...after level 26 :(
Anyone know why?

ps. it happens to both me and imoen

Just a question from the ignorant ;) ...

What is a HLA ???????????????????????????????????

High Level Ability?

My guess is that you've already got 'em all. Unlike the Fighter's & Thief's HLAs, a Mage can select each HLA only once, because basically it's a spell which gets scribed in your spellbook and can be memorized as many times as you like. Taking into consideration the number of level 9 spell-slots you have, of course.

<font color = "lightgreen">There are only so many high-level abilities (HLAs) that mages may obtain; once the limit is reached that is the end. Comet, Dragon's Breath, and Energy Blades are spells; once learned, you may memorize as many of them as you have 9-th level spell slots. Isn't one extra 6th, 7th, and 8th level spell enough? Combine the extra spell slots with the Ring of Acuity, the Ring of Wizardy and, if you can get it, the Circlet of Netheril (a ToB item that I won't tell you how to get) then you will have plenty of spell slots available.</font>

Clerics have the same restriction on their HLAs as well. Once you've learned Globe of Blades, Implosion, Mass Raise Dead, Summon Deva, etc, you're as good as you're going to get. Meanwhile, your Thief can keep getting more Set Time Traps.

This post should be in the ToB forum.