In Athalka (did i spell that right?) you get smited by the Cowled wizard chaps if you start waving yer magik around too much - and they talk about a Magic License! can you actually get hold of a magik license?

Yep, go to the government district, in the Council of Six building you must talk to Corneil. He will give U a license for 5000 gps. Always paid him when I started playing SoA, now I just kill all Cowled Wizards that show themselves, much more fun!

I never bothered to pay the fee, and actually I didnt use magic either(well I did one or two times). Now though, If they interrupt me in a batlle on the streets of Atkhatla I'll toast them aswell [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ack. Now there's a position I don't envy you. Since most encounters on the city streets are of a surprise nature, the very LAST thing I need is to be fighting a battle that I'm not prepared for, and then suddenly have 4 Cowlies teleport in with their Symbol: Stuns. (Of course, after you get ADHW, that's not a problem anymore. [img]smile.gif[/img] )

I am going to have some MAJOR pain with the party I just started:
Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist (hacked to use the Male Dwarven Mage avatar, and yes there is one), Aerie, Jan, Nalia, Kelsey, and Edwin. We are gonna look so damn spiffy marching down the street in our Robes, but since I *never* pay the Cowls, we are gonna have a hell of a time dealing with run-of-the-mill fights, especially without Insect Plague.

Ack. Now there's a position I don't envy you. Since most encounters on the city streets are of a surprise nature, the very LAST thing I need is to be fighting a battle that I'm not prepared for, and then suddenly have 4 Cowlies teleport in with their Symbol: Stuns. (Of course, after you get ADHW, that's not a problem anymore. [img]smile.gif[/img] )

I am going to have some MAJOR pain with the party I just started:
Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist (hacked to use the Male Dwarven Mage avatar, and yes there is one), Aerie, Jan, Nalia, Kelsey, and Edwin. We are gonna look so damn spiffy marching down the street in our Robes, but since I *never* pay the Cowls, we are gonna have a hell of a time dealing with run-of-the-mill fights, especially without Insect Plague.</font>[/QUOTE]Yes in the early levels, they can be a pain in the ass indeed. I've always kept me out of trouble with the cowls. Until now that is. Running trough SoA with a solosorc. Im not a fan of the sling, nor the quarter staff so magic it will be, wether its cowls around or not.
I remember in my sorcs early days in the bridge district, she met some noble person which behaved too arrogant for her taste. Solution, Protection from Evil + summon in an Glabarezu from the newly found summon fiend scroll. Cowleds didnt like that, so they came out of nowhere and attacked. I ran away, and let the Glabarezu do the job. I had a wizard eye to broadcast all the action of course [img]smile.gif[/img]

they can be pretty hard to deal with at first.. so if my party isnt strong enough i pay the fee.. but end up stealing its worth back to compensate [img]smile.gif[/img] BUT, once you get adhw, they dont stand a chance :D

I stopped paying.

I find it is very satisfying to beat them like a rented mule.

I um, set up as much as possible first, prebuff with Clerical spells, maybe go inside somewhere and cast Mage buffs, and, go out in the street and cast something.

My Transmuter made their life a living hell. There are some statues of Cowled Ones in several places, and, I think I turned some into squirrels. After a few fights, they got wise and left my anti social Transmuter alone. He is Chaotic Good, and, I try to role play him as such as much as possible. There was no way in hell he was going to pay 5000 gold for a licence. So when they showed up trying to kill him, he told them "Bugger off or else face pigeon poop for a thousand years." as is the typical Transmuter response to anything remotely threatning.

Now my Transmuter is bored. The Cowled Ones don't come out and play with him anymore.

No! Don't do that! The Cowlies are one of your best sources for high-level spells early in the game. I've looted things like Abi-Dalzim's and Mody's Sword from them. (As well as a suit of Plate Mail, which I thought was rather odd.)

Zarmen (my Fighter/Illusionist who looks like a Dwarf) is CG as well, and he's best buddies with Jan, especially since it was turnip boy who made it possible for the entire party to gain an extra level or two--by nicking every single shopliftable scroll in Athkatla. It's fun, I'm playing in ways I never have before. (How I killed TorGal: Aerie casts Protection from Fire and Resist Fire/Cold on me. I go into melee with Tor & his buddies, then cast a scroll of Fireball on myself, while the other 5 members Fireball me as well. Toasty!)

So far, I haven't cast any Wizard spells on the street, so the Cowls don't even know about me yet. When I do get around to summoning them, I'll have to stick to incapacitating spells so I don't hurt any Commoners.

Well, I could always go back and use Stone to Flesh I reckon.

In one memorable encounter, I managed to have my Transmuter and Aerie squeeze off two skull traps before the Cowls show up, and, guess what, they spawned right on top of my waiting skull traps.

BANG!

Scattered bits of Cowls all over the street.

My Transmuter laughed so hard he nearly wet his Robe of the Good Archmagi.

what does adhw stand for?

ADHW= Abi Dhalzim's Horrid Wiltning
ADHW is a powerful lvl 8 wizard spell that deals lots and lots of damage [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="deepskyblue">I agree with most of the others...it is far more fun to kill the Cowled Wizards than to pay them. I'm playing an assassin this time through and - like some of the others have said - there is simply NO WAY he is going to pay 5000gp for a Magic License.

Since the C.W's show up whenever you cast ANY spell in the streets of Athkahla, it is very easy to simply set a trap for them and then cast a spell to bring them running.

Like all the others, I got VERY tired of being ambushed by some local thugs only to have the Cowls show up to when I cast a spell at the first group. My assassin (being a tactician) decided to retreat to his new guild hall and set up a plan for dealing with these interlopers. Our basic strategy was for he and Yoshimo to set several traps at the base of the stairs leading down to the lowest level of the Docks (I had to find an area that was relatively free of civilians). I then had my party (assassin, Yoshimo, Korgan, Viconia, Jaheira, and Edwin) form a big circle around the traps. Edwin then went into the center of this circle and cast Haste on the party.

DING DONG - The Cowled Wizards Dimension Door in - right onto the traps I've got set. BOOM POW OUCH. Korgan then attacks the nearest one from behind. My assassin also goes attacks from behind, attempting to Backstab with his poisoned blade. Jaheira would cast Insect Plague and Yoshimo would pelt them with arrows. All in all, they died very easily and quickly (much easier than I expected).

After doing this 4-5 times, you will get a Cowled Wizard Boss (female, I believe). This fight is a little tougher, because they will summon in a couple of creatures to help out. Still, a little preparation makes the fight rather easy. After that, the Cowled Wizards no longer want anything to do with you and you can cast spells to your hearts content.

So, I would just set up my traps, cast a spell to summon the C.W.'s, kill them, loot the bodies, rest for 8 hours and repeat. That got them out of my hair very quickly.</font>

My all-Wizard party managed to dispatch all the Cowls in the space of a single day. After winning the Planar Sphere (Would that party have been satisfied with ANY OTHER Stronghold?), Teos said something about how the other Cowls would still go treating me "as they always had." Well, I certainly wasn't going to tolerate THAT, I'm not going to have anyone pushing me around. So it was off to the southern entrance to the Slums District (no innocents around) for some quick Cowl summoning. All told, I got scrolls of Spell Trigger, Incendiary Cloud, and Sphere of Chaos, plus the typical assortment of gold & gems. As a bonus, I got to kill Khylonnus Paac just moments before re-entering the Sphere and having her teleport the Knights away. :D Now that's what I call one fast Resurrection. (Too bad they couldn't restore her memory, though... [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Nothing like having the random encounters mod installed and then having the Cowled Wizards after ya.

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With Kelsey in my party, I had to go do the Night Knives stronghold quest. Of course, when I show up, bandits spawned, plus that goofy mage that's after Kelsey. So I had to fight bandits, the Night Knives, and that mage chick and her party. Fun.

My question is:

Why do the CWs try to kill you, even if all you do is cast Find Familiar in the street... when all they did to Irenicus was take him prisoner? And he KILLED 4 of them already? All I do is Find Familiar and they're out for blood! Damn magic nazis.

"Why was he not gagged?"

"We dared not approach!"

<font color="deepskyblue">Because they CAN'T kill Irenicus....and he could have killed ALL of them - but he "allows" himself to be captured for reasons that will become clear later on. ;) </font>

Just so you know, the FINAL group of cowled wizards (the highest of their order apparently) are a worthy battle IF YOU HAVE TACTICS. they come out of their dimension door souped up with EVERY PROTECTION imaginable and spell immunity-abjurations to boot (that means no dispel). This caught me by surprise because I was, at the time, fighting one of the random encounters from tactics (not an easy task), and it hurt alot when those cowleds came in behind my mages and starting imprisoning and gating in demons along with every other nasty level 8 8/9 spell you can think of.

Cowled wizards are an annoyance at most, but they are good for something; spell triggers/mordy swords. The most rare scrolls in the game!! Finding a spell trigger outside of ToB is rare as heck and finding a mordy sword equally satisfying (especially if you have multiple mages which need to scribe it). I would have paid off the cowled wizards in the beginning just to get rid of the annoyance factor if it wasnt for the fact that they always carry 1 or 2 rare scrolls just waiting for me to scribe.

I know the reasons why he turns himself in... I just think it's funny that I get one warning, regardless of the nature of my spell, and the next time they attack. I could be healing a mugging victim for all they care... I could be using an icestorm to put out a fire at an orphanige (sp?), or even casting Protection from Fire so I could run INTO the building to help people... I might be levitating out onto the water to save a drowning child, or even persuing a dangerous criminal who's murdered a million people, as soon as they see magic they're all over me.

Meanwhile, Irenicus killed how many shadow thieves and blew up a building, and they waited around while he was killin people and having little conversations with my party. I mean, chances are they were waiting for him to waste all his spells on ME, but still... equal treatment for equal crimes! hehe