Sorcerer Build

NightDM

Hey there,

I plan a run with a sorcerer in BG:EE. The desription of him pretty interesting; also heard he was op in vanilla BG (not sure about enhanced edition though). I have some questions about him:

1. The spell system... i have fever spells, which i choose at the beggining, but i don't have to sleep to regenerate them... does it mean i can... like... fireball all the time or what??? A little clarity would be nice.

2. I heard that stats doesn't really matter much, after maxing dex and con what should i go for?

3. Spells again. I read some guides and people seem to have different opinions in choosing them. Will be glad to know what you think works best

Also party members. I don't know much about bg 1 char's but i will probably go with Minsc, Dynaheir, Viconia and hmm... maybe some archer (which?) and moybe some additional meele guy. Don't know anything about the new characters.

Blackraven

1. No you can't fireball all the time, that would be super OP... You get a number of casts per day per spell level. In my game for example I'm using Dynaheir (one of the NPCs) as a Sorcerer. She has 4 casts per day of level 3 spells at the moment. Each time she wants to cast a spell she can choose which spell she wants to cast; in her case it's either Haste or Invisibility 15' Radius.

2. I wouldn't max CON, 16 is enough to get maximum possible hitpoints. You could even start with 15 because there's a way to improve your CON (as well as your other stats), and get the corresponding hitpoint adjustment. Max DEX is nice for the AC bonus and ranged attacks. Some STR (13-14) is nice for carrying capacity. Max WIS could be very beneficial if you hope to use the (Limited) Wish spells at higher levels. These spells' usefulness depend highly on WIS. INT and CHA could be considered dump stats. You'd be fine with the following stats.

STR: 13-14
DEX: 18 (or 19 if you're playing an Elf)
CON: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 15
CHA: whatever you like

They don't even require a very high roll. I you roll much higher you could consider raising STR a bit more or maybe your INT by 5 (since high INT will protect you against a specific class of foe in BG2).

3. If you use the search button or google, you'll find many sorcerer spell selection guides. Picking good spells is very important because as a Sorcerer you'll know less spells than regular Mages. So your few known spells better be useful. If you're unsure you could also decide to play a regular Mage or specialist Mage. That way you have access to almost all spells and you can see for yourself which spells you like the best. With that experience you can build your own Sorcerer in a subsequent playthrough (without having to copy other people's Sorcerer spell selection guides).

Corvino

Sorcerers are the least stat-dependent of all classes. Dex improves your armor class, Con (up to 16) gives you more HP but nothing beyond that. Str improves carry weight, which can be handy. Int is only useful against a specific enemy in BG2, and you only really need it if you're planning on getting into melee with them, no real reason to go beyond 10. A Starting Wis of 15 means you can get it to 18 by the end of BG1, useful for the wish spell but not much more. Charisma is nice, but nowhere near essential.

As for spells - you pick spells at level up, and cannot change the ones you know. You can cast any spell you know without needing to pick them in advance like a Mage, but only a limited number of times per day.

For spell choice - plan it in advance. You'll want spells that either get better with level or aren't duplicated by other spells. So Magic Missile gets better with level, and is good. Sleep starts out amazing but becomes obsolete by late BG1, so is less good. Define your role within the party as well; if you have another Mage then they can cast haste, you can learn something else.

meagloth

You want int at 16+, for wands and certain items. sense the sorcerer has no prime requisite stat, you can max charisma, which is nice to have. We have a lot of spell pick threads, too:

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/22516/sorcerer-spells-what-to-pick

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30190/sorcerer-experts-get-in-this-thread

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/22989/ironing-out-my-sorcerer-build

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/29714/first-time-player-playing-sorcerer

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/26881/sorcerer-s-worth-it

meagloth

Oh, one more thing. Be carful when consulting online guides. Most of the popular ones have been around for a while, and are for vanilla, when there was no sorcerer in bg1, so these are bg2-only guides. Starting in bg1 makes early game spell selection faaaarrrr different.

Corvino

meagloth said:

Oh, one more thing. Be carful when consulting online guides. Most of the popular ones have been around for a while, and are for vanilla, when there was no sorcerer in bg1, so these are bg2-only guides. Starting in bg1 makes early game spell selection faaaarrrr different.

I agree partly, but not wholly. Things like Sleep are awesome early on but lose their effectiveness quickly. I'd never consider it on a Sorcerer conpared to the alternatives. Apart from that many of the spells that scale are must-haves anyway: Magic Missile, Mirror Image, Skull Trap, Slow etc. Most of the low level spells like Sleep or Haste can be covered either by wands, another mage (always a good call) or scrolls.

Hint: Quayle is the ultimate backup caster. He gets Cleric spells as well as Mage ones, and is a decent little buffbot. At most levels he actually has the most spells per day in the game due to his class combo. The only real drawback is that he's a bit annoying.