how do you kill stuff, as a mage?

[Pete Mack]

Sure. But it's worth observing that killing young dragons at cl13 or so is feasible, so long as you have good stealth and detect often.

[Monkey Face]

Try to play a character with high INT and use 12 of your points towards INT to maximize it so you get as many spell points as quickly as possible.

[Sky]

well, i messed up really bad. im still alive but i dont know for how long.
i was diving at a reasonable rate, nothing too extreme. at on point i found myself at DL3-something, and i thought, "i'm getting overpowered here, need to climb up a couple levels", so i recalled, and then i started to go down the dungeon from DL1 again.

now, i forgot to reset the recall level .. and like a moron, read a scroll of deep descent which i thought would put me at DL10~ish, instead it brought me down to DL39.

I have Haste, but the fail rate is 50% ...

Gonna try to climb up 4-5 DL now .. *without* losing any artifacts. I already lost Gurthang (small vault full of OOD mobs, including gravity hounds) and Totila, not that i would need them, but at least i could have sold them ... damn master rogues are stealing all my moneys.

Meanwhile i found a Staff Of Power at DL4 ... (feeling 1-8) .. and i bought a Staff Of Banishment from the black market .. let's just hope the recharge doesnt RnG destroy it immediately.

edit: WOW, i just won the game. Holhenneth, on the floor at DL24. Hello rConf rBlind. Goodbye "the priset incants terribly - you are blind".

[Scraper]

Another thing to remember, is dragonscale armour. Early-mid game is when they start showing up, and they can be great to soften up early-mid uniques.

It's not like you can carry a bunch of them, but dragonscale armour and a ring of acid for example are great ways of making weak characters viable early game.

[Sky]

mage .. is hard. i've been scumming DL35~36 for two days, with some profit. currently CL31. i found a few sellable artis (im playing with sell on and preserve on - sell on is still superior when it comes to earning, if you are willing to WoR back), which i have converted into pots of stat in the black market. currently 16 STR, 18/60 CON, 18/70 INT (18/180 effective), 17 DEX.

even with a broadsword of attacks +2, i can melee only the most basic mobs. i can spam Explosion all day long (the 1% failure rate .. isn't really 1%), but most mobs rip me apart if they touch me. advancing through the dungeon is tedious, im spamming light area, detect traps, detect mobs every 3 seconds. (nope, no macros - i dont know how to)

i guess i was lucky to find Raal's and now Tenser, but despite the much stronger spells (more damage, less fail, less likely to be resisted than fire ball) i'm chugging consumables like there's no tomorrow, so much so that i have to scum the town for CCW and RLL.

i suspect you guys are gonna tell me to dive even further, but i've tried being at DL39 and i got *really* close to death (0 hp and poisoned!) several times; i'm not sure how i would be able to cope with getting cornered by a bunch of undead.

what CL do i need to be for Banish ? if i find some +speed (hopefully Aiglos, or Thalkettoth) i could dive in search of vaults .. although keep in mind i can't just leave a level before i see if it has a artifact on it or not.

[Adam]

mage .. is hard. i've been scumming DL35~36 for two days, with some profit. currently CL31. i found a few sellable artis (im playing with sell on and preserve on - sell on is still superior when it comes to earning, if you are willing to WoR back), which i have converted into pots of stat in the black market. currently 16 STR, 18/60 CON, 18/70 INT (18/180 effective), 17 DEX.

even with a broadsword of attacks +2, i can melee only the most basic mobs. i can spam Explosion all day long (the 1% failure rate .. isn't really 1%), but most mobs rip me apart if they touch me. advancing through the dungeon is tedious, im spamming light area, detect traps, detect mobs every 3 seconds. (nope, no macros - i dont know how to)

i guess i was lucky to find Raal's and now Tenser, but despite the much stronger spells (more damage, less fail, less likely to be resisted than fire ball) i'm chugging consumables like there's no tomorrow, so much so that i have to scum the town for CCW and RLL.

i suspect you guys are gonna tell me to dive even further, but i've tried being at DL39 and i got *really* close to death (0 hp and poisoned!) several times; i'm not sure how i would be able to cope with getting cornered by a bunch of undead.

what CL do i need to be for Banish ? if i find some +speed (hopefully Aiglos, or Thalkettoth) i could dive in search of vaults .. although keep in mind i can't just leave a level before i see if it has a artifact on it or not.

Hello, what version are you playing? I'm not an experienced player but I could just beat 4.0.3 in iron man with a gnome mage without major problems (only one close call against Waldern). But it's also true that I rest a lot and don't care about turncount.
I found the levels between 30 and 50 the most dangerous as mage HP is really low compared to the damage done by the mobs. And I left a lot of undead behind - it's not worth fighting them.

Unfortunately Banishment is in Kelek's and you may not find it soon (at least I don't see it till ~dlev 70). I think clev 30 is the requirement but failure rate will be quite high at that level.

[Sky]

ok, well .. failure rate on banishment is not really important, as long as i can rest; enter dungeon, clear 1 room, rest, banish Q, Z, D ... U ... etc. And then banish what individual mobs i need to clear to get to whatever item they are guarding.

im playing 4.0.5, and this is my first try at mage. i've never beaten the game, and i rarely play anything but warrior.

i've just managed to clear a small vault and i found two speed items, the cloak Colluin (+2 speed) and Boots Of Wormtongue (+3 speed, +2 int / dex / stealth) which i managed to uncurse immediately, so now i'm rocking an impressive +5 base speed.

[Monkey Face]

Make sure you are casting Haste Self at all times. If you have the Resistances spell book, cast the Resistance spell as much as possible. Other than that, two of your most important attributes are INT (for extra mana and lower failure rates) and CON for the hitpoints. Look to go down a bit where stat gain is more common and feel free to use the teleport other spell liberally.

[bio_hazard]

I agree about dl30-50 being toughest. It really can't be said enough, but unless you've really loaded up on stealth, just don't even go near potentially dangerous situations. Curses and nether bolt are bad news, and watch out for summoners you can't take out in one hit (Ranger Chieftens etc). Staff of mapping is pretty handy to know if the monsters you are detecting can actually get at you. Keep creeping around, and go find the stairs if you have to. Get off cavern levels asap. Pick off easy targets, or isolated tough melee targets you can fight at a distance. Use attack wands and branded or high-dice ammo to conserve. Play like a mouse because you're always vulnerable. There's not much margin for error, which in some ways makes mages more fun, but tougher.

Have you tried no-sell yet? It keeps you in the dungeon longer, which might get you more in the flow of being stealthy for multiple levels.

[Derakon]

keep in mind i can't just leave a level before i see if it has a artifact on it or not.

This is your #1 problem right here. Mages have to be willing to abandon levels at the drop of a hat. I'm not saying it's impossible to win with a mage while clearing every level, but your odds will greatly improve once you start cherry-picking the most favorable situations and ignoring everything else. You're a mage; your biggest advantage is that you have the toolkit to pick your battles.

[Will]

Indeed it seems you're playing a mage like a warrior. Think of a mage as a sniper. Pick your targets, nuke them before they even know you're there, disappear. Lather, rinse, repeat...

[Pete Mack]

That +2 attacks sword is not a blessing. A +4 Defender (stealth and regent) would be much more useful--in a recent game I used one to dl 80 or so. Don't clear levels. The reason we are recommending going deep is so you can pick off high value kills like the weaker Greater Demons, mumaks, and the midlevel dragon unique, since you have mb5. "Run away" is necessary but not sufficient advice for a mage. You need to run *towards* high value kills, which are few and far between at dl38. Frequent Detection, high stealth, and obsessive use of spear of light or light rods in hallways lets you creep around the many lethal monsters. Don't play like a warrior. Assume you can kill almost nothing, rather than almost everything.

[Sky]

i'm not sure why someone mentioned Defender being valuable for mana regen; is mana regen a feature of defender? It doesn't seem to be mentioned in the falvour text. I have a amulet of regen, is that the same?

also, are my dungeon books immune to everything? should i carry more than 1??

[Adam]

i'm not sure why someone mentioned Defender being valuable for mana regen; is mana regen a feature of defender? It doesn't seem to be mentioned in the falvour text. I have a amulet of regen, is that the same?

also, are my dungeon books immune to everything? should i carry more than 1??

The dungeon books are immune to the elements as I know but they can be stolen (probably your dex is not high enough to prevent it yet).
object.txt shows for all dungeon books:
flags:IGNORE_ACID | IGNORE_ELEC | IGNORE_FIRE | IGNORE_COLD | GOOD
I'm not sure what the different numbers mean in the text file but this line seems to be self explanatory.
I assume that the first number in the "properties" line shows the dungeon level from which they are expected to be found? So Resistances from 40, Raal from 50, Mordenkainen from 60, Tenser from 70 and Kelek from 80.
The other 2 numbers are probably weight and price.

[Rydel]

i'm not sure why someone mentioned Defender being valuable for mana regen; is mana regen a feature of defender? It doesn't seem to be mentioned in the falvour text. I have a amulet of regen, is that the same?

Regen makes both your HP and SP restore faster, so your amulet will cover that.