The illusionist wizard - good or bad lategame?

MWO

Hello everybody!

I've some thoughts regarding the illusion spells Project Image and Simulacrum in BGII: EE. The simple question is this:

- Does the illusion spells such as project image and/or simulacrum work during the very lategame bosses such as Demogorgon et al? I also take in regard the fact that you are protecting yourself with Spell Immunity: Divination.

Does anyone know? :-)

FinneousPJ

Short answer: Any wizard is great late game. As PI and Simulacrum are cast on self, the opponent doesn't really matter. Especially. With SI.

MWO

If I face e.g. another wizard, dragon or such that are able to dispel illusions... Does it help to protect myself with Spell Immunity: Divination to shrug of e.g. True Sight?

Anduin

Yes.

If you are playing as a gnome illusionist, then you are possibly playing the best mage in the game.

Everyone agrees with me...

biffyclanger

At high levels you lose ADHW and Wail of the Banshee because of Necromancy restriction. ADHW is one of the better damage spells in the game because it is party friendly and uses magic damage which is less resisted than fire. But if you have strong melee to carry you then no problem. Use him as a buffer/debuffer + summoner rather than DPS and you should be fine. A few enemies in ToB can see through improved invisibility but for most of SoA SI Divination is pretty broken.

FinneousPJ

MWO said:

If I face e.g. another wizard, dragon or such that are able to dispel illusions... Does it help to protect myself with Spell Immunity: Divination to shrug of e.g. True Sight?

Yes, it does help vs True Sight AFAIK.

biffyclanger

Is your endgame SoA or ToB? In ToB everyone will have amazing saves and have some level of magic resistance so any becomes a bit subpar unless you have some fighter levels mixed in somehow.

lunar

If you want to be an illusionist play a gnome. Gnomes have very good saving throws!
Illusionist mage can be very powerful in late game. Aa any pure class mage will.

gorgonzola

PI is the better spell in its level, at high level combined with IA and possibly TStop lets your mage unleash all his spellbook at the cost of 1 lev 7 spell. Before it make possible to summon and buff, pre battle, or use scrolls of a level you can not cast without wasting them at the cost of 1 lev 7 spell. You can have 2 of the "rememorization spell scrolls" (I try to don't spoil too much...) early in SoA, hard battles needed but possible, and use them with the PI multiple times, a scroll "to change" right after Underdark, a "green scroll". It can be used and abused in many ways, suffer TSight and Dispell and Remove magic, but a wise tactic or protections she can cast can avoid the problem in most of the situations.
Is one of the spells that change the game, like IH and TStop and IA are at their levels.

Simulacrum is a FM oriented spell, double his APR for up to 20APR, but being level drained is less useful for a pure mage. Less, not unusefull, since it don't freeze the mage so is a good backup mage on top of your usual arcane power. When the mage reach very high levels the Sim can cast IA and is as good as PI in most situations but less risky because AFAIK is immune to TS but not to DM.

AFAIK, and I am using the not EE game, SI Divination to counter TSight and Abjuration to counter DM have to be casted by the clone, since are on self protections. Keeping the PI out of the enemy sight for TS and out of the spell area for DM works as well as SI.
I used PI against the Demon Prince many times with no problems, to buff the party, cast some debuffing and damaging spells and make good use of my 2 new scrolls, as the party was tanking him and slaughtering his infinite spawn helpers for millions of bonus XP, he never managed to destroy a single PI.
During those battles my FM was making good use of his simulacrum, or better multiple simulacra as I was using an infinite rest loop.
So I have several hours of testing, with Demogorgon PI and Sim. are both usable and VERY effective.

But the point of an illusionist wizard is not PI and Sim, as every mage that is not Necromancer can have them.
The point is better saves, if gnome, +1 spell/level and loosing Necromancy spells.
Very useful ones, ADHW as told, but also the "summon killers", the Skull Trap, much better then fireball when you are over lev10. But you can live without them, you have good alternatives, even if maybe you have to change your usual tactics. Instead of ADHW you can use Incendiary Cloud that don't allow a save for half damage, but is not party frendly so you have to protect your tanks. With an Illusionist the fire resisting enemies are the problem since most of the replacement spells are based on fire damage, and fire resistance is much more common than magic damage resistance.
Wail of the Banshee imo is the lesser problem, as is a save or else spell and every enemy that is wort using a 9lev spell against has very good saving throws, even with GM has good chance to save. there are better uses for your valuable lev9 slots.

Edited because originally I had used TS both for Sight and Stop and it was confusing.

lunar

Errm, incendiary cloud does allow a save for half. It lasts many rounds, though, so overall damage potential is way greater than wilting. Wilting is the microwave quick-drying method, incendiary cloud is the oven that slowly cooks.

gorgonzola

Correct, sorry for the mistake
I was confusing with Firestorm (clerical spell) that don't allow the save.

MWO

Thanks alot for the insights. I just needed to know if PI and Sim works with SI: Div etc. and especially vs. tougher enemies such as Demogorgon. :-)

I really prefer to roleplay, and hence I shan't play as a gnome, even if that race is slightly better. Also, I think there are many ways to get to the game even if you don't have access to ADHW (which of course my secondary back-up mage will have!). The power word: blind makes wonder I've heared.

A mage for me is not about blasting tons of damage, but about battle control, mindcontrol, hypnotizing, buffing etc.