I played through BG1 and partway through BG2 about 4 years ago, before I got horribly stuck in the Underdark. I was bored recently and restored my save to see whether I could finally get through it, and I finally did. Since then, I've gotten back into this game and discovered your videos. I am now completely obsessed. You gotta love a game that you've devoted 40-50 hours into, only to discover that you've been playing it like an assclown the entire time. Your tips on spells and classes make me want to restart all over at the beginning. They just don't make games like this anymore. Big thanks to you for reigniting my love of this amazing game.
Have some more timestamps. Also bonus fact about how to pronounce the word Shillelagh at the bottom. 2:09 Armor of Faith S Tier 6:17 Command S Tier 9:27 Doom S Tier 11:45 Remove Fear S Tier 13:32 Sanctuary S Tier 15:56 Cure Light Wounds A Tier 17:03 Sunscorch A Tier - Mod, from Icewind Dale 18:50 Bless B Tier 21:16 Cause Light Wounds B Tier - Mod, from Icewind Dale 22:44 Curse B Tier - Mod, from Icewind Dale 23:55 Entangle C Tier - Awesome in the original Baldur's Gate where it only affects enemies. In EE it uses the BG2 behaviour and hits everyone. 25:50 Magical Stone C Tier 26:51 Protection from Evil C Tier - SCS makes summoned demons ignore this spell 28:29 Shillelagh C Tier 30:05 Detect Evil RP Tier Fun fact I found out about the Shillelagh from a guy called Francis McCaffrey here on RU-vid. It can actually be pronounced "Shi-LAY-lee" or "Shi-LAY-lah". The first is based on the Irish word Sail-Éille, meaning 'thonged stick'. This is because you'd have a leather thong you'd put around your wrist to keep from losing your weapon while stick fighting. The second is based on the word for a type of oak wood they made Shillelagh's out of, which is pronounced as "Shi-LAY-lah".
You can use Shillelagh to dual-wield with NO penalty.. Put your normal melee weapon in your off-hand then cast Shillelagh. You will then have your new attack plus your normal attack. No off-hand penalty. You just doubled your damage. I run solo a lot. This is useful. You can cast some great buffs at other levels to increase damage or lower your thac0 but this gives you the extra attack you were always missing. It also works with Flame Blade.
It also strikes as a magical weapon but I'm not sure what it's actually considered or if level makes a difference in what it can hit. Still if your low level and don't have a +1 weapon yet maybe it's useful.
I just found this channel and have been absolutely blown away by the depth of your knowledge. Your voice and sensible lighthearted humor makes this feel like if Tom Segura was schooling me on a game I have been playing off and on for over 20 years. Damn well done, I can't overstate my appreciation.
The most fun in BG1 I had was debuffing Sarevok with doom, greater malison and chant, then enfeebling him to 5 strength and further debuffing him to 3 strength with contagion. He was just unable to move, spitting his curses while I was killing his crew. This debuff routine (doom, chant, greater mallison) was one of things that kept me playing bg1, tales and sod. One could easily spend like ten hours, just applying various status ailments to various difficult (or not) enemies.
Ah yes, morale in the original. Different NPC's had rather different hidden things, and morale was one. Khalid had worse morale than most, and kept running away when the going got tough. That's why in BG2, you can tell Jaheira; ' He's probably hiding under a bed somewhere.'. Minsc had average morale, but when it failed, he'd go berserk and slaughter everyone; including you and every villager in Beregost. And having Xan in the party lowered it for all, but he was able to keep your party members from fighting each other. Also, back then, annoying states like 'charmed' and 'Scared' lasted *waaaay* longer than they do now, your party could explore entire maps whilst frightened.
@@Merknilash Yes, like that. Or so I remember. Suddenly I am not so sure. This was almost thirty years ago, mind you. I do remember that he interjected, at least. So someone would make a snide comment to someone else- and he'd say something depressing after.
Something I'll point out about Detect Evil in the Original games, is that they didn't have such a limited range as they did in BG1 EE. Instead of the 30 ft radius it has in EE, it basically covered the map. (This was actually something I kind of felt sad about when I finally had gotten the EE back in like 2018) But basically, when you were playing a paladin, you could pop a detect evil and know literally everything that's evil on the map. Gibberlings, kobolds, bandits, you name it. Pop a detect evil, now you know it's there. I know that compared to the other spells, that isn't particularly great, and I never slotted it in any clerics, but I will note that it was far more useful in the original. (Especially if you wanted to 'avoid metagaming') For me though? I was, and still kind of am, a completionist freak. I absolutely loved either playing a pally or taking Ajantis just for detect evil. Why? I would pop it in a map, and then I'd write down what was there. I had a literal hit list LOL. I don't know why they felt the need to nerf it. It wasn't overpowered by any means as said. I'd always take better level 1 spells for sure. Command, CLW, Armor of faith, all too good to pass up for detect evil, but when you ran a pally? Free detect evil? Arrive at a map, pop a detect evil. Now I know there are 4 bandits, 8 gibberlings, and an ogre. Big woop. Not like that breaks the game, so as said, not sure why they nerfed it.
30:07 There is exactly one singular use for Detect Evil: If you are a Paladin and doing the Paladin stronghold questline you need it to tell whether some guy is an impostor or not. In that one scenario it's necessary to complete a quest and Paladins get more uses of that spell than anything else. The only reason you'd ever need to have a Cleric prepare Detect Evil is if you were a Fallen Paladin trying to get your powers back and needed someone like Aerie or Anomen to basically solve that quest for you.
I mean it was also pretty cool for knowing what is in a zone that you've never been to It would basically go zonewide and say stuff like "SAREVOK: Detect Evil" or whatever the text was so you knew you had a baddie in the zone
I really like to use Sanctuary for thieving purposes, because unlike conventional forms of invisibility, Sanctuary isn't broken when looting containers. Tiax rules!
Shilleagh is, as another commenter pointed out, pronounced something close to shi-lay-lee. It is an Irish Gaelic word for a club or blackjack. Awesome video, hopefully the rest come out soon. The one spell I disagree with here is Curse, I think giving everyone in an area a -1 penalty is pretty good, combined with malison it gives just a little extra oomph to almost anything you're trying to do, or stop them from doing. Combine that with Bless on your squad and it's a +2 swing in your favor on every roll, essentially the same as if you cast Doom on the entire enemy pack!
Yeah the issue is just the cast time and duration means you have a lot of prep to do, and with every wizard running with globe of invuln it's hard to get good use out of it aside from hitting a group of fighters before using hold. I don't think it's really bad just not amazing I think I had it B tier.
This game is impossible to play without videos like this lol. You'd expect a spell like Dispell Magic to be strong with so many enemies casting buffs on themselves, but nope its shit. It's very hard to tell which spells are good and which are bad without extreme game knowledge, and the difference between a good spell and a bad spell is massive too.
Woah!! You got a haircut!! By the way, glad to see you taking on the Cleric/Druid spells. I'm still excitedly awaiting your Sorcer Spell Selection series.
I started binging those videos with the arcane spells. I was so happy to see they were 1 year old so I thought the entire series was over. Damnit. I'll be looking forward to the upcoming divine spells guides.
@@groom84 I'm re recording it after our raid today. So it'll be recorded about 4 and hopefully uploaded around 6. RU-vid has been rejecting my videos after failing to process them lately. I wouldn't expect it until late tonight sorry friend :(
"Don't touch me, I'm super important" - Keldath(?) I think his name is temple music in the background isn't it? Very fitting music for the video which is great btw. Loved your Arcane & HLAs videos. Can't wait for the rest of the divine series.
I think entangle is decent in solo runs especialy for rangers. It's also ok in combination with some other AoE spells. I've also played around with it doing druid solo runs: throw entangle, and then you can cast call lightning without that much trouble. Shillelagh is useful for two thing: killing the jailkeep golem in Irenicus' dungeon and backstabbing with your half-orc cleric/thief before getting the staff mace.
That's fair I just found it to be so useful in bg 1 and was so shocked they changed it for the bg2 engine. Not only is there a +3 bonus to saves vs the spell but you can still attack, so it's just so much less consistent than spells of comparable level, and even when it lands, it's not as useful. Thanks for commenting friend!
I like entangle, especially in combination with spike growth. Scout ahead with thief, find clump of enemies. Cast entangle just outside their visual range, then cast aoe spells (my preference being spike growth). Out of a clump of perhaps 10 enemies, about 1-2 will get out of entangle but that's far more manageable and they usually come to you at half hp or less. If you use multiple AOE spells they likely all die. The fact that it's not party friendly does mean it's use is limited to engagements where you know where the enemy is, but the same can be said about a lot of spells.
I literally was saying to myself the other day Davaeorn needs to come out with a Divine spell guide and then you come through! Nice! Looking forward to the rest of this series. Keep up the good work boss!
Just woke up to this. Very excited to watch. I'm an old-school gamer on medical leave (colorectal cancer) and I'm about to tackle the BG EET for the first time. I bought the original games of course; however, I never played them I am embarrassed to say. I have played/DMed (been playing since nearly the start - late seventies) a lot of D&D over the years. I watched your prior series with much excitement and even told a PnP story on your level eight video about giving Bigby a chance! I come at the games and spells with a role player's eye obviously. Your series is great because it gives a tactical perspective that I honestly normally don't think about. I'm looking forward to this series and hopefully you don't mind if I drop a few old gaming stories about some of the spells :D
@@Davaeornlol Thanks brother! I'll probably post a bunch on your channel now that I found it. I'm really looking forward to my BG EET game. I got it all set up today with the trilogy mod and some other stuff. I'm not heavily modding the game for my first playthrough obviously. I added a few of the top-rated npcs and the BG1 NPC pack that everyone loves. A couple of other quality of life improvements and unfinished business I think. Anyway, looking forward to it.
These guides are great and give a lot of insights into how to use spells to their best effect. The main use of shillelagh is that the damage is treated as a +1 weapon so if you need to hit creatures and do not have a magic weapon you can use this. This is most useful in Black pits where it takes a while to get your party enough magic weapons (I am not sure if this is true in all versions of the game).
A couple of things from someone who has had many a second edition (and first, third, fourth and fifth) campaign. Spheres were a precursor to domains if you are familiar with third edition, 3.5 and/or Pathfinder. A cleric or druid had access to major and minor spheres depending on what deity they worshiped. A major sphere allowed access to all spells, while a minor sphere allowed access to only 1st-3rd level spells. Having access to the entire spell list was a first edition mechanic. Then, of course, in third edition onward clerics and druids pick domains which give access to bonus spells and abilities. Shillelagh is pronounced "sha-lay-lee". Good old Shillelagh (a thick stick of Blackthorn or Oak used in Ireland) is still around in fifth edition as a druid cantrip. It is actually a pretty good spell nowadays. It is a bonus action to cast (so you can still move and attack afterwards) and as a cantrip can be cast as many times a day as desired. It buffs your current club/quarterstaff making it a magical weapon and allows you to use your spellcasting ability (e.g., wisdom) in place of strength for attack and damage rolls. In fifth edition most druids will have an 18 wisdom at first level thus giving them a +4 bonus to hit and damage. Not too shabby. Of course there is the question of being in melee which can be dangerous for a lightly armored druid. However, there are times when I have seen the spell used to great effect. Finally, it is a great role-playing spell. Enchanting your staff with the power of divine energy is pretty cool! Hope that helps and I enjoyed the video very much :)
Would explain a lot, there is a ton that got cut from the game and even more they couldn't add at all. Wisdom modifier would be very useful indeed. Thanks for the information friend and thanks for commenting God bless!
I like watching these after looking through the spells myself on my first playthrough currently. Shows if I overlooked something or not. (I thought command was just scuffed sleep from wizards, didn't realise it had NO SAVE)
Magic pebble always reminded me of the magic acorns from Willow. Anyways, I always take 1 and use it as a budget magic missile to interrupt spell casts.
Take the opportunity to cast your own spells and drink potions, unless you're like me and your first run was a Dwarven Defender and the only thing you could do is unequip your weapons to free up your hands to make rude gestures.
Shillelagh is pretty good for Jaheira, as it provides a melee weapon that's probably about as good as anything she'll find through much of BG1. Since Jaheira is specialized in Clubs, that makes it a serviceable cast whenever I play her (which is often because I tend to play the Canon party.) Not enough to get it out of C tier in general, I think, but I usually devote one of J's slots to it when I first pick her up.
Armor of Faith: Watch your Cavalier do his best impression of a Dwarven Defender. Also known as "Dragon Breath Mints". Granted you can't actually use this spell until you are _really_ high in level but you can use this at level 33 combined with the Dragon Helm, Dragon Shield, Cloak of Reflection, Red Dragon Scale, and Frost's Embrace boots to absorb every element except Acid.
I actually used the detect evil spell in IWD when I got to the "Eldath" enclave in Dragoneye. Of course, those guys were sketchy as hell from the get-go, but it was satisfying to use my paladin's ability for more than idle curiosity.
Yeah you get to once during the paladin quest and that's pretty much it in bg, the only time you would be kinda interested would be against a powerful npc you know nothing about, like amelyssan, and guess who has MR to resist such a thing XD
Armor of Faith is maths. 10% when you have 50HP, means it's useful when you leave the fight with 5HP or less. Compared to 8 HP Cure Light. It scales pretty well otherwise (but don't use it level 9 or 14 ^^) Bless is really good IMO, +6/+6. + invocations. Quite powerful but very not sexy for sure; Half-Orc or Gnome Cleric/Thief is not popular =D Entangle is not that bad, comparing to other level1 druid spells ...
It's not just physical damage tho, it works for elemental as well, and stacks with equipment. I've had numerous fights were companions didn't get get permad because they had armor of the faith and 20% elemental resistance from helm of glory etc. Bless isn't bad it just feels underwhelming because it's intangible. Entangle I just hate because there are SO many better spells available. Thanks for commenting friend!
Because of how overwhelmingly different the saves mechanically work out in this game compared to current iteration of D&D, the -2 saves seems bad. It's amazing, with greater malison and doom giving a 6 penalty on saves that basically makes your target 30% more likely to fail their save. I know people hate them but I like Cleric Mage for this reason, doom and G malison can be set into spell triggers or chain contingencies to dodge the casting time.
Excellent, excellent excellent video. For someone who pays attention, you're discussing more than spells here. You're giving tips on builds, items, spell combos etc etc. And most importantly, what you are saying is 99.99999% right (no one is perfect 🤣) Great video. Like... even in 2020 I see clerics with nothing but heals and slow poison... in every game (neverwinter, WOW, basically any RPG) Then they can't complete the game... well... Maybe that's because you're getting destroyed by buffed up enemeies and you got no buffs yourself my guy... only heals... lol Its like... MY DUDE, THERE ARE POTIONS FOR THAT OUT THERE. Clerics are buffers/debuffers, not healers... if you buff up, you won t need that many heals anyway... Great video.
Thanks dude! Just started a cleric/fighter playthrough today(just on normal tho) so these videos are perfect for me. Are you planning on doing a class/kit guide in the future?
Yeah, I started playing these games not too long ago and noticed everyone was recommending entangle. Which I couldn't understand, because I'd cast it and then my entire party would be caught while half the enemies would resist it. Even if you space your party away from the area of effect, you can't move them in to attack at all without getting caught the next time it procs. You can barely even use ranged weapons.
Yeah if you see a video with a grey funky looking UI that's the og bg1 where entangle is actually stellar. Not sure why they nerfed it tbh it was such a solid spell but not op.
Great guides! Haven't played BG since high school and back then I didn't really think much about what was good and what sucked. Looking forward to the next ones! Hope that you do some class and kit guides in the future.
I got BG in November of 98 (that's when it came out, not the date on wikipedia saying before Christmas) back in highschool I didn't understand almost anything of the combat system so I just used stuff like magic missile and fireball
So... Im late... but if nobody has said it yet; Shillelagh is pronounced "shi-LAY-lee". Its an irish(gaelic) word for a walking cane which is also a club usually made out of knotty Blackthorn and with a large knob on the handle/whacking end. It features heavily in Irish mythology which is (probably) why its in DnD.
@@Davaeornlol my pleasure. Thanks for making these. I've been greatly enjoying them. Have you considered doing something like this but for classes and kits?
I remember, when i played for the first time and created a shaman as my first character,i took this Shillelagh spell, just because i couldn't believe, that there is a spell in the game, AND ALL IT DOES IS SUMMONING A CLUB. I was sure that i just was dumb and there was more to it
I'm not sure why you weren't too happy with Curse, given how much you like Doom. It happens to be AOE, but less effective than Doom per target. Something worth noting is that I love keeping the Robe of Vecna on Aerie so I can dump her enormous Project Image/Simulacrum/Helm of Vhailored spellbook, and lots of these lower level/buff/debuff spells are great. It's particularly handy given that Cleric spells tend not to scale in duration like Arcane spells do.
I think it's because doom lasts a turn and you're typically using it for a long fight, like a dragon, while curse doesn't last that long, and if you're trying to time with greater malison for stacking, then you have to delay other spells on top of it, I think it's also intangible like chant, where you really cant SEE the effect of it, you're probably right that it is better than I give it credit for but I find myself dooming more than cursing. Thanks for commenting friend!
0:46 im not a pro priest yet :D (1 is a must in every team) but here are my faw's (there are just to many spells not to check a guide :D) so from a beginner piset player perspective Hotaru's build :D (equal in number for me) :Lv1Curem Doom, Armore, lv2:Chant,Draw,(hold for fun) lv3, dispel, detect, lv4 Cure, lv5 grater command for testing(2), mass cure(2), Righteous magic(my faw 3), True Seeing(2), lv6 Heal, Lv7 Mass Raise(3), Energy Bliad's(1), Elemental(1) , Deva(1) , Sunray(1 for role play Lauthander)
wow this is detailed guide ....i wonder if I learn something even more to break the game (I love priests) beat the hardest stufff in the game on Normal difficulty and plan to go further :D lets so this wil be super useful :D
I like to add bless or curse into minor trigger with chant. They are all 9 cast time with a short but fixed duration, so they are far better in a minor trigger, which Aerie can do. Main problem is there are some nice level 4 mage spells competing with minor sequencer.
Sanctuary can apparently be used for looting things. I discovered this with Tiax in my current party (SCS/BGEE). Why is that good? Because looting things doesn't break the sanctuary. Looting things DOES break invisibility/stealth (aka guards summoned). This oddly enough makes Cleric/Thieves arguably the best Thieves for stealing things without getting caught. I used this to rob Entar's estate which is normally a tough area to case since it's crawling with guards and npcs who will summon more guards for you looting.
Greater Wyverns aren't immune to Command, in BGEE Core rules at least. they can resist it, but after doom + greater malison, Command succeed pretty easily on them.
If I said immune what I meant was they get a saving throw since they're level 7. They have good saves too, even with malison and doom they still have a 50% chance to save. Even then though they're a joke in that room since you have 5 statues that can easily kill all of them XD. Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
for anyone who thinks -2 penalty is not grate :D watch Citical role when they started using Bane spell with their monk :D I quot the DM "bane is the bane of me". I also love the wizard Greater Malison.. couple of my faw spells Finger of Death (wizard) Stun(monk), Polimorf (for lols), Fabele mind, blind, hold monster :D anything that helps land these is grate :D
Hey, I am struggling to get Divine protection to show up on my SCS, i can get Shield of lathander, but it is not the same, when was this changed? and where would i need to look to correct this?
I've been quite ill for some time due for surgery in about a week. If things go well I'll be back in full force. Thx for commenting and watching friend.
I didn't notice your post until after I posted mine! I think Wiki might be mistaken? My gaming groups and I have always pronounced it sha-lay-lee. I doubled check Merriam-Webster - www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shillelagh
Soooo, any chance for the next episode(s) any time soon? :) I'm about to start a full trilogy run with SCS for the first time ever, could use all the help I can get :D
Soon I hope, I have to reformat every video, upload it, then find out where youtube is striking it, so i can edit out the songs that prevent it from being uploaded in the first place, then recode it, then upload it. It usually takes all day just to get one youtube up depending on which songs were played in game sadly. Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
I remember playing original Baldur's gate and Jaheira using entangle to get us through some of the early battles with enemies who weren't ranged. *sigh*
@@Davaeornlol It wasn't absurdly overpowered, so I don't see why they changed it, especially as druids lose the first level spells command, remove fear, and sanctuary, and only get entangle in return.
Shillelagh is a walking stick that doubles as a cudgel or club and is a word from Ireland. Pronounced.... SSH-LAY-LEE. Your guides show you have an expert knowledge of the game.
Ive got a lot of editing to do for it still unfortunately the youtube algorithm has blocked it from being uploaded 5 times because i played some george michael songs during it
spell with casting time of 9 should go in the triggers. that makes multi class with mage is very powerful though it pays off in the late game. in ee barbarian dr is caped at 20% but i remember in original bg2 going over? i forgot ) black guard also get the blessed armor for tanking but i think blade is better. also you need golem armor forgot the name ) from tob so it widens the circle if you want to tank many hostiles via 1 character
Barb DR innate caps at 20 but it still stacks with defender of easthaven and hardiness just like dwarven defender. I actually can't stand the big metal unit not sure what its called in slav aleksandr just because it hinders movement in so many tight spaces but good point that it can be used to block and force tank. Blade is definitely better (if you're referring to bard kit not an actual weapon) just because arcane spells are so op. The best tank is a mage, but armor of the faith combined with DoA and preferably a healing mainhand like blackrazor or foebane makes them about as good as they can get. Thanks for watching and commenting my friend God bless!
@@Davaeornlol i think you need multi/dual class to cleric for dr tanking so you get blades and aura for riposte which is the point of it. i would also welcome movements issue fix any day in ee. characters get stuck, circles over cross, wrong path findings, range finding...
@@александрдозоров-г3б Yeah pathing is painful for sure. Problem with cleric dual class/multi is you lose out on foebane and blackrazor which is a lot of healing. What I like to do for DR tanking is Foebane MH DoE offhand and have my cleric slap a regeneration on them. So regen is ticking, every hit they gain 4 hp via foebane, and they have 60 (fighter max) to 85(pally/ranger max) DR. Along with the mancoat or resist gear it makes them very tanky indeed. Thanks for commenting friend!
Nice, my IWD experience is limited compared to BG so it would be tough for me to say what would be solid there. Thanks for watching and commenting friend!
@@Davaeornlol I understand! There are like 350 spells in Pathfinder, would take forever. Plus many have been corrected since BG, so its less clear to know what's trash from what's good.
Does nobody combo root/hold aoe cc with skull traps and fireball? This combo always helps me with difficult fights early to mid game. I know it's a little cheesy, but for new players this combo really helped me get a feel for placing skull traps just right
Entangle has a 2 bonus to saves, meaning your opponents will resist more often, in addition, unlike web and hold, they can still attack and cast spells. So not only is the spell not nearly as useful as the others, it also works less, these two things combined just make it a shitty spell. In the original game it only hit enemies so it had some nice utility in that regard, but turning it into a shitty web just makes the spell garbage. Thanks for commenting friend!
Because doom is only good for things with massive hp values that would benefit multiple spells being chucked and combining it with malison, doom is useless against a pack of gibberlings, when fighting a dragon with 1600 hp doom is quite good because every spell you chuck at it will (potentially) do more damage.
