Venturing Uncharted Territory (Wild Mage)

FinaLfront

Reading recent posts on mages has me really fired up to finally try the Wild Mage out. I think I can handle some simultaneous-run action. Sticking to my current BGII run while building this Wild Mage up here and there.

To make RP sense, I think I'm going to score wisdom relatively low, around 10-13. Bring on the flubbed wish spells! I'll also use this opportunity to play out Neera's and what's his name... monk guy person... Anyway, yeah, so this time I'm going to run a decently "good" group. Which means all the people I find funny, and good at things (like tanking) I have to find replacements for.

So, I want my group to look like

PC(Wild Mage)
Neera(Wild Mage)
Monk guy whose name escapes me still (melee damage?)
(Tank)
(Divine) Probably Branwen
(Thief) -Alora? Imoen is good but find her annoying

So I need a good tank it looks like. Maybe Ajantis?
Who is your favorite "good" group match ups? I'd like to avoid the more annoying cast if I can, not that I'm an ass hole or anything (well, maybe a little) It's just that my tolerance for annoying people is too... Ok look, I'm an ass hole. And there's only room for one in my group damnit!

Oh, and sharing any knowledge and experiences with wild magery is welcome!

jackjack

SionIV

FinaLfront said:

Reading recent posts on mages has me really fired up to finally try the Wild Mage out. I think I can handle some simultaneous-run action. Sticking to my current BGII run while building this Wild Mage up here and there.

To make RP sense, I think I'm going to score wisdom relatively low, around 10-13. Bring on the flubbed wish spells! I'll also use this opportunity to play out Neera's and what's his name... monk guy person... Anyway, yeah, so this time I'm going to run a decently "good" group. Which means all the people I find funny, and good at things (like tanking) I have to find replacements for.

So, I want my group to look like

PC(Wild Mage)
Neera(Wild Mage)
Monk guy whose name escapes me still (melee damage?)
(Tank)
(Divine) Probably Branwen
(Thief) -Alora? Imoen is good but find her annoying

So I need a good tank it looks like. Maybe Ajantis?
Who is your favorite "good" group match ups? I'd like to avoid the more annoying cast if I can, not that I'm an ass hole or anything (well, maybe a little) It's just that my tolerance for annoying people is too... Ok look, I'm an ass hole. And there's only room for one in my group damnit!

Oh, and sharing any knowledge and experiences with wild magery is welcome!

Give the gauntlets of dexterity to Ajantis and let him be the tank. Safana or Imoen would be a good thief for you, you'll first get Alora much later in the game unless you're using a mod that changes her location.

Lemernis

I once played a heavily modded Wild Mage concept game via Tutu

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=7288&hl=+wild++mage&fromsearch=1

and really enjoyed it. Basically, concept-wise the PC assembled an oddball group of chaotic types on the theory that he could draw more power from the Weave when surrounded by chaotic behavior or events.

BG1
PC Wild Mage
Imoen (couldn't bring myself to drop her for a Chaotically aligned character)
Minsc as Berserker (via Drew's mini-mod)
Xzar
Tiax
Finch

although I also considered

Imoen - drop after completion of Nashkel Mines
Xzar
Minsc
Xan
Quayle
Tiax

BG2
PC Wild Mage
Minsc
Xan
Jan Jansen
Edwin
Haer'Dalis

and I used the excellent Wild Mage Additions mod

http://mods.jo-ge.net/bg/shaper.htm

which unfortunately I don't think you can run for EE.

The only problem I ran into was with the The Grey Clan Trilogy mod http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/Mods/incandle.php mod, which I found uber-difficult with this particular tank-light party composition.

But anyhoo, for your game Ajantis would certainly be a suitable good aligned meleer. I've read that Kivan can also perform surprisingly well on the front line, if you don't mind sacrificing his excellent skills with the bow. (I just enjoy him so much as a bowman than I find it hard to do this.) Khalid performs well in my experience, although you would have to separate him from Jaheira. Yeslick is a good frontliner, although you can't get him until chapter 4.

Interesting that you find Alora less annoying than Imoen!

FinaLfront

Yeah Ajantis it is for now, and he is doing quite well. TBO I've never played with Alora, and I'm not the biggest fan of Neera so far, but I'll just put up with it. Actually Imoen hasn't been that bad so far. I usually drop her as soon as I can in BG1 so this is a pleasant surprise.

The one thing I really miss on this run is a bard. Those unIDs are piling up... and I have to memorize remove fear... uugh

Lemernis

@FinaLfront Having a Bard along to reduce the hassle factor if unidentified items is really nice, I agree. As is Bard Song. I have them pickpocket whatever they can as well. Might was well get the most out of them. :-)

Aristillius

Bards kick ass ^^

Blackraven

I know a bard who has a 'pretty proposal' for your party. If you do the right thing you can take him along.

Tresset

Wild mages get really good in BG2 if you know how to use them. I like to fill up all my 1st level slots with Nahal's Reckless Dowemer (the most powerful spell in the game) and chain cast spells well above my understanding. I actually did this so much that my wild mage had Horrid Wilting listed as his favorite spell before he was even able to cast level 8 spells. I remember using it to kill most of the liches I met. I could not use it to kill Shangalar though, since I had yet to find a Horrid Wilting scroll when I fought him, so I used Incendiary Cloud instead.

Blackraven

@Tresser, a question from a cautious adventurer who has never worked with Wild Mages (except Neera during brief stints but she never cast any reckless dweomers): did you have to cast Power Word: Reload a lot?

Tresset

@Blackraven No. I did however cast 'Reload Swarm of Armageddon' quite a lot, but that is nothing special for me since I do that with practically all my games (including games other than BG).

I must admit, however, that until I got level seven spells with my wild mage I did prepare for most of those battles by reloading until I managed to cast Improved Chaos Shield successfully.

FinaLfront

@Tresset Yeah, I have to agree at the potential Wild Mages have. I can see Wild Mages being very usefull in high level play as well, when all your level 1 spells can be Meteor Swarms or Time Stops... Getting excited for BGII already.

Gotural

And you can use NRD to cast Chain Contingency with 0% risk of Wild Surge.

Welcome to the wild magic !

Lemernis

Re: the question of reloading due to Wild Mage spell surges, the chance of a surge is one in twenty; and of that 5%, of the possible results in the surge table roughly 1/3 are favorable, 1/3 are relatively benign, and 1/3 are decidedly undesirable.

When you're hoping the Wild Mage can successfully cast a spell to Blind or Hold an enemy, for example, to get gems in his or her inventory instead, or a flock of birds appears etc., is certainly not what you wanted--but it's the sort of thing you can live with. That's akin to the target saving against the spell. The spell didn't work, but there's no real harm done.

But anyway, for the caster to be Held or Silenced and all the other things that you definitely don't want, the odds are actually only about 1-2 percent. It really isn't that risky to play a Wild Mage.

BelgarathMTH

@Lemernis, it is the way some posters are proposing to play one,making NRD the main spell. That spell intentionally causes a wild surge, with Chaos Shield improving the odds of a favorable outcome. (Leaving a still very high probability of an unfavorable outcome, many of which are fatal.)

Tresset

Gotural said:

And you can use NRD to cast Chain Contingency with 0% risk of Wild Surge.

Welcome to the wild magic !

@Gotural Not exactly. Sure chain contingency and several other spells are wild surge proof, but I noticed that casting these spells with NRD makes it so that the very next spell you cast (no matter how you cast it) has a 100% chance of a wild surge.

Gotural

@Tresset‌ It works like that with Sequencers and Triggers spells, but I don't recall that behaviour with Contingency and Chain Contingency. I even tried to give a level 2 Wild Mage the Chain Contingency spell, cast it from NRD and put 3 Magic Missile in it and it worked just fine, the next spell wasn't a Wild Surge.

FinaLfront

@Gotural Oh, wow. Good to know, but I don't know if I'll allow myself to do that

FinaLfront