are also likely to save against it, so either way its sort of pointless. The description makes it appear to last less time than Web, but they basically last the same amount of time regardless of your level. You can remove it with Zone of Sweet Air, so that is at least a plus (it means unlike Web you won't have to wait around for it to disappear before you save).


Strength

Good when used in combos with Polymorph Self and Minor Sequencer. Otherwise its good for giving party members with low strength (Haer'Dalis, Valygar, and Jaheira for instance) a boost.


Vocalize

Worthless. You are unlikely to run into a Silence spell and even if you do you can just use wands to kill the mage or cleric that silenced you. Not worth the spell slot.


Web

Fantastic spell that you can use to grab hold of enemies. Works well with Fireballs, Skull Traps, Holy Smites, and basically any damage spell. Also good if you've got Polymorph Self available or have an Avenger in your party. The spider form is immune to Web and you can easily attack enemies while they are affected by it. There are also items you can find in the game that grant protection from Web (as well as the cleric spell "Free Action"). Summons from Spider Spawn and Wyvern Call are also immune to it.

Arcane Spells - Level 3

Clairvoyance

Not particularly useful in BG2EE.


Detect Illusion

Its an improvement over Detect Invisibility but even with a lot of 3rd level slots I'd still probably not take it.


Dire Charm

Its a much more reliable version of Charm Person. Charm Person was always a situational spell. This isn't any better (and like Charm Person it only lasts 5 rounds). However, this is one of only three charm spells in the game that I would say are worth it to use offensively. Too situational to be of much use beyond roleplaying.


Dispel Magic

Staple spell. It will dispel beneficial and harmful enchantments on both the party and on enemies. You really want to be careful where you cast it because of this. Remove Magic is preferred though having a Dispel Magic handy for when you have a party member with negative effects active on them (like Confusion, Stun or Fear) is handy.


Fireball

Skull Trap eclipses this at level 10 because it doesn't cap until level 20 (whereas Fireball caps at level 10). Take Skull Trap instead.


Flame Arrow

Its much better in BG2EE than it is in the first one. Mostly because you have access to a lot more level 3 spells. Its useful for taking out mages with precision and combining it with other spells as part of a trigger is always an option.


Ghost Armor

Its basically Armor but better. It has the same duration as Shield (5 minutes) but gives a much better AC bonus than Armor. At a cost of a level 3 spell I'd probably stick with Shield but this is a valid option as well.


Haste

Staple spell. Gives movement speed bonuses to everyone in your party and makes them all gain one extra attack per round. Very useful for warrior characters in your party but also useful for spellcasters because it allows them to run away quickly if they are being attacked.


Hold Person
Slightly improved over the Priest version of the spell (it gives a -1 penalty to enemies trying to save against it). Still, its not enough to justify its use of a 3rd level spell slot.


Hold Undead

If you were facing swarms of undead with little magic resistance I could see this being handy. That won't be the case however. Especially given that a spell like Web would likely hold these enemies anyways. Pass on it and don't look back.


Invisibility 10' Radius

Extremely useful spell if you are planning an attack against enemies. It lets you position yourself strategically beforehand without the enemy knowing (since the enemy mages don't typically have the spells available to look for invisible enemies). Its slow casting time (as well as the fact that it will work on enemies) limits its usefulness after battle has started however. In late Shadows of Amn (SoA) and throughout Throne of Bhaal (ToB) enemies will be able to see through invisibility however so keep that in mind.


Lightning Bolt

It does great damage but its also like shooting a gun with a blindfold on. You can be fairly certain which way its going to travel when you first cast it but the risk is where its ricochet goes!


Melf's Minute Meteors

Fantastic little spell. Great if you want to pound your way through an enemy mages Mirror Images or prevent them from casting (the fire damage will bypass Stoneskin and Mirror Image for instance). They also hit as +5 weapons and because of this and the fact that they get 5 attacks per round (APR) they are probably the most useful weapon creation spell in the game.


Minor Spell Deflection

Its a situationally useful spell but its probably not worth the time involved in casting it on yourself in the case of most battles.


Monster Summoning I

Basically just useful for distracting enemies. You get the same from the Wand of Monster Summoning so its really not worth it to put towards.


Non-Detection

Doesn't protect against True Sight...which is the most common means an enemy caster will dispel your invisibility. I wouldn't bother with it. Only take if you are a mage/thief since the thieves Hide in Shadows abilities will be protected by it.


Protection from Cold

You don't run into cold enough for this to be really worth it.


Protection from Fire

Unless you have plans on casting Fireball on yourself its probably not worth it to memorize this. Learn it for the few cases where you might need fire resistance, but you can get a lot of that from equipment, potions and Fire resistance scrolls anyways. Still, can't go wrong with 100% fire resistance (ignore the description provided in-game it is not accurate).


Protection from Normal Missiles

Not worth it. This is why you have Blur, Mirror Images, Stoneskin, or Shield!


Remove Magic

Staple spell. It will dispel beneficial and harmful enchantments but only on enemies. Its harder to come by but preferred over Dispel Magic. Otherwise from a level standpoint it works the same as Dispel Magic.


Skull Trap

Staple spell. Take this instead of Fireball because after level 10 it will do more damage. I wouldn't rely on it for its ability to act as a trap because it won't always trigger properly.


Slow

Staple spell. Its the counterpart to haste that takes enemies and turns them into kittens. Well, not really. But it does make it so that they attack and move much slower and therefore I highly recommend it. It is however a save or nothing spell, so be mindful of that.


Spell Thrust

Marginally useful but there are better spells that you could be using to remove protections instead of this one.


Vampiric Touch

Its a decent spell but honestly there are much better spells at this level. Plus its possible you may already have it as an innate ability. Unless you are a fighter/mage or blade (and you want up-close spells) I probably wouldn't bother with it. A fighter/mage or a blade also benefits from the increase in health from it as (certainly in the case of bards like Haer'Dalis) health can be an issue.


Wraithform (not currently in the game though there are plans to add it in a future patch)

Good if you are a fighter/mage or a blade (and aren't going to be casting any more spells in this battle). Not worth it otherwise.

Arcane Spells - Level 4

Confusion

Technically its not the same as Horror (Horror causes panic and this spell causes confusion) but at the end of the day it doesn't last as long as Horror and while it does give a save penalty it also takes up a much more valuable spell slot. Don't bother with it.


Contagion

I've theorycrafted every possible way to use this spell. The reality is that you'd have to go out of your way to get any kind of use out of it. While it does bypass magical resistance it also requires a saving throw with not even a saving penalty granted. This just makes its usability extremely limited.


Emotion - Hopelessness

Staple spell for SoA but expect it to be much less reliable in ToB. Its basically an improved version of Sleep that renders many enemies unconscious. Best used when Greater Malison is used before it. It also provides a Resist Fear benefit for the party.

Edit: The most recent patch made it so this spell now wakes up characters affected by this when they get hit, making it considerably less effective than it was before.


Enchanted Weapon

Garbage spell. Getting a +3 weapon is nice but very few enemies are immune to +2 or higher weapons. Ultimately there are much better spells to pick at this level.


Farsight

I've read people online using this to organise their summons attacks against enemies (but from a distance). Its a strategy that could certainly be usable though in all honesty a Wizard Eye would probably be easier to use for this.


Fireshield (Blue)
Blue is more useful than Red because enemies are less likely to be resistant against cold. Only really useful for fighter/mages or blades. It only works if enemies are hitting you though (which for most mages makes it not worth it).


Fireshield (Red)

If you are going to take one of them go with with Fireshield Blue.


Greater Malison

Staple spell. Great when combined with other spells that require some kind of save (Emotion: Hopelessness comes to mind).


Ice Storm

Its a low damage spell. I wouldn't bother with it. Its only redeeming value is that it can be used to disrupt spellcasting by enemies, but at the cost of a 4th level spell its not really worth it in my opinion. Your best use of it would be to cast it on an area before a big fight and then have your fighters move in. Your fighters will take damage from it but the main benefit would be the spell disruption that it causes.


Improved Invisibility

Staple spell. +4 to AC and +4 to saving throws makes this spell invaluable. Doesn't last nearly as long as level 2's Invisibility but its much better overall. Shadow Door (level 5) is an alternative to this spell if you don't plan on using it on other party members.


Minor Globe of Invulnerability

Useful in theory but practically speaking there are better choices at this level.


Minor Sequencer

Staple spell. Great especially for Cleric/Mages. Allows great combos like double Web spells, double Magic Missiles, double Glitterdust, or with a Cleric/Mage a Web and Silence combo. Also good for defensive spells like Shield and Blur or Mirror Image and Blur.


Monster Summoning II

Not worth it. Its better than monster summoning I but its not worth a 4th level spell slot.


Otiluke's Resilient Sphere

Its save (which even allies must do) makes it worthless.


Polymorph Other

You'll want to use Greater Malison beforehand if you want to get any reliability out of this spell. Enemies affected by it don't lose their loot (so you can still salvage it) but they are reduced to 1 hitpoint (which basically is a death sentence).


Polymorph Self

Staple spell. Especially for a Cleric/Mage (Aerie). The spider form and the mustard jelly form are probably two of the most useful shapeshifting forms around. You can use spell sequencers after you transform, meaning that you can cast Minor Sequencer (selecting say Spiritual Hammer and Strength) and then transform into the spider. Once you are transformed you can activate the trigger making you a spider with a +2 weapon with 18/50 strength and 5 attacks per round. The Thac0 benefit of Holy Power will also stack with it.

The mustard jelly form on the otherhand is 100% resistant to magic. Making it an exceptional form to use against enemy mages or casters.


Remove Curse

Save yourself the slot and just pay a priest to do it. You deserve the financial hit for equipping a cursed item in the first place! (and honestly cursed items are pretty rare to begin with in BG2EE).


Secret Word

Its certainly a usable spell removal spell. However, in most fights where enemies are casting protections a casting of Breach (to remove combat protections) will do. So its use is going to be very selective.


Spider Spawn

Its a good spell for much of the game but by late SoA it becomes pretty underpowered. Still, for a level 4 spell its pretty admirable.


Spirit Armor

Kind of garbage. Basically is similar to Ghost Armor except you gain a slight AC boost and some saving throw benefits. To counter this it deals damage to you when it runs out. Diviners may find use for it (since they can't use Ghost Armor) but otherwise you are better off sticking with Ghost Armor and Stoneskin. The only major benefit it has over Ghost Armor is that you can cast it on others.


Stoneskin

Staple spell and a great protection spell for mages and sorcerers. Just remember that non physical damage (like elemental damage) will bypass it so watch out for fire and ice arrows! Also any enemy attack that has a chance of causing a status effect on hit (like a Vampire's attack causing level drain) won't be protected against by this spell. As of version 2.5 you can be hurt by direct poison damage while it is active, but you can't have the poison effect placed on you.


Teleport Field

Useful if you want to control enemies but you run the risk of having an enemy teleport right near your party (if you aren't careful). Still, it has no saving throw and bypasses magic resistance. Cast a few of these and a few cloudkills against a group of enemies and watch them try in vain to attack you (only to be teleported randomly seconds later). It also doesn't work on your own party members (which is largely beneficial).


Wizard Eye

This is a very useful spell for scouting. You can use it to pretty well explore a large amount of the map or you can use it as a means of seeing an enemy while you attack from as far away as possible. It loses use in ToB when enemies can inherently see it, though it can still serve as a distraction..

Arcane Spells - Level 5

Animate Dead

You are probably better off getting this spell as a level 3 cleric spell, but in all honesty the selection at level 5 is pretty mediocre. So never feel like taking this as a level 5 spell is a loss.

Since you won't be getting this spell before level 9 these summons will have 40% slashing resistance, 50% piercing resistance and 60% missile resistance (also 100% resistance to cold but that's not all that useful). Plus they all have the same immunities (stun, sleep, hold, panic, poison, fatigue, petrification, confusion, charm, level drain, slay and moral failure). The lowest amount of magic resistance they'll have is 45% magic resistance and the worst (and best) enchantment level it'll have for its weapons is 1. Better yet by level 15 that magic resistance will rise to an astounding 90%. Cast a haste spell on even the level 7 version of this spell and it will become extremely effective in combat.

Basically Animate Dead's summons are absolutely worth taking for any of their levels (until of course you get into some of the higher level summons).


Breach

Staple spell. You can find a few Wands of Spell Striking that allow non-bards/mages to cast Breach, however those are relatively rare. This is a phenominal spell because it removes all combat protections (not the same as spell protections). So for mages this typically means Stoneskin, Mirror Image, or Protection from Magical Weapon. Its all the kind of stuff that stops you from wacking the mage to death. Due to this I can't emphasize enough how useful this spell is. Its very much a one of a kind spell too because other than Dispel Magic/Remove Magic there isn't any other spell that can remove these combat protections. It won't work against liches (since they are immune to level 5 and lower spells) or demiliches (because they are immune to level 9 and lower spells) but it should remove the combat protections of almost every enemy you encounter in the game.


Chaos

Its kind of a mix of the spells Confusion and Horror. Though it does have a greater penalty to save against it than either of those two spells. Unless you are starved for level 5 spells I wouldn't bother with it. But if you are looking to watch enemies kill each other it can be fun (especially when combined with Greater Malison).


Cloudkill

Staple spell. Its just fantastic because it kills enemies that are level 6 or lower (this is a lot of enemies) and it slowly does damage over time. I highly recommend it.


Domination

Its a great charm spell because it works on anything and has a long duration. Its not really worth a 5th level slot however. Still, if you are looking for a charm spell it doesn't get any better than this.


Cone of Cold

Damage wise its fantastic but unless you turn off the Gore setting you run the risk of destroying all the equipment on the creatures you are attacking. I'd pass on it otherwise.


Conjure Lesser Air Elemental

If it weren't for the fact that it holds you for so long I'd give it a good review. Unfortunately it holds you and not only that but there is a 15% chance the summoned creature will go hostile!

Ultimately though this is a creature that hits with a +3 weapon, is immune to normal and +1 weapons, and has a pretty good attack (1d20 as well as a bonus from having 19 strength). So its certainly an option if you are willing to cast it before a battle begins. Unless you really are looking for something that is immune to normal and +1 weapons I'd just go with summoning Skeletal Warriors with Animate Dead.


Conjure Lesser Earth Elemental

If it weren't for the fact that it holds you for so long I'd give it a good review. Unfortunately it holds you and not only that but there is a 15% chance the summoned creature will go hostile!

Ultimately though this is a creature that is immune to normal and +1 weapons and has an excellent attack (4d8 as well as a bonus from having 19 strength). So its certainly an option if you are willing to cast it before a battle begins. Unless you really are looking for something that is immune to normal and +1 weapons I'd just go with summoning Skeletal Warriors with Animate Dead.


Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental

If it weren't for the fact that it holds you for so long I'd give it a good review. Unfortunately it holds you and not only that but there is a 15% chance the summoned creature will go hostile!

Ultimately though this is a creature that hits with a +4 weapon, is immune to normal and +1 weapons, and has a very good attack (3d8 as well as 1d6 fire damage). So its certainly an option if you are willing to cast it before a battle begins. Unless you really are looking for something that is immune to normal and +1 weapons or something that can kill trolls (because of its fire damage) I'd just go with summoning Skeletal Warriors with Animate Dead.


Feeblemind

It reduces an enemies intelligence to 3 and pretty much shuts them down. Theoretically you could cast this and then transform into a Mind Flayer (with the level 9 spell Shapechange). It would speed up the kill. You could also throw this in a trigger to be used once you had transformed. Its probably still not worth it as a spell by itself. The one thing it might be useful for is to use it against dragons (because they typically aren't immune to it).


Hold Monster

Its a decent spell that works on anything (humans, creatures, you name it). I wouldn't bother having both it and Feeblemind memorized however.


Lower Resistance

Staple spell. This is just a fantastic spell particularly when used in triggers. There are lots of powerful enemies in this game with high magic resistance and this spell tears that protection apart. I'd highly recommend you have at least a few of these on hand particularly in late Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal.


Minor Spell Turning

You can probably find an enemy that this would work well against (beholders maybe) but against the vast majority of enemies this is an entirely unnecessary spell.


Monster Summoning III

I wouldn't bother with it unless you have few spells to choose from. It just isn't very good.


Oracle

Its a decent alternative to True Sight if you don't want to use up a level 6 spell slot on True Sight (because frankly level 6 has a lot of very good spells). Still, against higher level illusions like Mislead and Project Image True Sight is going to be your best choice.


Phantom Blade

This is a very good spell to use as part of a trigger with a sword spider form (Polymorph Self). From what I can tell it hits as a 1d10 weapon, its +3, and it gets +10 damage to undead. Its duration is pretty good (not amazing but pretty good) as well.

But for just using it as a regular spell I'd avoid it.


Protection from Acid

Don't bother with it.


Protection from Electricity

I wouldn't bother with it.


Protection from normal weapons

All the difficult enemies (at least the ones that physically attack you rather than magically attack) hit as a +1. So this spell is basically worthless


Shadow Door

Useful because it has a quicker casting time compared to Improved Invisibility (at the expense of being able to cast it on others). That's its only benefit.


Spell Immunity

The only choice out of this list that I would never bother with is illusion. Otherwise this is a fantastic spell for protecting your mage against all sorts of different spell effects. SI: Abjuration for DIspel/Remove Magic and Imprisonment, SI: Evocation to protect against damage spells, SI: Divination to block True Sight, SI: Necromancy to block Horrid Wilting's damage, etc.


Spell Shield

Practically speaking you'll never need it.


Sunfire

Unless you plan on giving your party a lot of fire resistance (or you are playing a solo character) I wouldn't bother with this spell.

Arcane Spells - Level 6

Carrion Summons

Garbage summon. Its weapons hit as normal weapons and they do a pathetic amount of damage (1d2). Not only that but the hold effect they do on hit doesn't even have a save penalty. They also aren't granted any immunities. I would never take this spell.


Chain Lightning

Garbage. Unless you are going to use this in a Spell Trigger (which is just a waste of a Spell Trigger) the damage it does is just not worth it once you consider the likelihood of an enemy saving against it (and doing half damage). Plus there are plenty of other good spells at this level so just forget about it.


Conjure Air Elemental

This just summons an improved version of the level 5 Conjure Lesser Air Elemental (its summon is going to have better Thac0, much better duration, more health, better AC, and lower saving throws). Its still immune to normal and +1 weapons just like the lesser version. One other difference is that it hits as though it were using a +4 weapon now.


Conjure Earth Elemental

This just summons an improved version of the level 5 Conjure Lesser Earth Elemental (its summon is going to have better Thac0, much better duration, typically better strength, more health, better AC, and lower saving throws). Its still immune to normal and +1 weapons just like the lesser version. One other difference is that it hits as though it were using a +4 weapon now.


Conjure Fire Elemental

This just summons an improved version of the level 5 Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental (its summon is going to have better Thac0, much better duration, more health, better AC, and lower saving throws). You'll want to consider casting Strength of One or another strength boosting spell with it because unless you get its largest hit dice version its going to have pretty poor strength. Its still immune to normal and +1 weapons just like the lesser version.


Contingency

Staple spell. Great if you are looking for giving your mage added defensibility but its also possible to use it for instantly casting utility spells like Greater Malison. Invisibility, Ghost Armor, Improved Invisibility, Stoneskin, Shadow Door, and Mislead are just some examples of useful spells that you can create a continguency for (but by no means feel like this is its only possible use).


Death Fog

On the one hand its good because it does acid damage (good if you want to cast it in an area full of trolls). On the other hand it has a lot of competition. Still, its technically better than Cloudkill from a damage standpoint so it can always serve as an alternative for enemies that are immune to poison damage but not immune to acid damage (this is going to be mostly undead). Since its a level 6 spell it will also work on liches. Considering using a few castings of Protection From Acid (level 5) on your party before using it.


Death Spell

Fantastic spell for clearing out lower level enemies. Umber Hulks, Mind Flayers (if you can get past their magic resistance, some of the Trolls, and lots of lower level creatures (Amnian guards for instance) can be killed instantly by this spell. Its useful to keep on hand one of these but not any more than that.


Disintegrate

Its a save vs nothing spell that autokills. Its actually a very good spell...but only if you turn off the Gore setting. Otherwise you will lose the loot that was held by whatever it was that you were attacking.


Flesh to Stone

Works the same as Disintegrate in how it potentially can make you lose the loot (unless after having turned the creature to stone you return them to normal and then kill them). Honestly if you want an instant kill spell just take Disintegrate and turn off Gore, use Chromatic Orb (much less reliable) or take Finger of Death at level 7.


Globe of Invulnerability

I wouldn't bother with it. It doesn't really protect you against anything that should pose much of a threat at this stage.


Improved Haste

Staple spell. Fantastic spell that doubles the targets attacks per round (up to a maximum of 10). Its good to have at least a few of these around to use on the warrior characters in your party. Especially for characters (like Wilson) who are heavily reliant on dishing out the maximum amount of melee damage possible (good offense is a good defence).


Invisible Stalker

Great summon because its invisible (difficult to target for enemies), its got 30% for all the elemental (fire, cold, acid, and electricity) resistances, and 80% resistance to missiles. Its also immune to stun, sleep, hold, panic, poison, fatigue, petrification, confusion, charm, slay, stun, break morale, and level drain. Unless you are planning to kill enemies by holding them in place with Web (protection from Hold doesn't protect from this) its probably better to take these than to take Wyvern Call.


Mislead

This provides the greatest possibility for cheesy combinations of any spell in the game. If you want to be really cheesy leave the decoy far away from your actual mage.This will allow you to basically cast undetected in the middle of combat. Its a highly recommendable spell if you are willing to take advantage of some of the games AI and spell limitations. Jan can also make use of it for crazy backstabbing.


Pierce Magic

Its only really worth taking for use against the few enemies with magic resistance that are immune to level 5 spells.


Power Word, Silence

Most mages/enemy spellcasters have Vocalize memorized so a spell that gives silence isn't all that useful.


Protection from Magic Energy

This can actually be very useful when combined with other spells. It will for instance protect you against any Skull Traps you happen to cast. Cast it before turning into the slayer and you avoid any damage.


Protection from Magical Weapons

Once you have this spell there is no need to use any of the higher mantle spells. PFMW will protect you against anything that isn't a normal weapon. Practically speaking that is almost every enemy you face. Its got a very short duration but it has a quick casting time and it will make your character immune to on hit effects like level drain or the mind flayer intelligence drain.


Spell Deflection

Take this over the minor deflection but honestly you probably won't really need it. It is a good spell to have active as a preventive measure in case an enemy casts some kind of status spell that would have otherwise removed your control over all your caster. Otherwise I probably wouldn't bother with it. The Staff of Magi gives a higher level spell that does all of what this does and more.


Stone to Flesh

Unless you yourself petrify someone (which could happen if you have a wild mage) you won't need this spell.


Summon Nishruu

Its got 100% resistant to magic, fire, cold, electricity, and acid. Its also 20% resistant to slashing, 50% resistant to piercing and crushing, and 70% resistant to missile attacks. Its also immune to poison. Overall an excellent anti-mage summon.


Tenser's Transformation

Unless you are a bard or a fighter dual classed into a mage its not worth using this. Even then the loss of your ability to cast spells is huge. Its only really useful for bards (especially blades) fighting difficult enemies. Your Thac0 will already be low enough for fighting the games weaker and medium difficulty encounters. The problem is that this spell stops you from being able to cast Stoneskin or Protection from Magical Weapons as needed in combat. I dont think its a worthwhile tradeoff.


True Sight

Great spell for removing Misleads. Highly recommended.


Wyvern Call

Very good summon because it can deal a strong poison on hit (5hp/.second) and because its got a good main attack (2d8) and immunity to hold, web, slow, entangle, grease, and level drain. Its an alternative to Spider Spawn if you plan on holding enemies with Web a lot because of its immunities.

Arcane Spells - Level 7

Cacofiend

The Nabassu this creates is immune to poison, charm, feeblemind, confusion, polymorph, and panic, It has 19 strength, 3 APR, and low AC (-7), Its hits do 3d4 damage and act as though they were a +4 weapon. It has 50% magic resistance but no fire resistance. Like the later spells Gate and Summon Fiend the only way to be invisible with it is to have protection from evil active.

Overall I'd say its a decent spell but you are better off looking for something else. You get some pretty fantastic spells at level 7 and this just isn't that great.


Control Undead

If it bypassed magic resistance then it might have been decent, but since it doesn't there is no reason to take this spell ever. Other than the occasional Dread Wolf I highly doubt you will ever run into an undead with 3 hit dice and there are plenty of alternatives for dealing with undead by the time you get this spell. The fact that an evil cleric's Turn Undead replicates this spell (but does a better job of it) just makes it look even more worthless.


Delayed Blast Fireball

15d6 damage (save for half) is pretty good. Not amazing but pretty good. Ideally you should just be using Skull Trap for the same purposes you'd use Delayed Blast Fireball but unless the enemy you are facing is resistant to fire you really don't lose anything (besides other level 7 spells) by also using this spell. Due to Skull Trap I wouldn't recommend that you take it before a number of the other level 7 spells, but its still a very capable spell by itself.


Finger of Death

It might prove useful against a dragon if you are willing to try based on luck, but its probably not worth it to take. There are a number of good spells at this level that make this less than an ideal choice.


Improved Chaos Shield

Staple spell for any wild mage. This spell will make your wild magic (whether you get it casting normally or with the dweomer) typically much safer. I highly recommend you use it if you are playing a wild mage or have Neera in your group.


Khelben's Warding Whip

At a certain point these spell removal spells become pointless in the vanilla game (SCS and other mods no doubt are another matter). Most of the time if you are having difficulty dealing with a mage its going to be because they have a Stoneskin, Protection From Magical Weapons, or Mirror Images active that is preventing you from clubbing them. This spell won't help you remove any of that though it is decent for removing spells a mage might have active that protect against other spells (Spell Turning and that kind of thing). Still, I'd stick with Ruby Ray of Reversal for this.


Limited Wish

This is a very good spell. Just remember though that your wisdom greatly determines how effective it is going to be.

Repeatable wishes

I wish to summon a horde to overrun my enemies. (no wisdom requirement): Summons a huge number of rabbits. In BG2EE they no longer summon as something you have control over meaning they can't be used as fodder. Basically its a worthless choice (unless you like rabbits).

I wish for my spells to be restored!. (15 or less wisdom): Lose all memorized spells.

I wish that magic would fail to affect me or my party. (11 or less wisdom): This casts 'Mass Miscast Magic' on your party.

I wish for my entire party to be healed. (greater than 10 wisdom): Heals the entire party for 20 hit points and cures poison, blindness, disease and deafness. This is actually a decent alternative for party healing compared to Mass Heal or Mass Raise Dead (concerning party healing I mean). It never hurts to have these available for really bad fights though hopefully you shouldn't need it.

I wish that none of my party would die of their wounds. (9 or less wisdom): From what I can tell (from the game files) it does 1 poison damage each round for 25 seconds (so presumably 5 overall damage). I haven't tested this in-game however so I could be wrong. Either way avoid this.

I wish to be protected from undead right now. (9 or less wisdom): Summons six hostile Vampires and turns the time of day to midnight.

I wish to be protected from the undead. (10 or greater wisdom): Casts Negative Plane Protection to everyone in your party. Its not really that great only because Negative Plane Protection is a pretty short duration spell and you typically can be pretty strategic about what party member the vampires attack. So a mass protection spell for it is overkill.

I wish to make my party invulnerable. (12 or greater wisdom): Casts Minor Globe of Invulnerability on everyone in your party. Its useful if you plan on using a lot of lower level area spells near your group (like Skull Traps). Unlike what you might read elsewhere it will protect the caster as well as the rest of your party.

I wish that spells I have cast would be restored, that I might cast them again! (16 or greater wisdom): Restores up to four spells evenly distributed over spell levels 1-4 for every party member. Good if you want to switch up lower level spells during the middle of a fight. Its especially useful if you've got a cleric/mage in your group because it'll restore 4 spells from both of their spellbooks.

One-time wishes

(one-time wishes per party)

I wish to be more experienced. (3 or greater wisdom): Summons a hostile Adamantite, Sand and Juggernaut Golem.

I wish to be anything I desire. (6 or greater wisdom): Casts the Shapechange spell on you. As a one time only cast you should use this only in a situation where you feel you have no alternatives.

I wish for an adventure like none I've ever experienced before. (10 or greater wisdom): Starts the "Gong" quest and gives you a scroll. Its a pretty annoying quest to be honest and the rewards are pretty garbage given how much work is involved (its about 20,000 xp per party member if you have a 6 person party as well as 1500 gold), but if you've never done it then I encourage you to check it out.

I wish to be prepared for anything. (10 or greater wisdom): Casts Chain Contingency. Like Shapechange you'll want to think about when you want to use it because until you get the Chain Continguency spell this is the only time you'll get to use this. Either way its a very powerful spell.

I wish to be rich. (10 or greater wisdom): Gets you some pretty basic gems. It also gives you 2000 gold (this has been fixed in BG2EE).

I wish for a powerful magical item. (11 or greater wisdom): Gives you a Full Plate +2. Its actually excellent armor. You'll find better but you it still has a good sale price if nothing else.

I wish that all my enemies will die. (11 or greater wisdom): Casts "Wail of the Banshee". It can be useful but many enemies are going to be immune to it (or simply save against it).

I wish to see all as it really is. (12 or greater wisdom): Gives you some Glasses of Identification. This is a fantastic item that you can also buy from the merchant above Gaelan Boyle

I wish for control over time. (14 or greater wisdom): Casts Time Stop. Like Shapechange and Chain Continguency you'll want to think about when you use this since you only get one use until you can cast the Time Stop spell.


Mantle

Not really worth it given you have Protection From Magical Weapons.


Mass Invisibility

Its a good spell because of its ability to make your party members more difficult to hit and improve their saving throws. However, you get it very late in the game so its not as useful from a strategic standpoint as it could be. By the time you get it the enemies you are fighting probably can remove it with True Sight however so its usability will depend a lot on who you are fighting.

Arcane Spells - Level 7 (continued)

Mordenkainen's Sword

Immune to Sleep, Stun, Hold, Charm, Panic, Blindness, Feeblemind, Disease, Deafness, Confusion, Petrification, Polymorph, Detect Alignment, and Intelligence drain.

Has -20 AC, 100% physical resistances (Slashing, Piercing, Missile, and Crushing), as well as 100% elemental resistances (electricity, acid, fire, and cold). As if all this wasn't enough it also hits as a +5 weapon.

It only has 36 health but that really doesn't matter. The only thing that can really take it down is a Death spell (or something similar) and pure magic damage (basically a Horrid Wilting or Magic Missile). The only downside it really has relates to its damage output (it has low strength), but given its defenses this is a very minor downside. You can use the mage level 2 "Strength" spell or "Strength of One" (priest spell) to boost its strength as needed.


Power Word, Stun

Its a useful spell to have around but most of the boss type enemies are going to be immune to stun. Undead certainly will be. Plus whether or not it works (and its duration) is determined by their remaining hitpoints.


Prismatic Spray

I've never really liked it because its way too random.


Project Image

This spell lets you ignore the usual limit of 1 Planatar per group summoned at any one time. That alone makes it extremely powerful. Like Simulacrum the other one nice thing about it is that you can use it for using items that have charges.


Protection from the Elements

Its good to have for new players to the game who may not be familiar with what comes next. People who have played through the game already can probably pass on it because there are spells that provide better protection against the key elements you'll be facing.


Ruby Ray of Reversal

At a certain point these spell removal spells become pointless in the vanilla game (SCS and other mods no doubt are another matter). Most of the time if you are having difficulty dealing with a mage its going to be because they have a Stoneskin, Protection From Magical Weapons, or Mirror Images active that is preventing you from clubbing them. This spell won't help you remove any of that though it is great for removing spells a mage might have active that protect against other spells (Spell Turning and that kind of thing). I'd take this over the whip spell.


Spell Sequencer

Such a fantastic spell. Being able to take any three spells from level 4 and under just opens a world of possibilities. Remember you can use triggers when polymorphed and you can use triggers for any cleric spells you may have if you are a Cleric/Mage. Even something as simple as three Skull Traps can be a devastating cast to have at your disposal.


Spell Turning

It doesn't hurt to have this active but its use will probably be mostly for protecting your mage at higher levels from a status causing spell (like Power Word: Stun). You can get an even better form of this by getting the Staff of Magi however and this won't be that needed (at least for mages) in most fights.


Sphere of Chaos

Its just too random to be worth using. Plus there are other options at this level. I'd pass on it.


Summon Djinni

It has 21 strength, only 59 health and 1 APR. Unlike the Efreeti it has no resistances however the summon will cast Protection From Magical Weapons on itself. Despite its health this makes it useful as fodder. It only hits with a 2d8 attack (plus any strength bonus) that counts as a normal weapon. In my opinion Mordenkainen's Sword is a better choice.


Summon Efreeti

Its got 20 strength, 1 APR, 125% resistance to fire, and a decent (80) amount of health. Its also scripted to use a whole slew of fire spells against enemies (Fireball, Fire Arrow, and Flame Strike) as well as Fire Shield (Red) and Invisibility for defensive uses. It hits with 3d8 (plus strength bonus) damage but only with a normal weapon.

Overall its a decent summon against most enemies. You'll want to avoid using it against enemies that are heavily resistant to fire, but if nothing else it can provide effective fodder against an enemy. In my opinion Mordenkainen's Sword is a better choice.



Summon Hakeashar

Like the Nishruu its 100% resistant to magic, fire, cold, electricity, and acid. Its also 20% resistant to slashing, 50% resistant to piercing and crushing, and 70% resistant to missile attacks. Its also immune to normal weapons. Unlike the Nishruu however its not immune to poison.

Overall its an excellent anti-mage spell. It drains an enemy mages spells and because it hits as a normal weapon it bypasses the Protection From Magical Weapons spell that some higher level mages will use. The Nishruu will work wonders as well, so you may want to go with it instead, but the Hakeashar has more health and lower AC and Thac0. Basically it will probably last longer.

Arcane Spells - Level 8

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting

By itself this is just an amazing damage spell. Its party friendly and it can do 20d8 magic damage at level 20. You can even combine it with a spell like Chain Continguency to cast 3 of them, or cast many of them with a Timestop and Improve Alacrity active (while wearing the Robe of Vecna). Its by far the best damaging spell in the game.

That said despite its description it won't do anything special (or give a special saving throw) to Water Elementals or plant creatures. It also doesn't bypass magic resistance.


Bigby's Clenched Fist

Arguably this can be a useful spell in specific situations where you want to hold an enemy for a round without fearing retaliation. However, immunity to hold is pretty common. Basically this spell has limited usability and I think there are better choices for this level.


Improved Mantle


Protection From Magical Weapons gives almost everything this does and more. I wouldn't bother with it.


Incendiary Cloud

This is a solid damage over time spell. Firestorm (priest spell) ultimately beats it in this however because it does more damage each round (once the save is factored in) and at least bypasses magic resistance. Unless you are an illusionist I would take Horrid Wilting over this.


Maze

Its quick casting time is nice but this is ultimately a situational spell. While there is no save it also is affected by magic resistance (which at this stage makes it difficult to use meaningfully). Also it basically relies on you to know the intelligence of your opponent (and really low intelligence creatures will take forever to come back). Overall I'd say its not a great pick because it only works on one enemy. The really difficult enemies will be immune to this and the not so difficult enemies can be handled with spells like Horrid Wilting.


Pierce Shield

Take Breach, Pierce Magic, Remove Magic, or Lower Resistance over this. Frankly because of the fact that it doesn't remove combat protections (Stoneskin, Protection From Magical Weapons) it isn't worth the spell slot.


Power Word, Blind

This is an amazing spell. It doesn't bypass magic resistance, which is a downside, but it can hit multiple enemies. Blindness is probably one of the rarer immunities so it can be extremely useful. This is great for shutting down spellcasters. It also will work on Liches (not Demiliches however), which makes it more useful than saying Insect Plague at stopping them from spellcasting. Its also basically instant casting. Overall I'd say this is a fantastic choice for a spell.


Protection from Energy

Its a good spell for giving a broad range of protections. A benefit over say combining Protection from Magical Energy with Protection from the Elements is that it only takes up one 8th level spell slot instead of a 6th and 7th level slot, but overall I'd say its probably better to stick with Protection from the Elements. Pure magic damage is fairly rare and when you do face it you'll probably want Protection from Magical Energy since it gives immunity to magic damage. Protection from Magical Energy also lasts a lot longer.


Simulacrum

Like Project Image this is useful if you want to save on casting spells. It also retains ability HLA's (whirlwind and that kind of thing), making it very useful if cast from something like Vhailor's Helmet (because you'd keep your warrior HLA's) or for fighter/mage or mage/thief multiclasses. I've found its best for utility spells like Improved Haste or Web, because you can use them to speed up how long it takes to cast this. Just keep in mind that it isn't going to be 60% of your level. Partly because of the games funny rounding system its probably going to be closer to 50%.

For single class mages/sorcerors its going to be basically 50% of your level. A level 31 single class mage would get a level 16 simulacrum.

A fighter (24) / mage (20) multiclass would get a fighter (13), mage (9), by using this spell. Its closer to 50% of each of your levels though its still not quite there.

A fighter (21)-> mage (22) dual class would get a fighter (21) - mage (11) simulacrum.

In any case its still a very useful spell to take along. Especially since it keeps HLA's.


Spell Trigger

The possibilities with this spell are quite varied. Cleric/Mages can use this to cast triple Aerial Servant or any other level 5 or 6 cleric or mage spell that they couldn't have cast in a trigger previously. Regular mages can take advantage of this spell for when they are shapeshifting. They can also use it to cast triple Death Fog/Cloudkill, a triple Lower Resistance, triple Invisible Stalker/Summon Wyverns. It provides a huge amount of choice and because of that its by far the best spell at this level.


Summon Fiend

The Glabrezu this summons is pretty effective as a creature file however ultimately you have no real control over it so its not worth taking as a spell.

Just to provide some information about it; it is immune to hold, poison, charm, feeblemind, confusion, polymorph, and panic. Its also immune to normal and +1 weapons. Its got very low AC and a decent amount of health. It attacks with 5 APR, does 3d4 damage, and has 19 strength. It also is scripted to use Dispel Magic if it sees a mage or cleric and uses Power Word: Stun on anyone else.


Symbol, Death (Clerics Only)

Had it bypassed magic resistance it would have been more useful. As it stands its really garbage because there are much better save or die spells that you could be using instead. At the stage you get this enemies with 60 or less health remaining will probably be fairly rare (and not particularly difficult either). Also it has the risk of getting your party members (particularly the low health mages like Aerie, Neera and Edwin) especially since it checks for a save vs death and not a save vs spell (mages will have much better save vs spell than a save vs death).


Symbol, Fear (Clerics Only)

This is approximately as useful as Symbol, Stun. The saving throw is the same though the status effect it gives is a lot more common. Like any of the symbol spells its main advantage is that it can be set as a trap. Like all symbol spells your own characters can set them off! If you are going to bother learning it I would stick with taking this as a priest spell.


Symbol, Stun (Clerics Only)

This is actually a very good spell. It gives a tough save, has a large area of effect, and it can be put on the ground to act like a trap. Its not much use as something to be cast while in battle (because of its long casting time) but if you are using a cleric/mage its better to take this spell as a priest spell because level 8 spells for mages have much better options. Like all symbol spells your own characters can set them off! If you are going to bother learning it I would stick with taking this as a priest spell.

Arcane Spells - Level 9

Absolute Immunity

Protection From Magical Weapons is better. Skip this.


Bigby's Crushing Hand

Just get Power Word: Stun. Stun is more likely to work than a hold effect and more importantly you won't be wasting a level 9 spell slot.


Black Blade of Disaster

Pretty garbage unless you turn off the gore setting. If you don't then there is a chance of you disintegrating your enemy (which destroys their loot). Otherwise its a decent spell but the thing is that by the time you get this spell you'll have encountered a lot of good weapons. This really doesn't offer much that any other weapon could offer you. Single class mages also won't benefit from the APR bonus given for the grandmastery that it gives.


Chain Contingency

Doesn't count towards your one spell per round limit, meaning that you can combine this spell with any three spells from levels 1-8 without having to worry about it stopping you from casting that turn. There are so many potential combinations for this spell. The best is probably triple Horrid Wilting, but you really need to experiment to see what works best with your mage. Its great for Cleric/Mages as well because you can cast any cleric spell with this.


Energy Drain

The thing with this spell is that it had a lot of things going for it. It had a short casting time, it bypasses magic resistance, it requires no save, and it has a long duration. Its got a very short range, which is certainly a negative, but theoretically based on the above it could have been a spell with some use.

Unfortunately, undead enemies are going to be immune to level drain and many of the more difficult enemies are going to have levels that are so high that using this spell against them is impractical. To take down a basic demon with this spell you'd have to cast this at them 6-7 times. Even with Improved Alacrity it still wouldn't be worth it. Some of the higher level enemies that you will be fighting are well over 20 levels. Using this spell to even reduce only some levels still wouldn't make a significant enough difference to justify its usage. Its just not worthwhile to use.


Freedom

There are only a few cases where you'll need Freedom and if you do need it shouldn't be any kind of situation where you are in a hurry. I'd buy a few scrolls for this and memorize it for the experience, but you'll rarely need it.


Gate

Its immune to +2 and lower weapons as well as fire. It strikes as a +1 weapon though so Protection from Magical Weapons will work against it. It has a tendency to use Dispel Magic a lot so if you are going to use it keep that in mind. As with any of the gated summons you'll want Protection from Evil active if you use it.


Imprisonment

This spell offers the possibility of cheese (because you can imprison someone and then release them, imprison then release in order to constantly get experience from "killing" them) but not much more. Its a single target spell that only lets you keep the gold on your opponent and not their other loot. Overall its a very situational spell and one that isn't worth it for this level. The good news is though that it bypasses magic resistance and has no save, though you have to cast it right next to an enemy for it to work.


Meteor Swarm

From a damage standpoint its similar to Firestorm. The main differences being that its damage doesn't increase with level and more importantly it doesn't bypass magic resistance. Overall its not worth taking when you have Incendiary Cloud available to you at a lower level.


Power Word: Kill

Its not really that great because it doesn't bypass magic resistance and only works if the opponent has less than 60 health. You might find some situational use for it but given that this is a level 9 spell its pretty underwhelming.


Shapechange

One of the best spells in the game by far. It provides the opportunity to change into a number of interesting creatures. These include...

Mindflayer: In this form you can drain Intelligence on a hit. You drain 5 intelligence per hit, so its actually very easy to kill a lot of enemies in this form. Especially if you can find a way to increase the number of attacks it does in a round and increase its Thac0 (like a trigger that has both Tensor's Transformation and Improved Haste on it).

It also has a Psionic Blast that can stun enemies. But you only get one use out of it each time you transform and its too impractical to try more than once. Still, protection from stun is rarer than protection from hold. It gives a save vs spell against the stun however so practically speaking this is probably not going to be that useful of an ability.

Giant Troll: It has immunities to stun, sleep, and hold. It regenerates at 1hp/second, which is excellent regeneration. Unfortunately you can die in this form without needing fire or acid damage, which kind of defeats the point of you being a troll. Considering you are only doing 2d6 piercing damage and have only 18 strength there really is no reason to take this form over the Greater Wolfwere's. It has 1 advantage over the Greater Wolfwere form in that it attacks as a +2 weapon. It does get 3 attacks per round, which puts it at about the average for the various forms you can become with this spell.

Greater Wolfwere: This has a 1d12 damage attack, has 3 APR, 19 strength, and regenerates at 8hp/second (which is the best regeneration you are going to find anywhere). Attacks as a +1 weapon, which is a downside, but in most cases it won't be too big of an issue. It has no magic resistance but it does have 50% fire/cold/electricity/acid resistance. Its also immune to normal weapons.

Iron Golem: It has 20% physical damage resistances and 100% magic and elemental damage resistance (including 125% fire resistance). Its much more capable than the old mustard jelly when it comes to fights. It has immunity to backstab, is immune to weapons of +2 enchantment or less, and is also immune to sleep, panic, hold, charm, and poison. It attacks as though it had +4 weapons, does 4d10 crushing damage, and has 24 strength. It only has 1 attack per round however.

Earth Elemental: Its immune to +2 weapons and lower. Thankfully this represents a good percentage of the on-hit effects (like vampires level drain). Despite having 2 APR I would still recommend you go with the Iron Golem over this form unless you are expecting to be fighting a number of enemies that have on hit effects.

Fire Elemental: Its immune to +2 weapons and lower. It also has 125% fire resistance. With only 1 APR I would recommend you go with the Iron Golem over this form unless you are expecting to be fighting a number of enemies that have on hit effects..


Basically if you want obscene regeneration go with the Greater Wolfwere, if you want something that is well protected against magic go with the Iron Golem, and if you want something that can kill even the toughest of enemies consider the Mind Flayer.


Spellstrike

Take Ruby Ray, Pierce Shield, Breach, Secret Word, etc. There are lots of alternatives that don't take up a level 9 slot.


Spell Trap

The Staff of the Magi gives you a version of this spell. Honestly I'd get the staff over taking this. That said if you are looking for a spell to absorb other spells you won't find anything better than this one.


Time Stop

It doesn't actually freeze time but it does make it so that any attack made by your character while it is active will always hit, and it does make it so that you have three rounds to cast whatever you want unopposed. There are only 2 enemies in the entire game that are immune to this, which makes it the most powerful spell in the game. For best results use with triggers and/or Improved Alacrity.


Wail of the Banshee

Not really worth it given it requires a saving throw (with no penalty). For best results hit enemies with Greater Malison first.

Arcane Spells - Level 9 (Continued)

Wish

Basically there are 4 tiers for Wish.

Tier 1

Conditions: To get this you need 18 wisdom. Even then its not a guarantee that you will always get good selections.

You are in Tier 1 if you see this after agreeing to negotiate "Fortunately, you are quick to catch on. Before long, you begin tricking the djinni's phrasings yourself, leaving it quite frustrated. You still doubt you'll get what you want, but chances are the djinni won't be able to trick you."

Selections Available (Tier 1)

Tier 2

Conditions: You need between 15-17 wisdom to get this tier.

You are in Tier 2 if you see this "You are wise enough to keep pace with the djinni, preventing the being from taking total advantage of you. Still... the contract is hard to understand, and you wonder at the end result."

Selections Available (Tier 2)

Tier 3

Conditions: You need between 10-14 wisdom to get this.

You are in Tier 3 if you see this "Throughout the process, the djinni continues to baffle you... and you are not even sure if your desired wish will be similar to your original premise. At best, you stall the worst of the clauses."

Selections Available (Tier 3)

Tier 4

Conditions: This is for characters that have less than 10 wisdom.

Finally you'll know you are in Tier 4 if you see this "Your lack of wisdom leaves you at a complete disadvantage. Throughout the writing of the contract, the djinni all but bullies you mentally into a position of watching him all but write the complex document on his own... there are few objections you can make."

Selections Available (Tier 4)



I'm working it on translating it to something a bit more readable but in the meantime you can kind of see a breakdown of what spells the different tiers cast here http://gemrb.org/iesdp/scripting/actions/bg2actions.htm (go to the very bottom of the page).

Arcane Spells - Higher Level Abilities

Comet

I really can't fault the spell. Its party friend, its damage is good. The problem is that enemies are likely to be resistant to the status effect it causes and Dragon's Breath does (at a minimum) the same amount of damage. Dragon's Breath can potentially do more than it if enemies fail to make a save against it. One good thing about is is that it gives a "sleep" effect (despite its description it doesn't cause hold or stun). Outside of undead I don't think sleep is a hugely common immunity, but without a save penalty the likelihood of it causing sleep at the stage that you will get this spell is going to be limited.


Dragon's Breath

Its party friendly, it casts quickly, it bypasses magic resistance, and it even looks pretty cool. While it does deal fire damage, which a number of enemies are immune to, there are so few damage spells that bypass magic resistance that it is hard to pass on this one. I highly recommend it.


Energy Blades

The problem with this spell is that as a mage you are almost always going to be more damaging casting spells. Its a great spell but at this stage in the game a mage can do severe damage to any enemies with their spells. Using Energy Blades with them is frankly a lost opportunity to use another Time Stop or Improve Alacrity.


Improved Alacrity

By far the most powerful spell at this level, especially when combined with the Robe of Vecna, the Amulet of Power, and a Time Stop spell. This combo (Robe + Amulet + Time Stop) basically grants your mage the ability to cast any spell with a casting time of 5 instantly and the use of Improved Alacrity removes the restriction on how many spells you can cast per round. In other words you could cast 6 Skull Trap's in a row basically instantly, then position your mage so that they are closer to an enemy and then cast a number of Lower Resistance spells on that enemy so that the enemy will have their magic resistance lowered before the Skull Traps hit. You can do something similar with Horrid Wilting though even with these items it still will have a slight casting time. Either way the possibilities with this spell are numerous and it (along with Time Stop) makes mages extraordinarily powerful.


Summon Planetar

Much better than any of the other summons, especially when it comes to spells and damage output. It can't be killed by a Death spell or any other spell that would normally kill a summoned creature. The only other spell at this level that I would recommend more would be Improved Alacrity.


Summon Dark Planetar

Its basically the same as a planetar except it gets unholy smite instead of holy smite. Honestly though its so powerful that the difference this makes is fairly minimal. Consider it a must take spell if you aren't able to get a Summon Planetar.

Priest Spells - Level 1

Armor of Faith

Excellent spell because its quick casting and it boosts all resistances (physical, magical, and elemental). WIth this active its possible (with other abilities and items) to have a character be nearly impervious to physical attacks and many spells.


Bless

Provides a nice minor combat bonus for parties. Nothing amazing but it won't hurt to have it.


Command (Clerics only)

Only useful in BGEE.


Cure Light Wounds

Always worth having a few of these on hand. Even if you are just using it for healing as a result of resting.


Detect Evil

Totally worthless. Though it is cool to see who is evil and who isn't.


Doom

Casting speed has been changed in BGEE so now its worthless. Its possible to use it with triggers though by the time you have any triggers you could find better spells to be casting compared to it.


Entangle (Druids only)

The saving penalty for it makes it garbage for BG2EE. You can try it but don't expect it to work. There is no such thing as a critical failure when it comes to spells so an enemy with 3 for their saving throw will be immune to this spell.


Magic Stone

Just terrible. Avoid at all costs.


Protection from Evil (Clerics only)

Its nice to have but the 4th level spell Protection From Evil 10' Radius is superior because of its longer duration. I'd generally avoid memorizing this spell.


Remove Fear (Clerics only)

Very useful spell to have. Always have one memorized as a just in case measure.


Sanctuary (Clerics only)

Great spell for Cleric/Thieves especially because thieving while under sanctuary doesn't break the invisibility. You can also use party buffs while under it though I can't imagine on a practical level that being very useful (more work than its probably worth). Otherwise its a useful spell for scouting. Unlike Invisibility you can't use it to backstab.


Shillelagh

Cool name. Terrible spell. You'll never see any use for it because even Flame Blade is better. That is all there really needs to be said about it.

Priest Spells - Level 2

Aid (Clerics only)

Its basically a quicker casting version of Cure Light Wounds that varies in how much it heals. The average amount for what it would heal is so little that its more likely to heal half of what Cure Light Wounds would heal. The Bless effect it gives is a nice side effect but I wouldn't ever take this spell.


Barkskin

Unless you are a pure druid (especially a Shapeshifter) or you have someone in your group that can't wear armor there is no reason to take this spell. Its duration just doesn't allow for it to be all that useful (especially given there is the Shield Amulet available in the D'Arnise Keep).


Chant (Clerics only)

Its a solid buff spell (for its level anyways) to be used just prior to combat. I would recommend having at least one of these memorized.


Charm Person or Mammal (Druids only)

The thing with druids is that especially at second level they have absolutely nothing to choose from. Expect to take a few of these even if you don't find much use out of them. There really isn't much else to work with!

That said the nice thing about this particular spell is that while it still has the +3 saving bonus for a target to save against it it also has twice the duration of Dire Charm and Charm Person. Still, with its saving bonus you'll probably never find much of a use for it.


Draw Upon Holy Might (Clerics only)

Hugely useful spell. When combined with Holy Power this makes Clerics have as much as 24 strength in BG2EE. You can also combine it with Righteous Magic to have as much as 25 strength. It also casts quickly unlike its innate ability counterpart. Finally, its a useful spell for Cleric/Mages looking to use it for any of the various transformations because (particularly in the case of the Spider form of Polymorph Self) it vastly improves your polymorphed forms strength.


Find Traps

Having a thief in your party that has 80 Find Traps makes this spell worthless. There are very few traps in the game that you can't find with 80 Find Traps. By the time you get this its usability is likely to be limited (depending upon how you arrange your party thiefs thieving skills and depending upon if you even have a party thief).


Flame Blade

Decent troll slayer. Avoid it unless you've got nothing else to take.


Good Berries (Druids only)

Embarrassingly terrible. Honestly just avoid it.


Hold Person (Clerics only)
Not as good as the mage version technically (it doesn't give a saving throw penalty to enemies trying to save against it) but it has the benefit of not taking up slots in a particularly important level for divine spells. Still, you aren't going to encounter many tough enemies that this is likely to work on.


Know Alignment

Like the mage spell its a neat spell to have but the saving throw (at -2) makes it entirely worthless even for people more interested in roleplaying.


Resist Fire/Cold

Pretty sweet spell actually. 50% resistance against two different types of elemental damage and all at the cost of basically a few spell slots in a fairly barren spell level. I would highly recommend having a few of these on hand to cast on your fighters. If only to partially protect them for your mages Fireballs.


Silence 15' Radius (Clerics only)

Most mages in BG2EE have Vocalize memorized, which makes this spell largely worthless. Its only really going to be useful against enemy clerics (or the even rarer enemy druid).


Slow Poison

Not all that useful in BG2EE. Still it can't hurt having one of these just in case.


Spiritual Hammer (Clerics only)

Its a nice spell especially if you are or have a Cleric/Mage with plans for shapeshifting (Polymorph Self). Its quite easy to get a +2 warhammer out of it and combined with the 5 attacks per round of the sword spider form it can prove to be a pretty effective combo. The spell can get you as high as a +3 hammer which is technically even high enough to kill the games final boss. I wouldn't take it if I were a fighter/cleric or a pure cleric however (only a cleric/mage).

Priest Spells - Level 3

Animate Dead (Clerics only)

Staple spell. Very effective summons that have a good amount of magic resistance and that gain better equipment as your cleric gains level. They also start out with good physical resistances against piercing, missile, and slashing attacks. Highly recommended especially against Spiders, Undead, Mages and Spellcasters in general since the spells Skeletal Warriors can't be put to sleep, charmed, petrified, poisoned, or affected by panic (for instance the Horror spell). But honestly they are good summons against basically any enemy. In BG2EE this spell has been improved over the original in that you always now get a Skeletal Warrior (but it gradually gets better until it maxes out at a level 15 version)


Call Lightning (Druids only)

Devastatingly powerful. The biggest downside with it though is that it can be only cast outdoors. In BG2EE this is a huge downside. Due to this you probably aren't going to find much use for it (and in fact you may find more use for it in Throne of Bhaal than in Shadows of Amn).


Cure Disease

Its a good quick casting spell that covers a wide ranged of ailments. Handy to have one on hand. You probably won't ever need to use it though.


Cure Medium Wounds

Its an improvement over Cure Light Wounds but it still suffers from a long casting time and limited healing being provided. I'd only take one just for healing after resting.


Dispel Magic

Staple spell. It will dispel beneficial and harmful enchantments on both the party and on enemies. You really want to be careful where you cast it because of this. Remove Magic is preferred though having a Dispel Magic handy for when you have a party member with negative effects active on them (like Confusion, Stun or Fear) is handy.


Glyph of Warding (Clerics only)

Its garbage because it allows a save (for no damage). I wouldn't even bother with it unless you are using an evil cleric (and even then I'd still go for Animate Dead over this any day).


Hold Animal (Druids only)

Animals you come across just aren't that strong and animals themselves in this game are pretty rare. I wouldn't bother with it.


Holy Smite (good or neutral Clerics only)

Staple spell. If you have evil characters in your party keep them back. Keep in mind though that this spell won't do damage against creatures that are neutral or good, though in BG2EE you are far more likely to come across evil creatures anyways. The blindness it provides is also very helpful.


Invisibility Purge

Its worth it to take one of these if you are a druid (because frankly there isn't much else to choose from). Otherwise use Glitterdust or another spell to reveal Invisible creatures.


Miscast Magic

Enemy spellcaster are dumb and will keep casting once this is active. That said if you are using a druid its better to use Summon Insects instead of this spell. If you are using a cleric Holy Smite is probably a better choice though it couldn't hurt to have one of these handy. The thing is Miscast Magic allows for the target to make a save vs spell and unfortunately mages have the best save vs spell of any of the classes. This is why even with a penalty to save against it its not as effective (or reliable) as Summon Insects.


Protection from Fire

Like the mage spell the description for this is innaccurate. It grants 100% immunity to fire damage. Its a decent spell for a cleric or druid to memorize but I wouldn't take more than a handful of them unless you have plans to use Fireball, Sunfire, a Wand of Fire, Incendiary Cloud, etc.


Remove Curse (Clerics only)

Save yourself the slot and just pay a priest to do it. You deserve the financial hit for equipping a cursed item in the first place!


Remove Paralysis (Clerics only)


Its a pretty situational spell. I'd probably have an evil cleric memorize one just in case but generally a well placed Dispel Magic can do everything this spell does and more (with the downside of removing any protections you may have had on the intended target and others).


Rigid Thinking

Decent spell for a druid to cast indoors. Nothing spectacular though and certainly not worth a clerics time.


Strength of One

Staple spell. Fantastic spell for either a cleric or a druid. Most summons have garbage strength to begin with (16 or less) and even your party members typically have low strength (other than Dorn and Minsc). Its a great spell for summons and party members alike (at least until party members start getting strong bonus equipment at which time its still good for summons).


Summon Insects (Druids only)

Staple spell for druids at this level. Not because its an amazing spell but because they don't have much else to use indoors. That said it does a number of useful things. Firstly it makes the target make a save vs breath at -4. Enemy mages have a much higher save vs breath than their save vs spell, so this spell alone is already going to work far more often against enemy mages than Miscast Magic.

It also casts faster than Miscast Magic and deals 21 damage to target. On top of that all those attacks count as physical attacks, meaning that they wear down the mages Stoneskin or Mirror Image protections. Finally it reduces the targets armour class by 2 and their Thac0 by 2.

Its one major downside (besides duration) over Miscast magic is that it can take some time for the insects to reach the mage. But once that happens and if the mage fails the save (which is likely) that mage is done.


Unholy Blight (evil Clerics only)

Its Holy Smite but for evil clerics. Its only really useful if your party has a very low reputation and you are being harassed by guards or flaming fist mercenaries.


Zone of Sweet Air (Clerics only)

So bizarre that this spell isn't available to druids...

Anyways its great if you've got a Cloudkill or Stinking Cloud spell that you want to get rid of. Otherwise its probably not worth memorizing. Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud being active will prevent you from saving so that to me is the most important reason to ever use this spell.

Please note, you may have to move outside of a cloud to be able to successfully cast this spell. Which frankly can be said for any spell.

Priest Spells - Level 4

Animal Summoning I

Crappy summons that are only going to be useful at the start of BG2EE. That or as pawns if you want to make an enemy waste a Death spell on them.


Call Woodland Beings (Druids only)

It would be a better summon if you could turn off its AI. As it stands now its still good but not quite as good as it could be because it has a tendency to follow its casting script and cast spells that simply won't work against enemies (even when you tell it to cast something else). Its best used for its Hold Monster spell and for its Mass Cure spell (when outside of battle). Its Mental Domination is also pretty good. Otherwise its Cause Serious Wounds attack can do some pretty decent damage if it hits. Overall I'd highly recommend taking a few castings of the spell if you can (partly because Druids don't have much else to choose from).


Cause Serious Wounds

Honestly I wouldn't bother with it yourself. Its fine if your Dryad is using it but unless you are a pure druid its probably not going to be worth putting towards this spell because at this point you will have the means to do more damage over the round you get when attacking with it. Also to be used effectively it needs to be precast before battle.


Cloak of Fear

Fun spell if you want to watch some weapons drop. Otherwise unless you are a druid with nothing else to learn I wouldn't bother with it. Its basically a horror spell.


Cure Serious Wounds

It only heals 3 health more than Cure Medium wounds and it takes longer to cast! Never take this.


Death Ward

Very handy spell to have in particular circumstances (especially when fighting Liches and Beholders). The great thing about it is its really long duration. 1 turn/level means that it will last for a really long time. It won't actually protect summons against Death Fog, Cloud Kill or the Death spell however.


Defensive Harmony

Staple spell. Good to pick for any character because of its defensive bonus. The duration is short but its helpful to have at the onset of a battle.


Farsight

I've read people online using this to organise their summons attacks against enemies (but from a distance). It seems like a lot of work but its certainly a viable option for some fights.


Free Action (Clerics only)

Good if you have plans to use the Web spell. Otherwise I'd avoid this unless you have no intentions of using Haste/Improved Haste.


Holy Power (Clerics only)

Staple spell. Very good for pure class clerics or even Anomen because it raises their strength to 18/100 and (important for both Anomen and Viconia) it gives them the Thac0 of a fighter. Cast this before you cast Draw Upon Holy Might and Righteous Magic so that your strength is boosted to as high as it possibly can be.


Lesser Restoration (Clerics only)

Very useful spell to have in BG2EE because of how annoying level drain is. I would say its a staple spell to have in Shadows of Amn (not so much for ToB but it is still useful at certain points there).


Mental Domination (Clerics only)

Technically has a slightly quicker casting time than the level 5 mage spell Domination. Otherwise they do the same thing. As a 4th level spell I'd generally pass on it though it has some offensive use.


Negative Plane Protection

Useful for moments where you run into a vampire and you have nobody protected from level drain. It has a short duration but the spells quick casting time allows it to be used very quickly in an emergency situation.


Neutralize Poison

Like slow poison this will cure any poison. Though this spell is rather expensive at level 4 (you could just memorize more healing spells) it is the best option for curing heavily damaged (and poisoned) characters. In BG2EE you won't be poisoned that much so you'll probably be alright with just having a few Slow Poisons available.


Poison

It eventually does pretty good damage in BG2EE but by that point the save makes it practically worthless. Its especially not worth taking for Druids because of their slow level progression.


Protection from Evil 10' Radius (Clerics only)

Staple spell. Its a good spell for parties to buff with prior to big fights. It also an easy way of making yourself appear invisible to creatures spawned by both the Cleric and Mage versions of the Gate spell (as well as the Cacofiend and Summon Fiend mage spells).


Protection from Lightning

Unless you have plans to use the Lightning Bolt spell I'd pass on this. Its not worth the slot.

Priest Spells - Level 5

Animal Summoning II

Beefier and stronger than Animal Summoning I summons. They'd be even better if their attacks didn't hit as though they were normal weapons. Unless you are looking for distractions or something an enemy can waste a Death Spell on I wouldn't bother with them.


Cause Critical Wounds

Its not really worth the spell slot. The problem is that you can cast a quick spell and then probably get an attack in during the round. So there really isn't much of any situation where this particular spell is going to be worth it. Stick with Harm instead.

Champion's Strength (Clerics only)

It takes away your clerics spellcasting in enchange for pumping up the strength and Thac0 of a target of your choice. I honestly see no practical use for this spell. Even when used on a summon it still wouldn't be worth it.


Chaotic Commands

Staple spell. Very useful spell in BG2EE because it protects against a lot of the more annoying status effects.


Cure Critical Wounds

Its an improvement over Cure Serious Wounds but its not worth the slot. Unless you have nothing else you want to pick.


Flame Strike (Clerics only)

It does a lot of damage but it has a long casting time. Also it does fire damage, which is probably the most resisted form of damage. Also it gives a save and enemies will take half damage if they do (which is pretty standard). Clerics have other (better) options at this level but it probably doesn't hurt to have a few of these available just in case.


Greater Command (Clerics only)

Its a good spell for making a bunch of enemies fall asleep. Unfortunately a lot of enemies you will encounter will be either immune to sleep (like Undead) or they will have magic resistance that will make this spell unreliable. Still, its worth taking one of these to make some encounters a bit easier.


Insect Plague (Druids only)

Staple spell for any druid. This is the ultimate spell disrupting spell. All others (except for Creeping Doom) pale in comparison. Like in the case of Summon Insects the tiny insect bites count as physically damage (piercing damage technically) meaning that each hit will strip away a mages Stoneskin or Mirror Image protections. It also causes 100% spell failure, deals 18 damage (over the course of 6 rounds) to anyone affected by the spell, and the constant damage every 2 seconds makes it more difficult for enemies to run around. Plus if enemies fail their save vs breath (no saving penalty) they are panicked. Just a fantastic choice. The biggest downsides for it are the fact that it can take awhile to get to enemies and the fact that it doesn't bypass magic resistance.


Iron Skins (Druids Only)

Good spell for druids. Good for when using a druid for melee purposes (like a Shapeshifter or when using one of the bear forms). Its Stoneskin spell with a much longer casting time (meaning you pretty much need to cast it before battle). Its still a good means of protection for even a druid focusing on casting.


Magic Resistance

Fantastic spell for any enemy or NPC with a high level of magic resistance. It works against party members and enemies alike and an enemies magic resistance won't stop it. Effectively you can set the magic resistance of a high magic resistance character to a much lower amount (which makes them easier to kill). I would recommend you keep it in mind if you are having trouble against a particularly magically resistant enemy. It'll reduce the number of Lower Resistance spells you need substantially.


Mass Cure

Don't bother with it. A nymph from Call Woodland Beings can just do this for you if you really want it. Also at higher levels Mass Raise Dead (as odd as this may sound) works much better than this spell when it comes to mass healing.


Pixie Dust (Druids only)

Its like Invisibility 10' Radius except much more reliably acquired. It has a lot of strategic use for planning out an attack against a group of enemies. As you get into later SoA and into ToB however you'll notice that enemies can see through invisibility (or just outright dispel it) so its usefulness will be minimized.


Raise Dead (Clerics only)

Not worth taking more than one of these. In fact as soon as you can (either by finding one of buying it) get a Rod of Resurrection). A Rod of Resurrection has much more use in the middle of battle since it can be used either to fully heal a target or revive them and fully heal them (and it has no cast time).


True Seeing

Its the same as the level 6 mage spell Truth Sight. Very useful spell to have on hand. It'll get rid of Misleads as well as any invisibility spell. If you have Keldorn in your group don't bother with it.

Priest Spells - Level 6

Aerial Servant (Clerics only)

This is effectively the divine equivalent of an Air Elemental (which for whatever reason druids don't get). It gets immunity to normal weapons (which shouldn't matter much by the time you get it) and perhaps more importantly its immune to the spell Maze. It also is summoned invisible (which is good for its first attack and for positioning it). In any case its stats are great. It only gets 1 attack per round (2 with haste) but with an attack of 4d8 it'll still do plenty of damage with those attacks. It also hits as though it had a +4 weapon. Its a highly recommendable summon.


Animal Summoning III

Pick this up if you are looking for a bit more variety than what you'd get with Conjure Animals. It also will provide more summons. We aren't talking about amazing summons mind you but if you are looking for a spell that will give you lots of summons (rather than having to use up many spells to get 5 summons you are just going to use for temporary distraction) this spell is adequate. The cave bear and mountain bear summons are the most likely summons to hit anything (and also each have 3 attacks per round and hit as +3 weapons). The mountain bear summon created by this spell is the same one created by Conjure Animals.


Blade Barrier (Clerics only)

Its a very good defense spell for a cleric. It only does damage each round but its a good amount of damage. The problem with it is that it requires a saving throw be made for anyone in its radius (other than the cleric casting it). This means that party members can also get hit by it. Overall I'd say its only really worth it if you've got a means to make your other party members saving throws exceptionally low.

It is a very good spell to use with Sanctuary active (or prior to casting an Invisibility spell). Casting it won't interrupt a Sanctuary spell from working and having it active won't make you revealed if you are invisible. Enemies won't be able to see you so you can cut them up while remaining invisible.


Bolt of Glory (Clerics only)

Casting time is too long. I don't think I'd ever bother with it. If you are expecting to fight a demon it would be worth it to put a bunch of these into a Spell Trigger (if you are a Cleric Mage) because they will bypass magic resistance and have no saving throw, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.


Conjure Animals

Its very similar to Summon Animal III except you get less summons that are going to be higher quality. The Mountain Bear that you'll summon with this is the same one as the one obtained from Summon Animal III. You are probably better sticking with Aerial Servant or Fire Elemental (depending on your class) but the bears can be good because they have 3 attacks per round. Even with a simple haste spell they still can be very effective summons with 4 attacks per round. Unlike Aerial Servant or Fire Elemental you can also potentially summon more than one when casting this.


Conjure Fire Elemental (Druids only)

Its the same as the level 6 mage spell Conjure Fire Elemental. Except that unlike the mage spell the druid elemental spells don't have a chance of the summon going hostile and won't hold you when you cast them. Either way its a very effective summon. You'll want to cast Strength of One after summoning it because its strength is oddly low (unless you happen to get the highest hit dice form). You can generally tell what hit dice form you got by its size.


Dolorous Decay (Druids only)

The one nice thing about this spell is it casts quickly. Unfortunately unless you actually get it to poison (the enemy gets -2 to their save vs death to save against it) its effect isn't that great (slow at no save for 2 turns).

6 poison damage/round (1 damage/second) isn't great but if it works it will at least keep the enemy in a constant state of damage and slowed. Its best to use this after you've hit the enemy with a Greater Malison or Doom spell.


False Dawn (Clerics only)

Its alright. Use Sunray or Daystar's special ability before you use this. False Dawn confuses undead creatures pretty easily but the actual damage it does to them is pretty mediocre (for its level anyways). Still, it bypasses magic resistance so that is a plus. It does absolutely nothing against non-undead creatures and that is a big negative. Clerics already have plenty of ways of either killing, hurting or otherwise disrupting undead (like Turn Undead, Sol's Searing Orb, Sunray and Repulse Undead). So this is really not that exceptional of a spell.


Fire Seeds (Druids only)

Most people would look at this spell and say to themselves "wow that spell sucks". In most cases they'd be right.

However, they can be moved around amongst your party members. There are I would say two good ways to take advantage of this.

Dorn is the first. Dorn has a special ability called Poison Weapon. The thing is that Fire Seeds has one advantage over every other weapon in the game (with the exception of the extremely rare Arrows of Detonation that you can find). It does damage in a circle with a radius about half of that of a fireball. With the exception of Arrows of Detonation (the the Frag Grenade ammo of the even rarer Big Metal Rod) no other weapon in the game does area damage like this. This is important because you can use this area of effect to your advantage.

The great thing about poison is that it will bypass mirror images and stoneskin. Meaning that if you use Fire Seeds with Dorn while he has his Poison Weapon ability active its very possible for you to throw a Fire Seed at an enemy near a mage and in so doing poison that mage. As long as you throw and the Fire Seed hits the the target you are throwing at then everything else in its radius will get hit with the fire damage (as well as poisoning in this case). This is what makes it a useful spell because if this is properly managed you can poison a large number of enemies in a very short period of time. The Fire Seed also hits as a +6 weapon meaning it avoids any Mantle type spell.

You can also use Fire Seeds with Deathblow and Greater Deathblow to kill huge numbers of enemies.


Harm

This is a very good spell on its own for fighter/clerics and cleric mages. Even regular clerics can probably get a use out of it. The best thing you can do when using this spell is to find a way to increase your Thac0 and number of attacks per round as much as possible. Using the fighter HLA Critical Strike is also an option. Unless you are fighing an enemy with significant regeneration a hit from this spell will will lead to a quick end for its recipient (given they'll only have 1 health).


Heal

The casting time is too long for it to be that effective in battle. Plus the competition at this level tends to be fierce (for either Druids or Clerics). I would only bother with the spell if you have no Rod of Resurrection.


Physical Mirror

By the time you get this missile attacks aren't likely to be an issue.


Sol's Searing Orb (Clerics only)

The nice thing about this spell is it blinds. That said you have to actually hit with it for that to happen and you can just blind opponents with either Glitterdust or Holy Smite. Its really not worth using.


Wondrous Recall

Basically it gives you back two spells. The spells will always be of the highest level possible (5th level spells or lower). One good thing about the spell is it allows you to basically switch spells on the fly. If you are fighting an extensive battle and need another type of spell its possible to change out the spell in your spell book and then use this spell and make it castable. Its a decent spell for especially for druids looking to get more Insect Plagues available or another needed spell, though its casting time makes it a hassle to use in the middle of battle. Still, if you don't want to rest or you want to get a few extra level 5 spells (like Chaotic Commands) it can be very good.

Priest Spells - Level 7

Confusion (Clerics only)

So they took a 4th level mage spell and put it in the final spell level for clerics. Umm...ok. Its not worth it. Moving on...


Conjure Earth Elemental (Druids only)

Unless you are fighting an enemy that is resistant against fire I would stick with Fire Elementals. That said for whatever reason all of the Fire Elementals except for the highest HD version have garbage strength. So if you are looking for something that is guaranteed a high amount of strength then this is an option. These summons also have a much longer duration than the HLA/Quest level spell "Elemental Summoning" (which will take up the same spell slot). Like Fire Elementals they hit as though they have +4 weapons.


Creeping Doom (Druids only)

This is actually one of the better damaging spells for druids. 2 damage/second means 12 damage a round. For most characters this would be extremely garbage damage but for Druids its actually one of the better damaging spells. Against non-spellcasting enemies its also useful because it does constant damage which ensures that they have difficulty moving around and it also has the ability to cause a panic effect. However, it doesn't bypass magic resistance.

That said of course like Insect Plague it is an anti-spellcaster spell. Unless you are level 15 as a Druid I would pick another spell instead of this one. You won't have a lot of options and frankly there are other more distinct spells to choose from. It also only lasts for half the duration of Insect Plague, which is the main reason to cast Insect Plague over it. Liches are immune to Insect Plague so use this instead.


Earthquake

WIth a -6 penalty for enemies to try to save against it this is actually a very useful spell against a number of enemies. You don't want to use it on anything that is immune to sleep, and you have to keep in mind that it isn't party friendly, but the -6 should ensure a number of enemies are knocked out for 4 rounds (which is plenty of time to kill these enemies off). The first quake is the only one with the effect of potentially causing unconciousness so after it goes off feel free to move your fighters in. Alternatively just use Chaotic Commands to protect them. The second and third quake do relatively little damage. There is also a 2% chance of summoning a Greater Earth Elemental. Is a pretty small chance so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Overall I'd say its a very good spell but you have to use it with a degree of caution.


Finger of Death (Clerics Only)

If you are willing to leave the game up to chance then you can use this against dragons. Eventually with enough reloads it will work. Still, you are probably better off picking something else.


Firestorm

Depending on your level it can do anywhere between 16-36 damage/round for four rounds. At level 14 its average damage will be 23 damage/round and by level 20 that will go up to 29. The important thing about it however is that it has no saving throw and it bypasses magic resistance. This makes it a very useful spell against anything that has high magic resistance but no or little fire resistance. For instance Drow, Mind Flayers, Dragon's (as long as they aren't Red Dragons you should be fine), Liches (it won't work on a Demi-Lich however), etc.


Gate (Clerics Only)

The only redeeming thing about this spell is that it casts at twice the rate as the Arcane version. Its still not worth using however. If you are going to use it remember its immune to +2 and lower weapons and remember to csat Protection From Evil 10'Radius on your group beforehand.


Greater Restoration (Clerics Only)

You may read online about this spell working as an area effect heal. That is no longer the case in BG2EE. Still, its a quick casting heal spell that heals a huge number of ailments. I can't really fault it. You are better off choosing other spells though having one of these handy isn't a bad idea.


Holy Word (Clerics Only)

This is a great spell to use against the underdark Elder Orb (gives 75% spell failure and slows him and he can't avoid it) but otherwise its a pretty mediocre spell. By the time you get it too many enemies will have magic resistance, which makes this an unreliable choice.

There isn't any point in using this against Undead because you have Sunray for that. Its a decent spell to use against Demons and other evil creatures. Most demons you come across fall into the level 10-13 level, though you wouldn't think that. It also has the benefit of a very quick casting time.

In theory this spell will can slow most creatures with Drow, Shadow, Fiend, Demon, Nabassu, or Tan'ari in its name (though the Lesser Demon Lord in the Underdark is too high a level for you to do anything more than cause 50% spellcasting failure). It could also be used to slow down and give 75% spell failure to Gauth's as well as 75% spell failure to Elder Orbs. The Elder Orb you encounter in the Underdark will also be slowed by it (some Elder Orbs are immune to slow while others aren't). The slow effect won't work on Kuo-Toa or Beholders because they are immune to slow (not because of their level).


Nature's Beauty (Druids only)

Great if used in combination with Pixie Dust. Casting it doesn't break invisibility, meaning you can walk up fairly close to enemies and cast it and at a minimum cause all of them to go permanently blind. You'll read elsewhere that the range is very limited but the description given in game (and in the manual) gives the impression that it is a smaller range than it actually is. I strongly recommend either way that (if you have the chance) you test this out for yourself.


Regeneration

The only regeneration worth discussing. 18 health healed/round by only casting a single spell. Great for both Druids and Clerics. Just remember that it only lasts for a limited time (depending a lot on your level). So you'll want to make sure this is your last cast spell before combat.


Resurrection (Clerics Only)

Get the Rod of Resurrection instead.


Shield of the Archons

The description makes it sound more effective than it actually is. It won't protect your cleric against Dispel Magic or Remove Magic. However Dispel/Remove Magic also won't remove it either. Its really just good for protecting them against single target non-dispelling spells (Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Maze, Imprisonment, etc).


Sunray (Clerics Only)

The ultimate undead killing spell. I would recommend having as many of these as possible whenever you are fighting undead, especially liches. Since Turn Undead is a good alternative for killing undead (by the time you get this spell) I would highly recommend evil clerics take it above all else. That said good and neutral clerics will benefit from having it.


Symbol, Death (Clerics Only)

Had it bypassed magic resistance it would have been more useful. As it stands its really garbage because there are much better save or die spells that you could be using in its place (Finger of Death for instance).


Symbol, Fear (Clerics Only)

This is approximately as useful as Symbol, Stun. The saving throw is the same though the status effect it gives is a lot more common. Like any of the symbol spells its main advantage is that it can be set as a trap. Like all symbol spells your own characters can set them off!


Symbol, Stun (Clerics Only)

This is actually a very good spell. It gives a tough save, has a large area of effect, and it can be put on the ground to act like a trap. Its not much use as something to be cast while in battle (because of its long casting time) but if you are using a cleric/mage its better to take this spell as a priest spell because level 8 spells for mages have much better options. Like all symbol spells your own characters can set them off!


Unholy Word (Clerics Only)

Unless your reputation is very, very low you won't find many enemies to even use this on.

Priest Spells - Higher Level Abilities

Aura of Flaming Death

The fire damage is nice but its duration is unacceptable given what it actually does (1 round every 2 levels).

Protection from normal weapons isn't all that great and the fire resistance and AC can be replicated elsewhere.


Elemental Summoning

In my book you are better off learning Earth Elemental over this. The summon created by this is more likely to have higher health, but the Thac0, strength, damage, attacks per round, and saving throws won't be any different. If you are looking for quantity and quality, at the expense of duration, feel free to take this. Otherwise stick with Earth Elemental (or 6th level Fire Elemental spell if you don't mind boosting their strength).


Earth Elemental Transformation (Druids Only)

2d10 crushing damage, 2 APR attacking as a +4 weapon, low Thac0 and 20 strength make it an adequate transformation, but nothing special. Still, if you are a shapeshifter in particular it probably won't hurt to take a look at this. Jaheira can do well with it however because of her access to abilities like Greater Whirlwind.


Energy Blades

Its a quick casting spell that can do good damage and you get lots of attacks with it. I really can't fault it for what it is. Its a good spell if you want to give your druid or cleric something to do from a range. They hit as +5 weapons so they are pretty useful.


Fire Elemental Transformation (Druids Only)

The fire resistance it grants is nice. It only has 1 APR and 1d10 crushing (plus 1d10 fire) damage. On a plus side it gives 23 strength. Still I'd probably stick with the Earth Elemental form. Jaheira can do well with it however because of her access to abilities like Greater Whirlwind.


Globe of Blades - Keep your party members and summons out of the range of its damage and watch it cut down enemies. An enemy that fails their saving throw against it is going to take a sizable health loss. It will work a lot better if you can get a Greater Malison to work against your enemies.


Greater Elemental Summoning (Druids Only)

Honestly their duration could be a lot better and their immunities aren't always as good as the Deva's (in some cases they are comparable) but they give a good run at it and I can't fault them at all. Their main advantage over the deva's is that they are far more versatile but either way they simply blow the alternative summons you can get at level 7 (I mean other than the deva's) out of the water so they are always a good choice. Since you can have both an elemental prince and a Deva active at the same time (unlike a Fallen Deva and a Deva) you really don't lose out in taking both. Chan and Sunnis in particular are potentially better overall at fighting (higher health, lower thac0, generally better stats and better damage) compared to the Deva's but the Deva's can cast more spells and kill undead with no effort involved. The big thing I like about the elemental princes is that they all have dispel on hit.

What follows is a description of the different immunities/abilities/relevant stats of each elemental prince.

Zaaman Rul is immune to hold, stun, poison, and petrification. He has 60% magic resistance and 125% fire resistance. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 19 strength, 2 APR, does 1d6 crushing (3d10 fire) damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel magic on hit. He has 2 castings of flame strike available and has a permanent fireshield (red) active. Of the elemental princes he has the lowest health, the highest AC, and the least APR (2).

Chan is immune to poison. He has 85% resistance to magic, 70% resistance to cold, 40% resistance to acid, and 100% resistance to electricity. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 19 strength, 3 APR, does 1d6 crushing (2d10 electricity) damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel on hit. He has two castings of a spell called "Whirlwind" which isn't actually the warrior HLA but rather an ability that does 1d8 damage (no save), knocks out a target for 3 seconds (-10 penalty to save vs spell against it), and hits them with a wing buffet (no save). He also has a permanent Globe of Blades active, which due to his large size actually makes working with him to be kind of a pain. Still, of all the elemental summons he has the second lowest AC, the second highest health, and is tied with the highest APR. Also despite what it might say elsewhere he is not evil in BG2EE (so no need to watch the Holy Smites) but rather he is neutral good (all three of the princes are neutral good).

Sunnis is immune to hold, stun, petrification, and poison. He has 70% magic resistance, 75% fire resistance, 40% cold resistance and 40% acid resistance. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 24 strength, 3 APR, does 3d12 crushing damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel on hit. He gets 2 instant castings of an "Earthquake" spell that knocks out only enemies for 2 rounds (unless they make a -6 save vs spell). He also regularly will give himself a Stoneskin (this is scripted not a spell he has). Of all the elemental summons he has the lowest AC, the highest health (230), and is tied with the highest APR (3).


Implosion

Bypasses magic resistance and gives a nice stun effect. Also the damage potentially can be pretty amazing if the enemy fails their save (and even if they don't it still is very good damage).


Mass Raise Dead

Normally you'd think a spell like Mass Raise Dead would be useful for raising the dead. Its really not. But with a casting time of 2 what it is good for is mass healing. 3d10+1 (per caster level) is a great amount of healing. That means at caster level 20 you'd heal 23-50 health.

Basically consider taking one of these as a just in case measure. But the amount it heals (33 on average) is really only significant at this stage for your mages and non-fighter characters.


Storm of Vengeance

The damage won't bypass magic resistance however it is still effective for disrupting spellcasting. What really makes it stand out (besides the multiple types of elemental damage it does) is its poison. If an enemy fails their save vs death (on the first round only) it does 4 damage/second for 18 seconds. Its the reason I would give it a rating higher than Creeping Doom.


Summon Deva (good and neutral Clerics and Druids only)

Is it as good as a planatar? Nope. But what it is is a fantastic summon. Its immune to poison, petrification, level drain, charm, confusion, slay, and feeblemind. As a gated creature it also can't be removed by the Death spell. It regenerates at 2hp/round, is immune to normal and +1 weapons, hits as though it had a +3 weapon, does 3d6+3 damage, has 19 strength, and its hits have both a stun effect (fail to save vs spell and be stunned for a round) as well as a check for undead to save vs death (at -4) or be destroyed. It attacks with 2 APR as well.

Finally its 100% resistant to fire, cold and electricity and 70% resistant to magic. It also has 10% for each of the physical damage resistances. Overall its just fantastic.


Summon Fallen Deva (evil Clerics and Druids only)

Unlike the planatars (which do differ) the Fallen Deva is literally the exact same thing from a stats standpoint as Deva except it's evil and an anti-solar (as a race) rather than a solar. In BG2EE the spells it has (and their quantities) are the exactly the same. All its stats, immunities, and resistances are the same. Its weapon is the same. Its attacks per round is the same. Etc. The only thing is that it can get hit by a Holy Smite...but otherwise its a fantastic spell.

Warrior Abilities and Additional Spells (Including Monks)

Fighter

None


Fighter Kits


Wizard Slayer

None


Kensai

Kai: Very useful ability for Kensai/thieves especially but it works well in any class combo (including just playing as a single class).


Berserker

Enrage: Like Kai it works well for any dual class combination or just for a single class Berserker. The immunities it grants you are fantastic and the bonuses it grants to AC, hit rolls, and damage is just icing on the cake.



Dwarven Defender

Defensive Stance: This is basically the ultimate tanking innate ability. 50% physical resistances plus your classes innate resistances makes it just a fantastic ability for someone looking for a character to absorb damage. You aren't going to find anything close to it until fighter HLA's (and thats well into BG2EE). The downside of slower movement is annoying but manageable.


Paladin

Detect Evil: Largely worthless. Neat to use to check out NPC's you come across but never let its results stop you from talking to an NPC.

Lay on Hands: Since it lets you target someone else it is an alright ability. Namely because it doesn't have the slow casting time as every other (non-charname) healing spell. At its highest level it can instantly heal 68 health (which by healing standards is amazing).

Protection from Evil: You are better off using the level 4 Cleric spell instead (even if its just with the Paladin casting it).


Paladin Kits


Cavalier/Undead Hunter

No special activable abilities (beyond whatever they retain for being a Paladin).


Inquisitor

Dispel Magic: Inquisitors are much better than Wizard Slayers when it comes to killing mages. They cast this Dispel Magic ability at twice their level. In BG2EE this ability so so incredibly useful. You can strip down an enemies combat protections instantly and go in for the kill.

True Sight: This is also very useful against mages.


Blackguard

Poison Weapon: It coats your weapon in a very effective poison and its an ability thats staying active on your character for 4 rounds longer than its supposed to. Basically its the best feature of the Assassin kit given to a kit that is much more effective with it. For cheesiest results combine this with Fire Seeds, Frag Grenades, or Arrows of Detonation (you might want to use a Simulacrum with the Vhailor's helmet for this to preserve rare ammunition). Watch your enemies die in a matter of seconds!

The downside with poison is that a lot of enemies are immune to it when you get to ToB. But by that point you are a high level warrior so you can deal out tons of damage through warrior HLA's.

Absorb Health: Its good because its a ranged magic attack that could potentially disrupt spells. It can also marginally heal you if you find your Blackguard in need of such a thing. In BG2EE it has the benefit of bypassing magic resistance which makes it useful as a means of finishing off really tough enemies.

Aura of Despair: This is just a great AOE debuff ability. In BG2EE it gives a penalty to AC and hit and damage rolls. Its certainly better than what most of the other paladin kits (other than the Inquisitor) would otherwise be getting.


Ranger

Ranger Kits

Beast Master

Find Familiar: Great nice addition that gives you an early bonus to your health. Helps make up for your lack of plate mail armor. Unfortunately since you are restricted to good characters only your choice of familiars is limited to two. Of those (in my opinion) the Fairy Dragon (Chaotic Good characters only) is the better one. The differences aren't that apparent in BGEE (they both give the same health bonus) but in BG2EE it gets Invisibility 10' radius (which is a very useful spell).

Animal Summoning I and II: These are alright spells. You won't get it until level 8 and level 10 and by the time you do there are better summons available to other party members. Still, given how the caster level for rangers works there isn't much better to pick up for this level.

Animal Summoning III: These are much better than the first two. Its still a mixed bag since some of the summons are frankly better than others. You are best to go for getting either of the bears.


Archer

Called Shot: The good thing about Called Shot that people may not realize is that its effects stack and as the skill progresses you get all of the effects mentioned for previous levels. So a hit from a level 8 Archer (while they were using Called Shot) would cause the enemy to take a Thac0 penalty of 1 and a penalty of 1 to their save vs spells. Multiple hits by an archer would do this effect multiple times against an enemy.

As for the ability itself, well, I'd say it gets best at the point in BG2EE when it can be used to reduce strength (potentially to 0). Its good if nothing else as a means of making specific targets more vulnerable for your other characters.


Stalker

Haste: Honestly get a mage to do this. It will last longer.

Protection From Normal Missiles: Missile weapons are rarely if ever going to be a problem. If they are a problem then chances are this spell won't protect against them anyways since they will be enchanted weapons.

Minor Spell Deflection: Of these spells this is probably the only one that is worth taking. Its not amazing by any means but it certainly doesn't hurt.


Barbarian

Barbarian Rage: This isn't actually as good as the Berserker's enrage since it doesn't protect against a few things like Imprisonment and Feeblemind. It still lets you get high strength, high constitution, and a huge number of immunities however so you really can do no wrong with it.


Monk

Stunning Blow: Its a save vs spell or be stunned ability. Thankfully however you get a whole 1.5 rounds to stun what is likely to be one enemy (this stunning ability should stay active for 6 seconds but it actually lasts 9). Potentially it can be potent but you'll really want to look into using Greater Malison before its used against some of the tougher enemies.

Lay on Hands: The same as the Paladin spell except it only casts on the monk. Suns Soul Monk's also get this (but Dark Moon Monk's don't).

Quivering Palm: This is a good takedown ability for larger enemies that aren't immune to a slay effect. People for instance have used it to take down dragons quickly. Dark Moon Monks also get this (but Sun Soul Monks don't).


Monk Kits

Sun Soul Monk

Sun Soulray: This is actually a really good ability. It hits sort of in a cone and its best used against undead. Its also not party friendly. Still, it can be good as a means of spellcaster disruption if nothing else. There are also a lot of undead to use it on in BG2EE.

Flaming Fist: This is only good for disrupting enemy mages. Like the frozen fist its good for this because its damage bypasses stoneskin and mirror images.

Greater Sun: Its a Fireshield (red) spell. Its nice to have but having your monk hit (in order to get it to do damage at all) probably isn't worth it.

Sun Soulray: Its an alright ability. I'd say the best use for it is you can use it like a Sunray spell and have a chance of blinding any enemies.


Dark Moon Monk

Detect Illusions: This is probably the most useful ability you can put towards as a Dark Moon Monk.

Frozen Fists: It does an extra 2 cold damage each hit. In BG2EE it becomes a lot more useful against mages since it can bypass their Stoneskin or Mirror Images and therefore disrupt their spellcasting.

Blindness: If you've got a mage then take glitterdust. Your monk will likely be better off fighting up close than casting this.

Blur: This is probably one of the better ability/spells that the Dark Moon Monk gets in BG2EE. Partly because of the AC bonus but mostly because of the saving throw bonus.

Vampiric Touch: This is only really going to be useful at the start of BG2EE. At a certain point hitting with your fists will do more damage. Especially if you've got a means of getting 19 strength.

Warrior Higher Level Abilities

Critical Strike (requires Power Attack)

Its an ability whose main benefit is that it guarantees that you hit. Many enemies have protection from critical hits by the time you get this so always hitting is really its biggest benefit. Combine this with a character using speed weapons (Belm, Kundane) and Improved Haste and you can deal some awesome amounts of damage.


Deathblow

Few enemies in ToB are going to be this low level. Take this if you are going for Greater Deathblow. Otherwise take Critical Strike, Greater Whirlwind, or Hardiness instead.


Greater Deathblow (requires Deathblow)

This ability can prove to be useful but the problem is that its entirely reliant on you knowing what the level of your enemy is. There are sections of Throne of Bhaal where there are many enemies that have 12 or less health. However, there are other parts where they don't. Its kind of a crapshoot. Its great if you are playing with a small party because you'll get it in SoA (where it is extremely useful against Mind Flayers, Beholders, Demons, and a number of other enemies) but in ToB whether or not you know if it will work is a lucky guess for new players or a matter of metagaming for newer players. Personally I'd probably take Greater Whirlwind, Critical Strike, or Hardiness over it.

That said it is very useful for ranged characters, particularly those using Improved Haste. Fire Seeds, Arrows of Detonation or Frag Grenades from the Big Metal Rod can be used in combination with this ability to kill enemies in a large area.


Greater Whirlwind Attack (requires Whirlwind)

This is particularly useful for characters that can't be hasted, like Monks. Other characters that are using two-handed weapons will also benefit from this. Its a very useful ability to have on hand.


Hardiness

This is a must spell for any warrior character. In ToB AC becomes less important because there are some enemies that have obscenely low Thac0 (to the point where chances are many of their attacks will hit you anyways. What this does is it significantly lessens that blow. You can combine this with Barbarian/Dwarven Defender damage resistance, Armor of Faith or the Defender of Easthaven (or any of the items that give specific resistance to a damage type) to get extremely high physical damage resistance. You can't however combine it with the dwarven defender's Defensive Stance.



Power Attack

If you've got Improved Haste active then this can prove to be quite useful particularly if you have 8-10 attacks per round. Its save penalty is enough that with multiple attacks it should work, and immunity to stun is one of the rarer immunities.


Resist Magic

There is a 5th level priest spell that should be able to do this for you at this level (it will likely give you about 40% magic resistance but for a longer duration). This is a decent ability but nothing special.


Smite (requires Critical Strike)

To be honest I hate this ability. Its just a royal pain to use with fighters and even ranged characters would be generally better off using Greater Whirlwind to maximize their damage output.


Tracking

Its a neat ability but it only works in areas that they've written in a description (so nowhere in SoA). Basically feel free to check it out if you feel like you have the HLA's you wanted anyways but don't take it for any tactical or practical reasons.


War Cry

Its just a Horror spell. Personally I can't believe they designed a higher level ability that is no different than a 2nd level arcane spell. The only thing it has going for it over Horror is the fact that it bypasses magic resistance. But its still not worth taking since enemies are very likely to save against it.


Whirlwind Attack

Pretty good ability for Swashbucklers. For any warrior character this is a required choice to get access to Greater Whirlwind.

Rogue Activable Abilities

Thief

Pick Pocket: Way more useful in BG2EE than it was in BGEE. You can pickpocket a guards and especially "rich" people and have a very low chance of getting a high level scroll from that. Otherwise in some cases you can sell an item to a fence, steal it from them, and sell it back for unlimited money. You won't need any more than 100, though it doesn't hurt to put more into it.

Open Locks: Its a pretty staple ability for any thief. You aren't going to find anything that you absolutely need in a lock, but unless you are an assassin you can absolutely afford to put 100 into this. You won't need any more than 100.

Find Traps: This is pretty much a stable ability in the game. You can make it through the game without disarming traps but this will go a long way towards making your life easier in that regard. No more than 100 needed here either.

Stealth (Move Silently/Hide in Shadows): The thing with stealth is that any area can theoretically give anywhere between a +100 bonus to your stealth to a -100 penalty. All areas are going to fall somewhere in this range (which will depend upon the time of day as well). Your actual ability to stealth is determined by taking both your Move Silently and Hide in Shadows values, adding them together, dividing them by two, and then penalizing them based whether or not you are in shade/the time of day. Either way it really doesn't matter if the numbers you have for Hide in Shadows or Move Silently aren't even (or are vastly different in number between each other). I'd try to get them both to as close to 100 as possible if you plan on doing a lot of backstabbing or scouting. Get it higher (150-200) if you are a shadowdancer.

Detect Illusions: This is a great ability in BG2EE. It will work on any kind of illusion spell. It basically is a free casting of True Sight except that it can't be interrupted (provided you don't let the character run off and fight someone). No more than 100 needed here.

Set Traps: This is actually a very useful skill to have. Traps are a very easy way of preparing for tough battles (that you've scouted out) because most enemies in this game won't even react to them. Those that do basically are exclusively ToB or perhaps Beamdog additions to the game. These are especially great if you want to challenge the Cowled Wizards, since you can lay them down and then cast a spell to draw them exactly where your traps are. They even do poison damage at higher levels. No more than 100 needed here.



Thief Kits


Swashbuckler

None


Assassin

Poison Weapon: It coats your weapon in a very effective poison and its an ability that is staying active on your character for 4 rounds longer than its supposed to. Basically its the best feature of the Assassin kit (the backstab increasing is nice but you won't get much use of it by comparison). For cheesiest results combine this with any Arrows of Detonation you find (pretty rare) or druids Fire Seeds. Watch your enemies die in a matter of seconds!


Bounty Hunter

Special Snare: Its nice to have an additional trap. I find the maze effect that these eventually do to be more annoying than anything, but that is more a matter of personal preference. Unlike in BGEE you can also throw these traps, so that makes them quite effective if you want to attack enemies that are just out of your line of sight.


Shadowdancer

Shadowstep: In a smaller party I could see this having some kind of tactical use but having your Shadowdancer go in and out of stealth takes a lot of micromanagement.

Stealth: Technically their stealth acts differently because you can hide in plain sight. Its worth noting this in my book. It actually can be pretty useful against enemy spellcasters because you can make them cancel their spells if you hide just after they started casting at you.

Bard

Bard Song: The basic bard song just removes fear. Thats it. That said it won't matter where your party all is it will affect all of them (even if they are on another map).


Bard Kits

Blade

Offensive Spin: This is just a superb ability. The max damage on hit is only otherwise available to Kensai or cleric in BG2EE and it also gives a bonus (APR bonus and Thac0/damage bonus) sufficient enough to boost your bards damage and Thac0 to be much closer to a fighters.

Defensive Spin: Its an excellent ability because it will give you obscenely low AC. For best results use it with the Ring of Free Action so that you can move around while it is active.


Jester

Jester Song: In BG2EE this ability becomes quite a bit better because the saving requirements are lowered and the number of effects it causes increases. Also it bypasses magic resistance, which spells like Confusion and Slow won't do. Its best used if you are under an invisibility spell (using it won't break invisibility).

Skald

Skald Song: Its a decent ability in BGEE that becomes quite exceptional in BG2EE (at least until the Improved Bard Song). Like any bard song you basically can't do anything with the character while it is under effect, so its usefulness without access to some of the cheesy things you can do in BG2EE (like having a Mislead do the song instead of your character) is debatable. It also has the unfortunate status in BG2 of getting made irrelevant by the Enhanced Bard Song HLA. Though given its strength you can probably pass on getting the Enhanced Bard Song, at least initially, in favour of some Spike Traps or Use Any Item instead.

Rogue Higher Level Abilities

Alchemy

The potions you get from this are pretty lackluster and you have better abilities to choose from.


Assassination (non-Swashbuckler thieves only)

You'll really want at least one speed weapon in your off hand to make this reliable enough to be worth it. As I mention later on its a very useful ability for a simulacrum created by Vhailor's Helm. Its probably best in the hands of a fighter/thief however because of their increased APR and Thac0.

Note: Swashbuckler's actually get access to Whirlwind instead of Assassination.


Avoid Death

This is actually a decent ability because of the health bonus. For a thief 20 health is the equivalent of 10 levels of health (after level 10) and given your options its not the worst thing you can pick. Don't bother picking this up for the immunity to death spells since Death Ward can do that. The reduced saving throws against death are also nice to have but chances are they are already going to be pretty low. Either way I probably wouldn't consider taking this until you've got Use Any Item as well as 7 traps picked out.


Enhanced Bard Song

This thing is just ridiculously good because Mislead's/Similacrums can also sing. So you don't even need your bard himself singing to get the benefit. +4 damage with every attack will end up making a huge difference for your fighters (the Thac0 and AC won't likely be as helpful) and the immunities it provides are pretty helpful as well. Best of all it stacks with itself, so you could have your character, a mislead image, and a similacrum all singing together which would give everyone else in your party +12 to their damage, -12 to their AC and Thac0, and +15% magic resistance.


Evasion

Pick this if you want Greater Evasion. Otherwise pass on it.


Greater Evasion (requires Evasion)

Its a good upgrade for Evasion but to be honest there are better abilities to be taking at this level. AC doesn't become entirely irrelevant in ToB but bonuses towards it also aren't that spectacular at this stage. Even the saving throw bonus is at best decent because many spells at this stage don't even use them anymore.


Magic Flute

I wouldn't bother with it. Nothing it provides is really worth it at this level.


Set Exploding Trap (non-Shadowdancer thieves only)

There are probably a few enemies that this is worth using against compared to Set Spike Trap (because they are weak against fire but not piercing damage) but they are so few in number and not any real threat. I wouldn't bother with this personally.


Set Spike Trap (non-Shadowdancer thieves only)

20d6 damage, never misses, ignores magic resistance and doesn't involve saving throws. 3 of these will likely kill any enemy in the game. Like any trap they also do damage to any enemy in their area of effect, making their damage output beyond amazing.


Set Time Trap (non-Shadowdancer thieves only)

Its a useful trap to have. I'd still focus on getting Set Spike Trap abilities though.


Scribe Scrolls

The scrolls you get from this pretty much suck by the time you get this. I wouldn't bother with it, especially since scrolls aren't cast at your characters level (they are either cast at level 10 or the lowest level that spell has).


Shadow Form (Shadowdancer only)

This is actually pretty good since it turns your thief into basically a tank. Its probably the best of the shadowdancer exclusive HLA's. I would keep in mind though that we are still talking about a thief here, so you have a much more limited amount of health compared to an actual fighter. Other than that its at best alright. The invisibility it grants won't be that great in ToB because a lot of enemies innately see through invisibility.


Shadow Maze (Shadowdancer only)

Unfortunately by the time you get this enemies are likely to have really low saving throws. The -4 helps a lot but without a Greater Malison cast on top of it you are taking a big gamble by relying on a save or nothing ability. Also I really don't see what makes the ability so useful because you can't set any traps in preparation for the enemy returning. You can buff yourself but thats about it. Overall its an odd choice in my opinion.


Shadow Twin (Shadowdancer only)

This is actually an excellent ability. You can have this twin and the simulacrum from Vhailor's Helm active at the same time, giving you potentially 3 different characters that can use abilities like Shadow Form to tank enemies. Otherwise its great because of Use Any Item. You can take advantage of this to use up any scroll or any item with a charge you'd like provided its the twin using the item/scroll. Overall potentially its a very useful ability.


Use Any Item

This is just a ridiculously useful ability. The only restriction that it doesn't ignore when it comes to items is NPC only restrictions (this is new to BG2EE) but otherwise you can use it to equip your thief/bard with any armor or item you wish.

Some suggestions include:

Equip Vhailor's Helm along with scrolls for Time Stop and Shapechange. Activate Vhailor's Helm and have the simulacrum use the Shapechange scroll. Have them shapechange into a Mind Flayer and use Improved Haste on them. Now move everyone into battle and have the simulacrum activate their Time Stop scroll. They've now got 3 rounds to attack any enemy they please and 8 apr to do so. Every attack they make hits and every attack that hits drains 5 intelligence from an enemy. You can kill so many enemies with an ability like this its just fantastic.

Alternatively you can use this simulacrum to cast any particular scrolls you please, set traps as you'd like, or use the enhanced bard song (if you are a bard). You can also use it combined with an Assassination ability to have a very powerful backstabbing character.

You can also equip class exclusive items that you normally could never use, like Carsomyr or the Blessed Bracers. In any case the ability provides a lot of options for you.

NPC Unique Specific Abilities (minor spoilers)

Hexxat

Children of the Night: Allows you to summon a handful of low level creatures. If nothing else they can serve as distractions.

Domination: Works just like the wizard spell. So its really not that great. She will get extra uses of Domination at levels 14 and 24.

Drain Blood: Gives her a chance of reducing an enemies constitution (which may lower their health points) and possibly cause them to fall unconscious. It can be useful for on the fly situations but overall I'd say its not that great because its a save or nothing ability that only works on one creature.


Jan

Create Bruiser Mates: I've found that you can sort of use these things as traps. You can attack a party member (turn off the AI before doing this) and have these things float around (they look like skull traps) where you plan on bringing an enemy to. They are after all party friendly and attacking your party members with them won't hurt your party members.

Otherwise Jan just doesn't have the APR for them to be worth it (especially since they don't provide a saving throw penalty).


Mazzy

Strength: This gives her a strength boost that can vary between 18/50, 18/75, and 18/00 (for the moment the 18/00 version if used twice will actually will give you double its normal -4 Thac0 boost). This is by far her best ability. Especially until you get access to more strength items.

Lay on Hands: This is the same as what monks have. Its a pretty good ability but it only works on her. On a plus side she gets more of these as she levels.

Haste: This works the same as the mage spell Haste, except it only does the effect on her (which frankly in most groups isn't that great of an ability).

Invoke Courage: This gives Mazzy protection from panic. Its an alright ability but like her other abilities it only works on her so it has limited use (especially since protection from panic is a fairly easily obtained protection).


Minsc

Berserk: This does a number of things. For the two turns (2 minutes in real-time) that it lasts it increases his strength and dexterity by 2 and increases his total health by 15. It also provides immunity to charm, panic, sleep, confusion, stun, maze, level drain, hold, and feeblemind. However, in combat situations you will lose control of him so its best used with caution. If you have Keldorn in your group he is able to calm Minsc down after this is used. Also the 15 health that he gains will be removed when the effect ends, so make sure to not have less than 15 health with him while he is going berserk.

Overall I'd say its a decent ability for smaller parties. But losing control of your character makes it a very risky ability to use either way.


Wilson

Enrage: Once a day (and more often as you level up) you can activate his Enrage ability so that he receives a -2 bonus to his THAC0, a +2 bonus to damage, and a -2 bonus to his Armor Class. The enrage also grants immunity to charm, fear, confusion, feeblemind, hold, stun, and sleep for 1 turn (a few of these aren't mentioned in the kit description but if you look into the game files they are actually in effect with the rage). I would highly recommend you take advantage of this ability because it will help him a fair bit. Its not as effective as other similar abilities found on other characters in the game (namely Korgan) but it is very useful. Unlike Minsc's ability you actually retain control over him.

Class Specific Activable Abilities.

Main Character Plot Acquired Abilities

High/mid reputation abilities

Cure Light Wounds

- Its a nice healing spell to have for healing when resting but on a practical level the amount of health it heals is too small for it to be much of any use otherwise.


Slow Poison

- Staple anti-poison spell. Honestly poison is a bigger threat in BGEE than it is in BG2EE. Still doesn't hurt to have this though.


Draw Upon Holy Might

- Fantastic spell. Compared to the cleric version however it has a really long casting time. Best to use this ability before battle and not during it.


Low reputation abilities

Larloch's Minor Drain

- Just like the level 1 mage spell. Its nice to have for healing reasons or to disrupt spellcasting because its a quick cast. It wasn't that great in BGEE and it still isn't now.


Horror

- Decent crowd control spell that functions the same as the level 2 arcane spell Horror. If you just want to have enemies disposed of temporarily while you focus on a particular enemy then its a usable spell, but its saving throw makes it increasingly unreliable.


Vampiric Touch

Low reputation characters get shafted here. In BG2EE this spell is going to be most useful in the early parts of the game but the amount of damage it does isn't enough to make it useful otherwise.


Slayer

This is a great form because it gives a bunch of otherwise not easily acquired immunities. The big one being immunity to imprisonment. You also hit as though you are using a +5 weapon and your attacks themselves are great (1d8 damage as well as 2 cold damage, plus strength bonuses from having 25 strength). The downside of course is that unless you can a spell to absorb magic damage (like Protection from Magical Energy) the ability will cause you to take 1500 magic damage (magic resistance won't help here). You also cannot rest or save while in this form.