Survivable mage tips.

Necomancer

I recently played through my first game as a paladin cavalier with 18con and the best armor I could find. I did lack a shield, but overall I was a tank. Yet many times I almost died only to survive by literally running away like a coward as my allies attacked (and, sometimes, I died anyways). This has made me afraid to attempt a mage class of any sort.

Currently I want to try a sorcerer or bard(Possibly a blade), and I was wondering if anyone had any tips to help me survive the horrors of war. NPCs to recruit(I'll be good aligned)? Stats to focus on? Items to keep handy? Spells necessary? Anything to make me not fear horribly dying every battle?

Tresset

Get the three belts that protect against damage types and switch them out as needed depending on what foes you are facing. A good tactic for any low AC class.

atcDave

The biggest thing is just to keep the mage out of the front ranks. Use a sling or darts when not casting spells (I prefer sling, others will disagree).

There are several good-aligned warrior types for you to choose; I recommend Ajantis, Minsc and Kivan highly.
Even Khalid and Jaheira will work. Some players swear by them, and the bonus is they are recruitable VERY early. But I prefer to dump them for the other characters I mentioned pretty quickly.

CaptRory

Use an armor spell to get long lasting AC for a mage. It is enough so something is unlikely to insta-gib you. Other protective magics can be a great help.

The biggest issue, however, is that mages are great for locking down whole groups of enemies. Sleep, Web, Grease, Fear, Stinking Cloud. All of them are great for slowing down, locking down, or incapacitating large group of enemies. Learning how to use your magic effectively is a big part of being effective and surviving.

Combine effects like Web and Stinking Cloud with long acting damage spells like Cloudkill to really knock the bad guys down a few pegs.

If the enemy is unconscious, asleep, or webbed they won't be killing your mage or other party members.

Necomancer

CaptRory said:

Use an armor spell to get long lasting AC for a mage. It is enough so something is unlikely to insta-gib you. Other protective magics can be a great help.

The biggest issue, however, is that mages are great for locking down whole groups of enemies. Sleep, Web, Grease, Fear, Stinking Cloud. All of them are great for slowing down, locking down, or incapacitating large group of enemies. Learning how to use your magic effectively is a big part of being effective and surviving.

Combine effects like Web and Stinking Cloud with long acting damage spells like Cloudkill to really knock the bad guys down a few pegs.

If the enemy is unconscious, asleep, or webbed they won't be killing your mage or other party members.

Note to self:keep AI off when casting area effect spells, or at least make sure no melee weapons are equipped.

smeagolheart

mirror image helps in a pinch too

CaptRory

Pretty much, yeah. Ranged weapons are amazing. Everyone that can be should be proficient in at least one. There are sooo many things that can just step on your low level characters if they get in melee range...

Another thing is to mind what characters are immune to. Like, my Cavalier was immune to Poison (which includes Cloudkill) and with the Spider's Bane sword he was immune to Web. So he often went in to smack guys around while they were webbed and cloudkilled. He also had crazy good Fire Resistance. So I sent him in, not only to tank Fire Enemies like the Phoenix guys, but when I was going to drop a bunch of fireballs and needed a speed bump. If I cast Resist Fire on him, he actually gained a little health from each fireball/fire attack.

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Tresset

I will elaborate on the three main armor spells in the game. The first level 1 called simply armor lasts by far the longest but offers relatively poor protection (an archmage robe is better, available to all respectable characters at your local High Hedge). Ghost Armor and Spirit Armor are almost the same in terms of protection. Ghost armor give one less AC than Spirit armor but is probably better all things considered since it lasts much longer and is level 3 rather than level 4. I still use spirit armor more though because it is easier to find early on, it gives a bonus to save vs spell, and it can target anyone in your party (perfect for a kensai, shapeshifter, or other armor restricted class). Don't worry about the damage that spirit armor does either. It is very minor and usually doesn't happen at all (when spirit armor is cast you can save vs. spell to avoid the damage but there is no mention of this in the description). There is also the level 1 spell Shield. This spell offers pretty good protection for being only level 1 but lasts a really short time.

Of course even with these spells you can still get hit and your low mage HP will often fail you.

CaptRory

The real benefit of the Armor spell is that it is first level. Lasts a long time. And keeps you from being randomly pincushioned while walking around before you get the good robes. You can throw the Armor spell on and most of the low level annoyances are going to miss while you get your own battle line in order and snap off a Sleep spell or something.

Tresset

I liek the wild mages cuz they can cast really hard spells with Nahal's. Pick up Neera at the right time and you can be a lvl 3 wild mage running around with a stoneskin!

CaptRory

Or Cloudkill. Grab that scroll and its a heck of an ambush. If you care to reload a thousand times til it takes.

Tresset

That's the one thing about wild mages. Not for the minimal reload people.

Necomancer

I love wild mages in concept, but I think I'll settle on a sorcerer, or a bard. I think a blade is for me. Besides, if I need a wild mage I have Neera now.

CaptRory

If you choose not to abuse the heck out of Nahal's a Wild Mage is a lot of fun, hehehehe.

Oxford_Guy

Once you get the Find Familiar scroll, cast that, as gives you up to 6 extra HP in BGEE (12 in SoA, 24 in ToB)

dstoltzfus

Shield also makes you immune to magic missiles and stacks with dexterity bonuses. 5 rounds can be a lot, especially in an ambush. Plus, it gives an additional -2 AC vs missile weapons on top of the dexterity bonus.

EDIT: I would pick Find Familiar as a starting spell, so you get extra HP right away (you can rest in Candlekeep for something else before you leave).

zur312

mirror image
later stone skin
mage armor is pretty good lvl1 spell too
globe of invurnability for tanking 1-3 lvl spells and you are (almost) immortal in bg1

i would recommend playing as druid-avenger(kind of like a mage/druid really cool class) differences with mage
more hp
he can wear some armor and shield
he has few good mage spells + druidic spells
he can shapeshift

bill_zagoudis

any problem you might have will be solved with stoneskin,it's simply too strong and the only reason it exists in this form is because there is no competitive multiplayer

even a fighter/mage can easily dispatch a pure fighter in mellee if he simply casts stoneskin and autoattacks

also the duration is 24hrs so you should never walk without it

ofc you should avoid the frontline anyways but you can tank in a pinch with stoneskin and protection from magical weapons(late) mantle(early)

CaptRory

If they added the ridiculous cost involved in casting spells like Stoneskin or Raise Dead it'd balance a lot of these things out.

zur312

i don't know much about pnp only played games with dnd but mages > clerics> other characters in terms of power are indeed a little imbalanced

CaptRory

I'm talking about individual spells. The Stoneskin Spell required... I think it was 1,000gp in crushed diamonds. So its not the sort of thing you could cast at the start of each day no matter how rich you were.

zur312

but no such requirment in crpg dnd games so mages = op

CaptRory

Mages are always over powered. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards

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Necomancer

Samus said:

I am surprised no one wrote: dual-class your mage...

That reminds me, I need to figure out if I want to play a bard or a fighter/mage/thief sometime. To sing, or to be overly complicated?

CaptRory

Be a bard. There's quite a bit Bard-only equipment and the bard stronghold in BG2 is fun.

dstoltzfus

If you become a bard, considering it's the sword coast, you can sing in the rain...so bard.

Necomancer

@CaptRory

@dstoltzfus

You have sold me.

CaptRory

@Necomancer How much does a Necomancer go for? Did we earn a commission? hehehe~

All the bard kits are pretty good. Even the plain vanilla bard, which is usually considered the weakest, is plenty useful. So you can't really pick wrong hehe.

zur312

CaptRory said:

@Necomancer How much does a Necomancer go for? Did we earn a commission? hehehe~

All the bard kits are pretty good. Even the plain vanilla bard, which is usually considered the weakest, is plenty useful. So you can't really pick wrong hehe.

this is so funny
in bg1 bards level faster than mages
can backstab (need invisibility)
that is so weak of them ; D