Neverwinter Nights best class

mgoetze: I'm playing SoU as a sorcerer, getting close to level 6 and thus my first 3rd level spell. I'm guessing fireball is a no-brainer, presumably followed by haste?

Anyway, I am a bit confused as to whether there are actually any useful 2nd level spells besides Melf's Acid Arrow. At first I took combust, because I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the "range: touch" bit. So I swapped it out for Melf's and Gedlee's Electric Loop, because I figured the latter would be good for damaging more than one enemy... but so far I haven't managed to do anything other than damage one enemy and myself. Am I doing it wrong or is it just bugged? Long-term I guess I'll be devoting 2nd level spells to stuff like Cat's Grace and Eagle's Splendor, but is there anything there which is more useful than magic missile for a level 5 caster?

Buff spells are great for your pet or henchman.

I tend to play more defensive with 2nd level spells b/c a good crossbow can do a ton more damage with just a little time compared to the damage that the spells do (besides the very useful melf's).

I recommend looking at:
Ghostly Visage - great for early game. Creatures have a hard time getting through it.
Resist elements - Great for wizard-battles
Summon Creature - keep enemies at a distance with all the summons and henchies you can get. Summon creature provides the most damage per spell than any other spell (this was fixed in 3.5 when they limit your spawns from 24 hours to just a few short rounds)