Mage: Tips and Tricks
chickenhed
Member Posts: 208
Even though I've been playing BG since it was released, I must admit that I have almost never played any arcane spellcaster as my character. In addition, the mages that are in my party are usually relegated to dispell/breach duty so my warriors can smash.
I am very aware that I am vastly underplaying what the mage is capable of, but their spells, order in which to cast them, and in what situations to cast them, confuse me.
I was hoping that some BG vets could come along and give me some tips on general mage gameplay. For example:
- What to do against fully buffed enemy mages in mage vs mage combat.
- Tips on spells that you may think some people may not know (gated summons cannot be killed via Death Spell like other summons can for example).
- Powerful or fun spell combos you employ.
You get the idea. Any tips welcome!
I am very aware that I am vastly underplaying what the mage is capable of, but their spells, order in which to cast them, and in what situations to cast them, confuse me.
I was hoping that some BG vets could come along and give me some tips on general mage gameplay. For example:
- What to do against fully buffed enemy mages in mage vs mage combat.
- Tips on spells that you may think some people may not know (gated summons cannot be killed via Death Spell like other summons can for example).
- Powerful or fun spell combos you employ.
You get the idea. Any tips welcome!
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Comments
Also, if you manage to nail an enemy caster with blindness or an insect-cloud spell like creeping doom, they will be fairly helpless. Same thing goes for power word silence, it's rare that the vanilla AI will use vocalize, even liches.
Typically, they start as support classes, the most powerful spells early on are ones which disable or inhibit opponents - you end up using them in nastier encounters, but for the most part, the dont actually deal much dame at all.
A bit later, around level 6, where they pick up fireball, the single target damage still kind of sucks, but the aoe damage hurts a bit more, so you start to use them to deal damage in the firsdt couple of rounds of the fight. After that, disabling effects are still mostly what is used up to the end of bg1.
In bg2, mages start to get enough spells per day that they dont run out all the time like earlier. In addition, single target damage kicks on to a fairly decent level, although youll find that you rarely use it. Prebuffing the party for difficult encounters becomes one of the main tactics of the game. Your crowd control start to become aoe crowd control and is therefore much better.
Then, later on, around level 10-12 you'll start to get anti-magical defense spells to use against enemy mages, which will make your life a *lot* easier. This is the level that mages start to come into thier own. Anti-mage magic never goes out of fashion, but a few levels later, youll probably replace some of your crowd control spells with instant death spells or just very high Aoe damage spells. Finally, at the end of SoA/ Start of ToB you hit level 9 spells and HLAs, which just make mages infinitely powerful.
You will thus end up with a ton of anti-magic defense spells in lower slots + the rest as party buffs, and then your level 9 spell slots will be the vast majority of your offensive ability - what you chose can vary, but you'll basically lose interest in lower level attack spells.
My tip = Use breach, pierce shield, khelbens warding whip, ruby ray of reversal, and any other magic-pierce spells you can lay your hand on.
And in bg1, equip a sling.
Don't know if they'll change this later but, originally, each magic missile you fire will take out one of the images in a mirror image (if it doesn't actually hit the target). That means that a few magic missile spells at higher level can really chew through enemy mirror images.
Friends
An under-appreciated spell. This is a good way to decrease shop prices.
Lightning Bolts, ER, and dungeons
If you have the supplies to buff up a wizard to have an electrical resistance to 100% (scrolls of protection, potion of absorption, etc.), you can send him invisible into a narrow dungeon room full of tough enemies. Shoot a lightning bolt. They bounce around A LOT. You can often do a whole lot of damage in a very short amount of time. Without the ER, you'll likely torch yourself.
Summoned Monsters and AoE
If there are many enemies in a room, you can summon some monsters in some strategic location. Once the enemies cluster around them, drop an AoE like fireball. Keep your tanks just outside the exit to cut down any attempting to escape the barrage of spells.
Disrupting Spells
A great way to combat enemy mages is to have a damaging spell with a very short casting time ready. Wait (cast nothing) until that enemy begins to cast a spell, pause the game and target him with your spell. Often, you will be able to finish your spell and damage him before he finishes his, disrupting his spell. Magic Missile is easily one of the best for this.
Play through the entire series of games with an all fighter-type party. The point at which the game starts becoming harder (around lvl 11-12) is the point where mages start to become very good.
(Not quite Mage related, but Silence is one of the best spells in BG1. There's nothing funnier than seeing Drasus' cronies resort to chucking darts at your fighters because they can't cast any spells).
I had almost no use for my dual wielding capability, the sword spider gets 5 attacks per round and poisons. It eats stoneskins for breakfast and spits out silence to nulify casters, paralasis for auto hits on armored targets, and fireballs / aganazars scorchers all from clickies and wands.
Also even the most powerful enemy mages in the game like the Lich are nullified by turning into a mustard jelly for 100% spell resistance. I often hear a lot of people who say that polymorph is weak, more like they simply never tried the auto hasted 5 attacks per round sword spider buffed with mirror image, stoneskin and spirir armor. Its just pure rape.
If you're fighting a big mob - Web, stinking cloud, greater malison, cloud kill, mass hold and fireballs. All dead.
The tricky part in the game is fighting enemy mages because you will need to get rid of their protections first. When you have more than 1 mage (I usually have at least 2) of your own you can strip enemy mages of their defenses much sooner. Getting a melf's acid arrow on them quickly will often win the battle because it will keep disrupting their spell casting. After that you can focus on removing combat protections and smashing them to bits.
At higher levels you can abuse time stops with multiple mages if you *time* it right. Not that you'd really need to do that, but it is funny.
He/she will be evil of course. Not sure on a name...
- What to do against fully buffed enemy mages in mage vs mage combat.
Well you could just wait them out. But otherwise dispel/remove magic, pierce magic, secret word are all good spells.
- Tips on spells that you may think some people may not know (gated summons cannot be killed via Death Spell like other summons can for example).
On the surface sleep may not look that great in bg1 vanilla, but its actually wicked cool.
- Powerful or fun spell combos you employ.
I can't say I really do combos. Umm greater malison and polymorph other? Not because its efficient, I just like my enemies as squirrels.
Of course, once you get to the point where you can use that combination, you'll have a lot of power at your disposal.
Are humans the only race that can be a necromancer? Only downside, I guess, as you can't dual to a necromancer
Multiclasses:
Fighter / Mage
Cleric / Mage (or gnome for illusionist)
Thief / Mage (or gnome for illusionist)
Fighter / Thief / Mage
Fighter / Cleric / Mage
Dual classes:
Kensai 9 or 13 levels > Mage
Swashbuckler 10 > Mage
I prefer multis to duals, or just dualing early (e.g. Fighter level 3) to get some extra proficiencies, helmet/shield/fighter potion use and extra starting HP, as otherwise you're playing a class you don't want to really be for half the game (at least if starting in BG1 / BGEE)
And then you will devastate everything in your path with quintiple fireballs, never a short supply of Dispel Magics/Breaches/Pierce Magics, hordes of summoned monsters, untouchable melee combatants (stoneskin/spirit armour/mirror image/blur/Tenser's Transformation) and so on.
Trying this strategy in BG1 is not recommended.
- Have mages cast spells that disable opponents. Disabling Area-of-Effect spells are especially effective against mobs, eg, Sleep, Glitterdust, Horror, Emotion: Hopelessness, Chaos. Spells that do nothing but dispense damage are great. But when enemies are hampered or entirely stopped from attacking you they're easy pickins'. Disable first, then dole damage.
- Have mages target the most powerful enemies (their spellcasters and tanks) with disabling spells such as Spook, Chromatic Orb, Blind, Hold (clerics can cast this too), Slow, Confusion, Feeblemind. Priests can use Doom, Summon Insects, Rigid Thinking, Insect Plague. In other words, shut down the opponents' magical attacks.
- Have mages take control of enemies and make them attack their own comrades via Charm, Dire Charm, Domination. Once enemies are charmed, take control of them and make them drop all their gear. When the charmed enemy is a spellcaster, use up his or her most powerful spells--against his/her own comrades, naturally.
- For a ranged approach (i.e., attacking from a distance) mages and clerics can initiate the battle by casting Grease, Entangle, or Web. Then use Stinking Cloud, Cloudkill, or Ice Storm. All the while pelt the enemy with arrows, fireballs, incendiary potions, and arrows of detonation.
All but the last of these basic strategies will serve you well both in the vanilla game and when using tactical AI mods. Except for the last one (i.e., the ranged attack with enemies outside fog of war) they don't depend on any exploits. With the exception of the last one they'll work just as well when enemies behave smarter, as with the SCS mod.Since we're talking about BG:EE the focus above is on lower level play. However, the higher the level of play, the greater your command of spellcasting should be. And to really excel in combat in BG2, although you will still use much of the above, it requires much more spell knowledge.
Do you have any specific spell strategy tips for fighter/mages (primarily the multi-class), as these classes can play quite differently? Thanks
Most solo enemy casters in the original game are much higher level than the party will be when you cross paths, so it never works on them (Tarnesh and Nimbul are level 7, iirc, and Silke is level 10). But otoh, that's what Command and Silence are for.