GameBanshee Forums

Okay maybe I'm just incompetent..

Whenever I use the spell lightning or the wand of lightning I get caught in the back reflection. Other people claim lightning is a great spell, so how do you do it? - Curdis

I never use it. There are plenty of other attack spells, so if you're having trouble, I suggest using another. Flame arrow does good damage at high levels (check the description, I think it's an extra arrow for every five levels) and no chance of hurting your friends.

Yep, because of the 'backfire' of those spells, I stay away from lightning spells as well. I've killed too many party members with it when I got it in BG 1, so I stopped using it. Whenever I get a spellcaster in my party who has this spell in his/her spellbook, I immediatly 'unlearn' the spell, and use the slot for another, USEFUL, spell.

It is kinda nice, though, to see your enemies toasting themselves when they cast lightning ...

The trick to using lightning succesfully is to also use lightning resistance spells, scrolls and potions. You can in fact get such high resistance that the lightning actually heals you instead of harming you. Minor globe of protection is the "standard" trick however but you won't get healed this way.

Boost yer mage with all the neccesary armouring spells and then start zapping away, trying to get the enemy in such an angle that he will get caught in the rebounds of the spell. Even better if it's a narrow corridor and you have angled the spell so that the enemy is standing next to one wall and with you right next to him.

You can easily do a huge amount of damage this way, considering that a wand of lightning tosses six bolts at once at 3d6 damage. Using lighting wands from four directions, with a total of 24 bolts per round (that's 72-432 points of damage per round plus the fact that I had two characters attacking with conventional methods) I completely fried the shadow dragon in three rounds and Aerie (posing as the lightning rod so to speak) simply healed up any damage that it managed to do to her.

So beware the power of electricity unleashed. ;-P

You can also use the Cloaks of Mirroring and Reflection to rebound the lightning and keep it hitting the enemies over and over.

rebound tha spell????

it should rebound 2 your self (that would be kewl).......cause its your own spell

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beer-for-love

Yep, hated this spell after the first time I used it. In BGI, I had dualed Imoen to mage and she was the proud owner of a newly scribed lightning scroll. I thought it would be a kicker. My guys strolled into the Blushing Mermaid and got jumped by that asshole ogre. Imoen lets fly with her shiny new spell. The damn thing does fair damage to the ogre but then lights up one of the patrons, causing the whole room to go red on me (and if you remember BGI, you'll recall that the Blushing Mermaid is definitely a place you want to be welcome). Then (of course) it rebounds, killing Imoen outright and giving two other characters a nasty jolt. Since then I've replayed BGI and played IWD and BGII multiple times as well...and never once used any lightning spell. No regrets.