Neera Wild Surges

OurQuestIsVain

I have never played as a wild mage and since there were no wild mages previous to bgee this is my first time playing through the game using that class of character. I was worried at first at all the hate people were pouring onto wild mages on these forums...I thought Neera would suck horribly but I am here to tell you about a very different experience I've had so far.

The first wild thing to happen was when I cast nahals reckless whatever on that ogre with the belt fetish. Tried for a chaotic orb and ended up polymorphing the ogre into a wolf...I laughed my ass off. The second time was in the nashkel mines fighting Molahey, I wanted to cast sleep or some aoe spell to keep the kobolds and skeletons off me, I don't remember which spell exactly but instead a horde of squirrels appeared at my feet. I had to pause the game cause I was laughing so hard. How could you not love that chaos?! It is so awesome, I love not knowing what my next wild surge will be. Why so much hate for wild mages?

Anyway, I want to hear about your wild surge stories, I'm loving it so far. Granted I haven't had any horrible surges yet that wipe my whole party but so what if I do, I'll just reload, no big deal.

Splod

The very first encounter I had with her was against the bandits NE of the Friendly Arm...
Magic missile against an archer who was shooting into combat, managed to score that 'lucky' 5%. Magic missile is diverted against the nearest character, my PC. Aaaaand, dead. Still not sure how a measly magic missile did 22 points of damage either.
I decided to take a break after that. Going back in now to see who else she can kill.

Avenger_teambg

Not a big story, but a rather short one: i got the demon gate wild surge with a level 1-2 party.

Once she petrified my protagonist too.

shawne

I think that's exactly why players are so wary of Wild Mages, though - you've been fortunate in that the surges haven't been exceedingly detrimental to you, but if Neera had accidentally destroyed twenty percent of your gold or dropped a Pit Fiend on your party, you'd probably have a very different opinion.

Pantalion

My only issue with her at all is that there seems to be a bit of wonkiness with wild surges for some reason. Several times I've had results where the spell should cast successfully, but nothing happens whatsoever.

My funnest wild surge to date is trying to stop the thief in Nashkel Carnival, she tried to cast sleep.... And ended up casting Stinking Cloud, disabling the entire tent and over half my party.

DukeGr

Instead of magic missiles she made some bubbles which lasted for a long time. Also had some funny bubbling sound all over the place.

Splod

Sounds like grease. You got lucky mate.

Jared4242

Neera summoned a pit fiend in the Nashkel Inn (I was trying to Chromatic Orb the bounty hunter, instead the demon took care of her) . Had to run out, and flee to the carnival until it despawned >.>

rufus_hobart

fighting Greywolf: Neera decides to try her luck with a wild surge:Magic Missile...results instead in a flesh to stone = pretty grey statue of a bounty hunter. Flying monk kick from Rasaad = little chunks of Greywolf granite everywhere at the foot of Prism's sculpture. kinda fitting.

sandmanCCL

People freaking out about wild mages tend to be people too scared to play with one. It's really not THAT big a deal you might occasionally reload because she nukes your gold, or something. And it's worth it for the hilarity which can ensue.

Darkcloud

There is quite some luck involved but Chaos Shield gives you much better results in general and her level 1 spell essentially turns every level 1 slot in a cast any of your other spells slot.

kilroy_was_here

@Splod One of the other effects of a wild mage is that they add +- five caster levels to their spell. Sounds like you got the +5.

Splod

When replaying the combat I used her lvl 1 reckless spell hoping for a fireball, instead got a sleep. Good night bandits. Took out the big bad guy who was still upright then went on to take out the boys who were sleeping on the job.

milczarp

Instead of magic missile cow fall from the sky and killed the target

BelgarathMTH

@Rufus_Hobart, you do know you lost a +2 Longsword of Frost by stoning Greywolf, right?

Ashlspiess

I don't know if I've just had crap luck or what, but Neera has just been more trouble than she's worth since I started playing with her. Rules say that there's a 5% chance that a spell will trigger a wild surge, however it seems to happen a lot more frequently than 5%. Twice in a row I casted a much needed fireball into a group of enemies, and twice in a row it didn't work, I'm not even sure what it did but there was definitely no fireball. Is there a way to see what the effect was, or see what the roll was and look it up in the chart?

Regarding Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, how are you supposed to determine the chance of successfully casting a spell, especially with Chaos Shield/ Imp Chaos shield up? I like how you can cast any spell regardless of memorization or level. I once sucessfully casted cloudkill at level 4, however the cloud didn't do anything to enemies.

Lastly, did the developers manage to somehow give her the Downs? She always seems to be going in the wrong direction, or walk straight into a band of enemies, or lag way behind. Sometimes she annoys me so much I instagib her with a backstab from my assassin. Considering ditching her for Dynaheir if she's going to be such a pain, but I do have all three new NPCs in my party and I'd like to keep it that way.

Blave

Is it just me or is the wild magic totally ... random? I mean, I get the whole wild surge thing, but I'd at least expect the combat log to show correct results. But it doesn't. Not at all.
Example: Neera was level 3 or 4, casting 2 magic missiles in succession. For both casts, the combat log stated "Caster level Decreased by 1". Yet othe first spell launched two missiles and the second spell only one.

Also, the Wild Surges never seem to do what the log tells you. Casting sleep on a group of simple Hobgoblins, Surge happens, stating "No save allowed". Result? Not one Hobgoblin fell asleep. Why?

I'm afraid of nuking all my Gold away without even noticing because the game gives wrong information.
I'm all in for a bit of chaos, but at least tell me, what the chaos does. Please?

ajwz

A better title for this thread would be "Neera gone wild"

Bugrat

When I was exploring the infamous flesh golem cave she had a wild surge that did a gender change on a flesh golem. I don't want to think about that too much. Could be fuel for some really horrible fan-fiction.

ajwz

The question is what flesh golems are doing all that bludgeoning damge with.

SCARY_WIZARD

Bugrat said:

When I was exploring the infamous flesh golem cave she had a wild surge that did a gender change on a flesh golem. I don't want to think about that too much. Could be fuel for some really horrible fan-fiction.

Well, there was that one WarCraft fan art I found about that. :x

Err, in any case...
Karlat Encounter: Karlat is beating on the party. Garrick and Imoen are pelting him with projectiles, CHARNAME is clubbing him on the head with his hammer...Neera casts Nahal's Reckless Dweomer. And what do you know, an army of squirrels appears at Karlat's feet. I managed to brain him anyways, but ohh Neera.
Molkar and Bounty Hunters: Gated in a nabassu. ...Aec'Letec is a nabassu. Party was between levels 3 and 5. Quick-load!
Sarhedra's Ogres: A cow fell on one of them. Yeeaaaaahhhh.
I also think while I was either helping Drizzt fight gnolls, or the Amazon Bounty Hunters, Neira got sent into a fit of hiccups.

rufus_hobart

belgarathmth said:

@Rufus_Hobart, you do know you lost a +2 Longsword of Frost by stoning Greywolf, right?

Indeed I did, but them's the breaks with wild mages, wasn't intentional! If that's the worst that happens with a wild surge I will count myself extremely lucky. Particularly since none of my present party have a desire for a longsword.

Darkcloud

Now I came to the conclusion that the first level spell is seriously overpowered. You can cast every spell in your spellbook with it. So if you get the hidden cloud kill scroll you have as many castings of cloud kill as you have level 1 spells at any level.

TJ_Hooker

Darkcloud said:

Now I came to the conclusion that the first level spell is seriously overpowered. You can cast every spell in your spellbook with it. So if you get the hidden cloud kill scroll you have as many castings of cloud kill as you have level 1 spells at any level.

You have to remember that using Nahal's Reckless Dweomer guarantees a wild surge. And although I'm not to familier with the wild surge tables, I think you have maybe a few chances out of a hundred of actually casting the spell you chose (most of which involve some twist in how it's cast). I believe there are ways to cheese with it by using certain exploits, but I don't think the spell itself is particularly overpowered.

Xiviriel

Darkcloud said:

Now I came to the conclusion that the first level spell is seriously overpowered. You can cast every spell in your spellbook with it. So if you get the hidden cloud kill scroll you have as many castings of cloud kill as you have level 1 spells at any level.

If she is a low level then this will not work most of the time, usually just serve up a dish of chaos instead!

Riolathel

i didnt enjoy neera, and didn't really need another mage (my pc is a transmuter). I did use her a few times and she fireballed my whole team twice... i'm sure she can get a few laughs but i'm more interested in being able to play through the game with the least amount of reloads possible

Arsene_Lupin

There are only a few things that have instantly slaughtered my party.

Sirens (confusion)
Manticores (insta-stone)
Neera, summoning mother****ing demons from the abyss.

Eldryth

Even though it tends to lead to reloads, I love using Nahal's all the time with her. I don't even care about the deaths, the results are usually too entertaining! For one fight she wiped out my entire party with a fireball, then I reloaded and she saved us on the same fight (at level 1) with what I think was Stinking Cloud.

Darkcloud

Xiviriel said:

Darkcloud said:

Now I came to the conclusion that the first level spell is seriously overpowered. You can cast every spell in your spellbook with it. So if you get the hidden cloud kill scroll you have as many castings of cloud kill as you have level 1 spells at any level.

If she is a low level then this will not work most of the time, usually just serve up a dish of chaos instead!

Wel most surges do cast the spell with the effect in addition. Its nothing to rely on for the whole fight but a good start if you saved before.

I still prefer sorcerers though.

Coriander

The cow and the multisurge are my favourite.

Calmar

I really like the character and the portrait, but I don't trust her spellcasting much. However, Neera's surges of wild magic are still preferable to Khalid's surges of cowardice to me.