...i can never seem to make a non melee based character

[Xoyv]

idk, it's just, i always go for a tanky kind of character, and i never seem to use any of the skills, wands, or projectiles it gives me.

any suggestions for a fun magic type class? i have all the DLC, and a couple of mods

[Gabbernaut]

Well, one of the most common mage class is Fire mage. For it you should take Promethean magic for fire, Magic training for more magic, Blood Mage and Ley Walker for quicker mana regen... other things is up to you. You may take Staffs for buffs from staffs and more health, Alchemy for mana potions, Perception and Burglary so you won't die easily from traps... There are plenty of options! Just pick something, die, pick something else, die again... and have fun!

[Haldurson]

If you are going Promethean (Fire mage) then here's just one possibility (of many).
Promethean Magic
Blood Mage
Magic Training
Mathemagics
Staves
Dual Wield
Viking Magic

Or try this one, for the Egyptian route:
Egyptian Magic
Blood Mage
Ley Walker
Viking Magic
Astrology
Unarmed Combat
Burglary

There's so many different possibilities. I used to really like playing a Necro mage, but I can't really remember any of the builds I used. Necro is tricky for a newcomer, but once you get the hange of it, it can be really cool. Always keep your eye out for anything that increases Necro resist, as you can damage yourself with it if your not careful. Here's a possibility off the top of my head -- give it a shot. If it works, give me the credit. If not I don't know you (j/k)
Necronomiconomics
Astrology
Ley Walker
Golemancy
Veganism
Alchemy
Thrown Weapons

[Nilbits]

I have the same problem -- I'm always doing some sort of melee build. Thanks for those suggestions, I'm definitely going to try them out.

[Juudaz]

A friend of mine suggested that we should try to beat the game going all-Wizard (no bars to rogue/warrior at all allowed). At the time, I didn't know much about the skills, so my picking was somewhat based on gut feelings and "Oh, that sounds fun!" kind of evaluations. I ended up with the build: Egyptian magic, Psionics, Mathemagic, Promethean Magic, Astrology and Big Game Hunter.

Surprisingly, this build got me all the way to DL15 and to Dredmor on dwarven moderation and with permadeath enabled. My save is front of the door behind which Dredmor resides. I am uncertain whether I will be able to kill him, and have not dared to attempt yet.

However, this build is not optimal in any way. It is quite mana-hungry, but has great aoe-clear. Early levels are easy with your personal dragon-tank, and then you can decide if you want to concentrate on single target dmg or aoe from the fire tree. Come late game, single target dmg will be prefered most of the times.

[Nilbits]

Dude, that's fantastic. I actually played my first mage build earlier. I'm doing exactly what you did, just picking random trees to see how I like them. I've died on or around floor 3 almost every time thus far.

I always play moderation, permadeath and no-grind without any mods. I have yet to beat the game, but I've only been playing about 3 days so we'll see!

[Jasmine]

Mage builds can get pretty strong with Blood Magic. Psionics gives you a very good knockback spell, and Golemancy gives you familiars to defend you and walls to block enemies. Add in Promethean or Necronomiconomics for offense--their nuke spells are excellent for clearing zoos--and you've got a powerful base to work with.

Rogues are the toughest, I think. Rogue strategies center around positioning, disabling, traps, ranged attacks--preventing enemies from hitting you, basically. Before they get close enough to hit you, they should be dead already, or near enough that you can finish them off quickly. This sort of strategy is very difficult to pull off on its own, but as a hybrid with either mage or melee, it gets easier. If you can manage it, it's lots of fun.

[Nickerchen]

I have always had the problem of being 1HKO'd by invisible enemies with mage builds, is there a way to avoid that?

[Haldurson]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Troacctid:

Rogues are the toughest, I think. Rogue strategies center around positioning, disabling, traps, ranged attacks--preventing enemies from hitting you, basically.

Skills that complement each other don't always belong to the same arechetype. It's not like you have three choices: Rogue, Mage or Warrior. You have infinite choices. If you decide to pick only rogue skills, it's kind of like saying "Let's only pick skills that begin with the letter "M". It certainly can be fun to place those kinds of restrictions on yourself, but just be aware that that is what you are doing.

For me, there are three main kinds of builds, and they ARE NOT Mage/Warrior/Rogue. They are:
1. Primarily Ranged
2. Primarily Melee
3. 50/50 Ranged vs. Melee

1. Ranged: These are GENERALLY called mage builds, and you CAN go 100% mage skills, but it's not a bad idea to include other skills, such as crafting, burglary, Staves, unarmed, etc.
2. Melee: Some of the best skills to support a melee build actually are not Warrior skills, such as Viking Magic, Warlock, Astrology, Thrown weapons, Crossbows, Crafting skills, etc.
3. 50/50: these include builds where you start out melee but build up towards powerful AE ranged attacks. Also, it includes builds that center around Clockwork Knight or Rogue Scientist. I'm sure there are other variants of this, but those are what come to mind.

[76561198075040039]

for a mage choose Tourist to have a good perception/trap seeing distance. No need to invest hard, just the first buff what gives that.

[Mazey]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Haldurson:

Skills that complement each other don't always belong to the same arechetype.

Definitely true, the whole "warrior"/"rogue"/"mage" set up is really just a red-herring in this game. Best way to enjoy this game I find is just to pick skills you like the sound of and then, if you die, pick some more, and if can't think of any, pick random. Do that a few times and you'll stop worrying about warrior/rogue/mage altogether.

You have infinite choices.

That's not so true.
With all the expansions there are 51 different skill sets and you get to pick 7 of them, which means, without mods, the number of choices you have is exactly 115,775,100. If you add mods you'll certainly increase that number, but it still won't be infinite.
/maths pedant

[Haldurson]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mazey:

You have infinite choices.

That's not so true.
With all the expansions there are 51 different skill sets and you get to pick 7 of them, which means, without mods, the number of choices you have is exactly 115,775,100. If you add mods you'll certainly increase that number, but it still won't be infinite.
/maths pedant

You are aware that the word 'infinite' is slang for 'a crap load'. Least it was back when I was in college (graduated in 1983). I don't know what slang is like in your day, but in mine, "infinite" was more often used in the slang sense than any other.

[Mazey]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Haldurson:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mazey:

That's not so true.
With all the expansions there are 51 different skill sets and you get to pick 7 of them, which means, without mods, the number of choices you have is exactly 115,775,100. If you add mods you'll certainly increase that number, but it still won't be infinite.
/maths pedant

You are aware that the word 'infinite' is slang for 'a crap load'. Least it was back when I was in college (graduated in 1983). I don't know what slang is like in your day, but in mine, "infinite" was more often used in the slang sense than any other.

Well, I disagree with "slang" terms for things that are actually the exact opposite of the technical usage of the word.

[Haldurson]

Disagree all you like. It's informal speech -- in other words, how 99% of people actually communicate. And the other 1% are simply angry all the time because no one else lives up to their standards..

[Mazey]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Haldurson:

Disagree all you like. It's informal speech -- in other words, how 99% of people actually communicate. And the other 1% are simply angry all the time because no one else lives up to their standards..

a) There's a difference between informal speech and inaccurate speech. Calling a finite thing infinite is most definitely the latter.
b) I said from the start it was pedantry. I know full well that most people won't see why the distinction matters, but I still feel it's worth saying. (And the distinction does matter, you would be literally more accurate to say that there were 0 options for character builds than you would be to say there were infinite options.)

[ThunderSin]

Astrology is most likely the best, I find it way better than promethean but it's underrated.
Also, you should use leywalker, it's not worth it. the end game equipment is enough to get max mana regen, blood mage will supply you infinite mana in the late game