Noob question on offensive magic spells

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Hi there

I am still coping with correct usage of offensive magic spells, my problem is with spells that have AoE effect and can affect party members as well. I feel that I am too dumb or unexperienced to use them correctly. Of course it is not a problem to cast a cloudkill in to the area that I know is full of baddies, but iirc some AoE spells are not targetable and the AoE is around the caster, no? Like Sunfire for instance - how to use it safely?

TIA
noob aka jurts

 

Move the party away from the caster,

A good strategy which I´m using with sunfire, is too cast stoneskin, and mirror image on the mage, with the boots of speed. And then walk around attracting baddies (Note: weakness-against-fire-baddies is the best target, ) Then whenever you think you got enough baddies around you, cast a few sunfire spells and they all drop dead without even harming the rest of the party

 

Equip the caster with haste and invisibility potions. Get in the room, cast sunfire, watch as baddies burn, gulp potion, get out. Easy.

EDIT:I and Morgoth posted at the same time. Whoops.

Eze bangs her head against a wall

[ January 03, 2003, 11:33: Message edited by: Ezellohar ]

 

I don't remember right now which level spell sunfire was, but I'd guess it's somewhere so high that you can use that slot to memorize a more useful spell. Sunfire is good for soloers, and well used fighter/mages mostly. Forget sunfire and get for example spell sequencer (lvl 7 if I remember correctly) with 3 fireballs in it. Now you can target it on an enemy and destroy most common groups with one blow while your party can still stay and protect your mage. Later on you'll get spells like Abi Dazim's Horrid Wilting. A very powerful area-destruction spell that will not harm party members.

There are many spells that are useless besides that. Or rather, seem to be. The good thing with BG2 is that there are many ways to handle each battle. Protect and dispell while fighters do the deal. Support with damage/summoning spells as fighters move to close range. Keep the fighters near for support while mages cast area-destruction spells and keep the enemy mages at bay. Move the fighters away while mages do spellbattle, or vice versa against highly magic resistant and dangerous-to-mage opponents. Or a combination of any of these. One of course is when you're caught in crossfire and have to divide your forces, 2 fighters there with 1 cleric, a thief there with a mage casting protections and support spells to help him hold on while the others finish their adversaries, and a mage there to fight with summoning spells and do a spellbattle with a powerful mage. With as little loading as possible, there are truly some awesome fights to be had in BG. And many of the spells that are "useless", become useful precisely through these situations.

A low-level armor or shield spell might save your life when you're level-drained or otherwise lack the ability to cast those higher-level spells. A sunfire will certainly be of more use than a fireball if your mage is caught by surprise with no protecion spells ready of quick enough to be cast, while your fighters are running half a map before you. It's all about the circumstances. Certainly a spellbattling mage doesn't need many of the support-typed spells. Just as a support mage has no reason to memorize powerful protections that are cast on the mage himself over the strong support spells that save the lives of the warriors and other members of the party daily. The game can be played with just a few spells that you use all the time. But you can go hardcore and tweak youself for the maximum output for every situation. Playing for as long as possible without sleep brings out new dimentions to the game entirely. Just as refusing to use traps and ai bugs against spell-strong opponents. It's all about how you want to play it. Baldur's Gate has more spell than what is needed. NWN is an example of what can be done when the little tweaks are left out. But the good thing is that you really do have a free choice of how to play your game, succesfully.

 

There aren't too many spells that fall into this category. The only other two I can think of right now are Mass Cure and Wail of Banshee.

Casting Stoneskin is a good habit to get into. If you only use Invisibility, it disappears as soon as the incantation starts. And given the long casting times, you could be interrupted. Stoneskin will prevent this.

 

It's level 5. Therefore, you can use both the sunfire strategy and your spell sequencer one!

 

Thanks for the replies.

And now for the second noob question: why use any other damage spell once you have access to Abi-Dalzim's??? I mean, even with my as yet limited knowledge of higher level spells, I actually noticed the overpoweredness of this spell.

Prolly, I can answer my own question - because I won't be able to memorise enough to spam it whole day... so a healthy balance is still required.

Anyways, I read thru all wizard spell descriptions this weekend and then went and tested some of them. I would like to know your opinion on:
1) Prismatic spray - hmm, the damage seems okay but it felt like the casting time was horribly long. Besides, from the in-game description I thought that it affects all creatures in it's way, but elsewhere I read that it won't hurt party members. Didn't test it.
2) Sphere of Chaos - yeah, I know some of the wizard spell faqs give this a horrible rating, but I seemed to like it even if some of the effects are not particularly welcome.