Mage vs Sorcerer in IWD

DragonKing

So I've been spending a couple of hours playing now and I definitely understand what everyone has been saying about the game being all about the combat at this point my teams at level 5 and I've been wondering if this IDW play through would be been a lot better with a sorcerer instead of a wild mage. (Note to anyone who read my last post, I started over and downloaded the npc project mods so I'm no longer using my original even 4 character team.

I did find a small guide that talked about each class or more just crapped on every class that was dueling everything into mage and cleric into a fighter because single classes suck, bla bla bla.

Anyways I'm kinda wondering would the combat focused nature of the game better suites for a sorcerer MC than a mage.

ElysianEchoes

From what I've read, I seem to remember the benefit of the sorcerer over a mage is spell availability. In the original IWD, one couldn't find scrolls for many of the stronger spells until the designers wanted one to. Now, with sorcerer, one can access spells sooner, making certain encounters much easier than they used to be. So, a sorcerer would make a play easier, but that isn't everyone's idea of "better".

I'm sure much more experienced veterans will chime in, and this is the extent of my borrowed knowledge, so I'll leave it to them from here.

DragonKing

@ElysianEchoes
But that's just is one of the overall pros of the sorcerer in general, one which they sacrificed versatility for.

joluv

The scarcity of scrolls is much more pronounced in IWD compared to the BG series, and the linearity of the game exacerbates this. Especially if you're playing in a small party or at a harder difficulty level, it's a major limiting factor in gameplay for a Mage; at times, you may have multiple levels of blank spell slots with no known spells to fill them. Sorcerers are at a huge advantage.

DragonKing

joluv wrote: »

The scarcity of scrolls is much more pronounced in IWD compared to the BG series, and the linearity of the game exacerbates this. Especially if you're playing in a small party or at a harder difficulty level, it's a major limiting factor in gameplay for a Mage; at times, you may have multiple levels of blank spell slots with no known spells to fill them. Sorcerers are at a huge advantage.

Hmm, then I just may use EE keeper to change my class and stats over to sorcerer.

AstroBryGuy

Last time I played IWD with the IWD NPC Project, I didn't use any single-class mage. I had a bard (Severn) and a triple-class fighter-thief-mage (Teri). Even with that slow spell level progression, I wasn't finding spell scrolls far ahead of when my spellcasters could use them. So, a sorcerer would certainly have an advantage over a single-class mage.

While sorcerers do sacrifice some versatility in their overall breadth of their spellbook, they gain a different kind of versatility in having more spell castings per day and being able to choose any spell they know (of that spell level) when casting. Also, the original IWD lacked in diversity of spells at high levels anyway (I think there were a total of 2 spells at ninth level).

DJKajuru

In my last finished playthrough I had both ; A mage who could make use of all available scrolls and select situational spells ,and a sorcerer who would cast spells that might be needed to be cast repeatedly ,such as offensive ones, specific protections or even invisibility spells (he had also memorized lots of cold based spells because I wanted a white dragon descendant type) .

DragonKing

@DJKajuru
My wild mage is my only arcane casterson the team currently.

ilduderino

I think a wild mage will have enough magic to carry. As mentioned above they won’t have to fight for scrolls with anyone else. If you had a bard too (and it’s a shame you don’t as they rock) then a sorcerer might be more helpful as the bard could then use all scrolls.

DragonKing

@ilduderino
I'm using the NPC project so I only have a sorcerer (myself)
A paladin (who sucks as a tank right now.
A fighter/cleric who I kinda wished I just made a fighter druid seeing how her npc text seems to play off the druid
An Assassin who does faster than the flash can run as seeing how the flash has outrun teleportation before...
An Archer who seems to just make everything that's not immune to his arrows his *beep*

I left the last guy behind since I made him a sorcerer. With that said if I wasn't so far into the game id definitely make some changes. Definitely, to the assassin, teri can't dps'ing like I thought she would be.


Though my sorcerer seems to level faster, the only downside I'm kinda not sure about some spells anymore.

I had switched out the web for grease once I realized some enemies wasn't getting stuck (before I we keeper onto a sorcerer) but im still somewhat debating if this was a smart change especially now that I chose to summon spider over dimension door.

joluv

The great thing about Web in IWD is that there are so many Rings of Free Action, and they allow you to be hasted.

DragonKing

@joluv
I actually had no problem with web, it was fun just watching my Archer pick off all the caught enemies. And my melee took care of anyone who made it all the way there.

Ammar

Sorcerers are even more advantaged than Mages than in BG, for several reasons:

• Mentioned scarity of scrolls
• You don't need as many different spells, e.g. you will need spell protection removers in IWD
• There are more encounters in a series, where you would not want to rest

Generally, IWD:EE is easier by far than the originals for this and many other reasons. For example, being able to dual-wield in combination with the pre-existing "of Action" weapons is a huge boon to the player. As is the addition of all those spells and kits.

jsaving

Yes, you will generally be casting the same few spells over and over again in IWD which means the main disadvantage of a sorcerer (small spellbook) doesn't matter while a key advantage of the sorcerer (more spells per day) is quite helpful.

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