Magic Users in combat

[Fulant]

How do i make my magic user better in combat. Usually by the time my magic user cast a spell, my fighers have killed the monster. I placed the magic user on agressive, but the only spell it will cast automaticly is magic missle. This works well but i only have so many magic missle spells...... I have been through bg1 and bg2 many times and have come to the conclusion that (straight)fighters using double weapons are by far the most powerful characters. Am I wrong?

[Moridin]

It is my opinion that mages are good for

1)Blasting large parties with area effect spells
2)Haste
3)Removing spell (combat) protections on enemy mages (w/out which your fighters would be worthless)
4)Well there is no #4


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Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig

[Avatar]

Dual it from a fighter (level 10?)
Cast Time Stop.
Killed four demons in the final battle with my fighter mage with one time stop!
i was lucky! Dual weld Black razor and either Jhor or Pixie Prick

[Throntar]

I basically agree with Moridin's assessment, with a couple of additions:

1.) With Wands of Spell Striking, you don't even need Mages for removing spell protections any longer. A thief with "use any item" special ability or a Bard will suffice.

2.) I'd suggest that you set up one of your Mages as the "Summoner". Have him/her capable of summoning all of your monsters (i.e. Skeleton Warriors, Spiders, Invisible Stalkers, Elementals, etc.). I also like to use Imoen in this manner...she sneaks up on groups of enemies that I anticipate to be difficult (utilizing the Staff of the Magi) and blasts them with area of effect spells, then goes invisible again before she can be attacked. Cheese? Maybe...but effective cheese, none the less!

3.) I also don't really see the use for mages' Haste spell capabilities anymore as I'm currently up to 5 pairs of boots of speed and one set of Leather Armor +6 that works like Boots of Speed (Valgyar wears this).

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Now where did I leave that doughnut?!

[Zateel]

I love having my mages with 3 lightning bolts in a spell sequencer/trigger. You really get the jump on the bad guys that way; the fighters just walk over to ashes usually.

[Worm]

Well, Melf's minute meteors can go through pretty much any protection and those energy blades are pretty good. People far to much want to are consumed with the idea of a katana wielding spelling casting human when a gnomish theif/illusionist can be great combined with the bow of gesen's and sorcerers/sorcereresses are amazing if you pick your spells right. I say don't dual class don't do any of that what you should do is roll but don't adjust your stats go back to Baldur's gate with a elvish diviner and put the game on the hardest difficulty and see if you can make it to the end of throne of bhaal! But in answer to your question if you want your mage to be more productive grab haste items and robes that reduce casting time like the robe of vecena and pause before sending in your fighters thus they will take far less damage. And make use of magic missile spell sequencers I killed the first irenicus using them and they help on dragons and liches if you can catch them off guard.

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Worm, About as interesting as traveling with an angery cambion.

[ScottG]

Moridin's #3 is by far the most important. Not just for removing protections though, Lower Resistance can be devistating (even to Admt. Golems), and their is also Greater Malison (for those non-mage badies.) A spell sequencer of breach or pierce magic and 2 lower resistances will allow you the ability to physically or magically kill ANYTHING in any of the games.

A way around this is to use inquisitor's (Keldorn or your NPC) w/ their dispel magic at twice their level.


Moridin's #1 is also very important (and should have been #2)- but acctually some of the better area-effect spells are from cleric's not mages (Holy Smite & Fire Storm). Though CloudKill and its brethern are nice.


Moridin's #4 should have been WEB which is a very nice spell (a fighter mage w/ bow ability can be devistating - except for very high-level char.s that are immune to arrows). You don't even need to be any type of fighter class (though it helps A LOT), you can easily kill things with a throwing dagger or sling (think firetooth or that +5 sling on the Bonus Merch patch).


And Yes the Robe of Vecna is one of the most valuable items in the entire collection of games (if you want to improve the AC then just slap on a pair of AC3 bracers).


Monster Summoning (paticularly through rods) is very nice, don't think of it so much as a way to get in extra hits - its more usefull to annoy the really nasty monsters, thus giving you the time to do something viscious to them (ie. when web won't work on the monster use a monster summoning rod).


Haste (not the boots) will allow you to actually hit more often, but the same can be done w/ the oil of speed (of course improved haste does it w/ out the fatg. prob.). But the boots will get you into or out of a battle more quickly (a fact I didn't know untill someone on this forum mentioned it).