What is the best race for single class mage - more specifically Wild Mage?

Zorutar

Hello everybody, I would like to ask which class you think is the best for a Wild Mage from a powergaming perspective. Thank you very much for your tips, feedback, and help.

jmerry

There are four races that can be single-class mages in the standard character creation rules.

Humans get maximum flexibility - they can choose all of the specialties, and they can dual-class if the kit allows it. But they don't get anything else.

Half-elves get a pretty good range of choices, and they get a minor bonus to resisting charm and sleep effects.

Full elves get a few options, they trade one point of CON for one point of DEX, they get stat minimums that prevent them from dumping any stat too far, and they're nearly immune to charm and sleep effects.

Gnomes get shorty save bonuses which are awesome and trade a point of WIS for a point of INT. But they can only be illusionists.

Power level increases as you go down, but flexibility decreases.

So, if you want to be a wild mage in these games ... elf. That's the obvious power-gaming choice. They're almost strictly better than humans or half-elves (really, only the stat minima work against them), and you can't be a gnome. I can only think of two arguments against it. Either you don't want to play an elf, or you want to romance Viconia - she doesn't like elves.

Zorutar

jmerry wrote: »

There are four races that can be single-class mages in the standard character creation rules.

Humans get maximum flexibility - they can choose all of the specialties, and they can dual-class if the kit allows it. But they don't get anything else.

Half-elves get a pretty good range of choices, and they get a minor bonus to resisting charm and sleep effects.

Full elves get a few options, they trade one point of CON for one point of DEX, they get stat minimums that prevent them from dumping any stat too far, and they're nearly immune to charm and sleep effects.

Gnomes get shorty save bonuses which are awesome and trade a point of WIS for a point of INT. But they can only be illusionists.

Power level increases as you go down, but flexibility decreases.

So, if you want to be a wild mage in these games ... elf. That's the obvious power-gaming choice. They're almost strictly better than humans or half-elves (really, only the stat minima work against them), and you can't be a gnome. I can only think of two arguments against it. Either you don't want to play an elf, or you want to romance Viconia - she doesn't like elves.

@jmerry Thank you for the feedback. Regarding the Elf’s -1 CON penalty, could this cause any problems later in the game? For example, I’m thinking of "The Claw of Kazgaroth", which applies an additional -2 CON penalty. This would reduce a character with 18 CON to 15 (-1 from race and -2 from the item), leading to lower HP. I know this item is generally not ideal, but I still want to be cautious, especially considering other potential items. What are your thoughts?

jmerry

You're overthinking it. The CON tome is one of the ones you can get early.

DinoDin

Like jmerry says, Elf is the absolute easy choice for wild mage. If we're talking any kind of single-class mage, you could make an argument for gnome. There's value to good saving throws on your protagonist.

If we're talking a full saga run, having that 19 dex right at the start is pretty helpful. If you also end up with high strength, you'll have decent damage output with throwing daggers in the early levels of BG1. For a wild mage, the early levels (around 1-4) will probably be the hardest part of the saga. So getting some reliable damage output there will be key for your protagonist pulling their weight in the party.

Zorutar

@jmerry @DinoDin Ok, thank you for the clarification. Elf is the best choice overall.

In case the CON tome is reserved for another party member and I want to use "The Claw of Kazgaroth" on this mage during BG1, I would need to choose a Half-Elf or Human if I don’t want to lose maximum HP potential. Is that correct?

I presume you would say that it's a bit tricky to choose a race based on one or a couple of specific items from just one part of the whole saga, right?

Trouveur

Zorutar wrote: »

In case the CON tome is reserved for another party member and I want to use "The Claw of Kazgaroth" on this mage during BG1, I would need to choose a Half-Elf or Human if I don’t want to lose maximum HP potential. Is that correct??

Tomes are usually used by main char because only main char stats are exported to BG2. Using a tome on a BG1 NPC is losing this tome benefit in BG2.

Also, if you intend to not use the CON tome on your main char, easy answer is to not use claw of Kazgaroth with him either.

DinoDin

FWIW, even with your claw plan, you will be losing just 1 HP per level. However that will be about 1/6 of your HP total. I would also suggest skip using the claw too, but it's up to you. FWIW, you could get back to 16 by SoA/ToB depending on when you do Watcher's Keep.

Last bit of advice would be to focus on offensive (red) spells in the early levels. Cant totally predict wild mage surges, but a fair number of the bad rolls involve casting some type of negative spell at the target, so doing this slightly shifts the odds in your favor. Once you get a decent level and slots for surge-roll boosting you don't have to worry as much. And this fits with the roleplay of the class too imo