Mage characters

[Knight]

I'd like to play a mage character, but I'm completely unfamiliar with them. I've always played warrior/fighter characters, but I'm slowly learning that you can't bash through every sticky situation at > DL50. What are some tips on playing mage characters? Do any particular race(s) lend themselves more to mage characters?

[Monkey Face]

I tend to play exclusively mages and priests since I like the idea of eventually getting 0% fail rates. High-Elf is the easiest mage since it has +3 intelligence. Plus it has +1 strength which helps offset -5 class strength. First spell you get should ALWAYS be magic missle. Rest often to get yourself to full mana. Realize that you'll probably die more on early levels than as a fighter, but don't get frustrated.

[Malak Darkhunter]

pay attention to the elements! monsters that are of fire kind are susceptible to frost bolt spells, stone golems are suspectible to turn stone to mud, water-fire, undead are suseptible to fire as well, pay attention to this and it will be alot easier.

[Knight]

Ahh, thanks for the tips. I'll make sure to keep those in mind.

[ekolis]

Water-based monsters are vulnerable to fire? That sounds kind of backwards to me... ICE based monsters being vulnerable to fire makes sense, but WATER?

[Malak Darkhunter]

I'm thinking so, but don't quote me on it, been a while since i tried it.

[Djabanete]

Obligatory: http://angband.oook.cz/fun/mages.php

[Malak Darkhunter]

Water-based monsters are vulnerable to fire? That sounds kind of backwards to me... ICE based monsters being vulnerable to fire makes sense, but WATER?

Actualy i think i'm wrong I think frost hurts water based monsters more, but it's been a while since I tried a mage, but you get the logistics

[Timo Pietilä]

undead are suseptible to fire as well

Not all of them are. Some of them are hurt by fire more than usual, but most just don't resist it, and some high-level ones do resist fire.

It's not very "clean" system, there are exceptions.

Almost all demons don't resist cold but do resist fire and almost all undeads don't resist fire but resist cold.

Anything that breathes something also resists that same thing.

Best is Acid: almost nothing is naturally resistant to it (oddly all yeeks are). Almost all elementals, all mobile eyes, mobile jellies and multihued things resist it, most of the rest don't.

Second best is Electricity. There is almost as many monsters that resist both fire and cold as there are monsters that resist electricity. For counting pure resists Elec and Acid are tied, but difference is that many high-level uniques are not resistant to acid while they are to electricity.

If there is no indication of elemental connection in monster description chances are that acid or electricity works against it.

[PowerWyrm]

I'd like to play a mage character, but I'm completely unfamiliar with them. I've always played warrior/fighter characters, but I'm slowly learning that you can't bash through every sticky situation at > DL50. What are some tips on playing mage characters? Do any particular race(s) lend themselves more to mage characters?

Check this for starting tips: http://www.mangband.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1307

[Max Stats]

Rest often to get yourself to full mana.

If you don't have a "rest until healed" keymap ('R&[Enter]' or 'R&\r' under the old system), now is the time to create one. Bind it to an easy to access key, like Tab. Then use it. Lots.

[Knight]

Hmm, after reading the article Djabanete provided and hearing some other stuff from around the forum, I think mages are still a bit too advanced for me. However, I still want a magic-wielding character, so I created a high-elf rogue and I'm pretty happy with the combination of magical arsenal and weapons he's got. Leveled him up to clvl 28 (that means 'character level', no?), perhaps I'll post a progress report in the AAR forum and upload him to the ladder.

[Derakon]

Yep, clvl is character level, dlvl is dungeon level, mlvl is monster level. I guess olvl would be object level but I don't think I've seen anyone use that.

Rogues are a decent introduction to spellcasting since they still have excellent melee. Rangers are more fragile and have weaker melee, but significantly stronger missile and spellcasting abilities. Paladins, IIRC, are basically holy rogues with bad stealth.

[debo]

Being a recent newbie to the game, I believe that High-Elf Rogue is the most newbie-friendly character.

Paladins are terrible starter characters IMO because their healing and their utility spells suck in the early game, and you're constantly waking up everything around you. With a Rogue, you get to pick and choose your battles a lot more, and your initial utility spells are incredibly helpful in comparison.

Rangers are tedious because of the ranged-play, and I think a newbie is likely to lose patience and melee something he shouldn't be meleeing because of it.

My 2 cents.

(Also, my third cent is that a mage is definitely NOT a newbie-friendly character )

[will_asher]

Being a recent newbie to the game, I believe that High-Elf Rogue is the most newbie-friendly character.

Paladins are terrible starter characters IMO because their healing and their utility spells suck in the early game, and you're constantly waking up everything around you...

When I was a noob I thought paladins were the most noobie friendly character, they seemed like it cause they're tough fighters and they're healing spells are actually the second best of any class (CLW is by no mean insignificant when you have it as a low level, low-cost spell). But I was wrong. The problem with paladins is that their good fighting and low stealth encouranges the bad habits of not carefully choosing your fights and not running away when you need to.

Now I agree the rogue is best. Playing rogues is more likely to encourage good habits like detecting often and choosing your fights.