I need some advice for casters

[Dolgar]

Hi everyone !

I used to play melee characters and it became boring for me.

So I want to try magic-based characters. But I don't have any idea which race or background to choose for a first try. I don't know which skills to train (depending of race and background) too. If someone has an advice to help me in my choice, it would be great.

And sorry if my grammar isn't very accurate, I didn't write english for years ^^

[ydeve]

DrFE/Cj is pretty easy. The concept behind skills is pretty simple to melee: get your killdudes up, then do defenses.

The biggest thing to learn is to run to the stairs early and often. Treat 1/3 to 1/4 mp as dead. You never want to be caught without any mp.

[Sprucery]

Try DrIE or HOFE. Don't overtrain spellcasting and don't neglect training fighting and dodging. Pick up a weapon and use it to kill popcorn.

[removeelyvilon]

-For background, I recommend either fire elementalist or conjurer. both are very straightforward.

-Try a sturdy race such as Draconian or Gargoyle. They may lack the comically overpowered aptitudes and intelligence of Deep Elves, but they are perfectly able of casting and are more forgivng thanks to their defensive perks.

-You can use macros for spells you cast all the time so you don't have to press multiple keys all the time. Ctrl+d > m > key you want to bind your macro to (for example f1) > za.
Now pressing f1 will cast the spell on your "a" slot (such as flame tongue) at the closest enemy.

-Pickup the first weapon you find, preferably a dagger. Your starting mana pool is shallow and you may have to resort to using melee attacks at times. Try to find a branded weapon (anything will do, really. venom and elec are especially excellent early on), even with no skill in weapons or fighting this can be enough to keep weak early vermin at bay. Don't get me wrong, you are flimsy and should avoid melee combat as much as you can, but everything is better than your bare fists when push comes to shove. This is one of the best advice I ever received.

-Speaking of running out of mana, early on you may have to move backwards until you regenerate a point of mana to cast another spell.

-Focus on improving your starting spell by training the respective spell school (focused) and trickle spellcasting. More experienced players than me should be able to give better advice regarding skill choice than me.

[ydeve]

A fair rule of thumb starting out is to train Spellcasting when you need more spell slots. Don't trickle it.

Avoiding melee is bad advice. Popcorn can and should be killed without spending mp, since you'll need it when something big walks around the corner. Pick up any decent weapon and use it untrained. You almost never have to pillar dance for mp if you don't waste it on popcorn.

[removeelyvilon]

*Sigh* well I'm terribly sorry for wording that ever so slightly wrong but that's what I meant. I only wanted to say don't charge headlong into an iron giant with a dagger.

[Dolgar]

*Sigh* well I'm terribly sorry for wording that ever so slightly wrong but that's what I meant. I only wanted to say don't charge headlong into an iron giant with a dagger.

It would be very very stupid ^^ But thanks for all your advices. I will give it a try.

[TonberryJam]

Easy backgrounds are Conjurer, Ice, Fire, Earth and Poison for pure casting.
Easy races are anything that have higher aptitudes for magic schools.

It's the most easiest to level the primary spell school involved with your books level one spell for the most part. If the books give you choices you can focus on one secondary school at a time with the idea of making that spell max power or near max before the others.

For example. Ice elementalist can focus on throw icicle or summon ice beast. Even if you focus on one, the other will become able to cast due to training ice, since both share ice as a spell school.

Pure caster is fine. If you bring spells up to high spell power you won't die from running out of mana. If you find a ring of magical energy, do wear it.

[duvessa]

Easy backgrounds are Conjurer, Ice, Fire, Earth and Poison for pure casting.

no way is VM easier than AE or Wz

[Magipi]

Easy backgrounds are Conjurer, Ice, Fire, Earth and Poison for pure casting.

no way is VM easier than AE or Wz

Hm, interesting, I would not have picked that particular part of the post.

[and into]

In general, regarding strategy:

+ Don't think you need to take Sif or Vehumet just because you started with a book. For one thing, Kiku is much stronger if you want a god that gives you access to more spells. For another, plenty of other gods are very strong for book backgrounds despite not directly giving more spells or boosting magic. Just don't go Trog, obviously

+ Train your good killdudesing spells first, then any other useful spells in your starting book (if applicable), then train dodging, then get some fighting and weapon skill. If you happen to find a buckler, train a bit of shield skill until wearing it does not hurt your spell success % too bad. After that it really depends on what you have found.

+ Train spellcasting when you need more spell levels, train your spell schools for better success and spellpower. (Technically there are situations where spellcasting skill gives you better returns on investment for success/spellpower but you don't really need to sweat that.)

+ At first, put stat ups into intelligence. Once you are about to start training dodging, you can put them into int or dex. The former is better if you are trying to get a new tier of more powerful spells online, otherwise the latter is probably a better choice for the extra EV.

Do note that good tactics are more important than all of the above but it is hard to teach good tactics via posts on a forum.

[Dolgar]

I started a Deep Elf Conjurer. Who died because I was too stupid. I managed to kill Dowan and Duvessa, but I let Eustachio's summons surround my poor elf. I also tried a Naga Venom Mage, but I find DECj more easy for me.

[ydeve]

Deep Elf is actually a harder species for a caster build. Sure you have extra mp, but that's not really that helpful if you retreat regularly before you run out. The reduction in hp hurts a lot more than the increased apts help. Naga is a really hard species. Really, the easiest are Dr,Gr,Hu,HO.

[tabstorm]

Play GrFE.