Starting character
What's really hard is that mages can't wear more than studded armor I believe and it's difficult to play a singleton mage on the easiest setting. I've been reading up on starting characters to try to find the best fit for me but I can't. How do you decide, after all the reading of the manual and such, how do you decide what type of character to start out with? I get part way through and then feel convinced that my character is horrible.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
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Comments
The problem with just starting out is that you don't know how to coax the power out of the classes and it can make it hard to find one that you really like.
Try rolling up a cleric (especially a Half-Orc cleric, you'll get nice bonuses to combat effectiveness, or an Elf gives you nice Dex with bonus resistances and the Con penalty doesn't hurt since only fighter-types really benefit from Con higher than 16).
When picking magic focus on the Command spell to start. Clerics are great healers but healing is usually sub-optimal, you're better using buffs, debuffs, summoned monsters, etc. to prevent damage from actually happening than trying to heal mid-combat. That's what potions are for (you may need to heal in combat but if you're doing it right those are few and far between til you can slap someone with the Heal spell in the second game).
Dual-classing out of something is always an option. I've always been a fan of dual-classing out of swashbuckler into mage (which nets you thieving skills and a bonus to AC). A straight forward suggestion is to just take 2 levels of a non-kitted fighter and dual class from there. Simply put that gets you some hit points and helmet proficiency.
Remember: a mage may not always spend his lower levels casting spells all the time. I usually find my casters (including clerics) just using projectiles on weaker enemies. When a bigger enemy shows up then I pull out spells and other special powers. I refer back to a gnomish fighter/illusionist or the elven fighter/mage, characters whose high THAC0 benefit this style of play. Even in higher end game levels those hit points are not unloved.
I have 2 mages in my party and it seems like every major fight they clear out 80% of the bad guys through fireball or fear or confusion. Mages are fun too. fighter are just click swing swing swing kill click swing sing potion kill.
As others have said though, a single class Mage or something like a Mage/Cleric multiclass aren't going to be casting too many spells early and are simply put, going to be weaker sling throwers (Sling is definitely a proficiency any spellcaster should get at the start, as the THACO penalty is too rough if you don't get that proficiency). It takes mages a few levels to get to the point you can cast some spells for more than a fight or two, but there's nothing wrong with Mages just using slings until they've leveled up a few times and actually have a few more useful spells memorized. Ammunition is cheap anyway and you might occasionally hit the enemy if you have a good Dexterity score.
Dexterity btw is probably the second most important stat for a Mage or Sorcerer behind their spellcasting stat (Intelligence and Charisma respectively). Dexterity gives you bonuses to ranged attack which you'll be doing a good deal even when you've got more spell slots available (some enemies aren't worth using spells on), and the max bonus you get with Constitution and hit points is +2 per level on top of the fact you get few hit points per level anyway, so having a high Dexterity means you'll get better mileage out of it being higher than 16 and it goes better with your defensive buffs to keep you alive. Strength isn't so bad for stuff like carrying weight or a damage bonus using slings, but since you can't wear armor you don't really need Strength for a Mage unless you multi or dual class (there's also a spell that can buff your Strength). Your defenses take priority over Strength generally, unless you know how to use your spellcaster and don't care about having a high Constitution.
Btw one little thing for clarification, Thieves are the class that can't wear more than Studded Leather Armor. Mages don't get to wear any armor and wear robes instead. Unless you multi or dual class that is. Some classes will get to use or wear special equipment though, or have items designed with their class in mind. So while a Bard can cast spells, they can't cast spells while wearing armor. Bards also don't get to wear Mage robes as armor, so they lose out on that to Mages. You have to find special armor for a class like Bards or something like a Fighter/Mage to cast spells while wearing armor.
The class that's easily the weakest in the first game though is the Monk, do not try playing a Monk until you've gotten a good grasp of the game. Because of the level cap the Monk doesn't get any really useful bonuses that would help them out a lot. Their fists don't end up being treated as magical weapons until the second game, and they don't get some of the same stat benefits that Fighter classes do like with Strength or Constitution. They are fairly gimped characters in the first game that will end up surprisingly using slings for a little while or whatever melee weapons their proficient with, since they need a magical weapon at some point to hit stuff. Mages at least will get spells to dish out punishment and give you crowd control, Monks get very little so it could be worse than a single class Mage in the early going. Haha. Monks of course end up being considerably better down the road once some of their higher end abilities actually take hold, but those nice things just don't show up in the first game so it makes playing them for new players a big chore.
Also, Sorcerers don't have a casting stat within this engine... it aught to be Charisma, but it isn't implemented in any way.