Magic Users Options

[Olbas]

I'm having a really hard time beating mages and clerics in the early game and would very much appreciate some general advice. If it helps my party is,

Necromancer 12
Berserker 12
Jaheria 10/12
Anomen 7/12
Valygar 11
Keldorn 11

For mages the Improved Invisibility and SI:D I can't bring down, my only tactic is to hope remove/dispel magics will eventually get rid of it but normally I have to wait it out which is getting harder as the higher level mages have more offensive power. At my point in the game I can't beat any mages I have left to face.

As for clerics I can't beat the Shadow Jailor or Thesal. The main problem with this is all the extra enemies. The Shadow Lords do so much damage so I take them down first although I have no Improved Haste yet so it takes awhile(anyone know where I can find that scroll) and then go for the Jailor but I'm nearly dead by then. I use Chaotic Commands to stop the knockdown and summon mountain bears to help fight, my mage uses breach on the Jailor.

This post has been edited by Olbas: Dec 26 2007, 12:06 PM

[Sikret]

Here are some hints, Olbas! I'm sure Raven and others can also give more and better advice. Spoiler tags should not be forgotten though:

Note: I strongly recommend that other players don't read these hints unless they are also desparate and really need the hints. The fun of the game will be maximum if you discover these points by yourself inside the game.

SPOILER!

- Facing Theshal is too early for your party. Leave it to chapter 6.

- Improved Haste scroll can be bought from the merchant who stands beside Neb's house in Brisge district at night. Go there after midnight and you will find him.

- Since you have Keldorn in your party, leave the duty to cast dispel magic on enemy mages to him. Even if his level is not high enough yet to dispel their illusion, he still have much more chance than your mage and his chance will increase as he levels up. But be careful that his dispel magic is not party-friendly and will dispel your own characters' buffs as well if they are near to where he targets his spell.

- Even if the mage's illussion has not dispelled, keep attacking him with your warriors. A partially visible mage can be attacked physically. If the mage has Fire Shield (red), cast protection from Fire on your warrior; in this way, the damage from the fire shield won't be an issue; it may even heal you if your total fire resistance has exceeded 100%.

- If the mage has just stoneskin, you can still interrupt his spells with weapons which inflict elemental damage, such as Flail of Ages or the FrostReaver axe.

- As for Skeleton Lords, hit them with blunt weapons. They are much more vulnerable to Flails, clubs and quarter staves than to swords.

I Hope this helped a bit.

[Olbas]

Thank you for the help, I'll try this and report back on how it goes.

[Raven]

If you are low-level you have virtually no chance to remove II with Remove/Dispel Magic if it has been cast by a high level mage - the probability of removing spells cast by an enemy 4 levels higher than you is only 10%. The chance of removing spells cast by an enemy 5 or more levels higher is only 1%, I believe.

SPOILER!

My suggestion would just be an all-out assault against the enemy mage with your fighters (suitably buffed with Improved Haste, Chaotic Commands, Protection from Fire/Cold as required). There are a couple of things you can try to do to stall the enemy mage so they do not start destroying your party right away.

For instance, using summons (draws out Death Spell), casting invisibility on someone (draws out True Sight) and protecting your mage with spell protections e.g. SI:A (draws out Ruby Ray).

When I was testing v5 I used a party containing only a sorcerer for my arcane support for most of the game; he was able to occupy enemy mages for several rounds by putting up several layers of spell protections which they had to remove one by one with Ruby Ray. While the enemy mage is removing the protections, my fighters are cutting through their Stoneskins and Mirror Images.

[Sikret]

@Raven

SPOILER!

I don't think that it's as easy as that specially at low levels. Reasons:

- Enemy mages give priority to their own defences (Refreshing Protection from Magical Weapons or Absolute Immuity, Mirro Image and Stone Skins, etc) rather than casting True Sight or Ruby Ray.

- A low level mage or sorcerer (in party) doesn't have a lot of high level spell protections to make a thick layer over his SI:abjuration. And without SI:abjuration, there is the risk that the enemy mage may simply cast SpellStrike to remove all spell protection at once.

[Olbas]

I managed to beat the Shadow Jailor which was great however later on I ran into a Lich, Skeletal Lord and 3 Greater Mummies which I gave up on. Starting to run out of options of what I'm capable of beating, think I will go for the Planar Sphere and see how I manage against those mages; I have a feeling it will end badly.

This post has been edited by Olbas: Dec 26 2007, 04:14 PM

[Silverstar]

Make sure that you make a seperate back up save before entering Planar Sphere though. This is general advice. Just in case you bite something more than you can chew. Or you may have to reload approx. 100 times like I had to in order to defeat Warden with a relatively low lvl party. Which was, actually kinda fun in its own masochistic way.

[Monkeetroop]

hey, i was wondering how to get around SI:divination and improved invis. i thought dispels or remove magics would work, but to no avail. its rather annoying having to wait out for the SI to run out and then cast my breaches and stuff. im doing the guardians in windspear hills, which is why im posting this...thx again.

This post has been edited by Monkeetroop: Dec 31 2007, 12:42 PM

[Sikret]

A successful Remove/Dispel magic is the only way to dispel their illusion. If your levels are low and the dispel doesn't success, either try casting spells which affect an "area" rather than a creature or just attack them physically. I will merge this topic with a similar one we had a while ago.

EDIT: Topics merged

This post has been edited by Sikret: Dec 31 2007, 12:50 PM

[Monkeetroop]

thx for the help!

[Olbas]

Trying to take down Conster now and could really use some more help. Are the Skeletal Lords infinite? I have no one who can cast Ruby Ray yet and can't find any scrolls for it or for Protection from Cold which makes attacking him difficult. Never made it past 8 Skeletal Lords.

EDIT: Found A Protection from Cold scroll and got my mage to level 14 so have two Ruby Ray spells, will try again.

This post has been edited by Olbas: Jan 1 2008, 07:57 PM

[Vardaman]

Trying to take down Conster now and could really use some more help. Are the Skeletal Lords infinite? I have no one who can cast Ruby Ray yet and can't find any scrolls for it or for Protection from Cold which makes attacking him difficult. Never made it past 8 Skeletal Lords.

EDIT: Found A Protection from Cold scroll and got my mage to level 14 so have two Ruby Ray spells, will try again.

The Lords aren't infinite. I can't remember how many there are but I think I only fought around 8. Good luck.