WILD MAGES are incredibly risky. They are so risky they must only be used by the most expert of RPGer. A miss-roll will mean a wild surge summoning the DEMOGORGON - which will proceed to flay every inhabitant of AMN. The most minor of miscast from the inexperienced WILD MAGE player will cause earthquakes, ripping open ground beneath, with wild magma spurting forth to consume the unwary player and party. A misplaced gaze will cause all to turn to stone. A misplaced heal will cause instant death. A harmless infravision spell to see in the dark will mean meteors raining forth searing brimstone from above. A wish spell gone awry will summon a psychotic genie who only grants the castor the OPPOSITE of what they wish. Finally, a simple magic missile surge will cause all gold in the realms to turn to IRON, thereby causing depression and famine that no reload can undo - only a full uninstall and full hard drive reformat (three pass secure erase) can undo it. The whole process takes four days and involves installing thirty-five patches in the correct order. No my friend, please, for the sake of your sanity stay away from the WILD MAGE. Play a plain cleric instead and be happy for it.
@CyricSpawn, well, it didn't convince me to play a wild mage, because it's just not my kind of class, but it did convince me to stop being a spoilsport, popping everybody's balloons, taking away their candy, and raining on their parade. Just because I don't care for it myself, I shouldn't spoil it for all the people who get a kick out of it.
@Space_hamster, LOL. I have such funny, creative, friends in here. Practicing the art of the humorous hyperbole today, are we?
Not really TOO risky, though every once in a while you may have to reload. I always thought they were fun to play. Sometimes annoying and hilarious things happened though. On my first wild mage runthrough of BGII, my character accidentally turned herself into a guy. She turned back in less than an in game day, but unfortunately, the gender actually got changed long enough that it triggered the Aerie romance, and I had her swooning over my female elf wildmage the entire game, and it was awkward. Also I was completely orange-colored for half the game. I turned myself orange, and dispel magic wouldn't work. Nothing would work. My clothes, skin, weapons, armor, and hair were all bright neon-y orange and there was nothing I could do about it. I roleplayed through it, as ridiculous as it was. Finally some beholder shot an eyebeam at me in the underdark and it made me normal colored again. So apparently when beholders dispel magic it works but when I try to it doesn't. But yeah. In technical terms, there's a little risk involved, but it just makes it more fun (Unless you accidentally summon a demon, in which case, RELOAD RELOAD RELOAD). But if you're roleplaying with a wild mage around, that way lies madness.
Been playing my wild mage for a bit know and ... I have not even had a cow kill anyone yet... Lots of Birds exploding onto the scene for some reason... Colour sparkles? Lots of those... Some potion in my pocket, yes. Gems appearing yes (although I was nearly wiped out at this point as I really needed to get an acid arrow in to stop a mage frying my party... No loss Minsc and Yoshimo bit the dust... Reserrected soon after.)
I WANT to accidently summon a demon... But will that dice roll come? No.
Wild mage is an incredible class. The problem is that the game made a very limited implementation of wild mages and their ways of controlling magical energy and wild surges. Allow me to quote myself in the original Neera Thread.
"Magic was once much more powerful and flexible in the Realms until a Netherese Mage developed a powerful spell to steal Mystra's (the goddess of magic) power.
The spell backfired killing Mystra, destroying the Weave, the magical energy network that exists around the world, almost killing the entire Netherese civilization.
The new Mystra limited the way mortals could access magic, making it a very formalized proccess... If you want to use a fireball you have to move like this, speak that and use bat guano as focus material.
That was true until the Time of Troubles. The Wild Magic zones intrigued some mages as efects could happen inside one, without meeting the formal pre-requisites of casting a spell.
Some extremely intelligent mages, studying this effects discovered a way of accessing raw magcal energies, bypassing the formalism of the Weave.
It was hard and took years of study.
What Nahal's Reckless Dweomer does is that, it bypasses the formal requirements of the Weave to draw raw magical energy to the caster that uses his knowledge to shape it dynamically into the effect he desires. But keep in mind, it's just a level 1 spell. there were many better spells available to a wild mage that never were implemented in BG2.
What we see of Wild Mages in BG2 is a subset of what they could do. A Wild Mage powerful enough could cast spells normally in a Wild Magic Zone without being affected by it, could force all casters around him to misfire their spells, eventually had enough control over more refined Dweomers to call forth most spell effects they desired.
And finally to answer your question, a wild mage had to know and dominate everything a normal mage knew plus the magical equivalent of advanced quantum theory. Just in his case the theory could kill him if he misunderstood or lost his concentration.
Let me give you some nice examples of spells that were never implemented:
Wildstrike - the target must save vs spell or every spell or spell-like ability automatically becomes a surge. The Wild Mage's level is subtracted from the surge roll.
Wildshield - the caster is surrounded by a color shield that automatically absorbs 2d6 spell levels cast against him. Wild surges are absorbed as well and count as 1d6 levels of spells.
Hornung's Surge Selector - If a Wild Surge happens, the wild mage rolls twice in the wild surge table and chooses which effect will actually happen. Lasts for 1 surge/ 5 levels or 12 hours.
Spellshape - If a spell is targeted at the wild mage, he gets a save, if successful, he disassembles the magic energy of the spell and uses it to empower one of his own, being able to immediately cast one of his own spells without forgetting it."
So the fact is we got in BG a very limited wild mage with all the disadvantages and very few of the advantages. I'd really like to see the whole Wild Spell list of 2nd edition implemented.
Wild mages also had a chance to control the outcome of random magical itens, such as decks of many things. A wild mage with a wand of wonder in his hands was something to put fear in the hearts of enemies.
BTW Nahal's Reckless Dweomer is what I call a last hope spell. It was never supposed to be used that frequently. I played a wild mage in P&P years ago up to level 19 and I probably used Nahal's 3 or 4 times. And I HAD all the spells that allowed me to control/absorb wild surges.
I agree wild mages are supposed to be more powerful with some more unique spells and abilities that only they can have. There is an excellent wild mage additions mod for the wild mage characters in BG2, it added some fun, new, unique and powerful wild magic spells. Also, refinements mod added spesific HLAs for every mage-specialisation, IIRC they had that Wildstrike spell. Ofcourse these are not compatible with our beloved BG:EE...yet.
Comments
@Belgarathmth has the poem convinced you to give the wild side a spin?
Looking at the numbers the odds seem pretty ok most of the time
@Space_hamster, LOL. I have such funny, creative, friends in here. Practicing the art of the humorous hyperbole today, are we?
I WANT to accidently summon a demon... But will that dice roll come? No.
(hope you understand what i mean)
just got 5 wildsurges in one go, wohoo!
Wild surge got into our wild surge.
"Magic was once much more powerful and flexible in the Realms until a Netherese Mage developed a powerful spell to steal Mystra's (the goddess of magic) power.
The spell backfired killing Mystra, destroying the Weave, the magical energy network that exists around the world, almost killing the entire Netherese civilization.
The new Mystra limited the way mortals could access magic, making it a very formalized proccess... If you want to use a fireball you have to move like this, speak that and use bat guano as focus material.
That was true until the Time of Troubles. The Wild Magic zones intrigued some mages as efects could happen inside one, without meeting the formal pre-requisites of casting a spell.
Some extremely intelligent mages, studying this effects discovered a way of accessing raw magcal energies, bypassing the formalism of the Weave.
It was hard and took years of study.
What Nahal's Reckless Dweomer does is that, it bypasses the formal requirements of the Weave to draw raw magical energy to the caster that uses his knowledge to shape it dynamically into the effect he desires. But keep in mind, it's just a level 1 spell. there were many better spells available to a wild mage that never were implemented in BG2.
What we see of Wild Mages in BG2 is a subset of what they could do. A Wild Mage powerful enough could cast spells normally in a Wild Magic Zone without being affected by it, could force all casters around him to misfire their spells, eventually had enough control over more refined Dweomers to call forth most spell effects they desired.
And finally to answer your question, a wild mage had to know and dominate everything a normal mage knew plus the magical equivalent of advanced quantum theory. Just in his case the theory could kill him if he misunderstood or lost his concentration.
Let me give you some nice examples of spells that were never implemented:
Wildstrike - the target must save vs spell or every spell or spell-like ability automatically becomes a surge. The Wild Mage's level is subtracted from the surge roll.
Wildshield - the caster is surrounded by a color shield that automatically absorbs 2d6 spell levels cast against him. Wild surges are absorbed as well and count as 1d6 levels of spells.
Hornung's Surge Selector - If a Wild Surge happens, the wild mage rolls twice in the wild surge table and chooses which effect will actually happen. Lasts for 1 surge/ 5 levels or 12 hours.
Spellshape - If a spell is targeted at the wild mage, he gets a save, if successful, he disassembles the magic energy of the spell and uses it to empower one of his own, being able to immediately cast one of his own spells without forgetting it."
So the fact is we got in BG a very limited wild mage with all the disadvantages and very few of the advantages. I'd really like to see the whole Wild Spell list of 2nd edition implemented.
Wild mages also had a chance to control the outcome of random magical itens, such as decks of many things. A wild mage with a wand of wonder in his hands was something to put fear in the hearts of enemies.
BTW Nahal's Reckless Dweomer is what I call a last hope spell. It was never supposed to be used that frequently. I played a wild mage in P&P years ago up to level 19 and I probably used Nahal's 3 or 4 times. And I HAD all the spells that allowed me to control/absorb wild surges.
I agree wild mages are supposed to be more powerful with some more unique spells and abilities that only they can have. There is an excellent wild mage additions mod for the wild mage characters in BG2, it added some fun, new, unique and powerful wild magic spells. Also, refinements mod added spesific HLAs for every mage-specialisation, IIRC they had that Wildstrike spell. Ofcourse these are not compatible with our beloved BG:EE...yet.