Hello everyone!

Between these two first level spells which do you prefer? I typically go with chromatic orb at lower levels and magic missile at higher levels.

If I have two magi in my party I usually go with one having chromatic orb and the other using magic missile. Unless I'm fighting something powerful - like a dragon or a demon. These monsters are often immune to control effects.

At the time of this post, the Baldur's Gate wiki says that the target of chromatic orb gets a +6 bonus to save vs the control effect, but not the damage. Both manuals (BG1 +2, not the expansions, you can download these from your GoG library) say that a saving throw negates both the effect and damage. Neither one says anything about a saving throw bonus. The in game description for BG1 has the wording of it's manual. The in game description for BG2 is that of the wiki. I checked the ToB manual and it doesn't mention any amendments to chromatic orb.

At low levels sleep is infinitely better than either. MM is pretty good at higher levels though.

From what I understand, the more powerful effects (like the instant death one) ignore magic resistance. Therefore, if you encounter an enemy with high magic resistance but poor saves, you can kill it with Chromatic Orb.

Alternatively, you could stack multiple casts of Doom (that spell does stack) and a cast of Greater Malison (which does not stack, I believe) to penalize an enemy's saving throw, then kill it with a Chromatic Orb. (Then again, some players don't like having spells like Doom stack with themselves for whatever reason.)

Note: It is possible that what is stated in this post might not hold true if certain mods (like the fixpack) are being used, or if the Enhanced Edition is being played.

Wow, I never knew that! You can smoke a monster that has magic resistence with chromatic orb? Please tell me this isn't an April fool's joke because you got my hopes up!

Also, is doom meant to stack? You said it does stack, but is that intentional?

Chromatic Orb is by far the more powerful above level 4. There is no save, and the effect has a 6 point penalty to save vs. spells. Level 4 blinds. Level 5 stuns. Level 7 paralyzes. At level 10 you can even petrify bosses -- I got Firkraag this way one time. That's one powerful level 1 spell. Magic Missile? Pffft!

I seriously underestimated the power of chromatic orb!

Just remember that Magic Missile is a more reliable hitter, and so a superior all-purpose backup spell, especially for stripping things like Mirror Image.

I am not sure but I think it depends on the situation. I found that Magic Missile is very effective against monsters with very low AC and high magic resistance. I dont remember using C.Orb very much but I havent played BG2 much either.

Magic Missile has more utility throughout BG1 at least; it can deal with mirror images and the like, cannot miss and can always hurt Sarevok. The problem witth MM in D&D is that it has an upper limit on damage, but since there is literally not enough experience in BG1 to get past about lvl 10 as a mage, that's not so much of a problem. Sleep is the best crowd control spell in the game, since it only affects enemies, but again has diminishing returns. Chromatic Orb is kinda eh if you ask me, just because its not as reliable, especially with neera...

Strictly speaking, that's only true in 2e and later. In 1e, it doesn't have that limit, so in Pools of Darkness you can have a level 40 mage firing 20 missiles with a single spell. (Note that the mage has to be human because that game implements racial level limits.)