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ARCANE SPELL GUIDE FOR NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
By tno77 (Daniel Palmer)
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As a D&D video game veteran, I have always had a fondness for playing as
an arcane caster. The tactical flexibility offered by a mage or sorcerer
is second to none. Mages can buff allies, disable opponents, nuke groups
of enemies, or flat out annihilate them with save or die spells.
Compared with Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, arcane casters appear to
get the short end of the stick in Neverwinter Nights 2. A lot of enemies
are immune to instant death effects and mind-affecting spells, which
were two strengths of mages. Paralyze has been nerfed, and many spells
that incapacitate the enemy (eg. stun, sleep, paralyse) don't result in
automatic hits. The number of effective damage spells has dwindled. You
don't have access to game-breakers such as Time Stop, Mislead, Project
Image, or Spell Trap.
Yes, arcane casters aren't quite as good as they were in Baldur's Gate
II, but they will outclass fighters, rogues, and even clerics, *if* you
make prudent spell selections. And this is where the problem arises.
Determining which spells are useful, and which aren't, requires a lot of
trial and error. You need foreknowledge of game mechanics, what enemies
you will be facing in the game, any errors with the in-game
documentation, and what works well in practice vs. theory. This is why I
compiled a list of arcane spells in Neverwinter Nights 2 and assessed
each one's value.
This guide assumes you are playing the Original Campaign. However, the
advice should hold true for Storms of Zehir and Mask of the Betrayer.
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GENERAL COMMENTS ON ARCANE SPELL EFFECTS
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- Mind-affecting spells include some of the most powerful status effects
in the game (stun, sleep, daze, charm, paralysis and confusion). Enemies
affected by these spells are rendered inert (except in the case of
confusion, where they may attack the nearest creature). Unfortunately,
every man and his dog has immunity to these effects in NWN2,
particularly your most deadly enemies, which include constructs, undead,
and some boss monsters. Also, unlike previous D&D games, enemies
affected by these spells are not automatically hit if an attack is made.
- Hold person spells work differently from previous D&D games. Each
round the enemy gets a new chance to save against the paralyse effect.
If they succeed, the spell is cancelled. This greatly reduces the value
of Hold Person type spells.
- Blindness, slow and knockdown are powerful disabling spells.
Furthermore, they are not considered mind-affecting, meaning that very
few of your enemies will be immune to them.
- There are several spells in this game that belong to the Bigby's Hand
set. Most of these spells don't use a saving throw, but a grapple check.
The grapple check is heavily biased in favour of the caster, and only
large enemies with a very high strength have a decent chance of
resisting.
- The paralysis inflicted by Bigby's Grasping Hand/Bigby's Clenched Fist is
different from regular paralysis. It lasts for the entire duration of
the spell if the enemy fails a grapple check. Unlike normal paralysis
spells, it is not considered mind affecting and will therefore affect
undead/constructs. It will prevent the enemy from moving, but not from
attacking. Therefore it is very useful against melee enemies, but not so
much against archers/wizards.
- Save or die spells are quite powerful. Unfortunately, like
mind-affecting spells, quite a few enemies are immune to death effects,
including constructs and undead. The exception to this are petrification
spells (Flesh to Stone and Power Word: Petrify) which are not considered
death effects. Petrification will not effect enemies who have scripted
events or magic immunity.
- There are a number of useful spells that require the caster to make a
successful ranged touch attack against the opponent. To simplify, you
want your PC to have a high dexterity modifier and attack rating, and
for your enemy to have a low dexterity modifier/dodge factor/deflection
rating. Enemies who rely on dodge/dexterity to be hit (eg. rogues and
shadows) are less likely to be hit by ranged touch attacks than enemies
who rely on body armour (eg. fighters, golems)
- Try to tailor your disabling spells to work against the enemy's
weakest saving throw. For example, wizards have low fortitude saves,
making Finger of Death or Flesh to Stone an obvious choice. Warriors are
a little more tricky. While they often have low will saving throws,
making mind affecting spells seem an obvious choice, many also have
immunity to mind effects. In this cause, you should employ spells that
use a grapple check or ignore saves all together, such as enervation, or
spells that roll against reflex saves, such as Web and Sunburst. You
could also choose to soften up the enemy with spells that lower
fortitude saves. These include the aforemention enervation, the bard's
Curse Song, and the cleric's Prayer, Doom and Battletide Spells.
As a rule of thumb:
- Warriors have low will saves and high fortitude saves.
- Wizards have low fortitude saves and high will saves.
- Clerics have high will saves and low reflex saves.
- Thieves have high reflex saves and low will saves.
- Everyone except thieves have low reflex saves. There is one all or
nothing disabling spell in the game that works against reflex saves, and
therefore is also one of the best (ie. Sunburst).
- Summoning spells are under-rated. Yes, summoning spells at lower
levels become redundant quickly, but higher level summons provide better
damage output than most damage spells, benefit from party buffs, and act
to draw fire from your caster.
- Many enemies in this game have significant resistance to a form of
elemental damage. Fire is by far the most common, followed closely by
cold. Acid, magical and electrical resistance aren't common, but you
will encounter them against some more irritating enemies. Immunity to
sonic damage is very rare.
- There are two types of spells that 'sound good in theory, but suck in
practice'. The first type are 'damage over time' spell. Certain spells
can deal more cumulative damage over time than instant effect damage
spells (eg. Incendiary Cloud vs. Ice Storm). However, in practice you
want enemies dead as quickly as possibly. The AI also has a nasty
tendency to move out cloud spells. The second type of spell is the melee
touch spell/cone spell. No matter how good a spell sounds on paper, it's
usually a real bad idea to get within touching range of an enemy. The AI
already loves to focus fire on your spell casters, so there's no reason
to encourage it further.
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SPELL RANKINGS
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Following is a list of all available wizard spells, along with an
analysis and ranking. The ranking ranges from highly recommended to
recommended, marginally useful, situational, and avoid.
Highly recommended spells are 'must have' spells that work against a
wide range of enemies and have significant negative effects (if a
disabling or damage spell), or have a long duration and grant
significant beneficial effects (if a buffing spell). Recommended spells
are ones which you won't be using often, but are nice to have on hand.
Marginally useful spells have decent effects, but are inferior to spells
on the same level, or lower levels. Situational spells are those that
aren't worth spending a spell slot on in normal gameplay, but may be
useful in certain rare encounters. Spells that should be avoided are
those that don't any real use.
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Level 1
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Blades of Fire: With a duration of 2 rounds, this spell is a complete
joke, particularly when compared with the druid spell - Avoid
Burning Hands: Due to the reflex save that allows for half damage, the
damage output from this spell is inferior to that of magic missile. And
that's bad. It might be useful as a troll killer, but that's about it -
Avoid
Charm Person: A disappointing spell since it has been toned down.
No longer will a charmed creature attack allies of the caster.
Furthermore, the duration is ridiculously short - Avoid
Color Spray: The duration is poor, targeting the spell is awkward, and
lots of enemies resist stun. Still, at least its effects aren't limited
by hit dice - Marginally useful
Cause Fear: Like Sleep, this becomes redundant early on due to the hit
dice limit - Avoid
Detect Undead: Avoid
Endure Elements: A once off 20 point reduction in elemental damage is
trivial - Avoid
Enlarge Person: A fantastic spell for *all* party members. Contrary to
the spell description, you have +3 magical damage added to melee *and*
ranged attacks, independent of the strength bonus, in exchange for a -1
attack and armour penalty. Considering that Power Attack shackles you
with a -6 attack penalty, I'd say this is a bargain - Highly
recommended.
Expeditious retreat: Increases movement rate (not attack rate) for a
short duration of time - Avoid
Grease: An *amazing* spell for this level. Enemies who fail their reflex
save can't move. Those who succeed have their movement rate drastically
reduced. It bypasses magic resistance and Freedom of Movement. Plaster
the battlefield with grease, and then pick off oncoming melee enemies
with missile weapons at your leisure - Highly Recommended
Identify: High lore, a merchant, or certain magical items can identify
your items - Avoid
Low-light vision: Cast a light cantrip if you find things a little too
dark - Avoid.
Mage Armor: A +4 to AC bonus is always useful, even late in the game
when you can craft your own equipment. Better yet, the duration is
fantastic, and unlike previous games, it can be targeted on anyone -
Highly recommended
Magic Missile: The staple spell of a mage in any D&D game, and highly
over-rated. When the damage a spell deals is outclassed by a slingstone,
look elsewhere. - Avoid
Magic Weapon: Is made redundant by Greater Magic Weapon on Level 3 - Avoid
Minor Elemental Orbs: A decent damage spell for Level 1 that offers no
save, ignores magic resistance, and can critical hit. Note that the
sound orb does less damage (1d6 vs 1d8), and that fire and cold are the
most commonly resisted elements - Recommended
Protection From Alignment: A +2 bonus to deflection is trivial
considering all the gear that offers deflection bonuses, but a +2 to all
saves, and immunity to mind effecting spells against good or evil isn't
bad for a level 1 defensive spell - Recommended
Ray of Enfeeblement: When empowered, this spell will significantly
reduce an enemy's attack rating and damage output, *without* offering a
save against the effects. Very useful against hard hitting enemies -
Highly recommended.
Reduce Person: At best, you gain +2 bonus to AC and attack. Enlarge
person is better - Avoid
Shield: A +4 shield bonus is a better bonus than most shields provide.
It's a shame it can only be targeted on the caster - Recommended
Shocking Grasp: A touch attack that does as much damage as a melee
weapon, but can be countered by spell resistance, and doesn't gain any
bonus from strength modifiers - Avoid
Sleep: Becomes redundant early on due to all enemies exceeding the
hit-dice limit - Avoid
Summon Creature I: The summoned critters are far too weak to make this
worthwhile - Avoid
True Strike: Seems useless due to its short duration of 1 round
(actually 9 seconds). However, some of the best spells in the game are
ranged touch attacks, so this guarantees that these spells will hit. Use
this before you bust out those enervations, elemental orbs, polar rays
and avasculates - Highly recommended
Highly recommended:
- Grease: Spell Focus Conjuration
- Mage armour (craft wand)
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- True strike
- Enlarge Person
Recommended:
- Protection from Alignment (craft wand)
- Minor elemental orb (excluding sonic and fire)
- Shield (craft wand)
Comments:
Level 1 offers a fantastic selection of spells, some of which are more
useful than Level 9 spells! In the original campaign, it would be wise
to create wands of mage armour, shield and protection from alignment.
This makes sorcerer spell selection *much* easier. Grease, Ray of
Enfeeblement, True Strike, Enlarge Person and a Minor Elemental Orb
Spell (preferably electricity or acid) will all act as a good foundation
for the budding sorcerer.
If you're not playing the original campaign, things become much
trickier. I'd drop the Minor Elemental Orb spell, as you're going to
have an abundance of better damage spells at later levels, and replace
it with Mage Armour, which is pretty much irreplaceable.
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Level 2
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Animalistic Power: Provides three minor stat bonuses that are
overshadowed by Bull's Strength/Bear's Endurance/Cat's Grace - Avoid
Balagarn's Iron Horn: A duration of 1 round just isn't enough - Avoid
Bladeweave: The DC of the enchantment is always 16, meaning that this
spell becomes redundant quickly - Avoid
Blindness/Deafness: I initially thought this was inferior to Cloud of
Bewilderment in every shape and form, as it only affects a single
target, and does not stun. However, it can affect anything immune to
poison, except undead (due to a bug). Furthermore, enemies move out
of a Cloud of Bewilderment spell. In big battles with lots going on, you
don't want a party-unfriendly spell with inconvenient targeting, so
stick with this spell instead. - Highly recommended
Blindsight: There are are abundance of items in the game which allow you
to cast See Invisibility or Truesight - Avoid
Bull's Strength: Translates to +2 to hit and damage. The effect is minor, but
the duration is fantastic. However, clerics can memorise this - Recommended
Cat's Grace: Translates to a maximum of +2 to AC, reflex saves and to
hit with missiles. Dexterity is the most useful secondary statistic for
everyone, as it offers a bonus to AC and ranged attacks - Highly
recommended
Cloud of Bewilderment: An excellent area disabling spell. Not only is it
a long lasting area of effect cloud spell, it *stuns* and *blinds*, two
of the most dangerous disabling effects in D&D. Even if the enemy is
immune to stun, they will still be blinded. Unfortunately anything
immune to poison is immune to this spell, although you can use this
to your advantage by equipping an amulet of health. The bigger problem
is that is a cloud spell. It's hard to aim this so it doesn't hit any of
your party members, and the AI will move out of the area of effect when
it gets the chance - Recommended
Combust: A mediocre damage spell whose power increases slightly with
level. Scorching ray (which isn't in itself that great) outshines this
by far - Avoid
Curse of impending blades: A -2 penalty to AC is insignificant - Avoid
Darkness: Grants a 20% concealment bonus to anyone in the area of
darkness (equates to a 20% damage reduction) that is also given to
enemies. Too inconvenient to target to be practical in battle - Avoid
Death Armor: Minimal damage, targets only the caster, and you must be
hit for it to trigger. I'd rather avoid getting hit - Avoid.
Eagle's Splendor: Translates into a maximum of +2 to beat the enemy's
saves if the targeted ally is a sorcerer or bard. Generally these
classes will have items equipped which provide larger boosts to that
statistic - Marginally useful
False life: The bonus to hit points is minimal. Cast Bear's endurance if
you want a hefty hit point bonus, and the added benefit of a fortitude
save bonus. Avoid.
Fireburst: A poor damage spell - Avoid
Gedlee's Electric Loop: A mediocre damage spell with a short duration
disabling effect that is easily saved against - Avoid
Ghoul Touch: Not only must you make contact with the enemy, the paralyze
effect can be resisted every round - Avoid
Gust of Wind: The Knockdown effect is useful, but the duration is too
short - Avoid
Ghostly visage: A decent defense spell early on. 5 damage reduction
without any limit on total damage is useful, and immunity to level 1
spells can help early in the game. However, it can be bypassed by magic
weaponry. What makes this spell interesting is the the 20% concealment.
While Displacement and Improved Invisibility will grant you 50%
concealment, they tend to run out quickly. Another perk is that it makes
you immune to the Entangle effect - Recommended
Invisibility: Invisibility is *the* emergency spell. If one of your
characters is taking a pounding or being pursued by a horde of enemies,
use this spell - Recommended
Knock: A useful spell which makes a thief redundant. However, you should
be able to get this from items - Marginally useful
Lesser Dispel magic: Very rarely will you need to debuff enemies, and
even then, this spell won't be powerful enough to be of value - Avoid
Melf's Acid Arrow: A mediocre damage spell whose power increases
slightly with level. However, the damage is dealt over an extended
period of time, which is inconvenient if you need the enemy dead quickly
- Marginally useful
Mirror Image: Over-rated. Any decent fighter will tear through this in a
couple of rounds, and you're still likely to get hit while the buff is
in effect - Marginally useful
Protection from Arrows: A decent protection spell in the beginning.
However, higher level archers with normal arrows will tear this down
pretty quick, and magic arrows will bypass it entirely - Avoid
Resist energy: Doesn't provide enough damage reduction to be of use -
Avoid
Scare: Becomes redundant early in the game due to the hit dice limit -
Avoid
Scorching Ray: A useful damage spell that offers no saves. The area of
effect option will barely scratch opponents, but concentrating all three
rays on a single target will rack up decent damage - Recommended
See Invisibility: There are are abundance of items in the game which
allow you to cast See Invisibility or Truesight - Avoid
Snake's Swiftness: The duration is one round. Enough said - Avoid
Summon Creature II: Becomes redundant too quickly - Avoid
Tasha's Hideous Laughter: Only disables one enemy, has a short duration,
enemies gain a bonus +4 to save if they are of a different race, and
does not work against enemies immune to mind effects - Avoid
Touch of Idiocy: Unique as it ignores saves and resistances. However, it's
still not worth it. Spellcasters aren't that common nor threatening.
Furthermore, there are far better spells in your arsenal that will not
only incapacitate spell casters, but pretty much every enemy. It doesn't
help that you need to get within touching distance - Marginally useful
Web: Not quite as good as grease, as it allows for spell resistance, and
does not stop an enemy from attacking. It is still a fantastic spell, given
that few monsters are immune to Web, and most have a lousy reflex save
- Highly Recommended
Highly recommended:
- Web - Spell Focus Conjuration
- Blindness/Deafness - Spell Focus Illusion
Recommended
- Cloud of bewilderment - Spell Focus Evocation
- Invisibility
- Bear's Endurance - Craft Wand
- Cat's Grace
- Scorching Ray
Comments:
Level 2 is remarkable in the numerous and very diverse number of spells
available. Unfortunately, a number of them have a very short duration,
making them easy to cut from the selection. Of all the disabling spells,
Web stands far and above the rest. Nothing in the game is immune to web,
and even if the enemy makes their save, they are still slowed.
Blindness/Deafness is a great disabling spell, as only undead are
immune. Use it liberally against enemies with low fortitude saves, but
remember that their duration is lousy. Cloud of Bewilderment can be
good, but is usually avoided by the AI moving out of the area of effect.
Invisibility is always handy to have memorised. Scorching ray isn't
anything special when cast as a normal spell, but shines when it is
empowered, so it may be worth selecting as a sorcerer.
Bear's Endurance can be made into a wand for only 1000 gold. Cat's Grace
and Bull's strength are more pricey, but can be cast by cleric's and
druids, who don't have anything better available at that level anyway.
Personally, as my fifth sorcerer selection, I'd go with Cat's Grace, as
a higher AC, reflex save and attack bonus to missiles is useful for everyone.
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Level 3
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Clairaudience/Clairvoyance: Virtually useless in the campaigns - Avoid
Deep Slumber: As with prior sleep spells, this becomes redundant too
quickly - Marginally useful
Dispel Magic: Unnecessary - Avoid
Displacement: An amazing spell that essentially halves all damage taken
by enemies. The only reason to skip over this is because Improved
invisibility is available on Level 4, which offers 50% concealment and
immunity to single target effects - Recommended
Fireball: Starts out great for crowd control, but gradually wanes as you
encounter tougher and tougher enemies, many of whom have fire resistance
- Marginally useful
Flame Arrow: One of your better damage spells, as it continues to scale
with your level beyond that of Fireball and Lightning Strike. If you
must choose a damage spell from level 3, this is it - Recommended
Haste: An over-powered spell. An extra attack per round can
easily translate into your party dealing an extra 100+ damage per round.
All of the other bonuses are just gravy - Highly recommended
Heroism: Has a nice long duration and provides decent bonuses, but Level
3 hosts even better buffing spells - Marginally useful
Hold Person: The paralyze effect is easily shaken off, and even worse,
it only affects humanoids - Avoid
Improved Mage Armor: A massive bonus to AC, but only +2 more than Mage
Armour on Level 1 - Recommended
Invisibility Sphere: While it's useful to have a group invisibility
spell, improved invisibility is available at level 4, and invisibility
is available at level 2 - Marginally useful
Keen Edge: At lower levels, when you are dealing damage in the range of
10-40 points, this spell doesn't increase your average damage all that
much. At higher levels, you will possess weapons with the keen property,
or invest in improved critical feats - Marginally useful
Lightning Bolt: Enemies aren't going to stand in a nice straight line
for you - Marginally useful
Magic Circle against Alignment - A great duration, and a decent bonus to
saves for all party members. However, your cleric can cast this, and
better buffing spells exist on this level - Marginally useful
Magic Weapon - Another excellent buff. This saves you from wasting a
crafting enchantment on an object, *and* allows you to add a damage
enhancement to backup weapons used against exceptional foes - Highly
recommended
Mass Curse of Impending Blades: -2 to AC is not significant enough to
justify a level 3 slot - Marginally useful
Mass Snake's Swiftness - Has a duration of one round. Enough said -
Avoid
Mestil's Acid Breath: Your third group damage spell on this level,
notable only for the fact that it does acid damage, which is rarely
resisted - Marginally useful
Power Word Maladroit: Short duration, minimal effect - Avoid
Power Word Weaken: Short duration, minimal effect - Avoid
Protection from Energy: 40 points in elemental damage reduction just
isn't noteworthy - Avoid
Rage: Contrary to the in-game description, this spell is only half as
potent as the barbarian's rage. A +2 bonus to strength and constitution
and +1 to will saving throws is not significant at level 3. And you are
penalised with -2 dodge AC - Avoid
Scintillating Sphere: Same as fireball, except enemies are less likely
to have electrical resistance - Marginally useful
Slow: Arguable the best group disabling spell in the game. As discussed
earlier, losing/gaining attacks per round is game changing. Even better,
it will affect enemies who are immune to mental effects. *And* it is
party friendly. This makes boss battles a cakewalk - Highly recommended
Spiderskin - A decent buffing spell that is worth considering if you
don't have barkskin, as these two spells don't stack - Recommended
Stinking Cloud: This would be a fantastic group disabling spell if so
many monsters weren't immune to daze and poison - Marginally useful
Summon Creature III: Becomes redundant too quickly - Avoid
Vampiric Touch: Temporary bonuses to hitpoints are not that useful, and
the damage meted out pales in comparison to fire arrow. Furthermore, it
is a touch spell - Marginally useful
Weapon of Impact: See the comments for Keen Edge - Marginally useful
Highly recommended
- Slow (Transmutation)
- Haste
- Greater Magic Weapon
Recommended
- Displacement
- Flame Arrow - Conjuration
- Spiderskin
- Improved Mage Armour
Comments:
This level spoils us with a number of excellent buffing and disabling
spells. Haste and Slow are must-haves, as only sorcerers/wizards/bards
can cast them. Greater Magic Weapon is worth memorising if you don't
have a cleric who can cast it. Flame Arrow continues to grow in power as
you advance past level 20. This leaves you choosing between Improved
Mage Armour and Spiderskin. Improved Mage Armour has a +2 bonus over
that of Mage Armour, which I don't consider to be significant. You could
craft a wand, but that's expensive. Spiderskin allows you to have a high
natural armour class bonus without keeping a druid in the party. As a
sorcerer, I'd select Haste, Slow, Greater Magic Weapon, Spiderskin, and
Flame Arrow. Flame Arrow would be my last pick, as it only starts to
exceed the damage of scorching ray at around level 16.
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Level 4
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Animate Dead: The allies summoned are weak - Avoid
Assay Resistance: Only works vs. one enemy, and only provides the
increased chance of spell penetration to the caster - Marginally useful
Bestow Curse: Bestows a trivial ability score reduction on a single
target, while also allowing a saving throw - Avoid
Charm Monster: Takes one enemy out of the battle, but you can't attack
them - Avoid
Confusion: An amazing disabling spell with a long range and large area,
that can neutralize entire groups of enemies. Unfortunately, it is not
party friendly, and many bosses and races (undead, constructs and demons) are
immune - Recommended
Contagion: Hits a single target with a minor status reduction that they
can save against. And the DC of the spell is always 13 - Avoid
Crushing Despair: It has a will save, an awkward casting range/area,
won't affect anything with mind-immunity (unlike Prayer), and doesn't
actually lower skill checks (bugged) - Marginally useful
Elemental Shield: The damage inflicted relies on being hit, and most
casters will not want to get hit. Also, the duration is far too short -
Avoid
Enervation: The ultimate debuffing spell that does not allow for a save.
This comes into its own when it is maximised. A reduction in four levels
may not sound like much when NPCs can go past 20 levels, but this will
wreak havoc on their saving throws and attack bonus. Note that hit
points are *not* reduced, nor is damage - Highly recommended
Evard's Black Tentacles: Starts out as an overpowered spell that can
paralyse entire groups of enemies while dealing tremendous amounts of
damage. However, once your enemies acquire an armour class over 25, this
spell will not hit them at all - Situational
Fear: Inferior to Confusion, which has a larger area of effect, and a
more useful disabling effect - Marginally Useful
Greater Invisibility: As good as Displacement on Level 3, but it also
prevents single target spells or items from being targeted against the
individual. Note that the duration is short - Highly recommended
Greater Resistance: +3 to saving throws is nice, but easily replicated
by other spells - Marginally useful
Ice Storm: The damage is a little on the low side. However, it can't be
saved/evaded, and offers two types of damage (bludgeoning and ice) -
Recommended
Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm: The damage is just too low to justify a
slot, particularly when Ice Storm and the Elemental Orb spells are on
the same level - Marginally useful
Lesser Globe of Invulnerability: Immunity to 3rd-level and lower spell
effects is not much use at this point - Avoid
Lesser Spell Breach: You will rarely need to remove spell protections.
Even if you did, there are better spells available for that purpose -
Avoid
Least Spell Mantle: Grants you the ability to absorb up to two middle
level spells, which isn't that useful - Avoid
Mass Reduce Person: Shrink person isn't a useful effect - Avoid
Orb of Acid/Cold/Electricity/Fire/Sound: A fantastic damage spell that
will take down dragons, golems, and elder elementals. Elemental Orbs
offer no save, ignores magic resistance, and can critical hit. Note
that the sound orb does less damage (1d6 vs 1d8), and that fire and cold
are the most commonly resisted elements - Highly recommended
Phantasmal Killer: Your first save or die spell. Unfortunately it checks
against fortitude *and* will saves. As a rule of thumb, if an enemy has
a low will save, they will have a high fortitude save, and vice versa -
Marginally useful
Polymorph Self: The forms that this spell offers aren't worth a spell
slot - Avoid
Remove Curse: I've never been cursed in the game - Avoid
Shadow Conjuration: None of the spells granted by this one are worth a
level 4 spell slot - Avoid
Stoneskin: A damage reduction spell that can be cast on anyone. Nothing
spectacular, but damage reduction never hurts - Recommended
Shout: For the PC, being deafened is a minor inconvenience. For NPCs, it
is even less of a concern - Avoid
Summon Creature IV: The creature isn't strong enough to justify a slot -
Avoid
Wall of Fire: Theoretically this can rack up an enormous amount of
damage if an enemy keeps moving in and out of the wall of flame.
However, in practice this requires way too much micromanagement -
Marginally useful
Highly recommended:
- Improved invisibility
- Orb of Acid
- Enervation
Recommended:
- Stoneskin
- Ice Storm
Situational:
- Evard's - Useful until enemies AC exceeds 25 (mid chapter 2)
- Confusion - Spell Focus Enchantment - Swap out once you starting
encountering enemies who are immune to mental effects
Comments:
A level which has a poorer selection of spells than levels 1-3. However,
several spells stand above the others on this tier, and even those at
higher levels. Enervation is a must-have, as it will strip away a strong
enemy's attack capabilities, and their saving throws. However, remember
that some enemies are immune to attribute damage (ie. Undead and
Constructs). Improved Invisibility grants 50% damage reduction. The Orb
spells ignore saves and magic resistance, and deal enormous amounts of
damage with maximised.
Everything else is icing. Stoneskin is a decent protection spell, but
enemies can easily clock up 100 damage in a short time period.
Phantasmal Killer is your first save or die spell, and has its uses, but
unfortunately offers two separate saving throws and won't work against
enemies with death immunities. Ice Storm isn't bad for a level 4 damage
spell, however you'll encounter a fair number of enemies who are
resistant to ice or bludgeoning damage. Evard's is fantastic early on,
but you'll need to switch it out when enemies exceed 25 AC (chapter 2).
Confusion is great for cracking groups of enemies who aren't resistant
to mind-affecting spells. Personally, I'd select ice storm and Stoneskin
as my fourth and fifth spell picks as a sorcerer.
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Level Five
======================================================================
Arc of Lightning: This spell is unpredictable in whom it targets, is not
party friendly, and does only a moderate amount of damage - Marginally
useful
Bigby's Interposing Hand: A -10 attack penalty against one enemy is
*huge*. Better yet, the enemy can't save against it - Highly recommended
Cacophonic Burst: It's not party friendly, and only does a moderate
amount of damage. Nevertheless, since sonic damage is almost never
resisted, I'd argue that this is actually a decent AoE damage spell -
Recommended
Cloudkill: A cloud spell that reduces a group of enemies constitution
over time, even if they pass a fortitude save. This is useful if you
want to lower fortitude saves. Unfortunately you need to have them stand
in the cloud for quite some time before this spell takes effect, and
many enemies are immune to poison effects - Marginally useful
Cone of Cold: A moderate area of effect damage spell that isn't party
friendly - Marginally useful
Dismissal: Familiars, summons and elementals are not that common -
Marginally useful.
Dominate Person: While it's fun to turns an enemy to your side and peek
at all of their stats, this spell has several weaknesses. First, it only
targets one enemy. Secondly, it only affects humanoids. Given that mind
affecting spells don't work against a large proportion of enemies (eg.
undead, constructs, certain boss characters), it is unacceptable that is
further limited to races that constitute a minority of the enemies in
the game. Third, if you accidently damage your 'ally', they will turn
hostile. And finally, the duration is pathetic - Avoid
Feeblemind: Touch of idiocy (level 2) stomps all over this spell, and it
isn't that good to begin with - Avoid
Firebrand: The only AoE damage spell on this level that is party
friendly. I still prefer Cacophonic Burst, simply because fire damage is
often resisted - Marginally useful
Glass Doppelganger: An interesting spell in theory, but lousy in
practice. The creatures you can summon with other spells are far to
superior to the weak clones you create with this spell. And you need to
get within touching range of the enemy, which is always a risky prospect
- Marginally useful
Greater Fireburst: More damaging than other area of effect spells on
this level, but not party friendly - Marginally useful
Greater Reduce Person: Shrink person just isn't that great - Avoid
Hold Monster: As with all single target paralyze spells, this isn't that
useful - Avoid
Lesser Mind Blank: You will commonly be the target of mind-effecting
spells (eg. sleep, stun, fear, dominate, charm, daze, confusion).
Therefore this spell is a must-have - Highly recommended
Lesser Spell Mantle: Blocks two high level spells. Not worth the spell
slot - Avoid
Mind Fog: A -10 to will saves is one of the biggest debuffing effects in
the game, and is great for softening enemies (particularly those already
with low will saves) up for mind-affecting spells. Unfortunately, most
mind-affecting spells don't remain useful for the entire game -
Marginally useful
Lesser Planar Binding - The creatures summoned by this spell are weak - Avoid
Power Word Disable: You can take multiple targets from 50 to 1 hit point
with a well placed Cacophonic Burst - Avoid
Shroud of Flame: Causes a pathetic amount of damage to one enemy over
time, but only if they fail their reflex save - Avoid
Summon Creature V: Summons a reasonably strong ally, but the duration is
a little too short - Marginally useful
Vitriolic Sphere: A single target spell that does mild to moderate
damage in a small area of effect, and allows for a save - Marginally
useful
Wall of Dispel Magic: Dispel magic is already unnecessary, but having it
in an awkward to use wall form makes it less so - Avoid
Highly recommended:
- Lesser Mind Blank
- Bigby's interposing hand
Recommended:
- Cacophonic Burst - Spell Focus Evocation
Comments:
Level 5 is the nadir for arcane spellcasters, possessing only three
decent spells. Bigby's Interposing Hand will reduce an enemy's attack
rating by 10 without allowing for a save. Immunity to mind-affecting
spells is also necessary, so Lesser Mind Blank is an obvious pick. This
leaves you with Cacophonic Burst, which is easy to target, quick to
cast, and is rarely subject to damage reduction. Some players rave about
the benefits of Cloudkill, but I find it causes more grief for my PCs
than the enemy, who often have immunity to poison.
Level 6
Acid Fog: This spell does negligible damage over time. It also slows the
enemy's movement, but does not reduce their number of attacks per round.
Slowing movement rate is useful, but Grease, Web and Slow already do
this, while also either immobilising or debuffing the enemy - Marginally
useful
Bigby's Forceful Hand: Like most of the Bigby's Hand spells, this
doesn't use a saving throw, but a grapple check, which is done versus
the target's strength and size modifier. Without getting into the
technicals, I'll say that the grapple check is heavily biased in favour
of the caster. Only very large enemies with a high strength will have a
good chance of beating a grapple check. Better yet, while most enemies
are immune to daze, very few are immune to knockdown - Highly
recommended
Chain Lightning: Sounds more impressive than it actually is. The damage
is halved for all secondary targets, and will be halved again if they
succeed their reflex save, meaning that you may only deal 20 damage with
this spell. An empowered Lesser Elemental Orb does more damage that
that! - Marginally useful
Circle of Death: You'll be fighting enemies who exceed 9 Hit Dice very
early in the campaigns, meaning that this spell becomes redundant as
soon as you get it - Avoid
Create Undead: The summons produced by this spell are weak - Avoid
Disintegrate: This spell can causes huge amounts of damage, particularly
if maximised. However, it is inferior to Flesh to Stone. Both use a
fortitude save, but Flesh to Stone will always kill the enemy if
successful. Marginally useful
Ethereal Visage: Contrary to the in-game description, this spell offers
20 damage reduction/adamantium, not 20 damage reduction/magic. That's
quite powerful. Unfortunately the duration is quite short - Recommended
Extract Water Elemental: Does damage that is inferior to disintegrate,
and produces a very weak summon if you're lucky enough to kill your
enemy - Avoid
Flesh to Stone: A save vs die spell that can affect undead and
constructs, making it far more useful than Finger of Death (a Level 7
spell) - Highly recommended.
Greater Dispel Magic: You'll rarely need to dispel any effects in the
game - Marginally useful
Greater Heroism: An excellent buffing spell with a long duration. The
bonus to skill checks is hard to replicate, even with clerics. The bonus
to saves stacks with other save boosting spells, as it is considered a
morale bonus, rather than a magical one - Highly recommended
Globe of Invulnerability: Immunity to level 4 spells just isn't that
useful, and can be emulated by various other protection spells -
Marginally useful
Greater Spell Breach: You'll rarely need to strip away magical defense -
Marginally useful Greater Stoneskin: A fantastic protection spell,
although strong enemy fighters will tear through this quickly -
Recommended
Isaac's Greater Missile Storm: The damage isn't bad, but you can simply
empower or maximise a level 3 or 4 damage spell to obtain a similar
effect - Marginally useful
Legend Lore: It's easy to identify your items without this spell - Avoid
Mass Contagion: Has a DC of 12. Need I say more? - Avoid
Mass Bear's Endurance/Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace/Eagle's Splendor/Fox's
Cunning/Owl's Wisdom: Use multiple castings of the equivalent Level 2
spell instead - Marginally useful Planar Binding: The allies summoned
are weak at this point in the game - Avoid
Stone Body: This offers a decent number of protections. 10 damage
reduction for *hours*, and immunity to poison, stun, blindness, critical
hits, electricity, deafness, disease, and electricity. Half damage from
acid and fire isn't bad either. The arcane failure can be circumvented
with Still Spell - Recommended
Stone to Flesh: I've never had to de-petrify someone - Avoid
Summon Creature VI: The creature summoned is relatively strong, but will
become redundant when you access level 7 and 8 spells - Marginally
useful Superior Resistance: Provides a massive bonus to all 3 saves,
with a fantastic duration - Recommended
Tenser's Transformation: The attack bonus provided by this spell is
significant. However, all of the other bonuses are replicated by other
spells. And even if you want to go toe to toe with the enemy, you're
better off being able to cast spells, which you can't do in this
polymorph form - Avoid
True Seeing: Very rarely necessary, and even when it is, it is
outperformed by blind sight (a level 2 spell) - Marginally useful
Undeath to Death: Completely devastating against undead, if they fail a
will save - Recommended
Highly recommended:
- Flesh to Stone: Spell Focus Transmutation
- Bigby's Forceful hand
Recommended:
- Undeath to Death: Spell Focus Necromancy
- Greater Heroism
- Stone Body
- Greater Stoneskin
- Ethereal Visage
Comments:
Level 6 hosts a slew of inferior spells. However, two stand above the
rest: Flesh to Stone, a save or die spell that will work against
practically everything, and Bigby's Forceful Hand, which knocks enemies
with high fortitude saves on their ass. Greater Heroism is a fantastic
buffing spell, making this my third pick as a sorcerer.
This leaves Undeath to Death, although undead you want to kill with this
often have high will saves. I find Flesh to stone or Bigby's Forceful
Hand to be more effective against undead. Stone Body offers a bunch of
useful protections. However, the need to use Still Spell means you can't
Empower or Maximise your other spells. Ethereal Visage is a decent damage
reduction spell, but it's limited to the caster and has a very short
duration. Greater Stoneskin is a decent damage reduction spell that can
be cast on party members, but seems sort of redundant if you choose to
memorise Stoneskin on Level 4. Still, I choose Greater Stoneskin as my
fourth sorcerer spell pick.
======================================================================
Level 7
======================================================================
Avasculate: Halves one opponent's hitpoints *without offering a save*.
The only thing that will protect them is immunity to death magic, which
unfortunately a lot of boss characters have. Still, this spell is on the
edge of being overpowered. Note that as this spell halves your enemy's
hitpoints, it can also be used to deduce how many hitpoints they have
remaining (ie. whatever damage is inflicted with the ray is also how
much health they have remaining) - Highly recommended
Banishment: At this point, summoned creatures aren't such a big deal -
Marginally useful
Bigby's Grasping Hand: This spell offers no save, but uses the grapple
check, which most enemies will fail. Enemies are held in place, but
still allowed to attack. The paralyze effect works against everything,
including undead, bosses and constructs. Hold melee enemies in place
with this spell, then pelt them from afar with missiles and spells -
Recommended
Control Undead: Dominates one undead enemy for a long duration. While
there are a lot of undead enemies in this game, most of them have very
high will saves - Marginally useful
Delayed Blast Fireball: The damage isn't bad, but it's no better than
Greater Fireburst, and is outclassed by many other Level 7 spells -
Marginally useful
Energy Immunity: Complete immunity to one element is nice, although it's
hard to predict exactly what type of elemental attack will be thrown at
you. The duration is nice and long - Recommended
Ethereal Jaunt: Essentially the level 2 spell invisibility, except it
can't be targeted on allies - Avoid
Finger of Death: A useful save or die spell - Recommended
Greater Shadow Conjuration: Allows you to cast a bunch of barely useful
lower level spells with a +5 to DC - Avoid
Hiss of Sleep: The benefits: It has a colossal area of effect, is party
friendly, and ignores spell resistance. The drawbacks: Most enemies are
immune to sleep - Marginally useful
Mass Hold Person: As with all of the paralyze spells, many enemies are
immune, and it's very easy to shake off - Marginally useful
Mordenkainen's Sword: A moderately powerful summon with a short duration
- Marginally useful
Prismatic Spray: Even if the enemy fails their save, over half of the
effects this spell deals aren't that great. 20 acid damage? 40 fire
damage? Poison ? Paralyze? Pathetic for a Level 7 spell - Avoid
Shadow Shield: The bonus to natural AC is easily replicated with barkskin or
spiderskin. However, 10 damage reduction excluding adamantite (NOT magic
weapons, as stated in game) for such a long duration is already
overpowered. Immunity to death effects, necromancy spells and negative
energy damage is the icing on the cake - Recommended
Solipsism: At this point, you have a variety of spells that disable an
opponent, which don't even require a will save - Marginally useful
Spell Mantle: Blocks 3 high level spells - Marginally useful
Summon Creature VII: The creature summoned is quite powerful -
Recommended Highly recommended:
- Avasculate
- Bigby's Grasping Hand
Recommended:
- Shadow shield
- Finger of Death - Spell Focus Necromancy
- Energy Immunity
- Summon Creature VII
Comments:
Level 7 has a lot of junk spells, but also a handful of overpowered
ones. Avasculate will completely ruin your enemy's day. It has no save
and actually improves as your enemies increase in strength. Bigby's
Grasping Hand is a godsend against high fortitude melee warriors,
holding them in place while you bombard them with arrows and spells.
Shadow Shield is quite nice, with its long duration, damage reduction
and death immunity. However, the damage reduction is similar to greater
stoneskin, and negative energy/level drain protection can be granted by
death ward. Energy Immunity sounds amazing, but I rarely get very little
use out of it, as enemies that hit with high elemental damage are few
and far between. Finger of death is outdone by Flesh to Stone (a Level 6
spell that actually works against Undead and Constructs), although it
never hurts to have more save or die spells. Personally, I'd say that it
might be worth memorising a couple of Shadow Shield's and Finger of
Death's, but Avasculate and Bigby's should dominate your spell slots.
=========================================================================
Level 8
=========================================================================
Bigby's Clenched Fist: The damage is OK, but at this point, the enemies
you'd like to stun are immune to that effect - Marginally useful
Blackstaff: Enchant weapon (a level 3 spell) will grant any weapon a +5
enchantment, and a dispel magic effect on a weapon is useless - Avoid
Create Greater Undead: The vampires summoned by this spell are eaten
alive by the elementals you can summon with Summon Create VIII -
Marginally useful
Greater Shout: 60 damage is lousy, and the stun can be saved against and
has a short duration - Useless
Greater Planar Binding: The creature summoned is not as useful as the
elemental summoned by Summon Creature VIII - Marginally useful
Horrid Wilting: At this point, 120 damage that can be saved against
isn't that impressive. Worse, the spell isn't party friendly, and the
negative damage won't affect undead - Marginally useful
Incendiary Cloud: At this point, an average of 14 fire damage per round
(which can be saved against for half damage) is lousy. A maximised ice
storm trumps this spell any day - Avoid
Iron Body: Outclassed by stone body - Marginally useful
Mass Blindness/Deafness: A decent disabling spell that is outclassed by
sunburst - Useful
Mind Blank: Like lesser mind blank, except it effects all of your party
members at once. It's more economical to cast Lesser Mind Blank multiple
times, since most Level 5 spells suck anyway - Useful
Mass charm monster: A poor disabling spell that is outclassed by
sunburst - Marginally useful
Polar Ray: A decent single target damage spell that is over-rated. A
maximised Elemental Orb spell will outclass this any day - Marginally
useful
Power Word Petrify: A save or die spell that offers no save and ignores
death immunity. This works well with Avasculate. If your
Avasculate does less than 101 damage, then you know a casting of this
spell will succeed - Recommended
Power Word Stun: At this point, everything is immune to stun. And even
then, the stun effect doesn't last that long - Marginally useful
Premonition: The grand-daddy of damage reduction spells. 30 damage
reduction is the highest offered by any spell. Sadly it can only be </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
targeted on the caster, and by this point you have access to numerous
other damage reduction spells (Shadow Shield, Stoneskin, Greater
Stoneskin) - Recommended
Protection from Spells: Spellcasters aren't that much of a threat, and
you can gain bonuses to all saves via other means - Marginally useful
Summon Creature VIII: Summons a powerful elemental that really turns the
battle in your favour - Recommended
Sunburst: The ultimate disabling spell. From reading the spell
description, you'd think that it would only be useful against undead.
However, Sunburst is fantastic against virtually any enemy, as it
functions as a mass blind spell that rolls against reflex saves, meaning
it is almost guaranteed to disable all of your enemies. Better yet, it's
party friendly - Highly recommended
Wall of Greater Dispel Magic: Becomes redundant quickly as your enemy's
level exceeds the roll you require to strip away their buffs -
Marginally useful.
Highly recommended:
- Sunburst - Spell Focus Evocation
Recommended:
- Power Word: Petrify
- Summon Creature VIII
- Premonition
Comments:
Level 8 is the level of redundancy, with *three* summon spells and
4 disabling spells. For me, the spell choice is easy. Sunburst is by far
the best disabling spell, trumping mass charm/blindness deafness/power
word stun. It rolls against reflex saves, which almost every enemy will
fail against, does massive damage against undead, and is party friendly!
Better yet, few creatures are immune to blindness. Bigby's Clenched Fist
sounds useful, until you realise that lots of enemies are immune to
stun. Furthermore, why try to stun one enemy when you can blind multiple
enemies?
Summon Creature VIII would be my second pick. My third selection is
Power Word: Petrify. Use it as an opener against low hp enemies (mages
and rogues), or as a follow up after bombarding them with missiles or
avasculate.
Premonition is useful, but you can cast this using the Level 9 spell 'Shades'.
======================================================================
Level 9
======================================================================
Bigby's Crushing Hand: Look, it's Bigby's Grappling Hand! The only
differences are that it deals moderate blunt damage each round, and is
slightly harder to resist due to a bonus to grapple check. Yes, it's a
little redundant to select this when you have Grappling Hand at Level 7,
but you don't have much better to pick from - Recommended
Burst of Glacial Wrath: I honestly can't think of anything worse than a
damage spell that checks against a fortitude save. The fact that cold
resistance is common, and it has inconvenient targeting, makes this a
lousy spell for Level 9 - Marginally useful
Dominate Monster: As discussed earlier, Dominate just isn't that good,
particularly when a significant proportion of your enemies are immune -
Avoid
Energy Drain: Contrary to the spell description, this spell doesn't
allow for a save. Even then, you're better off relying on maximised
enervations, which will guarantee a drain of 4 levels - Marginally
useful Etherealness: Etherealness is slightly better than being
invisible, but enough to justify a level 9 slot? I doubt it - Marginally
useful
Gate: This summon is inferior to the elemental summons of earlier levels
- Marginally useful
Greater Spell Mantle - It will absorb a few high level spells. This is
unnecessary, as there are better ways to gain complete immunity to
magical effects - Avoid
Mass Hold Monster: As with all once off paralyze spells, it just isn't
that useful - Marginally useful
Meteor Swarm: Meteor Swarm is, and always has been, an over-rated amped
up fireball spell that does more damage to your own party members than
the enemy - Marginally useful
Mordenkainen's Disjunction: Unrivaled in ripping away spell resistance
and protections, it's also very rarely, if ever, needed - Marginally
useful
Power Word Kill: Might be worth considering if death immunity wasn't so
common, and Power Word: Petrify didn't do the exact same thing, while
also bypassing death immunity - Marginally useful
Shades - A very handy spell. By allowing you to cast Premonition and
Summon Creature VIII, it frees up Level 8 spell slots for sunburst, and
spell picks for Sorcerers. Having access to delayed burst fireball
doesn't hurt, either - Recommended
Shadow Simulacrum - A spell that sounds interesting in theory, but isn't
that useful in practice. It doesn't work on the monsters you'd like to
copy, and you need to get close enough to make a touch attack, which is
near suicidal for most arcane casters - Marginally useful
Shapechange - None of the forms provided are any better than having
access to a spellcaster - Avoid
Summon Creature IX - The elder elemental summoned is powerful, but not
that much more than the elemental summoned by the Level 8 spell -
Marginally useful
Wail of the Banshee - A save or die area of effect spell that gets
better as you gain levels. There's only one problem: By the end of the
original campaign, almost everything is immune to death effects. If you
intend to continue on to SoZ or HoU, this spell is very useful - Recommended
Weird - It needs to beat two saves, and is rendered ineffective by death
immunity, mind-affecting immunity, and phantasm/fear immunity - Avoid
Recommended:
- Bigby's Crushing Hand
- Wail of the Banshee (Spell Focus Necromancy)
- Shades
Comments:
Level 9 really is a bit of a let-down. I remember when Baldur's Gate II
offered Level 9 spells such as Time Stop, Imprisonment, and Spell Trap.
Luckily Wail of the Banshee is still present, and would be great, if
only you weren't fighting all those undead when you reach level 17 in
the Original Campaign. Bigby's Crushing Hand is useful for its
paralyse-everything effect, but a significant number of enemies have
damage reduction against bludgeoning damage. Shades allows you to save
on Level 8 spell slots/picks. If you're playing the Original Campaign,
I'd pick Shades, then Wail of the Banshee. On any other
campaign, I'd selection WoTB, then Shades. Bigby's would be my final
pick.
This document is copyrighted to Daniel Palmer 2013.
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