I used to play this game a lot back in the day, but rarely did I play it 'properly'. I basically tried to use as many cheese tactics as I could get hold of.

I just picked up the enhanced edition and I want to actually try to get the hang of magic characters this time around. I could never for the life of me understand how you get through this game when you have a limited number of attacks (magical charges). Are mages and sorcerers merely back line support characters?

You haven't mentioned which game (BG1EE or BG2EE) you are playing so I will refer to both with my limited knowledge. I know BG1 to the core while I know little about BG2 which I never finished.

For BG1, I have always seen mages as "Cannons or artillery" of the group. They have a great shot to hit with limited ammo. So, especially in early stages, I give my mages a sling and let them shoot from behind until I come across a worthy foe where they shine.

However, After level 7, they start to become dominant killers of the group. Until chapter 4 or 5, they have around 2-3% kills ratio which becomes 20-30% after level 7 or 9. So, in BG2, Mages are very very powerful.

Keep in mind that Sorcerer or mage are two different things. Mages learn from scrolls while sorcerers gain new spells as they level up. I believe INT is the class ability for both. However, Sorcerers benefit absolutely nothing from it. So a sorcerer build for BG games is pretty much like a fighter.

STR: 18
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 18

High STR to carry more and to do more damage with slings.
High DEX for better Range THAC0 and better AC
CON for health.
CHA for better rewards and store discounts. It does nothing for spells (unlike NWN games where Sorcerers benefit from high CHA)
WIS and INT does nothing for Sorcerers. I asked that in a few forums in years and that was the answer. Weird :)

I believe you need 9 INT to be able to use wands and talk properly. It will write that in the wand description.

Please someone correct me if I am wrong. Goodluck.

Wisdom actually does have a use for Sorcerers (and Mages) in Baldur's Gate 2. If you plan on using Limited Wish or Wish, your Wisdom will affect what effects you can get.

If you wish to use Limited Wish to restore your lower level spells, you will need 16 Wisdom. Other effects have lower requirements, but still check the stat; for example, 11 Wisdom is enough to get both the healing and negative plane protection effects. (Note that you can use Potions of Insight to temporarily raise Wisdom, but the supply is finite (though you can use a Projected Image to use the potion without using up the real one, then have the image cast the (limited) wish spell.) For the Wish spell, 18 Wisdom is needed to get the best chance of getting good results.

Of course, all this only really matters if you plan on picking Limited Wish or Wish as a spell; if you don't plan on picking either spell, then this doesn't matter (and Potions of Insight are far more common than (limited) wish scrolls).

Or a potion of insight.

I was posting from the BG1 link. To be honest I thought the two games would just flow in to one another from a mecahnics perspective as I was under the impression that the enhanced edition basically copied the BGT or BGTuTu mod and dumped transferred engines, live and learn I guess.

Ok so baring this in mind which kind of spells do you tend to go for, obviously the sorcerer is a bit more tricky as it would require you to plan for the start for late game, but my confusion mostly comes from the game having so many trash mobs and your character having so few spells.

Also has anyone ever managed solo runs on these games with magic based characters?

Have a look at this, it's a sorcerer guide for BG2.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/258273-baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn/faqs/11588

I have never played solo sorcerer because I enjoy the company of Edwin so much:)

This guide looks really nice. Even tho it was designed with TOB in mind, all of them will also work on BG1.

I would swap spook with identify spell. Or if you have 18 CHA, you can swap Friends instead. Unless you have a bard in your party, I found out that I always had a lot of unidentified items in my inventory.

Here are a few spell highlights:

Melf's Minute Meteors is very useful; you get 5 attacks per round, each of which counts as 2 sources of damage. This makes it very good not just for damage, but also for getting rid of mirror images (each damage source can remove an image), dealing with stoneskined enemy mages (each hit gets rid of a stoneskin block and does fire damage that can disrupt the enemy), and spell deflection/turning (each hit's fire damage counts as a separate 3rd level spell, so it uses up spell deflection/turning rather quickly, and each turned missile only does 3 damage to you and the physical portion isn't blocked). Also, unless the EE changed this, the spell will not wear off, even if you rest; however, the missles can encumber you.

Sorcerers actually are the best tanks (in terms of taking hits, not dealing them). In particular, these spells will allow a sorcerer to survive in the front ranks:
* Mirror Image has a good chance of blocking any damage source (including things like fireball, but it won't protect you from a vampire's level drain). Note that, because many enemies use True Sight/Seeing in BG2, you might want to get Spell Immunity to protect yourself from Divination spells. (This spell is also important if you plan on making serious use of Project Image, or if you have fallen in love with invisibility effects.)
* Stoneskin blocks the damage from a certain number of physical hits. This spell is near-instant to cast, and once in effect, physical attacks will not hurt you until it runs out. Also, this spell will last a long time if not used up, so you can cast it first thing after waking up. Note that this spell, again, will not protect against things like a vampire's level drain.
* Protection from Magical Weapons is a near instant cast spell that will make most enemies at that point in the game unable to hurt you physically. In particular, it can even protect against things like a vampire's level drain, as it prevents the hit entirely, not just the damage. Unfortunately, this spell wears off quickly, but for a sorcerer, that isn't usually a problem as you can just re-cast it until you run out of sixth-level spell slots. (Other casters need to decide in advance how to use those slots, but sorcerers don't.)

Just play a sorcerer with good physical stats, it's far easier than it looks. You don't need perfection, you have far more spell picks than you need. Two spells per day in the beginning don't look impressive but they can decide the hard battles.

Ok I have been using a sorcerer solo to get the full exp rewards, I'm currently doing the Nashkel mines, up to about lvl 6. Just wondering what some of the best picks on the lvl3 spells are, I have MMM so far. Also, how do you go about handling traps? I'll probably have to give up and grab a thief for Durlag's.

Haste is a powerful choice to improve your character and summons, vampiric touch heals your character, burning everything with fireballs is fun, ...

For the traps use protection spells like mirror image, protection from evil or improved invisibility which improve your chance to make your save or reduce damage taken. Potions also can also grant immunity.

Send a summon to walk ahead of you and trigger the traps for you.

Some traps won't go away when triggered. Admittedly, there aren't that many traps like this.

Are you going to continue with this character to BG2?
Doesnt MMM uses thaco and I don't know how useful that would be with your low thaco. As a solo sorcerer, I think you should play more defensively,meanng don't try to kill everything as fast as possible because that's not often possible and if one enemy reaches you or dispels you, there will be trouble. My picks for BG1 would be "Slow", very good especially with groups of enemies, haste would not be useful to you since it doesn't give extra spells attacks and a sorcerer doesn't need extra physical attacks, hasting summons isn't really a must. Another pick would be "Remove magic", you can't get by with just scrolls of it. As to fireball, I think there are wands of fireball n the game, so I would prefer Flame arrow for direct, targeted damage.

It does, but it gets +5 to hit, and not every enemy relies on AC for protection. Enemy mages, in particular, tend to rely on protective spells instead, and with the exception of Protection from Magical Weapons, they tend to work by blocking a certain number of hits; since Melf's Minute Meteors gets a lot of hits, such protections don't last long against them. MMM is even good for dealing with Spell Deflection/Turning/Trap, as *each* meteor's fire damage component is considered a separate 3rd level spell. (Also, if the enemy uses Mirror Image, each meteor can dispel 2 of them, since the physical and fire damage are separate damage effects.)

(Also, I think you mean high thac0, as low is better for thac0 and AC in these games (just like low AC is better in classic Wizardry (not 8) and many Wizardrylikes).)

It lets you get more meteors off in a short time (but you will still have to recast MMM).

Also, (improved) haste boosts your movement speed, which can come in handy if you aren't wearing Boots of Speed.

In BG2, there are very few scrolls of that particular spell; it's one of the rare spells. (Spook, which is notable for its high saving throw penalty at higher levels, is another one.)