Mage favorite tactics (spoiler)

[Akubi]

I think mage is the most difficult PC to play with in solo. Right now I have Keldon beside my PC mage just as backup. But I dun really want to share experience with him. So I need to better way to play mage.

Here's my favorite strategy:
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1. web -> ice storm -> death fog -> -> fireball -> melf meteor

2. protection from normal weapon -> cold cone

This is what I can think of so far.

[Saruman]

I don't want to go through all the solo mage tactics but if you want to check out the Journal of Elmonster the mage on baldurdash you'll find all you need to know. Thanks for this jounal and evrything else at baldurdash should of course go to Kevin Dorner

[url="http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/"]Baldurdash[/url]

[DaJir]

Not really, solo'n a pure no kit fighter or thief is harder. I'd say pure mage or sorc are one of the easiest to solo besides hybrids and multi/dual classes. If you don't mind play'n cheesy any and all encounters can be a breeze, especially with clone type spells like project image. Double your spell output and use single use item scrolls(can't cast level 9 spells under the exp cap? HA!) and potions as many times ya want with just one level 7 spell(instant cast time with that robe from Adventurers mart).. phear. Your only hangup is magic reistant foes like dragons, golems, and demons. They are still doable cause you get plenty of debuff spells. Hell, cast strenght on a golem (take it from 24-25 str to just 18/00) and you'd be able to take it with staff, girdle of bluntness and combat buffs.
On solo'n with mage.
AE spells are your friend. Enemies don't seem to be able to see stationary spells like cloudkill and they have a tendency to ignore most combat buffs of rival casters.

Skull trap is always better than fireball and delayed blast fireball, secret to not killing your self with it is to run the opposite way after casting it.

Boots of speed are your friend, don't be scared to cast and runaway for 6 or so seconds till the round ends so you can cast again.

Use contingency spells, can cast em while the game is paused and they don't count against your one spell per round limit. (Ab)Use these spells for instant combat protections with no delay.

Use polymorph self mustard jelly. The spell just owns. Long duration, invul to all magic attacks, not to mention pit fiend and all flavors of werewolf melee. Can't use spells but you can still use quick slots (spells scrolls, potions, the whole 9) and special abilities. Prolly item spells too, need to check that out.

Mislead ROCKS, cast the spell outa enemy los, send the clone outa true sight range and you now have a chance to cast 4 or 5 spells while be'n undispellably invis. Don't do it against lichs and dragons, they won't be fooled or amused by it... not one bit.

cone of cold blows, low dmg, undead are invul to cold attacks, and at that spell level there are ALOT better spells to cast.
wouldn't use prot from normal weapons unless i found extra scrolls of it. Anything worth cast'n that high of a spell level on is gonna be use'n magic weapons and the duration is just painful.

[UserUnfriendly]

slight disagreement...

do not run away after casting skull trap!! novice mistake, it WILL trigger the skull!! I think the range of the spell is below the trigger radius...have chain cast

prot from magic weps and 2 skulls on yourself!!! way better than sunfire, and works on everything except liches....for them cast port from elements, and prot from energy on yourslef and delay blast fireball. who needs sunfireZ? skulls go up with level, so you can send in solo mage and wipe out a room if youre high enough...

Mislead is such an eveil spell, and I use mislead against liches and dragons all the time...cast spell immunity div on yourslef and cast mislead, and while a lich can see you, it CANNONT target you with save or else spells like finger of death and so forth. better than spell turning, eh?

cone of cold is killer!!!! goes up in power with levels, and used in chain is the best way to handle fire based creatures. chian 3 together, and run up to the nearest fire based creature.

unless you have npc to handle wave halverd, this is the best way.

poly morph slef sucks big time. why get spell, if cloak of sewers does the same...and impoves ac?

shape change is better, IMHO...that iron golem rocks!!

[DaJir]

the jelly from the cloak doesn't seem to have the same immunities. I tried it and still got reamed.
and since when does prot from magic weapons make you invul to skull trap? gotta try that one out. Hope it works cause i rarely use that spell due to crap duration.

and you always run away from a skull trap if you're use'n in place of a fireball type spell. the inflight animation gives you enough time to move outa blast radius.

[UserUnfriendly]

Sorry, mean prot from magic energy.

and every time I've tried to runa way from skulls, I got hammered. best way to use skulls is in chian, with prot from magic energy, or as evil trap...for example, the twisted rune can be hadwith about 5 skulls per warp point, except the lich, immune to 3rd level spells.

[Kovi]

Sunfire is good for solo SoA (xp cap). It basicly does the same damage as Skull Trap but have a better range, don't risk the caster and also ignore magic resistance.
Polymorph self is also very good for solo SoA. The best form is the Spider, which is hasted, have good ac, 5 attacks/round and always poison. It can be used to finish off weakened enemies. With Tenser's and Improved Haste it is killer (unfortunately in ToB most enemies are immune either to its weapon and/or poison).

[Xyx]

I suggest you do run away from your own Skull Traps, unless you use a ruler to measure your range on the screen. Skull Trap's range is only barely larger than its blast radius.