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what skills are good for a mage, what magics should i use ?? i am thhinking about power gaming so i just want to know the killer tactics...

Sorry, but I don't do powergaming. I can tell you this, though: lockpicking is essential. I also found the frost spell and scorpion traps very useful.

@ fable:

are you talking about dd or bd?

i'm talking about dd... and i found out that bows are cheesey, waaay to cheesy... elemental arrows do a hell of a lot damage for just 1-5 mana! THAT IS BROKEN!

[QUOTE=Micha369]@ fable:

are you talking about dd or bd?[/QUOTE]

DD.

ok... thx... maybe i'll buy it (or just download it)...

Squee, you'll get a response to anything you post when you deal with this comment of yours. Until then, you'll really on probation, here. PM me with a response (click my name, and send a personal message).

Hello,

what skills are essential and what is not that important for a mage?

Is it possible to walk through the game by only (or at least almost only) increasing Intelligence?

Many Thanks!


Micha

I was able to beat the game my first time around with basically all points into intelligence, lightning/meteorstrike maxed out, and 2-3 points in deadly gift, for difficult bosses, I laid down 10 or so scorpions and kited the boss around until the scorpions stung 'em. The ONLY thing that gave me problems was one of the famale bosses. I forgot her name, but she seemed like a high up person on the enemy ranks. She used the spikes and summoned tons of dwarves... took me three days to figure out how to beat her.

So, intelligence+ lightning = cake-walk, meteorstrike was for enemies that where immune/resistant to lightning. Use shift+ctrl when using lightning, and elven sight so you can target farther away. DON'T Combine ranger sight and elven sight, get ONE OR the other.

Same skills are important for all professions, because the only lasting difference is that one ability each gets at the start of the game. You can then tailor your character anyway you want.

Be sure you build dexterity/agility first. Spent every attribute point you receive on working this up to the point where you have a better than even chance to hit an opponent. Then spend at least every other point on it until you reach 80%. Typically, I divide the rest between strength and intelligence, but you don't need either at the start of the game. You need to hit as often as you can, and avoid getting hit as often as you can.

Freeze is an excellent spell. It works on a lot of creatures, and is especially useful on orcs. Get at least a couple of levels of that, or even more. Deadly Gifts is great, as well. Get several levels of lockpicking; you'll need it.

Fable

I couldn't help noticing you prefer a melee build Fable, however I am inclined to say you don't need agility if you can cast lightning fast enough your enemy can't move, and with enough mana they will go down. I killed Seth at 10th level with my brand new lightning skill. simple enough, if you are gonna melee, get a lot of agility, if you are gonna be a mage, get enough intelligence that you can destroy the entire orc camp without stopping. ;-)

Oh, one last thing, why is lockpicking so important, give me a personal tell if you need it to get through the story line. Even in Iona's Dungeon or whatever, I still haven't *needed* it.

@ Squee

One tactic that has just become part of my main killers...
Get Deadly Gift, and Command Aura, you get to command 1-5 100-500th lvl Death Scorpions. When they are under your command they are much swifter, and much more willing to take out nearby enemies, and they stick with you as well. 3 400th level DS's for me atm. I also cast aura of guarding on them to give them an additional 140 HP's for melee, and if they begin to die, restoration works on them.

[QUOTE=Rass F.]I couldn't help noticing you prefer a melee build Fable, however I am inclined to say you don't need agility if you can cast lightning fast enough your enemy can't move, and with enough mana they will go down. I killed Seth at 10th level with my brand new lightning skill. simple enough, if you are gonna melee, get a lot of agility, if you are gonna be a mage, get enough intelligence that you can destroy the entire orc camp without stopping. ;-)[/quote]

Doesn't work that way. You simply can't recover mana fast enough to keep up attacks regularly, and you can't afford to spend all your coins early in the game on potions. Trust me on this: it was the subject of a loooong discussion on Larian Studios' boards when DD appeared. The eventual consensus was that it's nearly impossible to build a mage character from the beginning who can make it that way. Too many fights require strength; too many creatures are magic-resistant; too often you're boxed in and have to emply melee;l mana is too expensive to use exclusively. Larian gives you the apparent choice to configure your character as you would, but there's only one way to proceed forward at anything other than a crawl during the early stages. If I'd the opportunity, I'd much sooner play a pure mage.

Oh, one last thing, why is lockpicking so important, give me a personal tell if you need it to get through the story line. Even in Iona's Dungeon or whatever, I still haven't *needed* it.

At least three areas I can think of require lockpicking ability for quests, and a fourth gives you access to some really nice cash and items if you pass a high level lockpicking test. Iona's Dungeon is still less than 1/4 of the way through the game.

Mana Dilemma solved

Is that the only drawback for it? that's just plain goofy.
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First off, pick one of the mages, so you have meteorstrike, go outside and kill two orcs, there you go, you are level two, kill a few more orcs until you are level four and put the points into intelligence (if you are beeing careful with your aim your mana should be able to deal with this at the time), go back inside Aleroth, and kill Zombie jake in the graveyard, and his basement, that's alot of experience for you, but don't forget to sleep between the fights. Head south carefully dealing with any orcs along the way until you hit the bridge, help them kill the trolls so they aren't angry at you, head south-east until you get to the cowpens, next to the teleport pad around there is tons of hay, simply pick up a stack, unfold it in your inventory, and get another stack, combine those, and ta-daa, you have a weightless bed for whenever you get low on mana and don't have the money to buy potions. From there I usually do the rest of the area around Aleroth and from there I head towards the orc camp off in the east. When you butcher those orcs, you should have a couple levels under your belt, and a nice bunch of change to do whatever you want with.

I always boost intelligence up to 100 before I do anything else, at level 32, I have 107 intelligence, and 77ish strength, I don't do any meleeing, I just like to carry things. The steel scorpion cages get pretty heavy at 20pounds a piece.

Oh, One more thing, under NO circumstances get ranger sight over elven sight... just act like ranger sight is a plague, if you want better sight, get elven sight to 5th rank and do not get curious about vision with ranger sight! 1+1+1+1+1 is a bad thing, 2+4+8+10+12 is a good thing...

[QUOTE=Rass F.]Is that the only drawback for it? that's just plain goofy.[/quote]

Not drawback, but drawbacks. I stated several. Here they are, again:

1) You simply can't recover mana fast enough to keep up magic attacks regularly with a young character.

2) Too many creatures in the game are magic-resistant, and even magic-immune. This means lightning, meteorstrike, freeze, etc, do not work.

3) Location can and will leave you boxed or hemmed in by creatures(s) that don't permit ranged attacks.

I will also add:

4) You can't get strong magic attacks in the early stages of the game.

You don't apparently have any suitable answers to all this; they're simply "goofy," which reflects more upon your reasoning and linguistic skills than it does upon the game.

On to your own course of action:

First off, pick one of the mages, so you have meteorstrike, go outside and kill two orcs, there you go, you are level two, kill a few more orcs until you are level four

This is far from accurate--don't screw up the game for others by trying to support your case through untenable arguments. You don't just get to level four by "killing two orcs" then "killing a few more orcs." It takes a lot of running around and a lot of kills, and a first level meteorstrike only lightly wounds many orcs. So if we follow your course of action, we get: run around trying to isolate a single orc, then another; sleep. Do ti again; sleep. And if you get hemmed in, since orcs tend to cluster in groups of 4-6, the routine changes to "get killed by a few orcs; close down the game; go to sleep." You have no backup plan for dealing with being cornered, or even ending up next to a single orc. The chances of a character being hit with a starter-level dexterity/agility that hasn't been raised are roughly 4 out of 5; your chances of hitting are roughly 1 in 5. And there are numerous bosses in the early stages of the game that simply won't react at all to meteorstrike. They shrug it off.

I'm not saying this can't be done this way. I'm only suggesting it's boring, since you spend so much time running from monsters, finding safe sleeping zones as you move closer to battle areas, and running to-and-from them the zones; and that it's very risky, since you can't afford to end up in melee. You have no backup plan, and no way of handling the bosses that are magic-resistant, unless you're using Deathly Gift (which isn't a mage spell) to throw scorpions at them.

, at level 32, I have 107 intelligence, and 77ish strength, I don't do any meleeing, I just like to carry things.

I note that you don't state what your agility/dexterity is, the easiest way to handle opponents next to yourself. And you've never even finished the game...! You've got quite a way to go. And the number of magic-resistant creatures rises sharply in the latter levels. Good luck with those.

I apologize for saying 'goofy', I was in a happy mood when I posted it. (solemn look)

ok, for some in depth answers to the questions I missed.

1) you are right, getting some mana replenish early is slightly difficult, however, if you are a mildly skilled mage, you can determine how many meteorstrikes it takes per opponent. 3-5 usually for melee orcs, 3-6 for orc archers is what it seems to be for me, if it's different for you, go with whatever it takes you. Also I would like to note that you DO get full mana upon a level up, so if you are running low on mana and really high on exp, be carefull with how you spend it and hope you can get the level before you run out, if not, Aleroth is always right next door.

2) Yes, once again you are correct, some are resistant and immune. I do mix up Lightning and Meteorstrike for enemies, I.E. Steel Warriors are fire immune/resistant, and Lich's are lightning resistant, so use whichever spell is appropriate for your current situation. Immunities will be gotten to in a few...

3) I rarely get boxed in... One nice trick I noticed, if you are near somewhere to get boxed in, clear the area a little, or simply don't go to where you aren't sure you can't get out of, and in dire circumstances, use your mage special move to escape the boxing in. I cannot say how often other people get boxed in, I am going from personal experience, and my experiences tell me I don't get boxed in frequently.

4)Meteorstrike is plenty strong for dealing with the early enemies. In fact, with my first mage, I didn't get elemental strike and elemental hail and all the fancy spells because they just cost too much to be casting alot of. I say Meteorstrike and Lightning do just fine, That is my opinion.

My own course of action--
Everytime I have done this, two orcs, just off to the right of the entrance to Aleroth gave me a level. Oh, and you must explore. Wandering in areas that have been revealed don't tend to lead to enemies. I have already stated, I rarely get boxed in, so it doesn't fit into MY strategy for the drawbacks, I am not saying these tactics are 100% infallible, I am stating what works for me. As for the damage, having an orc get near me and hitting me doesn't worry me as much as it seems to worry you, I dunno' why, it just doesn't, a melee orc has made me take 15 paces away and attack again, but it hasn't ever really been a life threatening situation to me in the early game (except for the Heavy Orc to the N-W... he is viscious). I didn't mention the early bosses because I DON'T deal with them until I have taken care of many of the rest of the orcs, the drummer and heavy orcs are deadly, but a massive barrage of meteorstrikes tends to make them stutter step worse than a good dose of poison, and that damage adds up VERY quickly. Anyway, by the time I am facing them I have a couple mana potions, OR if I am going to get stomped easy, I lead them back to Seth, who in short turn turns them to sushi. I dunno' if you have discovered this or not, however, if you are moving exactly the opposite direction a melee enemy is swinging, he will miss 100% of the time. Yes there are times when you can't move straight away from an enemy, but thats when you sprint and don't LET them swing at you.

Deadly Gift, not a mage skill, very true, however thats the GOOD thing about DD, the OPTION to mix and match without being penalized for it. I prefer to use skills that work for me as opposed to being stuffed into the mage spell side of things. As I previously stated, I use scorpion's when I get in a jam, I.E. magical immune bosses, and hordes upon hordes of enemies. However, in the early stages of the game when mana recovery is an issue, I didn't seem to find ANY magical immune enemies... That was the issue, mana recovery at early stages is a huge hamperer. Thus, I addressed the issue.

As I have stated somewhere previously on the forums "the first time through..." yes, I have beaten this game before. I have also stated before I generally crank all of my stat points into intelligence, I.E. intelligence was 100ish, dex and con where 10ish. Using my above tactics, I didn't need to buy armor until... until whenever I felt like buying it.

I cannot stress enough that if you can continually pelt your enemy with spellfire, it is almost as good as freeze, and does the full spell damage each time. I have been able to practically immobilize 8 heavy orcs with ctrl+shift, and lightning, however if you are going to blow the bejesus out of enemies like I do, either keep open your potion window, or hotkey a mana/restore potion.

I invite you all to change tactics wherever you deam it necassery, this is JUST MY PLAYING style, and it works extremely well for me, don't let them get near you, and you won't have to worry about health very much. Later equipment will give you a vitality boost for situations where you cannot avoid being hit. It seems we have very different playing styles you and me Fable, you prefer to be within striking range and shrug off the brunt of the damage with a high agility score, me on the other hand, I get elven sight to five a.s.a.p. and can see the fights before they come, and I should also mention at this point that lightning can strike as far as you can see if you have L.O.S. to the target. I personally don't use freeze because I can stun them with spells ( possibly a side effect of playing F.P.S. on consoles ). I also played diablo so that has taught me to avoid blows with mages.

I ALWAYS carry five death scorpion's, no matter what, for those rare instances I get crowded before I fry everything, and the new tactic helps ohh soo much.

I will gladly try to give you more answers to more in depth questions, but since I am not good at pulling out multiple facts, please post them in that previous format so I can address them with the due respect they deserve.

I hope you don't see these as challenges to shoot down, these are one players tactics being given to the community, not an attack on your playing style, this is MY playing style.

ran into my FIRST -forced- melee. the tresury under the castle with the death-knight, the dragon equipment saved my butt here, his red shcok spell was doing tons of damage, but I quaffed a super elixer and giggled at how much damage it did after that. He hit me plenty hard, but I had waaay too many restore potions for him to win. That's another tip, when you can, stock up on resotre potions, either buying, mixing, or creating them out of thin air.HB is so fun to toy with.

Restore potions are essential as you rise in levels. While regular health and mana potions give you a point-based increase, restore potions increase your health and mana reserves by a percentage of your total possible. So as your health and mana points increase, restore potions become far more powerful.

My base level restore potions ( not minor ) restore my characters 110 hp's and 990 mana to full. ;-P

That may be because your mana wasn't empty when you restored it. It restores a percentage of that total, so you're over that total before using the restore, you've got it all back.

I had a sliver of mana left... I think the base level restore restores 100% of health and mana, which makes me think, why bother with super restoration's at all?

[QUOTE=Rass F.]I had a sliver of mana left... I think the base level restore restores 100% of health and mana, which makes me think, why bother with super restoration's at all?[/QUOTE]

Because base doesn't restore 100%.