Why Start With These Backgrounds?
Posted: Tuesday, 20th March 2018, 17:09
I have been playing magician a bit lately, and I couldn't shake the feeling that some starts don't really give you a reason to pick them.
Wizard: The book of minor magic contains a lot of beautiful spells: magic dart, call imp, blink, mephitic cloud, flame cloud. However, it lacks punching power. It feels like a splendid book to find on D:1-11, if you already have another one, or if you are a fighter interested in hybridizing. But, as a stand-alone book? You will find yourself shooting magic missiles at komodo dragons and black mambas (although you should finally find some other book in Lair).
Solution: more Str, less Int, move to the warrior-mage section.
Conjurer: The book of conjurations has a very good selection for levels 1-2, but what comes later just isn't that good. Yes, you can play a game of luring and explode people out of LOS with the prism, but that never stroke me as particularly funny. And you can't rely on the prism anyway, because it's likely to be destroyed. Conjurer has the advantage of having universally effective spells: no elemental resistances matter. However, fire inflicts more damage, and ice has more options, and an awesome spell like throw icicle, which I have always found much better than mystic blast. (There also are very few fire-immune monsters in the Dungeon: red imps are all I can think of. Maybe the occasional hell hound and efreet.) And the "no resistance" trick is shared with Earth.
Poison mage: the problem with poison mage is simple. All of your spells can be resisted with rPoison. That means that you cannot hurt any undead, excluding you from ossuary, because it's unlikely that your backup killdudes can be good enough to win there. Also, all imps resist your spells. So do black mambas and moccasins. And spiny frogs.
Wizard: The book of minor magic contains a lot of beautiful spells: magic dart, call imp, blink, mephitic cloud, flame cloud. However, it lacks punching power. It feels like a splendid book to find on D:1-11, if you already have another one, or if you are a fighter interested in hybridizing. But, as a stand-alone book? You will find yourself shooting magic missiles at komodo dragons and black mambas (although you should finally find some other book in Lair).
Solution: more Str, less Int, move to the warrior-mage section.
Conjurer: The book of conjurations has a very good selection for levels 1-2, but what comes later just isn't that good. Yes, you can play a game of luring and explode people out of LOS with the prism, but that never stroke me as particularly funny. And you can't rely on the prism anyway, because it's likely to be destroyed. Conjurer has the advantage of having universally effective spells: no elemental resistances matter. However, fire inflicts more damage, and ice has more options, and an awesome spell like throw icicle, which I have always found much better than mystic blast. (There also are very few fire-immune monsters in the Dungeon: red imps are all I can think of. Maybe the occasional hell hound and efreet.) And the "no resistance" trick is shared with Earth.
Poison mage: the problem with poison mage is simple. All of your spells can be resisted with rPoison. That means that you cannot hurt any undead, excluding you from ossuary, because it's unlikely that your backup killdudes can be good enough to win there. Also, all imps resist your spells. So do black mambas and moccasins. And spiny frogs.