Otiluke's Sphere rarely works to help a party member, and almost never in BG2 once everybody starts to get good saves, because friendly targets still roll a save against it. I would never take it for a sorcerer spell, and I don't even bother to learn it with wizards.
I learned about this the hard way once when I tried to use it to save one of the dukes at Sarevok's coronation. Had two, cast both, Belt "saved" both times, both dukes died, game over.
Otiluke's Sphere rarely works to help a party member, and almost never in BG2 once everybody starts to get good saves, because friendly targets still roll a save against it. I would never take it for a sorcerer spell, and I don't even bother to learn it with wizards.
I learned about this the hard way once when I tried to use it to save one of the dukes at Sarevok's coronation. Had two, cast both, Belt "saved" both times, both dukes died, game over.
This. I was just testing it now and more often than not it seemed to have a successful save against it.
1st level: Blindness, Shield, Charm Person, Spook, MM (or CO if it's the PnP version) 2nd level: Glitterdust, Web, Mirror image, Acid arrow 3rd level: Haste, Slow, MMM 4th level: Emotion, GM
Pretty self explanatory. Charm Person is a floating pick, just take whatever you think will be useful for your play-style. BG is a bit lacking in terms of useful first level spells, so as long as you have blindness and spook, the rest doesn't matter. (If Phantasmal Force and Animate Dead Animals were in, there might be some more competition for slots. Able to summon several 1 hp images of monsters that deal no damage (amount based on caster level) or several low HD undead animals (quantity and quality (HD) based on caster level).
(My game has lots of spells modded to be closer to PnP levels of power, my personal picks are a bit different (Blindness and PfP swapping places back to their true spell levels (2nd and 1st respectively), and CO's effect changing drastically (summons a throwable orb of the chosen color (additional colors becoming available as you level) that causes an effect on hit depending on the color of the orb)).
In order they should be selected: Lvl 1: sleep, blindness, identify, spook, magic missile, chromatic orb Lvl 2: mirror image, horror, scorcher, blur, acid arrow, invisibility/resist fear. Lvl 3: skull trap, dispel magic, ghost armor, remove magic, flame arrow, slow. Lvl 4:stoneskin, ice storm, emotion, greater malison, polymorph self, improved invisibility. Lvl 5:breach, lower resistance, shadow door, cloudkill, phantom blade, cone of cold. Lvl 6:death spell, chain lightning, improved haste, true sight, power word: silence, conjure earth elemental. Lvl 7: finger of death, delayed blast fireball, power word: stun, spell turning, mordi's sword, cacofiend. Lvl 8:horrid wilting, pierce shield, incendiary cloud, improved mantel, symbol fear, simulacrum. Lvl 9: time stop, improved alacrity, summon planetar, dragons breath, shapechange, wail of the banshee
Any thoughts?
Question:
Why pick shadow door for level 5, and inproved invis for level 4? Don't they do about the same thing?
Also, why pick polymorph self, when you are getting shapechange later on?
For level 4, why not get Minor Sequencer? It'll allow you to shoot off a more then 1 spell at a time, and as a sorcerer, you can just reload it at will.
I'm also a huge fan of spider spawn, mainly because a sword spider or 2 (level 12+) can really wreck an enemy mage up, if you get them to waste their death spells on something else. The sheer number of attacks per round that sword spiders get, mean that enemy stone skins are gone very quickly.
Also isn't Ice storm pretty dangerous if you aren't soloing? While I know there aren't a lot of damaging level 4 spells, you may be better off using fire shield (blue) or (red) as a means to protect yourself
I forgot spiderspawn! How could I? That is my favorite sorcerer spell. Derp. Shadow door is for a quick escape in battle, improved inv. is for other party members/ buffing. This is a list for a sorcerer starting at level one in bg1 and going to bg2, not being created at level 30, which is why I have sleep and some spells that seep redundant in retrospect, like cloudkill and ice storm. Ice storm is one of my favorite spells, because it stays around like cloudkill, but is accesable to sorcerers in bg1 with the level cap. I also forgot glitterdust. That could replace scorcher, which is really only useful when you first get it.
I would always be tempted by warding whip at 7 and pierce magic at 6. I'd replace true sight as there's other ways to get it, and cacofiend as I like my summons to be on my side.
Honestly, I think people under-value scorcher. Its a total of 6d6 damage, with no save, over 2 rounds, which with proper moving between, you can turn into a pretty nasty AoE. plus it eats Trolls up pretty nicely.
All for a level 2 spell. I'd probably drop resist fear for glitterdust (unless you are soloing) as a cleric can do it better, and possibly even invis, as improved invis and shadow door are just so much better.
In order they should be selected: Lvl 1: sleep, blindness, identify, spook, magic missile, chromatic orb Lvl 2: mirror image, horror, scorcher, blur, acid arrow, invisibility/resist fear. Lvl 3: skull trap, dispel magic, ghost armor, remove magic, flame arrow, slow. Lvl 4:stoneskin, ice storm, emotion, greater malison, polymorph self, improved invisibility. Lvl 5:breach, lower resistance, shadow door, cloudkill, phantom blade, cone of cold. Lvl 6:death spell, chain lightning, improved haste, true sight, power word: silence, conjure earth elemental. Lvl 7: finger of death, delayed blast fireball, power word: stun, spell turning, mordi's sword, cacofiend. Lvl 8:horrid wilting, pierce shield, incendiary cloud, improved mantel, symbol fear, simulacrum. Lvl 9: time stop, improved alacrity, summon planetar, dragons breath, shapechange, wail of the banshee
Any thoughts?
@meagloth I'd say there are some rather questionable picks here. For starters you only get 5 picks per level and only 4 level 9s at exp cap (although your HLAs don't count towards this). Level 1: cut Identify Level 2: you don't need Resist Fear - have your cleric do it, Blur is a bit meh, Invisibility is meh. Add Web, it's a great spell. Level 3: Skull Trap is great but it's great because the damage doesn't cap at 10d6 so don't make it your first pick. Don't bother with Dispel Magic, you will scarcely need it when you have Remove Magic. Take Shield at level 1 rather than Ghost Armour at level 3 if you want an AC boost. Level 4: Pick Improved Invisibility earlier. Ice Storm I find is just a clumsy spell to use and the damage is unspectacular. Minor Sequencer would be an ok pick. Level 5: I dunno what you're thinking with Phantom Blade, what are you gonna do with your 16 thac0 and 1 apr? With Improved Invisibility you don't need Shadow Door. Just get the wand in place of Cloudkill. Pick Spell Immunity up to make your defences and illusions inpenetrable. Pick Sunfire as it's a great damage spell that doesn't cap at 10d6 and it ignores magic resistance. You might consider Spell Shield if Beholders give you trouble, but I don't think this limited use justifies a pick. Level 6: Protection from Magical Weapons is the best defensive spell in the game, pick it. Earth Elemental is a bit poo, pick Improved Haste earlier. Level 7: Project Image is insanely powerful, pick it. Spell Sequencer is also great (3x Skull Trap harharhar). Take Ruby Ray as your spell protection removal (and drop Pierce Shield at level 8). With Improved Invis and Spell Immunity you won't be targetted so Spell Turning is redundant. Cacofiend is meh, let your cleric cast Finger of Death. Limited Wish might be worth taking too. Level 8: No need for Mantles when you have PfMW, or Pierce Shield with Ruby Ray. Take Spell Trigger for even more big damage. Level 9: Timestop, Wish and Chain Contingency are the best picks. Imprisonment is an easy way of getting rid of single enemies and Shapechange lets you have some fun with the Mindflayer form and Timestop. Wail of the Banshee isn't really necessary as with Skull Trap, Sunfire, ADHW, Dragon's Breath you have great 'crowd control' anyway.
@ryuken87 most of your criticism is justified. I mucked up big thinking that there where 6 spells a level, I got the casting number and pick numbers switched around. I have a special place in my heart for phantom blade, so that may not be the best choice, but sorcerers don't have an int or wis req, so they can have high str. Most of my chars have had very low wis, so wish doesn't work out very well. I generally don't like contingencies or spell triggers, because they aren't worth the spell slot on a sorcerer. Identify is wonderful for sorcerers, especially in bg1, with evermemory.
One thing to keep in mind, especially if you aren't solo-ing, is that you will more often then not have left over spells on your sorcerer by the time you go to rest. Having spells like contingencies, or spell triggers allows you to store those 'wasted' spells and use them again later. Granted, it takes some planning, and you have to resist the urge to cheese things (instant cast 3 horrid wiltings for example via a chain contingency) but its along the same lines of taking identify. You have an almost limitless amount of spells, might as well use them all before you rest for the day.
Comments
I learned about this the hard way once when I tried to use it to save one of the dukes at Sarevok's coronation. Had two, cast both, Belt "saved" both times, both dukes died, game over.
2nd level: Glitterdust, Web, Mirror image, Acid arrow
3rd level: Haste, Slow, MMM
4th level: Emotion, GM
Pretty self explanatory. Charm Person is a floating pick, just take whatever you think will be useful for your play-style. BG is a bit lacking in terms of useful first level spells, so as long as you have blindness and spook, the rest doesn't matter. (If Phantasmal Force and Animate Dead Animals were in, there might be some more competition for slots. Able to summon several 1 hp images of monsters that deal no damage (amount based on caster level) or several low HD undead animals (quantity and quality (HD) based on caster level).
(My game has lots of spells modded to be closer to PnP levels of power, my personal picks are a bit different (Blindness and PfP swapping places back to their true spell levels (2nd and 1st respectively), and CO's effect changing drastically (summons a throwable orb of the chosen color (additional colors becoming available as you level) that causes an effect on hit depending on the color of the orb)).
Lvl 1: sleep, blindness, identify, spook, magic missile, chromatic orb
Lvl 2: mirror image, horror, scorcher, blur, acid arrow, invisibility/resist fear.
Lvl 3: skull trap, dispel magic, ghost armor, remove magic, flame arrow, slow.
Lvl 4:stoneskin, ice storm, emotion, greater malison, polymorph self, improved invisibility.
Lvl 5:breach, lower resistance, shadow door, cloudkill, phantom blade, cone of cold.
Lvl 6:death spell, chain lightning, improved haste, true sight, power word: silence, conjure earth elemental.
Lvl 7: finger of death, delayed blast fireball, power word: stun, spell turning, mordi's sword, cacofiend.
Lvl 8:horrid wilting, pierce shield, incendiary cloud, improved mantel, symbol fear, simulacrum.
Lvl 9: time stop, improved alacrity, summon planetar, dragons breath, shapechange, wail of the banshee
Any thoughts?
Why pick shadow door for level 5, and inproved invis for level 4? Don't they do about the same thing?
Also, why pick polymorph self, when you are getting shapechange later on?
For level 4, why not get Minor Sequencer? It'll allow you to shoot off a more then 1 spell at a time, and as a sorcerer, you can just reload it at will.
I'm also a huge fan of spider spawn, mainly because a sword spider or 2 (level 12+) can really wreck an enemy mage up, if you get them to waste their death spells on something else. The sheer number of attacks per round that sword spiders get, mean that enemy stone skins are gone very quickly.
Also isn't Ice storm pretty dangerous if you aren't soloing? While I know there aren't a lot of damaging level 4 spells, you may be better off using fire shield (blue) or (red) as a means to protect yourself
Shadow door is for a quick escape in battle, improved inv. is for other party members/ buffing.
This is a list for a sorcerer starting at level one in bg1 and going to bg2, not being created at level 30, which is why I have sleep and some spells that seep redundant in retrospect, like cloudkill and ice storm. Ice storm is one of my favorite spells, because it stays around like cloudkill, but is accesable to sorcerers in bg1 with the level cap.
I also forgot glitterdust. That could replace scorcher, which is really only useful when you first get it.
All for a level 2 spell. I'd probably drop resist fear for glitterdust (unless you are soloing) as a cleric can do it better, and possibly even invis, as improved invis and shadow door are just so much better.
I'd say there are some rather questionable picks here. For starters you only get 5 picks per level and only 4 level 9s at exp cap (although your HLAs don't count towards this).
Level 1: cut Identify
Level 2: you don't need Resist Fear - have your cleric do it, Blur is a bit meh, Invisibility is meh. Add Web, it's a great spell.
Level 3: Skull Trap is great but it's great because the damage doesn't cap at 10d6 so don't make it your first pick. Don't bother with Dispel Magic, you will scarcely need it when you have Remove Magic. Take Shield at level 1 rather than Ghost Armour at level 3 if you want an AC boost.
Level 4: Pick Improved Invisibility earlier. Ice Storm I find is just a clumsy spell to use and the damage is unspectacular. Minor Sequencer would be an ok pick.
Level 5: I dunno what you're thinking with Phantom Blade, what are you gonna do with your 16 thac0 and 1 apr? With Improved Invisibility you don't need Shadow Door. Just get the wand in place of Cloudkill. Pick Spell Immunity up to make your defences and illusions inpenetrable. Pick Sunfire as it's a great damage spell that doesn't cap at 10d6 and it ignores magic resistance. You might consider Spell Shield if Beholders give you trouble, but I don't think this limited use justifies a pick.
Level 6: Protection from Magical Weapons is the best defensive spell in the game, pick it. Earth Elemental is a bit poo, pick Improved Haste earlier.
Level 7: Project Image is insanely powerful, pick it. Spell Sequencer is also great (3x Skull Trap harharhar). Take Ruby Ray as your spell protection removal (and drop Pierce Shield at level 8). With Improved Invis and Spell Immunity you won't be targetted so Spell Turning is redundant. Cacofiend is meh, let your cleric cast Finger of Death. Limited Wish might be worth taking too.
Level 8: No need for Mantles when you have PfMW, or Pierce Shield with Ruby Ray. Take Spell Trigger for even more big damage.
Level 9: Timestop, Wish and Chain Contingency are the best picks. Imprisonment is an easy way of getting rid of single enemies and Shapechange lets you have some fun with the Mindflayer form and Timestop. Wail of the Banshee isn't really necessary as with Skull Trap, Sunfire, ADHW, Dragon's Breath you have great 'crowd control' anyway.