Initial dungeon/tutorial

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I played the original BG years ago; I was young and foolish, cheated, and grew bored (cheating on a regular basis steals the fun, doesn't it?). Well, I've grown old and wise, and have now begun BGII. I have no manual, and the mechanics of the game puzzle me in one important respect. I know the escape from the initial dungeon is a kind of tutorial, and I have most everything in hand. However, I can't figure out how to engage Imoen's powers. She has a spellbook full of tricks, but I can't engage any of them. Neither right-click nor l-click changes the screen, and if I click her spell icon I get a row of greyed out (actually khaki or sh*t-colored) icons, each with the numeral "1" atop. None react to the mouse in any way.How do I use the power the character has?

Much obliged,
Grassgrown

 

Is she wearing an armour? Mages can't cast spells while wearing armours (since Imoen started her career as a Thief she can wear light armours but she can't cast spells while wearing one -at least a regular armour).

You have to open Imoen's spellbook and add or replace spells from the list on the left (right click to delete spells, click the spells on the right to add them).

Spell slots are used up when spells are cast and a character has to sleep to replenish his or her spellbook.

It's rather easy once you get used to it.

 

Have you tried resting so she memorises her spells? It sounds like they're greyed out because they haven't been replenished. Armour also effects spellcasting.

 

Thanks all; I did indeed have her in armor. Tell me: what do I do with spell scrolls? Are they one time click-and-use, or is there a way to get them into the right side of the appropriate spell book?

Turns out there's a manual on the drive, but I can find nothing in it about the written scrolls.

 

Only Mages and Bards can memorize scrolls. While in their inventory, right click the scroll and memorize it. You recieve XP woth 1,000/spell level for memorzing the scrolls. It's a great tool for leveling party meembers when they are just short of reaching the next level.

 

Scrolls can be used to cast a spell once (put it in the item quickslot) or consumed to learn a spell (right click on the scroll in your inventory). Learning a spell will net you some XP be wary though, there is a limit to the number of spells a character can know (dependent on level and INT). Save before learning a spell as sometimes learning a spell may fail and still consume the scroll (if it does reload and move your character before trying again).

The Find Familiar spell can only be cast by your main character if he or she is a Mage or a Bard.

 

Which I find odd, as Ninafer comes with the Find Familiar spell in her Spellbook and I was able to cast it with her. Bug?

 

Great timing Blades!

Probably mod related. She struck me as yet another Mary Sue. She shouldn't be able to cast it that much is clear. To be frank I only tested her for like 5 minutes before unistalling the mod.

 

Or a Beastmaster. (Although I think it's actually an innate ability in that case.)

 

The main character is meant to be the only party character capable of summoning a familiar. However there are ways around this.

For example Beastmasters' get the innate ability to summon a companion creature, a beastmaster NPC will get this ability as well unless manually removed.

There is a trick in the inventory where you can right click a scroll/potion and have a person use it. Then before exiting the inventory switch the potion/scroll with the Find Familiar scroll. When you return to the game it looks at it as "So Jaheira successfully used the item in the top left, let's activate it! Oh she now has a familiar - how did that happen?"

If Ninafer was created using the reccomended spell selections I believe it selects find familiar for some mage types. Could be accidental, or a little sueish. Then again there is no harm in a little variety.

 

Good point about the Beastmaster (not that there is any vanilla NPC or modded NPC that I know of with that kit). Beastmasters are somewhat limited so they really need a little boost. Thinking about it, going for a Ranger/Cleric with a dualled Beastmaster could be a non powergaming choice as a regular Ranger/Cleric MC is so powerful it's almost cheesy.

The potion/scroll trick is a cheat but it works (in a single player game, it doesn't matter and variety is good if you don't mind bending the rules).