Skip to content

Pure Mage

Was thinking of making a mage. I wanted to maybe go for Elf since it has the charm resistance. I remember back in the day always getting charmed and I hated that. But Elves cannot be Conjurers. And diviner and enchanter are blah to me. So is it worth the racials to go with the one less spell slot? I thought of multiclass, but if i remember when you do that your robes dont show up on your character, and I never liked that.

Comments

  • ElendarElendar Member Posts: 831
    Elves can be sorcerers. So go with that instead.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Diviner and Enchanter really aren't that bad. You should think more on the specialists in terms of what you're actually losing. How many Conjuration spells are actually worth using consistently? You've still got Mordy's sword which is Evocation and you lose some offensive spells like Flame Arrow/Melf's Acid Arrow, and demon summoning... and that's it.

    Call me strange (and I'll put this in the unpopular opinions thread if I have to) but I think the Enchanter's actually better than the Conjurer because you get saving throw penalties on enchantment spells so stuff like Chaos is even more devastating. Also you become even more resistant to stuff like charm and confusion. Way worth losing the raw power.
    Elendar
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    Huh. Never though of it that way Artemius. And Elendar I thought about going Sorc. But I did that in BG2 back in the day. It was super powerful but I wanted to try something different. But wild mage is out of the question. I tried it already and kept blowing myself up or losing my gold. Im not playing a no reload game. But having to reload a lot more is kinda frustrating for me lol.
    jackjack
  • ElendarElendar Member Posts: 831
    Olteron wrote: »
    Huh. Never though of it that way Artemius. And Elendar I thought about going Sorc. But I did that in BG2 back in the day. It was super powerful but I wanted to try something different. But wild mage is out of the question. I tried it already and kept blowing myself up or losing my gold. Im not playing a no reload game. But having to reload a lot more is kinda frustrating for me lol.

    If you want something different than you should go with another class or a multiclass.. because Mages and Sorcerers really don't have all that different of gameplay. They're both pretty powerful.. Mages just require a bit more preparation over sorcerers really
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    Can a multi class mage/fighter reach level 9 spells or get HLA spells?
  • ElendarElendar Member Posts: 831
    edited March 2016
    Artemius_I wrote: »
    Diviner and Enchanter really aren't that bad. You should think more on the specialists in terms of what you're actually losing. How many Conjuration spells are actually worth using consistently? You've still got Mordy's sword which is Evocation and you lose some offensive spells like Flame Arrow/Melf's Acid Arrow, and demon summoning... and that's it.

    Call me strange (and I'll put this in the unpopular opinions thread if I have to) but I think the Enchanter's actually better than the Conjurer because you get saving throw penalties on enchantment spells so stuff like Chaos is even more devastating. Also you become even more resistant to stuff like charm and confusion. Way worth losing the raw power.

    Most people simply prefer Conjurer not because it adds to conjuration spells but rather because the only really essential spell you use selecting that specialization is True Sight, which can easily be done by the party's cleric or Keldorn instead. If your use of a mage is mostly as a disabler though, I can certainly see wanting to select an Enchanter.


    @Olteron Yes, they can. They don't get any many spell slots as a pure mage, though, but they also get access to the Fighter HLAs in addition to the mage ones.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @Elendar True. But then there are players like me (and I did say this was probably an unpopular opinion) who adhere to quality over quantity. I'll take the Enchanter, Invoker and even Necromancer over the Conjurer any day. All it requires is a slight, not even significant, change of playstyle to yield better results.
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    Is losing the extra spell slot from a pure mage really painful late game? Is the racials of the elf really worth losing that spell slot?
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    Olteron wrote: »
    So is it worth the racials to go with the one less spell slot?

    It depends on your playstyle and your approach to the game. If you are playing on any difficulty below "core" (meaning scribbing from scrolls succeeds in 100%), then you'll probably want to use mage specialist instead.

    Specialists mages have more spell slot, your enemies will have harder time to resist your spells (they have additional penalty of -2 when making saving throws against mage specialist using the spell from his school. Basically, "Chaos" from Enchanter has -6 saving throw penalty (-4 -2). Fireball from Invoker has -2 (0 -2). Finger of Death from Necromancer would have -4 (-2 -2). Etc.). The disadvantages for having specialist mage is that they have -15% penalty to scribbing from scrolls, and they cannot learn and cast (even from scrolls) the spells from oposite schools. But playing on difficulty lower than "core" negates scribbing penalty .

    If you wonder why haven't you heard of this benefits before, it's because they were included into class descriptions only from patch 2.0 forward (i've seen this in the beta).

    It is worth a mention you shouldn't look down on such classes as Enchanter. Your enemies will have hard time resisting Enchanter who's using spells like Blind, Sleep, Domination, Chaos etc.

    Now, it is worth to use pure mage? If you are playing on "core" and above (and isn't going to decrease difficulty for scroll scribbing purposes) then yes. Otherwise you might want to pick either Sorceror or mage specialist.
    JuliusBorisov
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    Yeah I was wondering why I never heard of those bonuses before.
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    I'll have to think on this. It sucks because now that I know those bonuses are in game I am really torn. Evocation and enchanting are my two favorite spell schools. I can do without lightning and fire ball. but contingency or sequencer... damn. Also are the HLA spells like dragons breath barred as well?
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    I think you can still learn sequencers and contingency because they have two schools. HLAs have no school so any specialist can get them.
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    I don't think so. Minute meteors is alteration/evocation and enchanters cant use it. Which is lame. I think having a split school spell should be a work around to knowing it not being barred from it.
  • Scythe_KnightScythe_Knight Member Posts: 27
    Kensai/Mages are really, REALLY interesting to play. They can wear RotAM for solid AC and saves while laying waste with dual katanas/wakazashis. You can change up between tossing spells to thin crowds at range then hitting up a few buff spells to turn into a melee meat-grinder.
  • OlteronOlteron Member Posts: 67
    edited April 2016
    After making an enchanter, cheating to max level, giving him all spells and sending him to basilisk map to solo the adventure party at center. Then doing the same with invoker. My findings were this.
    Both were powerful. But invoker did it easier. With new bonuses specialists get Web gets -4 penalty to save. Put 2 in minor sequencer. Instantly shut party down. Summoned 2 spiders and watched party get devoured quick.
    Enchanter hold person was resisted by half the party, emotion then took down the rest. Then finished with conjured skeletons/skulltrap.

    I decided to roll the less popular invoker for rp reasons. With Web and spider summons and a spider familiar, I'm going for evil spider king! Vivicus arachnis the wizard!
    BelgarathMTH
  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    You can use BG2Tweaks or EEKeeper to alter your paperdoll. So using either of those you can wear robes regardless of class if that you want to.
Sign In or Register to comment.