Spells, Shamans and Extra stat requirements

[Gracey Face]

I am thinking of finally getting around to playing this, but I dont know a good source of information on the game.

So I am wondering mainly about two things, I have heard that spells now have extra stat requirements for higher level/better ones. How does this work, is it just Will+Char or is it a different stat for each spell?

Also I played SR:R as a mage/shaman, I am considering playing this as a shaman/mage, but dont really know how focusing on shaman compares to focusing on mage. I remember the summons being wildly unreliable in SR:R.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

I personally wouldn't recommend that combo, since your spell-book always maxes at six spells at a time, and you can't swap them on a mission.

If you want something other then pure mage, I'd personally dabble with brawling and chi-casting instead. Giving you a few extra options, and works mainly of Willpower so you're spread a bit less thin.

Enough shamanism to get a totem is very viable, though, and also gives you near all of the shaman dialuge choices. Quite a common min-mix strategy, even.

[OptoNick]

Some top-tier hermetic spells require points in Intelligence, up to 4, if I remember correctly.

In my last playthrough of Dragonfall (Very Hard) my character was a pure shaman, with Eagle totem - in the whole game I used 3 spirit fetishes: 2 in final fight, and one lvl 2 fetish in mid-game (quite weak at this point) as a distraction, because it costs cheaper than good medkit. With Spirit Summoning=6 you can summon 2 spirits from one point, but with a good legwork you won't need second summon or fetishes in most of the fights. Just stay close to summoned spirit, and chances to keep him will be significantly higher. But beware of stun grenades.

There's also Creator totem, which sets spirit's breakaway chance to 0% in range of 3 tiles. Beaten 'Antumbra Saga' (Very Hard) with it, it's just OP.

Conjuring shaman build is also viable. In 'Antumbra Saga' I equipped 2 different Barrier spells, Shadow, Fog, Blur and Haste - it's very interesting to play as a character with a total territorial control of battlefield, probably my favourite build in all my 400+ hours in SR games.

[Gracey Face]

By unreliable, I wasnt referring to thier breakaway as much as thier ability to actually be able to do anything.

I cant remember the summons ever being worth summoning. I know I ended up not bothering with them in SR:R, ended up just using some shaman spells (haste?)

[OptoNick]

I tend to think that high level spirits are OP as hell, even without Creator totem :D Especially Fire spirits, they can deliver a lot of damage.

IIRC, spirit tier number is equal to amount of spells available to this spirit. So, tier 6 spirit has 6 different spells.
The higher your Summoning skills - the higher tier of summoned spirits, but not sure how exactly it works

Fire, Air and Toxic spirits have good AoE attacks - setting targets on fire, AP damage, acid burn. Fire spirit has Flamethrower spell, which is one of the most damaging attack in the game.
Earth spirit has powerful melee attacks with AP damage, and Petrify spell, that's great.
Water spirit has very precise ranged attack with 16 dmg, didn't see it has chances below 90%.
Nature spirit is in between Earth and Toxic spirits.

They also carry some cool buff/debuff spells, some of them are not available for mages.

[frdnwsm]

Builds are very flexible. I finished the game with a pure conjurer. No summoning, just 9 in charisma and conjuring, plus 2 ranks of will and spell casting to get heal 1, armor 1 and aim 1. Had haste IV, Slo-Mo and Hellstorm barrier for my spells, and Acid Bolt IV as my weapon. Worked fine.

Or you can go the summoning route, with Creator totem. Or just send the spirits off into the middle of the enemy so that when you lose control they will generally attack the enemy first.

Hermetic Mage with some Conjuring buff spells in addition is also a powerful build, BTW.

[Zadok]

Originally posted by A beautiful man.:

o I am wondering mainly about two things, I have heard that spells now have extra stat requirements for higher level/better ones.

You'll need Cha 4 for some of the buffs. Int 4 is needed for some other stuff. There is an Outfit giving +1 to all attributes, which requires you to do 2/3 Lodge missions. With that you'll only need Cha3 & Int3. You may not want to depend on the lodge though (for story reasons and convenience) and it is only available rather late so you may lack the attributes earlier.

Originally posted by A beautiful man.:

Also I played SR:R as a mage/shaman, I am considering playing this as a shaman/mage, but dont really know how focusing on shaman compares to focusing on mage. I remember the summons being wildly unreliable in SR:R.

Conjurers lack damage yet Haste is great. A bit passive overall - a supporter. Spirits are wildly powerful but not always available. Summoning Spots aren't always available, Fetishes are expensive and it takes a while for the strong ones to be available. However: there is a new Totem that prevents them from breaking away. If you pick that Spirits are reliable whenever you get them. So IF there is a Summoning Spot OR you have a Fetish they are reliable in that case. You won't need to invest Karma into Spirit Control either since your Totem does the trick. Every Spirit you summon will always have 4 AP per turn - every turn. They must stay within 3 squares around you, which can be tricky. A single high level Earth Elemental can win almost every fight by itself if used well... and then *POOF* 1000 Nuyen are gone.

The mage is very strong. The buffs are many and they are powerful. Good damage goes along with no cyberware and a high spellcasting level. A Combat Mage goes through very smoothly, being strong at every point of the game. A part-time caster should focus on the buffs and can also be very strong, depending on what else he's got.

If you want reliable magic offense it is a Combat Mage (Spellcasting 8). Highest damage may be a strong Summoner (Summoning 6, Creator Totem, Spirit Control 0). Alas he doesn't always have spirits to use and can drop out completely due to it. If you combine both, plus Int 3, Body 5, Qck 1 and Str 1, you've invested 137 Karma. Assuming you miss out on some Karma here and there but do all missions you'd still have 50+ Karma to go. Definitely a strong choice.