Gnome Mage

[Grotug]

I decided to try Gnome Mage but I keep dying. How do you gain experience in the beginning? Seems that trying to kill stuff is a dicey proposition. Waiting around for magic missile to recharge isn't really that fun. Is the strategy to just be very slow and painstaking? Killing only the most feeble monsters? I'm gonna go on youtube and see if I can find a tutorial.

All right, so I found Fizzix let's play, but he basically confirmed my suspicions. But I fiddled with the starting stats similar to how he did, but instead of adding to CON I went 12 on INT and the rest on STR. Even though there is nothing on DEX I can still get 7.2 dam/round with a broad sword. This is actually a bug in the game, because I get 2 dam/round with a whip. So basically the heavier the weapon, the better you will do since you always get 1.0 blow/round even if you aren't really strong or dexterous enough to swing the weapon. I shouldn't be able to wield weapons I can't get a full round with. But it seems the code always allows at least one blow with a weapon, even if it should be too heavy to wield.

But going 12 on INT is huge because it means I have 3 SP starting out instead of 2 and my fail rate drops from 20% to 12% on MM.

I also found a sling in the store which is a ridiculous amount of increase in power as compared to staring gnome mage without one.

I'm CL5 and have 11SP.

[bio_hazard]

Buy flasks of oil and if they have it, a short bow or sling. (otherwise a dozen shots or whatever). Buy a ?phase and !clw so you know what they look like. If you can afford it, MB2.

Take on targets one at a time. 3 magic missiles should kill pretty much anything on DL1, and you can usually hit CL3 by the time you head to the downstairs. By then you'll have enough mana to take on pretty much anything one on one. Then dive normally, and between tactical sniping and exp from the new spells you're learning, you'll gain MP and spells quickly. I usually return to town only when I need the next spellbook.

[krazyhades]

Magic missile can carry you a *long* way, in my experience. The biggest danger is aggroing a pack that is too large for you to take on with a single mana pool, in which case you need a safe stair to retreat up and rest.

[Derakon]

There's a fairly large gap between "too weak to get more than 1 blow" and "too weak to wield a weapon at all". So yes, mages and priests (and possibly rangers depending on starting stats) are incentivised to wield the heaviest weapon they can to maximize their melee damage. Going melee on a mage is still usually not a good idea though.

As an alternative to buying oil or a sling, consider buying a Wand of Magic Missile. It gives you a substantially larger and more reliable offense, though it is of course also more expensive. With the wand, though, you can immediately dive to 100' or 150' and start picking off larger enemies / enemy groups that wouldn't be doable otherwise.

[Grotug]

Ahh come on. Shots kept missing and the wolf I ?summoned trying to read a ?detect Invisible to kill a Ghost, killed me. I learned something, though. If it's not life and death, use the shots. If it's a dicey situation, use the magic missiles since they don't miss.

Yeah, I often forget to buy flasks of oil. I usually buy 1 CLW, 1 ?Recall, a sling or bow if it's available and 40 munitions; if not available, a heavy weapon, and spend the rest of AU on ?Phase.

[bio_hazard]

40 shots will almost certainly make you slow.

Early ghosts generally aren't that dangerous and rarely worth much to kill, so best to just move away from that area. They probably won't follow.

You already have ?recall (assuming you start with a kit). There are few fire/acid breathing things to worry about at that shallow of a depth, so the spare isn't worth getting. You'll probably have enough money for the spare by the time you recall up for the first time.

Don't buy the melee weapon. As a gnome mage you should not really be fighting anything in melee. I always seem to find a maul by 300' anyway, and you're really looking for an ego with a stat boost or SI/regen.

Hang on to those ?blessing for throwing rocks.

e: if you are use-IDing in combat, you can't really complain about what happens afterwards. That should be a last resort.

[Grotug]

I was just trying to ID scrolls since the Ghost didn't seem to do more than scare me occasionally.

Good to know about ?blessings. I thought these were really useless, but it makes sense that they would make throwing rocks worthwhile.

I start with 591 AU instead of useful kit so that I can get more ?phase or a better weapon, so that's why I buy the ?Recall.

[Derakon]

Starting kit for a mage: Recall, Phase, CLW, MB1, MB2, torch, maybe a ration or two. That's all you really need, so the rest is arguing about what the best "support item" is to help get a mage off the ground: oil? Sling + shots? Wand of Magic Missile? The more you spend on a support item, the less you can spend on more Phase/CLW...but the less likely you are to actually need those items, too.

[Grotug]

Well I decided I should read some scrolls and got DD and was running around on DL12 with 1-5 feeling. Everything was peachy until Bullroarer showed up. I guess I shoulda been detecting for monsters (Bullroarer got me).

I was about to go for the > stairs upon arriving on DL 9 but decided I should at least spend some time on the level. Went down the corridor and feeling 6 popped up and I came upon blue dragon scale mail in a room with Wormtongue. so I moved to the armor and we got there about the same time, but I was able to put it on and breathe on him for half his health. Ran away while recharging and breathed on him again and he dropped a Westernesse Gauche with SI and a whopping 8 damage vs others. I guess I'll read this DD I just ID'd.

[AnonymousHero]

Well I decided I should read some scrolls and got DD and was running around on DL12 with 1-5 feeling. Everything was peachy until Bullroarer showed up. I guess I shoulda been detecting for monsters.

That's kind of unlucky, but I'd recommend buying one or two ?Teleport when you can afford it, just in case. That, or just deal with the occasional unavoidable death. As long the death-from-bad-luck is early on it isn't really a big deal.

EDIT: ?PhaseDoor may also be enough to escape from him if the dungeon layout is somewhat favorable (corridors and whatnot)

[Grotug]

I don't remember why, (I remember now, I bought a wand of magic missile and MB2), but I didn't have enough gold to buy more than one ?phase, so I ran out and was bouncing around in a small room, never phasing out of the room. Sometimes I phase out of a corridor into another nearby room that is unreachable, but not this time.

Anyway, I died again on the first DD level since I got careless around dark hounds. I had fried a bunch of them with my armor, and figured there weren't any left, but more came along and kept blinding me but weren't doing much damage so I tried to run away but something incanted terribly and I died.

[Monkey Face]

Mages will die a lot early. The good news is that you haven't invested much time when it happens.

INT = 12 and STR = 8 is definitely the way to go when starting. The only melee weapon you should ever start with is a dagger since everything else weighs more and will slow you down. Plus once you start finding =Escaping it doesn't matter what weapon you use. Upgrade when you find something like Westernesse that has other benefits (although as a gnome you don't need FA).

Early on the only things you should consider melee with are jackals and white mice that haven't been breeding (and maybe fruit bats). Everything else should be MM or ranged weapon.

Mages also shouldn't need to ID by use very much. I usually try to stay in the dungeon until I have enough gold to buy MB3. I drop off anything I haven't ID'd. Then I try to get to CL10 as fast as possible and cast any spells I've learned but haven't had to use to get the experience points which will put me at or close to CL11 where I get Identify. And then it's goodbye to ID by use (at least until Nick takes Identify spell away).

[Grotug]

I forget I get Experience when I learn spells. I was presently surprised when I gained a level after reading a new spell.

I do drop my stuff off at home sometimes until I get a staff of identify (when I'd play other classes) but I will definitely adopt this strategy for my gnome mage attempts. You main the =Escaping rather than as a swap when needeed? I sometimes will melee things that have one purple health left to save on mana after blasting them with MM and they didn't quite die.

[AnonymousHero]

You main the =Escaping rather than as a swap when needeed? I sometimes will melee things that have one purple health left to save on mana after blasting them with MM and they didn't quite die.

The speed advantage means that if you have enough space to retreat you can basically outrun anything and regen the necessary SP to get another cast. (This obviously improves a lot when you get Regeneration.)

[Pete Mack]

@Monkeyface-
Always put points in CON, whatever class you are playing. Better to be down a point in INT than be suffering under 300HP at dl 70.
Edit: And while mages will die early, they won't die 'a lot' if you dive early and fast. They best chance for a mage is to play extreme sniper, killing as few monsters as possible to dl30. Evade like crazy using monster detection, and look for high value targets to snipe with magic devices and bolt spells. Quite possible you'll be below cl20 when you get there, but you will level FAST to make up for it.