Nalia can't cast any spells.

cmih

In my game, Nalia has lots of spells memorized, but she can't cast *any* of them. They are all sort of grayed-out. Her intelligence is 17, but her wisdom is only 9. Is that why she can't cast any spells? Was that wisdom level just bad luck? Thanks.

CamDawg

Are you wearing armor?

Heindrich

I suspect u are wearing armour... also NPC stats are not random. All the NPCs have pre-determined stats, so u don't need to worry about a bad roll. Nalia is just not very wise.

Also... it sounds like u are totally new to this game and u are playing BG 2.

I REALLY recommend that you start with BG 1. It'd give you a chance to ease yourself into the magic system starting from lv1... otherwise BG 2 can feel pretty overwhelming since your party start off as relatively experienced adventurers with quite a lot of tricks and abilities.

elminster

Others have pointed this out but I just want to clarify that you can't normally wear armour while casting mage spells. You can however for priest spells (its rather odd in that sense). There are exceptions to this rule (elven chainmail) however in the case of Nalia you will want to give her some kind of a robe. Alternatively the spells armour, ghost armour, and spirit armour can work well too.

cmih

CamDawg, Heindrich1988, and elminster,

You were all right. I had Nalia wearing armor. I had no idea wearing armor would prevent a mage from casting spells. I actually did complete BG1, but none of my characters in that game were dual-class, so I never put armor on a mage before. I will get rid of the armor and give her a robe. Funny thing is, I've played the game for several hours with Nalia wearing armor and not being able to cast any spells. The game should get a lot easier now, and it will cost a lot less to identify items! Thank for the quick replies!

Edwin_Odesseiron

Nalia comes wearing a robe when you recruit her, which means you would have had to equip her with armour yourself. At which point the message that comes up immediately upon equipping saying: "Your wizard spells have been disabled" should have been a telltale sign.

Heindrich

@Edwin_Odesseiron

Those messages are easy to miss. I can't tell you how many times I'd try cast a spell, and then waited ages before realising the message 'Sanctuary'd/invisible creatures cannot be the target of a spell', or words to that effect.

Edwin_Odesseiron

That's different. Your situation is understandable. It gets lost in a wall of text, among numerous other combat effects taking place at the same time.

This is literally one line. The only writing that pops up on an otherwise stationary screen where nothing else is happening.

NetsOne

I missed that 1 line also because I was watching the drunks in the bar and the text box collapsed. I went to talk 2 one of the drunks and missed it! I also played BG1 but forgot because it was in 2003 :-)