| Dundee Slaytern |
10-27-2002 12:42 PM |
Mages can be fun if you enjoy spellcasting more than physical combat. I will not recommend a person to be a Mage if he/she is of the type that prefers to hack and slash. Shadows of Amn has 183 arcane spells, and Throne of Bhaal brings in 3 new spells plus 3 special wild spells. Most of these spells will prove to be useless to you, and it is up to you to decide what is good and what is bad. In addition, spells are broken down into several schools of magic.
Unless you are following some sort of guide, it will be best to experiment with all the spells. So a General Mage is usually considered the beginner's Mage. However, there are several General Mages in the actual game itself, and you can use them to conduct your experiments.
Specialist Mages can be considered the next step. They get to have one more spell slot per spell level which may not seem much, but you will appreciate it as you plod along in the game. The only disadvantage of Specialist Mages is that they have an opposition school from which they cannot learn their spells.
The top two chosen Specialist Mages are the Conjurer and the Necromancer. First and second choice respectively. The Conjurer's opposition school is Divination, which is a joke as there are barely any Divination spells in the game, so you do not really feel the loss. To make things worse, the top two useful Divination spells, Identify and True Sight, are both easily replaceable with items.
Necromancers are mainly chosen for the cool factor. [img]graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Screaming, "I am Quibby, the mighty Necromancer!" is more intimidating than, "I am Quibby, the mighty Diviner!"
Jesting aside, people who choose Necromancers tend to be very offensive people( double meaning not intended) and have no use for Illusion spells, although Alson and I will debate that. ;) :D Me? I will choose the Necromancer anyday, simply because I think they are the coolest of all the Specialist Mages.
The last step is the Sorcerer. By now, you should have reached a certain level of your understanding of spells and how they work in the game. A Sorcerer can only select five spells per spell level, so choose wisely, for there is no going back. I usually recommend people to prepare a spell list beforehand, so that they do not get indecisive during level ups.
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