Spell Changes

All spells have been re-balanced to provide usefulness at all stages of the game. Spells that deal damage will increase in strength as you level, and accumulate powerful item stats like 'Spell Damage' and 'Spellweaving'.


 * Spell Damage will increase the base damage of all spells cast. This also applies to weapon enhancement spells such as Flame Weapon and Darkfire to anyone having spell damage gear.


 * Spellweaving is a % chance that the spell will give +50% increased damage.

Increasing your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma modifiers can also increase spell damage at a rate of +1 spell damage per modifier.

Spells and Abilities which require a saving throw can be strengthened with 'Voodoo' gear (+ to all spell and ability DCs), as well as the usual spell school focus feats.

Libram of Quickcasting
This module features a quick buff item for QoL - there's no longer a need to spend five minutes buffing yourself and your party after resting, you simply load the spells you want, use the book when you have casts of those spells remaining, and it casts all available spells on your target instantly. However, it won't work in combat.

You can buy additional Librams in Deep Forest Transit for different buff sets.

Spell Evolution
As you use offensive spells, your mastery over them will continue to grow. Continuous use of spells will cause them to grow in strength - potentially reaching 'Epic Spell' strength. This evolution can be slow going, however it allows for any offensive spell to be grown over time. Each spell has it's own individual mastery, and grows separately from other spells. Spells are only capable of growing when used against enemies of a similar level.

Many spells can have their mastery level checked using the Combat Dummy in Deep Forest Transit.

Summon Spells

 * All summon spells, including undead, animal, elemental, and planar variations, now scale to the player's level (not caster level!), including Corruptions.
 * All summons get regen equal to their level. This effect is increased by Animal Empathy Skill

Damage Spells

All spells that deal damage scale their with CL. Exact values vary from spell to spell and are TBD.

Cloud Spells

Spells that create a cloud effect have have their durations capped very low. Don't expect them to last more than a few rounds.

Damage Shields
Spells which deal damage back to an attacker when struck (such as Death Armor, Melf's Acid Sheath, and Elemental Shield) all benefit from Spell Damage.

Weapon Imbues
Spells which add damage dice to a weapon on hit, (such as Darkfire and Flame Weapon) all benefit from Spell Damage.

Corruption and Spells
In general, Corruption does not impact damage, DC, SR, or CL. However, some spells do benefit from higher Corruption levels, namely summons.

Bard
Lvl 1

Lvl 2

Lvl 3

Lvl 4

Lvl 5

Lvl 6

Cleric
Lvl 1


 * Doom - Now deals Negative damage in addition to its normal effect.

Lvl 2

Lvl 3

Lvl 4

Lvl 5

Lvl 6

Lvl 7

Lvl 8

Lvl 9

Druid
Lvl 1

Lvl 2

Lvl 3

Lvl 4

Lvl 5

Lvl 6


 * Drown now behaves as a Tier 8 spell, and causes enemies to be 'Soaked'. Enemies under the effects of 'Soak' can be frozen with Ice Dagger or Cone of Cold.

Lvl 7

Lvl 8

Lvl 9

Ranger
Lvl 1

Lvl 2

Lvl 3

Lvl 4

Paladin
Lvl 1

Lvl 2

Lvl 3

Lvl 4

Sorcerer & Wizard
Cantrips


 * Ray of Frost - Impacts all targets in a very small AoE (~5ft) around the target.
 * Resistance - Duration increased to 1 turn/CL.

Lvl 1


 * Shield - Duration increased to 1 hour/CL.
 * Sleep - Total and maximum HD impacted scales with CL.
 * Magic Missile - Fires only one missile, but total damage is concentrated in the single missile. Besides the visual change, this is helpful against targets with flat Magic DR.

Lvl 2


 * All Zoo buffs (Cat's, Fox's, Bull's, etc) now give a static bonus increasing with character level. +6 at 40. Can be Empowered for +9.
 * Melf's Acid Arrow - Each tick causes the target to take 5% more acid damage for 35s. Unknown if this vulnerability compounds or refreshes.
 * Combust - Each tick causes the target to take 5% more fire damage for 35s. Unknown if this vulnerability compounds or refreshes.

Lvl 3


 * Greater Magic Weapon - Enhancement bonus continues to increase into the epic levels.
 * Haste - Duration is now 1 turn/CL to a max of 10 turns.

Lvl 4


 * Ice Storm - Now 100% cold damage.
 * Evard's Black Tentacles - Now does Negative damage, not Bludgeoning.
 * Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm - Fires a maximum of 6 missiles.

Lvl 5


 * Bigsby's Interposing Hand - Duration reduced.
 * Ethereal Visage - Duration increased to 1 hour/CL. Gives 50% concealment.
 * Ball Lightning - The description is wrong even in vanilla NWN. Behaves more like Firebrand + Missile Storms. See https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Ball_lightning.

Lvl 6


 * Chain Lightning - Damage to secondary targets is no longer reduced. Beware, enemy corpses in an area may cause the "chain" functionality to fail.
 * Isaac's Greater Missile Storm - Fires a maximum of 8 missiles.
 * Tenser's Transformation - No longer polymorphs you or prevents spellcasting. Duration increased.
 * True Seeing - Gives +30 Spot, +30 Listen, +30 Search. However, it does not function as See Invisibility!

Lvl 7


 * Shadow Shield -  Duration increased to 1 hour/CL. Natural AC bonus increases with character level.
 * Mordekainen's Sword - Duration increased to 1 turn/CL.
 * Circle of Death - Now checks Will. Total and maximum HD impacted scales with CL.

Lvl 8


 * Horrid Wilting - Also attempts to Daze targets on a failed save for 1 round. Respects Mind Immunity.
 * Greater Sanctuary - Lasts only 1 round.
 * Sunburst - No longer does different damage to different targets. Non-undead take as much damage as undead. On a failed reflex save, the Blind effect lasts 2 seconds (as opposed to permanent til removed).

Lvl 9


 * Meteor Swarm - AoE range increased. Sometimes knocks down targets - seems to be ones that are "directly hit" by a meteor explosion and fail a Reflex save?.
 * Black Blade of Destruction - No longer requires concentration, but is no longer invulnerable either.
 * Timestop - Paralyzes enemies in a large radius. Will save negates.
 * Gate - Cannot be cast in certain areas to mitigate the potential for griefing.

Side Note: Spell Selection as a Wizard
When you take a new level of Wizard, you're allowed to select two new spells to add to your spell book. Most Wizards either will choose their favorites and depend on finding scrolls for the rest, OR fall into a state of paranoia and try to figure out which spells are readily available in scrolls and which aren't. This section is arguably for both types.

The world of the Culling is in a sorry state. When it comes to scrolls, this means two things:


 * 1) There is no monolithic source of magic scrolls, like a grand library or Mage's tower.
 * 2) Spells that don't rapidly kill a wide variety of stuff are rare, if they even exist at all.

Essentially this means you can safely anticipate finding direct damage spells of elemental damage types. For instance, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Cone of Cold, and Mestil's Acid Breath are all examples of scrolls frequently found in loot, and thus occasionally resold by merchants. More rarely you can find negative damage like Negative Energy Burst or magical damage like the Missile line of spells. Very rarely you might spot a sonic scroll, though so with few sonic sources available to Wizards, the numbers are against you. Scrolls of Contagion have been found in areas that imply its use, though as a result, the spell itself is no longer so useful.

Additionally, a woman - or perhaps group of women? - going by the name of the legendary witch Baba Yaga, has been spotted in forgotten places of the world, both unconcerned with and unharassed by the creatures - and worse - that surround her. She deals in esoteric magic at a high price...

A smart Wizard will choose their level-up spells with this availability in mind. Offense may be a good defense, but there's plenty of offense available for free, but very little, if any, defense. Let alone utility.

First prioritize your "fundamental" protection spells. These are the ones which either save your life or whose absence means you die. Mage Armor, Shield, Endure Elements, Protection from Alignment, Ghostly Visage*, Improved Invisibility*, Stoneskin*, Energy Buffer, Lesser Mind Blank, Ethereal Visage, Shadow Shield, Premonition, and Greater Sanctuary should be auto-picks.

* Asterisked spells have direct upgrades and thus aren't 100% do-or-die once you have access to the direct upgrade, but all of them (excepting Ghostly Visage) can be cast on others, which is very handy for henchmen, summons, familiars, and party members.

Second, take your must-have utility. This is Haste, basically. Though sources of worn Haste do exist, you can't put them on summons.

Last, consider summons. Undead, planars, and construct spell lines are all good picks with varying strengths and weaknesses. However, Summon Creature loses much of its luster because picks are so precious, but more importantly, Henchmen exist.

Past these basics is mostly a matter of personal choice, though I'd recommend looking closely both at individual spell changes and what specializations exist, since specializations can make niche spells far more useful.