Icewind Dale Hints

Priest Spells (1st-4th Levels)

• 1ST LEVEL
  
  Command Word: Die -- Puts a target creature to sleep if they fail their save. It's quite useful at the beginning of the game where opponents have lousy saves. You can easily make a battle quite a bit easier by putting a powerful foe out of commission for a little while.
  
  Cure Light Wounds -- Heals 8 points of damage to the target. An absolutely essential spell. Make sure all your Cleric types have it memorized, and don't be afraid to use it if a character is injured -- you never know when a few HP could be the difference between life and reloading.
  
  Magic Stone -- Deals 3-12 damage to most creatures, 6-24 to undead. As you can see, this spell is excellent against undead, especially the annoying, fairly weak ones. Save a memorization slot for it, since it deals quite a good amount of damage for early in the game, although it takes a while to cast.
  
  
  2ND LEVEL
  
  Charm Person or Mammal -- Same as the 1st-level Mage spell Charm Person.
  
  Cure Moderate Wounds -- Heals 11 HP of damage. Yet again, an essential spell. Not too big a leap over Cure Light Wounds, but every little bit counts. It's also nice because as with all healing spells, it will be automatically cast and rememorized when you rest, speeding healing.
  
  Find Traps -- Reveals the location of any nearby traps to the caster. This is very, very important to have if your Thief (you DO have a Thief, right?) isn't terribly skilled at disarming/finding traps yet. The traps in this game can be quite annoying, and it's fairly important that you don't step on them all. It's also a nice spell because you can just forget about it, and the traps will be automatically revealed for you during the spell's duration.
  
  Flameblade -- Creates a nice flaming sword for the caster to use in combat. A Druid-exclusive spell, this is one of their better ones. It will deal 7-10 fire damage on a hit, which will be reduced or eliminated for fire-resistant or dwelling/using creatures respectively.  A STR bonus is added too, I think. Very, very useful in the first half of the game, and for killing Trolls.
  
  Hold Person -- Same as the 3rd-level Mage spell Hold Person.
  
  
  3RD LEVEL
  
  Animate Dead -- Summons some undead to fight for the caster. This is more useful for Priests than Mages because it is a much lower-level spell, hence gotten earlier, when the creatures summoned are still useful. They're good to distract foes' attention from your party for a while, so they can regroup.
  
  Call Lightning -- Brings down high-damage lightning bolts upon any creature within the caster's sight range. This is a Druid-only spell, and like most of them, it's quite useful. It only works outside, but it deals a whole lot of damage (2-8 plus 1d8 per level, with no max). It's an awesome spell, but only if you're outside, which limits its utility a good bit, since much of the game is indoors.
  
  Dispel Magic -- See the 3rd-level Mage spell.
  
  
  4TH LEVEL
  
  Animal Summoning I -- Summons 8 animals to fight for the caster. It's a very nice summoning spell. The creatures summoned aren't too shabby and are quite useful for battle, actually. The type of animal summoned varies by where it was cast. I believe this is also a Druid-only spell.
  
  Cure Serious Wounds -- Same as the other healing spells, but heals 17 HP of damage. A good step up from moderate wounds. This one is a must in all your Priests' repertoires.
  
  Defensive Harmony -- Reduces all nearby party member's AC by 4. The usefulness of this spell is really subjective. If you're facing a group of enemies that aren't incredibly good fighters, it's great, but if you're facing a couple of really tough good fighters, it's not so great. You make the call.
  
  Neutralize Poison -- Cures target of any poisons. This is a fairly important spell to have, as any poisoned character will die if you attempt to rest, and they'll probably die anyways if you can't cure them. Be sure to keep it handy.
  
  Static Charge -- Same as call lighting, except it can be cast indoors, making it infinitely more useful. Be sure to have this spell memorized. I believe this is also a Druid-only spell.
  

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