Mage Build

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revjwh
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Mage Build

Post by revjwh »

Hello.

I have just started playing Book II.

I'm quite excited.

I was wondering if this sounds like a decent pure mage start?

Put most points in Perception; do I need to put points in Intelligence initially?

Skill points: Elemental, Cartography (1), Meditation? (I've heard that a 38 Perception negates Meditation??)

Also, does wearing heavy armor interfere with magic in any way? Or should I invest some points there so I'm defended well.

My goal is to never have to use a weapon. Help would be appreciated.
Rune_74
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Rune_74 »

Off to a good start.
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Buckets
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Buckets »

Intelligence allows you to learn spells. A certain minimum (15 I think) is required for the most basic elemental spells.

Heavy armor doesn't interfere with magic but eventually you may find that you need more strength points just to be able to carry so much.

I found it hard to never need a weapon because you run out of mana points quickly. To augment that goal, you may want to invest in alchemy so that you can create mana restoration and mana potions.

Hope that helps. I love playing with magic. Enjoy!
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Dragonlady
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Dragonlady »

revjwh wrote:Hello.

I have just started playing Book II.

I'm quite excited.

Also, does wearing heavy armor interfere with magic in any way? Or should I invest some points there so I'm defended well.

My goal is to never have to use a weapon. Help would be appreciated.
Yes, heavy armor will interfere unless you put massive amounts of points into Strength. Heavy gloves make you switch (loosing 1 round of action) them into inventory to cast magic. When beta testing, I went for Light Armor. Plenty of good armor and magic armor in both Heavy and light. Try your way and see what happens. :)

As for killing via magic only. Have fun. It's hard..concidered a Challenge game I believe.
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revjwh
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Re: Mage Build

Post by revjwh »

So just to clarify one thing: if I raise Perception to 38 do I need to worry about the meditation skill or leave it alone?

J
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Dragonlady
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Dragonlady »

revjwh wrote:So just to clarify one thing: if I raise Perception to 38 do I need to worry about the meditation skill or leave it alone?

J
From the way I can see it you need Perception to get max amounts of points at each level up and for spotting hidden items. Meditation if you want to 'recover' your mana points fast, instead of hours or game days between each 'nap'. Meditation in book 1 wasn't really needed. IMHO it IS needed in book 2. BW or other beta testors who are into math/detail stuff will hopefully answer this in depth. I made meditation up to level 10 which has come in handy, very handy towards the end of the game. Try your way and if it doesn't work, play it differently. That's the fun of this game, so many different ways you can play or challenge yourself. :wink:
Sometimes the dragon wins...
Help save the earth. It's the only planet with CHOCOLATE!
Ojisan
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Ojisan »

Atm i came to point when i regen 1 mana per turn and adding more meditation/perception doesnt seem to help :\ Should i still invest in meditation in hope that ill regen more then 1 point per turn at some point?
Randomizer
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Randomizer »

Perception is need to reach the maximum of 9 mana points per level when you level up. Increasing perception over 40 and getting meditation raises the rate of mana regeneration. I got as high as 4 mana points per turn and BW said that you can get it to 5 per turn. You need to get meditation over 10 to see a real benefit.

You don't need to get meditation if you just use mana potions and don't mind camping.

Light armor is the best choice for a mage. Don't forget that you can use spells to help out too. Chameleon spell will make you 40% harder to hit, invisibility will make it harder to spot you if you don't use certain attack spells and stay silent.

I ran a pure mage/alchemist and had a blast. I didn't even need to use half my spells and I breezed through the end.
revjwh
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Re: Mage Build

Post by revjwh »

So is intelligence really needed? What would be the minimum intelligence for a decent pure mage?

Do I need alchemy if I plan to get a high perception and meditation regen rate? Will I still need alchemy as a primary skill choice?

Last question: do I need any Divine magic for healing or can I make it through without?

Thanks! Very helpful replies!
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CrazyBernie
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Re: Mage Build

Post by CrazyBernie »

revjwh wrote:So is intelligence really needed? What would be the minimum intelligence for a decent pure mage?

Do I need alchemy if I plan to get a high perception and meditation regen rate? Will I still need alchemy as a primary skill choice?

Last question: do I need any Divine magic for healing or can I make it through without?

Thanks! Very helpful replies!
Intelligence affects the number of Elemental spells you can memorize, as well as the quality of the spells you can learn. You'll want it to be above 30 if you want to learn all of the available Elemental spells.

It also boosts your elemental resistance...

Alchemy is good for more than just mana/healing potions... Foraging complements it quite well. When/How high depends on your playing style.
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Randomizer »

As for Divine magick, well you can use potions for the healing part. What divine spells are really useful for is Lore. It takes Lore at level 15 to identify the harder items whereas you can use the lore spell to do it and with swapping items you don't even need to spend skill points.
Weron
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Weron »

Also keep in mind that your max number of spells known is int/2 (or wis/2 for divine). This is not mentioned anywhere I know.
It's really annoying me now that I am midgame with my mage and have quite a few utterly useless level 1 spells blocking my learning the good high level spells before I dump more points in int or get my hands on even more +int gear.

Is there a way to unlearn spells? Or edit my saves to delete spells known perhaps?

Weron.
Slarty
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Slarty »

You do NOT need to get Meditation. The posters above may "feel" that it's good for MP regeneration, but in fact its impact on your MP regen rate is exactly the same as Perception's impact. You are much better off just buying more points in Perception, and saving your skill points for other, more useful skills.
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Re: Mage Build

Post by Krafen »

For a mage, I would stay away from the Cartography skill. You can easily keep Reveal Map running constantly. If you have Cartography skill, you will redraw the map at the lower skill level when Reveal Map expires, possibly losing information if you don't notice right away. If you do not have the skill, it is very easy to tell when the spell expires because your map disappears.

Putting some extra skill points into Meditation is not a terrible idea, but if you emphasize Perception, you won't really need it. If you want to be good at Elementalism, Divination, and Alchemy, you won't have too many extra skill points.

If you want to learn all the spells, you will need a lot of Intelligence/Wisdom. If you choose carefully, you can get by with much less Int/Wis. You need 25 Int/Wis to learn the highest level spells, but you can use items to boost your score when you learn the spell and still be able to cast it after you remove the items.
eil
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Re: Mage Build

Post by eil »

didn't manage to find it somewhere on the forum so asking: does ToHit at all needed for mages? same about Max Damage and modifier.
i mean i'm using only spells do i need to worry about that stuff? do i need rings with +~ Damage or ToHit?
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