Summon Cow, the cut scene for it every time you cast is lawlsy (magic missle close second)
All divination spells are worthless in bg, its not the spell itself, its just in a crpg they are not awesome or useful.
They're extremely useful when you want to cast a direct target spell on something that has Improved Invisibility or Shadow Door.
Anyway, my favorite is probably Color Spray, if only because one time I got a random encounter that spawned about ten hobgoblins DIRECTLY BEHIND Edwin. I panicked, and cast Color Spray. Every single Hobgoblin passed out. My PC and Shar-Teel had a grand old time executing them all. Fight over before it even started.
Least favorite? All the nonsense defense spells enemy mages could instantly unleash in BG2. All it does is force me to memorize Breach. 5th-level slot wasted.
Most: Too many ties, so I will just list one: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. It's a dual function spell that can either temporarily remove an opponent from the fight, or protect one of my party members that seems to be suffering too much fire.
Favorite: Spell Sequencer, because you could cast a simulacrum and use a sequencer on you and the clone of you and cast 6 sets of magic missiles. Least Favorite:Gate, though it may call a demon, it still always attacks me instead of the enemy.
Favorite: Chain Contingency or Spell Trigger (the possibilites are endless) Least Favorite: Tenser's Transformation (mages have no business going into melee)
Favorite: Spell Sequencer, because you could cast a simulacrum and use a sequencer on you and the clone of you and cast 6 sets of magic missiles. Least Favorite:Gate, though it may call a demon, it still always attacks me instead of the enemy.
You need to cast protection from evil on yourself before casting it...
Worst: Goodberries. They take up inventory space, they're deeply unimpressive in use. Best: I'm torn between Polymorph Other, which makes me giggle with glee (squirrels!), and Insect Plague, which is deeply creepy and which I'd love to unleash in real life on occasion.
BG Favorite: Cloudkill (Die, you bastards, die! Favorite time using it was on Semaj and the others at the end of the game...cast it when you can just see the edge of the dais they're on, and they take damage and die, no muss, no fuss, leaving the party to only battle Sarevok.)
BG Least Favorite: All the really not useful spells. Infravision, Know Alignment, Detect Evil... I don't think I memorized those once in the entire game. And Burning Hands... because it does really piddly damage.
A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned. Magic missle makes me happy. Flame arrow gets better in BG2. Pierce Magic rules against annoying dragons and casters and liches. I use stoneskin and improved invisibility all the time. No love for Abi-Dahzim's Horrid Wilting? That spell makes me laugh like a hyena on meth.
Most useless spell: lots of good (awful) nominations already; to be different, spells of non-detection.
Thing I hate most when cast at my party: Any insta-death spell because my guys NEVER make their saving throws OR any of the confusion-esque spells. Again, my party members fail their saves and I wind up making all my half dead characters flee through the dungeon to avoid Minsc on a rampage.
Favourite: Nahal's Reckless Dweomer - Unleashing reckless and potentially overpowered magic since 2001. Least favourite: Reflected Image. - For being a minor version of mirror image it is embarrassingly useless. Worse still it doesn't improve with levels. Not to mention the fact that you can't get it in BG1, when you would have some use for it (until level 3). You are better off memorising shield IMO.
Now that I've brought up the Dweomer I feel the need to start a solo run as a wild mage.
I've always tried to have a variation of spells in my spellbook as a mage. Even spells I find myself using very sparingly, I still try to use it if it's useful in some way.
I think "Detect Evil" and "Know Alignment" would become useful if dialogue was as heavy in this game as it is in Torment. Perhaps knowing the alignment of someone else would help in knowing what dialogue options to pick to best suit the NPC in question. I remember a mod that added in the spell "Detect Good" I was kinda happy that it was there, but it didn't really matter because it's just another variation of another useless spell.
And infravision... the only way that spell MIGHT become useful is it humanoids that can't see in the dark get some type of negative roll or something and need infravision to do away with that.
With Fireball, you have instant artillery, king of the battlefield. Send a thief sneaking as a scout, when he locates the enemy he moves out of range and calls in the fire-mission
With Fireball, you have instant artillery, king of the battlefield.
My problem with Fireball is that it doesn't scale; it's cool early on, but at higher levels it doesn't do as much damage as other low-level area-effect spells. Skull Trap's more useful later in the game; although its radius is smaller, it does more damage.
my least favorite spell was stun, since it always seemed super effective against me, but i never seemed to have it to use.
my favorite spell was skull trap and later delayed fireball. I used to looooove setting up traps with my mages while my tank with boots of speed would draw the enemy, run around the trap, and meet up with the party about the time that the enemies would take the short cut......right into the trap.
Favorite Spell: Fireball, even though it does fall off in effectiveness later on, its the classic and I still love it.
Least Favorite Spell: Any kind of fear, I hate chasing enemies across the map.
Usually replaced Fireball with the Delayed version, or Horrid Wilting further on, but its still my go to spell for a long time. I also enjoy lightning bolt but i tend to misjudge its travel distance, or it doesnt go the way I want and I end up frying half my party with it. Still, lightning is always fun if for no other reason I can imagine my mage standing there screaming "Unlimited Powaaa" like the Emperor in Star Wars.
Comments
All divination spells are worthless in bg, its not the spell itself, its just in a crpg they are not awesome or useful.
Anyway, my favorite is probably Color Spray, if only because one time I got a random encounter that spawned about ten hobgoblins DIRECTLY BEHIND Edwin. I panicked, and cast Color Spray. Every single Hobgoblin passed out. My PC and Shar-Teel had a grand old time executing them all. Fight over before it even started.
Least favorite? All the nonsense defense spells enemy mages could instantly unleash in BG2. All it does is force me to memorize Breach. 5th-level slot wasted.
Time stop in BG 2 after casting ... freezes anything but Irenicus
Favourite: Improved Alacrity
Hated: Tenser's Transformation
Most: Too many ties, so I will just list one: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. It's a dual function spell that can either temporarily remove an opponent from the fight, or protect one of my party members that seems to be suffering too much fire.
Umm least favorite ... that's really tough there's a lot of really bad ones. But probably Infravision. HEY NOW THE CHARACTERS LOOK RED! YESSS!!
Least Favorite:Gate, though it may call a demon, it still always attacks me instead of the enemy.
Least Favorite: Tenser's Transformation (mages have no business going into melee)
Least favorite when enemy casts it: time stop.
Infravision
Best: I'm torn between Polymorph Other, which makes me giggle with glee (squirrels!), and Insect Plague, which is deeply creepy and which I'd love to unleash in real life on occasion.
BG Least Favorite: All the really not useful spells. Infravision, Know Alignment, Detect Evil... I don't think I memorized those once in the entire game. And Burning Hands... because it does really piddly damage.
Most useless spell: lots of good (awful) nominations already; to be different, spells of non-detection.
Thing I hate most when cast at my party: Any insta-death spell because my guys NEVER make their saving throws OR any of the confusion-esque spells. Again, my party members fail their saves and I wind up making all my half dead characters flee through the dungeon to avoid Minsc on a rampage.
Least favourite: Reflected Image. - For being a minor version of mirror image it is embarrassingly useless. Worse still it doesn't improve with levels. Not to mention the fact that you can't get it in BG1, when you would have some use for it (until level 3). You are better off memorising shield IMO.
Now that I've brought up the Dweomer I feel the need to start a solo run as a wild mage.
Most Favorite: Time Stop (More specifically, time stop traps)
I think "Detect Evil" and "Know Alignment" would become useful if dialogue was as heavy in this game as it is in Torment. Perhaps knowing the alignment of someone else would help in knowing what dialogue options to pick to best suit the NPC in question. I remember a mod that added in the spell "Detect Good" I was kinda happy that it was there, but it didn't really matter because it's just another variation of another useless spell.
And infravision... the only way that spell MIGHT become useful is it humanoids that can't see in the dark get some type of negative roll or something and need infravision to do away with that.
Least: Chill Touch
Infravision
With Fireball, you have instant artillery, king of the battlefield. Send a thief sneaking as a scout, when he locates the enemy he moves out of range and calls in the fire-mission
my favorite spell was skull trap and later delayed fireball. I used to looooove setting up traps with my mages while my tank with boots of speed would draw the enemy, run around the trap, and meet up with the party about the time that the enemies would take the short cut......right into the trap.
Least Favorite Spell: Any kind of fear, I hate chasing enemies across the map.
Usually replaced Fireball with the Delayed version, or Horrid Wilting further on, but its still my go to spell for a long time. I also enjoy lightning bolt but i tend to misjudge its travel distance, or it doesnt go the way I want and I end up frying half my party with it. Still, lightning is always fun if for no other reason I can imagine my mage standing there screaming "Unlimited Powaaa" like the Emperor in Star Wars.
BG1 Least Favorite - magic stone.
BG2 Favorite - Righteous magic
BG2 Least Favorite - Zone of Sweet air (by the time you cast it the worst is already over)
Here are my picks. One can figure one or the other out simply really