how many times do you need to hit something?....

[Jeorje Boehmer]

before it goes down and stays down? hitting a dog 30+ times and it just keeps getting back up seems excessive to me. Start as a mage with no spells at all? What kind of master am I apprenticed to? Seems like krapware to me.

[KomdivCCCP]

Mage is the strongest class in this game, but the beginning can be a bit hard because you don't have any good spells yet. Take warrior companion with yourself and help him with lightning magic, also don't forget to heal him with potions. After a couple of hours you will be able to kill all the enemies around with a single spell.

[Jeorje Boehmer]

I do have warrior companion, and I'm still pounding on the dog just outside of keep on first mission, after 30+ strikes from both of us, dog drops and gets right back up over and over again. how many times must you hit it to kill it? btw, same thing with the rat things in the basement, knocked down gets back up with warrior companion in on the fight, never could kill it. have the latest patch from game's home site and running win 8.1.

[KomdivCCCP]

Did you distribute your skill points? Did you purchase/learn new spells from the books? If yes - try to start a new game, because enemies like rats and dogs shouldn't take long to kill. It was a long time since i played as mage, usually i just go with warrior, but i remember that mage is seriously overpowered, especially if you level air school of magic.

[Jeorje Boehmer]

What books? I could find no spell books of any kind at the start. And yes I distributed all the different character points, and some of those were useless after distribution. The only weapon available at the beginning besides stabbing dagger and slashing knife, is the axe, and even giving points to the skill, I couldn't equip it.

[KomdivCCCP]

Healer in the fort selling some starter magic books. To make money and receive experience for a first couple of levels - do some quests, like delivering things to different characters(cook, executioner, guard, etc.). To learn spells from the books you need to rest for a day or 2. it will appear in your spell book automatically if you have enough skiils to learn the spell.

[Jeorje Boehmer]

Thank you. I will try that. :)

[Jeorje Boehmer]

ok, figured out how to get spells, second level, still can't kill a rat after 60+ damaging hits. Rat gets knocked over and gets right back up, over and over and over again.

[KomdivCCCP]

Here's my level 1 mage with kitchen knife against the rat. If by long you mean this long, then you need to start your game in easy difficulty.

https://youtu.be/OQSMKX-gK6g

[Jeorje Boehmer]

I wish it was that short of time. For me it's 3 to 5 minutes of continuous combat and the rat is still fighting, this is with Diloy along as companion, and the rat wom't die, ever. it's like it is continuously getting healed. Oddly enough, before I added the latest patch from game site, I did manage to kill the dog outside of town with Diloy, tho it took about 3 times as long as it took you to kill the rat. I guess I'll try validating my game files, and if that doesn't work, reloading the game.

[KomdivCCCP]

Yeah try to validate files, it will erase latest patch and will return you to version 1.6, maybe something was broken for the mage or english version in 1.7

[Jeorje Boehmer]

ok, now this is just strange, I validated the program, same problem, can't kill rat. Deleted the program and reloaded, still can't kill rat. Tried easy setting, tried using default mage, no joy. Tried using warrior, killed first rat, after that can't kill rat anymore, even after starting new game.

I notice that the character is healing almost as fast as he takes damage, like auto-heal is on god mode, and since rat's health isn't shown I'm wondering if the same is happening to the rat?

no, clue what to try next.

[KomdivCCCP]

Uninstall game and delete all saves, turn off steam cloud savings, reinstall and try to start a new game.

[Jeorje Boehmer]

did all that. and the problem persists, can't kill anything now. tho I have not tried playing a thief. I suspect once the thief kills the first time, I won't be able to kill anything with the thief afterwards (with or without a companion.) is there anyway to run the game without starting stieam?

[KomdivCCCP]

Yes, it have no DRM protection, just launch borderzone.exe from game's folder.

[Jeorje Boehmer]

that didn't work either. I'd post a video if I knew how to make one and post it. Oh well, thanks for taking the time to try to help me, it is very much appreciated, even if it didn't wor out. I suppose I'll send a post to support.