spells and rest
Fysh
Member Posts: 25
One thing I find frustrating is that you can cast so few spells before you need to rest. I'm actually playing a F/M so luckily I can hunt for quite a while before I need to use my 1 spell, but I hate to think how playing a pure mage would be - do you have to rest after every fight?
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The longer answer would be, it depends. At low level my mage goes through many battles doing nothing more than lob sling bullets. Gradually, they acquire wands, scrolls and other items that they can use apart from pure spell casting. The thing to remember about low level mages is; they can't do much, but what they can do is often tide changing. Don't forget the "can't do much" part of it. If you decide to save the sleep or horror spell for another battle, throwing sling bullets truly might be the only thing left they can do. That's okay, just know when you do need them, they can easily be the difference between life and death.
This really is all part of the fun of the game, knowing when to use the resources you have. I remember this all the way back to the very earliest days of my PNP gaming, a party with exhausted spell casters trying to rest to regain their spells, ambushed by a simple opponent, and the whole party having to scramble to find a way to win. Fun stuff.
But also I keep thinking about playing a bard!
But one thing I don't want to do is keep restarting and not getting anywhere!
On the other hand, its your first playthrough, so have fun trying a few different characters and find one you really click with.
Soon, as you start to level up, your mage begins to acquire more spells and he/she will eventually become arguably the most powerful class in the game. Well worth nurturing through the earliest levels. But still, even at level 1, that one or two spells, or that scroll that he carries can make the major difference in an important battle for you.
Is that what they are called nowadyas??? ;P
joking aside...
In PnP, you ability to rest is even MORE restricted then in BG. Mages are all about efficiency...getting the most bang for your buck out of a limited number of resources and then using wands or casting directly from scrolls to make up the difference. Also knowing when spells are actually needed, or when simply throwing a few stones/darts/knives is all the help the party requires. In general, buffs are the most efficient use of spells....they tend to last a long time and overall can add A LOT of damage to the party's total, debuffs are also fairly efficient, since rendering an enemy unable to act for several rounds is usually worth more then just pissing them off with a DD spell.
Haste is a MASSIVE force multiplier, and IH encapsulates that party-wide baddassery into a single character, which is even more efficient since you can put it on a character that's extremely likely to hit with all those extra attacks.
Summons are less effective then they should be....but are still useful, while most are quite fragile, some of them can output massive damage if you protect them, or if nothing else, you can get an enemies attention and kite them, like a no-save crowd control (requires more micromanagement however to get the fullest effect).
In BG, damage wands are fairly plentiful, and have enough charges to easily last the whole game, if only used when necessary. There's several CC wands as well, and once you find those, you can trade your memorized spells around for more speicalized spells (like once you get a sleep wand, swapping all your 1st level spells for blind or spook (both are VERY effective for dealing with strong single targets...blind mages are helpless and spook has a growing save penalty that allows it to work even on the highest levels of enemies without further support (unless they're immune)...or maybe charm if you're feeling lucky (charm has a save bonus though, so it's pretty bad except against the weakest of enemies...who are also easily dealt with by sleep).
It's one of the things that sets (pre-4th) DnD apart from other RPGs...you can generally spam spells as long as you have enough mana/fatigue/whatever which can be replenished, fairly easily (barring the original nintendo Final Fantasys, which pretty much used the exact same casting set up as Sorcerers) with items. While DnD, magic is more surgical, but at the same time, potentially more gamechanging as well.
You just have to play around with it awhile to get used to it. Once you do though...oh man...Physical GOD.
The 1st level cleric spell Command is one of the most powerful and versatile spells in the entire saga...despite never changing what it does. It stays the same no matter if a 1st level or 40th level cleric is casting it. It knocks out the target for 1 round....that's it. But what makes it awesome is, 1. It casts instantly, 2. Targets up to 6 HD don't get a save, and even above is simply a save...no bonus or penalty, so it's still very effective even vs higher level creatures. And 3. KO'd targets are auto-hit. This allows you to interrupt spells instantly or KO a strong target to get in a burst of damage as you unload 6-15 attacks (or even more in the sequel) at them during that 1 round.
In order to bring back a little of the balance, as a rule, I don't rest until the party is fatigued and only in an Inn or specifically designated area (like the top floor of the watcher's keep, it implies that one room with the Symbol is protected and indeed you cannot be interrupted when resting there).
Restart-itis is a terrible disease. It takes some willpower (18 i think) to battle against it.