I just got some understanding of how magic works in BG 1 EE (maybe this means BG2 EE as well?). I was used with the NWN system, where you could raise the difficulty for resisting your spells DC by choosing Spell Focus: School plus the Intelligence modifier (pls confirm that those do NOT apply to either BG game, as I am lead to understand).

Now my question is: Playing a pure Wizard (regardless whether Universalist or Specialist), does it make any difference at all if you choose Gnome or Human Illusionist ? Does that 19 intell serve only for scribing scrolls, nr of spells memorised, lore and some magic resist...

Many thanks.
pd

Baldur's Gate uses 2nd Edition rules. The above does not apply, at all. Scribing scrolls, number of spells per level, lore and maximum spell level learnable. Your "magic resist" is actually wand and spell saving throws bonus for being a Gnome.

Two things:

1. If you are not playing the EE, Intelligence does not affect the maximum spell level learnable. (I actually see this as something they intentionally chose not to implement rather than a bug, but for whatever reason, Beamdog decided to implement this rule in the EE. Fortunately, it's possible to work around this (see the next point).)

2. If you boost your Intelligence temporarily, you can work around these restrictions, as they only apply when you actually scribe the scroll; once the spell is in your spellbook, you do not need Intelligence to be able to cast it. There's a common potion that boosts Intelligence by 4, and another common potion that boosts Dexterity and Intelligence by 3. Plus, in Throne of Bhaal, it is possible to get access to Wish, and one of the possible effects briefly raises all your stats to 25 (doesn't last long, but still long enough to scribe every scroll in the game, since in BG2 the game pauses when you are in your inventory scribing scrolls).

it only really matters if you want to go Fighter | thief in the first 10 levels but a pure Wiz is MUCH stronger in bg2 than a dual wiz + something

If you are reloading failed scroll scribing attempts or choose a difficulty where you don't fail the int difference doesn't matter.

The gnome saving throw bonuses will help in a few battles but most important is that you like what your character looks like.

thank you, yeah i always aim for pure wiz.

Are you talking specialists? Because I can't see how a pure mage is better than a mage with a few fighter or thief levels in terms of power. At higher levels the XP required to level renders any delay insignificant.

a mage with a few fighter levels is in fact a fighter that can cast wands and maybe gets a familiar... more powerful than a pure fighter yes but not as strong as a mage.

most dual senarios start with fighter or thief then go mage... the point here is that its the mage class that grows strongest in later levels and the second class is the one that gets better (the first is locked at the point of dual)

Wait, are you saying dualled FROM mage TO fighter? Because that sounds terrible. I'd multiclass before I did that.

Gnome gets way better saves. Other than that, not much difference.