Mages

Explore Mage classes in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, including Specialist and Wild Mages, their spell progression, and unique features.

Specialist Mage:

• Specialist Mages choose a school of magic to focus on.
• They gain an extra spell of each level per day.
• They receive a +15% bonus when scribing scrolls from their specialist school and a -15% penalty when scribing from another school.
• Specialists gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against spells from their favored school, and targets suffer a -2 penalty to saves against spells from that school.
• They are forbidden from learning spells from the opposing school.
• Specialists cannot form part of a multiclass combination, except for Gnomes who are always Illusionists.
• They cannot be the second class in a dual-class combination.
• The choice of specialization involves weighing the benefits of the school against the quality of lost spells. For example, Abjuration spells often don't have saving throws, and losing Haste and Slow is significant. Enchanters can be very deadly due to their arsenal of save-or-else spells.
• A Necromancer -> Cleric dual-class combination can be powerful, as the save penalty applies to harmful divine magic like Slay Living, Harm, and Finger of Death.

Wild Mage:

• Wild Mages add randomness to arcane spellcasting.
• They gain an extra spell of each level per day.
• There is a 5% chance of a wild surge when casting a spell.
• Spells can have the effect of a caster up to five levels below or above the actual caster level.
• Wild Mages gain access to three unique Wild Mage spells.
• Strategies relying on luck or risking bad luck are discouraged; wild surges can produce beneficial, neutral, or detrimental effects.
• For example, a Skull Trap's area-of-effect could increase to 60' radius, or a cast Stoneskin could fizzle, which is considered annoying.

Mage Spell Progression:

Specialist and Wild Mages can learn an extra spell of each spell level compared to non-specialists.