[Jordoo]

Spell casting in BGII is what Archery was in BGI especially Arkane casting. Once you get the hang of using the different spells to max effect fights that you used to think were difficult suddenly become so easy that your whole party comes through unscathed. Spells are as overpowered in II as ranged combat was in I. I remember haveing Kivan and Coran in my party and dropping most of the badies before my Tanks could even engage. I will say that after playing BGII I have a much better understanding of how to use even the lower level preist and mage spells and when I do play BGI I usually limit myself to one high powered archer and have alot of fun using my casters.