Baldur's Gate Arcane Spell Guide Level 1
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Hi this is the first of 10 videos going over every arcane spell in the baldur's gate series.
I play the enhanced edition with SCS on insane difficulty so this video is focused on that, but most of what I say applies to core rules unmodded as well.
If you are curious about a particular spell I have them ordered here by tier alphabetically.
S Tier spells
Blindness 4:00
Find Familiar 17:35
Friends 20:45
Magic Missile 28:55
Shield 36:56
Sleep 40:38
A Tier spells
Identify 24:48
Protection From Petrification 33:21
Spook 43:51
B Tier Spells
Charm Person 8:39
Grease 22:33
Larloch's Minor Drain 27:32
C Tier Spells
Armor 1:50
Burning Hands 6:49
Chromatic Orb 12:37
Color Spray 15:14
Protection From Evil 31:05
Reflected Image 35:30
RP Tier spells
Chill Touch 10:46
Infravision 26:01
Shocking Grasp 38:50
If you would like to see me play live, my twitch stream can be found here / davaeorn I stream daily starting at 10 am EST.
Let me know what you think in the comments, God bless!
S tier
Blindness 4:02
Find Familiar 17:36
Magic Misslie 28:57
Shield 36:57
Sleep 40:40
A tier
Friends 20:27
Identify 24:50
Protection From Petrification 33:22
Spook 43:54
B tier
Charm Person 8:41
Grease 22:36
Larloch's Minor Drain 27:33
C tier
Armor 1:51
Burning Hands 6:51
Chromatic Orb 12:40
Color Spray 15:15
Protection from Evil 31:07
Reflected Image 35:31
RP tier
Chill Touch 10:50
Infravision 26:06
Shocking Grasp 38:53
Thank you
Awesome reply :)
I'm not playing the game, but I just like listening to you. You are such a cozy speaker. Thanks man.
Thanks for watching and commenting buddy
Early in a magic user play through, I got jumped by an ankheg on my way to the Friendly Arms Inn. The only spell I had left was Color Spray (I wasn't sure what it even did): I desperately cast it and it knocked the ankheg out cold. I hacked at the monster with a dagger until it died. I've have a soft spot for Color Spray ever since. :-)
I got so much joy listening to you talk about how bad Shocking Grasp is :)
Lol, thanks for watching and commenting friend!
"Shockingly Bad Grasp" should be a mod rename.
@@chrishendry1031 I agree, somebody make this happen.
I've been binging all things Baldurs Gate recently and your channel is the best. Would love to see your take on Priest spells.
Thanks! I'm starting the divine series tomorrow.
Binging? You mean googling? 😂
A few points in favor of Color Spray:
1. It has a very pretty visual effect.
2. The friendly fire aspect can be useful -- for pacifying confused/panicked party members, launching a surprise attack at currently non-hostile victims, or preventing people from alerting guards during burglaries (I used to use charm spells for this, but since in BG2 charm victims turn hostile anyway, might as well use color spray -- you can knock out a whole family with one spell!).
3. It uses spell saving throw, as opposed to death in case of Sleep, which means it's not necessarily worse in that regard.
1 is definitely big, 2 in my latest version (after this was made) it's no longer possible sadly guards spawn immediately now, 3 is also an excellent point it's just frustrating considering sleep comes with a yuge penalty on top of only affecting enemies. Thanks for commenting buddy!
Very creative way of looking at spell casting. I never, NEVER, N-E-V-E-R, would have thought to cast Blindness on members in my own party! My blind thief setting traps while in combat. Amazing! Blindness is definitely one of my very favorite 1st level spells.
Same here buddy thanks for commenting!
Hey found your channel when I'm relearning Baldur's Gate after what feels like a 20 year break. These videos are very helpful! Thanks!
The professor is in! Much appreciated--this breakdown is very helpful.
Tried playing the BG saga some years ago and fell off the boil when I figured that the magic system was beyond my reach (especially given other time constraints). I'm very happy to have comprehensive guides like this one to help decode everything.
Awesome friend glad you enjoy it!
My cousin and I just started playing a, we're streaming on twitch and have used your videos to help us learn the game. Thank you for these videos, I had no idea how spells worked and you made it so simple to understand.
Your content is incredibly top tier. Just started a multiplayer playthrough of the series with a buddy of mine and its been really helpful to listen to your stuff while at work to refresh my memory. We were so obsessed with these games in high school and its cool to see the love still going strong for some of the best games ever made. Your hardcore insane playthroughs are also super interesting and hilariously fun to watch , def going to check out that SCS after our core run through the game. Thanks so much!
Thanks for watching and commenting friend Im glad you're enjoying it
About to watch, I'm very impressed with the introduction and the description, awesome to have all the timestamps for reference.
No mention of glitterdust which to my understanding is blindness but aoe?
Oh i didn't realise level 1 spells
Yeah just one, two and three are up now though. Thanks for watching friend!
Almost 12h of videos just to understand about spells. Baldur's Gate is amazing!
Hell yeah buddy thanks for watching and commenting!
@@Davaeornlol Thank you for your work to produce this incredible content! I'm in the fourth video and I intend to watch them all before playing the Enhanced versions after years since I played the original BG2.
I'm on my sixth saga playthrough and these videos are still so much help. Thanks!
Glad you like them friend thanks for watching and commenting!
Dude just started getting in to baldur’s gate. Your content is incredible man! You’ve got great cadence when you go through things and really entertaining honestly.
Thanks buddy glad you enjoy it.
Watched this series once, but already forgot. Guess I’m gonna have to watch it again lol. So many god damn spells.
glad you're enjoying the game buddy thanks for watching and commenting friend!
oh man you are bossing it with those BG guides! been looking for you for a while!
I have to vehemently disagree with your rating on Grease. I often cast it on +15 level and it's still useful. I rarely apply it alone, though. It's an integral ingredient of my Crowd Control Soup: a spoonful of Grease, a whiff of Stinking Cloud and a whole lotta Web (never bring only a single mage to a gunfight!). Add a Greater Malison (a spell I love so much I named a pen & paper character after it) and nothing moves except maybe a boss that you are free to dispose of while the lackeys wallow in lard, stench and dusty old cobweb. The slowing of movement of Grease is what keeps them in the area of effect of the other disabling spells. But I almost never play the first game so I start at level 7 and therefore have more spells to cast.
This is a brilliant video. Liked and favourited. The fact that I've only watched the first of the series brings me joy: I have many yet to watch.
Thanks I'm glad you enjoy it!
Nice to see someone defending the Grease spell. It's really great for empowering other lasting AOE spells. I'm feeling particularly fond of this spell right now, as I just finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker, where I've found Grease so amazing, I even named my kingdom after it :)
Agreed. Grease has four advantages for BG1 at least. 1. Good alternative to Sleep as it works on undead. Good for some areas like High Hedge, end of Nashkel Mines, Valley of the Tombs. 2. Edwin (Conjurer) erases the saving throw penalty. 3. Quickest casting time makes it an excellent emergency situation cast to stop some advancing group. 4. Can be cast with your tanky NPC's in the AoE without the risk like Web. So it can be a bit more tactically flexible than Web even if it's not as strong.
At the least it's a good enough spell to keep at least one use memorized, especially with Edwin, imo.
Grease always slows down everyone in its AoE, this can be used along with web and stinking cloud to prolong exposure and increase chances for all 3 spells to apply. Spiders are only immune to web. Dual wielding+familiar can get you some good dpr on enemies affected by sleep. Later on cast invisibility on familiar and you can use it to scout whole areas and spot targets for spells and summons. This is further enhanced by certain spell dmg immunities, like Quasit is immune to all fire, ice, lightning so he can just sit there invisible and let you carpet bomb an area with perfect visibility from safety. So familiar has uses throughout the game and shouldnt be left in your stinky backpack all the time! ;)
Find familiar, charm person, spell immunity, contingencies, and shapeshifting all have a TON of fun shit you can do with them, like its actually insane. I still stand by my original statement though that one misstep and you're down a con point, just makes me too paranoid to let him out of my stinky backpack. Besides, I'm always evil and that little bastard ate all the cookies I had in my knapsack, if he wanted to be let out he shouldn't have done that. Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
You are a real one for putting the S-Tier spells in the video description. Thnak you.
Aww man, i'm glad i just found your channel. Been over a few weeks i have got myself involved with Baldur's Gate for the first time and even though -OMG there is so much to learn- it seriously feels like it's gonna be an amazing journey. This video will be reaaaaally useful along my journey so thank you!
I'm glad you're enjoying it buddy! Hope you have some fun with it and thanks for watching and commenting!
Are you telling me, you're actually playing the BG Saga for the first time? Man, i envy you so much! To this day i never played a video game that keeps me coming back every few years after having played it throughout my whole childhood. The first vanilla release was so insanely hard due to bug running rampant and the localisation being so bad it actively confused players, like me who haven't had a clue about AD&D back then - i was 6 :D Anyways, enough rambling. Good day to you and lots of fun with BG
@@domeplsffs Yep I am! Currently on a small break due to all the homework from university but still! Damn at age of 6 huh? What a good childhood that must have been -I envy that- now that I am actually experiencing the game myself. I'm pretty new to the D&D mechanics but putting the extra effort to learn is 100% worth. I'm just glad I ran into BG games when they were on a sale on steam. Thanks and good day to you too !
I'm having BG1/BG2 PS4 delivered today from Amazon (release date delivery). This will be the first time I've played it since I got the original 9 disc set for BG back in the late 1990s. So far this video series is the most informative on playing the mage I've found and will be viewing them today until the UPS guy drops the package off at my door.
Maybe it 6 discs, but seemed like 9 since you had to swap them out constantly.
Hell yeah hope you have a blast, thanks for watching and commenting buddy.
Your videos got me to reinstall. Don't do evil parties and crazy hard ore shenanigans, but it's been a blast enjoying a game I used to play 20 years ago and remembering all the good stuff. Much love
Life saving content. I bought both BG games because I heard so much good about them but they are quite complicated for a new player so your videos really helped me a lot!
Glad you like them!
Great video series. Can't say enough good things about it.
Thats what im saying man
Ok Dav that’s it. I’ve had enough. I’m rolling up a gnome fighter/illusionist. I’m putting all my points into Dex Con and Int. I’m going to march my PC right into the faces of the enemies and spam burning hands and other lame lvl 1 spells. Garrick will be nearby to cast strength on the PC and I’m going to have an absolute blast.
Love your content man.
I started playing BG and BG2 again cos of you. Cheers. 💛
God bless frend hope you enjoy it!
I really like your guides and have them on autoplay during work a lot.
One thing I want to add to "Find Familiar": the neutral ones can be pretty useful in BG1 because they have thieving abilities. So if you plan to play solo as a mage or if you just don't have thief on your team, pick the true neutral alignment, get the rabbit and the rabbit will find and disarm traps for you. The only downside is the placement of the scroll, which you only obtain after the Nashkell mines.
I've been playing this game since 98 and I've still learned a lot. Subscribed :)
Thanks for watching and commenting friend.
This is epic dava!!
It was never done to this extant before: In the history of BG, no one ever made a detailed review on each and every spell, including all of it's uses.
Great delivery man!
Can't wait to hear about "death spell" ;) That and "mm". Tanks Nalia all day ;)
Bill Cosby:
"Lo there do I see my vici.
Lo there do I see my Edwin and my HD and my Aerie.
Lo there do I see the portraits of my party, back to chapter 2.
Lo, they do annoy me, they bid me to heal them so they won't die permanently, as they are struck by insanity enemies, where only dava would travel".
My man eyeball
Davaeorn
Cheers dava! Yes, I'm like a beholder, different kinds of eyeballs lol I hope you're doing great man. I'll try to catch the stream when I get back from work.
This video is so amazing. So much information! Thanks for the upload!
Thanks for watching! More to come soon i hope :)
TeamSansha
Be sure to check history in the making in his twitch channel, Davaeronlol. The only insane difficult scs no reloads run.He never quits, he never gives up... You'll find oceans of BG knowledge on these *daily* streams.
I just fired up BG:EE again and logged like 8 hours on a flight. You inspired me to pick up this game again and give it few more rounds.
Will do. Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm OCD about unidentified items, so I have to take Identify every time. I also have an unofficial rule for myself that I rarely equip any item unless I have identified it first, even if I know what the item is. Even if you don't roleplay with weird rules, Identify is pretty essential for maps like Durlag's Tower, where you can't reach an Identify vendor anywhere. I think the nearest vendor that can identify items is in Beregost or the Temple.
i recently just picked up the game always wanted to get into it with my friend who absolutley adores this game. i jumoed into bg2 and wasnt to impressed, but BG EE sets the tone!!! love the game love these series of videos. liked subscribed
Thanks buddy sorry I missed your comment and didn't respond right away youtubes algorithm for comments confuses the hell out of me. God bless you friend!
Awesome guide. I used to take chromatic orb all the time because of the stun, but I didn't realize it had a penalty of 6. I am now using blind, and a lot of fights are a cakewalk now.
Bro just found this video, you're funny af, appreciate the in-depth explanations, very helpful.
Love your content! Can’t wait for overviews of classes/priest spells.
I do have to disagree with chromatic orb however. In my last full play through I was playing on LOB mode and it was basically required to fully debuff saving throws & MR for anything to stick. Because of that I ended up finding chromatic orb to be extremely useful.
I ended up 1 shotting serval bossed, including Firkraag and found it tended to one shot about 30% of the time.
Not sure if it also influenced the spell’s likelyhood I’d success but the successes also usually came from Neera combined with a +level spell roll.
Not saying it should be S tier but I’d say A or B at least
Thanks for commenting friend! Chromatic orb shouldn't change with a + level roll unless neera is sub 12, tho there are other surges that make the effect more likely to go off. Firkraags SvS is 6 so he cannot fail to save unless you fully debuff (doom malison lower resist), and even if you do it's 75% chance of failure since chromatic orb buffs their saves by +6. In a no save no reload run I just think there are better spells to be casting than throwing orb after orb and praying for the stars to align tbh. It wasn't uncommon for me to imp alacrity and unleash my whole level 1 spellbook of CO on something and watch it save everytime, so my opinion of it is pretty low. If it wasnt for the + save modifier I think it would be S tier, but with it, I'd rather just cast something else, hence the C tier rating. To each his own though, thanks for watching!
Davaeorn nope makes perfect sense in no save no reload
Ironically the spell tiers change a bit these days. I am running Legacy of Bhaal right now in BG1 and sleep basically starts out wothless because gibberlings have like 100 hitpoints. Find familiar ends up being super-s tier along with blind because the familiar gets the HP and thaco boost that the difficulty provides all creatures and actually becomes a tank. Shield becomes useless because if you hit get you die pretty much. Damaging spells like magic missile don't do enough damage to dent the bigger hp pools. Need to KO things with martials like archers while pets tank and stuff is blinded. It's interesting to say the least. The ferret familiar can also pickpocket the cloak in beregost given a few tries.
Also spook seems to work pretty good soloing black pits. It works really well on the magess while you deal with everything else.
I love your work. I was recently replaying BG1 EE and I noticed that Larloch's Drain has been modified so that it now stacks with itself. That's still not amazing... but it can help keep some squishy mages alive with temporary extra HP.
Absolutely, thanks for commenting friend!
26:01 Wow that's lame that EE made infravision useless. They should bring back being able to see enemies further in the fog. That actually sounds decent.
Yeah it wasn't amazing but it was still kind of cool. Thanks for watching friend!
in dragonspear they actually made it way, way more useful. there are points in the game where if you nobody in your party has it you can't complete certain quests or obtain certain items.
Just picked up BG2 and want to have fun by playing it well. Your content is a goldmine! Thanks!
First playthrough on switch. This is helpful and just enjoyable to watch
Glad you're enjoying them friend thanks for watching!
Recently bought Baldur's Gate EE and wanted to start a mage. I thought it will be pretty easy after playing Pillars of Eternity but damn is this game confusing for a newbie. Your video just saved me hours of research. Now I am a little less confused :P
Happy to help friend hope you enjoy it and thanks for commenting!
Thank you so much. I've been on and off debating about playing the game and always get put off by not knowing what's useful. I think I got enough to dive in.
Thanks for watching and commenting friend good luck with your playthrough!
So god damn helpful for a casual player like myself. Thank you
Hey man, BG2 is my favourite game of all time. Your guides made me play it again and enjoy it on a whole new level. You rock! Hope you make more guides. They are amazing!
just starting BG for the first time. gotta say thanks for the spell guide.
Hope you have some good runs buddy
Sleep is basically "I win" button for most low level mobs
Xan makes it even more broken with his enchanter bonus to enemy saving throws.
Ring of double level 1 spells makes it even more broken.
Man, this series is dope!
Like others have said, I hope you’ll put out more of these (sorcerer picks, Devine spells, class/kit rundown, etc.). Also, a breakdown of what you’ve changed with mods would be nice (I’ve never used SCS myself, so I’m not sure how cumbersome this would be).
Subscribed for sure
I was working on divine casting before I got sick, it will be coming soon as well as sorc picks and class rundowns, god bless!
Opened up BG today. ITS BEEN UPDATED!
Amongst other things, Burning Hands is an area effect like it should be. Only 5' of course, but it will hit the whole row of guys in front of you. I like it.
Hey Davaeorn, I find Grease is great to couple with Web. Usually I can't afford to drop two Webs all the time, so I shoot a Grease on top of a single Web.
Even on its own Grease can save your life during some of the nastier ambushes.
I just saw your post on Reddit, and I'm home sick today so you've saved my life a little bit
Also this is amazing
God bless friend, thanks for watching!
Just so you know you inspired me to install SCS because of these videos :) wish me luck
Hell yeah good luck buddy.
Thank you for kind explanation! It is very educational and entertaining.
Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
Magic Missile is great when you load two in a minor sequencer. Or pair MM with Melf's Acid Arrow to disrupt spell casters.
Unfortunately most enemies in our game will be using minor globe :(
blindless to your own thief in combat, go stealth and set traps - brilliant!
Friends. Level 1 spell. +6 charisma. 2e really was something else.
Truly a magical time.
In 2e it really didn't modify much...that said I miss the diversity of 2e.
ty vm!
i always wanted to play BG .
i own the disks and a retro pc , and wanted to try this game but i had my but handed to me on hardcore.
i think i will hear all your videos to learn this game.
Thanks for watching and commenting friend I would definitely recommend playing without saving once you get the hang of the game it makes it much more fun. Good luck and god bless!
Thanks man, this is awesome for new players great work!
Grease is such an awesome spell in all of the following games. It knocks down enemies on their asses and every time they try to get up, they have to make a new save and if they succeed, they need another save to move in area or be knocked down again.
In the tabletop version and in the PC version of Temple of elemental evil I think, it can also be targeted on weapons, making them impossible to be held, thus effectively disarming enemies. Such a fun spell in the follow up games to BG
You can backstab with shocking grasp and for that purpose its actually very strong spell for mage/thief in early game
Brilliant video, thanks man😁
Thank you very much for the breakdown! i love that the power level of those spells are really unbalanced, so fun :3
Thanks for watching friend!
Awesome video, good job. Never knew about the charm dialogues lol. But kinda forgot to mention that specialists get +2 bonus to saves which makes some of their spells a lot more useful.
This video was made when that bonus wasn't actually coded unfortunately. There's still a lot of crap that is written but not actually coded to work properly =/. Thanks for commenting friend sorry I'm responding so late this message didn't pop up on my youtube feed. God bless!
Man, this is a great video! I'm just starting on my Baldur's Gate journey and I have only a passing familiarity with DnD rules (with some 4th/5th ed. and a little 3rd being my only reference points), so this is a great way to learn enough not to get my little mage butt kicked to the curb when I do run a mage/sorcerer.
Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
Thank you! This guide is amazing
Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
Holy shit,this is incredible work. Thank you very much for the help to understand all these spells!
My pleasure friend glad you enjoyed it
Not many guides like this (if any). Thanks for taking the time to do it. Would like to see similar guides for the other D&D games like Icewind and Neverwinter games.
Thanks for watching friend, I don't know if we'll see one for the others anytime soon but hopefully some day. God bless
Love the video, glad to see another No Reloads SCS fan!
Can't wait to hear some combos/strategies I never thought of, or be able to pipe in with some of my own. That said, I'll add to Find Familiar. In BG2 and ToB, they get upgrades to their stats, though they're still breathtakingly fragile. They do however, get special ability upgrades. Notably the Chaotic Good Faerie Dragon gets a casting of Invisibility 10' Radius, and the Dust Mephit nabs Glitterdust.
Also, in LoB mode, they get some substantial stat bonuses along with everything else. I used a Faerie Dragon to fight for a while and it did a pretty damn good job, and I imagine the Imp with Polymorph Self might actually be a pretty goddamn good combatant.
Great comment friend thank you, I realized after I finished there was more I wanted to add to some spells and find familiar was definitely one.
Worth mentioning the neutral familiars are pretty sweet in terms of thievery for a solo mage. Cats for scouting, ferrets for pickpocket and rabbit for traps.
Although rabbits can only detect traps not disarm them?
I don't like thieving without having reloads or guaranteed success but to each his own indeed!
Level 1 - ua-cam.com/video/jxUBLrWzK30/v-deo.html
Level 2 - ua-cam.com/video/rb49jQYeI1s/v-deo.html
Level 3 - ua-cam.com/video/hLzI4HMsqLU/v-deo.html
Level 4 - ua-cam.com/video/9CTBDXn3LEA/v-deo.html
Level 5 - ua-cam.com/video/mRLqZGjJGqc/v-deo.html
Level 6 - ua-cam.com/video/XoiFvfLspYk/v-deo.html
Level 7 - ua-cam.com/video/_C4yhD6EdUQ/v-deo.html
Level 8 - ua-cam.com/video/rv1F0H52eGA/v-deo.html
Thank you for the guides !!!
Just started watching, but I already like it a lot
Glad you enjoy it friend thanks for watching and commenting!
looking back it is crazy how big of a difference grease is in comparing baldurs gate to pathfinder. in pathfinder, grease is beyond S tier, and the best tier1 spell there is for arcane magic.
Thank you for putting this together. Very helpful.
Thanks for watching!
Dude, you are an absolute legend
Thank you so much for all thoses informations = )
Thanks about this guide. I don't know why, but in this games (like Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity) I have big difficulties about magic.
It's incredible that half the T1 magic are just useless.
Yeah it's tough to be sure, and to be fair, they're not USELESS (aside from the rp crap) it's just certain spells are so much better, keep in mind though friend, this is not the original game. In the original bg, mage specializations had TWO schools they couldn't cast from, so it's very possible you lost access to the sleep spell, and color spray is your only alternative! The EE uses the bg2 ruleset, which makes it to where you only lose ONE school as a specialist, combine this with the fact that every spell got buffed/nerfed/tweaked in some way from going from bg1 to bg2, and you get the spell system we have today.
The what seems to be the beginning of a great series despite my only recent discovery of it! No reloads ftw!
Hell yeah. Thanks for watching and commenting friend sorry I didn't respond to your comment sometimes I miss them. God bless!
I hope you are still planing to do the other levels. I personally would love to hear more detailed ramblings on every aspect of baldur's gate (maybe even other rpgs).
I too look forward to rambling, thanks for commenting friend.
chill touch though.. if you're a F/M or bard it gets bonus from clubs proficiency ... and you can dualwield with an offhand weapon and you won't get any dual wield penalty. The lvl 1 mage with shield, chill touch and extra HP from familiar is actually a melee beast
Chromatic Orb + Greater Malison basically gives you a poor man's finger of death at 1st level. It works surprisingly often in SoA but not so much in ToB.
well made list i agree most thing you say, wow freind's i learned what its good for nice :D (i have invoker mages as main) newer would had guessed this use :D thx (yes my wizard for RP has 18 ch)
Excellent guides. Thank you a lot!
Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
I would speculate, that Larloch's minor drain is not that bad, or mediocre in that case. I use it almost every playthrough on my mages.
As you said, larloch's the quickest one, so it is most reliable interrupt early in the game for some mages (Tarnesh, and Thespian Extraordinary, I'm looking at you).
And infravision gets somewhat better in SOD, because if you don't have source of infra in your party (potion, spell or race), it would be impossible to reach certain optional areas, and solve certain quests.
Other analysis is just great, you did a fine job making game's learning curve more forgiving for newcommers. thx for the video.
I try to pretend SoD doesn't actually exist, but yeah larlochs is nice for interrupts, problem is 90% of mages have mirror image up too, so it's really hard for it to actually do it's job. If you run multiple mages though (which I always do) it's not to hard to get around. Thanks for watching and commenting friend God bless.
Dope Guide Series Ty ~
Thank you for this video, I haven’t played baldurs gate since I was like 12 (I’m 30 now) and it has been hella fun and nostalgic but I forgot what all these spells were and how the dice rolls work etc
Glad you enjoyed it friend thanks for watching and commenting!
I really enjoy your different BG content and I might test your approach some day. But rn I am re playing the original BG1 and as a result I realize many things have changed. For instance I was sure chromatic orb would be A or even S tier!
Here's why: In my version it does not have the penalty on the saving throw, so the effect gets throught quite often. It does at level 7 2W16 with paralyzing effect of 20 turns. Of course I maxes out it's uses atlevel 7 and doesnt have a chance to instakill or turn to stone.
One thing about Chromatic Orb that might be worth mentioning is that it is a level 1 troll killer (once you hit level 10).
Note that the description for Grease is actually a complete fucking lie. What it actually does is this:
For 3 rounds + 1 round/level, every target in the AoE must make a save vs. spell at +2 every round. If they fail their save, their movement is slowed by ~90% for the next 3 rounds + 1 round/level.
So there's no movement penalty if the enemy saves like the spell suggests, but it also means that if the enemies fail even ONCE, and you are a level 20 wizard, they'll be slow for 23 rounds. Even if it's the 23rd round the grease has been up and it expires that round, if they fail the save they are slowed for the next 23 rounds.
An interesting "trick" of this is that you can cast grease few times while out of sight of an enemy, or on friendly NPCs you are about to fight, wait a few rounds for them to fail their save, then start combat and absolutely laugh at how nothing can move. Pretty cheesy but very effective. Works on Dragons and a lot of other high level enemies. Once made a mockery of Yaga Shura in the final battle with this.
Edwin machinegunning out 10 of them under improved Alacrity is also cool. It's conjuration so he'll negate the saving throw bonus. As a way to just tie up random bullshit that gets summoned in on hard battles, it works. Things are going to fail saving throws when they have to make that many and you'll get way more use out of those level 1 spell slots than spamming magic missile.
Love the content man
I don't know if you'll read this or maybe it's not that useful, but I charm civilians and send them against mages so they use their spells.
Friends has an added bonus. With high Charisma, you get extra rewards for completing quests, so Friends can be "abused" to this end.
Amazing video, thank you very much!
Thanks for watching!
I disagreed a bit on the grease spell. It is very useful in combo with web and acid cloud. Mainly I always use them in combo.
Myyyy dude just starting this vid but what a great concept!
Hey thanks buddy I appreciate it. I know it's long as hell but I wanted to do an in depth guide. Thanks for your comment friend.
Brilliant in 2024!
Familiars are excelent scouts in BG1 if they can hide in shadows. Especialy for a no-reload game, that kind is invaluable.
Maybe you're right friend. I know where every enemy is but if you're still learning the game it could indeed be useful. I'd still rather have imoen die than my familiar tho. Thanks for commenting!
Great video, learned a lot even thought I played BG for many years. Thanks! PS you forgot to say why Larloch is better than magic missile for interrupting another mage's casting.
Did I, I made this video so long ago I can't remember. I'm going to redo the whole series when I get my new computer. Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
Can you do an NPC party member tier list?
It's a vid I want to make hopefully I'll be back to normal and can get back at it soon. Thanks for commenting and watching friend!
Chromatic Orb is pretty good in Icewind Dale 2, but in BG... yeah, not my first choice, even tho it looks pretty.
Why are you always playing evil, and posting helpful videos at the same time?
Good breakdown btw
Glad you enjoyed it! I just find playing evil more flexible than good, there are too many times where sometimes somebody needs an ass whoopin and you can't give it to them when you're good you know what i'm saying? Thanks for watching friend!
Sleep and Command trivializes BG1 and that's why people have to mod it to make it harder.
1st play through here, no mods, and I swear Chromatic Orb has been proving to be one of the most useful spells once my wizard character has passed level 12. After a greater malison it’s devastating. I have killed Firkraag and Thyswhatever with a chromatic orb. Maybe because I’m playing on easy or I’m just a lucky guy, but man I love that spell.
Nice! Thanks for watching and commenting friend.
I agree with him: I don't use the improved difficulty mod, but at higher level it is a cheap option after you deplete your reserve of finger of death. It was one of the must have for my sorcerer and I killed the dragon in the elf city with it (after some debuff, obviously).
In unmodded games Doom spell effect stacks (even though it shouldn't), so a couple of Lower Resistance spells + volley of Dooms + Chromatic Orb = dead dragon. I think Beamdog edition fixed that at some point though (not sure).
I use Chromatic Orb early in BG2, because it is really convenient to have a few extra ways to deal acid damage to the trolls at d'Arnise Keep to put the bastards down for good and it's easier to use than Burning Hands. I also pocket a few for the Troll Woods in Siege of Dragonspear for the same reason. Yet to find another situation where it is any useful though..
Great idea! thanks for commenting friend!