So. I finally finished my BGT run, and I wanted to give my feedback on this woundrous mod!
Relevant Mods: SR V4 (beta 12), IR, SCS, Ascension, TobExe Concentration Checks
My party setup was Charname (Elf Fighter 7/Wizard X dual class), Imoen, Jaheira, Viconia, Xan (Enchanter) and Fade (Thief). It's very arcane caster heavy, so my feedback will focus mainly on arcane spells. I played the game trying to 'roleplaying'. I avoided sleeping to often, trying to clear areas without sleeping, and I avoided prebuffing with short duration spells when it doesn't made sense, or use my knowledge of the game at my advantage or using other 'lame' tatics.
LEVEL 1
Burning Hands: Finally worth taking, the damage is good, and it's a fantastic troll killer. Especially good for fighter/wizard who can afford to be in melee range. I kept preparing this for a long time, even in BG 2.
Chill Touch: Kind of meh, never used this spell. The damage is fairly low, and If you are a pure mage you don't want to go in melee (especially at low level when this spell could be potentially useful). If you are a fighter/wizard, your normal attack routine will quickly be better than this.
Chromatic Orb: Loved this spell since first time i played BG. Definitely an alternative to magic missile. Worth taking.
Color Spray: Very nice in bg 1, it progressively loses intererest in bg 2, when enemy saves begin to lower and MR is more common. Still a decent pick for a first level until ToB.
Dimension Jump: Great to escape when the opponent sorround you. Worth picking and Xan definitely loved this spell .
Expeditious Retreat: I guess this spell is for no reloaders. Used a little in bg 1, not so much in bg 2. I've sorely missed Protection from Petrification in bg 1 however, with all those basilisks.
Mage Armor: Scaling made this spell very useful, without making it overpowered, I used it a lot both in BG and in BG2. Great spell.
Magic Missile: The spell we all know and love. Nothing to add.
Larloch Minor Drain: Worth picking and very cool.
Monster Summoning: not used summoning I-IX much, since I'm more really a fan of summoning extraplanar beings. I will abstaing giving feedback on summons since I see there has been a major rebalance in SC new version.
Protection from Evil: With is 5 turn duration is definitely worth using, even if it's not definitely my first pick. Trumped when the party's cleric got circle of protection from evil.
Reflected Image: Not very good when you have mirror images, and it happens soon. Never really used this a lot.
Shield: Very good now that increases your AC instead of setting it. Used this from bg 1 to tob.
Shocking Grasp: surprisingly, a worth and fun pick at the beginning with a fighter/wizard. Loses attractiveness as far as the game goes. The spell effect is good, but it quickly becomes annoying. The fact it creates a weapon in your inventory is extremely annoying, especially at highter levels, I suggest making this spell a direct damage spell with 0 range like imprisionment, as in IwD 2.
Sleep: Good and worth taking for much, much longer time. I think Xan used this sometimes even in ToB.
Spook: Still good, nothing to add. A solid pick
True Strike: Useful for my dual classed fighter/wizard to compensate for it's lousy thac0 against high AC opponents, otherwise I don't find this very useful, but I see you've already changed this and i like the new version, and like the change.
LEVEL 2
Agannazzar Schorcher: Decent spell in BG 1, quickly loses interest in bg 2.
Battering Ram: Nice spell, loved the knocked effects.
Blur: Good pick with 5 turn duration.
Detect Invisibility: A necessity at low levels. Solid pick.
Ghoul Touch: Same problems of chill touch, even if the effect it's better. Not worth it in my opinion.
Glitterdust: Didn't use this much, if at all. I can't judge. I find it easy enough to just strip nondetection with spell protection removals or kill the wizard with other methods, but this is probably because I had 3 arcane casters in the party.
Horror: Nice pick in BG1. Decent in the early stage of SoA.
Invisibility: Old good invisibility. My only complain is that with it's reduced duration you can't use it to prevent ambushes when you change map anymore. This is especially true in bg 1, where you can be sorrounded by like 8-10 archers during an ambush.
Know Opponent: Not spectacular but decent against some boss.
Luck: Good pick when you can afford the spell slot. Love those 5 turn duration buff.
Melf's Acid Arrow: Loses a bit with concentration check, however still worthy, especially in bg 1. Imho still should have "no magic resistence allowed" as it is a conjuration.
Mirror Image: Still very good even with the fix. Picked all time.
Power Word Sleep: Decent pick early game, loses as the game progresses. Decent pick until the very late stage however.
Ray of Enfeeblement: Same as PWS.
Resist Fear: Someone has to cast this when you face certain threats. Very good.
Sound Burst: Cool spell. Good pick. Decent even at higher levels
Stinking Cloud: Decent pick.
Strenght: Good buff, until you find the Str boosting items.
Web: Very good, as always.
LEVEL 3
Clarovoyance: It's effect is good, but last too little in my opinion.
Detect Illusion: Very useful, especially early game.
Dispel Magic: I used this spell mostly in the late game, since other casters are usually of much higher level than you.
Fireball: One my favourite spells. Solid spell.
Flame Arrows: A bit random now, but still worth considering.
Ghost Armor: Not used much, mage armor lasts longer and it's only marginally worse. Maybe would have considered for mage/thief.
Lightning Bolt: personally, I found this spell a little underpowered, especially at higher levels. Compare to fireball, that does the same damage but AoE. I think spell should not allow a saving throw or become AoE again.
Halt Undead: Situational but good.
Hold Person: Better for npc casters, but still worth it. Loses appeal at higher levels.
Slow: Very powerful, especially at low levels. Solid pick.
Melf Minute Meteors: Good pick in early game, not so much in late, because cannot wound many monsters.
Non Detection&Spell thrust: they do their job, nothing to add.
Skull Trap: Acceptable nerf. 20d6 at level 3 was a tad too much. Still worth considering.
Protection from Missiles: Not used this a lot, mainly in bg 1.
Vampiric Touch: Niiice. Used this a lot, especially with fighter/wizard.
Haste: Still good, still one of my favorite. Mass Haste at 3rd level was a little OP, especially in BG1.
LEVEL 4
Confusion: Solid debuff until the ending stages of the game.
Contagion: Only used with cleric. Seemed a little weak.
Farsight&Wizard Eye: Love them for exploring.
Fire Shield: Good as always.
Improved Invisibility: the +4 to Saving Throws was too much. Still very useful.
Ice Storm: very good in bg 1
Greater Malison: Still felt like a solid pick.
Minor Globe of Invulnerability: Nothing to comment, still the same, still good.
Stoneskin: Same as above.
Polymorph Others: Loved turning stuff into squirrel, stopped using this at higher level. Solid in bg 1 and early bg 2.
Resilient Sphere: The no saving throw on party member is fantastic.
Polymorph Self: Used with Xan across all bg1 and at the beginning of bg 2. Felt useful.
Secret Word: Massively powerful against SCS mage thanks to its short casting time.
Spirit Armor: Actually used this thanks to the +2 to all saving throws and long duration.
Teleport Field: Don't particulary like this spell, so not used it much.
*Will Edit to add other levels*
END GAME AND MAGIC
I noticed that in the late stage of the game, even if magic is still a necessity for buffing (and very good at that) and stripping magical protections, it becomes kind of inefficient to kill threats directly. This is mostly due to the fact that you start encountering a lot of groups of enemies with a combination of high magic resistence (I hate how it works in 2e), elemental immunities and good saving throws.
If it's a single boss you usually can manage, since you can focus on him, lowering it's magic resistence and then proceed to bombard him until it dies (even if this usually requires a lot of spell slots). But if it's a group of creatures, you really can't focus. And boy, you will encounter a lot of this groups. Now, in SR there are some spells that don't allow magic resistence, namely Comet, Meteor Swarm and Dragon Breath. Unfortunately most of those creatures are fiends or immune to fire (Think of Watcher's Keep, Throne of Blood endgame and partially Yaga-Shura lair). Comet is nice, but it's only once per day, and stoneskin can even block that.
In the final battle, for my pc was much more convenient (and ultimately had to) kill ameyssan and the five with normal weapons, instead of using spells. This despite charname being a Fighter 7/Wizard 30. When I had to fight the host of demons at the energy pool, I could (relatively) easily kill them with weapons, but it would have been very difficult to kill them with spells (and doing so would problably have emptied half my spellbook).
To lessen this effect I suggest to add some more of those "no magic resistence" spells that uses elements to which fiends are vulnerable (e.g. acid for example). There are a couple of spell in IWD that would be perfect for that in my opinion, since there is a precedent for them being "No MR", Acid Storm (implemented as in iwd 2, 6th level, istantaneous effect, 15d6, save vs breath half), and vitriolic sphere. Bigby's hands, Melf's acid arrow and acid fog could probably be a good candidates for "No MR" too.
