I actually feel that sleep is the most powerful spell at level 1 by far. It's more useful against large numbers of course, but kobolds, gnolls, hobgoblins etc are pushovers with that spell
Well that is up to debate
Charm
+ Charms an enemy making them work for you
+ Works on any lvl or amount of hit dice on the target
+ Against a strong single foe it will let you postion your enemy as you like and your team aswell to get the best possible start
+ You get one or two free rounds of attacks before the target turns hostile.
- Only works on a person.The term person includes any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, such as dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, lizard men, orcs, troglodytes, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be charmed, but an ogre could not.
- They get a saving throw against it (in my case 9/10 it works might be im just lucky)
Sleep
+ May put an entire group of enemies to sleep
+ Works on everything and everyone except for undeads and a few other immune creatures.
+ Get bonus on the attack on the sleeping enemies
- Only works on enemies with less then 4 hit dices + 3 hp
- Wakes up as soon as they are damaged in some way
- They get a saving throw against it (pretty much always puts someone to sleep if your figthing a group of enemies)
So that in my opinion are the good and bad sides of the two spells charm is better against stronger enemies or smaller groups of enemies, sleep is better against weaker enemies that comes in big groups.
Even so in my book it's more about who or what are you fighting, if you fight against an ogre the best lvl 1 spell would be blind instead of charm or sleep. He would be immune to charm and sleep usually only gives you 1 free hit. Blind on the other hand gives him -4 to hit and you +4 to hit since his armor class get worse and it works for 10 minutes.
And sleep lasts half a minute per level of the caster. More importantly, it really works well even on high level hard foes.
But on single foes I prefer Blind a lot more. Your rolls might not be just as good and Melee isn't clever in that case, but against caster, it's a beast!
Command is also awesomesauce - Cast command, cast Hold Person... Enjoy your mojito as you wait for the battle to end!
Command is ALMOST as good as Magic Missile for interrupting mages. At least in BG1. If you fall unconscious you aren't going to be finishing that spell and Command casts fast.
Easy way to handle this clown (I used a thief/mage)
In Candlekeep Inn there is a chest that has a potion of clarity, you'll have to pick it or break it, but if you have that and the level 1 spell Shield this guy can't hurt you at all
Comments
Charm
+ Charms an enemy making them work for you
+ Works on any lvl or amount of hit dice on the target
+ Against a strong single foe it will let you postion your enemy as you like and your team aswell to get the best possible start
+ You get one or two free rounds of attacks before the target turns hostile.
- Only works on a person.The term person includes any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, such as dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, lizard men, orcs, troglodytes, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be charmed, but an ogre could not.
- They get a saving throw against it (in my case 9/10 it works might be im just lucky)
Sleep
+ May put an entire group of enemies to sleep
+ Works on everything and everyone except for undeads and a few other immune creatures.
+ Get bonus on the attack on the sleeping enemies
- Only works on enemies with less then 4 hit dices + 3 hp
- Wakes up as soon as they are damaged in some way
- They get a saving throw against it (pretty much always puts someone to sleep if your figthing a group of enemies)
So that in my opinion are the good and bad sides of the two spells charm is better against stronger enemies or smaller groups of enemies, sleep is better against weaker enemies that comes in big groups.
Even so in my book it's more about who or what are you fighting, if you fight against an ogre the best lvl 1 spell would be blind instead of charm or sleep. He would be immune to charm and sleep usually only gives you 1 free hit. Blind on the other hand gives him -4 to hit and you +4 to hit since his armor class get worse and it works for 10 minutes.
Charm Person gives the target a +4 bonus to save against it.
Against tough single targets I have my cleric cast Command.
But on single foes I prefer Blind a lot more. Your rolls might not be just as good and Melee isn't clever in that case, but against caster, it's a beast!
Command is also awesomesauce - Cast command, cast Hold Person... Enjoy your mojito as you wait for the battle to end!
In general, don't be afraid of fleeing. An oxymoron?
Hostile only in both BG2 and BGEE - It was Everyone at BG1