What would be the most difficult mage specialist/kit for you to play?
elminster
Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
This isn't really a thread about the best mage kit per-se. Realizing that mages are ultimately very powerful either way, I'm just curious what mage specialist/kit you would find to be the most difficult to play in BGEE/BG2EE. This will entirely depend on what spells you like to regularly use.
Me personally it would be the Abjurer (particularly in SoD/BG2). My character would get no Stoneskin, Slow, Haste, Teleport Field, Time Stop, Burning Hands (nice for trolls), etc.
Me personally it would be the Abjurer (particularly in SoD/BG2). My character would get no Stoneskin, Slow, Haste, Teleport Field, Time Stop, Burning Hands (nice for trolls), etc.
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It's really difficult without Spell Immunity, Spell Shield, Remove/Dispel Magic, Spell Strike, Spell Thrust, Secret Word, Pierce Magic, Lower Resistance, MGoI, GoI etc etc.
Literally those are all the spells I choose as fast as I can for a sorcerer.
I couldn't care less about abjuration either, alteration or evocation is where it's at.
For a solo one, undoubtedly the Enchanter. For a party one, I really don't see big differences.
IMO all are pretty good, but Transmuters are the hardest (they require too much micromanagement) ones to play, at least in BG2, because they lack most protections and that makes them too easy to kill.
Everybody says that transmuter is the hardest because they can't protect themselves. They actually can. Stoneskin for physical attacks, mustard jelly shape for magical attacks. Fire shields also provide fire/ice resistance. Good enough protection. Not perfect, but gets the job done. They can also use wands for breach and pierce magic needs, or other party mages or even bards can sub for these. Also, super powerful slow, poly other, disintegrate and flesh to stone spells ftw!
Sure transmuters can get dispelled without spell immunity but you can renew your defenses. Stoneskin is insta-cast. You also have contingencies and triggers for such occasions. Again, not perfect but doable.
A mage that can not cast stoneskin is simply unplayable for me. Abjurer can go pro from weapons but they last too short to be dependable. Without stoneskin you will get hit. And disrupted. And killed. Also abjurers do not enjoy saving throw supremacy for their spells like transmuters do. And then, the coolest and most unique spells such as timestop and shapechange are all transmutation.
Although, playing without Remove Magic against parties with Clerics in SoA is pretty harsh with SCS, no Stoneskin is actually way harder. It's not about getting interrupted... It's about crits dealing 70+ damage and you having no way to stop those and your instant death that follows it. Or not getting melted in a single round by one archer, that's another one, besides not blowing up while you're still casting True Sight and such things. Still, Transmuters require more micromanagement, because Abjurers can't get any type of replacement (Gargoyle Boots on ToB, but it's in ToB and it's just two layers of the spell, besides you can't cast it when dispelled).
I never played kit mage aside of wild magic. I find mage to be very useful when it comes to dispel, so a kit that can't do that would increase the difficulty drastically as stated previously by julius.