illusionist, necromancer, enchanter, conjurer, cleric, mage-thief party

[Lemernis]

Someone at Team BG says that that Semaj has some sort of robe for an evil mage which gives a special ability of never requiring sleep. Of course practically speaking you would have to cheat Semaj up and kill him in order to get it for it to be of any use, but still interesting to know. Or I suppose if you wanted to finish the plotline as directly as possible but then use the patch that allows you to keep playing after Sarevok has been killed you could. But that would seem anti-climatic to keep playing after the final battle. I'm also told that Rieltar has a splint mail called something like "Korim's Skin" that is useable by a mage and gives regenaration. But once again that is too late in the game. I need stuff sooner than that.

Let me just say again what a different experience of the game this is! I guess it must be similar to soloing with a mage (still haven't done that yet). But anyway I'm actually scared out there, lol! At this point I'm actually skulking about trying to avoid encounters as I move from map to map--especially once my mages' meager two spell slots are used up! Any case, to be moving around the countryside genuinely fearful that you might run into a gang of diseased gibberlings is fun.

Almost immediately I had to concede to using weapons more than I had originally hoped, but I still use them only as a last resort. Turns out at this point the cleric needs his three slots for healing spells, so I have him meleeing with a flail (the only melee weapon that won't disintegrate early in the game, near as I can tell). And the mage-thief only has one spell slot. Once she uses her MM she's firing arrows and backstabbing with her short sword.

[Xanthul]

Im almost sure that there are 4 robes of archmagi:

1 for good alignment: 1 in High Hedge
1 good or neutral (cant remember): Shandalar in Ulgoths beard (its a tough fight, only in TotSC).
1 neutral: high hedge
1 evil: Davaeorn in the cloakwood mines

I dont think that there is another one in the Werewolves island, but i might be wrong.

And Lemeernis, i dont think Semaj has any special robe. First, when ive killed him ive searched his body and i cant remember any special items. Second, in shadow keeper there isnt any special robe (only resistance robes; knaves, adventurers and travellers robes; and archmagi robes).

[SixOfSpades]

Well, great. I tried attacking both Shandalar and Dradeel on my first run through ToSC, just to see how tough they were. (If a mage can kill at least 3 members of my party, he's worthy of asking me to do quests for him.) But now I'm gonna have to bear down on these guys for real, just to see what they're wearing!

I agree, Ertai, Semaj is just wearing a normal robe; I think it's an Adventurer's or Traveller's. I find it easy enough to loot Sarevok's friends without killing Sarevok, and Semaj is the easiest of all, becase I can usually get him to Dimension Door out to my party, alone and without protection spells. For a guy who must have at least 13 INT, Semaj ain't very smart. (If anyone's wondering, this is the moment where I pulled my 144-hitpoint backstab. Semaj-shaped chunky bits all over the place. )

Lemernis, why didn't you have a Gnome as your Illusionist? Better Saving Throws, & the relative novelty of using a small person.

[Lemernis]

Didn't even think of using a gnome! That would have been the better choice for an illusionist, I agree. Ah well. I do like the portrait and soundset for my main guy, though.

[Darkman]

As long as we are handing out suggestions, I will throw in my two cents [img]smile.gif[/img]

You could make a Gnome Cleric/Thief and then add in an extra specialist mage. Or you could change your Cleric to a Cleric/Mage to get some extra mage spells.

[Lemernis]

Thanks for the feedback on this. I thought about using a cleric-thief instead of a mage-thief, as Six had suggested, since a lone cleric might not be able to provide enough healing for the party. But my main goal is to try to win a game by relying as much as possible on mage spellcasting. My mage-thief is currently using the bow and backstabbing but she will eventually be primarily a spellcaster. A cleric-thief would be casting mostly defensive spells.

Also, if I changed the mage-thief -> cleric-thief and cleric -> cleric-mage that would give me the same amount of healing, thieving, and mage spellcasting that I currently have. That is, I would still have (the equivalent of) a full cleric, a half thief, and a half mage. But I would lose the bow and the ability to backstab with the dagger of venom that my mage-thief gives me. The full cleric gives me some melee ability, and as a spellcaster he will become quite powerful in the long run with all of the high level Dark Side cleric spells (spells go all the way to level 9, for both priests and mages). Also, in Dark Side mages can learn a healing spell called Ettn's Healing, so that will free the cleric up some to cast more offensive types of cleric spells like flame strike.

By the time I was ready to begin the game I decided I really liked all the characters I had created, and when it finally came down to it I figured I'd rather look at a cute little hottie with Safana's soundset to a gnome! (There are hardly any good portraits of gnomes, and I have never found a decent gnome soundset out there, btw.)