Baldur's Gate: Arcane Spells List

General Information

Arcane spells are those castable by mages, sorcerers and bards. Generally speaking they are vastly more versatile than Divine spells because at every spell level there are buffs, debuffs, damage and utility spells. The only thing they cannot do is heal themselves (and in the case of Limited Wish, you can still do that anyway!) so having an arcane spellcaster or two is paramount to your success throughout the Baldur's Gate saga.

Level 1 Spells

Available immediately upon rolling a mage or dual-classing into one, level 1 spells are your most numerous casts. As such, they tend not to be very powerful and the vast majority do not scale well later into the game.

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Armor

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	0	9 hours	9	Caster	None

Description: By means of this spell, the wizard creates a magical field of force that serves as if it were scale mail armor (AC 6). It is cumulative with dexterity and in the case of fighter/mages, with the shield bonus. The armor spell does not hinder movement, adds no weight or encumbrance, nor does it prevent spellcasting. It lasts until successfully dispelled or until the duration runs out.

Comments: This spell teaches one of the core Baldur's Gate concepts that not all D&D knowledge translates to BG. Armor sets your Base AC to 6, meaning it cannot be stacked with the base AC of actual armor, robes that have a base AC, or the superior Shield spell. The Shield spell is 50% better than this spell in AC and lasts 50 rounds, which even the most cautious player will only need to cast twice to get through a dungeon. What Armor does that Shield doesn't is provide a good AC boost for 9 hours of traveling. The quickest way to die in Baldur's Gate 1 is to be a Mage and get ambushed by 8 bandits or 8 hobgoblins who will shoot you to death in the blink of an eye. Once you have Robes of the Archmagi you never prepare this spell again, but you will use this every time you travel across the world map until you get to that point, and this spell will do wonders to keep you alive to get the money to buy the robes that replace it.

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Blindness

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	Visual range	10 turns	2	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: This first level spell temporarily blinds its target. A saving throw is allowed and if successful, there are no harmful effects. If a victim is blinded he receives -4 to hit on his attack rolls and has a 4 point armor penalty.

Comments: Blindness is seriously good and is capable of completely neutralizing most threats. The effects of the spell are rather nice as a blinded enemy is likely to miss and won't be able to dodge you worth spittle. Even when playing with SCS, blinded enemies will not be able to respond to anything hitting them from outside their almost-zero visual range, so they will wander around at random in hopes of finding you. This is one of the very few offensive Illusion spells, so Illusionists should load up on this because of the -2 save penalty when cast by them. Do not cast this on enemy thieves in SCS, as they will be able to stealth in plain sight as if they were a Shadowdancer and backstab you. Attacking from stealth cancels out the -4 THAC0 penalty from blindness. By the same token, you could cast this on your party's thief and do the same thing to enemies. Blinded thieves can also set traps in plain sight as long as any enemies are outside the thief's almost-nonexistent visual radius.

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Burning Hands

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	5 ft.	Instant	1	1 creature Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 2.6 5' cone	Spell 1/2

Description: Burning Hands sends out flame jets of five-foot length in a horizontal arc of 60 degrees in front of the wizard. Any creature in the area of the flames suffers 2d2 + 2/level of caster (max 2d2+20) points of fire damage. Those successfully saving vs. spell receive half damage.

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The spell does 1d3 + 2/caster level (max 1d3+20) fire damage now.

Comments: The area of effect is so small that it's actually single-target and the effects are not terribly damaging to begin with. It also requires the mage be in melee range of enemies which is generally to be avoided. The total possibly top-end damage with the spell is 24 and that isn't until level 10 anyway. If you want level 1 damage spells, avoid this one unless fighting trolls. Burning Hands will also hold you in place and freeze your aura for 2 seconds after casting, which is another reason to avoid it. With patch 2.6 on the EEs, Burning Hands is mildly more useful now that it's an actual AoE spell as advertised. Now you can catch multiple trolls with it. It also pauses the caster for only 5 game ticks (0.166 seconds) instead of 2 full seconds, making it a much better option to use in melee range.

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Charm Person

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	Visual range	5 rounds	1	1 person	Spell Negates (+3)

Description: This spell affects any single person it is cast upon. The term person includes any bipedal human, demihuman or humanoid of man-size or smaller. The person receives a saving throw vs. spell with a +3 modifier to avoid the effect. If the spell recipient fails his saving throw, he regards the caster as a trusted friend and ally to be heeded and protected. The caster may give him orders and the charmed individual will carry them out as quickly as possible.

If the caster harms or attempts to harm the charmed person by some overt action or if a dispel magic spell is successfully cast upon the charmed person, the charm spell is broken. If two or more charm effects simultaneously affect a creature, the most recent charm takes precedence. Note that the subject has full memory of the events that took place while he was charmed.

Also note that you cannot have a charmed creature leave the area where he was charmed.

Comments: While enemies gain a bonus to saves vs. this spell, it is one of the best level 1 spells for two major reasons: 1) It gives you a temporary ally in bigger fights, as well as limiting the amount of enemies you will face for a time and 2) you can use it to denature spellcasters whom you know will have to fight against soon but can get the drop on before they turn hostile. A must have for any caster for these reasons alone. Enchanters should especially load up on this because the +3 saving throw bonus is only +1 for them. Try using this on warriors, clerics, and druids since they have weak saves vs. spell.

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Chill Touch

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	0	1 turn or until expended	1	Caster; target punched	Spell Partial

Description:

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When the caster completes this spell, a blue glow encompasses his hand. With a +4 THAC0 bonus, the creature is punched for 1d3 piercing damage (Strength bonuses apply) and must make a saving throw vs. spell or suffer 1d8 cold damage and receive a -2 penalty to its thac0. Chill Touch counts as a normal weapon.

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When the caster completes this spell, a blue glow encompasses his hand. This energy attacks the life force of any living creature upon which the wizard makes a successful melee attack, which means Golems and Undead are immune to the secondary effects of Chill Touch. The creature is punched for 1d2 nonlethal damage (Strength bonuses apply) and must make a saving throw vs. spell or suffer 1d8 cold damage and receive a -2 penalty to its thac0. Chill Touch counts as a +6 weapon.

Comments: Not recommended. This spell is superior to Shocking Grasp in that it doesn't fizzle away after one attack; you maintain Chill Touch for the full duration. Technically this means it's the most damaging level 1 mage spell (and, like all conjured weapons, it allows you to wield an offhand with no THAC0 penalty, regardless of two-weapon style pips), but it is risky to use. Fighter/Mages could use it, but they could also be firing a ranged weapon from safety and save the spellslots for Sleep and Blindness.

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Chromatic Orb

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	90 ft.	Special	1	1 creature	Spell Partial (+6)

Description: This spell causes a 2-foot-diameter sphere to appear in the caster's hand. When thrown, the sphere heads unerringly to its target. The effect the orb has upon the target varies with the level of the mage who casts the spell. Each orb will do damage to the target against which there is no save and an effect against which the target must save vs. spell at +6.

Level	Damage	Additional Effect	Effect Duration
1	1d4 magical	Blindness Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Additional -4 penalty to all saving throws	1 round
2	1d4 magical	Inflicts pain (-1 penalty to STR, DEX, AC, THAC0)	10 seconds
3	1d6 magical	1d8 fire damage	Instant
4	1d6 magical	Blindness	1 turn
5	1d8 magical	Stun	3 rounds
6	1d8 magical	Inflicts weakness (-4 THAC0 penalty)	1 turn
7	1d10 magical	Paralysis	2 turns
10	1d12 acid	Petrification	Permanent
12	2d8 acid	Slays victim	Instant

Comments: Extremely underwhelming spell when compared to others you can take. If you enjoy role playing, fill your spellbook with color spray and chromatic orb, and if you don't, take something else instead. By the time the orb causes instant death your enemies will rarely fail saves with no penalty, let alone one giving them a massive +6 bonus. If you're using it at low level for a stun or blindness when enemies already have terrible saving throws, consider the fact that you need Greater Malison AND Doom to be on the target for it to work as often as Blindness, which is also level 1. Stay away from this spell for anything but RP purposes.

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Color Spray

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	30 ft.	Instant; 5 rounds	1	90° arc	Spell Negates

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard causes a vivid, fan-shaped spray of clashing colors to spring forth from their hand. 1d6 creatures within the area are affected in order of increasing distance from the wizard. All creatures in the area of effect that have 4 Hit Dice or less must make a successful Saving Throw or be rendered unconscious for 5 rounds.

Comments: Color Spray is pretty bad, all things considered. It can be mildly helpful early on in BG1 to knock out a band of Xvarts or something, but the problem is Sleep does the same thing but with increased range, a party-friendly area of effect, and with a -3 saving throw penalty attached. Use it until you learn Sleep and then drop it from your spell book.

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Find Familiar

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	N/A	Special	9	Caster	N/A

Description: This spell enables the caster to summon a familiar to act as his aide and companion. Familiars are typically small creatures. A creature acting as a familiar can benefit a wizard, conveying its sensory powers to its master, conversing with him, and serving as a guard/scout/spy as well. A wizard can have only one familiar at a time, and the familiar summoned is dependent upon the caster's alignment. (Note: This spell may only be cast by the protagonist.)

The creature is always more intelligent than others of its type (typically by 2 or 3 intelligence points) and its bond with the wizard confers upon it an exceptionally long life. The wizard has an empathic link with the familiar and can issue it mental commands.

The caster receives half the familiar's total hit points as bonus hit points. However the caster must take care to treat his familiar well for if the familiar should die, the caster loses the bonus hit points and half the bonus hit points again as damage. Also when the familiar dies, the caster PERMANENTLY loses 1 point of constitution.

Caster's Alignment	Creature Type	AC	HP	Magic Resistance	Combat	Special Abilities
Lawful Good Neutral Good	Pseudo Dragon	-2	24	50%	2 Attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d3 damage. Save vs. death or be rendered unconscious for 2 turns.	Can cast Blur 1x/day. Regenerates 1 HP/round. Immune to level drain, sleep, and petrification.
Chaotic Good	Fairy Dragon	4	24	32%	2 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d2 damage.	Can cast mirror image and invisibility 10' radius 1x/day. Immune to level drain, sleep, and petrification.
Lawful Neutral	Ferret	0	24	50%	2 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d3 damage.	Has 75% Pick Pockets, 40% Hide in Shadows/Move Silently and 20% Detect Traps. Can cast Blur 1x/day. Immune to level drain, sleep, and petrification.
True Neutral	Rabbit	-4	24	65%	2 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d2 damage.	Has 50% Detect Traps, and 30% Hide in Shadows/Move Silently. Has 75% resistance to fire, cold, and electricity.
Chaotic Neutral	Cat	0	24	50%	2 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d3 damage.	Has 30% in Pick Pockets and 99% in Move Silently/Hide in Shadows. Can cast Blur 1x/day. Immune to level drain, sleep, and petrification.
Lawful Evil	Imp	2	18	25%	1 attack/round at 15 THAC0 for 1d6 damage	Has 100% resistance to fire, cold, and electricity. Regenerates 1 HP/round. Can cast Polymorph Self 1x/day.
Neutral Evil	Dust Mephit	6	24	10%	2 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d2 damage.	Has 100% resistance to fire and 50% resistance to slashing, piercing, and missile damage. Can cast Glitterdust 1x/day and Glass Dust 2x/day. Regenerates 1 HP/round. Immune to level drain, sleep, and petrification.
Chaotic Evil	Quasit	2	24	25%	3 attacks/round at 13 THAC0 for 1d6 damage.	Has 100% resistance to fire, cold, and electricity. Can cast Horror and Blur 1x/day. Regenerates 1 HP/round.

Comments: Find Familiar is 99% about giving your mage/sorcerer/beast master 12 bonus HP. Leaving it out to battle is a bad idea because they all have terrible HP and none of them have a ranged attack, so losing out on that 1 constitution permanently as well as the HP gained is a huge possibility if you don't carry it in your sack.

That said, a handful of them are actually fairly useful. Fairy Dragon's Invisibility Radius 10' spell is helpful when planning surprise attacks on enemy parties you know are lurking around the corner if not avoiding the encounter period. Rabbit has 50% detect traps, handy in a pinch if you don't have a thief in the party (or are waiting on Imoen to regain her thief levels in BG1). Cat is an excellent scout, having a default near perfect score to hide in shadows. Lastly Dust Mephit can cast Glitterdust and use the Glass Dust mephit ability, which are both very helpful.

Avoid being Lawful Evil. The main point of Find Familiar is to get bonus HP and you lose out on 3 HP should you take it.

Final note: Mages should start with this spell, then delete it from their book once summoned. As it was a spell added for BG2, you will need to be running BGtutu to get it in BG1 and there are no scrolls for the spell in the entire game. Obviously do not take this spell as a Sorcerer because you can just use a scroll to get the familiar and it's not worth giving up a known spell for something you literally only cast once. Familiars are also undroppable while in your pack, unless your inventory is full and you gain an item from an NPC via dialogue. If your first inventory slot was the familiar, it will be dropped in exchange for the new item. This exploit is patched in the Enhanced Editions.

Alternative: take a look at recommended mods familiars section, if you want to be able to actually use the familiars.

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Friends

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	0	4 rounds + 1 round/level	1	Caster	None

Description: A Friends spell causes the wizard to temporarily gain 6 points of Charisma. Those who view the caster tend to be very impressed and make an effort to be friends or helpful toward the spellcaster as appropriate to the situation. Officious bureaucrats might decide to become helpful; surly gate guards might wax informative; attacking orcs might spare the caster's life, taking him captive instead.

Comments: Despite the flavor text of the spell, there aren't many role-playing situations that this spell influences, though a few are notable (e.g. it can mean the difference between leaving Candlekeep with or without a magical weapon). That said, it's still a fairly handy spell. The effective cap for Charisma is 20, at 20 CHA you get the highest CHA-based discount from stores. There are exactly two CHA-based checks in BG1 and none in BG2: one to get the +1 Dagger in Candlekeep (18 CHA) and one to recruit Alora (9 CHA). This helps you reach them and not worry about rerolling for much higher ability scores.

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Grease

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	30 ft.	1 turn (grease slick) 4 rounds + 1 round/level (movement speed penalty on failed save)	1	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates (+2)

Description: A Grease spell covers a material surface with a slippery layer of a fatty, greasy nature. Any creature entering the area or caught in it when the spell is cast must save vs. Spell at +2 or slip and slide, unable to move effectively. Those who successfully save can move, albeit slowly, for the rest of the round (but will need to save vs. Spell again the following round). Those who remain in the area are allowed a Saving Throw each round until they escape the area.

Comments: Just about the only scaling crowd control spell at level 1. Enemies who slip and skid aren't down for the count so it only really helps against melee fighters. It also gets in the way of your own ability to tangle it up in melee, unless equipped with the Ring of Free Action or a Free Action spell. Grease is extremely useful when attempting ranged attacks against melee-oriented enemies, as the movement speed penalty is so severe that it almost keeps them rooted to the spot. Combine with Web to make doubly sure nobody can move at all.

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Identify

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	Instant	0	1 item	N/A

Description: With this spell memorized, go to the description of an unidentified item and press the Identify button. The chance of identifying the item is 100%. The spell identifies the item's name, what it does, and if it is cursed.

Comments: Just about as straightforward a spell can be, it allows you to identify those pesky unidentified items. Not really needed for a bard due to their insane Lore skill, but just about every other arcane spellcaster should take it. Conjurers lose out as it falls under their opposed school.

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Infravision

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	30 ft.	10 turns	1	1 creature	None

Description: Upon the casting of this spell, the recipient gains the ability to see with infravision just as any elf or dwarf would. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Golly gee willickers, a spell which makes people and enemies faintly red in the dark making them slightly easier to see! Stupid, worthless spell. Considering you are probably an elf already when rolling a mage, there is no point at all even if it did something useful. Note that there are plenty of Elf, Gnome, and Dwarf companions who have this built-in already and a number of Rings of Infravision in both BG1 and BG2.

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In the original BG1 and BG2 this spell would give a red silhouette of enemies outside your vision, which made it a relatively useful effect even if it is replaced by rings or companions whose races have Infravision.

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There are a couple of situations in Siege of Dragonspear where having Infravision will open up a hidden path with extra loot, though another party member who has Infravision innately due to their race can open these for you if you don't already have it yourself. If you somehow have a human-only party, this is about the only time this spell will ever see use.

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Larloch's Minor Drain

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	90 ft.	Instant; 1 turn	1	1 creature	None

Description: With this spell the wizard drains the life force from a target and adds it to his own. The target creature suffers 4 damage while the mage gains 4 hit points. If the mage goes over his maximum hit point total with this spell, he loses it after 1 turn.

Comments: Decent spell early in BG1 as it gives your mage a way to recover minor health losses. It's not enough damage to fell the mightiest of foes nor is it enough to save you from dying while getting pummeled but still, 4 HP is 4 HP.

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This spell has a number of version differences in the Enhanced Editions that make it function differently. Patch 2.6 and onwards it works correctly as described. Prior to patch 2.5 there was a bug where the bonus HP could be stacked infinitely, and in Patch 2.5 this spell broke and would not heal any HP if the bonus 4 max HP from the initial casting was still active.

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Magic Missile

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	60 ft.	Instant	1	1 creature	None

Description: Use of the Magic Missile spell, one of the most popular 1st-level spells, creates up to five missiles of magical energy that dart forth from the wizard's fingertip and unerringly strike their target, which must be a creature of some sort. Each missile inflicts 1d4+1 points of damage. For every 2 extra levels of experience, the wizard gains an additional missile—they have 2 at 3rd level, 3 at 5th level, 4 at 7th level, up to a total of 5 at 9th level.

Comments: Magic missile is a staple of any wizard without evocation as an opposed school. The instant cast time and decent damage it inflicts helps you interrupt enemy spellcasters or simply fling damage around. As a first level spell, you can have a billion of them memorized too so it's not like you ever feel bad for throwing them out with reckless abandon. An instant 10-25 damage never goes out of style. Pick up this spell.

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Nahal's Reckless Dweomer

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Invocation/Evocation	0	Instant	Instant	Caster	None

Description: This spell is the wild mage's ultimate last-resort spell. When cast, the mage releases a sudden flood of wild magical energy in the hope of seizing and shaping that energy into a desired spell effect. The attempt usually fails, but something almost always occurs in the process.

To use Reckless Dweomer, simply cast it and then choose from your list of known spells. A burst of magical energy is released, which the wild mage tries to manipulate into the desired form. The actual effect of the spell is determined randomly by a dice roll on the Wild Surge Table.

Because the release of energy is planned by the mage, his level is added to the dice roll. If the result indicates success, the mage has shaped the magical energy into the desired effect. More often than not, the effect is completely unexpected. The result may be beneficial to the mage or it may be completely disastrous; this is the risk the mage takes in casting Nahal's reckless dweomer.

Comments: If wild mages weren't unpredictable enough, they can attempt to cast a 9th level spell as a 1st level and occasionally drop a cow from the sky instead of the desired effect. Read the table for a full list of effects. This is a gimmick spell. If you manage to get it to cast properly, it's pretty handy and the point of being a Wild Mage is to roll the dice and hope for the best. When your level is high enough, you will be able to use this spell to continuously cast Wish pretty reliably, which has all kinds of applications. Also note NRD's instant cast time – you can use it as miniature Improved Alacrity to cast a spell immediately after casting one normally.

This spell's effectiveness is based off your Wild Mage level. Wild Surges induced by NRD have one bonus normal surges don't, and that's that you add your level to the Wild Surge Threshold. This means that at level 1 you have a 1% chance of getting control over the Wild Surge and casting the spell normally, and at max level 31 with Improved Chaos Shield and the Thayan Circlet equipped you have a 77% chance to use your 1st-level spell slots to cast 9th-level spells.

In Hardcore playthrough, you should always buff with (Improved) Chaos Shield before trying to cast NRD. See Wild Mage Compendium for NRD uses and abuses.

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Protection from Evil

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	2 rounds/level	1	Creature touched	None

Description: When this spell is cast, it creates a magical barrier around the recipient at the distance of one foot. The barrier moves with the recipient and has two major effects: First, all attacks made by evil or evilly enchanted creatures against the protected creature receive a -2 penalty to each attack roll; second, any saving throws caused by such attacks are made by the protected creature with a +2 bonus.

Comments: This spell doesn't last too long per cast, but the AC is handy early in the saga and the saving throw bonus is always extremely useful. That said, there isn't much call for your mage to have this except, perhaps, in an emergency while dealing with gated fiends. It's also a level 1 Divine spell for clerics and they are better off memorizing this than your mage is, not to mention that the 4th level 10 ft. radius version lasts MUCH longer and protects multiple party members. Paladins get a billion casts of this for free as well.

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In BG1, the bonuses are not displayed on the character sheet but they work against any enemy, not just evil ones, contrary to the description. Additionally, they stack, allowing you to hit the AC cap quite easily, making tanking even Drizzt and Sarevok a breeze .

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Protection from Petrification

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	5 turns	1	Creature touched	None

Description: This spell grants the recipient immunity to all petrification attacks. This includes basilisk and medusa gaze, cursed scrolls of petrification, etc.

Comments: A great spell in Baldur's Gate 1 as you actually encounter a fair number of basilisks. Getting it early on allows you to hunt them for extreme XP gains with little risk to yourself. May be useful early on in BG2 depending on mods, as mages may or may not use Flesh to Stone and Chromatic Orb early on, which can petrify you at certain levels, ending your run.

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Reflected Image

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	3 rounds + 1 round/level	1	Caster	None

Description: Upon casting this spell the wizard creates 1 image of himself that will travel along beside him. The image will perform all of the actions that the wizard does so that if any enemies are trying to attack the wizard they will not know which one is real. There is a 50% chance that an attacker will attack the image and a 50% chance that he will attack the caster. The image will disappear with a successful dispel magic, when attacked or when the duration of the spell expires.

Comments: This might be a worthwhile spell if you didn't already get a bajillion more images by casting the level 2 spell Mirror Image. Not worth the effort. Skip this spell.

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Shield

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	5 turns	1	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, an invisible barrier comes into being in front of the wizard. It sets the wizard's armor class to 4 against all melee weapons and 2 against missile weapons. It also grants the wizard immunity from the spell Magic Missile. The effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Superior to the equal-leveled Armor spell in every way except duration. Unlike Armor it won't last for traveling but 5 turns is longer than most spells in the game, a duration long enough for three fights and the travel in-between them.

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Shocking Grasp

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	1 round/level or until expended	1	Caster; Touched creature	None

Description: When the wizard touches a creature while this spell is in effect, an electrical charge will deal 1d8 + 1/level electrical damage to the creature touched, up to 1d8+20. (In the Enhanced Edition, the grasp also does 1d2 fist damage plus Strength bonuses). The wizard only has one charge, and once an opponent has been touched, the spell's energies have been used. If the wizard misses, the spell is wasted. The wizard has 1 round per level to touch the target creature. The Shocking Grasp counts as a +6 weapon.

Comments: Let me get this straight: Not only do I have to make a successful melee attack, it does less damage than an equivalent 5th level wizard throwing magic missiles which cannot err? Avoid this spell. If you really want to do 1d8 damage in a melee attack, roll fighter/mage and use longswords.

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Sleep

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	90 ft.	5 rounds/level	1	30 ft. radius	Death Negates (-3)

Description: When a wizard casts a Sleep spell, they cause a comatose slumber to come upon one or more enemies (other than undead and certain other creatures specifically excluded from the spell's effects). All creatures to be affected by the Sleep spell must be within a 30-ft. radius. Creatures in the area of effect must make a Saving Throw vs. Death with a -3 penalty or fall asleep. Monsters with 5 Hit Dice or more are unaffected. Attacks against sleeping opponents never miss.

Comments: Sleep will single-handedly win most of your battles in BG1 before you breach the city walls. Entire waves of enemies will collapse, giving you free reign to beat them down even with the pathetic THAC0 of a mage. The large -3 saving throw penalty is made even better by Enchanters who cast it with a -5 penalty. Fill your spellbook with Sleep at low levels. Note that a LOT of BG1 enemies can be affected by sleep. That includes every single thing with 'ogre' in the name except Ogre Mages, Ankhegs, Sirines, the list goes on.

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Spook

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	30 ft.	3 rounds	1	1 creature	Spell Negates (see text)

Description: A Spook spell enables the wizard to play upon natural fears to cause the target creature to perceive the caster as someone or something inimical, which then appears to advance upon it in a threatening manner. If the creature does not make a successful Saving Throw vs. Spell, it turns and flees at maximum speed as far from the wizard as possible. The creature suffers a Saving Throw penalty of -1 every 2 levels of the caster, up to a maximum of -6 at 12th level. Although the caster does not actually pursue the fleeing creature, a phantasm from its own mind does. Undead are completely unaffected.

Comments: This is actually a fairly useful spell throughout the entire saga. The eventual -6 penalty creatures suffer when trying to save against the spell make it land fairly regularly and it's even harder to resist when cast by an Illusionist. It's also a way for Illusionists to fear creatures as the level 2 spell "Horror" is under their opposed school. It only affects one enemy but often times making just one guy run around like a coward is all you need to beat down the rest of his party.

Level 2 Spells

Some level 2 spells retain their usefulness throughout the entire saga, namely Mirror Image and Blur. The damage spells listed are mediocre but handy simply due to the sheer amount of level 2 spells a high level mage has access to.

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Agannazar's Scorcher

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	15 ft.	1 round	3	2 ft. x 15 ft. jet	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, a jet of flame appears at the caster's fingertips and bursts out toward one target of the caster's choice. That target will be hit by this flame for 3d6 points of damage. The flame jet strikes a second time halfway through its duration, and the caster may move while the spell is in effect. There is no Saving Throw against this spell, though anti-fire capabilities such as Fire Resistance will apply and may reduce or eliminate the damage.

Comments: This would be a decent spell if the Wand of Fire didn't have the same charge ability that does 6d6+6, which is more than double the damage of the standard Scorcher. Even when saving vs. wands for half, it still does more damage than this version. Once you've breached the city walls in BG1, the game will start throwing wands at you, so you will never need to memorize this. Wands are in abundance in BG2 as well. The Wand of Fire's version is a great spell, especially vs groups (trolls in particular). Gulp an Oil of Speed, use the Scorcher charge, and run in circles around your foes to roast them.

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The spell version of Scorcher holds you in place and pauses your magical aura for 2 seconds after casting, which is just another reason to keep this out of your spell slots.

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Blur

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	4 rounds + 2 rounds/level	2	Caster	None

Description: When a Blur spell is cast, the wizard causes the outline of their form to become blurred, shifting and wavering. This distortion causes all missile and melee attacks against the caster to be made with a -3 penalty. The wizard also gains a +1 bonus to all of their Saving Throws.

Comments: Blur is pretty nice early on in both games, especially for Fighter/Mages and Blades who fight on the front lines, as it gives you a way to decrease your AC further while having Armor active. Combined with other spells that improve saving throws like Spirit Armor and Improved Invisibility, it is possible to reach negative saving throws very early on. Its duration scales nicely, since it starts out as a per-battle spell and turns into a moderate-duration buff, lasting almost 4^1/2 minutes at level 20.

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Chaos Shield

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	5 rounds + 1 turn/5 levels	2	Caster	None

Description: Chaos Shield increases a Wild Mage's chance to gain a favorable result when a Wild Surge occurs. Every time a roll is made on the Wild Surge chart, an extra 15 is added to the dice roll. When Nahal's Reckless Dweomer is cast, the bonus from Chaos Shield stacks with the Wild Mage's level bonus.

Comments: If you take a look at the Wild Surge Table, you'll notice that there is a bit of a pattern on the high rolls where the surge affects the target, while on the low rolls there's a tendency for the surges to affect the caster instead. Given this information, Chaos Shield is more helpful than a hindrance...as long as you're not targeting yourself. With the spell's description not being utterly explicit in regards to surges caused at random, it is probable that Chaos Shield modifies that roll as well.

Chaos Shield should be used in situations where you can't afford to flub a spell in a fight or whenever you're using NRD often.

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Deafness

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	40 ft.	Permanent	2	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: The Deafness spell causes the recipient to become totally unable to hear any sounds. The victim is allowed a Saving Throw vs. Spell to negate the effect. Deafened spellcasters have a 50% chance to miscast any spells. This deafness can be done away with by means of a Dispel Magic spell or a Cure Disease spell.

Comments: The casting time is pretty fast and its duration is permanent, which is neat early on. But the save is vs. Spell and that's one of the mage's strong points. Clerics' saves vs. Spell are slightly worse so it will work on them more effectively, but you're still taking a gamble by using this on another spellcaster, even as an Illusionist. Later on, mages have all kinds of protections vs. spells, so if you manage to dispel their buffs, they're as good as dead anyway. Still, 50% spell failure is 50%.

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Detect Evil

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	Instant	2	60 ft. radius	None

Description: This spell discovers emanations of evil from any creature. Any evil creature within the range of the spell will glow red briefly.

Comments: Don't even bother. Paladins get a million casts of this for free.

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Detect Invisibility

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	4 turns	2	235 ft. radius	None

Description: When the wizard casts a Detect Invisibility spell, he is able to see clearly any objects or beings that are invisible, as well as any that are astral, ethereal, or out of phase. In addition, this spell enables the wizard to detect hidden or concealed creatures (e.g., Thieves hiding in shadows, halflings in underbrush, and so on). It does not reveal the method of concealment or invisibility, except in the case of astral travelers (where the silver cord can be seen). It does not reveal illusions or enable the caster to see through physical objects.

Note: If an invisible creature enters the area of effect after the spell has already been cast, the creature will remain invisible.

Comments: This spell is useful throughout the whole saga because of its fast casting time and the fact that it dispels Improved Invisibility as well. It is often a better choice than Glitterdust because this spell has no save. The bad part is that it does not remove other illusionary protections like Mirror Image, Simulacrum, or Mislead; plus, it is also countered by Spell Immunity: Divination. But sometimes all you need is to get rid of a mage's invisibility so you can keep beating on him to win.

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Ghoul Touch

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	0	5 rounds	1	Caster; creature punched	Spell Partial

Description:

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When the caster completes this spell, a red glow encompasses his hand. When the wizard makes a successful melee attack with a +3 bonus to hit against a creature, that creature is punched for 1d3 piercing damage (Strength bonuses apply) and must make a Saving Throw vs. Spell or be paralyzed for 5 rounds. Ghoul Touch counts as a normal weapon.

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When the caster completes this spell, a red glow encompasses his hand. When the wizard makes a successful melee attack against a creature, that creature is punched for 1d2 nonlethal damage (Strength bonuses apply) and must make a Saving Throw vs. Spell or be paralyzed for 5 rounds. Ghoul Touch counts as a +6 weapon.

Comments: Once again, this touch spell work differently between the vanilla and EE versions, with the EE version being significantly better as it counts as a +6 weapon. This would actually be a pretty nice spell to use against fighters since their saves vs. Spell suck, but as a mage, you're going to have problems even hitting a guy who's in full plate and packing steel. However, a Fighter/Mage has good enough THAC0 to get Ghoul Touch to hit. Since Ghoul Touch lasts 5 rounds (and not simply fizzling after one hit or miss) it's all a matter of whether your enemy succeeds or fails their saves at that point, and a 30-second paralysis is plenty of time to beat down anybody who isn't straight-up immune to it.

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Glitterdust

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	20 ft.	4 rounds	2	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates

Description: This spell creates a cloud of glittering golden particles within the area of effect. All enemies in the area must roll a successful Saving Throw vs. Spell or be blinded (-4 penalty to attack rolls and Armor Class) for 4 rounds. In addition, all enemies who fail their Saving Throw are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades, thus revealing invisible creatures. The dust fades in 4 rounds.

Comments: Detect Invisibility and Blindness wrapped up into one spell. The bad part is that both the blindness and the invisibility removal only happen on a failed save and their duration is pretty short, too. Conjurers cast this with an added -2 save penalty, which is extremely useful to them because Divination is their opposed school, which makes this their ONLY means of revealing invisible creatures by themselves. Unless you're a Conjurer, use Detect Invisibility instead.

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Horror

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	40 ft.	1 turn	2	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates

Description: All enemies within the area of effect when this spell is cast must save vs. Spell or flee in terror. Certain creatures are immune to the effects of fear, including all undead.

Comments: Party-friendly, but this spell is far more useful to your foes than it is to you. Causing your party members to run around like headless chickens makes it difficult to target a Remove/Resist Fear spell on them and can possibly lead them into further danger in the area, such as more monsters and traps. Sometimes all it takes to beat down a group of enemies is to make some of them stop attacking you and run away. Still, you'll have to chase down the ones that fled which poses problems of its own, like walking into another encounter where those previously fleeing enemies are now reinforcing the new band of enemies. Necromancers should memorize one just because of the added save penalty, but be cautious in your use of this spell for the reasons previously outlined.

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Invisibility

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	Touch	24 hours or until broken	2	1 creature	None

Description: This spell causes the creature touched to vanish from sight and be undetectable by normal vision or even infravision. Of course, the invisible creature is not magically silenced, and certain other conditions can render the creature detectable. Even allies cannot see the invisible creature or his gear, unless these allies can normally see invisible things or employ magic to do so. Items dropped or put down by the invisible creature become visible, items picked up disappear if tucked into the clothing or pouches worn by the creature. The spell remains in effect until it is magically broken or dispelled, until the recipient attacks any creature, or until 24 hours have passed. The caster cannot perform any actions that manipulate the environment around him such as opening doors, disarming a trap, or opening a chest. He can, however, cast defensive spells on himself and fellow party members. And if he attacks, he immediately becomes visible, although the invisibility enables him to attack first.

Comments: Contrary to the spell's description, you CAN open doors and disarm traps while invisible, making this a great scouting spell for thief/mages. Everything else outlined in the description, plus unlocking objects and picking pockets breaks the invisibility. This spell is a favorite of every enemy mage who can cast it because they can buff up to their heart's content and then strike. Naturally, there are ways to counter it at this level by using Detect Invisibility and Glitterdust. For solo runs, Invisibility is extremely valuable as its 24-hour duration allows you to safely travel throughout the Sword Coast if you get ambushed. It also allows you to skip certain encounters that you may not be strong enough to defeat on your own, or if you choose to fight, you can initiate the fight from a different angle, like behind a rival party so you can eliminate their mage first.

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under invisibility (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged.

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Knock

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	20 ft.	Instant	1	Locked object	N/A

Description: The Knock spell opens locked, held, or wizard-locked doors. It opens secret doors as well as locked boxes or chests. It does not raise barred gates or similar impediments.

Comments: This spell sees most of its use in runs with solo mages who aren't classed with Thief. Its also good for dual-classes with weak thieving skills. Opening a locked object with this spell does not give any XP, however.

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Know Alignment

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	30 ft.	Instant	9	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: A Know Alignment spell enables the Mage to exactly read the aura of a creature. If the creature rolls a successful Saving Throw vs. Spell, the caster learns nothing about that particular creature from the casting. When a character is hit by this spell, he will glow red if evil, green if good, and white if neutral. Certain magical devices negate the power of the Know Alignment spell.

Comments: Even more useless than Infravision, and that's quite a feat!

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Luck

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	15 ft.	3 rounds	2	1 creature	None

Description: The recipient of this spell is lucky in everything that he does for the next 3 rounds. He receives a 5% bonus to any of his actions. This includes saving throws, to hit chances, thieving skills, etc.

Comments: The Luck spell itself has three effects:

• +1 to all saves
• +5% thief skills
• +1 Luck

A character's Luck stat has the following effects when positive (which are reversed when negative):

• +1 to every to hit roll
• +1 to every physical damage roll, not exceeding the natural limit of the weapon (so rolling a 6 on a 1d8 longsword would become 7 on a character with 1 Luck, or an 8 would still stay an 8.)
• -1 to every elemental damage die roll suffered, not exceeding the die's limits (e.g. a character with 2 Luck is hit with a 5d6 fireball that rolls 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for its d6 rolls. These are reduced to 1, 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.)
• Luck has some say in how quickly a PC or enemy creature will move toward another creature to attack, though this effect is fairly minor. Higher luck = begins movement earlier; Negative luck = begins movement later.
• Enemies that attempt to hit a caster who has positive Luck while said caster is under Mirror Image will always hit the images instead of the real caster.
  • If negative luck is less than number of active images (or luck is 0) -> Chance to bypass is (luck + 1) / (images + 1).
    • A mage with -5 luck and 8 active images will be hit through the images (5 + 1) / (8 + 1) = 66.6% of the time.
    • A mage with 0 luck and 5 active images will be hit through the images (0 + 1) / (5 + 1) = 16.6% of the time.
  • If negative luck is greater than or equal to the number of active images -> Damage will ALWAYS bypass mirror images.

Luck is quite powerful which is why its duration is so short, but it's still too short to make that much of a difference. It seems that if you want a longer-lasting Luck spell, you'll have to have a cleric cast Chant. Skip this. For a more in-depth explanation of how Luck works, view this Beamdog forum thread all about Luck. An archive of the first page can be found here.

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Melf's Acid Arrow

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	60 ft.	1 round/3 levels	2	1 creature	None

Description: By means of this spell, the wizard creates a magical arrow that speeds to its target unerringly. The arrow has no attack or damage bonus, but inflicts 2d4 points of acid damage (there is no splash damage). For every 3 levels of the caster, the acid lasts for another round, unless somehow dispelled, inflicting another 2d4 points of damage each round. So at 3rd-5th level, the acid lasts 2 rounds, at 6th-8th level, the acid lasts for 3 rounds, and so on.

Comments: Since the damage is triggered every round, it's good to use this against spellcasters to interrupt their spells. Also good for fighting trolls; just cast it on them, wail on them till they're near death, and let the acid arrow finish them off when they get knocked down. Memorize this.

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Mirror Image

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	3 rounds + 1 round/level	2	Caster	None

Description: When a mirror image spell is invoked, the spellcaster causes from 2 to 8 exact duplicates of himself to come into being around him. These images do exactly what the wizard does. Since the spell causes a blurring and slight distortion when it is cast, it is impossible for opponents to be certain which are the illusions and which is the actual wizard. When an image is struck by a melee or missile attack, magical or otherwise, it disappears, but any other existing images remain intact until they are struck. However, it is important to note that this will not protect the caster against every attack as it is possible for an enemy to choose the real caster amongst all the images.

Comments: THE defensive spell of Level 2. Think of it as a Lesser Stoneskin. Unlike Stoneskin, though, Mirror Image also has a tendency to block certain projectiles created by spells, like Magic Missile and Melf's Acid Arrow. It is not completely effective against Magic Missile, as 1 or 2 of them usually get through, but that defensive property should never be overlooked. Fighter/Mages and Blades should memorize several of these.

Mirror Image is especially powerful when the caster has a positive Luck modifier, as enemies will always strike the images instead of the caster under this circumstance. See the Luck spell entry for more details.

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Power Word: Sleep

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	40 ft.	5 rounds	1	1 creature	None

Description: When a wizard calls upon a Power Word, Sleep spell, he causes a comatose slumber to come upon 1 creature (other than undead and certain other creatures specifically excluded from the spell's effects). The creature targeted must have less than 20 current Hit Points and gets no Saving Throw. Magically sleeping opponents can be attacked with substantial bonuses. The Sleep effect will last for 5 rounds. This spell has no effect on creatures with more than 20 current Hit Points.

Comments: This spell is mainly useful at very low levels when enemy mages are squishy and do not have much in the way of spell defenses. It doesn't take long before this spell loses its effectiveness. Elves and half-elves still get their 90%/30% chance to ignore this spell's effects.

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Ray of Enfeeblement

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	40 ft.	1 round/level	2	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: By means of a Ray of Enfeeblement, a wizard weakens an opponent, reducing its Strength score and thereby the attacks that rely upon it. The victim is reduced to a Strength score of 5 for the duration of the spell, unless a Saving Throw vs. Spell is made. This spell does not affect combat bonuses due to magical items, and those conferring increased Strength function normally. However, the target receives all the penalties for a Strength score of 5 such as attack and damage penalties as well as lower weight allowance.

Comments: Let's get this out of the way: enemies are not affected by encumberment from low Strength, but YOU are. Lame! Half the reason you'd want to cast this spell on an enemy fighter is now gone since you can't root him in place due to his full plate.

5 STR gives a -2 THAC0 penalty and -1 damage penalty. This can be pretty helpful since Exceptional Strength and STR scores above 18/00 give a considerable damage bonus. On enemies that use weapons with large base damage, like dragons and golems, it is less helpful. Enchanters should memorize one if they feel like it.

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Resist Fear

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	30 ft.	1 hour	1	30 ft. radius	None

Description: The wizard instills courage in the spell's recipients, raising their morale to its highest. The recipients' morale will gradually reset to normal as the duration runs out. If the recipients are affected by magical fear, they will regain their composure.

Comments: You should always have one of these memorized. Fear is dangerous for the reasons described in the Horror entry, and Resist Fear cures Panic and prevents it for a while. Being hit with fear in a solo run is guaranteed death.

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Stinking Cloud

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	1 turn; 9 seconds	2	30 ft. radius	Death Negates (+2)

Description: When casting a Stinking Cloud spell, the wizard creates a billowing mass of nauseous vapors up to 40 ft. away from their position. Any creature caught within the cloud must roll a successful Saving Throw vs. Poison at +2 or be sent reeling and fall down for 1d2 rounds 9 seconds. Those who make successful Saving Throws can leave the cloud without suffering any ill effects, although those remaining in the cloud must continue to save each round. A Dispel Magic will remove the nausea on a particular character, but if they remain in the cloud, then they are still subject to its effects.

Comments: Stinking Cloud is highly effective against mages and thieves because their saves vs. death are awful. Against mid-level warriors, especially high CON dwarves and halflings, it might as well be ignoreable. You can use that to your advantage by hurling a Stinking Cloud into a group of enemies and having any dwarf or halfling fighters you've got mop up. Korgan, Kagain, Yeslick, and Mazzy are well-suited to this task.

It's great to combine with Web in a Minor Sequencer to use against another adventuring party, since the saving throws they require are different. Web holds fighters, Stinking Cloud incapacitates mages, then you can just shoot them all.

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Strength

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	20 ft.	1 turn/level	9	1 creature	None

Description: Application of this spell increases the Strength of the character to 18 and then adds 50% bonus on top of this. The character receives any strength bonuses appropriate. For example, if a character has between 18/50 and 18/00 strength, then his strength will just be set to 18/00. If a character has a strength between 18/01 and 18/50, then his strength will become 18/50 +original percentage. If his strength is less then 18, then it will just become 18/50. However, this spell will actually lower a character's strength if it is already 19 or more.

Comments: Lovely buff spell for fighter-types who had to gimp Strength for good stats in other areas, like Paladins and Fighter->Druid dual-classes. It's also good for those who scored a great total roll but with lousy Exceptional Strength. Throw it on when you expect enemies and then forget it. It's a bit unorthodox but this spell can also be used to lower a high STR foe to 18/50 STR, since buffs bypass magic resistance. Great for fights against anything with an obviously high Strength score like fire giants or dragons. Pick this up if you need it.

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Vocalize

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	1 turn	2	Caster	None

Description: The recipient of this spell can cast spells with a verbal component without having to make any noise. Effectively, this spell cancels the effects of Silence and makes the recipient immune to it for the spell's duration. This spell has no effect on other noises or speech—it simply removes a spell's verbal component.

Comments: You're not going to be silenced too often by anything in unmodded games. But with Sword Coast Stratagems installed, it is one of mages' favorite methods of disabling your casters. Ignore this if you're not using SCS, but you should definitely memorize at least one if you are using SCS, at least until you get the Amulet of Power.

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Web

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	1 turn; 7 seconds	2	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-2)

Description: A Web spell creates a many-layered mass of strong, sticky strands similar to spider webs but far larger and tougher. The Web spell covers a maximum area of about 30 ft. in radius (roughly the same size as a Fireball). Creatures caught within webs, or simply touching them, become stuck among the gluey fibers. Anyone in the area when the spell is cast must roll a Saving Throw vs. Spell with a -2 penalty. If the Saving Throw is successful, then the creature is free to move out of the area. A failed Saving Throw means the creature is stuck in the webs unable to move. Each round that a creature remains in the web, it must make a Saving Throw or be unable to move.

Comments: Excellent crowd control spell, just be careful not to get caught in it yourself. The saving throw penalty means enemies will have a hard time resisting it, and the penalty becomes a steep -4 when cast by Evokers. Those who are caught are considered paralyzed. Attacks against paralyzed creatures automatically hit; no rolling to hit is done. Stand back and nail the poor bastards with ranged weapons after you cast this spell, or wade in there yourself if you've got Freedom of Movement from a spell or an item. Definitely pick this up. Note that mutliple Webs means multiple saving throws - if an enemy is in the area of 3 stacked Web spells and fails any of his 3 saving throws against each individual Web, he's stuck and can be shot to death with impunity.

Level 3 Spells

Level 3 is where mages' real firepower begins but it has its fair share of worthless spells. It is home to the classic Fireball, as well as the very useful Haste, Slow, and Dispel Magic.

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Clairvoyance

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	Instant	3	The whole map	None

Description: The Clairvoyance spell empowers the wizard to see in his mind the geographical features and buildings of the region he is currently exploring. It extends to a great range, but cannot reveal creatures or their movements.

Comments: Clairvoyance removes all the fog of war from the map. Useful for first-time players but this spell is useless to veterans. It could perhaps be used to send summoned creatures in as shock troops for groups of enemies, getting them to waste their spells while you are far away from them.

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Detect Illusion

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	Instant	3	30 ft. radius	None

Description: When cast at a point designated by the wizard, this spell will cancel all Illusion/Phantasm spells of 3rd level and lower in the area. Spells that are affected by this are Reflected Image, Invisibility, Mirror Image, and Non-Detection. It is important to note that the caster can control just who this spell affects. Therefore, it will affect only enemies of the caster. The area of effect is roughly a 30-ft. radius around the target caster. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: Similar to Detect Invisibility but it also cancels out Mirror Image. Improved Invisibility will be unaffected. Mirror Image is extremely annoying to fight against, especially at low levels when you have fewer attacks per round, because it's better than Stoneskin in some ways. With this spell, you can get rid of it rather quickly and resume the beatdown on enemy mages.

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Dire Charm

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	35 ft.	5 rounds	3	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: This spell works in the exact same manner as Charm Person, with one difference: there is no saving throw bonus.

Comments: As the description says, its Charm Person without the +3 save bonus. That means Enchanters cast this with a -2 save penalty, making this far more useful to them. Other mages can safely skip this.

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Dispel Magic

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant	5	30 ft. radius	None

Description: A Dispel Magic spell removes magical effects upon anyone within the area. This includes effects given from spells, potions and certain magical items such as wands. It does not, however, affect enchanted magical items or spell protections such as Spell Turning and Spell Deflection. The chance of the dispel succeeding is determined by the level of the caster and the level of the magic being dispelled. The base chance of successfully dispelling is 50%. For every level that the caster of the Dispel Magic is above the original caster, their chance of success increases by 5%. For every level that the caster of Dispel Magic is below the original caster, their chance of success decreases by 10%. However, despite the difference in levels, there is always at least a 5% chance of success or failure. Thus, if a caster is 10 levels higher than the magic they are trying to dispel, there is only a 5% chance of failure. Similarly if the caster is 4 levels lower than the magic they are trying to dispel, there is only a 10% chance of success. Intuitively, this spell is almost useless if the target is 5 or more levels higher than the caster.

Note: While this spell dispels the individual effects of Grease, Web, Stinking Cloud, and other such spells, it does not dispel the area of effect.

Comments: Take note that Dispel Magic does not roll a dispel check for each individual buff/ailment; it either dispels everything or dispels nothing. However, the dispel check IS rolled for each source of buffs/ailments. For example, an illusionist/thief buffed by Haste has Protection from Evil cast upon him by the party's cleric. The cleric's caster level happens to be higher than the illusionist/thief's due to not being a multiclass. The illusionist/thief is affected by a Dispel Magic from an enemy mage, which strips him of his Haste buff but not the Protection from Evil cast by the cleric.

Unlike most spells, Dispel Magic's caster level does not have a cap. Because caster level matters on this spell much more than others, Bards are actually better off utilizing this spell than mages because they level up faster. In BG1, whether mage or bard, the difference between your caster level and your enemies' is not going to be very much so you still have a considerable chance of dispelling an enemy mage. But BG2 is all about high-level mage fencing, so this spell is not going to work on the particularly badass mages until you can catch up to them. Assuming you've done all the sidequests in Athkatla and the surrounding lands, this will happen for Bards about the time you enter Spellhold and for mages it will be around the mid-way point of plumbing the Underdark. This is just the offensive use of this spell.

For defense, this spell will attempt to cure any status effects on your allies caused by spells, and will dispel Feeblemind 100% of the time. Unfortunately it also tends to strip them of any buffs they have active too. Try using spells to cure them of specific ailments before trying Dispel Magic.

Finally, bear in mind this will hit everyone including party members, so if you just buffed up your fighter and sent him into the fray at the same time your bard is casting Dispel Magic, say goodbye to your buffs. Spell Immunity: Abjuration is the only way to make yourself immune to Dispel Magic. If you're interested in using it on enemies and frequently run with fighters in melee, it's better to take Remove Magic instead.

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Fireball

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	Instant	3	30 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: A fireball is an explosive burst of flame that detonates with a low roar and delivers damage proportional to the level of the wizard who cast it — 1d6 points of damage for each level of experience of the caster (up to a maximum of 10d6). The wizard points their finger and speaks the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. A streak flashes from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball (an early impact results in an early detonation). Creatures failing their Saves vs. Spell each suffer full damage from the blast. Those who roll successful Saving Throws manage to dodge, fall flat, or roll aside, each receiving half.

Comments: Classic wizard spell. Always useful against groups to soften them up or to outright kill trash mobs. However, Skull Trap will do more damage at higher levels and as a less commonly resisted damage type. Pick this up if you're an Illusionist, an Evoker, or if the game hasn't started throwing wands at you yet.

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Flame Arrow

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	60 ft.	Instant	3	1 creature	Spell 1/2 (fire damage only)

Description: This spell enables the caster to hurl fiery bolts at opponents within range. Each bolt inflicts 1d6 points of piercing damage plus 4d6 points of fire damage. Only half of the fire damage is inflicted if the creature struck saves vs. Spell. The caster receives one bolt every 5 levels beyond the 5th (up to 4 bolts at 20th level). All of the bolts will streak toward the target of the spell.

Comments: Great single-target damage spell. Highly damaging if putting multiple Flame Arrows into spell sequencers and triggers. Bards receive the scaling damage the quickest but Conjurers cast this with a -2 save penalty, ensuring that enemies take the full damage of this spell instead of saving for half. Use this to weaken a beefy enemy from full health or use it to finish them off from "badly wounded."

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Ghost Armor

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	0	1 hour	1	Caster	None

Description: By means of this spell, the wizard creates a magical field of force that serves as if it were field plate armor (AC 2). It is cumulative with Dexterity bonuses to Armor Class and, in the case of Fighter/Mages, with the shield's bonus. The Ghost Armor spell does not hinder movement, adds no weight or encumbrance, nor does it prevent spellcasting. It lasts until successfully dispelled or until the duration expires.

Comments: Improved version of Armor that gives 4 more AC and a much faster casting time in exchange for only lasting an in-game hour, which is 5 minutes real time. Highly useful for Fighter/Mages and Blade bards who fight up close and personal, but the duration is so short as to be a per-battle spell, and only if they need to tank. Ghost Armor is decidedly less useful on other classes since they're usually supposed to be at range and away from anything that could threaten them directly.

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Haste

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	15 ft.	3 rounds + 1 round/level	3	30 ft. radius	None

Description: When this spell is cast, all creatures affected function at double their normal movement rate, gain a -2 speed factor bonus, and receive an extra attack per round. Thus, a creature moving at 6 and attacking once per round would move at 12 and attack twice per round. At the instant the spell is completed, it affects all ally creatures in a 30 ft. radius centered on a point selected by the caster (thus, creatures leaving the area are still subject to the spell's effect; those entering the area after the casting is completed are not). Note that affected creatures expend as much energy during this spell as they would normally in a whole day, significantly raising their fatigue level. This spell is not cumulative with itself or with other similar magic. Spellcasting and spell effects are not affected. Note that this spell negates the effects of a Slow spell.

Comments: Wonderful buff spell that vastly increases the effectiveness of fighter types and summons alike. Half attacks get rounded up to the next whole number, so a character with 2.5 attacks per round only gets 3 attacks while Hasted instead of 3.5. Haste causes some effects to occur at double speed, such as any regeneration effects and a thief's stealth cooldown rate, as well as damage over time effects like poison - therefore, some caution is advised when using this spell depending on what kind of enemies you're facing. Quick-slot items can be used twice as fast, which makes scrolls far more effective than usual as their casting time is cut in half, contrary to the description.

Haste inflicts a fatigue bonus of 4 when it wears off. Party members with low Constitution will likely be fatigued but heartier allies can be affected by Haste a couple more times before their fatigue sets in. Definitely pick this spell up, but prepare only one or two uses per day. Oil of Speed is readily available and better than this spell because Fatigued characters take Luck penalties, and Luck penalties hurt you just as much as Luck bonuses help you. Even a 20 CON dwarf will have trouble after one Haste spell, after two you're asking for death if you continue fighting.

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Hold Person

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	35 ft.	1 turn	3	1 enemy humanoid and others in 7.5 ft. of initial target	Spell Negates (-1)

Description: This spell holds humans, demihumans, or humanoid creatures rigidly immobile and in place for 1 turn. The Hold Person spell affects any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, including brownies, dryads, dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, kobolds, lizard men, nixies, orcs, pixies, sprites, troglodytes, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be held, while an ogre could not. The effect is centered on the victim selected by the caster. Every enemy within 7.5 ft. of the target is also affected. Those who save vs. Spell at -1 are totally unaffected by the spell. Undead creatures cannot be held.

Held creatures cannot move or speak, but they remain aware of events around them and can use abilities not requiring motion or speech. Being held does not prevent the worsening of the subjects' condition due to wounds, disease, or poison.

Comments: Hitting multiple enemies with the very small AoE is difficult since they have to be right next to each other. Move your tank in and let them bunch up in front of him, then try casting this. Attacks against held creatures automatically hit, which can be an absolute godsend if you manage to launch the spell like I just described. Enchanters should definitely memorize this spell alongside Dire Charm.

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Hold Undead

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	35 ft.	2 rounds/level	3	1 enemy undead creature and others in 10 ft. of initial target	Spell Negates

Description: This spell holds undead creatures rigidly immobile and in place. The effect is centered on the victim selected by the caster. Any enemies within 10 ft. of the target are also affected. Those who succeed on their Saving Throws are totally unaffected by the spell. Held creatures cannot move or speak, but they remain aware of events around them and can use abilities not requiring motion or speech. Being held does not prevent the worsening of the subject's condition due to wounds.

Comments: This spell uses a different type of hold effect that can hold undead even if they're normally immune to it. Undead are still handled easily enough by clerics and the Priest of Lathander gets castings of this as an innate ability. Necromancers, skip this and help yourself to another Skull Trap.

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Invisibility 10' Radius

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	24 hours or until broken	9	10 ft. radius	None

Description: As Invisibility but the effects apply to everyone within 10 feet of the caster.

Comments: Awesome ambush spell that cloaks the whole party. If you're having trouble beating an encounter, try using this spell to attack from a different angle. Be careful about using this in combat, since it gives invisibility to everyone in the AoE, not just the party. Exceptionally useful in no-reload runs because the whole party can avoid random encounters when traveling the world map, thanks to the long duration of the spell.

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under invisibility (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged.

While this spell is technically available in BG1, it's worth mentioning that it only exists on the random loot table, it cannot be bought or found as a guaranteed piece of loot. If you find one in a complete playthrough consider your run blessed.

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This spell no longer affects enemies.

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Lightning Bolt

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	120 ft. + 30 ft./level	Instant	3	Path of the bolt	Spell 1/2

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard releases a powerful stroke of electrical energy that inflicts 1d6 points of damage per level of the caster (maximum damage of 10d6) to each creature within its area of effect. A successful Saving Throw vs. Spell reduces this damage to half. The bolt begins at a range and height decided by the caster and streaks outward in a direct line from the casting wizard (e.g., if a 40-ft. bolt was started at 180 ft. from the wizard, the far end of bolt would reach 220 ft. (180+40)). If the Lightning Bolt intersects with a wall, it will bounce until it reaches its full length.

Comments: Dangerous damage spell that's about as likely to hit you as it is to hit your enemies. That's why mages in BG1 like to cast it, since they are usually located indoors. The lightning bolt often bounces in unpredictable ways after hitting a wall, but if you're truly skilled, you can aim this spell to strike an enemy multiple times for massive electrical damage. Use caution if you plan to use this spell. Try Minor Globe of Invulnerability or a Potion of Absorption. Pair with Protection from Electricity for maximum caution, or open a door, throw a Lightning Bolt inside, then close the door.

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Melf's Minute Meteors

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until discharged or dispelled	3	Caster	None

Description: This spell creates several small globes of fire, one for each experience level the wizard has obtained, which are held in the wizard's hands in place of their usual weapons. The meteors can be hurled at targets up to 270 feet away and are treated as missiles with a +5 bonus to the attack rolls. Each meteor bursts into a 1-ft. diameter sphere upon impact, inflicting 1d4+3 points of damage plus an additional 3 points of fire damage to any creature struck. The wizard may hurl up to five missiles per round. The meteors count as +6 weapons.

Comments: Instead of hucking rocks with a sling, you can use this to let your mage contribute more to fights without expending spells. It also doubles as a ranged weapon for melee focused Fighter/Mages and Bards. Since they count as +6 weapons, they are able to hit anything in the game that requires magical weapons to damage. Be careful about throwing them against mages protected by the Spell Turning spells since the fire damage part of the meteors will be reflected back at the user, although they still burn through 3 spell levels each time they hit. When combined with Improved Haste, you'll hit the APR cap of 10, allowing your mages to do significant damage between spell casts.

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Off-hand weapons that were equipped before casting this spell will also deal their damage as a 6th attack per round from range.

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Minor Spell Deflection

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	3 rounds/level	3	Caster	None

Description: This spell is similar to the 6th-level spell Spell Deflection, which causes the spells cast against the wizard to be absorbed and consumed. This spell affects a total of 4 spell levels, including spells cast from scrolls and innate spell-like abilities, but excludes the following: area effects that are not centered directly upon the wizard, as well as area effects that are stationary, such as Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud. As long as the spell is cast directly at the wizard, it will be absorbed. This spell will only affect up to 7th-level spells, but if it tries to absorb a spell that goes over its limit, the spell will fail and the spell deflection will be canceled. For example, if there is only 1 level left and a 3rd-level spell is cast at the wizard, the spell will be absorbed while canceling the Spell Deflection.

Comments: This spell will let you take one or two spells from an enemy mage, and in BG1, that's really all the time you need to kill him. Minor Spell Deflection works best when paired with Minor Globe of Invulnerability, as hostile spells will need to be above level 3 for them to even interact with the Minor Spell Deflection in such a case. It lasts a moderately long time and will stay even when a Remove Magic is successful against you. Great early-game anti-magic buff - get this.

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Monster Summoning I

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	20	2 rounds + 1 round/level (2 turns in BG1)	4	Targeted point	None

Description: With the casting of this spell, the wizard summons a random selection of 3-HD monsters. There is a 60% chance of receiving one monster and a 40% chance of receiving two monsters. The monster(s) appear within spell range and attack the spellcaster's opponents until the spell duration expires or until they are slain.

Comments: Looks like the devs learned that summoning an army of monsters was too overpowered in BG1, so they toned it down for the sequel. The monster summoning line of spells is great in BG1 because you get a certain HD's worth of monsters, but in BG2 and the EE's you only get 1 or 2 monsters, severely reducing the usefulness of this spell. Skip this and just get a Wand of Monster Summoning.

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Non-Detection

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	4 hours	3	1 creature	None

Description: By casting this spell, the wizard makes the creature touched undetectable by divination spells such as Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, Locate Object, ESP, and detect spells including Invisibility Purge. It also prevents location by such magical items as crystal balls and ESP medallions. It does not affect the Know Alignment spell.

Comments: This is going to get pretty nitty-gritty. This is the best way I know how to explain how this spell/effect works.

Non-detection gives immunity to the "Detect invisible" opcode, which is used by the Detect Invisibility, Glitterdust, and Invisibility Purge spells which remove invisibility and stealth. The 3rd/5th/6th level mage spells Detect Illusion/Oracle/True Sight first remove any illusion-based buffs (up to 3rd/5th/9th level), AND Non-detection, and then uses the "Detect Invisible" opcode. This is why using this spell is pointless against anything that can cast Detect Illusion/Oracle/True Sight, because it removes both your supposed protection from being revealed and then your invisibility or stealth.

HOWEVER, wearing the Cloak of Non-detection provides an undispellable Non-detection effect. As a result, if affected by the three aforementioned divination spells, invisibility will still be removed (as it is an illusion), but stealth will stay intact because Non-detection effect prevents the "Detect invisible" opcode. It is for this reason that the cloak is superior to the spell in every way.

TL;DR: Skip the spell, use the cloak instead. The cloak will keep your stealthed thieves from being revealed by True Sight. Use Spell Immunity: Divination to become actually immune to having your invisibility removed.

Note: Tweaks and Tricks mod (https://github.com/BGforgeNet/bg2-tweaks-and-tricks) includes a fix to this spell that makes it much more useful, including protection from dispelling invisibility via True Sight.

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Protection from Cold

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 turn/level	3	1 creature	None

Description: This spell lasts 1 turn per caster level. When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to normal cold attacks and partial protection from exposure to magical cold such as an icy dragon's breath, spells such as Cone of Cold, a wand of frost's column of ice, etc., absorbing 50% of all the damage dealt by such magical sources.

Comments: Cold damage is not that common, so it's not worth spending a spell slot to protect yourself from it. Situationally amazing for fights against Silver Dragons and Ice Golems, somewhat useful against Blacktalon Elites who shoot Arrows of Ice, but outside that not worth keeping prepared.

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Protection from Fire

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 turn/level	3	1 creature	None

Description: This spell lasts 1 turn per caster level. When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to normal fires (torches, bonfires, oil fires, and the like) and to exposure to magical fires (fiery dragon breath, hell hound or pyrohydra breath, spells such as Burning Hands, Fireball, Fire Seeds, Fire Storm, Flame Strike, Meteor Swarm, and so on), absorbing 50% of all the damage dealt by such magical sources.

Comments: By contrast, fire damage is much more common and is more damaging. As such, it's a good idea to have this memorized. Remember that if you are more than 100% resistant to an element, you'll actually heal from it instead of taking damage.

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Protection from Normal Missiles

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 hour	3	1 creature	None

Description: By means of this spell, the wizard bestows total invulnerability to non-magical hurled and launched missiles such as arrows, bolts, bullets, darts, throwing axes, and throwing daggers. Note, however, that this spell does not convey any protection from such magical attacks as Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or Magic Missile, nor does it protect against magical missiles such as arrows +1.

Comments: Probably not worth memorizing just because Mirror Image can protect you well enough to escape from an archer's line of sight, or to rush him down and make him fight you in melee. Skip.

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Remove Magic

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant	3	30 ft. radius	None

Description: As Dispel Magic but it only affects enemies.

Comments: More useful than Dispel Magic in various situations, as it will not remove the potions and buffs you just gave your fighters, who are incapable of casting Spell Immunity: Abjuration to protect them from Dispel Magic. Additionally, the casting time of Remove Magic is slightly faster than Dispel Magic. As with Dispel Magic, this is better on Bards than Mages due to their higher Caster Level.

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Skull Trap

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	30 ft.	Until triggered; instant	3	23.4 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: When this spell is cast, a skull is thrown by the caster at the target area. The skull floats in the area until a creature comes within 20 ft. 17.5 ft. of it. When this happens, the skull is triggered and explodes damaging everyone within a 30 ft. 23.4 ft. radius. The damage inflicted is equal to 1d6 per level of the caster (up to 20d6), or half with a successful Saving Throw vs. Spell. When casting this spell, it is wise to set it far away from the party lest they set it off accidentally.

Comments: The AoE of Skull Trap is a bit smaller than Fireball but it scales up to level 20 and deals magical damage, which is hardly ever resisted. Be careful about where you set it, too, because it usually takes a second or so for the skull trap to explode. Mods exist that can remove this delay for magical traps like Skull Trap so that you can launch it more like a Fireball. Putting 3 Skull Traps in a sequencer is highly damaging and one of the best ways to obliterate anything in its radius that isn't immune to level 3 spells.

Of special note is that Skull Traps are permanent until they go off. It is 100% possible to cheese most fights by stacking something like 20 Skull Traps into one spot by resting in-between castings and then walking into view of an enemy and luring them into the traps' AoE. Extremely cheesy but nonetheless possible.

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Slow

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	25 ft.	1 turn	3	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-4)

Description: A Slow spell causes creatures to move and attack at half of their normal rates. It negates Haste, but does not otherwise affect magically hasted or slowed creatures. Slowed creatures have an Armor Class and attack penalty of -4. Creatures save at -4 vs. Spell.

Comments: The opposite of Haste, Slow causes the effects listed under the Haste entry to happen at half speed, such as regeneration and the damage over time from being poisoned. The THAC0 and AC penalty of this spell already make it pretty good, but reducing regeneration of hostile creatures by half is awesome. Spellcasting speed is also reduced by half. The stiff save penalty makes it hard to resist, and when cast by Transmuters, it becomes a massive -6 penalty. To top it all off, it's party-friendly! Get this lovely debuff spell!

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Spell Thrust

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	25 ft.	Instant	3	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast at a target creature, it will dispel all of the spell protections of 5th level and lower affecting it. This includes the following spells: Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, and Minor Spell Turning. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: This spell marks the beginning of the line of anti-magical mage fencing spells. It's notable because of its short casting time and it dispels all anti-magic buffs of 5th level and lower, including Spell Immunity and Spell Shield. That's a big deal when playing with Sword Coast Stratagems because Spell Shield is one of the main ways that mages will try to keep you from casting anti-magic spells on them. You should memorize this even if you aren't using SCS so that you can tear down the protections on lowish-mid-level mages (9-13 or so) so you can keep casting spells on them.

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Vampiric Touch

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	Touch	Instant; 1 hour	3	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the target loses 1d6 Hit Points for every 2 caster levels, to a maximum drain of 6d6 for a 12th-level caster. These Hit Points are added to the caster's current Hit Points, with any Hit Points over the caster's normal maximum treated as temporary additional Hit Points. The temporary Hit Points last for 1 hour.

Note: This spell may not be cast multiple times to radically increase the caster's Hit Points. The caster must wait for the first Vampiric Touch spell to run its course before casting another.

Comments: Criminally underrated spell. On insane difficulty due to your party members taking double damage, it is possible to add up to a whopping 72 HP to each mage in your party and PC (if evil) by casting this on a tank and using a simple heal to top them off. At worst, this gives just as much HP as Find Familiar, but at best, it more than doubles the HP of your mages. Highly recommended to take 1 on each mage in your party.

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Wraithform (Enhanced Editions Only)

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration, Illusion	0	2 rounds/level	1	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the wizard and all of their gear becomes insubstantial. The caster is subject only to magical or special attacks, including those by weapons of +1 or better enchantment, or by creatures otherwise able to affect those struck only by magical weapons. The wizard also gains 25% resistance to magic damage. While in wraithform, the caster cannot cast arcane, divine, or innate spells.

Comments: This spell is in vanilla BG1 but the scroll does not drop properly. It has been restored in BG1EE and works in BG2EE, dropping from Prat's group in the cave that comes after the Candlekeep Catacombs Level 2. Since this spell disables spellcasting and innate abilities, Fighter/Mages can make the best use of this spell because Bards lack the THAC0 of a proper fighter. Immunity to normal weapons can be pretty handy against some hard-hitting foes, including Wraith Sarevok in BG2. Also note that this is a double-school spell, which means that Abjurers and Necromancers cannot learn Wraithform because their opposed schools are Alteration and Illusion, respectively.

Level 4 Spells

Stoneskin, Stoneskin, Stoneskin. It's the strongest defensive spell of this level. Polymorph Self is in a league of its own in BG2, being an excellent spell which makes you highly flexible in terms of both offense and defense. Other not-nearly-as-awesome-but-still-good spells on this level include Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, and Minor Globe of Invulnerability.

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Confusion

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	35 ft.	5 rounds + 1 round/6 level	4	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-2)

Description: This spell causes confusion in one or more creatures within the area, creating indecision and the inability to take effective action. All creatures within the area of effect are allowed Saving Throw vs. Spell with a -2 penalty. Those successfully saving are unaffected by the spell, whereas those who fail their Saving Throws will either go berserk, stand confused, or wander about for the duration of the spell. Wandering creatures move as far from the caster as possible, according to their most typical mode of movement (characters walk, fish swim, bats fly, etc.). Any confused creature that is attacked perceives the attacker as an enemy and acts according to its basic nature. The spell lasts for 5 rounds plus 1 round every 6 levels of the caster.

Comments: Quite strong and party-friendly, but it does not guarantee your safety if you confuse a group of enemies since they may decide to keep attacking you. Skip this in favor of Chaos at Level 5, but Enchanters should memorize this anyway because the save penalty is a steep -4 for them.

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Contagion

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	60 ft. Touch (vanilla BG2)	Permanent	4	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: This spell causes a major disease and weakness in a creature. The afflicted individual is immediately stricken with painful and distracting symptoms: boils, blotches, lesions, seeping abscesses, and so on. Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma scores are reduced by 2. The afflicted character is also Slowed. These effects persist until the character receives a Cure Disease spell.

Comments: Lame. The stat drain is minor and the slow is much better performed by the Level 3 spell since it carries a high saving throw penalty. Skip.

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Dimension Door

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	Visual range	1	Instant	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell transports the caster to any place within the visual range of the caster. When the spell is cast, a dimensional portal opens up in front of the caster, which they immediately step through.

Comments: This spell is in BG1 but not normally available in BG2, but can be re-introduced with mods. It is native to the EEs, however. It's a decent emergency spell to get your wizard away from dangerous situations. It's limited to visual range and requires line of sight to your destination, which severely limits your options. aTweaks has a component which greatly increases its range as per PnP, allowing you to travel anywhere on the map that you've already explored. Skip this if you're not using the aTweaks version, but if you are, you might want to memorize this after you've got your essential Level 4 spells already memorized.

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Emotion: Hopelessness

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	50 ft.	2 rounds + 1 round/level	4	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates

Description: When this spell is cast the wizard can disturb the emotional state of those around him. The effect of this is to inflict a feeling of hopelessness upon the enemies within the visual sight of the caster. Upon a failed save vs. spell, the affected will lie down where they stand and give over all their will to a higher power. Sometimes they can be heard to exclaim things such as 'I lay down and die', or 'I'm going home'. This will last for the duration of the spell upon which they will return to normal.

The secondary effect of this spell is to instill upon the caster the feeling of courage. This will remove any effects of panic and restore his morale, as well as prevent the above from creeping forth into his psyche. There is no save vs. this and it will last for the duration of the spell.

Comments: Party-friendly Sleep spell minus the HD limitation with a personal Resist Fear side-effect. Combined with Greater Malison, it is an excellent disabler.

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Enemies awaken upon being damaged. It's far more useful in v1.2 and earlier, plus classic BG2, where you have free reign to beat down sleeping enemies.

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Enchanted Weapon

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	Touch 0 (BG2/EEs prior to v2.0)	5 rounds/level 1 day (BG2/EEs prior to v2.0)	4	1 creature Caster (BG2/EEs prior to v2.0)	None

Description:

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&

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before v2.0:
This spell conjures forth a +3 enchanted weapon that may be used by anyone. The weapon may be either a mace, axe, long sword or short sword. The weapon stays in existence for no longer than a day.

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v2.0 and later of the Enhanced Editions:

When this spell is cast on a creature, it enchants any weapons that it currently wields. For the duration of the spell, those weapons are treated as having a +3 enchantment for the purposes of determining what they can hit.

Comments: This spell is not that good in vanilla BG2 or the EEs before patch v2.0 because you'll usually have a comparable weapon by the time you can cast this. As of v2.0 and later of the Enhanced Editions, this spell is way better than it was before. It causes any weapon you have equipped (including off-hand and ranged!) to strike as if they were +3, though they do not receive a THAC0 or damage bonus. You can even swap out weapons while buffed with this and still get the +3 enchantment. The duration is moderately long, too. Its extremely good if you're using ranged characters like Mazzy or an Archer PC, since the ammunition fired is what determines the enchantment bonus, not the launcher it was shot from. Dungeons with golems is where this spell shines, as Iron and Adamantine Golems can only be hit with +3 weapons or better. Memorize this on an as-needed basis.

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Farsight

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	Special	3 rounds + 1 round/level	4	Visual range radius	None

Description: When Farsight is cast, the caster is able to view an area of an unexplored map. After casting the spell, simply click on a section of the map that you want to view. For the duration of the spell, the caster can spy on that area, noting creatures and fortifications.

Comments: Lasts slightly longer than Wizard Eye but is immobile. Farsight is superior to Wizard Eye if you only care about spying on a certain area. You can use Farsight to cast spells from further away since many spells have ranges that exceed your visual range.

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Fire Shield (Blue)

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	3 rounds + 1 round/level	4	Caster; 6 ft. retaliation radius	None

Description: The blue fireshield protects the user from cold damage by surrounding the caster with a shield of ice flame. This shield not only grants the user 50% Cold Resistance, but also protects the caster from attacks made within a 6-ft. radius around the caster. An opponent that hits the caster with any weapons or direct-damage spells within this radius suffers 1d8+2 cold damage.

Comments: Not that good. You're better off using Protection from Cold if you want cold resistance, and anything inflicting cold damage on you is probably immune to the cold backlash damage.

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Fire Shield (Red)

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	3 rounds + 1 round/level	4	Caster; 6 ft. retaliation radius	None

Description: The red fireshield protects the user from fire damage by surrounding the caster with a shield of flame. This shield not only grants the user 50% fire resistance, but also protects the caster from attacks made within a 6' radius around the caster. An opponent that hits the caster with any weapons or direct-damage spells within this radius suffers 1d8 +2 fire damage.

Comments: Slightly more useful than the blue Fireshield if only because fire damage is more common. Stack both of them together in a sequencer for double the retaliation damage and use Protection from Magical Weapons to inflict death by "Stop hitting yourself!" When both fire shields are active, it turns purple. Oooh, pretty...

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Greater Malison

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	50 ft.	2 rounds/level	4	30 ft. radius	None

Description: The spell allows the caster to adversely affect all the Saving Throws of their enemies. The effect is applied to all hostile creatures within the area of effect. Opponents under the influence of this spell make all Saving Throws at a penalty of -4.

Comments: This makes your next spells more likely to inflict their full effect. Always have at least one memorized, though you'll probably want two memorized later on depending on your spellbook's makeup. Evokers miss out on this excellent debuff spell.

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Ice Storm

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	4 rounds	4	30 ft. radius	None

Description: When this spell is cast, great hail stones pound down for four rounds in a 60-ft. diameter area and inflict 2d8 points of cold damage to any creatures within the area of effect. Also, anyone that remains within the area of effect takes 2d8 cold damage each round for 4 rounds.

Comments: Baby's first damage cloud spell. 2d8 cold damage per round is pathetic. Avoid.

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Improved Invisibility

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	Touch	3 rounds + 1 round/level	4	1 creature	None

Description: This spell is similar to Invisibility, but the recipient is able to attack by missile discharge, melee combat, or spellcasting while remaining unseen. However, telltale traces—a shimmering—allow an observant opponent to attack the invisible spell recipient. These traces are only noticeable when specifically looked for (after the invisible character has made their presence known). Attacks against the invisible character suffer a -4 penalty to attack rolls, and the invisible character's Saving Throws are made with a +4 bonus.

Note: After making an attack, the wizard is no longer completely invisible. Opponents can target the wizard with physical attacks, but NOT spells.

Comments: Another favorite of Sword Coast Stratagems mages, due to the fact that you cannot directly target them with spells even after they have attacked you. A good thing to note is that you can directly target Improved Invisible mages after they've shown themselves with quickslot items such as scrolls and wands. Detect Invisibility, Glitterdust, Oracle, and True Sight will dispel Improved Invisibility. Using Spell Immunity in tandem with this spell to become immune to Divination is one of the hardest tactics to defeat without a thief who can Detect Illusions. The extra AC and saving throws are nice too. Get this spell and make those mages suffer.

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under invisibility (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged.

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Minor Globe of Invulnerability

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	1 round/level	4	Caster	None

Description: This spell creates a faintly shimmering magical sphere around the caster that prevents any 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-level spell effects from penetrating through (i.e., the area of effect of any such spells does not include the area of the Minor Globe of Invulnerability). This includes innate abilities and effects from devices. However, any type of spell can be cast out of the magical sphere, and these pass from the caster of the globe to their subject without affecting the globe. Spells of 4th level or higher are not affected by the globe.

Comments: Extremely good when used in BG1 as most mages will be casting spells of levels 1-3 even after you get to the city. It's not until mid-late game and the TotSC expansion that mages start casting 4th and 5th level spells. It still has some utility in BG2 as well, but not nearly as much because the most dangerous casters will be using higher level spells. Memorize this in BG1 and just use it as a scroll in BG2.

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Minor Sequencer

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until death or discharged	9 1 (sequencer activation)	Caster	None

Description: This spell allows a wizard to store two spells and activate them both at the same time from their Special Ability button. Both spells must be of 2nd level or lower. To create a sequencer, a Mage must memorize not only Minor Sequencer but also the spells they intend to store in it (a Sorcerer can store spells of any level for which they still have spell slots). After casting Minor Sequencer, the player will be prompted to choose the sequenced spells from those they have memorized.

A sequencer lasts until activated and, once used, releases its spells immediately (no casting time) (casting time of 1). The Special Ability icon also disappears until the next time a sequencer is formed. A wizard can possess only one Minor Sequencer at a time, and it may not be given to other characters.

Comments: Two (fast casting) spells are better than one. Sequencers can be used offensively or defensively but using them does count toward your 1 spell per round limitation. There is no way to view which spells you put into a sequencer in vanilla BG2, but the Enhanced Editions keep track of it in your spellbook in the "Contingency" button. Cleric/Mages make the best use of sequencers because, 1) Cleric spells can be added to sequencers and, 2) Cleric spells usually have long casting times. Because of this, you can throw out spells that would usually take almost a whole round to cast, such as Chant and Bless.

Some Minor Sequencer ideas:

• 2x Magic Missile
• 2x Web
• Stinking Cloud + Web
• Magic Missile + Melf's Acid Arrow
• Glitterdust + Web
• Bless + Chant
• 2x Cure Light Wounds
• Slow Poison + Cure Light Wounds
• Remove Fear + Chant
• Silence + Web
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  2x Chaos Shield (they'll stack! )

Note: Characters who die with a sequencer active and then are resurrected have a non-functioning sequencer in their special ability menu, preventing this spell from being cast again until it is "discharged." Use the sequencer on something to clear it (it does not cast any spells) so that Minor Sequencer will work properly once again.

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Monster Summoning II

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	20 ft.	3 rounds + 1 round/level	4	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell is much like the 3rd-level Monster Summoning I spell, except that this spell summons 4-HD monsters. There is a 60% chance of receiving one monster and a 40% chance of receiving two monsters. These monster(s) appear within spell range and attack the caster's opponents until the spell duration expires or until they are slain.

Comments: Garbage. Keep using that Wand of Summoning or just use Spider Spawn.

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Otiluke's Resilient Sphere

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	1 round/level	4	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: When this spell is cast, the result is a globe of shimmering force that encloses the subject creature if it fails to Save vs. Spell. The resilient sphere will contain its subject for the duration of the spell. The sphere is completely immune to all damage; in fact, the only method of removing the sphere is a successful Dispel Magic. Hence, the creature caught inside the globe is completely safe from all attacks, but at the same time completely unable to affect the outside world.

Comments: Don't bother. While it might save an ally from death or seal away a dangerous enemy for a little while, you should not stake your life on this spell because it's too risky of a gamble. It may not even work if your ally's save vs. spell is low enough, in the case of shorty fighters. Skip. Even if you try to use this in certain fights where you want/need to protect an NPC, this spell turns them hostile to you anyways, which means you then have to hit them with a Charm spell to not have them try to kill you.

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With the BG2 Fixpack installed, the spell doesn't allow a save (contrary to the description), so it's not actually a gamble.

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Polymorph Other

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	Permanent	4	1 creature	Polymorph Negates

Description: The Polymorph Other spell is a powerful magic that permanently alters the form of the creature affected. Mental attributes are not affected, and the target does not receive the special abilities of the new form. However all physical attributes are changed to adhere to the new form. This is a specific version of the spell in that the recipient will be transformed into a squirrel unless a Save vs. Petrification/Polymorph is made successfully. The transformation is instant and permanent until a Dispel Magic is cast successfully upon the affected creature. The natural attacks of the new form also become available and all clothes and equipment that the target was wearing will mold into the new form.

Comments: If this spell is successful, it's a death sentence for its victim. Killing the squirrel still yields the loot that the victim was carrying. Try this out if you're feeling particularly cruel or if you're a Transmuter; just use Greater Malison to make sure it works.

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The squirrel can still use spells and special abilities to take revenge!

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Arcane and divine spellcasting are disabled while polymorphed as a squirrel and the victim's max HP is set to 5.

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Polymorph Self

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	1 turn + 3 rounds/level	4	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the wizard is able to assume the form of another creature. The caster also gains the physical mode of locomotion and breathing as well. This spell does not give the new form's other abilities such as special attacks and magic, nor does it run the risk of the wizard changing personality and mentality.

For the duration of the spell, the caster may transform into any of the new forms at any time, and as many times as he wishes. The caster gains the natural attacks of the new form in some cases and may use weapons in others. The mental attributes of the wizard remain the same, but all the physical attributes are obtained from the new form. Also, any natural protections that the new form offers are conferred to the wizard, such as the resistance to missile and crushing weapons possessed by the slime form. The possible forms given by Polymorph Self are:

Form	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
Flind	17 STR 17 DEX	Halberd +1 (strikes as +3) 1d10+1 piercing or slashing, whichever is better (BG1EE) 1d10+1 piercing (BG2/BG2EE) +1 fire damage Speed Factor 8 2 attacks/round	Base AC 1	N/A	Hasted
Mustard Jelly (BG1EE)	14 STR 9 DEX	1d6 missile (strikes as +3; strangely melee range) Speed Factor 3 1 attack/round	Base AC 4 50% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 125% Magic resist 50% Magic Cold resist 30% Slashing resist 30% Crushing Resist 100% Piercing resist 85% Missile resist	Normal weapons Stun, Petrification, Poison, Charm, Fear, Hold, Confusion, Sleep, Level Drain, Dragon Rain, Nature's Beauty, Fatigue bonus (e.g. from Haste), Berserk, Slay	N/A
Mustard Jelly (BG2/BG2EE)	14 STR 9 DEX	1d6 crushing (strikes as +3; melee range) Speed Factor 3 1 attack/round On hit: Slow for 20 seconds (save vs. polymorph negates)	Base AC 0 50% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 100% Magic resist 50% Magic Cold resist 30% Slashing resist 60% Crushing Resist 100% Piercing resist 85% Missile resist	Normal weapons Stun, Petrification, Poison, Charm, Fear, Hold, Confusion, Sleep, Level Drain, Dragon Rain, Nature's Beauty, Fatigue bonus (e.g. from Haste), Berserk, Slay	Hasted
Ogre	18/00 STR 9 DEX	Morningstar (strikes as +1) 2d4 crushing (BG1EE) 4d6 crushing (BG2/BG2EE) Speed Factor 7 1 attack/round	Base AC 5	N/A	Hasted (BG2/BG2EE only)
Spider	16 STR 16 DEX	1d4 piercing (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 2 4 attacks/round On hit: Poison: 1 damage/2 seconds for 6 rounds, no save (BG2/BG2EE only) Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 2.5+ The poison offers a save vs. death at +1 to negate.	Base AC 3 (BG1EE) Base AC -1 (BG2/BG2EE)	Web	Hasted (BG2/BG2EE only)
Brown Bear	18/00 STR 12 DEX	1d6 piercing (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 3 3 attacks/round	Base AC 6	N/A	Hasted
Black Bear	18/00 STR 12 DEX	1d6 piercing (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 3 3 attacks/round	Base AC 7	N/A	Hasted
Wolf	15 STR 18 DEX	1d8 piercing (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 3 2 attacks/round (BG1EE) 3 attacks/round (BG2/BG2EE)	Base AC 6	100% Cold resist 50% Electrical resist 100% Magic Cold resist	Hasted

Comments: Lots of forms to choose from, but they all use your base THAC0, making this spell better utilized by multi- or dual-classed mages. All of them are capable of backstabbing if you're a thief/mage, which makes this spell extremely excellent for them! The Flind is good for general use because of its good AC and relatively high number of attacks, plus it strikes with a +3 weapon with bonus fire damage, making it good for finishing off trolls as well. The Mustard Jelly makes the best mage-tank because of its immunity to magic and it has a plethora of other immunities and damage resistances. The BG2(EE) version of the Ogre can do the most damage per hit of all the forms with a massive 4d6, making it best suited to one-shotting enemies with backstabs, but its AC is pretty bad. The Spider makes a deadly caster killer in BG2(EE) because of its automatic poison on hit and its high number of attacks per round. The animal forms are pretty useless though, and there is literally no point in ever being a Black Bear since the Brown Bear is the exact same but with 1 more AC.

While spellcasting is disabled while polymorphed, activating spell sequencers or contingencies is not prohibited. This can lead to some interesting combinations, like filling a Minor Sequencer with 2x Web and then activating it while using the Spider form to eat your enemies alive when they get caught in it.

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Remove Curse

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	Instant	4	1 creature	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard is usually able to remove a curse on an object, on a person, or in the form of some undesired sending or evil presence. Note that the Remove Curse spell does not remove the curse from a cursed shield, weapon, or suit of armor, for example, although the spell typically enables the person afflicted with any such cursed item to get rid of it. Certain special curses may not be countered by this spell.

Comments: You'd have to be pretty dumb to equip a cursed item. They usually suck anyway - one exception being Durlag's Goblet from BG1 which has multiple full-heal uses. In ToB, this spell can also cure some of the negative draws from the Deck of Many Things.

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Secret Word

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant	4	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast at a target creature, it will dispel one spell protection of 8th level or lower. Spells affected by this are Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Spell Turning, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, and Spell Shield. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: The only leg up this spell has over Spell Thrust is that it removes Spell Deflection and Spell Turning. That doesn't make it useless by any means but Khelben's Warding Whip is 3 of these over 3 rounds. This spell is good for multiclassed mages who have slower spell progression but still need a way to deal with mid-level spell protections.

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Spider Spawn

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	6 rounds + 1 round/level	4	Targeted point	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard must throw several spider eggs into the air while saying the final command word. The result is that the eggs morph into a fully grown spider that will remain under the wizard's telepathic control. The type of spider that appears depends upon the level of the wizard casting the spell. When the spell is cast, there is a 20% chance that two spiders of the proper type will appear instead of just one. These spiders will remain under the wizard's control until they are slain, or until the spell duration expires.

Level	Spider Summoned	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
7	Giant Spider (4 HD)	35 HP 14 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 13 1 attack/round 1d8 piercing damage (normal weapon) Speed Factor 3 On hit: Poison: 2/second for 37 seconds (save vs. death negates)	Base AC 4	Web	N/A
9	Phase Spider (5 HD)	44 HP 14 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 12 2 attacks/round 1d6 piercing damage (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 3 On hit: Poison: 2/second for 20 seconds (save vs. death at -2 negates)	Base AC 5	Web Entangle (BG2 & BG2EE)	Phases to nearest enemy
12	Sword Spider (5 HD)	45 HP 14 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 15 4 attacks/round 2d6 piercing damage (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 3	Base AC 3	Web	Hasted

Comments: Its unfortunate that the Sword Spider doesn't inflict poison like the others, but it hits for more damage and has many more attacks per round since it is also hasted. Throw a web at your foes at set these little beasties upon them. Memorize one if you want after you've got your essentials memorized too.

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Spirit Armor

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	Touch	2 hours	3	1 creature	Spell Special

Description: This spell is very similar to the 3rd-level spell Ghost Armor in that it creates a corporeal barrier around the target's body for the duration of the spell. This spell, however, actually taps in to the target's life force in order to create the barrier. The armor itself is weightless and does not hinder movement or spellcasting at all. The spirit armor does not work cumulatively with any other armor; however, Dexterity bonuses still apply as well as magic rings and shields. While in effect, the Armor Class of the recipient will be set to 1, as if they were wearing full plate. Also, due to the magical nature of the spell, they will also receive a +3 bonus to Save vs. Spell.

There is a danger, however, as when the spell runs out, the external portion of the spirit is temporarily lost, inflicting 2d4 points of damage upon the target unless the creature makes a Saving Throw vs. Spell.

Comments: The final iteration of the Armor line of spells, Spirit Armor is quite strong. Unlike its Level 3 cousin Ghost Armor, this spell can be used on others besides the caster, making it perfect for Fighter/Mages and Kensai, though it is still expensive being a Level 4 spell. The +3 save vs. spell bonus is pretty neat too. The saving throw against the damage is made at the time the spell is cast. If you make your save, it will be displayed in the combat log so you won't have to worry about it hurting you later. However, failing the save does not display a saving throw in the combat log, meaning you'll take 2d4 magical damage once the 2 hours (10 minutes real time) is up. Ironically this spell is worse when cast by a Necromancer since they apply their saving throw penalty to the damage caused by this.

The issue with Spirit Armor (other than the damage) is that it's only 1 point better than Ghost Armor and it's competing with a lot of really really good spells. The main reason to take this spell is, ironically, fighting spellcasters. The +3 saving throw bonus stacks with Improved Invisibility's +4 which is ridiculously good, but don't use this for melee combat when you have access to Stoneskin which just outright provides attack immunity.

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Stoneskin

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	12 hours	1	Caster	None

Description: When a wizard casts this powerful spell upon himself, an outer skin of stone will move up from the ground, completely covering him. This skin is of course magical and will hinder the wizard in no way. The effect of this is to protect the wizard from physical attacks such as melee weapons and projectiles. For every 2 levels of the caster, an additional skin is gained upon casting. For example, a 10th-level wizard would receive 5 skins while a 20th-level wizard would receive 10. For each skin the wizard possesses, the spell will stop one attack, so a 10th-level wizard would be protected from the first 5 attacks made against him, but the 6th would affect him normally. The skins will remain on the wizard until he is affected by a Dispel Magic, all of the skins are removed due to physical attacks, or the spell duration expires. It is important to note that this will not protect the wizard from any magical attacks, such as Fireball.

Comments: Just about the best defensive spell a wizard has against physical attacks! Like most other spells, Stoneskin only scales up to level 20 so don't get carried away thinking you can tank anything using this with a high-level Bard. Stoneskin will also not stop any extra elemental damage from weapons. You can use this to your advantage while beating up a wizard to disrupt his spells. That said, it's still a fantastic buff spell because it lasts long enough that you can cast it, rest, and still be buffed by it afterward. Spellswords of all stripes should memorize several of these because it greatly increases their tanking ability and standard wizards should have at least 1 of these memorized at all times. Pick this spell up as soon as you can! Note the 12-hour duration: feel free to cheese yourself an extra set of stoneskins by casting this before resting and having all of them still active while you recover your spell slots.

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Teleport Field

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	1 turn	4	30 ft. radius	None

Description: The wizard instigates a teleportation effect that randomly teleports all enemies in this area for the duration of the spell. Teleport Field is best used against multiple enemies, serving to confuse them and allowing the wizard to concentrate on activating their defenses.

Comments: This spell bypasses magic resistance but counts as a Level 4 spell against anything with the relevant immunities (liches, rakshasa, mages protected by Globe of Invulnerability). Teleport Field isn't that useful against ranged attackers or mages, but is highly useful against melee attackers moving at normal speed or slower. Enemies are randomly teleported each round, which messes up their melee attack resolution and tends to reset it once they start moving back to you, meaning it (indirectly) reduces their number of attacks per round made against any party members inside the field. Against anything moving at high speed (kuo-toa, hasted golems), this spell is less useful since enemies like that can cover the distance they were teleported in a split second and resume their assault on you. Try casting this spell near a corner or in a tight corridor so that your party can use the teleport field to keep enemies away from you. You can also try casting this spell more than once to increase the frequency of the teleports.

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Wizard Eye

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	30 ft.	1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: When this spell is employed, the wizard creates an invisible sensory organ that sends them visual information. The wizard eye can see with normal vision up to 60 ft. away in brightly lit areas. The wizard eye can travel in any direction as long as the spell lasts. It has substance and a form that can be detected (by a Detect Invisibility spell, for instance). Solid barriers prevent the passage of a wizard eye. The powers of the eye cannot be enhanced by other spells or items. The caster is subject to any gaze attack met by the eye. A successful Dispel Magic cast on the wizard or eye ends the spell.

Comments: The ultimate scouting spell, though it cannot open doors or transition to different areas. Use this to escort summons from a safe distance or have a Projected Image or Simulacrum cast this so they can raise hell remotely without your help. Definitely memorize this if you plan on using Project Image or Simulacrum.

Level 5 Spells

Level 5 has many powerful anti-magic spells for both offense and defense which makes this the level that mage-fencing truly begins.

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Animate Dead

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	30 ft.	8 hours	9	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell causes a skeleton warrior to rise and serve the caster under any conditions. The type of skeleton warrior that appears depends upon the level of the wizard casting the spell. The skeleton warrior can follow the caster, remain in an area and attack any creature entering the place, etc. It remains animated until it is destroyed in combat, 8 hours pass, or it is turned. This spell cannot be dispelled.

Level	Skeleton Summoned	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
1-6	3 HD	24 HP 16 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 17 1 attack/round Longsword: 1d8 slashing damage Speed Factor 5	Base AC 6 100% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 25% Magic resist 50% Slashing resist 50% Piercing resist 60% Missile resist	Stun, Sleep, Poison, Domination, Charm, Panic, Morale Break, Hold, Level Drain, Confusion, Fatigue bonus, Petrification, Berserk, Paralyze, Slay, Nature's Beauty Dragon Rain, Chaos	N/A
7-10	5 HD	40 HP 17 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 15 1½ attacks/round Longsword +1: 1d8+1 slashing damage Speed Factor 4	Base AC 4 100% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 45% Magic resist 50% Slashing resist 50% Piercing resist 60% Missile resist	See above, but also critical hits	N/A
11-14	7 HD	60 HP 18 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 13 1½ attacks/round Bastard Sword +1: 2d4+1 slashing damage Speed Factor 7	Base AC 3 100% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 65% Magic resist 50% Slashing resist 50% Piercing resist 60% Missile resist	See above, but also critical hits	N/A
15+	9 HD	80 HP 18/50 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 8 1 attack/round Two-handed Sword +1: 1d10+1 slashing damage Speed Factor 9	Base AC 2 100% Cold resist 90% Magic resist 50% Slashing resist 50% Piercing resist 50% Missile resist	See above, but also critical hits and normal weapons	N/A

Comments: These skeletons are fairly durable thanks to their immunities, damage resistance, strong magic resistance, and above-average HP. Just don't pit them against anything using crushing damage or they'll fold easily. The 9 HD skeleton warrior is almost completely immune to magic, making it a good choice to tank enemy mages. That said, Bards and Clerics are better off casting this because they get access to the 9 HD skeleton sooner and Clerics get it as a level 3 spell. Save your spell slots for all the anti-magic spells of level 5.

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Breach

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant	5	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast at a creature, it breaches and dispels all of the specific and combat protections on the target creature. Here is a complete list of all the specific protection spells that are dispelled by Breach: Shield, Resist Fear, Protection From Fire/Cold, Fireshields, Protection From Acid, Protection From Electricity, Protection From Magic Energy, Protection From The Elements, and Protection From Energy. The combat protection spells dispelled by Breach are Protection From Normal Missiles, Protection From Normal Weapons, Protection From Magical Weapons, Stoneskin, Armor, Ghost Armor, Spirit Armor, Absolute Immunity, Mantle, and Improved Mantle. Priest spells that are removed are: Armor of Faith, Barkskin, Blade Barrier, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Defensive Harmony, Free Action, Physical Mirror, Protection from Evil, Protection from Evil 10' Radius (target only), Protection from Fire, Protection from Lightning, Resist Fire and Cold. It will not remove Iron Skins (due to it being categorized as a spell protection, strangely). The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: TL;DR: Breach removes all spells that prevent physical damage and reduce/prevent elemental damage. The main reason to use this spell is that it tears down Protection from Magical Weapons, which mages are very fond of for obvious reasons. This is even more the case while using SCS, as mages will also use Spell Immunity: Divination and Improved Invisibility to prevent you from Breaching them. Liches are unfortunately immune to this spell since they are immune to all magic of Level 5 and lower. ALWAYS have this memorized, preferably at least 2 of them.

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Chaos

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	35 ft.	5 rounds + 1 round/6level	5	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-4)

Description: The effects of this spell are identical to the 4th-level spell Confusion in all respects. The victims wander around as if in a daze, sometimes wandering away, sometimes attacking either friend or foe. If the victim is 4th level or lower, they do not receive a Saving Throw vs. the effects. However, if the victim is 5th level or higher, they receive a Save vs. Spell with a -4 penalty. The spell lasts for the duration or until a successful Dispel Magic is cast.

Comments: Confusion with a bigger save penalty and slightly longer casting time. Use it if you're into debuffing spells or if you're an Enchanter to make the save a huge -6 penalty. Skip otherwise and save your slots for the anti-magic spells.

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Cloudkill

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	1 turn	5	30 ft. radius	Death Special (-4)

Description: This spell generates a billowing cloud of ghastly, yellowish green vapors that is so toxic as to slay any creature with 4 or fewer Hit Dice, and causes creatures with 5 to 6 Hit Dice to roll Saving Throws vs. Poison with a -4 penalty or be slain. Holding one's breath has no effect on the lethality of the spell. Those above 6th level (or 6 Hit Dice) must leave the cloud immediately or suffer 1d10 points of poison damage each round while in the area of effect.

Comments: This spell remains consistently useful across the whole series at cleaning up trash mobs, as well as a few enemies you wouldn't expect to die from it such as Umber Hulks and some trolls. 1d10 poison damage every round isn't too bad since poison is either something you're immune to or you're not. Send a level 6+ Cavalier into the cloud to clean up. Wands of Cloudkill are available in BG2, so keep saving your spell slots.

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Cone of Cold

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	12 ft.	Instant	5	35 ft. cone with 90° arc	Spell 1/2

Description: When this spell is cast, it generates a cone-shaped area of extreme cold originating at the wizard's hand and extending outward in a cone 35 ft. long with a 90-deg. arc. It drains heat and causes 1d4+1 points of damage per level of the caster. For example, a 10th-level wizard would cast a cone of cold causing 10d4+10 points of damage.

Comments: Avoid. While it does good damage, excessive cold damage that causes enemies to hit -10 HP and lower turns them frozen solid and destroys any loot they had on them (with the exception of plot items). Cone of Cold is also difficult to aim without hitting your party.

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Conjure Lesser Air Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	45 ft.	1 turn + 1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: A wizard who casts a Conjure Lesser Air Elemental spell summons an air elemental to do their bidding. The elemental has 8 Hit Dice and will serve the caster's every whim until banished back to its home plane, the spell's duration expires, or the elemental dies. However, every time this spell is cast, there is a 15% chance that the elemental will escape the instructions of the caster, go berserk, and attack the wizard who dared summoning it. If it can't reach the summoner, it will fight its way toward them. This berserking elemental will also remain until slain or the spell's duration expires. The elemental is locked into a psychic contest with the caster for 3 rounds after being summoned. At the end of this time, if the caster has won, they have control of the elemental; however, if they have lost, the elemental goes berserk and tries to kill them. This does not prevent the use of other charm-type spells after the contest was lost. If charm spells are used before the contest is over, they will have no effect on the outcome.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
64 HP 19 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 13 1 attack/round 1d20 crushing damage (strikes as +3) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	Immunity to normal and +1 weapons	N/A

Comments: Awful. The Fire elemental is better than the Air elemental in every way. Even the skeleton warriors from Animate Dead are better than this.

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Conjure Lesser Earth Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	45 ft.	1 turn + 1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: See Conjure Lesser Air Elemental.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
64 HP 19 STR 14 DEX & CON 7 INT 13 WIS 8 CHA	THAC0 13 1 attack/round 4d8 crushing damage (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	Immunity to normal and +1 weapons	N/A

Comments: Better than the air elemental in one way and worse in another. It hits for more damage but only counts as a normal weapon. Skip.

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Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	45 ft.	1 turn + 1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: See Conjure Lesser Air Elemental.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
64 HP 14 STR, DEX, & CON 7 INT 12 WIS 7 CHA	THAC0 13 1 attack/round 3d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) +1d6 fire damage Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2 100% Fire resist 100% Magic Fire resist	Immunity to normal and +1 weapons	N/A

Comments: Much better than the other two elementals even though it has low Strength. It hits as a +4 weapon and does a bit of bonus fire damage, as well as being immune to fire.

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This spell summons a 12 HD fire elemental for some reason in classic BG2, which makes it far stronger than the lesser air and earth elementals. The BG2 fire elemental has 96 HP, 18 STR, THAC0 9, and its saving throws are 3 points better. It is otherwise identical to the BG1EE and BG2EE Lesser Fire Elemental.

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Domination

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	40 ft.	8 rounds	5	1 creature	Spell Negates (-2)

Description: The Domination spell enables the caster to control the actions of any creature while the spell is in effect. This control is maintained through a telepathic link between the caster and the victim. Unlike the 4th-level priest spell Mental Domination, the target has no option for release, even if made to do something against his morals. This effect can only be reversed by Dispel Magic. The target is allowed a Saving Throw vs. Spell with a -2 penalty to negate the effect.

Comments: Improved version of Dire Charm in that it lasts a bit longer, has a saving throw penalty, and works on a wider variety of creatures. Enchanters will want to stock up for those reasons. Don't be afraid to burn your new ally's abilities and spells since Domination only lasts for 48 seconds.

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Feeblemind

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	40 ft.	Permanent	5	1 creature	Spell Negates (-2)

Description: Feeblemind causes the subject's intellect to degenerate into that of a simple beast of burden unless a Saving Throw vs. Spell is made with a -2 penalty. Upon a failed Saving Throw, the subject remains in this state until a successful Dispel Magic is cast upon them.

Comments: Another nasty Enchantment spell. This one basically disables an enemy until you kill it. Immunity to feeblemind is more rare than immunity to domination, so it will work on a lot of SoA enemies. Do not expect it to work on the tougher ToB minibosses and bosses though. Stock up, Enchanters.

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Hold Monster

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Enchantment	40 ft.	1 round/level	5	1 creature and others in 7.5 ft. of initial target	Spell Negates (-2)

Description: This spell holds 1d4 creatures of any type rigidly immobile and in place for 9 or more rounds, unless a Saving Throw vs. Spell is made with a -2 penalty. The effect is centered on the victim selected by the caster. Any enemies within 7.5 ft. of the target are also affected. Those who succeed on their Saving Throws are totally unaffected by the spell. Undead creatures cannot be held. Held creatures cannot move or speak, but they remain aware of events around them and can use abilities not requiring motion or speech. Being held does not prevent the worsening of the subject's condition due to wounds, diseases, or poison.

Comments: Hold Person but it lasts longer, has a slightly higher save penalty, and affects a wider variety of creatures; seems to be a running theme of these level 5 Enchantment spells. Hold Monster is party-friendly like Hold Person so try launching it at enemies that are gathered next to your tank.

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Lower Resistance

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	1 round/level	5	1 creature	None

Description: When cast upon a target creature, this spell will lower the Magic Resistance of this creature by 10% + 1% per level of the caster. There is no Saving Throw, and the target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell. For example, if a creature has 60% Magic Resistance and this spell is cast on it by a 15th-level Mage, then the target's Magic Resistance would be lowered by 25% automatically. This effect is cumulative for each casting of this spell: If Lower Resistance was cast upon the same creature again, the creature's Magic Resistance would be 60% - 25% (initial casting) - 25% (current casting), which would leave the creature with 10% Magic Resistance. This spell will last until its duration expires and cannot be dispelled.

Comments: This spell is essential to fighting tough, magic-resistant enemies via spells such as dragons, and it usually needs to be cast more than once for you to start wailing on them with your magic. It is advisable to have 2 memorized or, even better, have two mages memorize 1. Lower Resistance caps at level 20 like most other spells, so you'll be lowering an enemy's magic resistance 30% per cast at level 20. Lower Resistance bypasses Spell Immunity: Abjuration.

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Minor Spell Turning

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	3 rounds/level	5	Caster	None

Description: This spell is similar to the 7th-level Spell Turning, which causes the spells cast against the wizard to rebound upon the original caster. This affects a total of 4 spell levels—including spells cast from scrolls and innate spell-like abilities—but excludes the following: area effects that are not centered directly upon the wizard, as well as area effects that are stationary, such as Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud. As long as the spell is cast directly at the wizard, it will be reflected back upon the caster. This spell will only affect up to 4th-level spells, but as long as there are levels remaining, a spell will be reflected. For example, if there is only 1 level left and a 3rd-level spell is cast at the wizard, the spell will be reflected while canceling the Spell Turning.

This spell will not protect the caster from Dispel Magic, but will not be dispelled by Dispel Magic either.

Comments: You might actually be better off using Minor Spell Deflection because, while it simply absorbs the same amount of spells as Minor Spell Turning instead of reflecting them back, it still works on everything up to Level 7. Skip.

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Monster Summoning III

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	20 ft.	4 rounds + 1 round/level	5	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell is much like the 3rd-level Monster Summoning I spell, except that this spell summons 5-HD monsters. There is a 60% chance of receiving one monster and a 40% chance of receiving two monsters. These monster(s) appear within spell range and attack the caster's opponents until the spell duration expires or until they are slain.

Comments: Gets you either an Ogre Berserker or an Ettercap. Utterly outclassed by Animate Dead, Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental, and even Spider Spawn on a lucky roll. Keep using that Wand of Summoning for an army of fodder.

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Oracle

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	Instant	5	234 ft. radius	None

Description: When cast, this spell will cancel all Illusion/Phantasm spells of 5th level and lower within its area of effect. The spells affected are Reflected Image, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Non-Detection, Improved Invisibility, and Shadow Door. The caster can control just who this spell affects: Therefore, it will affect only creatures that are not in the caster's party. The area of effect is a 234-ft. radius around the caster.

Comments: Decent because it gets rid of the always-irritating Improved Invisibility and Shadow Door, with the added benefit of dispelling Mirror Image as well. A thief with a high Detect Illusions skill could do this for free, though. Skip and get True Sight instead.

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Phantom Blade

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	3 rounds + 1 round/level	5	Caster	None

Description: This spell creates a translucent, shadow-like, weightless area of magical force extending from the fingers of one of the caster's hands. The silent, blade-shaped construct's cutting edges inflict damage just as those of a real sword do. The caster wields the phantom blade as if proficient with it, at their normal THAC0.

The phantom blade acts as a +3 magical sword in terms of to-hit and damage bonuses as well as the type of creatures it can hit. However, due to its etheric nature, it causes an extra +10 slashing damage against undead creatures. This sword can only be used by the caster and remains in their hand for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Even for Fighter/Mages and even against undead, this spell is lame because the extra +10 damage is slashing, which many undead have a resistance to. If you want an anti-undead sword, just use the Daystar longsword. Skip.

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Protection from Acid

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 turn/level	6	1 creature	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all acid-based attacks, whether magical or non-magical, such as Acid Arrow or a creature's special attacks. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Acid is a very uncommon damage source. In fact, just about the only use for this spell is the fight with Draconis in ToB. Skip.

Another comment: Protects against Melf's Acid Arrow too, one of the favourite spells of SCS mages and the one that can easily interrupt your spellcasting or even kill you. Also protects against Death Fog, should you decide to throw it at your enemies and kite them in its AoE, or go invisible while they stand there and suffer.

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Protection from Electricity

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 turn/level	5	1 creature	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all electrical attacks, whether magical or non-magical, such as Lightning Bolt or certain breath weapons. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Electricity is a more common source of damage than acid and it almost always hits harder or hits several times via traps. Not a total waste of a spell slot but you can use potions to defend against electricity. Very useful against the guardians of the Air Laboratory in Watcher's Keep level 2 since the fans emit Chain Lightning. Essential to fighting Abazigal with Ascension installed because his breath weapon does a massive 24d10 electrical damage! Saving vs. breath makes it do half damage, but 12d10 is still nothing to sneeze at for anyone without electrical resistance.

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Protection from Normal Weapons

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	1 round/level	2	Caster	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all non-magical weapons. This does not include weapons that are blessed or enchanted. This spell may not be cast on someone who is protected from magical weapons. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: There are hardly any dangerous enemies that use normal weapons once you gain the ability to cast this. Unless you know you'll be facing one later, like Wraith Sarevok at the end of SoA, don't memorize this.

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Shadow Door

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	1 round/level	2	Caster	None

Description: By means of this spell, the wizard creates the illusion of a door. The illusion also permits the wizard to appear to step through this "door" and disappear. In reality, he has darted aside and can flee, totally invisible (as per the Improved Invisibility spell), for the spell's duration. A True Seeing spell, a Gem of Seeing, or similar magical means can reveal the wizard.

Comments: A faster-casting version of Improved Invisibility that doesn't last quite as long, plus it cannot be cast on others. Stick with Improved Invisibility and ignore Shadow Door.

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under invisibility (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged.

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Spell Immunity

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	1 round/level	5	Caster	None

Description: Casting this spell grants the wizard protection from one spell school of their choice. After the spell is cast, the wizard must choose the school they wish to be protected from. All spells of this school will not be able to harm or aid the caster for the duration of this spell. This includes all spells from this school, including any priest spells that might benefit the caster.

Comments: Extremely useful spell due to its flexibility, especially to sorcerers who get multiple casts per day. While you are immune to spells of the chosen school from others, it does not stop you from buffing yourself with spells from that school. This spell will fail when loaded into sequencers and contingencies, but the Sword Coast Stratagems mod has a component that adds the individual Spell Immunity subspells as separate spells and scrolls. Because of this, it means you can properly add immunity to Abjuration and Divination in the same sequencer as long as you have them memorized. Now, the practical applications of Spell Immunity:

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Abjuration: Provides immunity to Dispel/Remove Magic, but not to anti-magic spells such as Breach, Spell Thrust, Secret Word, Pierce Magic, or Spellstrike. Gives immunity to Imprisonment and Trap the Soul used by Kangaxx and the Watcher's Keeper demilich.

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Alteration: Protection from many nasty save-or-die and save-or-suck spells like Flesh to Stone, Disintegrate, Slow, and Polymorph Other. Does not give immunity to Time Stop, despite it being an Alteration spell.

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Conjuration: Immunity to the Symbol spells, Power Word spells, Melf's Acid Arrow, Flame Arrow, Maze, and the druidic Insect spells. Does not protect against summons/gated summons in any way.

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Divination: Immunity to True Sight and other illusion-shattering spells. Have Simulacrums and Projected Images cast this to prevent them from being destroyed. Combine with Improved Invisibility and Spell Immunity: Abjuration to become untouchable by other mages. Does not protect against a thief's Detect Illusion ability, which is the key to winning many mage battles while playing with SCS.

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Enchantment: Immunity to many of the mind-control and debuffing spells of levels 1-5.

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Evocation: Gives immunity to many direct-damage and damage cloud spells, like Fireball, Magic Missile, Meteor Swarm, Cloudkill, Incendiary Cloud, and more. Very nice, though you might want to use Spell Turning instead to reflect them back.

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Illusion: Useless compared to the others. The only offensive Illusion spells are Blindness, Spook, and Deafness.

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Necromancy: The main draw is immunity to Skull Trap and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting which are both highly damaging, but other Necromancy spells are pathetic.

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Spell Shield

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	3 rounds/level	8	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the wizard is protected from the next magical attack against them. The spells from which the wizard is protected are Spell Thrust, Secret Word, Breach, Lower Resistance, Pierce Magic, Ruby Ray, Khelben's Warding Whip, Pierce Shield, and Spellstrike. If one of these spells is cast at the wizard, this spell activates and absorbs the attack. However, this only works once and this spell is consumed in the process. Otherwise, it will last for its duration.

Comments: Useful spell in mage-fencing as it lets you eat an anti-magic attack without losing any spell protections. It's more useful to solo mages or mages in small parties since they will have to participate more often in mage-fencing as opposed to just casting Breach and letting the fighters gut the now-defenseless enemy mage.

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Sunfire

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Instant	3	30 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: A Sunfire is like a Fireball—an explosive burst of flame, which detonates with a low roar and delivers damage proportional to the level of the caster: 1d6 points of damage per level of the caster, up to a maximum of 15d6. The wizard gestures with their hand, and the entire area around them erupts in flames, striking everyone except the caster himself. Creatures failing their Saving Throws take full damage from the blast; those who roll successful Saving Throws manage to dodge, fall flat, or roll aside, each taking half damage.

Comments: Basically it's a Fireball that can do more damage but its centered on the caster. Not useful as a level 5 spell.

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This spell ignores magic resistance and sets your fire resistance to 100% for 3 seconds due to the fact that it also affects the caster.

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Sunfire properly respects magic resistance and does not grant any fire resistance, nor does it affect the caster anymore.

Level 6 Spells

As with the previous spell levels, Level 6 has some truly powerful spells and a handful that just suck.

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Carrion Summons

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	7 rounds + 1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: There are two parts to this spell. First, a small portal opens and summons 1d2 carrion crawlers to a point designated by the wizard. Second, the magic mutates the carrion crawlers into larger, more vicious versions of themselves. The wizard now has control over these creature(s) until they are slain or the spell's duration expires. There is a 35% chance that two carrion crawlers will be summoned instead of one.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
40 HP 14 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 15 4 attacks/round 1d2 crushing damage (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 3 On hit: Paralyze for 7 rounds (save vs. death negates)	Base AC 3	N/A	N/A

Comments: Carrion Crawlers are quite fragile and not suited to being meatshields at all. The only thing they have going for them is their paralysis on hit with their many attacks per round. They hardly do any damage at all, either. Give this spell a wide berth.

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Chain Lightning

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	Instant	5	30 ft. radius of initial target	Spell 1/2

Description: When the wizard casts Chain Lightning, arcs of electrical energy burst from their fingertips. These brilliant arcs of lightning leap at all enemies near the caster, burning them with electrical damage. The lightning causes 1d6 points of damage for every 2 levels of the caster, up to 10d6 at level 20. If the target of the lightning saves vs. Spell, only half damage is inflicted. Thus, a 12th-level wizard will cause 6d6 damage to a victim (3d6 if the victim makes their Saving Throw vs. Spell).

Comments: Does pretty low damage for being a level 6 spell but at least it's party-friendly. Still not worth memorizing.

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Conjure Air Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	35 ft.	1 turn/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: Upon casting a Conjure Air Elemental spell, the caster opens a special gate to the Elemental Plane of Air, and an air elemental is summoned in the vicinity of the caster. There is a 60% chance that a 12-Hit-Dice elemental appears, a 35% chance that a 16-Hit-Dice elemental appears, and a 5% chance that a 24-Hit-Dice elemental appears. The elemental will do the bidding of the caster until it is slain or the duration of the spell runs out. All of the commands given to the elemental are done telepathically, so there is no time lost due to miscommunication and no need to know the language of the summoned creature. However, every time this spell is cast, there is a 15% chance that the elemental will escape the instructions of the caster, go berserk, and attack the wizard who dared summoning it. If it can't reach the summoner, it will fight its way toward him. This berserking elemental will also remain until slain or the spell's duration expires. The elemental is locked into a psychic contest with the caster for 3 rounds after being summoned. At the end of this time, if the caster has won, he has control of the elemental; however, if he has lost, the elemental goes berserk and tries to kill him. This does not prevent the use of other charm-type spells after the contest was lost. If charm spells are used before the contest is over, they will have no effect on the outcome.

Elemental Summoned	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
12 HD	96 HP 17 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 9 1 attack/round 1d20 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
16 HD	128 HP 19 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 5 1 attack/round 1d20 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
24 HD	192 HP 22 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 0 1 attack/round 1d20 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A

Comments: Once again, the air elemental is the weakest of the 3 elemental summoning spells. Skip in favor of the fire elemental.

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Conjure Earth Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	35 ft.	1 turn/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: See Conjure Air Elemental.

Elemental Summoned	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
12 HD	96 HP 19 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 13 WIS 8 CHA	THAC0 9 1 attack/round 4d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
16 HD	128 HP 19 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 13 WIS 8 CHA	THAC0 5 1 attack/round 4d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
24 HD	192 HP 20 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 13 WIS 8 CHA	THAC0 0 1 attack/round 4d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2	+1 weapons and lower	N/A

Comments: Identical to the Air Elemental in every way that matters but does more damage. Makes for a decent meatshield if nothing else because of its high HP.

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Conjure Fire Elemental

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	35 ft.	1 turn/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: See Conjure Air Elemental.

Elemental Summoned	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
12 HD	96 HP 18 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 12 WIS 7 CHA	THAC0 9 1 attack/round 3d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) +1d6 fire damage Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2 100% Fire resist 100% Magic Fire resist	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
16 HD	128 HP 20 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 12 WIS 7 CHA	THAC0 5 1 attack/round 3d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) +1d6 fire damage Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2 100% Fire resist 100% Magic Fire resist	+1 weapons and lower	N/A
24 HD	192 HP 23 STR 14 DEX 14 CON 7 INT 12 WIS 7 CHA	THAC0 0 1 attack/round 3d8 crushing damage (strikes as +4) +1d6 fire damage Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2 100% Fire resist 100% Magic Fire resist	+1 weapons and lower	N/A

Comments: Identical to the air and earth elementals in most ways, but each fire elemental has 1 more Strength than the air elementals and does bonus fire damage, making them good at finishing off trolls. Fire Elementals are also immune to fire but with no accompanying weakness to cold. These are the superior elemental summon once again.

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Contingency

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until death, discharged, or erased	0	Caster	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard is allowed to choose a spell out of their repertoire of known spells. One spell level every 3 levels of the caster is allowed — up to 6th-level spells at 18th level. Once the spell is chosen, the caster may choose a condition of some kind from the list provided. The starting condition can be anything from reaching 10% of their Hit Points to an enemy being sighted. Once this starting condition is satisfied, the spell that was chosen will be cast automatically.

For example, a 12th-level wizard could place the spell Stoneskin in a contingency with the starting condition being "the wizard reaches 50% of his Hit Points." Once the wizard is reduced to 50% of his Hit Points or below, Stoneskin would be immediately cast upon him. This requires no action by the wizard, but happens automatically and instantaneously.

A limitation of this spell is that the target of the spell placed in the contingency must be the caster: Therefore, it may not be an offensive spell nor may it target any other party members.

Comments: Contingencies and sequencers are what make wizards strong! While you can only target yourself, the following are the selectable conditions to trigger the contingency:

• When hit (fires regardless if it did any damage or not, e.g. protected by Stoneskin)
• Enemy sighted
• HP at 50%
• HP at 25%
• HP at 10%
• Helpless
• Poisoned

Cleric/mages can load priest spells into contingencies. If you select one of the HP threshold triggers, Contingency has this bad habit of not firing the stored spell until a few seconds after the trigger condition is satisfied, which can mean the difference between life and death. If you want to keep living, never use the "HP at 10%" trigger, or even the 25%. Contingency can be cast without affecting your magical aura, i.e. it doesn't count toward the "one spell per round" limitation, so you can cast a spell right after creating a contingency if you wanted to. It can also be cast while the game is paused! That said, it makes buffing as a cleric/mage much easier if you choose to use it as a casting time shortener instead of a safety net. Some contingency ideas:

• Improved Invisibility when Helpless (replace with Mislead at higher levels)
• Stoneskin at 50% HP
• Heal at 50% HP
• Haste when enemy sighted
• Protection from Magical Weapons at 50% HP or Helpless
• Remove Paralysis when Helpless
• Tenser's Transformation at 50% HP for Blades and Fighter/Mages
• Mass Cure at 50% HP on the rarely used Fighter/Cleric/Mage
• Chant when hit

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Death Fog

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	1 turn	6	30 ft. radius	None

Description: The casting of a Death Fog spell creates an area of solid fog that has the additional property of being highly acidic. All animal life not immune to acid suffers 8 points of damage for each round they are exposed to the vapors of the Death Fog. Death Fog will also instantly kill all summoned creatures, regardless of their Hit Dice and immunities.

Comments: 8 acid damage per round is pretty sad, even if it automatically kills any summons that enter its AoE. Either stick with Cloudkill or memorize Death Spell instead.

Alternative View: This is actually a very good spell, especially for solo single- and dual-class mages. Prebuff with Protection from Acid, throw in Death Fog, go invisible and watch your enemies die or take very heavy damage. Death Fog on the average does 60% more damage than Cloudkill and kills some of the summons. In fact, since there is no Saving Throw, it does damage in the range of unsaved ADHW at level 20 (80 for Death Fog vs 100 for ADHW), albeit over the whole turn. Coupled with the fact that most of the enemy mages, even with SCS, will not cast Protection from Acid, this will almost certainly kill them if caught in the area of effect, or at least interrupt a few of their spells. Finally, this tactics is especially effective against SCS trolls, as it stops their regeneration, making most encounters with groups of trolls a cakewalk.

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Death Spell

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	50 ft.	Instant	6	30 ft. radius	None

Description: When a Death Spell is cast, it snuffs out the life force of creatures within the area of effect, instantly and irrevocably. Creatures with more than 8 Hit Dice are immune to this spell with the exception of summoned creatures, which are automatically slain. Only enemies are affected by this spell.

Comments: Good for cleaning up trash mobs as well as the always-annoying summons from enemy mages. You'll want to memorize this. Notable creatures susceptible to Death Spell include Umber Hulks, most Trolls, Mordenkainen's Sword, Myconids and their Spore Colonies, Goblins and Hobgoblins, Orcs, Ogres, some Kuo-toa, Fire Salamanders, Mephits, Imps and Quasits, and a surprising number of fighter-type enemies in ToB, such as Gromnir's soldiers, Yaga-Shura's soldiers, the Tethyrian army encounter in the oasis, and Sendai's Derro dwarf army.

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Disintegrate

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	Instant	6	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: When this spell is cast at another creature, a thin green ray is shot out. Upon contact with the ray, the creature must make a Saving Throw vs. Spell or be transformed into dust. This transformation is instantaneous and irreversible. There is also a good chance that this will destroy some if not all of the items that the creature is carrying.

Comments: Everything worth using this on is carrying some notable loot, and Disintegrate destroys all items on the victim except plot items and gold. Do not memorize.

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Flesh to Stone

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	50 ft.	Permanent	6	1 creature	Spell Negates

Description: This spell turns flesh of any sort to stone. All possessions on the person of the creature likewise turn to stone. The intended subject of the spell receives a Saving Throw vs. Spell to avoid the effect. If a statue created by this spell is subjected to attacks of any sort, it will shatter into tiny pieces, making it impossible for the creature to be returned to flesh. The reverse of this spell may be cast upon the victim in order to restore life, but this is the only way.

Comments: Disintegrate but turns your victim into a statue instead of dust. You could abuse this with its counterspell Stone to Flesh to farm experience off your victim, as the XP is given when the victim is petrified. Avoid this otherwise.

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Globe of Invulnerability

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	1 round/level	6	Caster	None

Description: This spell creates an immobile, faintly shimmering magical sphere around the caster that prevents any 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, or 4th-level spell effects from penetrating (i.e., the area of effect of any such spells does not include the area of the Globe of Invulnerability). This includes innate abilities and effects from devices. However, any type of spell can be cast out of the magical sphere, and these pass from the caster of the globe to their subject without affecting the globe. 5th- and higher level spells are not affected by the globe, and magical attacks of 5th-level or higher, such as Spellstrike and Pierce Magic, can bring it down.

Comments: A slight improvement over its Minor brother. Notable level 4 spells that Globe of Invulnerability will block include Greater Malison, Teleport Field, Fire Shield backlash, and Confusion. It is worth a slot just for immunity to these spells alone as they are staples of SCS mages, and Spell Deflection will not protect against AoE spells. Memorize one but free up a level 3 slot if you had Minor Globe memorized.

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Improved Haste

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	3 rounds + 1 round/level	3	1 creature	None

Description: The affected creature functions at double its normal movement and attack rates and receives a +2 bonus to its initiative. Thus, a creature moving at 6 and attacking once per round would move at 12 and attack twice per round. Spellcasting and spell effects are not sped up. There are three major differences between the 3rd-level wizard spell Haste and this spell: First, there is no period of fatigue following the expiration of the spell; second, this spell will only affect one creature; third, this spell actually doubles the number of attacks per round of the hasted creature. This spell also negates the effects of a Slow spell, but it is not cumulative with itself or with other similar magic. Its effects will last for the duration or until dispelled.

Comments: Incredible single-target buff spell for fighters, especially for dual-wielders. Unlike normal Haste, half attacks are properly doubled as one would expect instead of getting rounded up to the next whole number. Throw on Improved Haste and turn your chosen warrior into a blender. Combine with Critical Strike or Smite and watch the chunks fly. Get this!

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Invisible Stalker

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	40 ft.	9 hours	9	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell summons an invisible stalker from the Elemental Plane of Air. This 8 HD monster obeys and serves the caster in performing whatever tasks are set before it, even if this means being sent to certain death. The creature remains under the caster's control for 9 hours or until it is killed — at which point it will return to its native plane, only slightly annoyed at having to serve a mortal.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
64 HP 18/10 STR 17 DEX 15 CON 11 INT 14 WIS 13 CHA	THAC0 11 1 attack/round 2d8 crushing damage (strikes as +2) Speed Factor 0	Base AC -3 30% Fire resist 30% Cold resist 30% Electrical resist 30% Acid resist 30% Magic Fire resist 30% Magic Cold resist 80% Missile damage resist 100% Poison resist	Stun, Sleep, Petrification, Poison, Domination, Charm, Panic, Morale Break, Hold/Paralysis, Level Drain, Confusion, Fatigue bonus, Berserk, Slay, Nature's Beauty, Dragon Rain, Lightning Bolt, Finger of Death, Wail of the Banshee	Invisible when summoned in; loses invisibility once it attacks

Comments: Unlike the elementals, the Invisible Stalker has a plethora of immunities and good AC to help it survive. Utterly outclasses the other non-elemental summons of Level 6. Anyone with a summoner playstyle should pick this up.

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Mislead

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	1 round/level	1	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the wizard is affected by an Improved Invisibility spell and an exact image of the caster is created a few feet away from their original position with exactly the same Hit Points as the caster. The image cannot perform any actions at all, such as attacking or casting spells. It can, however, move around and act as a decoy for the invisible wizard. The image will remain under control of the caster until reduced to 0 Hit Points, or until affected by a Dispel Magic or a spell that reveals illusions, such as True Sight.

Comments: Probably the cheesiest spell in the entire game. Because of how the spell works, you can attack and cast spells while remaining completely invisible. Mage/thieves can backstab with every attack. The only way to remove Mislead is to kill the image or dispel it with True Sight. Because of that, sending the image far away to a safe corner of the map and then attacking effectively makes you immune to any True Sight and Detect Illusion attempts as far as enemies being able to see you. Furthermore, Mislead buffs you with Improved Invisibility which gives -4 AC and saves, making any counterattacks against you unlikely to succeed. Special enemies with invisibility detection like dragons and liches are not fooled by this spell. Memorize one or several depending on your preference. (But, well, don't call your playthrough "Hardcore" then.)

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under Mislead (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged and occurs for every attack made under Mislead.

Note: Tweaks and Tricks mod includes a component to un-cheese this spell, making it kosher for Hardcore playthroughs.

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Pierce Magic

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant; 1 round/level (lowered magic resistance)	6	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast upon a target creature, there will be two major effects: First, the creature's Magic Resistance, if any, will be lowered by 1% per level of the caster; second, one spell protection of 8th level or lower affecting the creature, if any, will be canceled. For example, if this spell were cast by a 15th-level wizard, the target creature would lose 15% of its Magic Resistance from its current total (reducing it to 0 if less than that remains), and one 8th- or lower level spell protection affecting the creature would be dispelled. Spells affected by Pierce Magic are Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, and Globe of Invulnerability. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell, nor do any of the spell protections. Magic Resistance remains lowered for 1 round per level of the caster.

Comments: Finally, something that can affect Liches. The magic resistance reduction on this spell is nice but the main point of this spell is that it counts as a 6th level spell, so it will actually work against liches, but it still won't strip them of Spell Trap, which they are quite fond of. You'll want at least two of these: if you're fighting a creature with contingent spell defenses like dragons or liches you'll need this since it both removes protections AND lowers their magic resistance like Lower Resistance. Necessary if you ever plan on hitting boss creatures with spells.

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Power Word, Silence

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	80 ft.	7 rounds	1	1 creature	None

Description: In using this spell, the wizard points at an individual and utters the Power Word. For the next 7 rounds, that creature cannot make any sound. This silence completely foils any spells that require verbal components. The only ways to counter this spell are either a Dispel Magic or a Vocalize spell. There is no Saving Throw.

Comments: Sneak up on a mage as a mage/thief or while under Mislead and silence him. Slaughter him to your heart's content, but you'll still have to put up with his contingencies and sequencers though. In fights where you're dueling another party with a priest in it, use this to silence him and keep him from buffing and healing everyone else.

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Protection from Magic Energy

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 turn/level	6	1 creature	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers 100% invulnerability to all magic-based attacks such as Magic Missile or Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Underrated buff spell. If a mage is caught in the AoE of Horrid Wilting but was not the initial target, they are still subject to its effects, bypassing any spell protections on them. Mages do not have the HP to survive against successive castings of Horrid Wilting, even if they make their saves. The reason this is relevant is because liches (especially SCS liches) like to use Horrid Wilting because its effective against just about everything. Protection from Magic Energy negates the possibility of being killed by Horrid Wilting while active. Additionally, it protects against the "Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting cast on everyone in the area" spell from Wish. You should have this buff active on you at all times if you can help it.

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Protection from Magical Weapons

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	4 rounds	1	Caster	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all magical weapons. This includes weapons that are blessed or enchanted. The attacks of powerful monsters are also considered magical weapons. This spell cannot be cast on anyone who is protected from normal weapons as well as anyone protected by Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. Due to the nature of this spell, with the short casting time and duration, it is mainly used to buy the wizard a few rounds in the thick of combat. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: This is the best armor in the game. Absolutely every creature you will encounter once you reach a certain point in SoA will have either magical weapons or will be a creature whose weapons are counted as magical. This will give you 4 rounds of complete invulnerability to attack rolls. Unlike Stoneskin, this protects against every single effect of an attack roll, including elemental damge, Vampire's level drain, Mindflayer's INT drain, you name it. This is the most-used and favorite spell of all SCS mages, so you'll either need to Breach them a few times because of their irritating contingencies or hit them with normal weapons. Alas, some creatures that cast this are innately immune to normal weapons as well, making them untouchable unless you can affect them with Breach. Pick this up ASAP.

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Spell Deflection

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	3 rounds/level	6	Caster	None

Description: This powerful abjuration spell causes any spells cast against the wizard to be absorbed and consumed. This affects a total of 10 spell levels. This includes spells cast from scrolls and innate spell-like abilities, but excludes the following: area effects that are not centered directly upon the wizard, as well as area effects that are stationary, such as Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud. As long as the spell is cast directly at the wizard it will be absorbed. Something to note is that as long as there are levels remaining, then the spell will be absorbed. For example, if there is only 1 level left and a 3rd-level spell is cast at the wizard, the spell will be absorbed while canceling the spell deflection. It is not affected by a Dispel Magic.

Comments: Decently strong as it will absorb up to 10 spell levels and will still absorb a spell if it goes over its capacity, plus its duration is modestly long at 6 minutes at level 20. If you find yourself mage-fencing a lot, pick this up.

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Stone to Flesh

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	50 ft.	Permanent	6	1 creature	None

Description: This spell is the reverse of Flesh to Stone and will return any creature that has been turned to stone back to flesh. All possessions on the creature likewise return to normal. The effect is instantaneous and there are no Saving Throw checks required.

Comments: There's no reason to memorize this because you can just use the green Stone to Flesh scrolls, usable by anyone with at least 9 INT.

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Summon Nishruu

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: By casting the Summon Nishruu spell, a wizard calls into existence a magical being of considerable power: the nishruu. At first glance, this appears to be some sort of mist, but upon closer examination, this boiling, churning red mass of vapors and shapes moves with a life of its own. Drawn toward magic like a moth to the flame, the nishruu feed on the energies surrounding and used by wizards. Luckily, there is no question as to the loyalty of the creature, and it will not attack its summoner even though it would like nothing better. The nishruu have no physical attacks at all, although physical attacks can hurt them. Each time a nishruu touches a target wizard and wraps its tendrils around him, the wizard loses 1 random spell of the highest level currently memorized. The nishruu is completely immune to magic (except for Death Spell), and magic will actually heal it. The creature will remain under the wizard's control until slain or until the spell's duration expires.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special	Spell List
72 HP 16 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 11 2 attacks/round 1 piercing damage via STR bonus (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 0 On hit: Drain 1 charge from items including weapons On hit: Drain 1 random highest level Mage spell memorized	Base AC 10 100% elemental immunity 100% Magic resist 20% Slashing resist 50% Crushing resist 50% Piercing resist 70% Missile resist	Poison Lower Resistance	Detects invisible creatures Heals 8 HP when hit directly by a spell	2x Magic Missile 1x Stinking Cloud 1x Agannazar's Scorcher 1x Ghost Armor 1x Lightning Bolt

Comments: Sap a wizard's power with this anti-magic summon before facing him personally, but be mindful that you don't use it against anyone that has valuable items with charges on it because the Nishruu will destroy them if it drains enough charges. It will not drain priest spells. Death Spell and Death Fog will still kill the Nishruu instantly. Additionally, the Nishruu is very fragile against physical attacks despite its damage resistances because of its awful AC, which SCS mages will happily exploit by using summons. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it can cast Ghost Armor on itself to get an AC of 2. Mages will often have Spell Turning up, so don't be afraid to use the rest of the Nishruu's repertoire of spells to deplete the spell levels and to heal it with the reflected spells. Memorize this if you have trouble beating mages.

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Tenser's Transformation

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	1 round/level	6	Caster	None

Description: Tenser's Transformation is a sight guaranteed to astound any creature not aware of its power, for when the wizard casts the spell, he undergoes a startling transformation. The size and strength of the wizard increase to heroic proportions, and he becomes a formidable fighting machine.

The spell causes the caster to become a berserk Fighter: his Hit Points double, and all damage he sustains is first detracted from this magically-gained life; his Armor Class gains a +4 bonus up to a maximum Armor Class of -10; and all his attacks are made as though he were a Fighter of the same level (i.e. the wizard uses the combat values normally reserved to Fighters, although no extra attacks per round are gained). Each attack also receives a +2 bonus to hit and damage rolls. The effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Turns Blade bards into proper Fighters with HP to match, Fighter/Mages into beefy meat-tanks, and Fighter/Thieves with UAI into hulking monstrosities! Spellcasting is disabled and so are innates. The AC and damage improvements are nice, but Fighter-THAC0 to a Blade is excellent and doubled HP is nothing to sneeze at for any mage. Blades and Fighter/Mages can put this into a contingency at 50% HP, and once it fires, be back at higher than their normal max HP. When the spell expires, if your current HP is higher than or equal to your normal max HP, you'll basically be back at full health. Tenser's Transformation could be used as a roundabout way of healing yourself. Memorize one depending on your class.

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True Sight

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Divination	0	1 turn	6	235 ft. radius	None

Description: When this spell is cast, an area roughly 235 ft. in radius around the caster will be affected. Instantly and once per round for 1 turn after this spell is cast, all hostile Illusion/Phantasm spells in the area of effect will be dispelled. The spells that are affected by this are Reflected Image, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Non-Detection, Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door, Mislead, Project Image, and Simulacrum. The area of effect is roughly a 235-ft. radius around the caster. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not come into effect with this spell. This spell only affects enemies, thus it is unable to dispel invisibility from a party member.

Comments: Forces mages and invisibility-potion-spamming thieves to come out and fight you like a man. The radius of True Sight is absolutely huge, so moving a Mislead clone far away from an enemy using this spell will let you stay invisible while still being in True Sight's area of effect. Thieves have their own version of True Sight via their Detect Illusion skill, so if they have 100% in it, they will dispel any illusions within their sight range. Clerics get this as a level 5 spell, but Inquisitors and Clerics of Helm get this for free. Conjurers are sadly exempted from this lovely spell.

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Wyvern Call

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	30 ft.	1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: When this spell is cast, the wizard opens up a magical channel that will summon a wyvern to their aid. The creature will live and die at their command until the spell's duration expires.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
63 HP 14 STR 9 everything else	THAC0 13 2 attacks/round 2d8 crushing damage (strikes as +2) Speed Factor 3 1d6 piercing damage (strikes as +2) Speed Factor 3 On hit: 20% chance to poison for 5 damage/sec. for 20 seconds (save vs. death at -4 negates)	Base AC 1	Hold/Paralysis, Level Drain, Slow, Web, Entangle, Grease	N/A

Comments: Unimpressive for a level 6 spell though I can't fathom why the Wyvern is immune to level drain. The Wyvern has two weapons but you cannot manually select which one it uses, which is too bad because its poison is as nasty as it was in BG1 with a stiff save. Skip and go with the Invisible Stalker if you don't want the Fire Elemental for some reason.

Level 7 Spells

A repeat of Level 6 as far as the ratio of good:bad spells goes, but the good spells are so good that the increase in power here is comparable to the jump between Level 2 and Level 3 spells.

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Cacofiend

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	35 ft.	15 rounds	9	Targeted point	None

Description: When this spell is cast, it teleports in a 10 HD Nabassu that will go on a rampage and attack everything in sight. Anyone under the effects of a Protection From Evil spell or scroll will not be targeted by the fiend. This is a dangerous spell to invoke, best saved for desperate times.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special	At-will Abilities
80 HP 19 STR 17 DEX 9 CON & INT 16 WIS 25 CHA	THAC0 13 3 attacks/round 3d4 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC -5 50% magic resistance	Poison, Charm, Domination, Confusion, Polymorphing, Sphere of Chaos, Feeblemind Non-magical weapons	Regenerates 1 HP/3600 seconds Detects invisible creatures	Upon sighting a cleric or mage: casts Silence as per the spell. Duration: 1 minute Paralysis Gaze: Save vs. spell at +1 or be paralyzed for 6 rounds. Death Gaze: Save vs. death or be paralyzed for 30 seconds and turned into a ghast via exploding death after 30 seconds. Dispellable; single-target. Vampiric Touch: Deals 11 magical damage to victim and adds 11 HP to the Nabassu's current and max HP. The Nabassu cannot gain more HP by using it multiple times.

Comments: Cacofiend is the first of the three infernal summoning spells. Anyone not protected from evil is on the demon's hit list, which means using this in an area with neutral NPCs is a surefire way to get them killed (reducing your reputation) or break their quests. If you want to gate in fiends, having a cleric with Protection from Evil 10' Radius memorized a good idea. And because it is gated in and not summoned, the Nabassu is not subject to the effects of Death Spell or Death Fog's ability to instantly kill summons. The Nabassu isn't exactly tough with its lowish 80 HP but it has an effective AC of -8, 19 STR and 3 attacks/round to carve up your enemies, and scads of nasty at-will abilities to debilitate them further. It only lasts for a minute and a half but it can be quite effective at killing things for you.

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Control Undead

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	40 ft.	6 rounds + 1 round/level	7	1 enemy undead and others in 9.84 ft. of initial target	Spell Negates

Description: The Control Undead spell allows the caster to take control of undead creatures within the area of effect. This creates a telepathic link between the caster and the undead, allowing complete control. If the undead have 3 Hit Dice or less, then there is no Saving Throw allowed; however, if they have 4 Hit Dice or more, a Save vs. Spell is allowed to negate the effect. The undead remain under the control of the caster for the duration of the spell or until they are affected by a Dispel Magic.

Comments: Garbage. Undead are not a problem anymore once you're high enough level to use this spell. Evil clerics can do what this spell does with a far larger AoE once per round and without a save, but its an HD comparison between the cleric and the undead. Skip.

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Delayed Blast Fireball

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	Until triggered; instant	7	23.4 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: This spell creates a fireball that hovers at a point determined by the caster. The fireball will stay in position until someone walks within 17.5 ft. of it; at that point, it will explode, dealing 15d6 points of damage. Victims are allowed a Save vs. Spell for half damage.

Comments: While it might not do quite as much damage as a high-level Skull Trap, Delayed Blast Fireball is ideal as a lich-slaying trap because it's a level 7 spell, bypassing their spell immunity of levels 1-5. Every lich in the game has a save vs. spell of at least 4 with the stronger ones having a save vs. spell of 1, so they're going to be hit for at least 8d6 damage even when successful. Cast it after your thief is done laying down traps where the lich spawns.

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Finger of Death

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	40 ft.	Instant	5	1 creature	Spell Partial (-2)

Description: The Finger of Death spell snuffs out the victim's life force. The caster points their finger at the victim after the incantation is complete, effectively ripping the life out of its body unless a Save vs. Spell is made with a -2 penalty. A creature that successfully saves still receives 2d8+1/level (up to +20) points of magical damage.

Comments: The quintessential save-or-death spell. Even with a -2 save penalty you're taking quite the gamble in whether the victim lives or dies, which means that only Necromancers should be casting this since theirs works at -4. Skip if you aren't a Necromancer. Anything immune to the "Slay" effect will be immune to the instant-death part of this spell.

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Improved Chaos Shield

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	2 turns	7	Caster	None

Description: Improved Chaos Shield increases a Wild Mage's chance to gain a favorable result when a Wild Surge occurs. Every time a roll is made on the Wild Surge chart, an extra 25 is added to the dice roll. When Nahal's Reckless Dweomer is cast, the bonus from Improved Chaos Shield stacks with the Wild Mage's level bonus. It does not stack with Chaos Shield.

Comments: Gives an extra 10 to Wild Surge rolls compared to its 2nd level version but doesn't last as long. Refer to its entry for advice on how to use it.

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You can get it to stack by stuffing 3 into a Chain Contingency. That a bug, though, and as well.

Note: Tweaks and Tricks mod includes a component to un-stack this spell, making multiple castings kosher for Hardcore playthroughs.

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Khelben's Warding Whip

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	20 ft.	3 rounds	7	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast, it dispels one spell protection of up to 8th level affecting the target creature. Every round thereafter till the duration of the spell expires, another spell protection will be removed from the target. The spells affected by Khelben's Warding Whip are Minor Spell Turning, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, Globe Of Invulnerability, Minor Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, and Spell Shield. This will always remove the highest-level spell protection affecting the target; if more than one same-level protection is active on the target simultaneously, one of them will be randomly chosen and dispelled. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: It sounds good but it's often faster to just cast Breach once or twice and let your fighters skewer mages that way instead of trying to kill them with spells. For solo mages, it is more useful since it removes the target's Spell Shield first before dispelling other magic defenses. Don't bother if you're not using SCS, otherwise memorize one. More anti-magic spells never hurt anybody.

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Limited Wish

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration, Evocation	0	Special	9	Special	Special

Description: Limited Wish offers the caster a series of repeatable and single-use wishes. Below are the possible wishes and their Wisdom requirements. For all but one of the repeatable wish options, having higher wisdom precludes the lower wisdom option. One-time wishes are for the entire party, not per wizard. Note that Limited Wish is a double-school spell, which means Diviners and Enchanters cannot cast this spell.

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It is possible to talk to the wish-granting djinni with a different party member with higher wisdom instead of the summoner.

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This is fixed in the EE, as the djinni will ONLY talk to the summoner and cannot be talked to by anyone else.

Repeatable Wishes	WIS req.	Results
"I wish for my entire party to be healed."	10+	Party heals 20 HP; cures poison, blindness, disease, deafness, intoxication.
"I wish that none of my party would die of their wounds."	< 10	Party poisoned for 1/sec. for 25 seconds.
"I wish that spells I have cast would be restored, that I might cast them again!"	16+	Every party member re-memorizes 1 expended spell of levels 1-4, for both mage and priest spellbooks.
"I wish for my spells to be restored!"	< 16	Every party member has all of their mage spells unmemorized as if they were all expended. Priest spells are unaffected.
"I wish to make my party invulnerable."	12+	Entire party receives Minor Globe of Invulnerability for 1 turn.
"I wish that magic would fail to affect me or my party."	< 12	Party affected by 100% casting failure for mage and priest spells. Innate spells are unaffected.
"I wish to summon a horde to overrun my enemies."	N/A	Summons 20 rabbits with 8 HP for 45 seconds.
"I wish to be protected from the undead."	10+	Party gains Negative Plane Protection for 30 seconds.
"I wish to be protected from undead right now."	< 10	Spawns six hostile vampires: 3 Vampires, 2 Elder Vampires, and 1 Ancient Vampire. Appears to set the time of day to midnight as well.

One Time Wishes	WIS req.	Results
"I wish to be rich."	10+	Gives 2000 gold and 4 gems: Emerald, Pearl, Horn Coral, and Black Opal.
"I wish for a powerful magical item."	11+	Gives Full Plate +2.
"I wish to be more experienced."	4+	Spawns hostile Adamantite, Sand, and Juggernaut golems. Total of 55,000 XP.
"I wish to see all as it really is."	12+	Gives Glasses of Identification.
"I wish for an adventure like none I've ever experienced before."	10+	Starts the Gong quest and gives you a scroll to indicate where to begin. This option does not appear if you've already killed Captain Dennis at Delosar's Inn in the Bridge District.
"I wish for control over time."	14+	Time Stop.
"I wish to be anything I desire."	6+	Shapechange.
"I wish to be prepared for anything."	10+	Chain Contingency.
"I wish that all my enemies will die."	12+	Wail of the Banshee

Comments: Pretty neat spell if you (or another party member, in old school BG2) have the wisdom to get the good options. 16 is enough. Casting level 9 spells as a level 7 spell is cool, but the repeatable wishes are arguably better. The Minor Globe wish is good so you can fling around 3rd level AoE spells with reckless abandon; the healing and re-memorization wishes are always nice too. On low wisdom mages, the protection from undead wish can be exploited by an evil cleric to get yourself a powerful level-draining army. The rabbit summoning spell may look useless, but its actually the ultimate distraction spell as they will fan out from where they are summoned and waste enemies' time. Pick this up if you've got room.

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Mantle

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	4 rounds	1	Caster	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all weapons of +2 or lower enchantment. This spell is incredibly powerful, yet has a very short duration and this, combined with its very short casting time, makes Mantle useful only in the thick of intense combat. This spell will not work in conjunction with Protection From Magical Weapons. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Stick with Protection from Magical Weapons. Nonmagical weapons are no threat to you because anything worth using Mantle against is packing a magical weapon. Besides, if you take the Good path on the Fear hell trial, you can combine its reward of immunity to +1 weapons and less with PfMW to emulate Absolute Immunity.

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Mass Invisibility

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	35 ft.	1 round/level	7	30 ft. radius	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard causes all friendly creatures within the area of effect to be affected by the spell Improved Invisibility. This spell is similar to the Invisibility spell, but the recipient is able to attack, either by missile discharge, melee combat, or spellcasting, and remain unseen. Note, however, that there are sometimes telltale traces, a shimmering, so that an observant opponent can attack the invisible spell recipient. These traces are only noticeable when specifically looked for (after the invisible character has made their presence known). Attacks against the invisible character suffer -4 penalties to the attack rolls, and the invisible character's Saving Throws are made with a +4 bonus.

Comments: Should be called Mass Improved Invisibility. Improved Invisibility by itself is great but cloaking the entire party with it is phenomenal. Wizards can't touch you until they cast True Sight or attempt to dispel this. Definitely get this ASAP.

Thieves and other creatures that have a backstab multiplier who attempt an attack while under invisibility (or stealth) completely ignore any positive Dexterity AC bonus their victim has. This occurs regardless of whether the attempted attack is melee or ranged.

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Mordenkainen's Sword

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	1 round/level	7	Caster	None

Description: Upon casting this spell, the wizard brings into being a shimmering, sword-like plane of force that leaps into the wizard's hands. The sword acts as a +4 weapon in all respects (but strikes as +5) and deals 5d4 points of damage upon hitting a target. Once the spell is cast, the sword will float in the air completely under the caster's control. This does not prevent the caster from doing any other actions during the spell's duration.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
36 HP 12 STR 9 DEX & CON 25 INT 9 WIS 18 CHA	THAC0 10 1 attack/round 5d4+4 slashing (strikes as +5) Speed Factor 1	Base AC -20 100% immunity to damage except magical	Psionics, Charm, Panic, Sleep, Stun, Blindness, Feeblemind, Deafness, Poison, Disease, Paralysis, Confusion, Petrification, Polymorph, Intelligence modification (i.e. Illithid brain-drain)	N/A

Comments: The best tanking summon, bar none. The sword is completely immune to all damage types except magical damage like from Magic Missile or Horrid Wilting. In fact, the only ways to destroy it are Death Spell, Death Fog, Disintegrate, death magic, magical damage, or killing it by stat drain (except INT) or level drain (10 levels). This summon can tank just about every dangerous melee enemy and can hamper mages quite a bit if they don't have the necessary spells to destroy it. That said, Mordenkainen's Sword is a favorite summon of SCS liches and high level mages for its nigh-invulnerability. It is wise to have a Death Spell memorized and, as a backup, a Minor Sequencer filled with 2x Magic Missile to either kill it if you're lucky or finish it off with a 3rd one. Enchanters miss out on this incredible summon.

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Power Word, Stun

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	80 ft.	Special	1	1 creature	None

Description: When a Power Word, Stun spell is uttered, any creature of the Mage's choice within visual range is stunned for the duration depending on its current Hit Points:

Hit Points	Duration
1 - 29	4d4 rounds
30 - 59	2d4 rounds
60 - 89	1d4 rounds
90+	Unaffected

Note that if a creature is weakened so that its Hit Points are below its usual maximum, the current number of Hit Points is used to determine this spell's effects.

Comments: If you can sneak up on a mage who isn't buffed by spell protections, cast this and he's as good as dead. Or, if you beat him at mage fencing and dispel his spell protections, use this to keep him from doing anything else. Other uses for this spell include neutralizing an enemy who is about to kill a party member, or putting a stop to a fast enemy that hits many times per round.

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Prismatic Spray

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	15 ft.	Instant	7	29.3 ft. cone with 90° arc	Special

Description: When casting this spell, the wizard causes seven shimmering multicolored rays of light to flash from their hand, portraying all colors of the visible spectrum. Any creature with fewer than 8 Hit Dice struck by a ray is blinded for 5 rounds, regardless of any other effect. All creatures caught within the area of effect will be touched by 1 or 2 of the rays, each of which has a different power and purpose:

Color	Result	Save
Red	20 magical damage	Spell 1/2
Orange	40 magical damage	Spell 1/2
Yellow	80 magical damage	Spell 1/2
Green	Death via poison damage equal to 100% of target's HP. Successful save means 20 poison damage instead.	Death Partial
Blue	Permanent petrification	Polymorph Negates
Indigo	Permanent feeblemindedness	Wand Negates
Violet	Disintegration	Spell Negates

Comments: Due to the way the spell is coded, each effect has a 15-18% chance of occurring, with a total 18% chance of a target being hit by two effects instead of only one. Prismatic Spray is also party-friendly. 5 of the 7 possible results are fairly nice, but the other 2 will destroy any loot on the victim on a failed save. For that reason, try to use it on crowds of nondescript enemies or skip over it. The green ray is especially good because percentage-based damage ignores damage resistance, so anything normally immune to poison can still be instantly killed by it. Conjurers benefit the most from this spell because all of the saving throws are made at a -2 penalty.

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Project Image

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	1 round/level	1	Caster	None

Description: When this spell is cast, an illusionary copy of the caster steps out of their body. This copy has the same Hit Points and can cast the same spells, as the original caster; however, it may not make any physical attacks. As long as the image is in existence, the original caster is rooted to the ground and only their projected image may move around; if the image is destroyed, the spell ends and the original caster can move again. Also, if during this time the caster takes any damage, the image will disappear and the caster can move around again. Otherwise, the image will remain for the duration of the spell, or until affected by a Dispel Magic or anything that reveals illusions, such as True Sight.

Comments: Possibly even cheesier than Mislead because it effectively multiplies your number of memorized spells by the number of Project Images you have memorized. Project Image creates a remote-controllable copy of you that has all your currently-memorized spells, quickslot items, and equipped items and their special abilities at the time of casting. That means if you are rested and have multiple Project Images memorized, you'll be able to cast from a full spellbook multiple times. The clone that you summon is killable by True Sight and Dispel Magic, so memorizing Spell Immunity before using this spell is a good idea. The clone also cannot venture beyond your line of sight, unless you use Wizard Eye. But with those spells at your disposal, you can use this spell to unleash hell upon your enemies without regard for spell consumption, because you will still have all of your spells memorized once your clone expires. Have your clone cast Mislead as well and it will become truly untouchable! Projected Images can also make (limited) wishes. Since your quickslot items are copied, you can use them for rare items such as Protection from Magic scrolls. This spell is extremely useful for single- and dual-classed mages and decidedly less so for multi-classed mages. Pick this up ASAP! (But, well, don't call your playthrough "Hardcore" in that case.)

Projected Images can create Simulacrums of themselves who, for some reason or another, are not level-drained clones of the Projected Image. They have the exact same spell list as their Projected master (minus one casting of Simulacrum used to make them, obviously), except they are naked: equipped with no gear at all. These second-generation Simulacra can then create Simulacrum clones of themselves with the same spell list as their parents (again, minus one casting of Simulacrum used to make them). This tactic can exponentially multiply your spellbook to truly ridiculous levels, all from one casting of Project Image. This takes a lot of micromanagement, however, and it is easy to get confused over who came when in your family tree of clones.

Note: Tweaks and Tricks mod includes a component to un-cheese this spell, making it kosher for Hardcore playthroughs.

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Depending on your game version, this spell's cheesiness is toned down to certain levels. 2.0+ clones don't drop stolen loot when they die, 2.3+ clones can't cast Project Image. They also will obey the same limits of 5 total party summons and 7 traps on a map that normal characters are bound by.

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Protection from the Elements

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 round/level	7	1 creature	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers 75% resistance to all elemental attacks—such as fire, cold, and electricity, whether magical or non magical—from spells, weapons, wands, breath weapons, etc. The effect of a Protection From The Elements spell lasts 1 round per level of the caster or until dispelled.

Comments: Not as useful as it sounds because it does not give 100% immunity and resisting one type of damage is usually enough for any given situation. Skip.

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Ruby Ray of Reversal

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	Instant	5	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast, it dispels one spell protection of any level affecting the target creature. The spells affected by Ruby Ray Of Reversal are Minor Spell Turning, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, Globe Of Invulnerability, Minor Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Spell Deflection, and Spell Trap. This will always remove the highest-level spell protection affecting the target; if more than one same-level protection is active on the target simultaneously, one of them will be randomly chosen and dispelled. The target's Magic Resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: The first anti-magic spell that can take down Spell Trap and will do so since it tears down the highest level defense on a caster, assuming it doesn't get absorbed by Spell Shield. That makes Ruby Ray worth it just for that fact alone.

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Spell Sequencer

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until death or discharged	9 1 (sequencer activation)	Caster	None

Description: This spell allows a wizard to store three spells and activate them all at the same time from their Special Ability button. All spells must be of 4th level or lower. To create a sequencer, a Mage must memorize not only Spell Sequencer but also the spells they intend to store in it (a Sorcerer can store spells of any level for which they still have spell slots). After casting Spell Sequencer, the player will be prompted to choose the sequenced spells from those they have memorized.

A sequencer lasts until activated and, once used, releases its spells immediately (no casting time) (casting time of 1). The Special Ability icon also disappears until the next time a sequencer is formed. A wizard can possess only one Spell Sequencer at a time, and it may not be given to other characters.

Comments: Upgrade to the Minor Sequencer. 3 spells of 4th level or lower leaves a lot of room for experimenting. Some ideas:

• 3x Skull Traps
• 3x Magic Missiles
• Web + Stinking Cloud + Grease
• Improved Invisibility + Haste + Stoneskin
• Chant + Bless + Haste
• Greater Malison + Silence + Slow
• Sanctuary + Stoneskin + Minor Spell Deflection
• Improved Invisibility + Teleport Field + Stoneskin
• Greater Malison + Web + Grease

Note: Characters who die with a sequencer active and then are resurrected have a non-functioning sequencer in their special ability menu, preventing this spell from being cast again until it is "discharged." Use the sequencer on something to clear it (it does not cast any spells) so that Spell Sequencer will work properly once again.

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Spell Turning

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	3 rounds/level	7	Caster	None

Description: This powerful Abjuration spell causes the spells cast against the wizard to rebound upon the original caster. This affects a total of 12 spell levels—including spells cast from scrolls and innate spell-like abilities—but excludes the following: area effects that are not centered directly upon the wizard, as well as area effects that are stationary, such as Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud. As long as the spell is cast directly at the wizard, it will be reflected back upon the caster as long as there are levels remaining. For example, if there is only 1 level left and a 3rd-level spell is cast at the wizard, the spell will be reflected while canceling the Spell Turning. This spell will not protect the caster from Dispel Magic, but it will not be dispelled by Dispel Magic either.

Comments: Very nice. 12 spell levels is quite good and turning them back to their source is even better. Pick this up if you're mage-fencing a lot.

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Sphere of Chaos

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	40 ft.	1 turn	7	30 ft. radius	Spell Negates

Description: All enemies within the area of effect must make a Saving Throw vs. Spell every round that they remain in the sphere. If the Saving Throw is failed, one of the following random effects occurs:

– target is polymorphed into a squirrel for 9 seconds
– target confused for 9 seconds
– target bursts into flames for 3d6+6 damage
– target is paralyzed for 9 seconds
– target is disintegrated
– target is healed 20 Hit Points
– target is randomly teleported
– target is rendered unconscious for 9 seconds
– target is hasted for 9 seconds

Comments: This spell does not affect party members. 6 of the 9 effects are beneficial to you, with 2 being beneficial to enemies and 1 more destroying any loot the victim had on them. If you're doing a Wild Mage playthrough or a chaotic playthrough, use it if you want, because it's too random to be reliable otherwise. Skip.

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Summon Djinni

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: With this spell, the conjurer can cajole a djinni, a massive genie with powerful abilities, to leave the elemental plane of air and enter the Prime Material. The djinni will serve for the duration indicated above, attacking the enemies of the conjurer. Mages are warned to be careful of this spell, for a mistreated djinni will turn on his master at the first available opportunity.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Spell List	Special
59 HP 21 STR 14 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 13 1 attack/round 2d8 crushing (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 4	N/A	2x Magic Missile 1x Stinking Cloud 1x Melf's Acid Arrow 1x Agannazar's Scorcher 1x Ghost Armor 1x Lightning Bolt	At < 20% HP: enter Gaseous Form for 20 seconds (becomes invulnerable, heals to 100% and returns to djinni form); Usable up to 3 times Upon spotting an enemy: casts Shadow Door, Invisibility, Protection from Magical Weapons, Globe of Invulnerability

Comments: If Mordenkainen's Sword wasn't competing for your spell slots at level 7, this summon wouldn't be that bad, especially with how it can assume gaseous form up to 3 times. Just try not to hit it with any AoE spells because the Djinni will go hostile. Skip.

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Summon Efreeti

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: With this spell, the conjurer can cajole an efreeti, a massive genie with powerful abilities, to leave the elemental plane of fire and enter the Prime Material. The efreeti will serve for the duration indicated above, attacking the enemies of the conjurer. Mages are warned to be careful of this spell, for a mistreated efreeti will turn on his master at the first available opportunity.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Spell List	Special
80 HP 20 STR 14 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 11 1 attack/round 3d8 crushing (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 0	Base AC 2 125% Fire resist 125% Magic Fire resist	N/A	2x Magic Missile 1x Stinking Cloud 1x Melf's Acid Arrow 1x Agannazar's Scorcher 1x Ghost Armor 1x Lightning Bolt	At < 20% HP: enter Gaseous Form for 20 seconds (becomes invulnerable, heals to 100% and returns to efreeti form); Usable up to 3 times Upon spotting an enemy: casts Fire Shield: Red, Invisibility, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Flame Strike

Comments: A more offensive version of the djinni and heals from fire damage, but attempting to "heal" it with fire damage will just make it mad. Better than the djinni, but be careful about its tendency to toss a fireball at the first enemy it sees. Skip again.

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Summon Hakeashar

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	25 ft.	8 rounds + 1 round/level	9	Targeted point	None

Description: This spell is similar to the 6th-level wizard spell Summon Nishruu. The hakeashar, in fact, is a more powerful version of the nishruu, with more Hit Points, better attacks, and immunity to normal weapons.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special	Spell List
96 HP 16 STR 16 INT 9 everything else	THAC0 9 2 attacks/round 1 piercing damage via STR bonus (strikes as normal weapon) Speed Factor 0 On hit: Drain 1 charge from items including weapons On hit: Drain 1 random highest level Mage spell memorized	Base AC 8 100% elemental immunity 100% Magic resist 20% Slashing resist 50% Crushing resist 50% Piercing resist 70% Missile resist	Lower Resistance Non-magical weapons	Heals 8 HP when hit directly by a spell	2x Magic Missile 1x Stinking Cloud 1x Agannazar's Scorcher 1x Ghost Armor 1x Lightning Bolt

Comments: Actually inferior to the Nishruu! The Hakeashar is not immune to poison nor can it detect invisible enemies. Avoid this like the plague.

Level 8 Spells

This level offers another great boost in power thanks to a few unquestionably potent spells, such as Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Incendiary Cloud, Power Word: Blind, and Spell Trigger.

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Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	40 ft.	Instant	8	30 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: This spell evaporates moisture from the bodies of every living creature within the area of effect, inflicting 1d8 damage per level of the caster (up to 20d8). Affected creatures are allowed a Saving Throw vs. Spell for half damage. This spell is especially devastating to water elementals and plant creatures, who receive a penalty of -2 to their Saving Throws. This spell will not harm party members.

Comments: Horrid Wilting has everything you could ever want in an AoE damage spell: high damage, party-friendly, damage type is uncommonly resisted, and bypasses spell protections when not directly cast at an enemy. Its only downside is a long casting time but that is easily remedied if you choose to load it into a Chain Contingency instead. Illusionists miss out on this incredible damage spell. Everyone else should load up on this, especially Necromancers.

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Bigby's Clenched Fist

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	35 ft.	4 rounds	8	1 creature	Death Special

Description: This spell causes a giant disembodied hand to squeeze and constrict the target once per round for up to 4 rounds. It initially smashes the target for 3d6 damage with no save, and the target is held. In the second round, the target can save vs. Paralysis at -2 to escape. If they fail to save, the hand does 4d6 damage. The following round, the target can save vs. Paralysis with no penalty. If they make the save, they are free to move, if they fail, the spell does 6d6 damage and holds them for 2 rounds. After the 4th round, the spell is finished. Magic Resistance will stop the spell.

Comments: While the damage is mediocre, the hold effect that occurs immediately after casting has no save. Even so, you might be better served by simply casting Web or Hold Monster if you wish to immobilize an opponent. Skip.

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Improved Mantle

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	4 rounds	1	Caster	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all weapons of +3 or lower enchantment. This spell is incredibly powerful, yet has a very short duration, and this, combined with its very short casting time, makes Improved Mantle useful only in the thick of intense combat. This spell will not work in conjunction with Protection From Magical Weapons. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Skip once again. Protection from Magical Weapons will still work better than this and is much less expensive at level 6.

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Incendiary Cloud

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	40 ft.	1 turn	8	30 ft. radius	Spell 1/2

Description: This spell creates a billowing cloud of roaring flame. Any in the area of the spell must leave the cloud immediately or suffer 1d4 points of fire damage per level of the caster (up to 20d4) each round while in the area of effect, with a Save vs. Spell for half.

Comments: The strongest damage cloud spell in the game. Enemies will suffer massive damage over time if you can get them to stay in the cloud for long enough; try combining this with a Web spell or two to make this happen. You can also use this spell to heal fighters on your team if you've buffed them over 100% fire resistance as they fight the enemies inside the cloud. Memorize one.

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Maze

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	Touch	Special (see text)	3	1 creature	None

Description: An extradimensional space is brought into being upon utterance of a maze spell. The subject vanishes into the shifting labyrinth of force planes for a period of time that is totally dependent upon its Intelligence.

Target's Intelligence	Duration
< 3	20d4 rounds
3 - 5	10d4 rounds
6 - 8	5d4 rounds
9 - 11	4d4 rounds
12 - 14	3d4 rounds
15 - 17	2d4 rounds
18+	1d4 rounds

Comments: Upgraded version of Otiluke's Resilient Sphere but not as strong as Imprisonment. Best used against enemies who aren't magic-users since it will last longer. While the target is sealed away you can take out other enemies, buff up, or trap the area where the victim was so that they get set off once he's released from the maze.

Four important things to note about Maze: 1) Maze is still subject to Magic Resistance. 2) You can use this on party members to prevent them from dying in combat. 3) Being caught in a maze when playing solo causes a Game Over. 4) Immediately after the spell has been cast, it still takes 4 seconds before the target enters the maze. You can still use this time to apply buffs to your party before getting mazed, but attempting a Berserker/Barbarian Rage during this time will not let you avoid being mazed.

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Pierce Shield

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	40 ft.	Instant; 1 round/level (lowered magic resistance)	8	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast, it launches a massive attack on an enemy wizard's spell defenses. The target's Magic Resistance will be lowered by 10% + 1% per level of the caster (up to 30%). Next, Pierce Shield will cancel one spell protection of any level. For example, if this spell was cast by a 15th-level wizard, the target creature would lose 25% Magic Resistance from its current total, reducing it to 0 if less than that remains, as well as canceling one spell protection if the Mage currently has one. The list of spells that this includes: Minor Spell Deflection, Minor Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, Globe Of Invulnerability, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, and Spell Trap. Magic Resistance does not affect this spell, nor do any of the spell protections. The resistance remains lowered for 1 round per level of the caster. It cannot be dispelled.

Comments: Lower Resistance and Ruby Ray of Reversal combined. You may want this memorized just because it's a combination of both of those, but you may wish to ignore it for the same reason and choose something else to fill a level 8 spell slot.

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Power Word, Blind

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	80 ft.	6 rounds	1	10 ft. radius	None

Description: When a Power Word, Blind spell is cast, one or more creatures within the area of effect become sightless. The spellcaster selects one creature as the target center, and the effect spreads outward from the center, affecting all within a 10 foot radius. This lasts for 6 rounds or until dispelled. All of the effects of blindness apply to the victims such as a penalty to hit and to AC. As well the visibility range of the afflicted character is decreased.

Comments: Being able to inflict blindness with no save is exceedingly strong as it is useful against just about every foe. It's also party-friendly and ignores spell protections if not cast directly at a creature. Unlike the other Power Word Spells, it is not inflicted instantly; rather, it shoots a projectile which has a travel time (and as such, it does not work during a Time Stop like the other Power Words). Still highly recommended.

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Protection from Energy

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	1 round/level	8	1 creature	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers 75% immunity against all energy attacks—such as fire, cold, acid, magic, and electricity, whether from magical or non-magical sources—such as spells, weapons, wands, breath weapons, etc. This excludes any physical attacks and spell-created weapons, such as Enchanted Weapon and Spiritual Hammer. In other words, any physical damage, such as piercing, crushing, or slashing will get through. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Comments: Same as Protection from the Elements except that it also gives magic damage resistance. Skip for the same reason as its Level 7 version.

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Simulacrum

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Illusion	0	1 round/level	9	Caster	None

Description: A duplicate of the caster is created with this spell. The duplicate is almost identical to the caster, making it a very powerful ally. It is actually a level-drained clone of the caster and its level is determined as follows:

• Single-classed mages: Caster level - (Caster level / 2)
• Multi-classed mages: Caster level - (Caster level / 2) for each class
• Dual-classed mages: Caster level - (Caster's total levels / 4)

Comments: Depending on your class type, a Simulacrum can be as powerful as a Projected Image or even stronger since they can actually attack and are immune to death by True Sight and Dispel Magic. Somewhat unintuitively, dual-classed mages have the biggest advantage here compared to single- and multi-classed mages when it comes to determining the simulacrum's level. Simulacra created by single-classed mages are quite weak; a simulacrum made by a multi- or dual-classed mage at least has the advantage of being able to do something else besides spellcasting.

Simulacra retain any special abilities and HLAs that are accessed via the Special Ability menu no matter what their level is. If you are a high level or are dual-classed, it is possible to have your first Simulacrum also cast Simulacrum, resulting in a second clone that is stronger than the first due to how their levels are calculated. All in all, this spell is at least on par with Project Image when used correctly and it is recommended to memorize it.

Projected Images can create Simulacrums of themselves who, for some reason or another, are not level-drained clones of the Projected Image. They have the exact same spell list as their Projected master (minus one casting of Simulacrum used to make them, obviously), except they are naked: equipped with no gear at all. These second-generation Simulacra can then create Simulacrum clones of themselves with the same spell list as their parents (again, minus one casting of Simulacrum used to make them). This tactic can exponentially multiply your spellbook to truly ridiculous levels, all from one casting of Project Image. This takes a lot of micromanagement, however, and it is easy to get confused over who came when in your family tree of clones.

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It is possible to restore the clone's "lost" levels via Lesser/Greater Restoration.

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This is fixed in BG2EE. However there is a bug with the dual-class calculation: it only lowers your Mage level of the Simulacrum by 40% of the first class, rounded down. That means that a Berserker 9->Mage will only ever lose three levels off their clone's Mage level when casting this.

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Spell Trigger

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until death or discharged	9 1 (trigger activation)	Caster	None

Description: This spell allows a wizard to store spells in a magical ability (accessed via the Special Ability button) that is created by the spell. This item, the trigger, can store three spells to be released simultaneously, all of which must be of 6th level or lower. A wizard can only possess one spell trigger at a time, and the trigger may not be given to other characters. Once the spell trigger is used, the icon will disappear from the Special Ability button.

Comments: As Spell Sequencer but allows up to level 6 spells. Always recommended. Some ideas:

• Protection from Magical Weapons + Mislead + Spell Deflection
• Protection from Magical Weapons + Fireshield (Red) + Fireshield (Blue)
• Harm + Draw Upon Holy Might + Tenser's Transformation
• Improved Haste + Tenser's Transformation + Stoneskin
• 3x Pierce Magic
• 3x Lower Resistance

Note: Characters who die with a trigger active and then are resurrected have a non-functioning trigger in their special ability menu, preventing this spell from being cast again until it is "discharged." Use the trigger on something to clear it (it does not cast any spells) so that Spell Trigger will work properly once again.

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Summon Fiend

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	35 ft.	15 rounds	9	Targeted point	None

Description: More powerful than the 7th level variant, casting this Cacofiend spell gates in a 10 HD glabrezu. This demon will attack everyone in the area who is not protected by a protection from evil spell. Only desperate or suicidal mages use this spell.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special	At-will Abilities
80 HP 19 STR 17 DEX 9 CON & INT 16 WIS 25 CHA	THAC0 11 5 attacks/round 3d4 crushing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC -7 100% Fire resist 100% Cold resist 100% Acid resist 50% Magic resist	Poison, Charm, Fear, Domination, Confusion, Polymorphing, Sphere of Chaos, Feeblemind, Hold/Paralysis +1 weapons and lower	Detects invisible creatures	Remove Magic Power Word, Stun

Comments: Second in the the line of infernal summoning spells, the Glabrezu is a better raw fighter than the Nabassu but doesn't have any exotic at-will abilities like the Nabassu does. It has an impressive 5 attacks/round and an effective -10 AC, but even so, its only marginally better than the Nabassu, so it is recommended to skip it as there are better spells available at level 8.

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Symbol, Death

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	70 ft.	Until triggered; instant	9	23.4 ft. radius	Death Negates

Description: Symbol, Death is a powerful enchantment that allows the wizard to inscribe a symbol on the ground or any other surface. The symbol will remain there until someone comes within 17.5 ft. of it, at which point it will explode, causing all those within the area to make a Save vs. Death or die. Creatures with more than 60 current Hit Points are immune to this effect.

Comments: Pretty useless. You can just cast a Horrid Wilting and do 60 damage with that instead. NOT party-friendly.

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Symbol, Fear

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	70 ft.	Until triggered; instant	9	23.4 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-4)

Description: Symbol, Fear is a powerful enchantment that allows the wizard to inscribe a symbol on the ground or any other surface. The symbol will remain there until someone comes within 17.5 ft. of it, at which point it will explode, causing all those within the area to make a Save vs. Spell at a -4 penalty or be affected by fear for 2 rounds + 1 round for every 3 levels of the caster (up to 9 rounds at level 21).

Comments: Why on earth would you use a level 8 spell slot for what amounts to a combination of Greater Malison + Horror? Skip! Also not party-friendly.

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Symbol, Stun

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	70 ft.	Until triggered; instant	9	23.4 ft. radius	Spell Negates (-4)

Description: Symbol, Stun is a powerful enchantment that allows the wizard to inscribe a symbol on the ground or any other surface. The symbol will remain there until someone comes within 17.5 ft. of it, at which point it will explode, causing all those within the area to make a Save vs. Spell at a -4 penalty or be stunned for 2 rounds + 1 round for every 3 levels of the caster (up to 9 rounds at level 21).

Comments: Better than the other two Symbol spells if only because stun isn't as useless as panic or slaying anything with ≤ 60 HP. Conjurers cast this with a huge -6 penalty so be wary of using it around allies because it's not party-friendly either, as with the other Symbol spells.

Level 9 Spells

Here we are: Phenomenal Cosmic Power! The spell in question that grants this is Wish. But even at level 9 there are still mediocre spells.

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Absolute Immunity

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	4 rounds	1	Caster	None

Description: When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all weapons except for those of greater than +5 enchantment. This spell is incredibly powerful, hence the short duration. However, the casting time is also very short, making this spell incredibly useful in the thick of combat, where buying a few seconds can mean the difference between life or death. It is important to note that this spell does not work in combination with Protection From Magical Weapons. This spell lasts for the duration or until dispelled.

Comments: For being "absolute," it doesn't even protect against +6 weapons, which include magically-created weapons like Melf's Minute Meteors and Harm. Far too expensive for what it does anyway. Keep using Protection from Magical Weapons.

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Bigby's Crushing Hand

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	35 ft.	3 rounds	9	1 creature	Death Special

Description: This spell creates a huge disembodied fist that crushes the target and pins them to the ground. In the first round, the spell does 2d10 damage. The victim can save at -4 vs. Paralysis to avoid being pinned. If they fail, the hand does 3d10 damage the next round. The victim can again save vs. Paralysis at -2. If they fail to save, the hand does a final 4d10 damage and disappears.

Comments: If you want a guaranteed hold effect, just use the level 8 Bigby's Clenched Fist. The damage is unimpressive on this spell too. Skip.

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Black Blade of Disaster

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	18 rounds	4	Caster	None

Description: This spell enables the caster to create a black, blade-shaped planar rift about three feet long. It jumps into the caster's hand and is used as a normal sword, remaining there for the duration of the spell. The caster is considered to be proficient to the point of Grand Mastery in this weapon. The sword acts as a +6 weapon (but with a +5 bonus to hit and damage) and deals 2d12 damage to its victims. Also, every time it hits a target, the victim must make a Save vs. Death at +4 or be disintegrated. There is also a 10% chance with every hit that the sword drains 4 levels from the target and heals the wielder 20 Hit Points.

Comments: Criminally underrated spell for multi- and dual-classed mages. At 2d12 base damage, it has the 2nd highest base damage of any weapon the player can use in the game (beaten only by the Iron Golem form of Shapechange), which means Mage/Thieves and Fighter/Mage/Thieves can land backstabs with it to gib enemies into chunky burrito meat. Combine with Mislead and Improved Haste to explode all the enemies on the map into a bloody mess with minimal effort expended in the process. Fighter/Mages and Fighter->Mages get an arguably equal utility out of this spell because they can hit with it more times per round, thus increasing their likelihood of triggering the on-hit effects of the blade. Save vs. death at +4 or be disintegrated on every hit is neat and you know it won't occur on enemies that have loot worth getting; draining 4 levels and healing 20 HP is always good too. Get this spell if you are a melee-oriented mage at all.

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Chain Contingency

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	0	Permanent until death, discharged, or erased	0	Special	None

Description: Chain Contingency channels some of the magical energy of the wizard and releases it only under certain circumstances. The wizard chooses three spells that will be released under certain conditions, such as being hit by an enemy. When this condition occurs, all three spells are cast immediately. Spells of 8th level or lower may be used in the contingency.

Comments: Basically a spell shotgun. Its casting time is 0 which means it casts instantly (even while paused), and does not contaminate your magical aura, which means you can cast another spell immediately after casting Chain Contingency. I suggest using this offensively instead of defensively like the level 6 Contingency because you have some control over who the Chain Contingency targets (yourself, nearest enemy, or enemy who last hit you). The conditions for triggering the contingency are the same as the level 6 version. This spell can target invisible enemies with the "Enemy Sighted" condition even if you can't see them, just as long as you're in range of them. Some Chain Contingency ideas:

• Spell Turning + Spell Shield + Protection from Magic Weapons @ Self upon Enemy Sighted
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  3x Project Image @ Self upon Enemy Sighted (doesn't work in BG2EE)
• Improved Haste + Mislead + Spell Turning @ Self upon Enemy Sighted (combine with Black Blade of Disaster after casting!)
• 3x Horrid Wilting @ Nearest Enemy upon Enemy Sighted
• Greater Malison + 2x Horrid Wilting @ Nearest Enemy upon Enemy Sighted
• Regeneration + Improved Haste + Heal @ Self upon 50% HP
• Maze + Greater Malison + Power Word, Blind @ Last Hit By upon Hit (lay down traps and AoE spells where the enemy was mazed and watch as he stands still after returning, still blinded)
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  3x Improved Chaos Shields @ Self upon Enemy Sighted (they'll stack!)

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Energy Drain

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	Touch	Permanent	3	1 creature	None

Description: The casting of this spell opens a channel between the caster's plane and the Negative Energy Plane. The caster of the spell acts as a conduit between the two planes, sucking life from a victim and transferring it to the Negative Energy Plane, draining them of 2 levels of experience. The target of this spell loses levels, Hit Dice, Hit Points, and abilities permanently. These levels can only be restored by a priest's Restoration spell.

Comments: Death via level drain causes one to shatter into a million pieces as if turned to stone and then attacked, dropping only plot items and gold. That is highly unlikely to occur just by using this spell alone since it's only two levels.

Level drain causes any saving throw bonuses gained from any source (whether from an item or spell) to stop functioning - essentially setting your saving throws back to their default value at the level you are drained down to. It also decreases caster level in addition to the above penalties. That said, it is far more lethal to you than your opponents who are more than likely not wearing any special equipment that gives them saving throw bonuses. Skip.

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Freedom

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	Instant	9	Entire map	None

Description: Cast this spell in an area where you know someone is imprisoned and they will be released. This is the reverse of the spell Imprisonment. When a creature is imprisoned, they are trapped in a sphere far beneath the surface of the earth. If this spell is cast in the area where they were imprisoned, it will instantly free them and they will reappear exactly where they were standing when they were imprisoned. This spell will also cancel the effects of the spell Maze and return any characters trapped in the labyrinth of planes.

Comments: Imprisonment used by enemies is uncommon, with the only sources being Liches, Elder Orb beholders, Kangaxx and the Watcher's Keep demilich, and certain boss-tier mages. Keep this as a scroll if you need to cast it.

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Gate

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	30 ft.	33 rounds	9	Targeted point	None

Description: By means of this spell, the caster calls an outer planar creature to attack her foes and herself if not careful. The creature summoned in is a 13 HD Pit Fiend, one of the most powerful demons. This Pit Fiend will attack anyone not protected from evil, including the caster and her party.

Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special	At-will Abilities
104 HP 18/00 STR 17 DEX 9 CON & INT 16 WIS 25 CHA	THAC0 7 5 attacks/round 3d4 piercing damage (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0	Base AC -5 100% Fire resist 50% Magic resist	Poison, Charm, Fear, Domination, Confusion, Polymorphing, Feeblemind, Hold/Paralysis +2 weapons and lower	Regenerates 1 HP/3 seconds Detects invisible creatures	Demon Fear: Save vs. spell or be panicked for 2 rounds. 30 ft. radius, party-friendly. Fireball (20d6, save vs. spell for half) Remove Magic Symbol, Fear

Comments: The final infernal summoning spell. The Pit Fiend lasts more than double the duration of the Glabrezu; it is beefier; and it regenerates relatively fast but its AC isn't as good. It can use Symbol, Fear and a very strong Fireball at-will, so you do not want to get close to it. Unless you've had problems with your Glabrezu dying or returning to its home before you were finished with it, the Pit Fiend is not too much of an upgrade. Skip.

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Imprisonment

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	Touch	Permanent	9	1 creature	None

Description: When the Imprisonment spell is cast and the victim is touched, the recipient is entombed in a state of suspended animation in a small sphere far beneath the surface of the earth. The victim remains there unless a reverse of the spell — Freedom — is cast. Otherwise, the victim will remain there as long as the earth exists; rather a horrible fate, actually. If a Freedom spell is cast in the area where the creature was imprisoned, then they will reappear exactly where they were last standing. Dispel Magic will not free creatures trapped in this manner. There is no Saving Throw.

Comments: Extremely powerful spell that is an instant kill if the target is not outright immune to Imprisonment. It also bypasses magic resistance! It has a few drawbacks, though: 1) A long casting time. 2) It is touch-range, making the first point all the worse. 3) You do not get any loot the victim had.

Other than that, landing an Imprisonment gets you XP as if you killed the target. Freedom will free Imprisoned creatures, so if you wanted to, you could cast those spells over and over again on your guinea pig to farm XP. While playing with SCS, Imprisonment is a good choice for solo mages (especially sorcerers) to get rid of Fallen Planetars that certain high-level enemies summon. Make sure to buff with PfMW first because Planetars' dispelling vorpal strikes are deadly.

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Meteor Swarm

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Evocation	50 ft.	4 rounds	9	30 ft. radius	None

Description: When the caster utters the words to this powerful spell, they call upon powerful forces indeed. These forces pull down meteors from above, hurling them randomly at anyone in the area of effect. Anyone caught in the destructive path of the meteors—whether friend or foe—will suffer 4d10 points of damage with no Saving Throw. The caster is well advised to be careful in their use of this spell.

Comments: Don't bother. Incendiary Cloud is better. Compare 4d10 to 10d4 at level 20 (20d4 on a failed save), plus a longer duration.

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Power Word, Kill

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Conjuration	80 ft.	Instant	1	1 creature	None

Description: When a Power Word, Kill spell is uttered, one creature within the spell range is slain. The creature must have 60 or fewer current Hit Points, otherwise the spell has no effect. There is no Saving Throw.

Comments: Will instantly kill most humanoid mages you catch by surprise without their spell protections up. Alternatively, if playing a solo mage, this makes a great finishing spell to use on them once you've stripped away their protections.

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Shapechange

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	5 turns	9	Caster	None

Description: With this spell, a wizard is able to assume the form of a powerful creature (mind flayer, iron golem, greater wolfwere, earth elemental, fire elemental, or giant troll). The spellcaster becomes the creature he wishes, and has almost all of its abilities. Thus, he can change into a mind flayer to stun his opponents and then become an earth elemental to crush his foes. These creatures have whatever hit points the wizard had at the time of the shape change. Each alteration in form requires only a second, and no system shock is incurred.

Form	Stats	Combat Abilities	Defenses	Immunities	Special
Mind Flayer	10 STR & DEX	1d2 crushing (strikes as +2) Speed Factor 0 4 attacks/round On hit: Drain INT (-5 for 30 seconds, no save) (death by INT drain yields no XP)	Base AC 5 Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 90% Magic resist	N/A	Psionic Blast: Save vs. spell or be stunned for 1 turn. 16.4 ft. radius, party-friendly. Usable 1x/shift.
Iron Golem	24 STR 9 DEX	4d10 crushing (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0 1 attack/round	Base AC 3 125% Fire resist 100% Cold resist 100% Electrical resist 100% Acid resist 100% Magic resist 125% Magic Fire resist 100% Magic Cold resist 20% Slashing, Crushing, Piercing, Missile resist	Backstab, Sleep, Fear, Hold/Paralysis, Charm, Poison	N/A
Giant Troll	18 STR 20 DEX	2d6 piercing (strikes as +2) Speed Factor 1 3 attacks/round	Base AC 4	Stun, Sleep, Hold/Paralysis	Regenerates 1 HP/sec
Greater Wolfwere	19 STR & DEX	1d12 slashing (strikes as +1) Speed Factor 0 3 attacks/round	Base AC 2 50% Fire resist 50% Cold resist 50% Electrical resist 50% Acid resist 50% Magic Fire resist 50% Magic Cold resist	Non-magical weapons	Regenerates 8 HP/sec
Fire Elemental	9 STR & DEX	3d8 crushing (strikes as +4) +1d6 fire damage Speed Factor 0 1 attack/round	Base AC 2 100% Fire resist 100% Magic Fire resist	+2 weapons and less	N/A
Earth Elemental	19 STR 9 DEX	4d8 crushing (strikes as +4) Speed Factor 0 1 attack/round	Base AC 2	+2 weapons and less	N/A

Comments: If you like Polymorph Self then you'll love Shapechange.

• Mind Flayer is a boss-killer. Every hit drains 5 Intelligence from the victim, resulting in death if they are reduced to 0 or lower. Combine with Time Stop to get guaranteed hits. Even some invulnerable creatures are not immune to intelligence drain, though you still won't get any XP from killing them this way. Also, if you are playing with the Ascension mod installed, most if not all of the bosses in ToB are now immune to brain-drain. You'll have to find another way to cheese them.
• Iron Golem is an excellent upgrade to the Mustard Jelly and Ogre forms from Polymorph Self. It has 100% magic resistance and is immune to most elemental damage, making it good at tanking mages, plus it has some physical damage resistance. It is supposed to be immune to +2 weapons and less, but this is bugged in both BG2 and BG2EE so that you receive nothing instead. Its fists do unparalleled damage at 4d10, which is the highest base damage that a player can have. Backstabs from the Iron Golem are absolutely insane and surpass even the Black Blade of Disaster in raw damage. Forget about chunky burrito meat, the Iron Golem will reduce your foes to a red smear on the ground.
• Giant Troll is just about pointless because its main draw is something the Greater Wolfwere form can do much better.
• Greater Wolfwere regenerates a crazy amount of health per second! Combine with Haste and you'll be able to face-tank just about everything. It takes half damage from most elemental sources and has better AC than the Giant Troll, rendering it redundant.
• Fire and Earth Elementals are also made pointless by the Iron Golem's all-around superiority.

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Spell Trap

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	0	18 rounds	9	Caster	None

Description: This powerful spell creates a barrier of magical protection around the spellcaster. Every spell that hits the barrier is absorbed by the power of the spell trap—making the caster recall a previously cast spell. For example, if a wizard shields himself with Spell Trap and is then hit by a Flame Arrow (3rd-level spell), he gets three spell levels back—he will regain one spell up to 3rd level in power. The spell trap provides 30 levels of protection (i.e., ten Flame Arrows or five Fingers of Death). The spell trap can absorb any level of spell, from one to nine.

Comments: The best anti-magic protection one can have and it causes you to get spells back, which is no wonder why its Liches' favorite spell defense. It can only be taken down by Ruby Ray of Reversal, Pierce Shield, or Spellstrike. The Staff of the Magi has a Spell Trap ability which lasts for 8 hours, which usually makes memorizing this spell pointless since you can just use that instead. Either way, you can use Spell Trap as a source of infinite spells if you get a party member (or your own Projected Image or Simulacrum) to hit you with a level 9 spell (from a scroll or casted).

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Spellstrike

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Abjuration	80 ft.	Instant	5	1 creature	None

Description: When this spell is cast at a target creature, it will dispel all of the magical protections that surround that creature. This includes: Iron Skins, Magic Resistance, Shield of the Archons, Minor Spell Turning, Minor Globe Of Invulnerability, Spell Immunity, Globe Of Invulnerability, Minor Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Spell Deflection, Spell Invulnerability, and Spell Trap. The target's magic resistance, if any, does not affect this spell.

Comments: The ultimate anti-magic spell. Long story short: this spell eliminates all buffs that reflect or absorb spells. However, Spell Shield WILL absorb this, negating Spellstrike. Mages in SCS love Spell Shield for that reason, so make sure you take it down first with a Spell Thrust, then follow up with a Spellstrike to tear down everything anti-magical that they've got.

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Time Stop

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Alteration	0	3 rounds	9	Entire map	None

Description: Upon casting a Time Stop spell, the wizard causes the flow of time to stop for 1 round in the area of effect. Inside the sphere, the caster is free to act for 3 rounds of apparent time. The wizard can move and act freely within the area where time is stopped, but all other creatures are frozen in their actions, for they are literally between ticks of the clock. The spell's duration is subjective to the caster. Nothing can enter the area of effect without being stopped in time also. When the spell's duration ceases, the wizard is again operating in normal time. Note that all spells cast during the Time Stop will take effect immediately after time returns to normal.

Comments: Hammer time. You've got 3 rounds to cast spells at your leisure or even attack enemies for automatic hits. Cast Improved Alacrity after stopping time to potentially dump your entire spellbook onto your foes. I recommend turning on the "Spell Cast" autopause option as every millisecond counts. Since enemies will be hit automatically, Fighter/Mages and Fighter->Mages can go ballistic with both blade and spell.

Most spells will only resolve after the Time Stop is over due to how their projectiles' speed and explosion spread behave, but certain ones will work while time is stopped, such as the Power Word spells (except Power Word, Blind). Because of this fact, instead of standing still and casting everything at once, you should instead move your mage to where you want your spells to land and cast them there. Move your mage further away from the targeted point as you continue to cast spells.

For example, you will probably want to start with Greater Malison. Have your mage walk over to where you want the Greater Malison to land and cast it there. Now move him away a little bit and cast something else at that same area, maybe a Glitterdust. Move away a little more and cast another spell at the same area, perhaps Horrid Wilting. Keep going with this until the Time Stop is over and the spells will resolve in the correct order (Greater Malison -> Glitterdust -> Horrid Wilting -> etc.) instead of all at once. By casting your spells this way, you ensure that your enemies suffer the effects of every spell in order, which may be important because certain spells complement each other to increase their effectiveness (such as casting Greater Malison first to lower enemies' saves and then Horrid Wilting for high damage due to worsened saves).

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Wail of the Banshee

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
Necromancy	0	Instant	9	30 ft. radius of caster	Death Negates

Description: At the culmination of this dreadful spell, the wizard screams like a banshee (groaning spirit). Everyone in the area of effect hears the awful cry. Those who fail a Saving Throw vs. Death die instantly. The caster and companions are immune to the effects of the wail.

Comments: Mediocre, not worth the gamble. Pick something else for a level 9 slot.

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Wish

School	Range	Duration	Casting Time	Area of Effect	Saving Throw
None	0	Special	5	Special	Special

Description: Wish is a more potent version of the Limited Wish spell. It will fulfill literally the utterance of the spellcaster. Thus, the actuality of the past, present, or future might be altered (but possibly only for the wizard unless the wording of the spell is most carefully stated) in some limited manner. Greedy desires usually end in disaster for the wisher. Lastly, the wiser the wizard, the better chance that they will choose the right wording. Wizards with low Wisdom will more often than not meet with disaster when asking for a wish.

There are a total of 37 different wishes in the game. Some wishes are blockable by (Minor) Globe of Invulnerability and Spell Immunity. Those wishes will be marked under their entry.

Wish	Result	Allows Magic Resistance?
"Breach on everyone in the area, including the party."	Breach on everyone in the area, as per the spell. Turns summons and neutral creatures hostile. Bypasses Spell Shield.	No
"Blow all people, including party members, away from the caster."	Everyone in 30 ft. radius of caster is blown away from the caster for 2 seconds, no save. Save vs. spell at -10 or be knocked unconscious for 3 seconds. 1d8+12 crushing damage, no save.	No
"Heal everyone, party members and enemies included."	Everyone in the area is healed to back to full health.	No
"Temporarily set Strength to 18 for everyone in the area, including enemies."	Everyone in 30 ft. radius of caster has their Strength set to 18 for 20 turns.	No
"Miscast magic on everyone in the area, including party members."	Everyone in the area must save vs. spell at -6 or suffer 80% spell failure for both mage and priest spells for 1 turn. Innate spells are unaffected. Turns neutrals hostile. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Enchantment.	Yes
"Magic resistance on everyone in the area, including enemies."	Everyone in the area has their magic resistance set to 40% for 21 rounds.	No
"Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting on everyone in the area, including the party."	Deals 20d8 magical damage to everyone in the area. Save vs. spell for half. Will be reflected by Spell Turning back to the caster. Turns neutrals hostile. Contrary to popular belief, this DOES NOT subject everyone in the area to individual castings of Horrid Wilting. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Necromancy.	Yes
"Everyone in the area, both party members and enemies, become intoxicated."	Everyone in the area receives a 100 point intoxication bonus (-12 Luck, +12 Morale) for 20 turns. Turns neutrals hostile. Curable by Dispel Magic, Slow Poison and any of the Cure Wounds spell line, including Mass Cure and Heal (though the portrait icon remains). Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Enchantment.	No
"Incur bad luck on everyone in the area, including party members."	Everyone in the area receives a -5 Luck penalty. Turns neutrals hostile. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Enchantment.	No
"Silence on everyone in the area, including party members."	Everyone in the area is silenced for 7 rounds. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Conjuration.	Yes
"Haste everyone in the area, including enemies."	Improved Haste on everyone in the area as per the spell for 23 rounds.	No
"Improved haste on all party members."	Party gains Improved Haste for 23 rounds. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability except for the caster.	No
"Breach on all enemies in the area."	Breach on all enemies in a 235 ft. radius of caster. Does not affect neutrals.	No
"Restoration on all party members."	Greater Restoration is cast on all party members.	No
"Raise all party members' characteristics to 25 for 4 rounds."	Raises all party members' stats to 25 for 4 rounds.	No
"Resurrection on all dead party members."	Resurrects all fallen party members and restores the party to full health whether alive or recently dead.	No
"All party members gain the temporary ability Greater Deathblow."	All party members gain the temporary ability Greater Deathblow for 2 rounds.	No
"All party members gain the temporary ability Hardiness."	All party members gain the temporary ability Hardiness. Lasts 1 round/2 levels, depending on the caster's level, up to level 30. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Stacks with itself and standard Hardiness. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 2.0+ Dispels and replaces itself, standard Hardiness, and Dwarven Defender Defensive Stance.	No
"Create a random wand in the caster's inventory."	12% chance to receive any one of the following wands (5 charges): Fear, Magic Missiles, Paralyzation, Fire, Frost, Lightning, Spell Striking, Cursing	No
"Create a random potion in the caster's inventory."	8% chance to receive any one of the following potions: Regeneration, Extra Healing, Superior Healing, Genius, Clarity, Absorption, Cold Resistance, Insight, Insulation, Antidote, Oil of Speed	No
"Make it as if the entire party has just rested a full night and rememorized all their spells."	All spells are re-memorized and "charge-per-day" items are reset to max charges.	No
"Cast a double-length time stop and improved alacrity on the caster."	Time Stop for 12 rounds and Improved Alacrity for 4 rounds.	No
"Heal all enemies in the area."	Everyone in the area except the party is healed for 50 HP.	No
"Improved haste on all enemies in the area."	Everyone in the area except the party gains Improved Haste for 23 rounds.	No
"Summon an extra hostile monster into the area."	Summons a hostile Fallen Planetar which lasts for 2 turns.	No
"Level drain two levels from each party member."	All party members are level drained 2 levels.	No
"Temporarily remove half of the caster's HP."	Caster's maximum HP is lowered by 50% for 3 turns.	No
"Temporarily remove 15% of all party members' HPs."	All party members lose 15% of their maximum HP for 1 turn.	No
"Caster loses all memorized spells."	Caster loses 25 memorized mage spells as if they were already expended.	No
"Party loses 10,000 gp."	Party loses 10,000 gold.	No
"Bring a 'meteor swarm' down upon the caster."	Meteor Swarm centered on the caster, as per the spell. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Blocked by SI: Evocation.	Yes
"Temporarily reduce the Strength of all party members to 3."	Party's Strength is set to 3 for 20 turns.	No
"Temporarily reduce the Dexterity of all party members to 3."	Party's Dexterity is set to 3 for 20 turns.	No
"Temporarily reduce the Constitution of all party members to 3."	Party's Constitution is set to 3 for 20 turns.	No
"Temporarily reduce the Intelligence of all party members to 3."	Party's Intelligence is set to 3 for 20 turns.	No
"Temporarily reduce the Wisdom of all party members to 3."	Party's Wisdom is set to 3 for 20 turns.	No
"Slow the entire party."	Party is Slowed as per the spell for 1 turn, no save.	No

Comments: I hope you like gambling. Wish is only useful in the thick of combat and it offers you a chance to adversely affect your enemies in some way, buff your party, or debilitate them. The game checks for certain Wisdom thresholds:

• < 10
• 10-14
• 15-17
• 18+.

The higher your wisdom, the better your chances are at getting the good options. Some wishes can completely turn the tide of battle in your favor while some can kill you if you're not careful. You can simply drink Potions of Insight to set your WIS to 18 before casting Wish, but you run the risk of getting the potion's effect dispelled.

One of my favorite strategies is to use Limited Wish for the Minor Globe of Invulnerability on all party members, and then try getting the "Everyone gets intoxicated" or "Everyone gets bad luck" wishes, so that the party is spared the effects of the luck penalties. -12 luck from intoxication and -5 luck from Bad Luck is huge, and ensures that any following damage spells roll for their maximum damage, though luck penalties do not adversely affect saving throws. You can also use the green Protection from Poison scrolls to avoid intoxication. For a reminder on how Luck works, view this archive.

Wild Mages can cast Nahal's Reckless Dweomer and attempt to cast Wish with it. Because they get multiple chances, Wild Mages can possibly get infinite spells by getting the "rest and rememorize" wish over and over. Sorcerers can do this as well since they are only limited by their number of casts per day. And remember that Projected Images and Simulacrums can also make wishes via scroll or cast spell. Get Wish ASAP.

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