Automating ranged wizard attacks?

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I want to add a real mage(wizard) into my troop. The problem is I don't know how to make him attack with magic constantly as a range weapon? Can a wizard cast his magic as a group reaction w/o me selecting him each time?

[ March 16, 2007, 20:59: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I am not sure if I understood your question, a mage can not use magic as a ranged weapon constantly. You cast your daily memorised spells, and once you run out of magic, use ranged weapons (darts/slings/throwing daggers) or run for your dear life! (mages are very fragile characters in combat situations without proper protection spells. Look below for a detailed list!)

But you can asign AI scripts to your characters. Choose 'customise' in character screen, and then choose script. Choose one of the scripts. With them, your characters can auto-attack when they see an enemy, for instance. There are many other useful scripts as well for defense, healing, scouting, etc. IIRC there must be a mage script as well, if you choose it for your mage, your mage will use any offensive spell he has memorised when he sees enemies.

Be careful though, mages only have a limited amount of spells per day, and if the script wastes it on a weak enemy, too bad! I personally prefer controlling my mage always.

When a mage is out of spells, (and this happens very frequently in low levels, trust me!) use ranged weapons. Darts are nice as they give you three attacks per round (they are super fast!) BUT slings have more range. Your choice.

Do NOT use your mage in melee, UNLESS he is loaded with protection spells such as:Shield, Armor, Blur, Mirror Image, Ghost Armor, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin (essential!), and most preferably, with Haste and/or Tenser's Transformation! If you have most of these spells on you your mage can wade into melee as well! This is especially useful against very magic-resistant foes:such as golems. When your magic will not cut it, a good magical blade (dagger!) will always do!

 

Can I select a mage to cast spells at the same time the other members still attacking?

Another question about mage: Does a mage really needs wisdom? I can see that he needs intelligence( some kind of mana source ) but wisdom? How many points in wisdom should be adequazte for a mage?

 

You can always use your space button on your keyboard to pause the game and give new orders, so things shouldn't be too hectic to not be able to use your mage to give orders.

 

Casting mage spells in combat usually works the following way:
Pause the game, select the mage, select the spell, select the target, unpause.
You can use quick spell slots to do this faster or use a script which lets the mage cast spell on his own unless another command is given.
Other party members don't stop attacking just because your mage casts a spell.

Wisdom is useless for mages, only clerics and druids benefit from it by getting a few low level bonus spells.

If you don't have a bard in your party you can give 10 wisdom to your mage so he doesn't get a lore penalty for wisdom and can identify some stuff directly.
But that's not really important since you can use the identify spell instead.

 

INT is not mana source. The number of spells you can cast daily are set in stone, and vary according to your level. They are NOT adjusted by INT. (you get +1 bonus spell if you are a specialised mage, like illusionist for example.)

INT helps when you are scribing scrolls to your spell book. When you find a scroll, you must scribe it to your book. Once you do this you can memorise the spell and cast it. The chance of success is based on your INT. 18 INT gives you a %85 success at learning spells. A failure means you have wasted the scroll. (so reload!)

INT also determines how many spells you can have per level in your book. If you write too many spells in your book there may not be enough space left for new spells if your INT is low.

INT also limits the highest level spell you can cast. You need 18 INT to be able to learn the complex and world-shakingly powerful 9th level spells!

WIS gives priests (clerics and druids) bonus spells for 1-4th lvls, AND they need 18 WIS as well to be able to pull of miraculous 7th lvl spells.

WIS also adds to your lore skill, a high WIS will give you a better lore score. Lore is used for identifying magical items. Each item has a determined lore score, if yours are at least equal to it you can identify the item just by right clicking. Bards are very good at this as they get exceptional lore each level. (10 lore per level, IIRC)

In P&P WIS also helps against mind-effecting spells but AFAIK this is not implemented into the game, so WIS is rather useless for mages, do not bother. Unless you plan to be an abjurer or necromancer you can lower WIS to 3! Necros and abjurers on the other hand require high WIS to qualify in their chosen profession!

Hit space bar and pause your game. NOW you can give seperate commands to all of your six members. Click on the party member's portrait, give order, do this for each and when you unpause every single one will do its own job:

Example:

1-Wounded fighter, let him flee back!

2-Cleric:Order him to cast his most potent healing spell on the fleeing fighter!

3-Paladin/ranger:Move him to melee fray to replace the wounded fighter and block monsters.

4-Thief:Move to the back of the enemy for a sneak attack! If you have HoW expansion and have sneak attack enabled from configuration, ofcourse!

5-Mage:Let him cast a Fireball on that coming group of monsters ahead! (careful not to fry your own members though!) When you unpause he will be chanting and preparing his spell, do not interrupt, and he will shoot the spell! Higher lvl spells are more powerful and thus have longer casting times. If you take any damage during this casting your spell fails!

6-Bard:Let him sing his most potent song. (activate the harp icon by clicking it once.) If you order anything other than walking while singing you will cancel the song. This is same for clerics turning undead. (the skull button, when activated your cleric will try to turn undead, ie:scare them off/destroy if you are good/neutral aligned, or control them if you are evil.)

If things get complicated in large combat situations, hit space to pause your game, give orders to each character seperately and then unpause and watch them do their job!

Hope this helps.

 

High wisdom isn't needed for casting level 7 spells.

 

^So they did not implement that rule as well? BUT I am pretty sure you need high INT to be able to write higher lvl spells, right? (this is not implemented in BG2! )

 

You can't write high level spells with low int, but you can cast them if you already scribed them.

 

^Yep, and this opens up way to cheesy tactics with potions of genius/mind focusing!

I know this from my experience with a stupid (low INT) F/M/T. He was not able to write 5th lvl spells and beyond without using a potion first. Though once he wrote them he casted them without problems.

I never created a priest without perfect WIS though, so I did not know if they implemented the WIS-max spell rule or not. So, a WIS 9 priest will still get all spell levels? Cheesy.

 

From what you just discuss, a pure mage appears wasteful since intelligence and wisdom can be kept at 10 points, the rest should go to strength, dex and constitution. The result is a fighter/mage is more useful.

 

^Being a pure mage has other benefits though.

-Specialisation:If you pick a specialist mage you get a +1 spell for each spell level. This is a great bonus. You lose access to some spell schools but this is what support casters are for! (see below for what is a 'support caster?'.)

-Faster access to higher lvl spells:Single classed mages level up faster and learn more powerful spells earlier. While fighter/mages are versatile, fun and powerful in their own area, they can never attain the highest spell levels. They need twice the same amount of XP of a single classed mage. F/M/T or F/M/Cs require even x3! Unless you cheat in tons of extra XP, and have an XP cap remover, your multi-classed mages will generally serve as 'support casters', using low level but useful incantations while the single-classed arch-mage will continue to evolve in magical power so rapidly that your enemies will tremble in fear...and got seperated into tiny molecules via a flashy Disintegrate, or fell victim to a sudden and unexpected Finger of Death , or have their body fluids completely drained away painfully by Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wiltings and so on...

Magic is serious and powerful and it is nice to have someone fully specialised in it. Add a 'support caster' character such as a bard or multi-classed mage and your party is golden!

[ March 16, 2007, 21:59: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

Since I already play a mage/fighter in my previous troops now I will try my hand at a mage specialist as you suggested. From what I read, there may be some use for the either inteligense/wisdom afterall. I am interested in a mage specialist that deals with such spells as fire, ice ... in morrowind they are called destruction spells, but here I am not sure?

 

You can play a mage with 10 int, but it's very painful. Int raising potions cost money and are limited. You'd always have to collect 10-20 scrolls and scribe them atogether if you want to learn all spells without running out of potions.
Wisdom can be reduced to 3 without noteworthy consequences on the other hand.
This applies both for pure and multiclass mages.

For the role as the party's main arcane caster I'd say a pure mage is better than a fighter/mage multiclass, since you'll have enough fighting capacity in a party of 6.
A dualclassed fighter3/mage is even superior since the fighter levels cost only 4,000 XP.

 

You like evocation spells then, why don't you be an evoker?

Here is a quick list for spell schools and their noteworthy spells:

Abjuration:Spells that protect or banish. Protection from Evil, Dispel Magic, Seven Eyes.

Alteration:Spells that change things and others.
Haste, Slow, Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone, Tenser's Trans.

Conjuration:Spells that summon or create something. Summon monster I-IX, Summon Elementals, Powerwords.

Divination:Spells that gather information. Identify, Detect Invisibility.

Enchantment:Spells that affect the minds of others. Charm person, Hold Person, Confusion, Chaos, Dominate Person, Feeblemind.

Evocation:Flashy spells which focus energy to do damage. Magic Missile, Fireball, Ice lance, Ice storm, Cone of Cold, Sunfire. I think these are your favourite, yes? They are powerful if you manage not to get your party in their blast radius.

Illusion:Spells which create illusions to trick people. Good defensive ones are Mirror Image, Blur, Invisibility, Improved Invisibility.

Necromancy:Spells which deal with death and dead. Skulltrap, Animate Dead, Death spell, Finger of Death, Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting.

Choose your specialisation carefully, and consider the opposition schools. Do you have HoW? If you have, then the opposition schools are altered and some specialists have TWO barred schools. So choose carefully!

[ March 17, 2007, 01:01: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

I'm a little confused here. IWD manual says that in a dual class, the first class must have at least 15 for all the required prime requisites for the first class and 17 for the second class. The manual also says that both INT and WIS are prime requsites for the mage class.

Note: I think I was wrong here, wisdom is prime requisite for priest but not for mage. Well, I often considered priest and mage the same. They all can cast spell can they?

[ March 17, 2007, 01:05: Message edited by: iceman ]

 

I do not have my manual right now so I can not check it but I can tell you mage's prime requisite is INT. Mnual is full with mistakes anyway, do not trust manuals too much. (trust us, instead! )

Abjurers and Necromancers need exceptional WIS, true, but they can not be dual-classed into anyway. (IIRC, you could dual class into a mage kit back in vanilla BG1)

Create a fighter with at least 15 STR and 17 INT. When he levels up a little, dual into mage, it is good to dual after attaining grand mastery (5 slots) in your favourite weapon. This way you can still attain the maximum spell casting ability of a pure mage, and use any weapon, have better, bigger HPs, possible grand mastery in your favourite weapon and a really better THAC0 than a mage to boot!

If you have 18 STR at the start you get fighter exceptional 18/xx STR bonus as well! Also, 16+ CON grants further HP bonus to fighters. Only downside is you can not specialise in a school but you have a very tough character regardless, I think you will like the idea!

EDIT:NO, priest are different, they cast priest spells which do heal, protect and buff others. While the mages are the expert of kicking other's butts and self-preservation!

[ March 17, 2007, 01:08: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

You can dualclass into a specialist mage kit in IWD.

For deciding which specialist school to take only the forbidden schools are important, an evoker isn't better at casting evocation spell than an illusionist for example.

For deciding which stats are optimal for dualclassing into which specialist school at which level many things matter, do you have a backup arcane caster (bard or multiclass mage), do you have the HoW expansion ?

 

Ah yes yes you can dual class into specialist in IWD, now I remember, I have even created a thief 9/transmuter and it was fun!