Setting up a mage?

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I have to agree with Klorox and I'd extend his opinion on CON to DEX as well.

If your mage needs high DEX for AC then you're doing something wrong. Mages should stay the heck out of melee combat and Mirror Image (and later Stoneskin) makes ranged attacks not much of an issue.

In the early going of BG1 you'll be tossing sling stones or darts more often than spells, but before long you'll have more than enough spells to get you through most battles, leaving ranged weapons as an after-thought. And even if you do manage to hit something with a dart you're talking 1-3 damage for Pete's Sake.

So my point is if you roll up an 18 INT mage and DEX isn't 18, don't worry about it.

 

This changes alot if you play solo, or is new in the game of corse. NPC's like Xan that start with a very low CON is a pain to bring along on the early levels. a stray hobgoblin arrow, and hes dead. so i woudl say there is efinitivelly merrit to take a few points of both CON and DEX.

 

In my experience dex then con are most important with intelligence being third. If you don't mind reloding take from intelligence if you hate that keep it high. You do get less spells in your book with low int. but if you have ToB with your BG2 then you can erase any spell in your book so the number of spells aren't as important then. Oh I need another level 1 spell good bye color spray!

Wisdom is also only important if you use the wish type spells. In BG1 it dosn't matter. In BG2 it only matters if you use the wish spells. I didn't so Wis didn't matter.

Cha is nice though not anywhere near neccesary for survival. It will give you good prices and better reactions which are nice but not neccesary by any means.

One item I havent seen yet can improve your dex if it is really low they are a pair of gauntlets. personally I prefer having 18-9 on my own but if you want to take away from somewhere you still can have a good dex score.

 

I agree with Yoshimo's Heart about dex and con being more important than int. Even with low int you can learn all spells. Just drink int raising potions (especially in BG2 there are very many and they are cheap) once and learn the spells. When your int goes down again you don't loose the learned spells.
I'd still take at least 17 int for roleplaying reasons and since other stats are even less useful.

Don't lower your dex because of the gauntlets
- you might not get them
- other party members will really need them
- if you wear them, you can't wear other gauntlets/bracers

I disagree with kuemper and and anyone who favours high wisdom over 18 charisma.

If you pick up a bard he'll have better lore than even an 18 wis mage anyway and if not your party members will have enough lore to identify most items, so that you won't have to cast the identify spell often.

18 charisma on the other hand does help much. You'll might have gotten a magical weapon, 6 andidotes and extra money before you've even slept once.

Charisma affects prices in shop. It is a big difference if your 23 cha mage (18 + friends spell) or a 16-17 cha NPC does the shopping.

The only real armor for good mages has to be bought for over 10,000 gold. Spell scrolls and weapons or armor for your party members are also expensive.

Even if you just reload when a party member dies instead of paying a temple to resurrect it, you'll always be in dire need of money for more than the first half of the game.

For the wish spells near the end of BG2 you can always have your party priest do the talking, if you like the "big mighty genie, please buff up my weak party so I can survive this combat" roleplaying style. The charisma based dialogue options don't really affect gameplay in BG2,so do the wisdom based ones.
Wisdom doesn't affect spell resistance, both in BG1 and BG2.

So the only real reasons for putting points in wis in BG1 are roleplaying reasons like:
- my superhero character may not have a stat lower than 10
- when a crazy ranger who has gotten his head clobbed too much has 6 wis, I want at least 7 .(You'll find many non-crazy joinable NPC's with lower than 10 wis however).

The main reason why I recommended 18 str is that it can be raised straight to 19 using the tome. (18/01,18/51, ...,18/00 are skipped). The bonusses with 19 str are immense.


I fully disagree with Sir Fink about stats. Many first time BG players have started with a low dex,low con mage and given up frustrated.

[ December 23, 2005, 14:16: Message edited by: kmonster ]

 

ooo the high str mage thats how my first character was like. 19 str is huge and really helps in bg1 when you dont have the spells and sometimes the ammo to stay at range. though you don't get 19 till near the end so you cant use it till you are higher level where you need it less oh well.

Oh make sure you have the mirror image spell it is in my oppinion the most important defense spell in the game.

 

reroll often enough, and you can have every stat at 18 except 1 or 2 you'd keep at 6-10.

Personaly, for a mage, i'd let my str at 10, wisdom at 10, with the 3 or 4 books of wisdom, you'll get 13, and when you add potions of lore for when you need it in BG2, it'll be plenty enough. Everything else at 18, which should be relatively easy to roll, as long as you're willing to spend maybe 5-10 minutes rerolling, which is fairly short.

 

"perfect" BGI stats for a mage include an 18 INT, WIS (only if Lore is really important to you), and DEX. CHA only matters if you'll do the talking. Imoen is good enough, and can do all the chatting after the prologue. STR is good to keep at 8 or 9 (at least) so that you can carry some stuff. CON should be 16 maximum, and you can probably get away with 15 since you'll add a tome later.

The 18 STR idea ain't bad, since 19 is such a huge jump, but I wouldn't recommend it. If your Mage gets into melee combat, you're in trouble.

 

Klorox, once again dependent upon how you play, my last BG1/2 mage was a frontliner. cleric3/mage x and he did front rank more than the NPC's.

As PHB stated, the most important stat for a Wizard is INT, secondary Dex and Con to stay alive. but basucally you only need INT to be a mage, and not necesarilly even that (still playing on my dwarf wizard with INT 7).

And i have to agree that picking wisdom only for getting better options with a spell thats primarly function is humor factor is just dumb

 

How'd you pull off a Dwarf Wizard with a 7 INT?

Dwarves aren't allowed to be Wizards, and Wizards have a minimum 9 INT...