I want to test out the spells in the mage book (so that I can make better spell selections for my sorc), by trying to play through the game with a Wild Mage. I chose the whinny Aerie as my companion to have the full experience of using mage power- I sort of like her voice, though she would be much more tolerable if she quits her whines.
So, two frail elven mages. My protagonist with the stats of Xan (in BG1). Full features of Tactics and Ascension installed, hardcore rules except when leveling.
I had to do the Imoen trick to get past Ilyich --there was NO way for me to get away from Irenicus' Dungeon with a Level 8-9 Wildmage. It was hard, and even with the cheese I still had to reload several times. After the dungeon, I did the circus and freed Aerie. I ran away from the shades and hurled MMs at evil gnome. Easy.
When I tried to rest in the city of Amn, I often find myself surrounded by a group of bandits (fighters and mages included) - as per the "random city encounters", and it freaks me out a little, since the Cowled Wizards are immediately after me if I cast stone skin or anything. Casting Holy Smite didn't help (were they not evil???), and all I could do was to run indoors. I ran to the Copper Cornet. A few of those guys, hasted, went right in to chase me. Inside, I was able to concentrate my mage power on 1-2 enemies. It was funny that Nalia with her tiny +0 dagger joined the fight to "help the needy", and was slain outright. Pathetic human caused me to lose a quest and XXXXX experience!!! Duh! Had to reload.
You know the part in the Copper Cornet when a woman was fighting a guy's mistress? Usually the mistress dies, but not when I cast barkskin or heal her
. Anyways, the guards were a joke. I decided to do the umber Hills quest afterwards, since I thought it is one of the easiest quests (with tactics installed) that give you big experience awards (what I overlooked was the fact that there are 2 liches each with a hell demon that constantly casts improved invisibility on themselves).
Before I went to temple ruins I did something that was really cheesy:
-I have Baldur's Gate Trilogy currently Installed separately.
-I copied my current save to the Triology's mpsave folder, and made myself 2 rings of wizardry drawn from another character save game from BG1.
-I equipted the rings and filled my spell slots with Reckless Dweomers.
-Deleted the other character, saved. Copied the save file back to my original BG2 save folder.
Tada! The rings are gone! the spell slots are gone! But I still have 20 available Reckless Dweomers to expend at level 1! That means: I can cast 20 Dragon Breaths, or 20 ADHW, or 20 whatever spells you can think of with improved Alacrity!!(I guess the reason why I have 20 and not 24 is that I could orginally cast only 5 spells from level1)
*note: there are 2 rings labeled "ring of wizardry". The BG1 version grants double amount of spells at level 1, while the BG2 version grants an additional spell at level 5,6,7. The two rings are only compatible (without BG Triology Weidu >=1.1 installed) in their respective games, as I have tested. You may take off the rings, but the memorized spells still remain. If you remove them or get level drained or sth, they are gone forever. I have no idea if there is an item code for the BG1 version of the ring at BG2.
Dispite all the wonderfulness of using Reckless Dweomers, controling the wild surge is really a headache. Even special innate abilities can trigger a whild surge! I sometimes fully heal the enemy, get my party held, silenced, or even turn my Aerie into a male elf....!!! (her voice doesn't change tho) -- The effect doesn't last after sleeping. I read from xyx's spell guide that the chaos shields WILL STACK, when sequenced. I'm not really sure, coz after I do it the games says that I cannot stack multiple instances of the spell. *Anyone has a clue to this?
Back to the temple ruins. I was at level 12-13 and enjoying myself at hurling skull traps and MMMs at shades. I could do nothing against the two liches. I had no area damage spell learned above level 5, no ring of rams, no wand of spell striking, no nothing. So the only thing I could do was using Dweomers to summon Wayverns and Nishurus (is this spelled correctly?). And the liches miraculously depleted their spell pools and got banged by Aerie's +3 mace.
When I reached the shadow Dragon I rememorized my spells to prepare for a tough battle. I had 2 free action memorized and casted by Aerie, 2 webs minor sequenced by my protagonist. I used the cheese that ignores MR by lark, but the Dragon's saves are just way too high so it didn't work (are dragons immune to hold, btw??). [reload] I then had Aerie cast Chant, Holy Power, Righteous Magic, Holy Power, Harm, and then casted magic resistence on the Dragon. My protagonist simutaneously casted MMM, Mirror Image, Resist Fear, Haste, and Pierce Magic on the Dragon. Aerie's strength was up to 24, and succeeded in harming the darn creature in one hit (first try!), and he was down with one casting of MM. It was a very risky venture for experience. Aerie survived with only 14 hp, and level Drained to Level1. And my protagonist was half bathing in his own blood.
The Shade lord was relatively much easier. Had him down in a couple loads of Skull traps.
My next stop will be the Astral Prison, and then the Planetary Sphere (the mods didn't make them any tougher). I need experience, and I need GOOD high level spells. So far the only one that I've found worth mentioning was Symbol: Stun.
During the small battles and city encounters, I was using the slow spell alot. The enemy hardly ever makes a save. It slows down enemy attacks and even spell casting, thus can be easily interrupted. Even when I use the Greater Malison + Web combination, the effects weren't that great. I have no idea why.
Another good thing I've discovered about using Reckless Dweomers is that Contingencies are always casted normally (I assume the same goes for Chain Contingency). There is no need for a wild mage to memorize Contingency.
Worth reading? To be continued?
