Wild Surges : How (un)lucky can you get ???

aVENGER2k · Post by **aVENGER2k** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 9:25 am

LOL,I'm having a blast playing a Wild Mage now and going through ToB for the second time.Hell,those wild surges can get really good and really bad.For example,a lot of times I get the "No Save" surge but never on the spells that could really benefit from it (i.e. Finger of Death or something) and wery rarely i get teh Blast or polymorph effect,but today something extremely weird happened.I got the "Area Effect Surge" on my Timestop !!! Man,imagine my surprise when everyone in my party had their own personal timestop!Well,here's what happened,Minsc and Valygar hacked at the Blue Dragon for about half a minute when...HE (the Dragon) got the Timestop as well !!! (and ripped most of my party members to shreds).I starred at the screen for about half a minute before I almost fell of my chair laughing

Anyone else with interesting Wild Surge results report here,I'm sure that a lot of people would have a Blast reading this

humanflyz · Post by **humanflyz** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 11:42 am

This is a cheat that will ensure your Wild Mage's surge number. I am only writing this for people who want to try things out. Don't read it if you do not want to cheat.
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You must have the Cheat keys enabled. To do this type EnableCheatKeys() at CLUAConsole. Then press CTRL+H to change your surge number. Change your surge number to whatever you like.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 1:53 pm

@Avenger2K, that sounds like fun, but are you sure the Blue Dragon didn't cast a timestop of its own?

aVENGER2k · Post by **aVENGER2k** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 2:59 pm

@humanflyz:

Tnx,didn't know about that one,I'll have give it a try.

@fable:

Nope,it was my own "Area Efect-ed" Timestop alright,I know because after the Dragon a lowly Frost Salamander got a Timestop as well

@others:

Cmon people,report something funny! Or is no one except me playing a Wild Mage ¿¿¿

[ 07-05-2001: Message edited by: aVENGER2k ]

moriveth · Post by **moriveth** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 9:21 pm

Wild Surge: Area Effect, Wish (a wish for everyone! rejoice! no monsters around, though)

Wild Surge: No Save, Dragon's Breath (in a fairly desperate situation)

Wild Surge: Double Hitpoints (immediately before getting hit with real dragon breath that would have meant death)

On the other hand...

Wild Surge: Area Effect, Finger of Death (three party members die). Also Dragon's Breath and Abi Dalzim, but these didn't actually kill anyone.

Wild Surge: All gold lost

[ 07-05-2001: Message edited by: moriveth ]

samcu · Post by **samcu** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 12:42 am

That sounds so much fun!

rarsus · Post by **rarsus** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 7:34 am

First of all, Hello to ya all, first post on this forum.

Well It seems that it takes the fun out of playing a wild mage, when you cheat with the wild surges...

On the other hand, try selecting a Mob (pardonez the mud talk) and then press CTRL + H....

Edited because I forgot to say hello

[ 07-06-2001: Message edited by: Ash ]

aVENGER2k · Post by **aVENGER2k** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 8:26 am

Originally posted by Ash:
First of all, Hello to ya all, first post on this forum.

Welcome!Now,with ToB out,we'll be hitting 3k members soon

Well It seems that it takes the fun out of playing a wild mage, when you cheat with the wild surges...

Agreed,any kind of cheating takes the fun out of the game,but since I already finished ToB legit 2 times,I use cheats to lighten the mood sometimes

Originally posted by moriveth:
Wild Surge: Double Hitpoints (immediately before getting hit with real dragon breath that would have meant death)

Hell yeah,his actually saved my butt a couple of times.

Wild Surge: All gold lost

Well,this is not that terrible,happened to me a few times and I lost about 20-30k gold,and since it happened during an Intense battle I didn't want to reload,but hey in ToB 30000gp is peanuts

Also,a funny thing happened during the last battle,Anomen got morphed into a doggy(or was it a wolf?) and Minsc...err...well,let's just say he finally got in touch with his feminine side

(sex changed) but in general being a Wild Mage is lotsa fun.

BTW,I read somewhere that Wild Mages were supposed to be able to somehow control the effects of the Deck of Many Things and the Wand of Wonder.Unfortunatly,it seams this was NOT implemented in BG2/ToB.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 8:33 am

I'm curious if the change of sex effect of the Wild Mage spells causes a change in romances. It would be rather funny for Jaheira to say she didn't swing that way, or for Viconia to smirk and say she didn't mind at all.

aVENGER2k · Post by **aVENGER2k** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 8:41 am

@fable

LOL ! Dunno abut that,it never actually hit me.It always happened to the person I was targeting with my spell,but anyway,it doesn't last forever,only for a couple of turns I think.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 12:12 pm

Originally posted by fable:
I'm curious if the change of sex effect of the Wild Mage spells causes a change in romances. It would be rather funny for Jaheira to say she didn't swing that way, or for Viconia to smirk and say she didn't mind at all.

What would happen if your romance interest was changed?

]RiPPeR[ · Post by **]RiPPeR[** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 4:49 pm

Originally posted by aVENGER2k:
[QB
@others:

Cmon people,report something funny! Or is no one except me playing a Wild Mage ¿¿¿

[ 07-05-2001: Message edited by: aVENGER2k ][/QB]

it may sound stupid but i cant understand yet how the wild mage works, the only spell he can have is that new level 1 spell? and how it works?

Metatron · Post by **Metatron** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 5:39 pm

The only thing I dislike about the Wild Mage so far is that every time you cast a spell, your casting level is altered up or down a random number of levels. I don't remember reading anything about that in the kit description.
But I'm determined to stick it out. Anyway, once I get to the really high levels, losing five casting levels won't affect me that much.

In answer to your question, Ripper, the Wild Mage is like a specialist mage who can cast spells from any school. However, each time they cast a spell, their spell casting level is altered up or down by a random amount (so far the most I've lost is five casting levels). Also, each time they cast a spell, they have a 5% chance of having a wild surge. But they also have spells that help them get better effects from wild surges. You see?

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 5:41 pm

@Metatron, I recall reading that stuff about the 5 level variation in the ToB manual. It can make a huge difference, particularly in the relatively early game.

moriveth · Post by **moriveth** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 9:02 pm

Just a bit of advocacy for Wild Mage: Reckless Dweomer (the level 1 spell) is the best spell in the game by a huge margin.

With improved chaos shield and a decent level (such as you're at even at the start of ToB) you've got an excellent chance of successfully casting whatever absurdly powerful spell you're trying to cast. Dragon's Breath, half the time for me...because Dragon's Breath takes no time to cast with the Robe of Vecna. That is significant because you do not need to pause before casting Reckless Dweomer! You cast it as if Improved Alacrity were in effect at all times.

In other words, you can unleash massive damage only matched by a sorceror in a Time Stop with Improved Alacrity--only without that lengthy pause before getting off the Time Stop. My Wild Mage singlehandedly nuked Abazigal in less than a round with just first level spell slots this way.

If it weren't for Improved Alacrity, Wild Mages would be orders of magnitude more powerful than other mages. As it is, a sorceror is still better IMHO, if not as much fun. (That 5% chance Wild Surges on normal spells is almost never better than casting normally would be. When I cast a time stop against Ye Fearsome Dragon, I want a time stop, not a cow falling from the sky.)

In my game, Sarevok was changed to a woman for a time because of a wild surge (sex change, polymorph, weird colors, etc. all expire eventually, as I'm sure you'll all be glad to know). I didn't reload after losing 100k gold to the "all gold gone" wild surge (three times or so)--it all comes from being a wild mage, you know, and it subverts the whole purpose if you reload for every unfavorable wild surge roll.