mage in BGEE

[marypippert]

I just started BG again afoter IWD2 crashsed for the umpteenth time. I cannot keep Dynaheir alive. At end of Nackel mines and just keeps dying. Should I just let her fie. Then I need a mage. Who is best?

[fauxpas]

My top picks would be...

Gorion's Ward
Having full control of stats allows you to outshine any of the NPCs, hands down IF you want to be a mage naturally.

Imoen
Having to duel class her is a slight negative, but she still makes a wonderful mage, even if you focus on her thieving skills enough to be a decent thief as well. ... Also being able to use a bow once she unlocks her thief levesl again is really nice.

Dyna
Out of the NPC mages she's your best bet and is probably worth raising if that's what you have to do.

Edwin
Evil with a small "e" ... as long as you can manage your rep (Or mod the issue away, which is easily done.) he can take Dyna's place and you will hardly miss her.

Neera
Wild Magic is both fun and the downsides can be handled. However, her personality is the biggest downside. "Reckless Dweomer" almost puts her on par with Edwin, although not quite.

Xzar
Crazy Eyes would be higher on my list if he didn't come with baggage. Him being "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy evil" isn't a big deal by itself, but being "paired" with Mont AND not playing nice with Khalid/Jaheira are deal breakers for me.

Quayle
Honestly I don't really care for Quayle, although as a Cleric/Mage he does have spells galore and if you have cracked the XP Cap then he'd better be able to take advantage of that. Part of his placement on my list may be the fact that by the time I meet him I've already gotten the "core" of my party down and he just doesn't mesh well.

Baeloth
On the plus side, he's the only NPC sorcerer you can meet, but that's really the only good thing he has going for him.

Xan
The only reason to take him is if you either miss Eyore or have burnt through every other name on this list.



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Note that if you play with the NPC Pack, all of the original saga NPCs get bumped up the list above the EE NPCs.

[fauxpas]

However something to consider is that when I'm forcing myself not to abuse "resting", most of the time my mages sits in the back and twiddles their thumbs, and has to carefully ration out their magical might like misers.

[Eisenfell]

How to keep your Mage Alive.

#1: Give him a Ranged Weapon, preferable Darts(3attacks) Throwing Daggers(2attacks) or slings (1attack) in that order ...their hit chance is ♥♥♥♥ anyhow so it does not matter that much if they have the profession point for said weapons.
Melee is no Place for a Pure Low level Mage.

#2 Place him somewhere in the middle of your Party, enemy's will attack the first thing they see and only change target if they are hit hard by someone else.

#3 Defensive Spells... the lvl 1 Spell "Shield" reduces armor class(AC) to 4 (2 for ranged attacks) ...AC determent's only if you get hit or not. later on you get Ghost armor (AC2) and finally Spirit armor (AC1) who equals a Full Plate Mail , the best thing Fighters can Wear.
Further good defensive spells are Mirror Image (lvl2) ... who creates a bunch of illusion so IF your mage is hit there is a high chance he just loses an illusion and not actually life. and the god of defensive spells Stoneskin(lvl4) , adding protection layers who absorb hits much like the Illusions do but it has a 12 Hour bufftimer and works 100% until spend or dispelled.

[fauxpas]

Something else to consider is that "returning" darts and daggers are fairly rare where-as the unlimited sling stone pouch is easy to get.

However, the returning darts are better overall.

[Eisenfell]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Something else to consider is that "returning" darts and daggers are fairly rare where-as the unlimited sling stone pouch is easy to get.

However, the returning darts are better overall.

as for bg 1 you get nothing magical as a sling +1 which gives +1 thaco ... still by one attack a round , i rather throw 3 darts and hope atleast one hits.

there are 2 throwing daggers in Baldursgate2 a +2 very early and a +3 mid game

but only one returning dart+3 (watchers keep lvl1 , easy as dirt dont even have to fight for it.)

the daggers have the advantage that they hit 2d4 instead of normal throwing daggers 1d4

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by marypippert:

Then I need a mage. Who is best?

Use the "Create Party" button and create more than a single character yourself. The first one will be your main character. The second one may become your mage. Keep some party slots free for NPC companions.

The first thing to do with casters is to disable the AI Script on the character's "Customize" screen. If you want to keep AI on for ranged attacks, be sure to disable all the extra optiopns such as automatic casting of defensive/offensive spells, special abilities, items.

[ZirzoR]

Dual-class a fighter into a mage, lots of extra HP and probably grand master in slings or the like to help you out when not flinging spells.

You can also make a Fighter/mage multiclass for better consistensy, but no grand master.

[wendigo211]

Mages are the easiest class to keep alive if you know how to use your spells. For the first couple of levels cast your Shield spell and go into combat, or just knock out the opposition with a Sleep spell. A mage with the AC buff from Shield should be very difficult for the low level enemies to hit (i.e. they need a natural 20).

Next add in Mirror Image, it really reduces the number of times they hit you, if you have up 6 images, the enemy has a 1/7 chance to hit you and a 6/7 chance to hit an image. If an image gets hit, it gets removed. IIRC the check is done before the attack roll is made. Stoneskin has a similar function, but will absorb all the damage from a number of attacks that would hit you equal to the number of skins that get applied. With Stoneskin the check is done after the attack roll is made (so if the attack misses, a skin is not removed)

Finally, Wraithform will stop damage from all enemies who do not have magical weapons. There are not too many enemies in BG with magical weapon.

[fauxpas]

Creating a second character has a huge negative which is that you'll miss out on the banter.

[stilla.ragg]

i have a level 25 mage/thief that can beat an entire squad by herself..she rarely fails a hide in shadows and can cast 4 spells in like 2 seconds..on top of summoning a Solar to help fight for her lol..i like playing multi-player but can't find any die hards..i have a god-like fighter too man rarely takes damage and will kill 30 before needing aid..but thats why i have a level 33 cleric lol all she does is power up the team and heal.. i really wanna get some friends man we can go through the entire game together

[ÄmJii]

Originally posted by stilla.ragg:

i have a level 25 mage/thief that can beat an entire squad by herself

Yeah, too bad you can't hit level 25 in BG1...

[Gustuv Wynd]

It shouldn't be too hard to keep her alive...just keep her of to the side. In the last fight in the mines I will send all my ranged characters off to the bottom corner of the room so they don't get caught up with the skeletons and kobolds the boss calls in to help him.

However, if you can't keep her a live you won't be able to keep any other mage around either. She is one of the better mages. Edwin would be the best...you actually can't make a better mage than he is(though he does have a low dex, but his spell casting is better thanks to his amulet), but you have stomach missing out on some quests to avoid the reputation gain.

[dbennett88]

Originally posted by vagrantstorm:

It shouldn't be too hard to keep her alive...just keep her of to the side. In the last fight in the mines I will send all my ranged characters off to the bottom corner of the room so they don't get caught up with the skeletons and kobolds the boss calls in to help him.

However, if you can't keep her a live you won't be able to keep any other mage around either. She is one of the better mages. Edwin would be the best...you actually can't make a better mage than he is(though he does have a low dex, but his spell casting is better thanks to his amulet), but you have stomach missing out on some quests to avoid the reputation gain.

or you can do the quests and then silently murder someone sleeping in their home to edwin's delight

[stilla.ragg]

but you can export your mage from bgee to bg2ee and copy and paste the files bacc and forth thru games lol so am i lying?

[stilla.ragg]

i wanna mash thru the sword coast with other ppl i have screenshots of my characters on my profile.. add me guys