A Simple Guide to a Pure Mage *Spoiler Warning*

[Akark]

Since someone has requested this, I am detailing what I did with my Pure Mage character. This is not a detailed walkthrough on the game, but there may be some spoilers for anyone who has played all the way through the game. The way I played a Pure Mage I was not forced to constantly rest.

Also, if anyone has any way do something better, or an alternate way of doing things then please feel free to post it. (I just ask that you don't flame me needlessly.)

I'll start with a screen of my character when I beat the game: Spoiler As you can see, I'm only lvl 16 but I had 273 MP (it was 213 base, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

At character creation I simply rolled until I got 14's in both Intelligence and Perception. Everything else I figured was secondary (I did get lucky with Strength and Endurance, but they didn't matter to me.) From there I choose Rifter, Druidic, and Magic User as my Origin, Axiom, and Class. I took Rifter for the Perception bonus and Druidic for the mana regeneration bonus. I then pumped Perception to 30, and put the remaining point into Intelligence. As for skills I took Elemental to 6, Alchemy to 4, Meditation to 4, and Spot Hidden to 1. (A note here, I'm still uncertain if Spot Hidden helped me at this point, and there is a Trainer in Bordertown for Alchemy. So you could get away with not spending all your points at start, or take Divine and use both spell lists.)

Once I got into the world I found that Fire Dart at lvl 3 usually 1-hit the Salamanders, so its mostly all I used. (I still hot-keyed lvls 1 and 2 in case different amounts of fire power were needed....Heh, I made a funny). I found real early that I didn't need anything stronger than lvl 3 Fire Dart very often, so during my first few lvl ups I only put one point into Elemental and the other 2 into Meditation. As for attributes, I put the majority of my points into Perception early. I learned after a few lvl ups (and re-loads) that perception seemed to dictate the amount of MP you get at lvl up more than Intelligence (I think Int helped mana regen more than the amount of mana you get, can anyone verify this?).

(A note on my character progression. I put 1 point in elemental and 2 in Meditation at each lvl untill I had hit the 1 mp a turn in regeneration. Then I mostly concentrated on getting Elemental up to 20. I saw no need to go higher than that due to the limited use of the tier 3 spells. I mostly concentrated on Perception through most the game, but started putting more into Intelligence later because it "seemed" to be helping mana regeneration.)

Due to these early choices I was able to regenerate most, if not all, my mana in between fights while outside. Litterly, the time/turns it took my to walk across another foe I had regened most my MP. Inside dungeons was a different story. My mana regen was so slow that I was forced to actually leave them and camp outside (Which I only did this on my first dungeon, and it happened almost instantly). A lucky loot of 2 items prevented me from being forced to do this ever again; a Brewmaster's Ring, and a scroll of Melt Lock. By the time I had to go into the crypts to get the pendant I had an adjusted Alchemy of 10, and enough ingredients to brew enough pots to not have to worry about camping more than 2 or 3 times in a dungeon. This cycle was repeated through most the game; never camping outside, getting enough ingredients for enough pots to not have to camp in a dungeon.(A note on alchemy. I would Strongly suggest you don't rely on a lucky drop. It would seem a better idea to save cash when possible, and make the trip to Boardertown to visit the trainer. He can get you to 5 in Alchemy, and it is easily possible to get the book from the Innkeeper there. This would mean only spending 2 points in it, which would mean those points in better things early game.)

A little more detail on the potions in dungeons. I was using Mana 3 pots really early in the game, and was only downing them when I would get all 90 MP from it (Usually when I was at 0 or real close MP, and Only during fights). A little later I found a lot of use for Fortified Mana and Haste pots, but basically there wasn't a pot listed that I didn't use at least once in the game.

Combat was really simple in some areas, tricky in others. Throughout most the game I found Fire Dart more mana efficient than other spells while facing single foes. If more than one showed or threatened to get into melee range then I switched to an Area of Effect spell like Fireball or Compress Atmosphere. But there was a trick to using those: kiting. I would walk away from the group, at an angle if possible, until they grouped such that I could hit all (or as many as I could) with each cast. This was true for all enemies I faced but the Raptors and Taurex. The only way I could deal with them was as much damage, as quickly as possible.



Again, if anyone was any better ways of doing things then please post them. This was not intended to be an end-all be-all for playing a pure Mage.

~Akark

[Unclever title]

Thanks! This was very informative, I've personally haven't used the druidic axiom yet. I figured perception was the key in this.

I also like the fact that you ended the game encumbered. It's somehow fitting.

[Akark]

I haven't tested it, but it is likely that Druidic Axiom isn't required. I'm sure you won't be able to go extreme periods of time without camping in the early game like I did.

I still don't know what all Intelligence does tho. I know it plays into MP gain, but not as much as Perception does.

~Akark

[elsol]

To add some numbers to yours.

1. I rolled until I got a 14 & 14 int/perception combo.
2. I put all points into perception.
3. I took the +2 perception race.

That gave me 76 mana to start the game. (> 8 int gives 1 mana per point, > 8 perception gives 2 mana per point at startup).

4. I took six points in elemental (the other points can be spent as per the player desires, I was silly and took heavy armor and unarmed combat).

5. I took druidic

6. The first three levels I put all points into perception until I hit 40 and in those three levels I added 5 points to elemental.

That made a level 4 mage with 103 mana and level 6 fire darts, gaining 10 mana a level and regenning 1/1 turn outside and like a normal mage in dungeons.

Notice: I didn't even bother taking meditation. ---I put on meditation gear to see if I could get anything + perception but I couldn't get any higher than 1/1 that I noticed or 'needed'.

I don't buff or use mana pots or mana fortifies -- a little careful walking and I never faced anything dangerous because mages don't have distance penalties... nothing that I've found survives 6 fire darts and I can cast 24 of them with regen.

If that's not a 'pure mage' I don't what is...

----

As a note, I tried a nice statted straight fighter and was aghast at how tough it is. I mean, the guy has problems doing the cartography quest butt-nekkid like my mage did EASILY... what's up with that, yoh?!?

[Turtle]

What's interesting about this build is how self-sufficient it is. Merchants run out of cash and/or inventory space before you run out of stuff to sell them, and there just isn't much you need to buy. In fact, once you have bought all the training and spells you want, it's hardly worth looking for loot at all. And there isn't much training you really need, either.

[Unclever title]

Well I decided to take things in a bit of a different direction and made a druidic healer, intending to mostly use spells, but (maybe due to a not epicly high wisdom) enemies resisted my spells often enough it became better to just buff myself ridiculously and just attack my opponents.

SPOILER PIC!

Buffing myself this way, and imbuing all my armor to +3 and my dagger and bow to +3 hit and +3 damage, by level 13 I rarely ever got hit by a weapon and my weapon almost always struck, by the end my armor rating without buffs was 50.

By about midway into the game it became too costly for damage spells most of the time simply due to their 2/3 chance of hitting compared to my 98% chance of hitting with a weapon.

Incidentally that is my starting HP. If you're strength and endurance are both below 10 you will never gain hp when you level. Ever. I found this so entertaining I kept it that way. Which meant when fighting a Taurax when I did get hit, I'd be almost dead, but usually that was no more than a 4% chance. And that's all light armor he's wearing (If it were heavy I'd need buffs to even move!) Which is also why my main weapon is a dagger cause if Manaleus is holding over a whopping 3 lbs. in his hands he can't cast a spell near enemies.

I hardly ever had to camp though, and the occasions I did, I only needed at most 1 game hour outside, inside the time could rack up but that was only when I was too stubborn to use potions but for some reason I never once got a random encounter. Until that is I was trying for one in which it regularly took over 48 in game hours for one to occur. wild.

Anyhow, this character was loads of fun, much more fun than my original stealth based cross classed character. Manaleus kind of felt like how a True Druid (or maybe shaman) would feel, to my limited understanding of druids of course.

EDIT: Boosted my meditation to 10 early on, felt satisfied with it and left it that way the rest of the game.

[elsol]

I finished a pure mage with the 'There Can Only Be One' Challenge. It turns out that if you have enough mana -- the higher level spells ROCK... Even without fortify potions (I did not have alchemy so I couldn't make them.)

You can regen so fast that it's worth it to fireball things down and do a three second camp. The Terouxes or whatever they are -- if there was only one I used fireballs, if there was more than one then "kite them, compress, compress, compress, compress fireball, camp".

It was a sooo much fun! (And I don't know what some people are talking about raptors being tough for mages, those things are wimps!)

[Turtle]

I think it's worth investing a few points in Hide in Shadows for a Mage character. If you do find yourself running low on mana in the middle of a fight, just take a step and stand there quietly while your opponents blunder around in the dark. This game would be a bit harder if thugs and goblins carried torches.

Another tactic I like is using Portal to bait wandering monsters. Set a portal site a short distance away from your campsite--just out of line of sight. Camp, and if you get attacked, cast Portal and creep back up on them, picking them off from a distance. Useful for a glass-cannon type of character.

[elsol]

Hide In Shadows is a good idea.

I found that Invisibility is better though... because it works out in the open too. After I got up there in mana, the first thing i did in a fight was 'go invisible'. You don't need to cast it at level 6 either -- level 2 is long enough to blow your mana -- level 3, let's you blow your mana and walk away for a 3 second camp to finish anything off.

I'm actually a bit surprised how powerful hide in shadows and Invisibility are... I noticed some spells broke the hide & invis but not all. If you're hiding in shadows and you're chanting... you're not really 'hiding'. (Compress works from hide and you stay hidden.)

[Turtle]

You can cast anything that doesn't actually create light and remain hidden. I haven't used invisibility in combat as a mage, since it proved so useless to my fighter character. I'll try that.
I think it has been remarked elsewhere that Hide in Shadows is a bit overpowered. My Rogue PC, although weak at first, turned into a virtually invulnerable killing machine with a few levels of purchased weapon skills and Predator Sight.