These less popular spells should have been more used by enemies - an enemy mage who casts deafness or polyphorm other would be interesting.
Interesting, but even easier to beat. Now if they started flinging webs, stinking clouds, etc. then that would start getting both interesting and deadly for the party.
Or perhaps there could be quests where you HAD TO use them . Like casting a ray of enfeeblement to make a strong fighter surrender, or farsight to see behind locked door...
These less popular spells should have been more used by enemies - an enemy mage who casts deafness or polyphorm other would be interesting.
Interesting, but even easier to beat. Now if they started flinging webs, stinking clouds, etc. then that would start getting both interesting and deadly for the party.
Or perhaps there could be quests where you HAD TO use them . Like casting a ray of enfeeblement to make a strong fighter surrender, or farsight to see behind locked door...
That would make a lot of sense in both cases for the player and party in a particular scenario. Rooting a big bad warrior to the spot because he can't move in his armor would be a good way to force a surrender without bloodshed.
I just haven't encountered those scenarios in any BG game or mod.
Most of 'em. I was strictly an evocation mage. Fireball! Fireball! Magic Missile! Finger of Death!
A lot of 'em seemed cool, but were too limited gameplay-wise. Alignment-based spells and NPC-based spells (like Friends) that were awesome in a D&D game, but not all that useful in a combat CRPG.
@Permidion_Stark Cloudkill has to be one of the most used spells in my arsenal, great when you can open a door, throw it in then close the door and wait for the screams
Deafness Ghoul Touch Luck Power Word, Sleep Ray of Enfeeblement
Clairvoyance Detect Illusion Hold Undead Minor Spell Deflection Non-Dection Spell Thrust
Confusion Contagion Enchanted Weapon Farsight Polymorph Other Secret Word
Detect Evil Magic Stone Shillelagh
Good Berries Know Alignment Silence 15' Radius Spiritual Hammer
Glyph of Warding Hold Animal Miscast Magic Rigid Thinking Strength of One Unholy Blight (not Holy Smite which is great)
Cloak of Fear Farsight
Any cause wound spells other than Hurt.
Blindness is actually a good spell, and Clairvoyance is great if you're a map explorer, lol.
Clairvoyance is all but useless for me. Cast invisibility and walk around the entire map rather than use a 3rd level spell.
Blindness just falls way behind AOE sleep for me (sleep also is tougher to save against) and by the time enemies are immune to sleep, I have many better options at other levels for save or else spells (in addition, spook has a save penalty of up to -6 compared to the no-penalty save for blindness). It isn't that the spell is useless, my issue is that I always have better options. I see the benefit for the AOE, no-save powerword blind, though.
I am actually looking forward to playing BG1/2 now. The last time I played BG1/2 was four years ago and I had done so many frequent playthroughs that I had gotten into the habit of relying on specific spells so I neglected a lot of them. Looking forwards to experimenting now.
I really like this thread, there are some very helpful tips here, especially for someone like me who usually plays melee centric characters or priests / paladins. I'm currently on a run through of BG2 (was going to play 1 but I'm having issues getting the widescreen mod to work with it) with a wild mage so it's nice to see how other people use the spells they have available to them. If anything it does mean I won't be so quick to sell scrolls for spells I wouldn't fill my slots with.
Spells that I have never even considered memorizing include:
- Infravision - Know alignment - Detect Evil
There is a G3 Oversight mod for BGII that alters Know Alignment so that every creature on the map is targeted and listed (with their full alignment, not just good/neutral/evil) on the feedback/dialogue window. From a role playing perspective, it put all the NPCs and monsters into their proper context (which I appreciated), but it also spoiled the chance for any surprise encounters.
@HaHaCharade who do you usually use blindness against? mages or melee fighters? I read that it can be cast against blue circled characters without turning them hostile?
Colour (Color) Spray hahaha pointless spell along with good berries........utter crap
I used Goodberries a lot when Jaheira was my only healer. Early on you don't have many spell slots and it's the only healing option for level 2, even though it's underpowered.
Colour (Color) Spray hahaha pointless spell along with good berries........utter crap
I used Goodberries a lot when Jaheira was my only healer. Early on you don't have many spell slots and it's the only healing option for level 2, even though it's underpowered.
Yup, same here I use Goodberries early on due to lack of many healing spells.
The undead spells suffer from not being all that useful 80% of the time. And most of the undead don't need special spells to deal with. Fireball is what we call a "Cure All" =p
Colour (Color) Spray hahaha pointless spell along with good berries........utter crap
Color Spray is useful in BG1 if (1) you haven't gotten Sleep yet on an NPC or (2) the NPC defaults to a melee weapon proficiency and might be in melee range a lot anyway (Edwin, Xan).
It pretty much does the exact same thing as Sleep and has a pretty cool animation to boot.
@HaHaCharade who do you usually use blindness against? mages or melee fighters? I read that it can be cast against blue circled characters without turning them hostile?
Can't speak for HaHa but I've found Blind to be excellent against single targets that tend to hit very hard against my low armor class tanks -- think of that dude in the bandit camp or the drwaven bounty hunter in Beregost.
It also works nicely against ranged mobs who use poison arrows. Anybody who is blinded just sort of stands there and wanders around a bit. Give you a lot of breathing room to focus on other targets.
A blinded creature in BG1 basically has sight the length of its arm if that. This means that big scary ogres with belt fetishes will stand there while you pelt them with arrows.
Ok what happens is you see the ogre and cast blind and he runs towards your original location (where you cast blind). Once he gets there though he can't see anything so you pelt him from afar ez pz. This works against a lot of characters. Oh and on top of this it supposedly reduces their chance to hit by 4 and gives them +4 armor (So an AC 0 would become an AC 4. An AC 6 would become an AC10). And as the best option of all, if you do get a blind on a caster, they can only cast spells directly in front of them. Take someone like Silke in beregost for instance with her love for lightning bolt. If you interrupt her invisibility spell, and then hit her with blind, you're entire party can turn her into a pin cushion and she can't cast any spells cause she can't actually see where the arrows are coming from. Honestly I love the spell now but it some ways it DOES feel kinda dirty. Waiting to see how it fairs against the final demon in Durlags, Aec'Talec and Sarevok before I claim full outright brokenness for the spell but definitely keeping one of these puppies always memorized on a wizard in my BG1 campaigns from now on.
Sorry guys I should say 'I' found Colour Spray and Good Berries pointless, suppose we all go through the game differently and that's what makes it great set of games.
@Son_of_Imoen why are you such a big fan of cloak of non-detection in BG1? It works against detect invis? do enemy mages often cast that?
Yes, it keeps my thief stealthed when an enemy mage casts detect invisibility. I use it to scout ahead and be immune to their dispelling. Though in the topic about invisibility I read the spell only works against spells up to level 3, maybe it's the same with the cloak. I got surprised sometimes, my stealth got dispelled after all, but maybe it was because of a True Sight (level 5 for clerics, level 6 for mages).
I play using SCS for increased general AI and smarter mages. The smarter mages usually cast one of the detection spells as soon as they 'sense' a stealthed character is near. The greatest usefullness is being able to RP a pre-emptive strike and target the opening spells (like Malison, Silence and a Skull Trap) to be centered just outside the enemies field of view - some battles I need those cheesy tactics to be able to win.
Any fans of Horror? It's a spell I never use, as while it seems a good second level spell for disabling enemies, it makes the run around all the time, making it much hard for my party to actually kill them than with a spell that roots them to the spot, like Hold Person.
A blinded creature in BG1 basically has sight the length of its arm if that. This means that big scary ogres with belt fetishes will stand there while you pelt them with arrows.
Ok what happens is you see the ogre and cast blind and he runs towards your original location (where you cast blind). Once he gets there though he can't see anything so you pelt him from afar ez pz. This works against a lot of characters. Oh and on top of this it supposedly reduces their chance to hit by 4 and gives them +4 armor (So an AC 0 would become an AC 4. An AC 6 would become an AC10). And as the best option of all, if you do get a blind on a caster, they can only cast spells directly in front of them. Take someone like Silke in beregost for instance with her love for lightning bolt. If you interrupt her invisibility spell, and then hit her with blind, you're entire party can turn her into a pin cushion and she can't cast any spells cause she can't actually see where the arrows are coming from. Honestly I love the spell now but it some ways it DOES feel kinda dirty. Waiting to see how it fairs against the final demon in Durlags, Aec'Talec and Sarevok before I claim full outright brokenness for the spell but definitely keeping one of these puppies always memorized on a wizard in my BG1 campaigns from now on.
Not sure I'd call it broken. In th vanill game, mobs seem to make their save often enough, and in those cases the spell does nothing. (although I may be just rolling badly on my current playthrough).
I blinded Silke once. She went invisible, ran away, and didn't come back. Very annoying!
I blinded Silke once. She went invisible, ran away, and didn't come back. Very annoying!
I like the idea of a blind, invisible Silke running around Beregost. If you listen very carefully you can hear her saying 'Oww!" as she runs into walls and trips over barrels.
Comments
I just haven't encountered those scenarios in any BG game or mod.
A lot of 'em seemed cool, but were too limited gameplay-wise. Alignment-based spells and NPC-based spells (like Friends) that were awesome in a D&D game, but not all that useful in a combat CRPG.
Okay, bad joke.
Blindness just falls way behind AOE sleep for me (sleep also is tougher to save against) and by the time enemies are immune to sleep, I have many better options at other levels for save or else spells (in addition, spook has a save penalty of up to -6 compared to the no-penalty save for blindness). It isn't that the spell is useless, my issue is that I always have better options. I see the benefit for the AOE, no-save powerword blind, though.
If you play an invoker (can't use sleep), color spray is probably the most powerful level 1 for most of BG1.
Spells I dont use: many of the priest spells like holy power, repulse undead, and other undead related spells.
It pretty much does the exact same thing as Sleep and has a pretty cool animation to boot. Can't speak for HaHa but I've found Blind to be excellent against single targets that tend to hit very hard against my low armor class tanks -- think of that dude in the bandit camp or the drwaven bounty hunter in Beregost.
It also works nicely against ranged mobs who use poison arrows. Anybody who is blinded just sort of stands there and wanders around a bit. Give you a lot of breathing room to focus on other targets.
A blinded creature in BG1 basically has sight the length of its arm if that. This means that big scary ogres with belt fetishes will stand there while you pelt them with arrows.
Ok what happens is you see the ogre and cast blind and he runs towards your original location (where you cast blind). Once he gets there though he can't see anything so you pelt him from afar ez pz. This works against a lot of characters. Oh and on top of this it supposedly reduces their chance to hit by 4 and gives them +4 armor (So an AC 0 would become an AC 4. An AC 6 would become an AC10). And as the best option of all, if you do get a blind on a caster, they can only cast spells directly in front of them. Take someone like Silke in beregost for instance with her love for lightning bolt. If you interrupt her invisibility spell, and then hit her with blind, you're entire party can turn her into a pin cushion and she can't cast any spells cause she can't actually see where the arrows are coming from. Honestly I love the spell now but it some ways it DOES feel kinda dirty. Waiting to see how it fairs against the final demon in Durlags, Aec'Talec and Sarevok before I claim full outright brokenness for the spell but definitely keeping one of these puppies always memorized on a wizard in my BG1 campaigns from now on.
I play using SCS for increased general AI and smarter mages. The smarter mages usually cast one of the detection spells as soon as they 'sense' a stealthed character is near. The greatest usefullness is being able to RP a pre-emptive strike and target the opening spells (like Malison, Silence and a Skull Trap) to be centered just outside the enemies field of view - some battles I need those cheesy tactics to be able to win.
I blinded Silke once. She went invisible, ran away, and didn't come back. Very annoying!