Misc. Questions on Difficulty, Party Composition, and Spell Selection Options

[nataben1314]

It seems as though, judging from another and not having actually played the mod yet (waiting for v4), that mages are now in a situation where they are used almost totally for dispelling, immuning other characters, and creating summons. Would those in the know (esp. sikret/thetruth) agree with that? I'm not trying to imply that this is necessarily a negative if true, I'm just interested for the sake of future spell and party selection

Speaking of party selection, do you think I'd be making things too hard for myself to make a party of single-class characters? I've always disliked multiclasses unless soloing, and am not too keen on having a party full of five fighter/x's and one ranger/cleric.

And on difficulty, I wonder if it would be possible to make a rough difficulty guide for the quests of chapters 2 and/or 6? What I envision is something like e.g. "windspear hills: level 9-13 minimum" or whatever. With all the new content its difficult for me to know which are the easier quests and which are the ones best left to chapter 6. And for a player of my (low) skill level, it is difficult to determine if you are losing a fight due to wrong tactics, or due to the fact that you're simply too low of a level for that fight. So a general quest difficulty guide (at least for chapters 2/6 where the game is not very linear, and maybe a minimum avg. level before going off to spellhold) would likely save me much frustration and/or lots of me making HELP threads

thanks, and I can't wait until v4.

[thetruth]

@nataben1314


First of all IIRC you don't like much pure Arcane spellcasters (like me) and even if it's true that in IA4 the offensive power of Mages has been limited, only a F/M is not enough to cover your party's needs.

You will need another Mage mainly for buffs like I.Haste (the most useful spell in IA IMO), summons and debuffing spells.
Your F/M will not have enough 6 level spells since in some battles PfMWs will be essential like I.Haste is.

For me the best solution is to dual your Berserker immediately to Mage (at level 7). This way you will not miss at all Arcane spells since he will level up quickly.

For the 6th place I would take a F/T or a pure Swashbuckler (UAI as first HLA, then some Timetraps and GWW OR WW attacks - other traps are useless in IA).
This way you will not miss any melee power.

Thieves are not essential in IA but a F/T or a Swashie are much more than a simple Thief

As about your protagonist, both Rangers and Mages get additional quests in IA.
Power-wise the F/M is better and if played correctly he will win many difficult battles by himself.
But the R/C is one of the most powerful classes as well, so both of them are a good choice for your PC.

I'm playing with a wild mage protagonist for the first time, since I read comments (Sikret's I think) that they are potentially more powerful than sorcerors (on average - it depends if Nahal's Reckless Dweomer fires off those 9th level spells successfully).

The Wild Mage is the most powerful class in the original game or in a game with other tactical mods (Tactics,Ascension), BUT not in IA4 where the F/M is even more powerful IMO.

As about Wild Surges a high level Wild Mage can eliminate them with 3xImproved Chaos Shield in a CC, though I wouldn't recommend it.
At high levels you get more positive W.Surges than negative and besides it is one of the things that makes the W.Mages so special and fun to play with.