So I'm playing as a fighter mage what do you feel is the most important spells per level for that kind of class?

Armour, mirror image, stoneskin, ghoul touch, vampiric touch, chill touch, shocking grasp, and haste. That's not all of them, just the ones I can pull out off the top of my head.

Edit: You can give your character a low strength score and allocate the points somewhere else, and use the spell of the same name to raise it to 18.

What game, and what verstion?

I'm playing a fighter mage in vanilla BG1 for the first time. At this stage I'm level 2 mage only. Armour is useful, and I'm using blind and grease to control difficult enemies. Sleep was useful particularly in the very early stages too.

That's hard to say, depending on what game and version you're playing, and at what level your character is. Some spells are great at lvl 1 but become useless or outdated pretty soon(sleep, armor), some spells are useless at low lvl but become pretty useful later on like magic missile or spook. Spells with a save that negates the effect like ghoul touch or hold person are situationally great in BG, but become useless the later you get in BG 2 as saves get better.

Also it depends what kind of fighter/mage you are. A kensai/mage or multi class already does tons of damage with his weapons and is better off using magic just for buffing and the occasional ranged AoE damage burst (even the best fighter can't outdamage a sequencer filled with 3 skull traps).
On the other hand, someone who uses the fighter part mostly for higher hp, the berserker immunities and the ability to use shields will focus on the same damage spells as a regular mage.

Still, my favourite spells as a fighter/mage are by level order: magic missile, protection from evil, shield, mirror image, protection from fear, blur, skull trap, vampiric touch, haste, stoneskin, spirit armor, breach, spell immunity, sunfire, immunity to magic weapons, contingency, sequencer, horrid wilting, time stop and whatever the spell that allows you to remove the wait time between casting is called.

Here are my thoughts on this:

1. Casting spells during combat takes time; in particular, it takes time that could be spent attacking. Therefore, it is best to favor spells that are quick to cast (Stoneskin comes to mind here, as does Protection from Magical Weapons), or spells that can be cast outside of battle and have long durations (Stoneskin, Contingency, and Melf's Minute Meteors are good choices here, though note that that last spell replaces your weapon until you use up the missles). If you equip the Robe of Vecna (from BG2), your options for fast spells to cast increase. Note that, while you can only start casting one spell every 6 seconds, once you finish casting, you can make physical attacks while waiting to be able to cast the spell (unlike in AD&D).

2. Certain spells are really good for tanking, especially at higher levels. In particular, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, and Protection from Magic Weapons are quite useful for a front line character. In fact, when you get to Throne of Bhaal levels, you may find that AC is no longer worthwhile, and spells that negate damage are the way to go. At lower levels (where AC actually matters), Blur might actually be useful. Be aware that Mirror Image and Stoneskin only protect against HP damage; an attack that has other effects will still affect you (so it won't help against level draining attacks, for instance).

With those points in mind, here are some spells that could come in handy by level (based on the BG2 spell list):

1: Magic Missile (quick to cast, so you can go back to attacking), Armor (long duration, useful if you want both AC and spells), Shield (stronger than Armor, but shorter (but still relatively long) duration

2: Mirror Image (negates HP damage entirely, including those from area spells), Blur (defensive spell that's useful while AC still matters), Strength (long duration, 2 casts gives a character 18/00 strength (useful before you get items that set Strength)

3: Melf's Minute Meteors (cast before combat for a range weapon to use during combat, also useful if trolls keep regenerating), Skull Trap (set a trap before the fight starts)

4: Stoneskin, Minor Sequencer (cast in advance to get instant spells, not as good as on a Cleric/Mage or Fighter/Cleric/Mage, however), Polymorph might have some niche uses (killing trolls, 100% magic resistance, polymorph teleporting if you're into that sort of thing), Enchanted Weapon (get +3 weapons without having to find them, and they last a while)

5: Breach (handy if your physical attacks aren't working), Spell Immunity (block those nasty True Seeing and Dispel Magic spells)

6: Protection from Magic Weapons (actually *can* block things like level draining and a certain enemy's Intelligence drain that Mirror Image/Stoneskin provide no protection against), Contingency (cast in advance to get automatic Stoneskin at half HP, for example)

7: Spell Sequencer (store spells to cast instantly), Limited Wish if you have good Wisdom. Note that Project Image has one disadvantage that particularly affects this character; the image is unable to make physical attacks.

8: Spell Trigger (see Spell Sequencer). A Simulacrum can still fight, but not as well as its creator, and unlike Project Image, the spell takes a while to cast.

9: Chain Contingency (see Contingency), Time Stop (stop time, then pound on your enemies), Shapechange (think about this: *you* can inflect Intelligence drain on enemies, killing them regardless of HP and whether they can be HP killed (be careful not to kill anyone important!))

10: Improved Alacrity is interesting here as it lets you activate multiple fighter HLAs in a single round. Improved Whirlwind + Critical Strike can allow you to get 10 critical hits (or, if the enemy is immune, 10 guaranteed hits) in a single round. Summon Planetar can be useful for healing in a pinch (for example, to revive your cleric.) Note that you won't get 9th and 10th level spells until you reach 6 million XP, which won't happen until near the end of Throne of Bhaal, to my understanding (and assuming you're using a full party).

well he's talking BG1, so he won't get super high level for those high level spells. As a lower level fighter mage, you want to be mostly a fighter with magic spells to buff up your ability to survive in combat and do damage. You don't get many spells as a low level mage, but you can always use your weapons.

spells like shield, armor, protection from evil, etc very nice

2nd level strength, mirror image, etc can let you survive in combat easier.

3rd level you can start to see if you want to be more mage than fighter now that you can do basic aoe spells nice like fireballs, etc. Again depends on your stats and such. A fighter/mage might not have that high intelligence that a pure mage has, so you might not have quite as much casting power and might decide that you want to be more of a fighter just with pre-buffs. Some fighter mages focus on fighting with higher strength/con, and usually do the old remove armor/buff/put armor back on manuvers if they have higher strength to use better armor, or armor/shields, etc. Their magic is only for buffing before combat.

If your going more archer/mage type, you might decide to focus on magic more and just have bows as a backup when spell casting is reduced or scant, staying safer in combat and able to throw out spells as you like. It just depends on your play style. Personally with fighter/mages i always make them fighters first, with minimal mage spells as backup to help buff myself to do better in fighting with weapons. If i'm going to have anything a mage, its going to be a pure mage for offensive blasting ability, not a hybrid.

Where does it say that? And even if it IS BG1, the original and enhanced versions are vastly different.

In another thread he mentions Tutu, so I suppose the OP has quit the monk game and has started anew with Tutu'd original BG1.

I'm not an expert on the game, but have played through them several times, mostly with mage-types (it's more fun).

Usually not a fan of touch spells since you need to go into the thick of things and actually hit, but Vampiric Touch can be really nice for boosting HP and causing damage. Early in the game, Sleep is great for taking out hordes of weak foes, or dangerous foes early on. Magic Missile is quite nice, but only later on when you get several missiles. I love Fireball. Well placed Fireballs can really mess up a group of enemies. A nice way to kick off combat. You can get Necklaces with them too, so everybody can wield them if you want (and then there are the potions...).

Once you get into intermediate levels territory (early BG2 really), Cloudkill and Breach are excellent, the latter obviously to take down mage defences. Lower Resistance can be vital in some fights. Stoneskin is long-lasting and offers excellent protection, so I prefer to walk around with it at all times.

Greater Malison is good early in combat, and after that you can hit with crowd control of some kind. Haste is good in tough fights to increase damage output. Just be aware that you'll be fatigued afterwards, so you may want to rest then.

Melf's Minute Meteors is excellent too. When you don't want to throw more damage spells, to preserve them for later, or you have taken down mage defences, you can attack from range with these babies. At high levels you get a heap of them, and they will do some damage even against well-protected foes.

Protection from Evil (10 radius) is excellent too, and should be a maintay when buffing up. Quite long-lasting.

On the first few levels, Web is great for crowd control. Web+Fireball is a neat and efficient tactic.

Not for combat, but I love to walk around with heaps of Identify spells, especially after you find that item that doubles (?) the amount of level 1 spells. Saves you some money on identifying items. And since there are few truly useful level 1 spells, you don't lose much by a heap of Identify spells.

What you prefer depends on your playstyle, and I've talked here more from a typical mage point of view rather than a fighter-mage (because I've never played as one). As a fighter-mage, I assume crowd control and fireball is of less importance, and you want to buff up and deal out lots of hurtin' instead, going into the thick of things instead of causing havoc from the back of the pack.



I don't agree with everything in there, but it's a good guide for the more useful spells: http://www.forgottenwars.com/oogi/index.htm

Except that Intelligence doesn't affect spell power in this game; it only affects whether you can successfully learn the spell (and you can get around this by saving first and reloading if you fail to learn a spell, or by using potions (or Wish, but certainly not at BG1 levels) to increase the stat if the character can't learn anymore spells).

Level, on the other hand, *does* affect casting power, but due to the exponential XP requirements (until after level 10 or so), a multiclass character will typically be only one level behind a single-class character. (Note that the gap becomes bigger at BG2 levels, but a multiclass character's spells never become uselessly weak, particularly since level doesn't affect your ability to penetrate magic resistance, unlike games based on 1st/3rd edition D&D rules.) Don't bother memorizing multiple copies of the spell; until the HP boost wears off, you are immune to the spell, and hence can't use it to regain any more HP. (Personally, I don't like the implementation of this spell in this game for this reason; on the other hand, no AD&D game that I've tried has gotten it just right, though the Dark Sun games have the (IMO) best implementation of this particular spell.) (Note that (in the BG series) casting this spell also makes you immune to hostile use of the spell, though I don't know if there are any enemies that actually cast this spell against you.) If your party has a Cleric (or, at high levels, a (non-Inquisitor) Paladin), you don't need this spell on your mages, as clerics get that spell automatically.