I'm actually surprised more people don't list Magic Missile. It's the first damage spell that most wizards learn, and it still remains at least tangentially relevant throughout a Wizard's career as steady and mostly unblockable damage.
Damn, i cannot decide on one... There are many crazy ones! Simulacrum, summon planetar, greater restoration, magic missile, fireball, spirit armor, chromatic orb, and before i loose count, spell immunity, contigencies/sequencers, and above all, the dewomer... THE, dewomer.
I'm a rather "physical" player. For this reason anything that effectively dispels those annoying enemy protections, allowing me to sort things out with fisticuffs, works for me. I've never bothered with finding out which dispels work against which protections (find the whole scaling protections/dispels thing a bit tedious). Breach is the spell I use most though, since it seems to work in most cases. If I cast a Breach and it doesn't do anything, I usuallly look if I have a higher level dispel available such as Pierce Magic or Ruby Ray. I guess I'm quite sloppy with my arcane magic. If I liked Keldorn I would just bring him along everytime I reach SoA, just to get those mage fights over and done with.
My favorite is good old Magic Missile. They light up the screen and have a cool sound effect. I think they make one of the best spell effects in the game. Plus, they're trusty, practical, interrupt spells, do reliable damage, and immediately cast. I think they look and sound like the effect for firing photon torpedoes in Star Trek. Love 'em.
Every time I play a non-mage, and one of my mages casts Magic Missile, I get jealous of the awesomeness and start wanting to reroll as a mage.
My favorite is good old Magic Missile. They light up the screen and have a cool sound effect. I think they make one of the best spell effects in the game. Plus, they're trusty, practical, interrupt spells, do reliable damage, and immediately cast.
I actually really liked the implementation of Magic Missile in ToEE. I thought it was much better than either BG or NWN. The fact that the "Missiles" went all around the board before hitting the target (like Dark Seid's eye beams) was really cool.
Probably the most satisfyingly fun spell for me is Polymorph Other; and the bigger and badder the opponent, then the sweeter it is when it succeeds. It's hard to beat seeing a dragon turned into a squirrel!
I like Slow, Ghoul Touch, and Vampiric Touch for mages who like to fight up close and personal. Color Spray is also fun to watch for that type of character.
For BG2 I guess Time Stop and Gate are pretty awe-inspiring to me.
( or, as Mr Welch has put it in his "List of things Mr.Welch is no longer allowed to do in RPGs" 69. There is more to wizardry than magic missile. Even if I can do 200 damage automatic with no save. )
Amazeing it is that over 20 different spells have been mentioned so far in the 'Other Specific Spell' category. And none of them have more than 3-4 backers. That is quite a testament about the game's endless playability after so many years.
The only way in BGEE/BG2EE/BG2 is to console it in (or mod the game to introduce acrolls for it somewhere). It only was accessible for players (without the console) in the original BG1.
One of my favorite spells though is the first level sleep. When I discovered this spell the early parts of the first Baldur's Gate became only half as impossible. Especially great against those stupid kobolds that one shot the Imoen-types with their fire arrows.
@booinyoureyes - agreed about sleep. It is essential in any of my low level romps. Although, to be fair, I am usually 4th-5th level before I go up against Kobold commandos.
Comments
I've never bothered with finding out which dispels work against which protections (find the whole scaling protections/dispels thing a bit tedious). Breach is the spell I use most though, since it seems to work in most cases. If I cast a Breach and it doesn't do anything, I usuallly look if I have a higher level dispel available such as Pierce Magic or Ruby Ray. I guess I'm quite sloppy with my arcane magic.
If I liked Keldorn I would just bring him along everytime I reach SoA, just to get those mage fights over and done with.
Every time I play a non-mage, and one of my mages casts Magic Missile, I get jealous of the awesomeness and start wanting to reroll as a mage.
I like Slow, Ghoul Touch, and Vampiric Touch for mages who like to fight up close and personal. Color Spray is also fun to watch for that type of character.
For BG2 I guess Time Stop and Gate are pretty awe-inspiring to me.
( or, as Mr Welch has put it in his "List of things Mr.Welch is no longer allowed to do in RPGs"
69. There is more to wizardry than magic missile. Even if I can do 200 damage automatic with no save. )
pew pew pew fsshhhhh! Roast 'em!
Especially great against those stupid kobolds that one shot the Imoen-types with their fire arrows.