Hello!

There are hotkeys for different spells in the toolbar. I change my spells too much for me to actually remember which hotkey is for which spell. I was curious, do you remember the hotkeys for your particular spell load-outs?

I didn't play multiplayer on BG2 that much (this was back when it was on Gamespy). But in the few I joined, no one used pause to plan out their actions. How common is this playstyle?

Thank you for replying.

1. Yes. It's a simple matter of remembering that the toolbar icons from L to R are F1 - F12.

2. In multiplayer nobody used pause because of lag.

The toolbar hotkeys are easy to remember because they are always in the same place, so when you change the spell the old hotkey works now with the new spell. I never use them, though.

You can, however assign a hotkey of your choice to any spell you want. I have my healing spells assigned the numbers 1 to 5 (as I never used those to select characters and the numbers are easy to find if I play in the dark). This way the hotkey will always activate the spell you want and won't depend on what you add to your toolbar. These I use a lot, so I remember them well.

There are a few spells that can be cast this way even when you clearly shouldn't be able to; Nahal's Reckless Dwoemer is one example. In a segmented speedrun, I saw the player cast this spell with a spellcaster who wasn't a Wild Mage (and therefore obviously didn't know the spell or have it memorized) in order to (with a lot of reloading to get the right surge) instantly kill a powerful enemy.

Therefore, if you want to play fair, you should be careful about what spells you assign hot keys to. In particular, other spells I would be careful about include those that involve extra selections (like Magic Weapon and Spell Immunity), as well as Contingencies and Sequencers. If you want to be sure, test your hot key to make sure you can't cast the spell if you don't have it memorized.

If you are playing the Enhanced Edition, it is possible that this bug may have been fixed.