Perfect Mage Guide [No Melee / Magic Only Challenge]

This guide will teach you how to become a true Magician of Fire.

Overview

Playing Gothic II: Night of the Raven as a mage is considered to be super hard. Most people that decide to become a Magician of Fire end up mastering sword fighting, or use Ice Block + Skeleton while rarely using anything else. I believe there is a better way to be a magician, and that you can beat the game without running out of mana and potions then resorting to cheesing, exploiting and cheating, and in this guide I will tell you how to do it and why Small Fire Storm is the best and only spell you should use.

Before we start:

It may be a bit hard(not TOO hard though), so I wouldn't recommend it to first time players. You have to know what awaits you and learn to plan for it, but if you know what you're doing then you should be okay, and I hope my guide is detailed enough so at no point you get stuck without the ability to progress the game.

What about money?
Quests rewards and loots should give you enough for your needs. Buy only mana potions and only the scrolls you need. An experienced player should know how to make money without cheesing, exploiting the game mechanics, cheating.] Since mana and scrolls aren't free, every single fight in game costs you money. Despite that I never had any problems with that after Chapter I. If you won't burn more mana than it's necessary you should be fine. Also, don't use shrines to get stats. 100 gold for 1 mana just not worth it.

What about mana?
You should never run out of mana potions. Later in the guide I described most efficient spells and most efficient ways to kill your enemies that will save you a lot of mana. If you manage your money well, you should always have enough for potions. You can also use plants to replenish your mana.

What about health?
You don't need health potions. Theoritically as ranged character, you should take way less damage and kill your enemies before they get a chance to hit you. In the first chapter the health potions and food/plants you find for free are enough. Later you will have a healing rune that will heal a lot of HP at the cost of 10 mana, which can be replenished by small mana plant.

What about fights?
I heard some people play a mage with very few spells and think they can kill anything with just a Fire Ball, then waste 30 potions to kill a Golem. That's not the way to do it.
Every monster has it's own weakness that I described later in the guide. If you do very little damage to your enemy and burn a lot of mana, skip him and come back when you have good enough spells to deal with them.

Rules:

• No melee, no bows, no crossbows. You should not do a single point of damage to anything from these weapons throughout your entire playthrough, not even to humans NPCs and meatbugs. You should use magic ONLY.
  
• No transform spells. Animals technically use fists, which counts as a melee damage. You can ONLY use them to transform into fast animals that will let you move around faster, but damaging something or someone with it disqualifies from the challenge.
  
• Monster summons are ALLOWED. While they use melee to deal damage, it's not you dealing the damage and you still collect the EXP, thus I believe they won't ruin this challenge. Same with companions, such as Diego or Lares.
  
• No Magic Wand exploit. You can wear it for the 20 mana boost, but taking it on and off repeatedly and using it to deal melee damage disqualifies you from the chellange.
  
• All learning points go towards magic. STR/DEX, 1h/2h/Bow/Xbow, Animal Harvesting, Thieving Skills are forbidden. Only one exception - lockpicking.
  
• The skills allowed are: Mana, Magic Circles, Runes, Alchemy, Ancient Language and Lock Picking.

Magic Damage System

Damage system - How does it work?
Note: "Dragon fire" protection, as the name suggests, protects only from Dragons and Fire Warans, and it will not negate the damage of fire spells, which only count as magic damage.

The game does a certain calculation, which is:
Spell Damage - Enemy Magic Protection = final damage outcome

Example:
50 DMG - 25 Enemy Magic Protection = 25 Damage
100 DMG - 25 Enemy Magic Protection = 75 Damage

In case the enemy magic protection is higher than damage of your spell, the enemy will receive no damage, or only minimum of 5 damage.

"Hidden" Magic Propeties
There are some things the game does not tell you, but some of them you probably already know.
Certain spells deal more (or less) damage than they normally do if used against certain type of enemy. In most cases it's either doubled damage or halved damage.

For example:
Ice Golem - 450 HP and 160 Magic Protection
Small Fire Storm - normally 100 DMG, but if used against Ice Golem (or any other ice enemy), the damage output will be 200.
So: 100(200) DMG - 160 Magic Protection = 40 Damage.

I can't fit all of the propeties here, but I will mention the most notable ones in Spells and Monsters sections.

Spells:

Non-lethal Spells
These will not kill human NPCs (except for Bandits).

• Small lightning
  
• Ball Lightning
  
• Geyser
  
• Waterfist
  
• Steal Energy

Must have as runes:

Circle 1

• Fire Arrow (5LP) - You have to learn and create it in order to pass the Test of Fire. Can be useful on single, weak enemies before you get the Ice arrow. It's also good against skeletons. Deals double damage to ice enemies.

• Healing Light Wounds (3LP/Free) - You don't have to learn and make it. You can find it lying on a rock on Khorinis' passage to the Valley of Mines... the path full of orcs. How you get to it, I'll leave up to you, but if that task is beyond you, you can just make it, as it only costs 3 LP.
  Heals 200 HP for 10 mana. Pretty good.

• Create Goblin Skeleton (3LP) - "If you don't know what to do, summon 10 goblins and you're done" - That's the mindset you better keep in mind. One goblin costs only 25 mana, yet it can single handedly kill multiple weak animals, which will save you a lot of mana. Some animals (like Field Raider, Lurker, Snapper) can stunlock your goblin, in that case spawn 2 more and they should take care of them. Spawning 8-11 goblins can take down a Seeker. They're also good against Golems and Trolls.

Circle 2

• Ice Arrow (5LP/Free) - It's basically a Fire arrow that costs two times as much mana but also does twice the damage. Effective against enemies with low magic protection. Deals double damage to fire enemies.
  You don't have to learn and make this rune. You can find it in the Valley of Mines, on the cliff near the crypt where you meet Milten in Gothic 1 and Angar in Gothic 2. It's protected by 3 Skeletons.

• Ice lance (5LP) - Does the same damage as small fire storm(read below), costs 10 LP less and can be learned 1 chapter earlier, but it does not have the splash damage, which makes it less useful, however it's still worth learning.

Circle 3

• Small Fire Storm (15LP) - This should be your main weapon once you enter Chapter III. The splash damage can injure and kill enemies that are close to the target, which makes this spell very useful, because you can kill multiple at the cost of one, what will save you a lot of mana. You can get yourself a speed potion, run into a forest, make a large group of animals follow you, then you can destroy all of them in one/two shots, which will cost you only a mere 20/40 mana that can be regenerated with a single smallest mana potion.

Circle 4

• Lightning (15LP) - Step up from Ice Lance. 30 mana - 150 DMG. Useful for single, stronger enemies, great for dealing with Lizard Men.

Circle 5

-Nothing must have here.


Circle 6

• Wave of Death (20LP) - Best AoE spell and pretty much everything you need in Chapter VI. It kills everything but the dragons in one hit. It may be a bit slow to cast, but you can use speed potion to run away far enough so you have enough time to use it before they get to you, or just climb somewhere where enemies won't reach you.

• Holy Missile (0 LP/Free) - It's good for single enemies, except in Chapter VI you will always fight them in groups, but hey you can learn it for free from the bookstand in the Monastery udnerground, so why not.

Situational Spells:

These are either not very useful, or sometimes useful but enough to justify spending LP to make a rune, so they can serve you better as scrolls.

Circle 1

• Light (1LP) - It's so cheap I wouldn't stop you from learning it, but you can get it for free from Paladin's body right after entering Valley of Mines. I never used it anyway, but maybe you will.

• Small Lightning (3LP) - Completely ineffective as a combat spell. Consumes 15 mana for 30 damage, while Fire Arrow does 25 DMG for 5 mana, and Ice Arrow does 50 DMG for 10 mana. However, it knocks out humans instead of simply killing them. Use scrolls, they're cheap.

Circle 2

• Sleep (5LP) - Pretty much no use besides Matteo's storeroom guard.

• Summon Wolf (5LP) - This one is a complete joke. As opposed to Goblin Skeleton it's one circle higher, more expensive to learn, takes two times as much mana to cast, yet it's much weaker, slower, and easier to hit.

• Dust Devil (5LP) - Disables target for 10 seconds and does minor fall damage, but killing with it won't give you any EXP. Does not work for "heavy" enemies. Decent replacement for Ice Block, useful for immobilizing Seekers.

• Fire Ball (10LP) - Fire Arrow, but with tripled damage and mana required. It's not vert useful, since in Chapter II Fire Arrow, Ice Lance and Goblin Skeleton will do completely fine against everything that's not an Orc, not to mention you can take Diego with you, so you can survive second chapter without it. A waste of LP if you ask me, just skip it and learn Small Fire Storm when you reach Chapter III.

• Wind Fist (5 LP) - Not sure about this one. As opposed to other spells, this one does "Wind Damage", instead of Magic Damage, which theoritically makes it good for enemies with high magic protection. It's good for Stone and Swamp Golem, Stone Guardians and for Seekers, but you have to charge it, which makes it hard to hurt your enemy without taking damage yourself.

Circle 3

• Geyser (10 LP) - Does the same damage as Lightning, is non-lethal for humans and is available one chapter earlier, but it takes a lot more mana to cast. 150 DMG for 75 mana, while Lightning does the same amount of damage for just 30 mana. I don't recommend it, you don't really need this amount of damage before Chapter IV, and by then you will better learn Lightning.

• Heal Medium Wounds (5LP) - You can find the rune inside a smaller Minecrawler cave, in Canyon of Jarkendar. Heal Light Wounds heals 200 for 10 mana, and this one Heals 400 HP for 25 mana, so it costs 5 mana too much, but honestly it shouldn't make much difference. If you manage to find a rune, use it.

• Fear (5LP) - You can find a rune in Valley of Mines, in the room with dead Olav and Wolves, but I still can't find any use for it. You might try to use it on a Seeker and laugh as he sprints away from you.

• Ice Block (10LP) - I don't like cheesing everything with Ice Block + Skeleton a lot, I haven't used this spell once throught my playthrough. Besides, it takes too much mana to cast this and then spawn a skeleton. Just get them as scrolls. You can also use Dust Devil scrolls as alternative, or free Root Snare rune from the Claw of Beliar.

• Summon Skeleton (10LP) - Goblin Skeleton is still good in Chapter III, and later you will have better alternative - Zombie. Buy this spell as scrolls, I haven't used it much but you may come up with an idea for its usage.

• Ball Lightning (10LP) - Chargeable version of Small Lightning. Doesn't kill humans, but the damage it does compared to mana it consumes is pretty dismal.

• Storm - Seems very cool on paper, but it's ultra slow to cast, can't kill an orc unless you use it several times, and drains too mych mana as a rune. It would only be good for skeletons and animals, but then again, you have Small Fire Storm and speed potion to achieve the same result. There are a lot of scrolls of this spell you can buy, but it's not worth learning.

Circle 4

• Large Fire Ball (10LP) - Slow charging time, and it does 300 damage for 160 mana. It's too much, and useful only for Ice Golems anyway, for that you can just buy few scrolls, no need to make a rune.

• Awaken Golem(15LP) - Really great if you encounter multiple Seekers at once, and that's the only situation I used it for. Buy few scrolls for Chapter 3 and you won't regret it. Heart of Stone Golem you can buy from Lutero, but if you use it to make this Rune, you won't be able to create Army of Darkness anymore.

• Destroy Undead (10LP) - If you want to "destroy undead" I recommend using Lightning that also does some good damage to them. If you have some scrolls, it's best if you use them on Skeleton Mages or Shadow Lords, otherwise skip this spell.

• Waterfist (10LP) - It's like Lightning, but does a little less damage but is also a bit cheaper. Doesn't kill humans. It's pretty good, but at this point you can just take Lightning over this.

Circle 5

• Large Fire Storm (10LP) - Read "Large Fire Ball".
  
  
• Ice Wave (20LP) - Most useful in Chapter IV, where you fight enemies in larger groups, but you only have access to scrolls. In Chapter V you barely fight anything, and in Chapter VI you have Wave of Death, which kills everything in one hit, and makes Ice Wave pretty much pointless. You may take it for fun to pair with Summons, but it just slows you down. Save some for Dragons in Chapter IV.

• Summon Demon (20LP) - Same as with Ice Wave. Scrolls with this spell are useful in Chapter IV, mainly for Dragons. In Chapter V you can create a rune, but it's not very useful as you barely fight anything, while in Chapter VI you have Wave of Death. If you have enough LP, you may take it for fun, you will need a Demon's Heart that you can buy from Lutero. Save some scrolls for Dragons in Chapter IV.

• Heal Heavy Wounds (10LP) - Light and Medium Healing Runes are more than enough. Take it if you want, but I would rather take other Circle 5 spell.

Circle 6

• Fire Rain (20LP) - It's Circle 6, the same Circle where you can get Wave of Death that can kill everything by using it once, while Fire Rain needs to be used twice in order to kill Orc Elites, that in Chapter VI you will fight a lot. It's good as scrolls in Chapter IV, but pointless in Chapter VI. Save some for Dragons in Chapter IV.

• Breath of Death (20LP) - It sucks. It doesn't work on the undead, does halved damage to Dragons, only 5 damage to trolls, and can't even kill Orc Warrios in one hit. Not only that, it seems to be bugged, because it doesn't do 500 damage as the description claims, even if we take magic protection into account. Just forget it.

• Army of Darkness (20LP) - Once again, Wave of Death makes it futile. You may only take it for fun, to pair with Ice Wave scroll, but it's not very practical. To make it you will need a Heart of Stone Golem, but if you already bought it from Lutero to make Golem Summon, you won't be able to make it anymore.

• Shrink Monster(20LP) - Only good for Dragons, but there is only one scroll available from Zuris that you have to use on Magic Golem. Rune in Chapter VI is useless.
  
  

Claw of Beliar & Paladin Spells:

Paladin Spells
Paladin Runes are inaccessible for Mages(except for one), and they're only available to you as scrolls, sold mainly by Martin. I don't recommend them though, because they're VERY expensive for one time use items. For the sake of completeness, let me go through them.

• Holy Light - Helps out in the dark. You can get it for free right after entering Valley of Mines. When you come out of the abandoned mine, go a bit further down, look for the tree on the right side, behind it there'll be Dead Paladin and a Dragon Snapper. As for the scrolls, they cost 50 gold, while regular light costs 10 gold.

• Small Healing - Costs 100 gold, heals 200 HP. Heal Light Wounds heals the same amount but costs only 25 gold.

• Medium Healing - Costs 400 gold, heals 400 HP. Heal Medium Wounds heals the same amount but costs only 60 gold.

• Large Healing - Costs 800 gold, heals 800 HP. Heal Heavy Wounds heals the same amount but costs only 200 gold.

• Holy Arrow - 200 gold and deals 100 damage, only to evil creatures. You can buy cheaper non-paladin scrolls that do more damage and hurt regular enemies.

• Banish Evil - 600 gold, 300 damage. Works only with evil creatures of Beliar. Too expensive, not very effective.

• Destroy Evil - Banish Evil but stronger and more expensive. 1000 gold, 600 damage.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Claw of Beliar Runes
Once you get the Claw of Beliar, you can pray to Beliar at his shrine and exchange it for a rune that you can later upgrade with every new circle.

Circle 1

• Root - Immobilizes target for 20 seconds. Does not work on Ice & Fire Golems, Demons, Trolls and Demons. If you like freezing enemies and calling summons, this may be good alternative for Ice Block.

Circle 2

• Steal Energy - Drains health from humans, not counting Seekers. You can deal with any human with your regular magic, and combine it with non-lethal magic. Skip this one.

Circle 3

• Beliar's Wrath - Deals great damage (200), but consumes so much mana (100) to the point where it's just not worth it, especially considering the fact that it does halved damage to Orcs, Seekers, Undead and Demons.

• Create Guardian - Weaker version of Stone Golem. It's not good for anything. Does next to no damage to Seekers, Orcs kill it in split second, and for animals and skeletons regular magic is more effective. Don't take it.

Circle 4

• Swarm - Drains health from humans, not counting Seekers, and does minimal damage to non-humans. It's the exact same thing as Steal Energy, but takes less mana, does less damage per second, has shorter duration and it's animation is not as cool as Steal Energy. Why is this Circle 4? I don't understand, I guess PB accidentally swapped circles with this and Steal Energy. In any case, it's not good.

• Create Zombie - Excellent for Seekers, good for Lizard Men and decent against Orc Elites. If you spawn enough of them, they can kill the weaker dragons. They're pretty slow, so for Orcs and Lizardmen you better spawn 2-3 Zombies, Seeker can be easily killed with one. Get it as soon as you learn Circle 4.

Circle 5

• Cry of the Dead - At first I thought it's going to be useless, but then I found out it's basically uber-buffed Small/Large Fire Storm with increased splash damage radius. I conducted a test: Spawned 150 Orc Elites (no exaggeration), ALL of them died within a single hit. Single use of this spell uses all of your mana, no matter how much you have, which puts you at danger in case some enemies survive. Also, you can't hurt Undead Dragon with it. It's very fun, but Wave if Death is still better and more practical.

Monsters and How To Deal With Them:

Animals - Animals are very weak to magic, so Fire Arrow/Ice Arrow are enough to kill them. Spawning Goblin Skeletons is the best way to deal with them before Chapter III, as for the cost of one Ice Lance you can take down several animals, but with the Lurkers and Snappers you better use projectiles, since they can easily fight off the goblins. Once you get the Small Fire Storm you lure as much animals into one spot and blast them all with single/two shots.

Bandits - There are different bandits with different stats, but most of them should easily die to few goblins or projectile magic. If there are a lot of bandits in one spot, like on the bridge between Dead Harpy and Akil's Farm, use Small Fire Storm scroll(if you decide to fight them before getting the rune).

Skeletons and Goblin Skeletons - Very weak to magic, even the weakest projectile like Fire Arrow is enough to quickly put them down. They are commonly found in groups, so if you already reached Chapter III, use Small Fire Storm.

Skeleton Mage - Minimum 125 DMG spells.

Shadow Warriors - Buffed variant of Skeleton. Slightly stronger than Skeleton Mage but the same strategy applies. Also, there aren't many of them in game, so the few times you meet them you can use Destroy Undead.

(Regular)Zombies: - Any 100 damage spell will kill them in 4 hits. Destroy Undead can kill them instantly, but save the scrolls on stronger undead instead of wasting them on regular zombies.

Minecrawlers - Fairly weak against magic. You can use speed potion + Small Fire Storm to kill a lot at a time, but if you don't have it, taking them one by one with projectile magic will do.

Shadowbeasts - 5 Ice Lance/Small Fire Storm shots. Just make sure it's dead before it gets to you...

Stone Guardians - Very immune to magic, but spawning 3-4 Goblin Skeletons will turn them into dust.

Golems:

• Stone Golem - Windfist, Skeleton
  
• Ice Golem - Fully charged Large Fireball or Large Fire Storm(just buy them as scrolls)
  
• Fire Golem - Ice Lance or Waterfist
  
• Swamp Golem - Windfist, Skeleton

All Golems can also be beaten with enough goblins or spawned zombies.


Seekers - Seekers have pretty high magic armor, and thus are annoying to deal with, especially considering the fact that durning Chapter III you will encounter them a lot. There are some ways to deal with them, but all of them are okay'ish, but not a single good one.

• Fear - This one will not give you any exp, the Seeker will just run away. I can't see any practical use for this one, but it may be amusing to see them sprinting away from you :D
  
  
• Dust Devil/Root/Ice Block + 10 Goblin Skeletons - Before you encounter a Seeker, first spawn all the goblins, then rush at your target, if you spawn one after another near the seeker, he will be taking them one by one as well. As your goblins are attacking him, quickly shoot your Dust Devil/Root/Ice Block so you won't have to spawn any additional goblins as they die to one Fire Ball. A Seeker may use Small Fire Storm, which will kill all the goblins at once with a single blast, in this case you better reload your save.
  
  
• Dust Devil/Root/Ice Block + Skeleton - Same as above, but much simpler. One Skeleton should be enough, but the problem is, there are a lot of Seekers, and you don't have access to enough Skeleton scrolls. Use only when necessary, but spare some scrolls for other enemies.
  
  
• Summon Golem - This one is best used when you encounter few Seekers at once(usually more than 3), like Seekers around the stone circle, where the Eye of Innos is destroyed, near Lobart's Farm, Sekob's house etc. Seekers do next to no damage to Golems, and Golems do colossal damage to Seekers, so one Golem can take on 10 seekers. The problem is, again, Golem scrolls are even more scarce than Skeleton scrolls, so use them wisely.
  
  
• Windfist - Two fully charged Windfists are enough to kill him. Only problem, charging it two times takes time, and a lot of mana, so you would have to open your inventory and chuck a potion, all of this while a Seeker is standing in front of you blasting fireballs, and there is a chance he'll die from the fall damage and you won't get EXP for that, so I don't really recommend it.
  
  
• Beliar's Wrath - 3 shots will put them down, but it will consume 300 mana, and that's a bit too much to kill one Seeker. You should only use it when necessary, but the only times you are forced to encounter Seekers, they are in larger groups where you should use Summon Golem instead. In other words, I don't recommend it.
  
  
• Zombies - It's the best and mana efficient way to deal with them. You get free Summon Zombie rune from the Claw of Beliar, and it's use is limited only by mana. Sadly, you get to use it since Chapter IV, where you already encountered majority of the Seekers. You could avoid them until you enter Chapter IV, get the rune and then start clearing out Khorinis before you actually go for dragon hunting, if you care.

Orc Warriors - 100 damage spells will kill them in 4 hits, Geyser and Waterfist will do it in 3 hits. Since they usually roam in groups, use Small Fire Storm.

Orc Elites - I'm sorry to say, I tried all spells that aren't above Circle 4. Only spell that does considerable damage is Beliar's Wrath, but it consumes a lot of mana, and the scrolls that are able to easily kill them are very expensive and scarce. Only reliable way to get rid of them is spawning 3 Zombies, or 1 Zombie + Ice Block.

Lizard Men - 3 Lightnings will leave them with 5 HP, at this point 1 Goblin Skeleton will kill them in a single hit.

Demons - Only good way I can think of is to spawn enough Zombies, about 8 of them, and rush at the Demon. You don't fight a lot of Demons so they should not be a problem.

Dragons

• Stone Dragon - Ice Wave + 5 Zombies or Demon / 2 Fire Rains.
  
• Fire Dragon - Ice Wave + 5 Zombies or Demon
  
• Swamp Dragon - Cipher and Rod can help you out, so it should be easy.
  
• Ice Dragon - 2 Fire Rains / Ice Wave + Demon (might need to retry few times)

Playthrough - Part I

Chapter I

In Chapter I you should barely fight anythig, you hold on with clearing out the map until Chapter III.
Remember, be careful with your spendings, try to make money without cheesing/cheating and spend it mainly on mana potions, scrolls and quests if they require to spend some money. I had no problems with money, so I could allow myself spending it on things like Abuyin, paying Wolf for protecting Bengar, ect. But since I don't know how well your playthrough will go, be careful.

Starting up
Since you aren't allowed to use melee weapons, run. Even though you are at level 0, the enemies on the way to Khorinis are very weak, so you should easily be able to run through them. You can get to Lester, and then to Cavalorn that will take care of the bandits for you.

City of Khorinis
Once in the city, you should join Constantino as his apprentice. Everytime you bring him mushrooms, throw Dark Mushrooms on the grounds and only give him Digger Meat, the money from this will be enough. Do all the quests you can, then head to the monastery.

Getting to the monastery:
You don't have to pay 1000 gold and a sheep in order to enter the monastery. After you talk to Vatras and Lares, you will be sent to Daron, who will give you a task to retrieve an item from the goblin cave. How you get through that cave? Single Small Fire Storm spell, I'll leave the thinking up to you. Once you are done, take the item to the monastery. Congratulations, you're a novice now!

Quests for the Mercenaries (optional):
If you still want that exp from the quests on the farm, there is a way to beat the mercenaries with magic only. You should use a proper combination of the ice block and the goblin skeleton/regular skeleton on a proper mercenary(this is actually the only time an ice block was useful to me), and then finishing them off with a non-lethal spell, before your minions kill them.

Lares can escort you to the farm.
Provoke a mercenary, drag him off the farm, where there are no other NPCs to interrupt you, freeze him with an ice block then quickly spawn a Goblin Skeleton, then, when his health is very low, finish him off with a non-lethal spell, so the Goblin doesn't kill him. Your Goblin is not able to drain 90% of his health before he unfreezes and kill him? Summon regular Skeleton instead.
It may require a bit of patience(and a lot of money for the scrolls), but if I did it, you can do it too.

Inside the Monastery:
The quests in the Monastery do not require any fighting, except for a one, optional quest with a wolf that you can kill with simple scrolls.

Test of Fire:
The Magic Golem HAS TO be defeated with the melee... right? Well, again, no. Buy a shrink monster scroll from Zuris, after you use it on the golem, you can easily one shot him with weak damage scroll. Sorry, that holy hammer will have to keep sitting in the monastery, collecting dust.
Run through all the animals, and once a novice blocks your way, you just kill them with your spells, since they would instantly die after beating them up anyway.
Come back to the monastery, create your first rune and come back to Pyrokar. Congratulations, now you are an actual, proper mage!
Deliver your message to Lord Hagen, so you can enter the second chapter.

Meanwhile, take your time to find a goblin bone, by either killing a Goblin Skeleton or by buying it from Constantino, then create a rune, that you can learn from master Karras.

Chapter II

Jarkendar:
Actually, scrap that. You don't want to enter the addon world just yet, leave that for Chapter 3.

The Passage:
Paladin Sergio can escort you to the passage. After you cross the doors, you can have an opportunity to get the free healing rune. As I said, how you get it is up to you to figure out :)

Valley of Mines:
You don't actually have to fight that much. Most of the enemies you will fight are Wolves, Bloodflies, Scavengers and Goblins. Just avoid the Orcs and Dragon Snappers. Once you reach Diego, he can do the rest for you, just remember that he has a finite amount of healing potions, so when he starts dying, just go straight back to passage. Bilgot can help a bit too. Diego will refuse to enter a mine with dead Silvestro's group and the minecrawlers, but you should be able to clear it out on your own.
Kill the Snappers for Fajeth, get the Ice Arrow rune, find Marcos, escort Diego and Bilgot to the passage, get back to the castle, report to Garond, get Gorn out of jail, come back to Khorinis.

Killing Orcs Near the Orc Ram:
Don't. It's an exploit and a very cheap one. Have some honor and don't use it, and I know some people do. Besides, it kills the fun of destroying the Orcs in later chapters. You are more than capable to beat the game without this exploit.

Playthrough - Part II

( There is a limit to how much characters a section can have, so I was forced to split it into two parts :x )

Chapter III

The First Seeker:
Summon 8-11 Goblins at once, (so they don't immediately rush at the Seeker that would quickly take them down one by one) then run at the Seeker. If he uses a Small Fire Storm, that will kill all your Goblins at once, just reload and try again. That, or just use a Fear scroll if you have one, this works too.

Small Fire Storm:
Teleport back to Xardas, deliver the letter to Lord Hagen, come back to the monastery, learn circle 3 and the Small Fire Storm. I already explained how you should use it. From now on your life should be much easier.

The Eye of Innos and the Seekers at the Stone Circle:
For the Seekers on your way to the Stone Circle you should just use Goblins, and when you get to the Stone Circle, there will be like 9 Seekers, but one Create Golem scroll should destroy them all.

Seekers at the Stone Circle Near Lobart's Farm:
Just try not to get Vino killed. Cavalorn may help you with the seekers (usually they attack him as well).

Ornaments, Stone Circles and Stone Guardians:
Just spawn 3 Goblin Skeletons for the Guardians, get the ornaments and bring them to Nefarius. That's it.

Jarkendar (for real this time)
Most enemies are weak to the magic so at no point you should have any problems. The canyon you should be able to clear out with the help of pirates, the Swamp Golems will die to few Goblin Skeletons, and the "Fire Shadowbeast" is weak to Ice/Water/Lightning magic. Other than that just progress the game as you normally would. When you reach Raven, you will notice he takes laughable damage from magic. You could use Ice Block (or Dust Devil, have some variety), then summon about 2 regular Skeletons or a Golem.
Once you are done with Jarkendar, keep the Claw of Beliar to turn it into a rune later and head back to Khorinis.

Preparations for Chapter IV:
Before start hunting Dragons, you should clear out the map of Khorinis from monsters.
I would advise you to fix the Eye of Innos, move to Chapter IV by going to the Valley of Mines, but then go back to Khorinis, so there will be more monsters, more EXP and better Runes. And when you are done, invest all Learning Points into mana, and start Chapter IV properly. Or you can just start clearing it out in Chapter III, but you might have hard time with the Seekers.

When you are done, save 40 LPs for Perm Mana Potions and Ancient Language, and spend all the rest for mana (at this point you should have at least 130 mana without rings and amulets), then it's time to use all the bonuses.

Learn Ancient Languages, get Stone Tablets map and find all the Mana Tablets and Old Tablets.
Read all the Mana Tablets and give the Old Tablets to Vatras.

Learn Permanent Mana Potions (you have to learn regular mana potions first) from Riordian or Sagitta. Get a map with plants and find all King's Sorrels, and check every Alchemy/Magic merchant, because they have some as well, then start brewing the potions and drink them when you're done.

And finally, eat all the Dark Mushrooms you have collected.

At this point, you should have 250 - 350 mana. It's time for Dragons.
When you enter VoM, you might want to come back to Khorinis and Jarkendar to buy all the mana potions, because you will need a lot of them in Chapter IV.

Chapter IV

Use Small Fire Storm for Orc Warriors, Zombies/Lightnings for Orc Elites and Lizard Men. Demons, Fire Storms and 3 Ice Waves save for the Dragons.

I don't know what else to say. Try not to be too wasteful with mana and you should be okay.

Chapter V

I don't think I need to guide you through this one. Visit the Monastery Underground, learn Circle 6, Wave of death, collect the crew, buy some Mana Potions and onto the next chapter.

Chapter VI

Have Fun :D

Conclusion

I realize this might have been a long read, but if you cared enough to go through all of that and played the game like this, congratulations!

Please share your thoughts! Did you manage to finish the challange? Which was the most difficult part? Was this even fun at all?
Comment below.

[Khangax]

I have a suggestion. If you have time and will, could you also fix Paladin Runes? Because they are terribly messed up in NotR. Tier 3 heal is possible to get for free from Orc Lieutant drop as far as I remember. But tier 3 damaging spell 'Banish Evil' is no longer avaible (rune was originally dropped by Shadow Lord Archol). So my suggestion is to restore it where it was or make both tier 3 only tradeable from Albrecht in that pattern: tier 1 avaible at the same time as circle 4 for mage, 2 as 5 and 3 as 6. Second thing is damage. Paladin spells are designed to hurt evil creatures (orcs, seekers, undead, demons, dragons) but due to NotR changes and boosted magic defense they can only properly damage common undead. Anything toughter is barely scratched. But if your mod lowers overall magic resistance of enemies maybe it will be enough. Because right now there is no practical reason to bother with damaging runes and spending LP on them, since using weapons and scrolls is much better.

[[AK] GaroK]

Mage is Hard but fun.

Alternatively you can wait for my mod which i plan to release soon: https://gothic.wiki/w/User:Garok/scratchpad

[Mert Özen]

I'm playing Gothic 2 Notr, which I played years ago, and now I'm struggling to decide which faction to join. I don’t want to play as Militia again since I’ve done that before. I'm torn between Mercenary and Fire Mage. While I’m drawn to Mercenaries because of my experience with Gothic 1, their combat system is similar to the Militia’s, so it would be more sword fighting. On the other hand, Fire Mages have powerful summons and high-level spells, but they require advancing to later chapters and a lot of learning points to truly become powerful. I don’t think using magic against Raven will give me the feeling of a real Gothic 2 battle. However, dealing with large groups of Orcs with a sword seems tiring. I have saves at Chapter 2 for both. What matters most to me is the enjoyment, not difficulty. What do you think?

[[AK] GaroK]

Storm is fine as scrolls, but as runes Small Fire Storm is requires a bit more effort but is more effiecient.

[Spadona]

Actually, Storm is my all-time favourite next to small fire storm...the tactics are the same, buy some speedy stuff (speed potion or the special grog from the pirates) Drink up, cast Storm and start running. You can clear the whole canyon with a few casts. Storm lasts about 10 seconds if I remember correctly, whatever gets into your range of vision will be hit for 200 damage. With more mana you can cast 2-3 storms (destroying everything).

[[AK] GaroK]

I will revise the guide in the future and test out the suggestions.

[Captain Pansy]

"Steal Energy - Drains health from humans, not counting Seekers. You can deal with any human with your regular magic, and combine it with non-lethal magic. Skip this one."

this is the BEST spell for mages to beat up people in melee.
it will get the enemys HP to 1, so they fall from 1 punch, without dying.

[Khangax]

It should be noted that you can get free Create Goblin Skeleton rune from locked chest with Irdorath book but at this point we no longer need this spell. Same way there is Fire Arrow rune in Jarkendar but at this point we already have it.

As for the light source the free Holy Light rune from dead paladin is terrible source of light when it comes to looking for items in the dark. Big blue star in the center of the screen obscures vision and pulsating blue and green light makes it harder to spot items lying on ground. So using a torch or mage's Light rune/scroll is much better choice.

Also if you don't mind using exploit you can get free runes from enemy mages. When they have little health hit them with Ice Block scroll and let the freeze finish them. This way you can loot their runes without spending LP and materials to craft them but as I said it's an exploit.

[Kor Angar]

на втором круге "кулак ветра". к этому заклинанию уязвимы в том числе ищущие.

так же "сон", может полезен и в городе и в ярике, так как позволяет вывести из игры несколько нпс, если нападет группа. или просто пройти без боя, например в ярике.

[furbleburble]

I decided to try to help you out, especially since it was my suggestion. I found this [www.gog.com]. I have not verified the accuracy, but I have no reason to believe it's not. IMO, copy/pasting the mana part, including the link in your guide, and giving credit where due (not to me, it's not mine) is enough. From there, " For achieving 400+ MP, you have to learn it just to 100-120. PAL/DJG don't have to learn it at all, they'll have enough MP just from the bonuses. " That indicates that "250-350" is quite reasonable.