spell experts needed!

[XUSIA]

i have been playing a sorceror since bg2 came out and i love them but now that nwn has come out i am almost 2nd guessing myself now.

the sorceror now has less spells to choose from then before and can pick few spells per level aswell. because of this i have been trying very hard to maximize my spell selection. i have run into some questions, and hope that someone can give me better explainations than what are given online or in the manual.

here it goes

what is the difference between wail of the banshees and weird?
they both are a save or die spell, they both are area wide spells. othere than being from different schools, is there a benefit choosing one over the other?

why choose meteor swarm (instead of delay blast fireball)
both do 20d6 damage (max), both are area wide spells but fireball has the option of not exploding right away.
and if we are talking about maximizing spell damage, incendiary cloud has the best damage available. at 16th level you can cast, it does 4d6 per round (16 rounds min) giving you a 48-384 potential damage if the enemy is kept inside the cloud.
even horrid wilting is better that meteor swarm, it does 1d8 per level (must be 16th level to get) so 16d8 = a potential 128 damage where meteor swarm does 20d6 or 120, and horrid wilting goes up with leveling up.
now if meteor swarm did not hurt allies? that would make a difference.

do what do you spell gurus think?

[shift244]

i will not claim to be any spell gur, but here's my 2 cents:

there are slight differences between the spells u have brought up. taking the same spells as reference, u will have to read them properly.

take Weird and Wail of the banshee (WOTB) for instance. Weird allows for a Will save vs instant death, and if that is successful, forces a Fort save or take damage anyway. Few classes, or multicalssing characters are good enough to make both saves so the spell is seldom "wasted" in any case. WOTB on the other hand, allows only a single Fort save vs instant death. No damage is taken once the save is made, and there is no second save forced upon its victim; but it gains the advantage to being a non-somatic spell, meaning that u can cast it even while paralysed, or grappled in entanglement/black tentacles etc. AND, there is the big difference of Will save and die vs Fort save and die, obviously vs the classes you will face... Will saves are always bad choice to victimize spellcasters, and Fort save is rather stupod to cast at warriors.

incindeary cloud deals most damage in terms of potential, but u will have to keep them in the cloud. and u r matching it against delayed fireball, which is a lower level spell. i would not even consider such a match-up as they are obviously differences between the "power" of the spells being from different levels. as to which to take, obviously that from the 8th lvl, instead of the 7th from "destrcutive power" point of view. As for Incendiary cloud vs Horrid Wilting, again, it is the matter that Rogues/Monks?Shadow dancers will likely laugh at the spell with their good Ref saves and Evasion ability, while Horrid Wilting will not make them so happy, since they will always take 1/2 damage, at the very least. Though again HW will not be as effective vs warriors, simply cause u will be dealing only 1/2 dmg most of the time.

idon't know how the sorceror from BG works being that i've never seen that class in a ADnD 2e. But in 3e, i can advice this. see the spells available to you with all the levels u have access to, and pick the best one that would suit your style. if u have not enough 8 lvl spells known slots, then u may sacrifice, incendiary cloud for delayed fireball, or u may choose some other option. maybe u may want other high level spells, like ethereal visage, but do not have the spells known slot.. then u may opt for a weaker spell ghostly visage, instead. look at all the various stats of the spell. some of them may differ only by the fact that there is no verbal component, so it is a "(auto) silent spell"...