Best mage class - please advise!! :)
szdobos
Member Posts: 36
Hi there,
I made a little experiment, on the mage classes, to choose the best specialis mage.
There are a few spells, that cant cast:
Conjurer: detect evil, d. illusion and d. alignment, the true sight, and the wizard eye
Invoker: hold person, emotion, greater malison, confusion and chaos
Necromancer: invisibility, mislead, mirror image, simulacrum
Illusioner: horror, spiritual armor, death spell, finger of death, abu dalzim
Abjurer: haste, slow, stoneskin, disintegrate, wizard eye
The rest is very bad, so the diviner, enhancer and transmuter is not an option. Wild mage... No.
Also the saveing bonus are only important at the invoker and conjurer class spells.
Sooo, what should I choose?
Due to save vs spell bonus the best is invoker, but the penalty of missing the chaos spell is very bad. Also the graeter malison is an important spell.
The conjurer is good, but the divination spells are very interesting. The true sight very important.
And the abjurer cant get any bonus save vs spell because of the protective spells. Stoneskin one of the best protective spells for mages.
Pff.... I cant decide.
I made a little experiment, on the mage classes, to choose the best specialis mage.
There are a few spells, that cant cast:
Conjurer: detect evil, d. illusion and d. alignment, the true sight, and the wizard eye
Invoker: hold person, emotion, greater malison, confusion and chaos
Necromancer: invisibility, mislead, mirror image, simulacrum
Illusioner: horror, spiritual armor, death spell, finger of death, abu dalzim
Abjurer: haste, slow, stoneskin, disintegrate, wizard eye
The rest is very bad, so the diviner, enhancer and transmuter is not an option. Wild mage... No.
Also the saveing bonus are only important at the invoker and conjurer class spells.
Sooo, what should I choose?
Due to save vs spell bonus the best is invoker, but the penalty of missing the chaos spell is very bad. Also the graeter malison is an important spell.
The conjurer is good, but the divination spells are very interesting. The true sight very important.
And the abjurer cant get any bonus save vs spell because of the protective spells. Stoneskin one of the best protective spells for mages.
Pff.... I cant decide.
Post edited by LadyRhian on
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Comments
That said: Conjurer or Illusionist.
You don't lose anything significant by going Conjurer, although you won't be able to make a PC that's as good at it as Edwin.
A gnome Illusionist gives you access to a superior starting INT without costing you much in the way of spells (at least in the first game. In BG2, some champion the use of Finger of Death and Horrid Wilting).
Another alternative: If Tutu or BG:EE, go Sorcerer. You get all of the advantages of a specialist mage without any of the drawbacks and have much more flexibility with stats at character creation.
Conjurer or Sorcerer. If you're a newbie I would advise Conjurer though because Sorcerer very much requires knowing *exactly* what you want and need. Conjurer, the worst things you miss out on are Identify and True Sight ... not exactly the end of the world.
Honestly, you can make any specialist wizard work. It just depends on whether role-playing or power-gaming is your priority.
I guess you need to decide what type of spell you really can't do without.
The regular mage is also a viable option, though that hurts at low level.
And if you have some experience in playing BG, then choose Sorcerer. For me, it's no-brainer too.
Because you can be a gnome, and gnomes are full of win.
I think you know my viewpoints on romancing NPCs
Ain't no Aerie in BG:EE. Therefore Gnomes win! The end.
Your first paragraph is a joke though, those spells are trash. Oracle seriously? lololol. Detect Illusion is also crap compared to the Clerical Invisibility Purge. Identify and True Sight are the only decent ones. And besides, who wouldn't have either another mage or bard in the party? I think it's pretty easy to say that most people double up on arcane spellcasters.
Now as far as role-playing goes. Yeah then it's whatever. I'm like you, I enjoy role-playing Necromancer. Especially vanilla BG1 Cleric 7/Dual-classed Necromancer 8. Pure sexiness.
That said, Diviner is AWESOME in table-top D&D. Unfortunately Divination is rather poorly implemented into Baldur's Gate. A shame, but not surprising.
Without spoiling anything I'm going to say yes and no.
So, for uniqueness' sake, i would just roll a Sorcerer!
* One extra spell slot per level
* +1 vs. spells saving throws, from speclialized school, against spells
* enemies suffer -1 vs. spells saving throws against spells cast from the mage's specialized school
* +15% to learning from specialized school
* Automatically gains one new spell to spellbook, from specialized school, when gains new spell level
Also they apparently get a -15% penalty to learn spells from any school other than their specialty.
Does anyone know if all of these were actually implemented? The only one I knew of was the extra spell at each spell level.
Also you can't dual class to a specialist mage
That said, there is an appeal of the necromancer, if one wants to roleplay. They get some killer summoning spells, plus all that death stuff. Lots of fun.
A lot of people are going to say I'm crazy. "This really hurts your offensive capabilities!" they decry.
Who cares. That's what warriors are for. Mages are for crowd control!
Level 1:
Spells you give up- Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Shield
Viable alternatives- Sleep (by the time it doesn't really work anymore, you'll have access to higher level spells you'd want to use anyway.) Larloch's Minor Drain (more utility than damage, it's still handy in a pinch), Burning Hands (lacks the punch of Orb or MM, but is still damage and has minor AOE capabilities)
Level 2:
Spells you give up- Aganazzar's Scorcher, Stinking Cloud, Web
Viable alternatives- Melf's Acid Arrow, Horror
Level 3:
Give up- Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Melf's Minute Meteors
Alternatives- Skull Trap, Vampiric Touch, Slow, Haste, Hold Person, Dire Charm, and the list goes on.
Also, consumable item Wand of Fireballs.
Level 4:
Give up- Fireshield Red/Blue, Ice Storm, Minor Sequencer (admittedly a big loss)
Alternatives - Honestly, the only damage spell at all for level 4 is Ice Storm. This is THE level for buff/debuff spells so I'd be really surprised if you used your 4th level slots on Ice Storm or Fireshield over Emotion: Hopelessness or Stoneskin anyway.
Level 5:
Give up- Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Phantom Blade, Sunfire
Alternatives- Again, not a lot in the way of damage but even when I play mages who CAN use these spells, the only one that sees any use is Sunfire. Cloudkill is really good but in a cheesy way because there aren't a lot of situations where you can use it in the middle of a fight without killing your own guys too. 5th level stuff for me is almost exclusively Breach in BG2. With new BG2 spells, I can see myself spamming Hold Monster and Domination.