hard time playing a mage.

sivistojko

Hello everyone. I recently finished playing cleric/mage as a PC in BG: EE on the easiest difficulty and it was terrible!

Problems:
1. It takes ages to cast a spell; 2. long downtime between spells; 3. All enemies in important battles are magic resistant.

So I played my PC mainly as a buffer which was very inefficient. I started playing a caster with the idea of providing efficient crowd control but instead I was just useless. Vampiric touch spell did 18 damage per cast while a fighters in my group did over 20 in a single hit (max dmg roll on easiest difficulty).

Please teach me how to play casters correctly!

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UnknownQuantity

Mages are pretty bad in BG1. In D&D Mages start really weak and end up go like at the highest levels. I'd say it's probably best to be a fighter/mage in BG1 so you can use a bow when you aren't casting spells. Unfortunately this is usually quite often at low levels.

Solobear

Use more disables.

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Sliceofhell

Mages are not supposed to be as straightforward as fighter classes. But they are potentially much more powerful, especially at a higher levels. Experiment with different spell combinations. Buff a warrior with fire resistance, rush him in the middle of enemies and start throwing fireballs. Or if you want crowd control, again prebuff a fighter with free action and throw in web or other AOE control spell. At higher levels if you want to beat enemies' saving throws cast Greater Malison first etc.

TJ_Hooker

sivistojko said:

All enemies in important battles are magic resistant.

I don't remember there being that many magic resistant enemies in the game. Unless you mean that they tend to make their saving throws. Try using spells like Doom, Greater Malison, and Glitterdust to lower their saving throws first. Greater Malison, followed by an AoE disabling spell like Slow or Confusion, can really turn the tide of battle, especially when you're dealing with large groups.

Scouting can really help to. Have a stealthed rogue/ranger, or an invisible character scout ahead of your party. When you come across a group of baddies, keep your party just out of sight and open the fight with fireball from your mage.

Also, I don't consider Vampiric Touch to be a good spell to use unless you're a melee character.

_N8_

Solobear said:

Use more disables.

Yep, in BG1 mage is a support class. It requires a lot more strategy. Use sleep, horror, web, hold person, confusion, chaos, etc. Potions help a lot too.

BelgarathMTH

As a crowd control specialist, sleep and web are your best friends. You are never going to be dps in BG1. That will change later (much later) in BG2, but for the whole of BG:EE, crowd control is why you exist.

Forget about damage, throw rocks or darts for something to do until you're needed, and then, when you get to the one encounter your fighters and clerics can't handle, you'll get the enormous satisfaction of saving the day by casting your one spell that wipes out all the enemies and ends the battle.

The fighters who used to make fun of you will begin to respect you.

Lemernis

Here are some basic tactical suggestions for BG1/EE. Emphasis on spellcasting:

• Place at least two solid 'tanks' on the front line. Three is better.
  
  
• For the toughest battles use buffing potions and spells. Haste, once you have that spell.
  
  
• Ranged weapons are king in BG1. Use ranged weapons to disrupt enemy spellcasters.
  
  
• Have mages cast spells that disable opponents. Disabling Area-of-Effect spells are especially effective against mobs, eg, Sleep, Glitterdust, Horror, Emotion: Hopelessness, Chaos. When enemies are hampered or entirely prevented from attacking you they're easy pickins'. Disable first. Then dole damage.
  
  
• Have your mages target the most powerful enemies (their spellcasters and tanks) with disabling spells such as Spook, Chromatic Orb, Blind, Hold (clerics can cast this too), Slow, Confusion, Feeblemind. Priests can use Doom, Summon Insects, Rigid Thinking, Insect Plague. In other words, shut down the opponents' magical attacks.
  
  
• Have your mages take control of enemies and make them attack their own comrades via Charm, Dire Charm, Domination. Once enemies are charmed, take control of them and have them equip their fists versus weapons. When the charmed enemy is a spellcaster, use up his or her most powerful spells--against his/her own comrades, naturally.
  
  
• For a ranged approach (i.e., attacking from a distance) mages and clerics can initiate the battle by casting Grease, Entangle, or Web. Then use Stinking Cloud, Cloudkill, or Ice Storm. All the while pelt the enemy with arrows, fireballs, incendiary potions, and arrows of detonation.

Mathmick

To address points (1) and (2), it probably just feels that game because the pace is really slow. This is a game where attacking once every 2 seconds is typically considered quite fast.
Even your fighters will likely only be able to attack at most twice (in BG1 at least), in the space you can cast two spells.

Primarily the role of your Mage early on is to use Stun-like effects to ensure hits from your party. Sleep, Web and Stinking Cloud are all good examples of this. Once you've thrown one of these out you can start chucking Magic Missiles, Chromatic Orb, Larloch's Minor Drain (Which of these to use depends on your level at the time). Basic attacks with weapons like darts, slings or throwing knives can also work if you attack the 'stunned' targets.

Once you get L3 spells you get access to a few really neat spells. Namely Fireball, Skull Trap, Minute Meteors, Haste and Slow. The first three turn your mage into a beast while available, and the latter two gives a huge advantage to your frontline fighters. If you really want to do lots of damage, try and judge the AoE of Fireball when you cast it. If you can do this, you can get great damage onto most of the enemies while your fighters stand next to them but out of harm's way.

Also, never use melee-range spells as a mage unless you are a Fighter/Mage with heaps of defensive buffs on you.

Mages don't suck. If they did my 5+1/2 mage party would have failed long ago. =P

Agricola

Blind, horror, web, doom, chant, greater malison, confusion, enfeeble, silence 15' radius, holy smite

I cast these spells more than any others.

Doom, chant, greater malison, & sequencer loaded with 2 blind spells will knock out almost any single monster in the game as long as you don't stand adjacent.

PawnSlayer

Essential for a mage - get the Ring of Wizardry early, as it doubles your first level spells (meaning a lot of Magic Missiles - especially for a sorceror! I wouldn't recommend playing a sorceror first or second time though).

It's hidden in a very small alcove in the Friendly Arm Inn area, along the southern edge of the map near the centre.

ScytheKnight

Don't feel bad about strugling with spell casters... been playing these games on and off since Baldur's Gate originally launched and I'm STILL learning how to use magic and magical items to good effect.

Corvino

I've got a multiplayer game going with a friend at the moment. I'm playing a cleric/illusionist and it's deadly.

If you use disabling spells as described above then the rest of your party can deal with the rest. Sleep, Glitterdust, Slow and Emotion are your go-to AoE disabling spells for mages at level 1-4. At level 4 you also get greater Malison which penalises enemy saves and makes the entire thing work. Other spells like blindness, charm/dire charm, spook, horror etc have solid uses too but make sure you know what they do and if you need to lower saves before using them.

Mix in cleric disabling spells like Command (which is awesome. Basillus and Greywolf are two of the harder single enemies in early BG:EE and both are affected and thus neutralised), Hold person, silence 15' radius for casters and so on. Doom deserves an honourable mention for penalising saves as a level 1 spell. If you have a druid then use summon insects (or better, insect plague) on any caster then sit back and watch as they impotently try and cast spells.

You are also the party buffbot, even moreso as cleric/mage. remove fear (level 1 cleric) and protection from evil 10' radius (level 4 cleric) are good, longlasting staples, and haste is a must for any serious combat. Things like improved invisibility have very good situational use (mages cannot cast at improved invibile targets, so sit there doing nothing).

But yeah, you're not going to be singlehandedly killing stuff in BG:EE. You make it possible for melee to function effectively, and stop the party getting shredded by hordes of enemies. It's like all the crowd control needed in some MMOs is condensed down into 1-2 party members, and just as necessary.

As for having few spells, there are a few ways to ameliorate this:
1) Playing as a sorcerer or specialist mage gets you more casts per day with some restricitons.
2) Using the ring of wizardry doubles your first level spells, making you viable early on. The ring of holiness does something similar for clerics.
3) Clerics need wisdom. If your character has cleric levels then they should have maxed wisdom to take advantage of bonus spells.

If in doubt read the spell description. A lot of spells scale with level. Magic missile is rubbish at level 1 when it does 1d4+1 damage. At level 12 or 15 (I forget) it does 5x(1d4+1) damage and is great. Similarly sleep is great against early enemies but as they get more HD and better saving throws it becomes rubbish.