Mage or Bishop?

[Nightwing]

I'm wondering what the best bet is for the Deathstalker Mod, a mage or Bishop. I couldn't use any spellbooks but have access to all spells and faster levels, or the Bishop which gives me more spells with slower levels. Has anyone tried a mage in deathstalkers mod?

[Sinteuil]

I haven't tried a mage yet, but I did try a Samurai once and the same rules applied there. Since you can't learn from books, you'd have to be very strategic with a mage in terms of which spells are worth learning at level up. It's a very different strategy than with a bishop since I usually go with a single bishop that learns all the spells. With a mage, you're going to have to focus on narrowing down exactly which spells are the most powerful, especially at the higher levels, and you're probably going to feel alot of frustration at that point when you find yourself carrying around so many high level spell books that are completely useless to you. When you have to make a choice between learning your portal spells or taking a heal all or psionic blast, that's sounding like a headache I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies. So much easier with a bishop when you can get all the level 4 and 5 spells from books in one go. Still, you do get to level up faster, and you'll be able to cast at a higher power level. If it were me, I'd take both a bishop and a mage and have them duel it out!

[Nightwing]

That's a good idea. After my bard and gadg. there are still about 26 spells I look at a must have for the mage. Maybe I will do both and see what's what.

[Sinteuil]

It occurred to me that one possible strategy for your mage would be to collect all the books you want for them until very late in the game. Then, change them to bishop for one level so they can catch up on their book learning before returning to mage. Almost seems like cheating, but you'd have a hell of a powerful caster by the end of the game! As far as I know, this should work, despite the fact that your mage-turned-bishop will have no skills in any schools besides Wizardry, since the readability of a book is based on both character class and school skill, and Wizardry counts as a school for every spell in the game now. This may also mean that you could safely neglect all schools except Wizardry for a pure bishop as well. Is there a reason (other than role-playing) to develop Psionics if your Wizardry skill will cover for it? I haven't tested this, and the mod probably wasn't intended this way, but I imagine you could seriously power up your pure bishop by pumping points into Wizardry and realms, and just ignore the other schools altogether.

[Nightwing]

That's a good idea. Playing last night I was wondering if I could do that with the mage. I would only have to pump Wizardry and Alchemy to mix potions, but then my ranger could mix potions. Right now my Bish is going Alchemy, wizardry, divinity and psionics.

[babar]

I was thinking of making a solo Samurai-Bishop that way. Talk about munckin ... might give him a thief level for stealth and locks, too.

The Sam I have in game now isn't pious enough ... needs like 10 more levels and is at 18/19 already. The bishop I have has one more level to go before he switches to samurai. Does anyone know if you can pick spells during the 4 non-casting levels as Samurai?

[Endarire]

Bishop in general just seems more worthwhile for spell versatility.

-EE

[Nightwing]

no you can't pick spells in the non casting part of thier leveling. A Sam. Bish would be pretty effective if you use a staff. They would have all the casting levels of the mage and melee built up for the sam. a ninja seems like a great class to play with all the thrown weapons in the game now.

[babar]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking more of having the guy mostly samurai and only a few bishop levels (just to pick spells) Every spell in the mod is Wizard realm, so the other schools are only good for bumping spell points and mixing potions (and I guess some odd equipment may need some points, e.g. alc for mystic spear?). Also I'd stick to sword although staff of doom may be good. Someone said you can only get lightning strikes with swords. i think there may be a sword that bishops can use in the mod not that he'd be a bishop long enough to get into a combat.

[Nightwing]

I am finding the mage is more powerfull early because his wizardry score raises more quickly than the Bishop. Spells like firestorm and toxic cloud were comming available to the mage a level or two befor the Bishop. I restarted with two Mages one concentrating on fire, air, mental and the other on water,earth, divine. I will use the ranger for alchemy. Playing a Bishop I had to readjust the order of realms so wizardry was the lowest if I wanted to build all four realms. I ended up doing Alchemy, Divinity, Wizardry but really you just need Alchemy and Wizardry.