@Jolanthus the things I miss most on my Invoker, especially at level 1 are sleep and armor.
@Roller12 I'll admit, I've come to accept that sleep and chaos are things I really wish I had more often, but that is because as I've grown up I've come to realize the benefits of controlling and debuffing enemies. That said nothing quite satisfies as much as fireball. If I can get my current playthrough off the ground, I thankfully will have 3 arcane casters (Blade, Immi as a dual class at 6 (I think that's what they do for her BG2 dual), and then Xan). That'll also allow me to use both the Good and Neutral Robes of the Arch Magi.
Easy, Conjuration by far, Divination was imo the weakest link in the chain when it came to the types of spells I required in order to be effective, ie mostly damage/buff type spells.
The thing about specializations in AD&D is it wasn't about your main school. It was all about your opposed school. That's why I am glad they changed it around for 3e.
I can live without any one school. I find Diviner as one of the best specs for mages in Bg1
@sandmanCCL really, the only spell I can think of that would have been useful to have as a spellcaster from the Divination School would have been Identify (in BG1). This becomes redundant in BG2 when you can grab the glasses of identification for example, whereas by specialising in Divination, you end up missing out on some of the coolest spells, such as Maze, Power Word (Blind, Stun, Silence), Wish, Summon Fiend, Gate etc, or from BG1 you would miss out on Melf's Acid Arrow and Flame arrow. I definitely found those spells much more useful in my playthroughs.
You miss my point. You don't pick a school because of the actual school it represents, at least in AD&D. You pick a school merely because of what opposes it. Honestly I rarely have any divination spells equipped even when I roll diviner.
Conjuration is pretty great. I like it a lot. That said, it's also pretty easy to live without it. I rank it 4th on my tier of spell schools (1 is Alteration, 2 is Abjuration, 3 is Illusion.) Chances are you'll have a divine spellcaster in the group who can be a makeshift summoner if you really need it, and so all you really miss out on is a couple direct damage spells you can easily replace.
Melf's is nice. However Aganazzar's Scorcher is just as if not more damaging as you can hit multiple targets with it.
Flame Arrow is okay I guess. It's just redundant as a third level spell. Fireball and Lightning and Haste and Dispel and Dire Charm and Slow and Skull Trap and... So many good 3rd level spells. I'm shocked you actually make use of Flame Arrow. Losing out on Ghost Armor is a bigger deal here than losing out on summons/Flame Arrow.
I much prefer how it works in 3rd Edition. The bonus to DC spells of your chosen school get actually means you pick any particular school FOR THAT SCHOOL. It just isn't that way in AD&D and therefore Baldur's Gate.
I much prefer how it works in 3rd Edition. The bonus to DC spells
While this isn't the only bonus you get for specializing, it is my understanding from a ancient discussion in these forums that 2nd ed also had a similar bonus in the form of improved rolls and saving throws towards the favoured school.
That's fair enough, I used to just use wands for fireball and lightning in BG1 to free up spell slots, but I only ever played a Conjurer in my first playthrough (back when I was a teen), so my memory of spells used is a little fuzzy, I just remember agonising over why I chose that particular School due to the spells available under Divination. As for 3rd edition, I have never played a spellcaster in NWN1 & 2 for example so I don't have much experience with that, but I think I get what you are saying now.
While this isn't the only bonus you get for specializing, it is my understanding from a ancient discussion in these forums that 2nd ed also had a similar bonus in the form of improved rolls and saving throws towards the favoured school.
It's possible. I don't own any AD&D books to know. It isn't that way in any of the Infinity Engine games, however.
Wild Mages...Ensuring every run is different, no matter HOW many times you've played. And I refuse to use any specialists until they have the proper benefits and penalties.
Yeah specialists are supposed to get +1 to saves against their school, and a -1 save penalty to spells they cast from their school.
And 15% better chance to learn spells from their school, and 15% worse to learn spells from other schools..
Also every school except Divination and Illusion is supposed to have 2 barred schools. Divination loses 1, while Illusion loses 3.
Also, There's supposed to be 2 schools of divination, lesser for 4th level and lower, that all mages can learn, and greater 5th level and higher, that is barred by conjuration.
I go for Wild Mage because he at least has the advantage to turn his level 1 slot in every spell if you are suicidal. The other mages are all completely outshined by Sorcerers.
If we're talking PnP, rather then BG...I'd probably be a conjurer...the loss of greater divination and evocation/invocation would hurt a little, but on the other hand, summoning is powerful as hell in PnP. Wouldn't be a wild mage, despite my preference for them, as that would be two more dice to roll every turn I tried to cast a spell and it would get annoying fast.
The Baldur's Gate implementation is a bit problematic compared to pen and paper. I do love conjurer, especially since Grease is my favorite spell ever (not as good in BG series, but still, you can throw down grease, entangle and web from other casters and just shoot your enemies to death), and the loss of evocation/invocation and greater divination wasn't too bad. There are plenty of damage spells to go around between all of the other colleges to make up for evocation. Enforcing the actual specialist rules (including the bonus slot only being used for a spell of your specialty) would be nice.
Wild mage is just fun though! Personally it's how I think sorcerers ought to work, chaotically ripping spell effects out of the aether, but this way works fine. I like sprinkling a bit of humor and chaos into my games, so my vote ultimately goes to wild mage.
Wild mage is fun and challengin! No game playthrough is the same with a wild mage. You can learn and cast exactly the same spells in same places, if you want, but it won't be the same!
Polls like this can lead to opinons and conflicts if the wrong people get involved. But personally hands down the Non-Specialists should win as it is very mage in one minus Wild Mage and can perform however type you want as they can learn every spell in the game minus the chaos shields and dweomer spell and have no school restrictions for losing an extra spell slot is worth it in my opinion. Its like every mage united to perform without conflicting one another and they make for a specialist mage for every single situation without a con included how I look at them. My buddy always makes one non specialist for that reason. Saves trying to choose because so many specialists are great to use but its so hard to pick a complete favorite when you may as well do them all at once. Its like a Triple Class made char cept 9 mages in one
Even though it's not actually a specialisation, but a kit (by PnP, a multiclass can take a mage kit, but not a specialisation unless they're gnomes), Wild Mage is by far my favourite type of mage. Short term, they have no limitations to their spell school and can cast an extra spell/level/day, which means yet another Sleep spell you can throw before being useless. Yet they aren't barred from casting any kind of spell.
They're also a mini-sorcerer, able to cast any spell they know with level 1 slots - of which you can easily have five or more.
Long term, their unreliability dwindles from the "unlikely unless you're abusing Nahal's" to "Pretty much never, thank you Chaos Shield", and you're by far the best spellcaster in the game and Edwin's crying pretty, pretty tears of frustration as you single handedly polymorph Elminster into a newt.
Comments
@Roller12 I'll admit, I've come to accept that sleep and chaos are things I really wish I had more often, but that is because as I've grown up I've come to realize the benefits of controlling and debuffing enemies. That said nothing quite satisfies as much as fireball. If I can get my current playthrough off the ground, I thankfully will have 3 arcane casters (Blade, Immi as a dual class at 6 (I think that's what they do for her BG2 dual), and then Xan). That'll also allow me to use both the Good and Neutral Robes of the Arch Magi.
The thing about specializations in AD&D is it wasn't about your main school. It was all about your opposed school. That's why I am glad they changed it around for 3e.
I can live without any one school. I find Diviner as one of the best specs for mages in Bg1
Conjuration is pretty great. I like it a lot. That said, it's also pretty easy to live without it. I rank it 4th on my tier of spell schools (1 is Alteration, 2 is Abjuration, 3 is Illusion.) Chances are you'll have a divine spellcaster in the group who can be a makeshift summoner if you really need it, and so all you really miss out on is a couple direct damage spells you can easily replace.
Melf's is nice. However Aganazzar's Scorcher is just as if not more damaging as you can hit multiple targets with it.
Flame Arrow is okay I guess. It's just redundant as a third level spell. Fireball and Lightning and Haste and Dispel and Dire Charm and Slow and Skull Trap and... So many good 3rd level spells. I'm shocked you actually make use of Flame Arrow. Losing out on Ghost Armor is a bigger deal here than losing out on summons/Flame Arrow.
I much prefer how it works in 3rd Edition. The bonus to DC spells of your chosen school get actually means you pick any particular school FOR THAT SCHOOL. It just isn't that way in AD&D and therefore Baldur's Gate.
Yeah specialists are supposed to get +1 to saves against their school, and a -1 save penalty to spells they cast from their school.
And 15% better chance to learn spells from their school, and 15% worse to learn spells from other schools..
Also every school except Divination and Illusion is supposed to have 2 barred schools. Divination loses 1, while Illusion loses 3.
Also, There's supposed to be 2 schools of divination, lesser for 4th level and lower, that all mages can learn, and greater 5th level and higher, that is barred by conjuration.
Wild mage is just fun though! Personally it's how I think sorcerers ought to work, chaotically ripping spell effects out of the aether, but this way works fine. I like sprinkling a bit of humor and chaos into my games, so my vote ultimately goes to wild mage.
Why do they make me remember the line the imperial soldier said when Kefka tried to burn down Figaro at the beginning parts of FF6 lol.
Fire! Fire! Heh heh heh.
Second choice would be Diviner. I like playing elves and I NEED Magic Missile, so Enchanter is out.
They're also a mini-sorcerer, able to cast any spell they know with level 1 slots - of which you can easily have five or more.
Long term, their unreliability dwindles from the "unlikely unless you're abusing Nahal's" to "Pretty much never, thank you Chaos Shield", and you're by far the best spellcaster in the game and Edwin's crying pretty, pretty tears of frustration as you single handedly polymorph Elminster into a newt.