Mage or Archer?

[Silver]

I'm in chapter 6 and have found the mage Sikra (20 nature/38 combat). I also have Nadia the archer lvl 38. Do you think Nadia is worth replacing with Sikra? Do mages get better/more useful as the game progresses? I already have 3 fighters, 2 archers, 1 combat, 1 nature and a mule.

Also, I'm still using fireball at lvl 37. What other combat spells would you recommend?

While this message board is great, there is one thing I haven't seen covered much by anyone - party composition. What's your favourite party to play with?

Thanks in advance for any responces.

[C Elegans]

You can beat the game with any party, so the choice is more about what you think is fun to play. Since you already have 2 archers, and a pure archer is one of the least efficient character builds, I would personally recommend that you pick up Sikra.

There are many good combat spells, I used to vary spells a lot in order to watch the pretty graphics. Fireball is nice, but I also used Fireskull, Acid Cloud, Death blast and several others. Metal Shard is nice but a bitl slow, Firewall does not always target the monsters you wish. At lvl 52 you will get Flame Blade, that's a very good spell.
I actually found the Nature magic combat spells funnier to use, Ice Blast, Lightning, Mulitspark, and even Flash are all good for the low-medium lvl mage. When you find Lightning Blast (lvl 36), it is IMO the most effiecient at that level.

I used some summonings spells, they are nice since your skill in that art increases just by casting the spell, then the summoned creatures can fight for you and you get XP for the damage they do, while you can continue to cast other spells. This works especially well with mages you use primarily for healing, since they get little XP. For summoning, Forest Troll (combat lvl 33) is one of the best, much better than some higher lvl summonings. The troll regenerates fast, does good damage and moves fast. It is important that your summoned creates move fast, otherwise you will just run away from them.

Good luck!

[Sucineri]

OR do what I did and use 1 melee character and the rest of the party as mules, lol..I beat the game with a level 62 melee like that, heh..I could barely be touched.

[Geckopat]

hmm..
i would say spell caster r more fun.

[Z3060]

I had fun with just my melee character and Merik, who's good for healing and for offensive spells. If you have an incredibly large group, you will get less exp, so if you want to later move ur character to multiplayer, you are better off having a small group, or no group at all.