Crippling food shortage and tactical question :)

[CamRaiD]

Hi all, I just finished Book 1, and started Book 2.

I am a wizard in the first town, and the food is used up, there are no food spells to be found, or rats around to eat, and I am dying and can't heal properly !!! Not even the barkeep has food

I feel the game is a bit broken like this... Still love it though, is there something I should know? Like an everlasting apple tree or something?

Also, I chose to pursue heavy armour with my wizard and got the skill in character generation. I then had the thought, that there might not be many heavy armours in the game which complement a wizards skills !!!...Is this the case? Or should I restart and choose light armour instead...

Bah, I have already restarted 2 times :p Where can you find a food scroll ? I have tried re-searching a chest over and over hoping to strike lucky but no cigar... im still starving :/

[Rebelicious]

First off, yeah, you should really get Light Armour as a Mage.

Second, food really shouldn't be a problem. Remember to get at least a level or two in Foraging. See if you can find the trainer (don't buy it with your points, as a mage).

Third, food really shouldn't be a problem for you. Ever. Especially not as a mage, since you can relatively quickly get both food and water spells. If there's a crisis, get a room at a tavern. It'll fill up your food and water levels.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

You're the second person who's mentioned a food shortage lately. Any chance you're not using version 1.03 or 1.04? There's food in barrels all over the place, and ala cart in Jarvik's inn. Plus, head out to Everdale and you'll find more food there (the Foraging trainer is on the way to Everdale, if you wander off the beaten path when you start thinking about why somebody would leave a bucket there in the middle of the forest). You usually don't see the Create Food scroll until either Everdale or Port K, but sometimes it'll pop up in one of the shops in Eastwillow. It's a Divination spell, though, not Elemental.

[xolotl]

I do think that there should be some mechanism whereby the Inns will never be out of food, though I guess that's really only important before you make your way to another town. I remember thinking on my first playthrough that it'd be nice if my char could spend the night at the Inn in Everdale, like at the other inns. My mage never actually had any food supply problems, but I do also remember being overjoyed once I discovered the Foraging trainer.

[Randomizer]

Food runs out quickly if you spend too much time camping to recover mana or repairing instead of exploring to reach the towns. The sewers beneath Port Kuudad can provide a few days of food.

Get endurance over 40 or train in foraging to solve your food problems.

[Painted Lady]

I had the food problem too - mainly because I was doing the True Ranger challenge where food cannot be purchased. However, the Wayfarer's Jolly will eventually run out of food if you don't keep moving. Head over to Everdale rather than hanging around in Eastwillow. Once you have two inns to visit, you can always find plenty of food to buy. And, with Quick Travel, it isn't any big ordeal to pop back and forth.

Also, I see very little advantage to Heavy Armour. It's just that - heavy. You can waste a lot of points building up enough strength just to wear the stuff. Stick with Light Armour in the beginning

[CamRaiD]

Thanks for the replies everyone, that clears up the problem quite alot. My problem was that magic was the only way I could kill things to get xp, so I was sleeping lots to recover mana, and therefore used up all the food.

My aim was, to create a true mage-warrior this playthrough, using a sword too.
But I then thought that there may not be such a thing as "Full plate of Master Divination"

Oh well, now I can restart and THIS time WEAR all the abundant light armour I find :p so much fun! I'm so excited about this game, I want to do/have everything at once!

[xolotl]

One more bit of advice: as a Mage, keep on pumping points into Perception. You can eventually get your MP regeneration rate to go up to like 5 or 6 MP per turn. (Meditation is probably still tied into this as well, though I've heard that it's a little less powerful than it was in Book 1.)

[Randomizer]

1 point of meditation skill helps just as much as 1 point of perception, but those skill points are more useful elsewhere.

[Farwalker]

1 point of meditation skill helps just as much as 1 point of perception, but those skill points are more useful elsewhere.

Usually true - but meditation does also give better resistance bonuses. In some character builds I used meditation because I wanted a natural max resistance to magick and elemental damage.

That strategy is perhaps less useful in book 2 though, because elemental and magick resistance bonuses are fairly easy to find on high level armor if you shop a little bit.

Still, I think natural maxed resistance is cool. Great for a no armor character for instance. Or just because it's cool.

(And then BW went and changed the max resistance from 100% to 99% - oh woe is me my illusion of invulnerability is shattered!!!! )

[Rowanas]

Oh no! Now if you set up camp on a lava field you might actually take a few points of damage before everything on your body is turned to ash.