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[SubannisRae]

Just finished the 'Black Pits' on the Enhanced Edition, ran into a few weird errors (randomly transposed into a prison cell after dialogue, left behind in the arena a few times, and I never got a chance to fight the Beholder (dunno if that's been edited out, tried twice to get the bassid to spawn (order of kills)).  I've had some thoughts on the character's I'd like to make a run of the game with and was looking for input.  This would be a party play-through of BG:EE to migrate into BG2:EE as a solo character.
 
I was able to streamline my thoughts on sorcerer's, and the only spell slot's I'm uncertain of now are my 3rd level slots.  Melf's Minute Meteors is a definite, but the other two are up in the air.  Skull Trap is superior in theory to Fireball, BUT I've had some issues with launching it in the 'trip' region of enemies and it just sitting there.  Fireball may win out on reliability.  Remove magic or slow are my other two thoughts, with slow being a good de-buffer.  Remove magic has been a bit less than useful at debuffing my enemies, but admittedly that last time I played my sorc it was in BG2.  Almost considering getting spell thrust instead.
 
My BG:EE Sorcerer Cast'n'blast Spell list, in theory.  Not the exact order of appropriation, except for first.

 

Spoiler

1st Shield, Sleep/Blindness, Protection from Evil, Magic Missile, Spook
2nd Mirror Image, Web, Glitterdust, Blur, (Knock in BG2)
3rd Fireball/Skull Trap, Melf's Minute Meteors, Remove Magic / Slow
4th Stoneskin, Teleport Field
5th (Breach)

 

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The Blackguard is seeming more and more enjoyable too me, cheese included (exploding arrow that poison anyone touched by the explosion?  poisoned shrapnel, sepsis, sure, but in the game standard it's a little OP (Oh well...))  Too bad I've heard nothing about the blackguard getting to join the Temple of Talos rather than the de'Arnise Keep in #2.

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I'm thinking about making two changes to the character, where able.  1) Enable him to choose a imp or quasit as a familiar and wishing to hell I know how to code for changing purely the appearance of the HLA Fallen Deva to a Cornugon, a Demonic snake, something! (Edit: a creature with the stats of a squirrel but the body of Demogorgon!  Kind of the reverse of the Dragon with the avatar of a white rabbit :grin
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The other character I'm leaning towards is the Sun Soul Monk, just because I haven't run a monk successfully ever, party or otherwise.  I am tempted to grant him the gloves of crushing as a possible reward in Durlag's Tower, but I'm thinking that might be a bit much. 

For my thoughts on running a sorcerer with polymorph, I think I'm going to have to hold off until they get that fixed up a bit, the spider seems to have less attack power than I expected, even with the strength buff, and the Flind is defnitely messed up.  It's suffering a 5 point penalty due to non proficiency with it's own halberd, uhm, no?  This also makes me hesitant to mix in BG2 Tweaks or the SCSv28 until I'm a little more certain on the game itself, updates and what not.  I play it on Steam and even doing 'a update only on launch', and than launching the game only when 'offline',  I'm not sure how mods will play out.
 
Does anyone else here have experience with keeping a modded game going when potentially it can look forward to patch updates for awhile yet? 

[Epsil0]

I might not be the most qualified to help with solo runs, but I think I can help you out with the lower level spells at the very least...

Blindness is almost certainly better than Sleep, as the latter is absolutely useless in BG2. Then again, your level 1 spells are probably going to be all used on Magic Missile anyways. Identify over... Spook, maybe, might be worth considering, though the -6 penalty to Spook is nice.

 

From what I remember, one level 2 slot must always be spent on Resist Fear; the only items that prevent it can't be used by mages/sorcerers. I suppose there's high level plays that prevent fear attacks, like the common II and GoI tactics, but I'm not sure if that'd stop Dragon fear, which is probably the one time where you really, really need to stop that fear from getting through. Sadly, the only place where it fits is over Glitterdust or Web, and I'm not sure which of the two would be better. I'd personally go with keeping Web, but I might be biased since I've never managed to actually find someone invisible with Glitterdust.

 

Level 3 slots: with solo EXP in BG2, Remove Magic is pretty useful, since your caster level will tend to be higher than it normally should. Skull trap's a tad better since fire is resisted more than any other element. And it's still uncapped in BGEE, if I recall correctly. That still leaves two slots unfilled though: Protection from fire's nice since there's quite a bit of fire damage flung around, though you should honestly try to make is so you can't even be targeted by those attacks. And... Monster Summoning I? Invis 10' Radius for traveling undetected? Non-detection, or is the cloak enough? This is where my inexperience starts to show off. 

 

Level 4 slots: Improved invisibility is an absolute must to survive, avoiding those nasty single-target effects that could easily kill you otherwise.

Ice storm might be given consideration, since your intent is to play a blaster, and ice isn't resisted nearly as much as fire.

Stoneskin is of course a necessity.

MGoI is good to prevent minor save-or-sucks like Web, Stinking cloud, Fireballs, Glitterdust, if you can't spare a 6th level slot for the ordinary GoI. Not sure if it protects vs Dispels.

Minor sequencer is also useful - two spells, even level 1 or 2 spells, is always good.

Greater Malison is crucial if you're using spells with saves, but it doesn't look like you're using too many of those.

Farsight and Wizard Eye are also good for casting in regions where you can't see; I'm not sure which blasting spells have range of sight, but Farsight and Wizard eye can be deadly in those occasions.

(tldr; my choices for a blaster would be II, MGoI, Stoneskin, Farsight, and Ice storm, Greater Malison, or Teleport field.

 

Level 5 slots: SPELL IMMUNITY is an absolute must-have to survive. Keep your Improved Invisibility (And thus your single-target protections) up with Spell Immunity Divination, stops ADHW's and Skull traps with Spell Immunity Necromancy, stops Dispels and Removes and Imprisonment with SI: Abj... stop Mazes, those dreaded Symbols and Power Words with SI: Conj. I don't think you can skip this and hope to win later on solo.

Breach might not even be necessary, since unless you plan to use a lot of physical damage for the actual kills, it doesn't really do anything useful for you. Not to mention the wands of Spell Striking later in ToB. (Note: I might be really, really wrong here. Someone more experienced give their two cents?) 

Cloud Kill is the damaging option here, and absurdly good with the aforementioned Foresight since Cloud Kill has range of Sight... Drop the hurt on your enemies without them being able to reach you. 

Lower resistance: Magic resistance will be pain you for later without this spell.

Sunfire is a fireball centered around yourself without magic resistance: I'm not sure which of Cloud Kill and Sunfire is better. I mean, fire damage...

Shadow door is a possibility over II, I guess, if you really want a 4th level slot for something else.

 

Level 6 spells: Contingency. If you've ever been irritated by something popping like 4 Stoneskin contingencies in one fight, you know what this spell does. Sadly, you can only have one active, but even that one can be a lifesaver. 

True sight: I've pretty much ignored all other illusion-breakers because of this spell. Every irritating Mislead, Shadow door, Project Image clones, and mirror images are all popped for 10 rounds due to one spell. This is a necessity.

Pierce Magic: removes some spell protections and lowers resistance by 1 per caster level. Important spells it takes out are the Globe of Invulnerability, the Spell turnings, and Spell immunity (no vanilla caster uses this though, I think). Not a necessity, exactly, with Warding Whip at level 8, but... It's useful.

Pro. vs Magic Weapons is somewhat unfair, even with its short duration. A tad cheesy since nothing has a non-magical weapon at high levels, and even if they did, those should be blocked by your Bhaalspawn immunities.

GoI if you couldn't pick it up at level 4. Barely blocks anything additional though.

Summon Nishruu: 100% magic immune, anti-spellcaster stuff.

Death spell: Not sure how necessary with all the magic AoE damage you have anyways. Anti-summons spell if you deem it necessary.

 

And I know far too little about spell levels 7 - 9 to say what's good, though the Wish line and ADHW and Time Stop keep making appearances in the better mage players' logs.

[Serg BlackStrider]

 Invis 10' Radius for traveling undetected? Non-detection, or is the cloak enough? This is where my inexperience starts to show off. 

 

Cloak of Non-detection will not stop True Sight/Seeing or Detect Invisibility / Invisibility Purge to reveal your invisible (by invisibility spell) character. It only good/work for hidden in shadows character (thief, ranger, monk).

[SubannisRae]

Thanks for the replies, Epsil0 & SergBlackstrider! I've had the opportunity to do quite a bit more research on the mods I'm looking at as well as the Enhanced Edition changes made. While I still qualify stoneskin as an important part of my repertoire, there's some interesting qualifiers for it in EE. Poison ticks will take per tick one skin or image of MI. Also, a flame arrow spell will drop one skin per spell, not per arrow. I'm thinking for my 4th level slots I'll go with II and Tele Field. 3rd level, I'm leaning towards Skull Trap, Melf's Minute Meteors, and Remove Magic. I'll be using BG2 Tweaks to lessen the delay trigger for skull trap and other magical traps. Have to admit I'm still uncertain on Dragon Disciple vs. Reg Sorc. There's loads of extra hp (d6 hit die vs. d4, and over 20 levels the class gains 100 fire resist, +2 con , and +5 AC (rounded down 1/2 for BG1)). For the cost of one spell casting per spell level. But, flavor wise, I just don't see it.

The Blackguard looks pretty good too, though based purely on official portraits available I'm leaning towards a female blackguarx (just wish I could get the eyepatch she has.) Will be ready in just a few mlre days here to make my first post in the BG1 No Reload challenge thread. Adventure awaits!