Pure mage playthrough
Ragnarr
Member Posts: 24
Hi,
I am starting a full serie playthrough with a Pure Mage good alignment. I planning on Learning to master the arcane arts along the way to prepare myself for the SoA and ToB battles. I would like to know if some of you out there can share playthrough experience with a magic-user? Was it rewarding to become very powerful as a mage, was it difficult to master or learn all there is to know regarding our casting abilities?
I just want to get a taste for whats in the pipe for me and my protagonist and read some of your anecdote
Regards
I am starting a full serie playthrough with a Pure Mage good alignment. I planning on Learning to master the arcane arts along the way to prepare myself for the SoA and ToB battles. I would like to know if some of you out there can share playthrough experience with a magic-user? Was it rewarding to become very powerful as a mage, was it difficult to master or learn all there is to know regarding our casting abilities?
I just want to get a taste for whats in the pipe for me and my protagonist and read some of your anecdote
Regards
4
Comments
Finding what spell is useful empirically is fun while it last. Don't go spoiling yourself too much, you can only learn once.
Also, a good pet can do a fighter's work in the first levels.
It is tempting to just sit in the back row and nuke away with fireballs and while that can get you far, it will not help you when things get really difficult.
My advice is to embrace your role and try out all sorts of spells, really learn the spellbook. That knowledge will really come in handy later. It will help you take down enemy defenses when they are immune to damage and almost more importantly, it will help you understand what the enemy is doing to you.
Have fun and stick to the roads in the beginning! You start weak but become invincible over time.
Running away is good, very good.
Every mage should have a sling.
Traversing map areas takes ages due to the extreme caution required (and often requires detours to adjacent areas).
Beware of NPC quests that are on a timer (because of the above).
Traps can really spoil your day.
Rule #1: Get Buffed!
Rule #2: Attack the Darkness!
Rule #3: Drink Up!
Rule #4: Everyone is Expendable.
Rule #5: Control the Flow of Time
Rule #6: Go Long or Go Home
Rule #7: Shut the Door
Rule #8: Aim Away from the Face
Rule #9: Talk it Out
Wait... it sounds... familiar
Really, all those rules in general apply to BG as well.
on the body of Nimbul, the annoying assassin after nashkels mines
Wild surge: Hiccup! (your mage starts to hiccup)
Wild surge: Target hit points double (my enemy an ogre magi got double hp yay!)
Wild surge: Target becomes Itchy! (ogre magi get's the itch!)
Wild surge: Fireball (this one killed half my party)
And thats why we love wild mages
As previously mentioned buff yourself, before the fight if possible. Secondly attack or debuff the enemy.
While a fireball is effective, some times casting confusion or with greater malison can win a fight. Greater malison is a great spell to setup a fight with. Later on when you get chaos use it instead same effect but everyone lvl 4 and below have no saves, while everyone else has -4.
Still that is from lvl 7 and onwards.
So a few tips for lvl 5 and below.
Sleep is one of the most overpowered spells that you get at lvl 1. Since it can if they are clustered put multiple enemies to sleep.
While magic missle is great for a lvl 1 spell I would recommend chromatic orb more before you start hitting lvl 3+, Why? because chromatic orb does the same amount of dmg as magic missle, it casts just as fast. So whats the difference? Well chromatic orb deals blind for 1 round at lvl 1 and at lvl 2 it inflicts pain.
At 9th lvl magic missle shoots 5 missles it will then deal between 10-25 magic dmg but it is great to counter mirror image with since it hits 5 times. Chromatic orb on the other hand stops evolving at lvl 12 where it does 2-16 acid dmg and also if the save is failed it instantly kills the target. So if your using save reduction spells which I always try to do you can actually in SoA and ToB instantly kill dangerous enemies with chromatic orb if your lucky or you have lowered their saves by alot.
Larloch's minor drain can also be great since it always does 4 dmg while chromatic at lvl 1-2 does 1-4 dmg and magic missle does 2-5.
In BG I usually try to get either familiar as one of my first spells because it increases my hp by +6 instantly which usually doubles my hp. The second reason you want a familiar is the fact that familiar are immune to the basilisks attacks which though a bit cheesy means you can go to mutamin's garden put your familiar in front and then just kill the basilisks at range. meaning you can if you have enough ammo without a problem get around 20 000xp if you avoid all the groups that dont only have basilisks in them. In total this map has around 40 000 - 50 000xp that you can earn if you can manage all the fights. So you could if you are playing solo be a lvl 5 mage pretty much at the start of the game. Though some people will call it cheap, this is just being smart also the spell protection from petrification works aswell but it only lasts for 5 turns while the familiar is 100% immune to petrification.
Anyways when I play solo mage from lvl 1 my spells usually look something like this to give you an insight. Lvl 1-2 sleep, chromatic orb, chromatic orb. Lvl 3-5 sleep, armor, magic missle, magic missle, mirror image, invisibilty, monster summoning I or skull trap. Lvl 5+ it starts to depend alot on what kind of fights there are I usually start switching up alot of spells depending on what I will fight. I have'nt really done a solo mage in quite a while I did most of them before BG:EE and I did one last year when BG2:EE came out.
While I've done so called "legit" plays where you progress the story and lvl up along the way, I would strongly advice "powerlvling" to around lvl 5-6 early on so that the rest of the game goes alot smother and easier. It just get's lame after a while to just go in fight kill a small group, sleep, fight, run away, oh they got a crit, reload. After a while, and if your doing a no reload game it's just not fun when an enemy get's a random crit hit that instantly kills your mage.
Anyway's enough ramblings not even sure if any of this is helpful to you