First level spells apart from Magic Missile?

Permidion_Stark

I've got Edwin in my party and I think he has currently got 11 first level spells slots and at the moment all of them are Magic Missiles. He doesn't need Armour and he is incapable of Identifying anything (which, to quote the man himself, is "so infuriating") so are there any other first level spells worth taking? Or shall I keep on machinegunning my opponents with multiple Magic Missiles?

Elendar

Chromatic Orb and Spook

JuliusBorisov

Blindness is also a good choice.

A blind opponent is basically a dead opponent.

Permidion_Stark

Thanks guys. I will take him scroll shopping and buy him some new spells.

OlvynChuru

Burning Hands is great for killing trolls. Not only is it one of the only level 1 spells that can kill them, it can potentially kill more than one of them at once.

Montresor_SP

Sleep can put an entire group of enemies to sleep. I also like Larloch's Minor Drain which allows the caster to help heal himself.

Wesboi

OlvynChuru said:

Burning Hands is great for killing trolls. Not only is it one of the only level 1 spells that can kill them, it can potentially kill more than one of them at once.

Sunscorch can kill trolls and it's a level one spell and it's a priest spell. Chromatic orb is a good choice and vastly underrated.

Skatan

I agree with the above, blind, sleep, chromorb. In the end though, even if I have them memorized I reallu only ever use MM (or a higher level spell slot).

JuliusBorisov

Wesboi said:

Sunscorch can kill trolls and it's a level one spell and it's a priest spell. Chromatic orb is a good choice and vastly underrated.

There's no Sunscorch in Siege of Dragonspear. That spell is from IWD.

Grond0

There are lots of useful L1 spells not already mentioned, though I admit I have a particular fondness for MM myself.

1. depending on what your charisma is friends can be a very useful spell for both shopping and encounters.
   
2. charm person is under-rated as a spell. Lots of people like chromatic orb even though there's a +6 adjustment to that save. The +3 offered by charm person is not bad at all - particularly if doom and malison are active and it's also a quick casting spell providing the opportunity for enemies to fight on your side.
   
3. chill touch was a great spell in vanilla and, although nerfed in EE, can still be useful (particularly as a way of getting round the normal penalties for dual-wielding).
   
4. find familiar provides a companion with all sorts of useful tricks.
   
5. grease is another very under-rated spell. Admittedly web is nearly always better, but watching enemies struggle through several layers of grease is great fun. Try it out on Lathander to stop him running away with your spare pair of boots of speed after completing his quest.
   
6. protection from evil again is really under-rated. Most enemies are evil and PfE can often be the finishing touch that means they need a critical to hit you (quite apart from potential saving throw benefits).
   
7. as someone who's died numerous times after forgetting to use protection from petrification I really recommend that spell if you're visiting basilisks!
   
8. reflected image is a bit like grease - a useful spell in itself, but usually ignored because there's an even better option at second level.
   
9. shield is for most purposes vastly superior to armor (the exception is travelling between maps). Not only do you get a good AC out of it, but immunity to magic missiles as well to foil one of the favorite killing mechanisms used by SCS mages (particularly via minor sequencer).
   

Wesboi

JuliusBorisov said:

Wesboi said:

Sunscorch can kill trolls and it's a level one spell and it's a priest spell. Chromatic orb is a good choice and vastly underrated.

There's no Sunscorch in Siege of Dragonspear. That spell is from IWD.

Goes to show how long I've had SoD uninstalled for.

Elendar

Grond0 said:

There are lots of useful L1 spells not already mentioned, though I admit I have a particular fondness for MM myself.

1. depending on what your charisma is friends can be a very useful spell for both shopping and encounters.
   
2. charm person is under-rated as a spell. Lots of people like chromatic orb even though there's a +6 adjustment to that save. The +3 offered by charm person is not bad at all - particularly if doom and malison are active and it's also a quick casting spell providing the opportunity for enemies to fight on your side.
   
3. chill touch was a great spell in vanilla and, although nerfed in EE, can still be useful (particularly as a way of getting round the normal penalties for dual-wielding).
   
4. find familiar provides a companion with all sorts of useful tricks.
   
5. grease is another very under-rated spell. Admittedly web is nearly always better, but watching enemies struggle through several layers of grease is great fun. Try it out on Lathander to stop him running away with your spare pair of boots of speed after completing his quest.
   
6. protection from evil again is really under-rated. Most enemies are evil and PfE can often be the finishing touch that means they need a critical to hit you (quite apart from potential saving throw benefits).
   
7. as someone who's died numerous times after forgetting to use protection from petrification I really recommend that spell if you're visiting basilisks!
   
8. reflected image is a bit like grease - a useful spell in itself, but usually ignored because there's an even better option at second level.
   
9. shield is for most purposes vastly superior to armor (the exception is travelling between maps). Not only do you get a good AC out of it, but immunity to magic missiles as well to foil one of the favorite killing mechanisms used by SCS mages (particularly via minor sequencer).
   

Find Familiar for Edwin is pretty useless.. :P Shield is a good one until you get higher level armor spells which the OP should have at this point.

People like Chromatic Orb because it scales really well while leveling up. I once petrified Firkraag with it. Its like a mini finger of death spell at high levels. Charm is okay for early game but pretty useless by the end of BG and during SoD as it rarely if ever works.

Chill Touch would be okay for a fighter/mage multiclass, but horrible for someone with as low a thaco as Edwin. Grease isn't too bad, but again he should have web at the level Edwin currently is.

Agreed about PfE, pretty good for a level 1 and scales well. I don't recall basilisks in SoD portion of the game so why would he need protection from petrification?

I don't really see Sleep doing much good during SoD, doubt it would really work against many enemies..

ThacoBell

@Elendar Sleep is almost better in SoD, because of the sheer number of enemies, there will always be several who fail their save. Haste+Slow+Sleep will win you every encounter that is not in the final area. Heck, I get a lot of use out of sleep even in SoA. Its not until ToB that sleep stops being useful, and then Death takes its place.

Grond0

Elendar said:

Shield is a good one until you get higher level armor spells which the OP should have at this point.

People like Chromatic Orb because it scales really well while leveling up. I once petrified Firkraag with it. Its like a mini finger of death spell at high levels. Charm is okay for early game but pretty useless by the end of BG and during SoD as it rarely if ever works.

I don't recall basilisks in SoD portion of the game so why would he need protection from petrification.

Shield also provides long-lasting protection against magic missiles, which is pretty useful in itself.

Your comment about chromatic orb and charm is right to the point I was making in my post. I agree a lot of people like chromatic orb for the small chance of a status effect it provides. However, if chromatic orb has say a 10% chance of working then charm person has a 25% chance of working. Admittedly it can only be used on certain enemies, but if it has a much higher chance of working and can not just remove an enemy, but make them fight on your side that seems to be like a pretty good spell.

There are basilisks in SoD.

LordRumfish

So, Grease is my favorite D&D spell, from 2nd edition onward. While you can't disarm your foes and whatnot with the game version, the area of effect is larger than it should be so that makes up for it (see Icewind Dale's grease for a more realistic and less useful area of effect). One of the principle arguments against including it seems to be "Web is better," and while Web is indeed better, it is a different circle of spell. In BG:EE / SoD, 1st level spells are cheap and easy to come by, what with the aforementioned ring. Your 2nd level spells might be fighting for space, such as with mirror image or stinking cloud or even a Melf's acid arrow to kill a troll. Even if you've loaded all Webs, you still have more 1st level spells to throw around. Also, and this is important, there's no reason you can't stack Grease and Web (and Entangle, and Stinking Cloud, and Freezing Fog, and...).

TL;DR: 1st level crowd control is valuable by being plentiful and adding redundancy.

Queegon

Am using spell revisions, everything is now viable and worthy of a spell slot.

And it makes me have non-True Sight divination spells memorized too.

Tresset

How about Summon Cow? That spell speaks for itself baby! It is level 2 though, I guess...

WarChiefZeke

TL;DR: 1st level crowd control is valuable by being plentiful and adding redundancy.

That's my entire BG1/SOD playstyle in a nutshell. Hold em in place with Webs, Greases, Entangles, Hold Persons, Commands, and then sling arrows, bullets, Call Lightnings, and Magic Missles to victory.