@Kharas well is that and that lightning bolt in baldur's gate is liable to get you killed. Not that I haven't occasionally used it to devastating effect in some hallways.
I know lightning bolt is a great spell, and you can use it to devastating effect.. But in my world it have never been able to compete with fireball.. It might be pyromaniac tendencies.. I dont know.. but the "cast fireball with main" pause "cast fireball with 2nd mage in group", wait for them to go off, pause "cast fireball with main" pause "cast fireball with 2nd mage in group", unpause.. wait.. Profit in the form of death, mayhem, destruction and exp + loot... Its just the way to go
@Kharas Not only does it not fit our pyro tendencies, but if you're indoors and aim it even a little off next thing you know you're reloading cause you just killed yourself and half your party with you.
@Kerozevok that's actually a pretty cool idea. Except with the addition of the wildmage will you through a d10 now and make a 1 a critical failure non-specialist mage?
@dragonspear one of the female voice sets for a Mage in iwd went "A little fire and Lightning Ought to liven things up." My favourite voice in the entire game.
It may not be the flashiest of specialist schools, but it's certainly the darkest and creepiest. I'm more partial to the "soul tainted" types of necromancers as opposed to the "undead master" types.
I don't specialize for a PC mage, as I'd prefer to have full access to all the schools. For NPC mages, the only specializations I would probably tend to avoid would be Abjurer and Diviner. But none of the original game's mages belong to those schools, fortunately. Not sure if there are any NPC mods using either of those wizard specialties.
That said, one of the funnest games I ever played was a custom party using generalist mage PC and specialist mages of different types. It was a blast.
Personally I find the necromancy spells to be largely not needed. Plus spells like Horrid Wilting and Wait of the Banshee take away my personal pleasure in slowly picking off my opponents one by one, as they each struggle to get through my defences and frivolously attempt to attack me. My only regret is that as an illusionist I will never be able to have the level of control over illusions that the gnome in the circus tent has. Otherwise I will take an illusionist over any other type of mage. I like having the option of being able to cast divination spells, even if it means I sacrifice a few necromancy spells.
Conjurer is the easy choice. Divination offers you identify and that's basically it. If that's all I'm losing for an extra spell slot a day, I honestly couldn't care less.
Behind that, Illusionist. Necromancy has a couple neat spells, but then again not really anything worth writing home about in BG1. Losing out on Abi-Dalsim's Horrid Wilting in BG2 is the only major downside but there are so many other big stompy powerful spells at that point it's another "meh."
Behind that, Enchanter. Invocations are over-rated. I always stocked plenty of wands so if I *really* needed a fireball, I had one. I mostly loaded up on summon spells anyway.
The WORST kit, bar none, has got to be Invoker. 2 barred schools, both of which are incredible? No thanks.
I thought there would be more enchanters given their strength in the first game, I guess people prefer blowing stuff up and summoning hordes of monsters, to crowd control, and who wouldn't!
Wild mages like to gamble on the wild surge table. More than that, they have spells that can shape this wild magic to have a more desirable outcome, which is fantastic. Welcome to my party, Neera.
Illusionist, because I never use necromancy spells anyway. I guess some people would miss Skull Trap. But I really think Sorcerer is better than any of them.
EDIT: Yikes, I was thinking BG1 and forgot about horrid wilting! Late SoA and ToB without horrid wilting to deal with dragons and giants would be a nightmare! Can I take my vote back? LOL
Illusionist, because I never use necromancy spells anyway. I guess some people would miss Skull Trap. But I really think Sorcerer is better than any of them.
EDIT: Yikes, I was thinking BG1 and forgot about horrid wilting! Late SoA and ToB without horrid wilting to deal with dragons and giants would be a nightmare! Can I take my vote back? LOL
You get your first level 8 spell at 16 and your first level 9 spell at 18. So it's only two levels. And as soon as you hit 18, you get epic spell feats. And once you get epic spell feats, you get things significantly more deadly than Horrid Wilting.
Alternative level 8 spells for the small bit where HW would be your most damaging spell: Spell Trigger Simacrulum Incendiary Cloud
Yeah it sucks losing out on Vampiric Touch early game, and it sucks losing out on Skull Trap and Animate Dead, and yes it sucks losing out on Horrid Wilting. I'd rather lose those spells than summons/enchantments.
Conjurer. Though in my case it's not because it's the most powerful (you can just get another mage to cast Identify during BG1, and a cleric for True Sight during BG2), but because I absolutely adore all kinds of summoning spells. And even though the conjurer doesn't get any particular bonus for summons, it just feels so right to call up a small army of Earth Elementals when your character sheet says Conjurer...
It's been a looong time since I played BG or BG2, doesn't a summon dependent build get wipedpretty easy with the various methods of being able to get rid of all summons? Theres like 2 or 3 spells to get rid of them.
It's been a looong time since I played BG or BG2, doesn't a summon dependent build get wipedpretty easy with the various methods of being able to get rid of all summons? Theres like 2 or 3 spells to get rid of them.
Not in BG1, no. Hell, in BG1, even the critters from Monster Summoning 1/2 can actually contribute in a fight.
In BG2 pretty much every enemy mage has Deathspell memorized, but they typically only have 1 casting prepared.. meaning you send in a really crappy summon, then once the enemy mage blows their single Death Spell, send in the summon cavalry. Excellent and pretty much failsafe tactic if you want to take on a Lich with a L8-9 party. Of course it works less well if you've got an improved AI mod where they typically won't cast Timestop followed by 3 symbol spells just because a kobold commando started shooting at them.
Still, a wall of summons is a viable strategy pretty much throughout the game.
Conjurer is the easy choice. Divination offers you identify and that's basically it. If that's all I'm losing for an extra spell slot a day, I honestly couldn't care less.
Behind that, Illusionist. Necromancy has a couple neat spells, but then again not really anything worth writing home about in BG1. Losing out on Abi-Dalsim's Horrid Wilting in BG2 is the only major downside but there are so many other big stompy powerful spells at that point it's another "meh."
Behind that, Enchanter. Invocations are over-rated. I always stocked plenty of wands so if I *really* needed a fireball, I had one. I mostly loaded up on summon spells anyway.
The WORST kit, bar none, has got to be Invoker. 2 barred schools, both of which are incredible? No thanks.
I don't seem to miss anything playing as an Invoker, well maybe Melf's Acid Arrow
sleep, chaos, emotion, greater malison. Except for sleep which is THE low level spell but is limited by hit dice, these are all ToB quality spells. Group disablers with save penalty. Sleep is -3, Chaos is -4... Its ridiculous even in ToB.
Comments
There is just something about that huge orange explosion that bring a smile to my face
I know lightning bolt is a great spell, and you can use it to devastating effect.. But in my world it have never been able to compete with fireball.. It might be pyromaniac tendencies.. I dont know.. but the "cast fireball with main" pause "cast fireball with 2nd mage in group", wait for them to go off, pause "cast fireball with main" pause "cast fireball with 2nd mage in group", unpause.. wait.. Profit in the form of death, mayhem, destruction and exp + loot... Its just the way to go
That said, one of the funnest games I ever played was a custom party using generalist mage PC and specialist mages of different types. It was a blast.
Behind that, Illusionist. Necromancy has a couple neat spells, but then again not really anything worth writing home about in BG1. Losing out on Abi-Dalsim's Horrid Wilting in BG2 is the only major downside but there are so many other big stompy powerful spells at that point it's another "meh."
Behind that, Enchanter. Invocations are over-rated. I always stocked plenty of wands so if I *really* needed a fireball, I had one. I mostly loaded up on summon spells anyway.
The WORST kit, bar none, has got to be Invoker. 2 barred schools, both of which are incredible? No thanks.
EDIT: Yikes, I was thinking BG1 and forgot about horrid wilting! Late SoA and ToB without horrid wilting to deal with dragons and giants would be a nightmare! Can I take my vote back? LOL
Alternative level 8 spells for the small bit where HW would be your most damaging spell:
Spell Trigger
Simacrulum
Incendiary Cloud
Yeah it sucks losing out on Vampiric Touch early game, and it sucks losing out on Skull Trap and Animate Dead, and yes it sucks losing out on Horrid Wilting. I'd rather lose those spells than summons/enchantments.
In BG2 pretty much every enemy mage has Deathspell memorized, but they typically only have 1 casting prepared.. meaning you send in a really crappy summon, then once the enemy mage blows their single Death Spell, send in the summon cavalry.
Excellent and pretty much failsafe tactic if you want to take on a Lich with a L8-9 party. Of course it works less well if you've got an improved AI mod where they typically won't cast Timestop followed by 3 symbol spells just because a kobold commando started shooting at them.
Still, a wall of summons is a viable strategy pretty much throughout the game.
Hiding behind summoned beasties. pfft
sleep, chaos, emotion, greater malison. Except for sleep which is THE low level spell but is limited by hit dice, these are all ToB quality spells. Group disablers with save penalty. Sleep is -3, Chaos is -4... Its ridiculous even in ToB.