Mage Guide?

First off I was wondering if there was a mage guide out there, that perhaps I could refrence to..

I'm restarting my game (yes, again) and going with a custom built character, no schemes or anything ...She's an elf who's background is a day mage

I was curious as to what a good spell tree to follow is, and what some good point usages

I was going for a mage that could do some damage, not evil, but not a push over. I put my first few points in harm and disarm and the rest in int. wp. etc

Appreciate it,
Michael

 

There was a post made a week ago about making an invulnerable, soloing mage...Might want to check the archives or search for it...

 

suggestions

I ended up taking 4 realms of magic (plus the spell that raises dex). I liked all of them. Note that this is suited for a "good" character:

Conveyance - Teleport is an awesome spell. You can go to and fro instantly. This is tremendously convenient for resupplying and dropping off stuff in town. I also used the disarm spell on occasion (for foes with guns mostly) and the unlock spell was cool (bad for thieving though, everyone knows the instant you cast it - ok for me as I was not a thief).

White Necromancy - Resurrect is nice to have for raising followers that die, plus you have heal which works at a distance on followers unlike potions. In the later parts of the game, though white magic became alot less useful as my party was rarely hurt and raven could heal if someone did.

Temporal - I took this one last. I thought it alot of fun to be dex 20 (my natural dex was 10 I just kept 3 versions of the dex spell up when in combat, or two when I was hasted & had the time spell up), hasted. and/or with the top time spell (forget the name) as well. You could cut through large number monsters & they don't get an attack.

Force - I used the level 1 protection spell alot at low levels. Disintigrate killed any enemy in 1 use (with only one exception that I saw). Once I became a force master and disintigrate was only 25 spell points, I could clear whole rooms from the doorway if I wanted. I did this for all annoying monsters (the ones that damage your weapons for example). You can also use disintegrate on doors.

PS - I don't recommend anyone follow the invincible mage strategy as your first character. The most exciting part of the game is earlier on before it becomes too easy, plus followers are fun to have. I would think the game dull if you do this. As it was I reached level 50 before I finished the game (I did do some but not all the side quests).


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Greebley on 2001-10-29 21:06 ]</font>

 

well, some of this was stated before, but in any case...

force is excelent. with 100 magic apt. i have 95 damage resistance, as well as a slew of other high numbers...and the lightning spells are very useful, few enemies have lightning resist, and many (those with metal) are quite weak towards it. and then there's disintigrate...

temporal makes any battle easy. stasis stops an enemy cold in its tracks, and tempus fugit is just insane with a large party.

conveyance is quite conviniet, though not neccesary, especially when trains will no longer take you.

harm is really the only attack spell a mage needs, with 100 apt, it can get around 40 dmg per shot, for only 5 fatigue. no distance limitations, no chance of missing.

summoning is nice, especially is you're going without a large party. it puts some mass in between you and the enemy. two level 30 orges can trash anything early in the game, and they're nice to throw at weapon/armor eating monsters. and you get a fuzzy little dragon....

succor beast is an amazing spell, but ONLY if you plan on getting to 100 apt. anything less and you have dinky bears and stuff, but with 100 you recieve a vorpal bunny. it might look cute, but it is level 40, and can dish out damage like crazy (even has a few spells, though i dont think i've even seen it use them...). you can get this spell from the stillwater blade.

 

Mmmmm, vorpal bunnies...

Okay, that does it, the next character I'm doing is an archer/nature mage (with a few other spells to get the vorpal bunny) - a ranger/scout/tracker character. Jeez, I love how you can do this sort of stuff in Arcanum.

I'm currently playing as a archer/fire...maybe just expand into nature instead, save me some time :smile:.

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the feedback

I have a mage who has one in harm, the entire necromancer white tree, conveyance tree, and half way thru the force tree

My *new* question is: Why does my magic alignment thingie build up to 95, then when I get a new spell it shoots down to 50

Is it because I'm entering a new tree?

Danke,
Michael

 

No, that's some sort of bug...

My gunslinger had a tech of 71, but occasionally when I loaded it he had a tech of 51 or 91...very strange it was...

What race/background have you chosen? Do you have an elf, half-elf, sold your soul background, elven grandmother background or what? That could have some effect...I'm not sure exactly how though.

 

It can also be than computer gitch which cause it to display try saveing your game and reboost
your machine an reload the game.

 

yeah I guess it is a bug, I patched the game with the patch that came out last night and as soon as I got in my mage had 100

ok, I think this is my last question. Is WP all I really need to up for my stats?

That, and occasionaly upping CN and IN *occasionaly might imply more then I'm doing, maybe, once in a blue moon is better*


Appreciate all the help, the game is so much more fun when your character kicks ass!

-Michael

 

Mines with Conveyance, Divination, and Force.

And Black Necromancy.