"Hardcore" Mage Specialist Run
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I got an idea about trying a rather hardcore approach to mage specialists, i.e. using spells from their school only for role-playing reasons.
I am pretty sure someone has tried this before.
What would be the most fun setup and party?
What worked unexpectedly well?
I am pretty sure someone has tried this before.
What would be the most fun setup and party?
What worked unexpectedly well?
1
Comments
I believe you can take advantage of the fact that your ennemies will have a -2 penalty to their saves if you cast a spell of your own school. This can be particularly beneficial for spells that inflict confusion, fear or such crowd control spells. To be tested
Edit: I forgot to mention charm, paralysis (hold), labyrinth... Anything incapacitating
Edit 2 : Later in the game (mainly in ToB) , you will need another arcane spellcaster to remove magic protections and resistance to magic, if you want your main char to be effective
You also get Shield, Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Fireball, Melf's Minute Meteors, Cloudkill, Sunfire, Delayed Blast Fireball, Mordenk's Sword, Incendiary Cloud, both Bigby's, *AND* all sequencers and contingencies. Just a monster spell list, and that save penalty stays relevant the entire game.
You're mostly going to find yourself hurting for defensive spells, (no Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility, or Spell Immunity, or Protection from Magic Weapons), but good party play can mitigate that. Your party will also miss buffs like (Improved) Haste. Breach will be a big loss in mage battles, but that's easily offset by bringing an Inquisitor (or Keldorn), or else by going into Watcher's Keep early and grabbing a couple Breach wands.
If you wanted to bring two, I'd grab an Abjurer as my second. It's a really eclectic spell list, but it has some phenomenal gems and it helps round out your arsenal. You get (Improved) Haste and Slow (which casts at a Brobdingnagian -6 save penalty!), a couple instakills (Polymorph Other, Flesh to Stone, and Disintegrate), and eventually you get the Time Stop / Shapechange combo that trivializes the end-game. Plus Stoneskin!
Other than those highlights, it's a weird mix with a lot of filler, a few spells to turn you into a quasi-fighter, (Polymorph Self and Tenser's Transformation), and cult classic Teleport Field. (Memorize it, use it, learn to love it.)
"Pure" Abjurer would make for a terrible primary caster, but there's a lot to like about it as a secondary.
All of this assumes a trilogy run, though. If you're just planning on doing BG1, it's Invoker all the way with a spellbook stuffed full of Webs and Fireballs.
Another fun thing to try is Enchanter 10(?) dual into Cleric, since Enchantment doesn't get any more spells past level 5...
Necromancer would be a cool pick. Evil aligned necromancer would be a perfect child of Bhaal.
How hard would my life be in ToB as a pure illusionist?
Even if you're disallowing non-class spell scrolls, there's always wands, potions, protection scrolls, and the like. An Illusionist with a Rod of Resurrection would still be the best healer in the game. An illusionist with a Protection from Magic scroll would be the ultimate mage-killer.
"Oh no, we're doomed! It's Charname, Faerun's most powerful illusionist!"
"What's so powerful about him?"
"Just look how many fireball scrolls he's got!"
It seems to be near impossible to run solo without all the protective spells, so I will need another specialist mage in the party as you suggested.
I don't think the question was about soloing, which would indeed be really difficult with any specialist, at least by BG2. (In BG1, Web *is* a protective spell!) By and large, in party play Mirror Image and Stoneskin can be replaced by strong tanks and quality positioning.
Of course, he won't use any wands.
But it makes sense for a Necromancer not to use Enchantment spells (and the contrary as well).
I seem to remember that Both Am<spoiler> and Demogorgon are immune to time stop, and other than Demogorgon, most bosses don't die regularly but require a script to run - which you would break with Time Stop.
As for OP, have you considered gnomish Thief/Illusionists? Using your spells to lure the enemy into traps, chaining backstabs and generally irritating the hell out of them?