Solo Sorcerer Playthrough BGEE - BG2EE
ahhyep
Member Posts: 114
Hi All -
I am planning on playing a sorcerer through BGEE and BG2EE having squashed the game as a F/M/T. I typically play characters that use melee weapons so I don't really know spellcasting all too well.
I have done a little bit of research but everyones spell picks are different. No idea what I am doing.
1. Can you give me stat point allocation (base)?
2. Can you tell me what spells to pick, in what order, at what level?
3. What gear am I looking for?
4. What is the general strategy?
Thank you so much!
I am planning on playing a sorcerer through BGEE and BG2EE having squashed the game as a F/M/T. I typically play characters that use melee weapons so I don't really know spellcasting all too well.
I have done a little bit of research but everyones spell picks are different. No idea what I am doing.
1. Can you give me stat point allocation (base)?
2. Can you tell me what spells to pick, in what order, at what level?
3. What gear am I looking for?
4. What is the general strategy?
Thank you so much!
2
Comments
Elf Charname
10 Strength
19 Dexterity
16 Constitution
11 Intelligence
17 Wisdom (18 if evil)
10 Charisma
Spells, more or less in order:
Level 1:
Sleep, Shield, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil, Spook
Level 2:
Mirror Image, Invisibility, Web, Melf's Acid Arrow, Resist Fear
Level 3:
Skull Trap, Haste, Melf's Minute Meteors, Remove Magic, Resist Fear
Level 4:
Stoneskin, Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Minor Sequencer, Polymorph Other
Level 5:
Spell Immunity, Sunfire, Breach, Animate Dead, Feeblemind
Level 6:
Protection from Magical Weapons, Pierce Magic, True Seeing, Contingency, Improved Haste
Level 7:
Project Image, Mordenkainen's Sword, Spell Turning, Ruby Ray of Reversal, Spell Sequencer
Level 8:
Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Spell Trigger, Maze, Pierce Shield
Level 9:
Time Stop, Wish, Shapechange, Spellstrike
HLAs:
Summon (Fallen) Planetar, Improved Alacrity, Dragon's Breath, Comet, Energy Blades
They're not my favorite picks, and wands could replace certain spells, but that's probably what most sorcerers look like. Pick what you like.
I'd do Spells per level, but I don't quite have the time: there's a ton of material to cover. But you can probably pick it out by the strategy:
The strategy of solo mages and sorcerers is to simply not die, while outputting damage yourself. You have the tools to become immune to practically everything, though you'll have to know the ins and outs of the spell system to achieve this. (This is... hard. I don't have enough mastery of the system to do this yet.) Spells useful to this goal are stuff like Shield (blocks Magic Missile), Mirror Image (blocks successful hits with no damage), Invisibility (can't kill what you can't see,) Improved Invisibility (you can still attack and use offensive actions STILL without being targeted by spells. Plus, +4 to all saves is cool.) Spell Immunity can block ridiculous things: Abjuration stops Dispel Magic, Enchantment foils all Charm and Confusion attempts, Necromancy stops ADHW and Skull Trap, Evocation stops almost all damage spells, and Divination stops True Seeing from puncturing the Improved Invisibility. Pro. Magic Weapons stops most attacks for 6 rounds, and so on and so forth. Your other spells not dedicated to defenses are going to blasting your opponents out of existence, summoning fodder to waste your opponent's attacks/spells, or stuff to destroy your opponent's defenses like Breach, Spell Thrust...
If you're playing solo, however, this generally isn't nearly as effective. Then, stuff like Haste, more disablers, Greater Malison become useful.
tldr; Successful Sorcerers first and foremost stay alive. Use whatever you have left to vaporize your opponents. Mercilessly.
Mind Flayers drain 5 Intelligence per hit, so 11 is better than 10 and 16 is better than 15. They kill at 0 Intelligence, not negative Intelligence. Also, elves with 19 Dexterity get an additional +1 to THAC0 with missile weapons compared to characters with only 18 Dexterity. Protection from Magical Weapons only lasts 4 rounds, not 6.
The only reason I mention 10 or 15 is that sometimes I find certain builds are REALLY stat intensive (Paladin, I'm looking at you) and that the INT tome in Ramazith's Tower can actually be used by them. Starting at 16, though, getting to 17, and then boosting by 4 with a potion of genius gets to 21 to survive yet another hit if it's necessary.
I agree with most of that list being the standard power gaming list, though I'll list a few options:
Level 1: If you're confident enough with the early-game, skip Sleep and go for Blindness. Unless Sleep, Blindness is useful throughout ToB, actually, since not much has immunity to Blind. Also, with no Fiend or Gate spells on the list, Pro. from Evil is more or less just +2 AC, so can be swapped
Level 2: Horror and Stinking Cloud are also options for the Web slot: Horror is party-friendly, if you have a party, and Stinking Cloud targets a different save vs Death rather than Spell, albeit at a +2 modifier. Better Mage disabler at the cost of being worse at most other things, but also isn't nullified by Free Action. Resist Fear is also somewhat replaceable, since if solo then you can get your saves low enough to deal with most Fear effects or protected by Spell Immunity: Enchantment. Knock is decent if you really, really like opening containers, but Blur, Agannazar's Scorcher, and Glitterdust are all options here as well.
Level 3: Resist Fear is duplicated here. Not sure what was intended: Spell Thrust? Slow? Minor Spell Deflection? Pro. Fire? Flame Arrow? There's multiple good spells here, good enough that you could skip Haste and go for another of these options.
Level 4: Polymorph Self, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, and Teleport Field are the other major level 4 spells, replacing Polymorph Other. Alternatively, if you aren't running a ton of save-or-die-or-sucks, you can also swap out Greater Malison for another one of these.
Level 5: Cloudkill is fun, since not too much is immune to poison damage besides undead and bosses. Lower Resistance somehow missed the list, and I think it's way, way more important than Feeblemind, no matter how fun killing dragons that don't fight back is. If playing SCS, Spellshield is an important piece of the defense in mage-wars.
Level 6: Death Spell is good for dealing with a bajillion summons, Mislead is ridiculous, Summon Nishruu can probably straight-up win vs vanilla Spellcasters that try focusing the silly thing without summons. Globe of Invulnerability is also good. Again, Improved Haste can probably be dropped.
Level 7: Limited Wish can be worthwhile, PW:Stun is decent... Only problem is that it's really hard to drop anything. Maybe Mordekainen's Sword, despite their overpoweredness?
Level 8: Simulacrum, PW:Blind, and Bigby's Clenched Fist. Options for Maze and Pierce Shield.
Level 9: Consider Chain Contingency, at least. I hear that it's possible to unleash 7 Sunfires in a single round with this? Something about a Spell Trigger + Chain Contingency to absolutely obliterate anything not immune to fire.
All that said... @semeticgod is right. There's no 1 perfect set of spells, but pick the options you like. Just stay away from the spells that literally do nothing, like Detect Alignment and Infravision. Some might be less than optimal, but there are fun tricks with less common spells as well.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/45115/sorcerer-master-race
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40127/help-me-make-the-worst-possible-sorcerer-build
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/32257/sorcerer-build
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
Joking aside, Bengoshi has rightly pointed out there are a million and one threads on sorcerer builds.
I've never really contributed to this subject, however. I also read as many threads/sites on sorcerers as I could before playing them, but found much of the advice of limited use. People get really really specific and ornery about what spells they like, but specific advice isn't very useful. I didn't have any fun playing someone else's sorcerer.
Take it easy with the spells and don't sweat the small stuff.
From all those threads, I found the general advice more helpful. Here's a condensed version of what I took home on the matter of Sorcerers.
1. Save Time: Sequencers and Contingencies are really helpful. They can save you several rounds of time, and make managing your attacks or defenses easier. I always pick them, personally.
2. Pick a theme: Your spells picks should not be determined from a list of "the undisputable best spells and everything else sucks". How do you play? Pick your spells around that. Are you a brawler, a disabler, or a stealth sneaker?
Brawlers will get mileage out of alteration and abjuration spells, disablers from enchantment and evocation, and sneakers from illusion/phantasm spells.
Personally, I'm a disabler. I use lots of Grease, Web, Stinking Cloud, Minute Meteors/Daggers/Darts, Greater Malison, Chaos, Feeblemind, Teleport Field and Minor Globes of Invulnerability. Some might look at that list and consider it filled with redundancies, but it's what works best for my playstyle and it forces the enemy to make a ton of saves.
Maybe you are the levelmaster type of sorcerer? Perhaps you prefer to focus on filling your spellbook with level dependent spells that benefit from being level 10 and up, then supplimenting them with scroll firepower? There are a gazillion scrolls in the game, and it can be fun to just use 'whatever is on hand'.
Just know that level dependent spells fire as Level 10 from scrolls, and that the Robe of Vecna will not provide a speed boost when reading from them (at least in my install). Some spells, like Skull Trap, have two different ranges depending on if they are fired from scroll or spellbook (though some statements around the forum make me think it might be a quirk of my own install).
3. Melissan isn't everything: I'm not joking when I say that a lot of the advice I read around the internet could literally be boiled down to "It doesn't work against Melissan, so it sucks".
Nice, very helpful.
Most of the game is spent fighting redshirts. Don't pick every spell on the basis of needing to overcome the most powerful villain in the game (Irenicus in the case of BG1-BG2). Typically, I use spell levels 1-5 for the redshirts and 'everyday needs', while everything up takes powerful enemies and summons into consideration, but not totally.
4. Relax: Okay, so you picked the 'wrong' spell. It is a problem with sorcerers, and it isn't. At least with sorcerers, you don't lose anything from your number of castings. With regular mages, an unused and poorly chosen spell sits in your spellbook like a turd in your cocktail, eating up a spell slot. With a sorcerer you can at least used the casting for something else. Also, no spell is completely useless, right (not counting Infravision)? If it's not the ideal spell pick, it's not the end of the world; chances are you'll find a use for it eventually, or just use it a bit less than the others.
Don't forget you have wands,scrolls and weapons. Use them.
5. Gear: Waukeen's promenade has a number of good spells in high quantity. Friends, Improved Invisibility, Minor Globe and Knock are among them. There are also two rings of invisiblity in W.Promenade, along with the ring of human influence and (if you have the cash) the sensate amulet. Ring of Influence + Sensate Amulet equals Friends + Prot. from Evil. Other than that, gear choices should reflect playstyle. If you're like me, all of the advice in the world on "the best and greatest gear" won't help you, because more often than not these suggestions suit the advisor, rather than the advisee.
Never forsake a particular spell selection just because 'there is an item that provides the same thing'. You can never have too many castings of invisibility, for instance. The two invisibility rings basically give you 2 extra castings, which is never a bad thing. Same goes for other items, like the Minute Meteors Cloak, True Seeing Gem, etc. all of which provide one use per day of some of the more popular spells.
6. Have fun...
[EDIT: I have made an error. I've been using the Sensate Amulet with Aerie so much I've forgotten it's only usuable by Clerics.]
The reality is that there are no spells that you really need to pick. Not even Stoneskin, honestly. Whatever you find most interesting will probably be the most fun.