Should I get frost armor for my fire mage?

[Quadsword]

I have a bit of a conundrum. My build right now is that of an aggressive fire mage. Supernova is one of my most powerful spells, but it also wipes out most of my magic armor after one use. I need to keep my magic armor up not just to protect myself from other mages, but also because I'm running elemental affinity and need magic armor to keep from getting burned by my own flames.

Would it be better to drop the point in geomancer I have for fortify, put that in hydrosophist, pick up frost armor, and maybe drop a few points into strength to make up for my lousy physical armor?

[[N63] chrisragnar]

Get both armors.

[Valrynn the Dragoness]

Eventually youll want both. I didnt grab fortify/armor of frost until relatively late through act 2, so you can definitely get by without it, but Im sure its helpful either way, especially in your case since you are using a spell that damages your own character as well.

If you like spells that do damage in a circle around you, do note that most of the circular AOE spells have a counterpart that wont hurt you or allies that does less damage overall as a result. Ignition from pyrokinetic does less damage than supernova, but wont hurt you if you use it. Similarly, contamination from geomancer wont hurt you or allies if you use it, but poison wave will hurt any allies caught in the poison cloud (you get 1 turn of earth damage immunity)

Maybe that helps?

[[N63] chrisragnar]

https://fextralife.com/divinity-original-sin-2-builds-battlemage/
Good guide for a fire build

[rasmasyean]

Do you fight far away from your party when you Nova?

Because you can get Leadership Aura on a different character and it will give you some Fire Resist. With specific equipment, it might go over 100 and hence heal you. But the Leader has to be 7 meters from you at most. You can build a party that can hang out in the fire. The Leader might need to go on the edge (doesn't work on him), or pop a resist potion. You might be able to get him pretty high with uniques though...not sure. Not every item slot has RNG resists.

A bit of a warning is that enemies might prefer to attack the Leader. So it would actually help your Mage, but then your leader has to be Tanky, Preferably with a Shield and IMO, Shield Deflection buff which gives him free damage (even effects) from being attacked a lot with ranged.