Game slows down in large areas or in battles with a lot of spells

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And it's really detrimental to my enjoyment! Everything slows down to a crawl, there's a slight delay and everything becomes tedious.

Are there any settings I ought to fiddle with to get rid of this? In small indoor places it's fine, but the moment I began throwing spells around it all begins to stutter and lag.

 

If you haven't already I would suggest turning down all graphics/sound options to their minimum settings. Then test again to see if the same lag happens. If not, then try turning up the settings bit by bit, testing again in between. If it still does lag, I'd need to know more stuff like your computer's operating system and/or what/how many mods you use. With some of the more AI-script-heavy mods like SCSII or (possibly) Improved Anvil, you would have to expect some level of slowing down of the game during large battles!

From what you describe though, it seems to be mostly spells that cause the lag, so your first step should be to turn down the spell effects and similar settings. See bgconfig in your BG2 folder to do this.

 

Actually I seem to remember that turning on "3D acceleration", can actually speed up the game compared to the minimum graphics setting. So try that as well, if it's not already turned on.

 

Forgive me, but given that this is 2012 and not 2002, it should not be necessary to use minimum settings. I myself find BG2 runs perfectly on a Dell Optiplex GX110 with it's 8mb integrated video. That computer hasn't been state-of-the-art since BG2 was new. It can't play Neverwinter Nights at all (not enough VRAM), but BG2 works perfectly. PoR2 however needs to be set to 16-bit color for it to work right or it runs slower that normal.

So, to the OP, are you using a modern computer with Windows 7 or an old computer with Windows 9X? It could be that the graphics drivers aren't working right and should be reinstalled with the latest version.

 

Wow, you are still running a Dell Optiplex? That's pretty amazing!

In my first "real" Sys Admin job this is the system that we deployed to our rank and file employees (i.e. the non-power user types), so these systems have a special place in my heart. I used to have about 6 of them in my home network before I was married. After I got married my wife kindly but sternly suggested that the home network take residence in a closet to collect dust. Some months after that most of the systems in that home network disappeared (i.e. they were thrown away by my wife, unbeknownst to me), including all the Optiplex systems. That was not a good moment in my marriage. Anyhow, yep, I'm waxing nostalgic right about now.

 

It's my print server. The computer I replaced it with died with a bad motherboard in 2009, and I replaced THAT one with a Gateway 4200DX. Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties, you are reading it right that I've only had two computers in the last 10 years (the Optiplex is more than 10 years old).
The problem is the Gateway doesn't have a parallel port so I use the Optiplex for printing.

That and I sometimes play old games like BG2 while I'm doing my monthly scans and defrag with Spybot, Malwarebytes, and of course the defragmentor.
Also during the yearly backup (really important data gets backed up immediately to a flash drive or CD).
Oh, and of course when installing big things or big updates that lock up the system with lots of reboots.

Another use I use for the old system is to hit things like GameFAQs if I'm playing say Neverwinter Nights for the umpteenth time and want to recall where a given item is, I'll use it to read an FAQ. Or if I get really stuck.

When I was attending night school I used it to simulate a dual-monitor system so I could research on the good computer (more RAM) and write the paper on the old one (there isn't anything in Office 2007 that I use to write a paper that wasn't in Office 97). I haven't used that in a while however, but then again I haven't done much serious writing beyond my resume and associated letters (I'm still a temp).

 

Just because a computer is newer and has more power, doesn't mean it's better suited for the job at hand.

Case in point: Managing a system wide file structure with thousands of files has never been faster since my first ever pc, a trusty 286 rig, with Norton Commander installed on it. With a bit of practice, the only thing really slowing you down was how fast you could press the keyboard shortcuts. Responsiveness like that just hasn't existed since the dawn of graphical UIs.

 

Have you tried holding down the windows key and hitting R, then typing "cmd" into a 2000 or later system? In windows 9x you use "command" instead of "cmd".