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 Friends is largely useless. It lends the caster five points of charisma for a few rounds. In Icewind Dale, this is pretty much useless. If you want to turn your enemies to your side, charm is a much better choice. Grease (Conjuration) This can slow your enemies, so your ranged attacks have more time to whittle them down before they reach melee range. However, if you have access to the level 1 priest spell entangle or the level 3 mage spell slow, use those instead. Grease has a very small (five-foot) radius of effectiveness versus the 40 feet for slow and entangle. Identify (Divination) This is a handy (and cheaper) alternative to paying denizens of the towns of Icewind Dale to identify your items. Still, having a bard with a high lore skill is still your best bet. 'Tis better not to waste valuable memorization slots on identify. I'd recommend keeping one instance of identify memorized for those rare unidentified items that even your bard can't discern. Infravision (Divination) This is by far the most useless spell in the game. If anyone in your party is nonhuman (a virtual certainty), go into the game's options and turn on Group Infravision. Only if your party is completely human does this spell have any use at all. Larloch's Minor Drain (Necromancy) Larloch's minor drain is another useful spell in the early game. By stealing an enemy's health and adding it to his own, a keen mage can use this as a quick (and battle-handy) alternative to a heal minor wounds. Magic Missile (Evocation) This is the most useful level 1 mage spell. It's effective in battle throughout the game. It unerringly hits its target and increases in power with your mage, moving from 2 to 5 points of damage for a level 1 mage to 10 to 25 points of damage for a level 9 mage. Two high-level casters concentrating their fire on one target can knock off even the most powerful of enemies quickly. Protection from Evil (Abjuration) Definitely a useful spell, protection from evil surrounds the target with goodness, yielding a +2 bonus to armor class and saving throws. Another handy (and in some cases, more important) benefit is the immunity to all charm spells that this spell gives. Protection from Petrification (Abjuration) If you're getting petrified, memorize this spell. Duh. Shield (Evocation) Shield sets the target's AC to four versus normal weapons and two versus missile weapons. Additionally, it grants immunity to magic missiles, so if you're getting pounded by mages, cast this just before entering battle. Shocking Grasp (Alteration) Another melee spell, if you're willing to throw your mage into combat, this is a nice spell, dealing 1 to 8 (one point per level of the caster) points of damage. Sleep (Enchantment/Charm) Sleep will help slow the pace of battle down so you can concentrate on fewer opponents. Once a creature falls asleep, leave it until its wakeful allies have been dispatched; once a sleeping creature is hit, it will awaken immediately.
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