How many mages can scrolls in BG1 reasonably support?

Meyahi

I haven’t played the game for a few years now and decided to make another a trilogy playthrough. My memory of BG1 is quite fuzzy so it will have very low meta-gaming. I am going for the legacy of bhaal challenge.
I want to play a party that continues well into later parts of the story with:
Me fighter/mage
Imoen dual to mage at 6
Khalid
Jaheira
Edwin (I love his lines)
Viconia

I was wondering if this was too much magic oriented and if I would find enough scrolls to satisfy my eventually 3 mages. Basically, are there enough copies (3) of most useful spells so that I don’t have to be careful when learning scroll? Maybe I shouldn’t dual Imoen as without meta gaming it is hard to proceed without a thief until she regains her abilities.
Some advice would be nice.

Something to note is that I am playing on ios tablet so it is completely vanilla enhanced edition and no save editing.

DreadKhan

There is a limitless supply of level 1 and 2 scrolls IIRC in BG1, as they are random drops for sure, I think Doppelgangers can drop level 3. As for finding an exact spell, very few spells have only 1 scroll, but I would check either on here or elsewhere if you need a specific spell for a mage, IE Stoneskin, because there might not be enough Stoneskin scrolls in game for 3 mages IIRC, but you don't require Stoneskin to be a useful mage by any means, so don't let that stop you.

I've heard of people trying 6 mage IWD ( @subtledoctor was that you?), and scrolls are way harder to find in that game than Baldur's Gate. TBH, almost all spells have enough scrolls for 3 mages to be very effective, even if they are all generalists. I think only spells added by EE are hard to find copies of, as they aren't always in stores, but the core spells should be widely available. A bigger issue is robes... If you go neutral, Imoen can use the Good robes, and Edwin can use the Evil robes.

BTW, you might want to consider a sorcerer for one mage if you're REALLY worried about spell availability. EE added one in BG1, and he's a real gem actually, though wildly overpowered in BG1. His dialogue is limited, but very good. He's evil, but he comes with his own robes of Evil, so he's a really the strongest NPC by far. Unless he was removed when I wasn't looking, I haven't used him in years!

sarevok57

for buying spells, you have 4 sources ( 2 main, 2 small ) - This is only taking bg1 without Sod into account ( since i have very little XP with SoD)

main:
Thalantyr at high hedge
wizard dude at sorcerous sundries

small:
innkeep at feld post's inn
innkeep at ulgoth's beard

and then there are spell scrolls from loot drops ( RNDTRE01-05 )

but in terms of copies per spell it kind of goes like this:

Level 1

without random treasure drops and specific item locations, you are looking to 2-3 copies per spell

with random treasure drops and based off of specific item/creature location you are looking at another 2-3+ per copy

although there are some level 1 spells that are finite such as:

find famaliar - 1 copy
spook - 1 copy
reflected image - 1 copy

level 2

without random treasure drops and specific item locations, for the most part there are 2-3 copies per spell

with random treasure drops and based off of specific item/creature locations again you are looking at another 2-3+ copies per spell

the level 2 spells that are finite are:

power word sleep x1
glitterdust x2
ray of enfeeblement x1
vocalize x3 or 4
deafness x1

level 3

without random treasure drops and specific item locations, you should be able to find 1-2 copies per spell

with random treasure drops and specific item/creature locations you should be able to find 1-3+ more copies per spell

the level 3 spells that are finite are:

hold undead x1
detect illusion x1
melf's minute meteors x1
invisibility 10' radius - can ONLY be dropped by creatures who have random treasure5
spell thrust x1
minor spell deflection x1
remove magic x1
protection from fire x1
protection from cold x1 * don't remember if this is in default bgee or not
wraith form x1

level 4

now this is where things start to get very limited, since the treasure tables in bgee don't go pass level 3 spells, so for what its worth im going to go by memory on how many copies of each spell that can just be found between level 4 and 5 whether its from a shop/location/pick pocket from a certain someone etc..

otilukes' resilient sphere x2
polymorph self x1
stoneskin x2
wizard eye x1 * either this or farsight or both, dont remember
contagion x1
spirit armor x3
minor spell sequencer x1
ice storm x1
fire shield blue x1
fire shield red x1
improved invisibility x1
minor globe of inlvulnerabilty x3+?
remove curse x1 or 2
monster summoning II x3 or so
spider spawn x1
confusion x2...?
greater malison x12 or 22?
emotion hopeleness x4 or 5
enchanted weapon x1 maybe?

level 5
animate dead x 1
cloudkill x3
cone of cold x1...?
sunfire x1
shadow door x1
monster summoning III x1
hold monster x2
chaos x2...?
domination x2...?
feeblemind x2...?



the reason why some of these have question marks is because in the EEs the sorcerous sundries had a huge spell arsenal added to it so more copies of spells could have been added there, although i know that for some reason sundries holmes has at least 10 or 20 copies of greater malison wowzers

so with that, if you visit all the shops, clear out all the areas clean and use that tab button/pick pocket button, you should find a sufficient amount of scrolls

if you are going to play with 3 mage types, you should be good when it comes to spell scribing, unless you are one of those players who dont mind failing to scribe scrolls then you might get into a small pickle

Meyahi

Thank you @DreadKhan for your ideas and @sarevok57 for the precise answer.
I guess I’ll adapt the spellbook of each according to their actual role in the party (buffs for charname , utility/situational spells for imoen and damage staples for edwin in case there is a shortage of scrolls).

Aaezil

Just make one a sorceror...