Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Spell Schools & Types

Grasp every spell school in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Learn Necromancy, Conjuration, and more, detailing their effects and how to best utilize them.

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Spell Schools & Types

Understanding the various spell schools and their types is paramount to mastering magic in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Each school offers unique advantages and disadvantages, and knowing how to exploit them can turn the tide of even the most challenging encounters. This section will detail each school, highlight key spells, and provide strategic advice for their effective use.

Abjuration

Abjuration spells are primarily defensive in nature, focusing on protection, dispelling magic, and warding off harmful effects. They are essential for keeping your party alive against powerful spellcasters and dangerous creatures.

  • Key Spells:
    • Protection from Evil/Good: Early game, this offers a significant AC bonus and protection against mind-affecting spells from specific creature types. Cast it on your tanks before engaging demons or undead.
    • Minor Globe of Invulnerability: A crucial defensive spell for mages. It protects the caster from all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells. Cast this before entering areas known for low-level spell traps or engaging multiple weaker mages.
    • Protection from Magical Weapons: An absolute lifesaver against high-level melee attackers. It grants immunity to magical weapon damage for a short duration. Use this on your primary tank when facing powerful foes like Kangaxx the Lich or the Twisted Rune members.
    • Spell Turning/Spell Deflection: These spells reflect or absorb enemy spells, respectively. Excellent for turning a powerful enemy mage's own arsenal against them. Combine with other protections to create an impenetrable defense.
    • Remove Magic/Dispel Magic: Essential for stripping away enemy buffs or removing harmful debuffs from your party. Always have a character capable of casting these, such as Aerie, Jan Jansen, or your main mage.
  • Strategic Tip: Layering Abjuration spells is key. For example, casting Protection from Evil, followed by Minor Globe of Invulnerability, and then Protection from Magical Weapons on a single character can make them nearly invincible for a short period.

Alteration

Alteration spells manipulate the physical properties of objects and creatures, ranging from enhancing physical attributes to transforming foes or creating barriers.

  • Key Spells:
    • Haste: Doubles movement speed and grants an extra attack per round. This is a game-changer for your melee characters. Cast it on your entire party before major engagements. The scroll for this can often be found early in Chapter 2, for example, in the Copper Coronet's locked chest after dealing with the slaver ring.
    • Stoneskin: A vital protective spell for mages, granting immunity to a certain number of physical attacks. Always cast this on your primary spellcaster before combat. Scrolls are commonly found in mage shops like Ribald's in the Adventurer's Mart.
    • Improved Invisibility: Makes the target incredibly difficult to hit and grants a bonus to saving throws. Excellent for scouting or protecting a vulnerable character.
    • Polymorph Self/Others: Can be used offensively to turn dangerous enemies into harmless squirrels or defensively to escape tight situations.
    • Teleport Field: A powerful crowd control spell that randomly teleports enemies within its area of effect, disrupting their formations and isolating targets.
  • Strategic Tip: Haste combined with a strong melee party can decimate enemy groups before they can react. Consider pairing it with a bard's song for maximum effect.

Conjuration/Summoning

These spells focus on creating objects or summoning creatures to aid in combat or exploration. Summons can act as invaluable meat shields, distract enemies, or even deal significant damage.

  • Key Spells:
    • Monster Summoning (I-III): Summons various creatures to fight for your party. Useful for overwhelming enemies or drawing fire away from your squishier characters. Higher levels summon more powerful creatures.
    • Animate Dead: Summons powerful skeletal warriors or even Mummies at higher levels. These undead are immune to many mind-affecting spells and poisons, making them excellent front-line troops.
    • Cloudkill: A potent area-of-effect spell that deals continuous poison damage. Great for clearing out groups of weaker enemies or softening up stronger ones. Be careful not to catch your own party in the cloud.
    • Summon Nishruu/Hakeashar: These elemental-like creatures are immune to magic and drain spell slots from enemy casters. Invaluable against powerful mages like Irenicus.
    • Planetar/Dark Planetar: The ultimate summoning spells, available at high levels (via the Wish spell or specific items). These celestial beings are incredibly powerful, capable of turning the tide of any battle.
  • Strategic Tip: Summons are excellent for triggering traps or absorbing initial enemy attacks. Send them in first to draw aggro, then follow up with your main party.

Divination

Divination spells focus on gathering information, revealing hidden objects, or foretelling events. While not directly offensive, they are crucial for preparation and avoiding ambushes.

  • Key Spells:
    • Detect Evil: Reveals evil creatures in the vicinity. Useful for identifying hidden threats or moral dilemmas.
    • Detect Traps: Highlights traps in the immediate area, allowing your thief to disarm them safely. Essential for navigating dungeons like the Planar Sphere or the Underdark.
    • Identify: Reveals the magical properties of unidentified items. Saves money on identifying items at merchants. Keep a few scrolls of this handy.
    • True Sight: Dispels illusions and reveals invisible creatures. Absolutely critical against enemies that rely on invisibility or mirror image, such as Liches, Vampires, or enemy mages.
    • Know Alignment: Reveals the alignment of a creature. Useful for role-playing purposes or determining potential allies/enemies.
  • Strategic Tip: Always cast True Sight before engaging any powerful spellcaster. Many high-level enemies rely on illusions to protect themselves.

Enchantment

Enchantment spells manipulate the minds of others, influencing their actions or rendering them helpless. These are powerful crowd control spells that can neutralize even the toughest foes.

  • Key Spells:
    • Charm Person/Monster: Temporarily turns an enemy into an ally. Can be used to turn a powerful foe against its companions or to gain access to locked areas.
    • Sleep: Puts low-level enemies to sleep, making them vulnerable to attack. Very effective in the early game against groups of goblins or kobolds.
    • Dire Charm: A more powerful version of Charm Person, affecting stronger creatures.
    • Hold Person/Monster: Paralyzes enemies, leaving them helpless. This is incredibly potent against single, dangerous targets. A held enemy can be instantly killed by a critical hit from a melee weapon.
    • Chaos: Causes a group of enemies to attack each other indiscriminately. Excellent for disrupting enemy formations and causing infighting.
    • Domination: Takes complete control of an enemy, allowing you to direct their actions. Use this on powerful enemy mages or warriors to turn them into temporary party members.
  • Strategic Tip: Enchantment spells are often resisted by high saving throws. Consider lowering enemy saving throws with spells like Greater Malison before casting these.

Evocation

Evocation spells are the bread and butter of offensive magic, dealing direct damage through elemental forces or raw magical energy. These are your primary tools for clearing out groups of enemies or focusing down single targets.

  • Key Spells:
    • Magic Missile: A reliable, non-elemental damage spell that always hits. Excellent for interrupting enemy spellcasters or finishing off weakened foes.
    • Burning Hands/Shocking Grasp: Close-range elemental damage spells. Useful in the early game for mages who find themselves in melee.
    • Fireball: The iconic area-of-effect damage spell. Perfect for clearing out groups of enemies. Be mindful of friendly fire. Scrolls are plentiful, and you can often find one in the circus tent in Waukeen's Promenade.
    • Lightning Bolt: A powerful line-of-effect damage spell. Can hit multiple enemies if they are lined up.
    • Cone of Cold: A devastating close-range area-of-effect spell that deals cold damage. Can instantly freeze and shatter weaker enemies.
    • Chain Lightning: Jumps between multiple targets, dealing significant electrical damage. Great for softening up multiple strong enemies.
    • Meteor Swarm: Summons a barrage of meteors that deal massive fire and bludgeoning damage over a wide area. One of the most powerful offensive spells in the game.
  • Strategic Tip: Always consider enemy resistances before casting an Evocation spell. If enemies are resistant to fire, switch to cold or electrical damage.

Illusion/Phantasm

Illusion spells create false images, sounds, or sensory inputs to deceive enemies, protect the caster, or create diversions. They are excellent for controlling the battlefield and avoiding direct confrontation.

  • Key Spells:
    • Blindness: Blinds a target, making them unable to see and significantly reducing their combat effectiveness. Very useful against archers or enemy spellcasters.
    • Mirror Image: Creates multiple illusory duplicates of the caster, making them incredibly difficult to hit. Essential for mage survival.
    • Invisibility/Improved Invisibility: Renders the caster or target invisible. Great for scouting, repositioning, or escaping danger.
    • Shadow Door: Teleports the caster a short distance and renders them invisible. Excellent for quick escapes or repositioning during combat.
    • Project Image: Creates a perfect, controllable duplicate of the caster that can cast spells. The original caster remains safe. This is one of the most powerful mage spells, allowing you to cast spells without risk.
    • Mislead: Creates an illusory duplicate that can move and cast spells, while the original caster becomes invisible and hidden. Similar to Project Image but offers more personal protection.
    • Simulacrum: Creates a weaker, but still potent, duplicate of the caster that can cast spells. Can be used to double your spellcasting output.
  • Strategic Tip: Combine Mirror Image with Stoneskin for maximum mage protection. Use Project Image or Mislead to safely cast powerful spells from a distance.

Necromancy

Necromancy spells deal with life and death, often draining life force, causing fear, or animating the dead. These spells can be incredibly potent for both offense and defense.

  • Key Spells:
    • Chill Touch: Deals cold damage and drains a strength point. Useful in early game melee for mages.
    • Horror: Causes enemies to flee in terror. Excellent crowd control against groups of weaker foes.
    • Vampiric Touch: Drains life from a target and transfers it to the caster, healing them. Good for sustaining your mage in prolonged fights.
    • Skull Trap: Creates an invisible, delayed explosion that deals massive magical damage. Can be pre-cast in choke points or on unsuspecting enemies.
    • Contagion: Inflicts a severe disease on a target, significantly weakening them.
    • Finger of Death: Instantly kills a target if they fail a saving throw. Powerful against single, high-priority enemies.
    • Death Spell: Instantly kills all summoned creatures within its area of effect. Invaluable against enemy mages who rely on summons.
    • Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: Deals massive magical damage to all creatures in an area, ignoring elemental resistances. One of the best offensive spells against groups.
  • Strategic Tip: Necromancy spells often bypass elemental resistances, making them reliable damage dealers. Use Death Spell to quickly clear out enemy summons, then focus on the caster.

Universal Spells

Universal spells do not belong to any specific school and are generally available to all mages (unless they are a specialist mage who has chosen an opposing school). These spells often provide utility or unique effects.

  • Key Spells:
    • Identify: (Also listed under Divination) Reveals magical properties.
    • Wish: A high-level spell that can grant powerful effects, from restoring party health and spells to summoning powerful allies or even altering game mechanics. The outcome can be unpredictable without high Wisdom.
    • Limited Wish: A less powerful version of Wish, with more predictable outcomes. Still very useful for restoring spells or gaining temporary buffs.
    • Spell Immunity: Makes the caster immune to spells of a chosen school for a duration. Crucial for protecting your mage from specific threats, e.g., casting Spell Immunity: Abjuration to prevent enemy Dispel Magic.
    • Protection from Normal Missiles: Grants immunity to non-magical missile attacks. Very useful against large groups of archers or slingers.
  • Strategic Tip: Spell Immunity is a powerful defensive tool. Learn which schools your most dangerous enemies favor and cast Spell Immunity against them. For example, against a powerful Lich, Spell Immunity: Necromancy or Spell Immunity: Abjuration (to prevent dispels) can be life-saving.

By understanding and strategically employing spells from these diverse schools, you will be well-equipped to face the myriad challenges that await you in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.