Quick Question on Half-Elves

[Beguzzles]

Just going to be starting this game soon, and I have a quick question about Half-Elves and Gnomes.

I was going to be making a magic user, and was wondering what advantages a Half-Elf was over an Elf as a magic user?

Also how good a magic user is a Gnome?

Thanks.

[kaypy]

It all comes down to stats.

For the mage relevent stuff (full details are in the in-game manual):
Human: IQ 6 Dx 8 Co 8
Half Elf: IQ 8 Dx 9 Co 7
Elf : IQ 9 Dx 9 Co 6
Gnome: IQ 10 Dx 7 Co 3

So the Elves and even more so Gnomes will get better spellpoints, but less hit points. At least in the early stages of the game.

Mages health per level sucks but they get so many levels that eventually they wind up with more health than the fighters. But for a large chunk of the game they tend to be one good projectile attack away from death if you optimise for spells at the cost of health.

[Slooge]

I made a half-orc mage (int 6) for fun, ended up with the same sp and more hp than the gnome (int 16) did in bt1. Race is pretty much irrelevant. Max/min types will say otherwise, but they're wrong. There really is no max/min in these older games that actually matters. Once you're over level X in each game (23 for BT1, haven't paid attention to the others), nothing matters anymore because spells won't land and melee is no longer a threat.

The only exception is starting a fresh party without access to advanced gear. In that case, the halfling monk with 18 dex is by far the best in the first 4 slots until you get some advanced gear and can swap them out...but it is mostly unnecessary to do so ever.

I don't save scum for stats/hp/mana on level ups either. 0 reason to do so.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by Slooge:

Race is pretty much irrelevant.

I would amend this to state that, when you're a high enough level, race becomes irrelevant.

It really only makes a difference when you're starting the game and the stats aren't maxed yet. In the end, all races have the same max. But in the beginning of the game before stats are maxed, race will determine your starting base stats before you get your randomized stats.

That's all. It just influences starting base stats.