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Melee Mage
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 03:22PM
Awhile ago, I suggested that a Wizard could be a better Fighter of the same level at beginning levels, and after much testing, I believe I have somewhat managed to optimize the build. The Melee Mage is a fascinating way to play a Mage, and is a rather non-traditional method, needing some re-thinking of how and what a Mage is good at.
The starting stats are not only necessary to consider, but are crucial to the build - make a mistake here, and the Melee Mage will just not be effective. Aside from the primary casting stat Int, the next stat to be considered must be CON. This is very important, as will become apparent later. The other stats to invest points in depends on the the focus of the Melee Mage - are you going the Strength route, or the Dex route?
Note that a Melee Mage is a pure Mage build. It is not one that multiclasses, and has full Spellcasting power. This is the real secret of the build, and it is immensely powerful.
Beginning Build
Humans, Gnomes, and Dwarves make great Melee Mages. Humans, because of the amount of skill points, and the extra feat, and Dwarves and Gnomes because of the additions to Con. I consider it a toss-up between Dwarves and Gnomes as to which is better. I prefer Dwarves.
I shall consider the Strength build first, as it is one that I have tested the most. As I prefer Dwarves, this will be with Dwarf as a Race.
Melee Mage
Dwarf Wizard
Str: 14
Dex: 10
Con: 16
Int: 18
Wis: 8
Cha: 6
Some may wish to reduce the Int and add to Str - I don't prefer to, but some may.
The first Feat I normally take is Martial Weapon Proficiency. If Human, I would suggest that and Toughness.
For your skills, DO NOT ignore Discipline!! You will not be getting values near that of a pure Fighter, of course, but to ignore such will be a mistake, IMHO. If your PW/Mod incudes items that prevent Knockdown, then you may wish to skimp on Discipline, but I would not recommend it. There is still Disarm to be concerned about!
The next thing is to decide what Specialist Wizard you wish to be. I would suggest being a specialist, as this gives one more spells (which is also the reason for the high starting Int) - I normally take Necromancy, as those spells lost normally can be found easily enough (True Sight) and Premonition is mostly useless by the time one gets it.
After choosing a school, then choose your spells. This is very, very, very critical! The first level of your Melee Mages life will depend on your selection. I recommend Protection from Alignment, Mage Armor, Shield, Magic Weapon, Grease, Sleep, and any others that one sees fit. It is very important to remember, that you want spells that increase combat effectiveness in Melee, over those that have an offensive nature, and ignore melee effects.
Next, choose a Familiar. This is also crucial for the first starting levels! Choose a Familiar, that will survive combat! The Mephits are good, as is the Imp. I would suggest taking one of them.
You will be engaging in combat alongside your Familiar. You will find out that with your buffs and high hps (starting of 7), you should be able to hold your own pretty well, for the first couple of battles, until the Buffs wear off. If you cannot rest after that happens, and you are out of spells, then hang back, and let your familiar fight, use a crossbow or bow. Do not forget, you still have slots for Ray of Frost (a nice cantrip for first level). If you get into trouble, or your familiar dies, RUN!! That is very important. You will be wanting to add Expeditious Retreat to your spell reperatoir to aid in doing this, unless there are perma-haste items available early on (or potions of speed).
When you finally hit 3rd level, your worries are mostly over. Select that Ghostly Visage and Flame Weapon!! Now you have excellent defense, and can deal the damage like the best of Fighters! You will want to pick up Bull's Strength, as well, and if possible, Cat's Grace. You will want to pick up Invisibility sometime.
Upon reaching level 5, select Greater Magic Weapon and Keen Edge if your PW/Mod does not have keen weapons available. If such are available, Haste. If perma-haste is available, then I would suggest Negative Energy Burst, because not only is it offensive in nature, but it drains Strength as well! You might wish to consider Displacement, as well, though it is of rather short duration.
Feats - You will have 11 feats to fill in to level 20. As a Human, you will have 12. Start with Martial Weapon Proficiency (add in Toughness as a Human) I would choose Toughness as the next feat (Weapon Focus or Power Attack, dependingly as Human), then go Still, Extend, Empower, and Maximize. Add in Weapon Focus (I normally go a two-handed weapon, but if you like getting crits alot, go with Scimitar), Power Attack along the way, either a Spell Focus or Spell Penetration, Cleave, and either a Greater Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Focus.
Then you are ready for Epic Levels. You will of course be wanting Great Cleave in there, somewhere, along with Epic Warding (and maybe Epic Mage Armor, if you can squeeze it in there). Increase your Int as high as you can.
Spells
1st level
Mage Armor
Protection from Alignment
Shield
Grease
Magic Weapon
Expedious Retreat
Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd level
Flame Weapon
Ghostly Visage
Bull's Strength
Cat's Grace
Fox's Cunning
Cloud of Bewilderment
Endurance
Invisibility
Ultravision
Darkness
Death Armor
3rd level
Greater Magic Weapon
Haste
Keen Edge
Negative Energy Burst
Displacement
4th level
Elemental Shield
Improved Invisibility
Stoneskin
Wall of Fire
Ice Storm
5th level
Mestil's Acid Shealth
Bigby's Interposing Hand
Energy Buffer
Firebrand
Cone of Cold
Lesser Spellmantle
6th level
Greater Stoneskin
Ethereal Visage
Tenser's Transformation (but only the PnP version, NOT BIOWARE's!°!!)
IGMS (of course).
Bigby's Forceful Hand
7th level
Shadow Shield
Bigby's Grasping Hand
Mordenkainen's Sword (But only the PnP Version, NOT BIOWARE's!!!)
8th level
Greater Sanctuary
Mass Blindness/Deafness
Mind Blank
9th level
Bigby's Crushing Hand
BBoD
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Shapechange
Time Stop
Ok, so now you have your build, but how does one go about actually putting it to use? The most important thing to remember is to KEEP THE BUFFS UP! - so use your meta-magical feats to make sure that your buffs will last until the next planned rest. At beginning levels, this will be harder, but then, you don't have all that far to the next level, either. Using your low-level buffs and your Familiar will get you to 3rd level, and having Ghostly Visage and Flame Weapon will take care of the rest, most of the time. Don't forget to run, if things get hectic. You can always come back later. Use your spellslots wisely (optimize spellslot use with metamagic feats - for example, the 2nd level spellslots are normally only good for putting 1st level metamagic in - for you will want your buffs from those spells to last/be powerful, so they will either be Extended, or Empowered/Maximized. So put some stilled MM or Grease in there. Don't foerget to always have a reserve slot for an escape spell, like Invis, Improved Invis, Greater Sanc, or Time Stop, for example.
The Melee Mage's main strength is to hack it's way through the m0bs, saving most of the offensive spells for the End Boss. This allows the Melee Mage to conserve it's spells, and it really becomes a Solo Machine of Destruction, a Great Party asset (put Greater Magical Weapon, Flame Weapon, and Keen on their weapons!), Stoneskin buffs, and Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, and Owl's Wisdom, for those Monks. Don't forget the Improved Invis and Extended Haste (if perma haste is not around).
For really tough Bosses (like Dragons, etc), Do your Death Armor, Elemental Shield and Mestil's Acid Shealth buffs, and Shapechange into an Iron Golem and let him kill himself on your shields, or if your PW/Mod has the PnP version, do a Mordenkainen's Transformation and hack the Boss to pieces! For really tough Bosses, I suggest either the Greater Sanctuary-BBoD combo (cast a Haste right after the summons, as you are hasted, to haste the BBoD without worrying about it being disrupted!) - It should hack the Boss to death. If your PW/Mod uses the PnP version of Mordenkainen's Sword, then buff that baby up to the Max!! Bull's Strength, Flame Weapon, Greater Magical Weapon, Keen Edge, Haste, and let it decimate the Boss.
C&C is appreciated.
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Lauren J Darkbloom
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Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 04:12PM
Hello Webshaman,
I think your build includes just about every piece of information about mages that has been presented on these boards.
I have exactly one question--you really don't care about True Strike?
L
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From: Yorkshire, England Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 04:40PM
you should add this to the NWNWiki. like, in the wizards section. this is invaluable stuff WS. i think if you put both you're minds together, you and the Wax could take over the world.
If it was my world, this would get a sticky...but it's not, so
great work though, keep on it.
Eddie
PS, i would reccomend melf arrow as a level 2 needed spell, as it is invaluable... you are doing up to 2-12+3 damage per round, with 1-2 +1-2 elemental from the familiar, +1d6 acid means this is an excellent addition to the repetoire.
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 05:22PM
Quote: I have exactly one question--you really don't care about True Strike?
As surprising as this may seem - no, I don't care much for Truestrike. Now, why is that? First of all, a Melee Mage doesn't get that many attacks a round - so the use of True Strike is very limited - you cast it, then try to get as many attacks in before it runs out. For a pure Wizard, that is not going to result in much. Second, if you need that + 20 to actually hit, then you either have underestimated the foe (and I would resort to spell use or flee), or you should be using Spells to demolish whatever it is. I view Truestrike as a spell that is best used by multiclassed Spellcaster/Other hybrids.
There is a build where True Strike does have a use with a Melee Mage, but I haven't gone into that Build yet - the Dex route (Dual Wielder).
Quote: PS, i would reccomend melf arrow as a level 2 needed spell, as it is invaluable... you are doing up to 2-12+3 damage per round, with 1-2 +1-2 elemental from the familiar, +1d6 acid means this is an excellent addition to the repetoire.
Although Melf is not a bad spell, it has a few problems inherent in the spell itself. First of all, it does not "stack", meaning that you cast it once at the creature. True, damage does continue further, and I have had some moderate success with this spell against Casters, for example (continual damage causing a Concentration check for spellcasting) - but at low levels, it takes up a space more appropriate for the important buffs, and at later levels, it is relatively useless against the m0bs, where Grease still retains its usefulness, as does MM. Also, it is a single target spell, which isn't all that useful, really. As a Melee Mage, you want to concentrate on your Buffs (increasing your Melee Capability) and spells that do lots of damage to many at once (for clearing those guard m0bs from the End Boss, for example). I just don't see Melf's as being a "must have" spell.
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 06:56PM
Continuing on, I present you with the Dual-wielding Melee Mage. This build may still need some tweaking, but so far it has served me well.
Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Elf
Str: 10
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 18
Wis: 8
Cha: 8
Very Important - take Toughess as your starting Feat!! That will give you a total of 6 hps to start with. Also, you will not be engaging in melee the first couple of levels - use a Bow instead, and let your Familiar Melee, until you get to around 3rd level. At that point, you will be able to melee effectively.
3rd level Feat : Weapon Finesse! Yes, that is critical. Now you can begin to lay the smack down...with a rapier.
5th through to 10th - the normal metamagical Feats.
12th again changes - TWF!! Now you can use both a Rapier and Dagger. Put GMW and FW on them and go to town!
15th - Take Ambidexterity, and Spell Penetration.
18th - The long awaited Improved TWF.
20th - GSP.
The build is a pretty interesting melee character (with Haste, 5 attacks/round - now it is worth using Truestrike to attack with) and the AC is very, very nice. Even though an Elf, you still have decent hps. Have fun!!
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From: My money bin swimming of course. Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 09:23PM
How is the issue of miniscule Attack Bonus resolved (if at all)?
Assuming a fairly balanced module, a Fighter-type should never have a 100% chance to hit a enemy reasonably well-matched to the Fighter-type's level. A 75-85% chance is far more likely. Every two levels of Mage-type you acquire puts you 5% below the Fighter-type so by level 20 the Mage should be a full 50% behind the Fighter-type putting accuracy in the 25-35% range. Assuming an empowered Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace will give +7, that's an additional 15% in the Mage-type's favor however even so that's still only 40-50% chance of hitting.
For a Strength-based Melee Mage as you've suggested this means that 50-60% of the Mage's 2 (or 3 with Haste) hits will miss. 1 attack per round landing on an enemy doesn't exactly make for an effective melee presence.
Of course, this is all assuming a balanced module where AC's are well-matched to the character's level. If the Melee Mage is played in a module where such is not true and enemies routinely have low Armor classes, then the Melee Mage's effectiveness goes way up due to the large damage output from Flame Weapon.
~Terra~
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Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 10:11PM
Thats exactly what I was wondering about as well
The build is very interesting but the AB must suck bigtime
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From: Montreal, Canada Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 10:26PM
AB is irrelevant when your enemy has been green hand holding his a** down.
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From: Boise, Idaho, USA Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 11:41PM
Interesting build and probably fairly effective against most things. I have only 2 thoughts about the build (either one).
1) As has been brought up, the AB is going to be low. Though, as WebShaman pointed out, you're going to be meleeing the common stuff not the bosses (who he's said you reserve your offensive spells for), so this may not be an issue. I find that the 'yard trash' up to a main boss character is usually not that difficult to deal with, and you do have the familiar in there attacking as well (usually has a much better AB than the wizard). With Haste, you'll have that last attack at full AB which will help and your defenses should help you keep going through the 'miss miss miss' rounds you will occasionally get. I would definitely not dual wield with this type of character though; the AB can't really handle getting any lower.
2) Speaking of the familiar, part of the build includes use of the familiar to assist in attacks (and I'd recommend a summon or two if necessary and you're not as concerned about the xp hit). The main problem here, though, is that the build has several AoE spells listed, including Grease. On any setting above Party PvP, these spells will affect your character and the familiar. Now with Grease, general idea is to knock down opponents at a distance and peg them with a crossbow. Unfortunately, your familiar is going to rush into combat ... and be affected by the spell. This then causes the familiar to turn on you. Bad. Very Bad.
So, lots of telling the familiar to stand around while you use those spells, which, if you're like me, gets annoying fast. I'd stick with direct damage AoE spells and ignore the Grease, Cloud of Bewilderment, etc. line, and the lingering Damage Over Time AoE spells. Its far easier to set up an accurate Fireball than constantly keep your familiar (and/or summon) out of your Cloudkill.
Overall, for most places, this is going to be a fun build that works for most places. Nice thing is that the character is a pure Wizard. So, if you run into a section of the module / PW where your tactic isn't working, nothing to stop you from rearranging your spellbook so that you're the pure nuker, or defender, or whatever you need to get by. Then go back to the melee aspect afterward.
Oh, one last thought actually. Remember that if you do go Necromancy, you can't get True Sight which is very useful; Premonition is nice, but Greater Stone Skin with Shadow Shield works just as well. Hopefully you can find something that will give you either See Invisibility or True Sight (preferable) from an item; you won't be able to use any scrolls of this you find. As such, I'd recommend Blind Fight as a feat for the build, especially if non-scroll versions of these two spells are virtually non-existent.
--grizz
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Monday, 26 December 2005 11:48PM
Greater Magic Weapon is one of the keys here. Up to +5 AB factor here, and of course you have your Buffs like Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace, adding in still more.
If you think about it for a minute, it comes out pretty well. Normal Fighter Bab is 20 at level 20, right? Now, the AB will be somewhat higher, counting in Strength, Weapon Focus, and any pluses to the Weapon itself.
The Mage has a 10 Bab at level 20. Add in some Greater Magic Weapon, and that becomes 15. Now add in some bonuses from either Bull's Strength or Cat's Grace - and you are looking at another +5 to that - so, 20 AB. You can get that a bit higher, but that is about the height of the AB curve at level 20. Still, that is sitting up there pretty good, all things considered on a low magic PW/Mod.
The interesting thing is at lower levels. GMW is +1 per 3 levels up to a maximum of + 5, meaning it tops out at level 15. If we compare level 15 Melee Mage with a Fighter of the same level, some interesting things come out.
Melee Mage - AB 7 + 5 = 12 add in some Strength of 14 + 6 for Some Empowered Bull's Strength, for example for another +5, and you have 17 total.
Fighter - AB 15 + 1~2 (maybe 3, depending) weapon max is 18 max, with Strength of a maximum of 22 (23, really, but that doesn't help) for a Half-Orc giving a +6 for 24. The Melee Mage is behind, but not by all that much (and that is a max Fighter build). Enough for the m0bs. And that is all that matters, for most Bosses will be done with spells (you got a horde of them to use on the Boss now).
For the Dexer, he actually has much better AB, but due to Dual-wielding, that suffers some penalties (but gets more attacks, which is then useful with Truestrike). My Dexer had an AB of 18 with a normal Rapier and Dagger combo (with GMW cast on it). I consider that acceptable. Note that that will go up the moment that the dagger gets put away by +4 - that is an AB of 22, which is only 2 behind the best Fighter build!!
On a High Magic PW, of course, things will be more slanted in favor of the Fighter - due to GMW not being useful - as higher "+" Weapons become available, the advantage of GMW shrinks, accordingly.
And that is how the Melee Mage hits. And does it pretty well. Remember, this is for the m0bs, and is not meant for Bosses! For the Bosses, use your spells!
Any environment is going to require changes to the builds, accordingly. I think that most realize this, and modify the build in question to respond to such challenges. Obviously, if one is playing on a PW or in a Mod where the level is set higher than Party PvP, then some changes have to be made for spell selection, especially if one is going to be journeying with Familiar, Summons, and Party!
Edited By WebShaman on 12/26/05 23:54
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 12:21AM
Quote: Posted 12/26/05 21:23:42 (GMT) by Countess Terra
How is the issue of miniscule Attack Bonus resolved (if at all)?
Assuming a fairly balanced module, a Fighter-type should never have a 100% chance to hit a enemy reasonably well-matched to the Fighter-type's level. A 75-85% chance is far more likely. Every two levels of Mage-type you acquire puts you 5% below the Fighter-type so by level 20 the Mage should be a full 50% behind the Fighter-type putting accuracy in the 25-35% range. Assuming an empowered Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace will give +7, that's an additional 15% in the Mage-type's favor however even so that's still only 40-50% chance of hitting.
For a Strength-based Melee Mage as you've suggested this means that 50-60% of the Mage's 2 (or 3 with Haste) hits will miss. 1 attack per round landing on an enemy doesn't exactly make for an effective melee presence.
Of course, this is all assuming a balanced module where AC's are well-matched to the character's level. If the Melee Mage is played in a module where such is not true and enemies routinely have low Armor classes, then the Melee Mage's effectiveness goes way up due to the large damage output from Flame Weapon.
~Terra~
As I have pointed out, the Attack bonus is not miniscule. Also, I would hate to see a Mod or PW where normal m0bs have ACs set at 75% Fighter AB!! What do the poor 3/4 Bab builds do? Swing away, hoping for that ever-elusive 20? Most Bosses are set to 75% - meaning the Fighter has a 25% chance of hitting - much better. M0bs are normally 50% - which makes the Melee Mage very nice (around 60%, all in all). About equal to the 3/4 AB classes, but with incredible protections, so most damage just gets absorbed, not to mention a nice AC.
No, the Melee Mage will not hit as often as the Fighter (it just doesn't have 4 attacks, nor that high of an AB), but it does have 2 at high AB, which has a very good chance of hitting at least once per round - and combined with Strength, +5 GMW and Flame Weapon damage, that is going to be enormous damage dealt. For the Dual-wielder, it has 5 attacks, 3 of which are at high AB. A bit less Strength damage, but that is not as important here, as the extra half a hit makes up for it with GMW and Flame Weapon damage.
The Fighter with 50% for the first attack, will have degenerating hit chances for the other 3. Let us say 2 attacks per round, realistically will hit on average, to the Strength MM's 1, and the DWMM's 1 1/2.
So, figure in Damage. The Fighter has a bit of elemental damage on the blade (a d6, maybe), will be lucky if the "+" is an enhancement bonus, say +1~2, add in Weapon Spec for + 4, and the Strength for around +6 for a total of 1-6 + 2 + 4 + 5 = 13~18 total. Multiply by 2 for 26~36 a round. Note that Cleave and Great Cleave have not been figured in here. Also, if the Fighter in question wishes to use a Two-Hander, his AC plummets (damage taken will rise). If the Fighter does go THW, then add in the 1.5 Strength for 3 more.
The Melee Mage does 10+1d4 of Fire, + 5 from the GMW, plus Strength of + 7 (THW) for a total of 23~26 a round. One now begins to see that one hit from the MM is almost equaling two hits from the Fighter.
The DWMM looks even better, due to the extra "half hit". True, the Strength is less (10 + 6 is going to be a +3 bonus to damage on the main hand, and the off-hand will be +1). So the Strength damage will be less, of course (around +4 average per round), But the other Damage will be Higher! 15+1d6 of Fire, +5 GMW, +4 strength for 25~30 damage a round!
Here is the Feat slots for building with :
1st level is a normal Feat - Martial Weapon PRof.
3rd level is a normal Feat - Toughness
5th level is a normal Feat - Still spell
6th level is a normal Feat - Extend spell
9th level is a normal Feat - either go metamagic with empower, or do some optimizing, and take Power Attack here.
10th leve is a Wizard Feat - Empower or Maximize (depeinding on if one is going to go Cleave/Great Cleave or not).
12th level is a normal Feat - Weapon Focus (I take Greatsword).
15th level is a normal Feat and a Wizard Feat - if going the Cleave route, take Cleave, otherwise Power Attack here, and either Maximize or spell focus/spell penetration.
18th level is a normal Feat - either Great Cleave, or Cleave
20th level is a Wizard Feat - either Spell Focus/Penetration of Greater Spell Focus/Penetration.
Edited By WebShaman on 12/27/05 00:47
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Lauren J Darkbloom
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Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posted: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 05:35PM
Hello Webshaman--
I see what you're saying, but I wanted to mention that you kind of got part of what Terra was saying backwards. She was saying that a pure Fighter in a properly balanced mod should have a 75% or so chance to *hit* mobs, not to miss.
Anyway I actually have something constructive to add to this thread. (Everyone says, "yeah right", and leaves.)
When I was first experimenting with the idea of a melee mage it helped to always summon a creature too. This made the idea more intuitively trustworthy to me. Because at first I just thought--this will never work.
But especially by the time I could get that Wolf, it all started to make sense. I had a little army, and it was much easier to flank enemies, etc., or at least it was easier to keep from getting flanked.
So I would suggest to people who are interested in the idea that they start off using both a summon and a familiar until the idea starts making sense from experience. Also, at very early levels, it's easier for me if I have two allies, because then I run when one dies, and there's still another one still distracting my enemies.
L
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Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posted: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 05:49PM
I'm not sure about the discipline issue.
To really be safe from KD or disarm spam at level 40 you'll need somewhere around 70-80 discipline, minimally.
And even if you completely CC discipline that's 21 ranks, with skill focus +3 and Epic Skill focus +10 that's still only a 34 discipline even if you got up to 30 something strength that's only about +10-15 from your str mod so you're seeing around 40-50 discipline, most fighters can break that in their sleep at level 40.
So unless you're getting like +30 or upwards from gear or items that grant immunities... I don't know.
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From: The Happy Hunting Grounds Posted: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 08:44PM
Ah, 75% to hit - yep, I missed that. Thanks for correcting my understanding.
As for Discipline - a pure Melee Mage is never going to be safe from Knockdown and Disarm specialists (unless immunity to knockdown is present, and that still leaves Disarm) - and most builds are not 100% safe against these type of specialists, anyway. When fighting against such, I would suggest the Damage Shields/Iron Golem route. It normally works very well, as one Cleric who tried it on my Melee Mage found out very fast. True, he could knock me down. But due to my shields, and my rather high hps (which he had badly miscalculated), he ended up dying before I did.
I once got Disarmed, as well. So, out came the Iron Golem. That solved that. One very dead Disarmer. The nice thing about it was, I only lost a normal Greatsword. So what.
For normal m0bs, they won't be spamming knockdown - the AC is too high, I have found out, for the AI to spam it. Same goes for Disarm attempts.
There is one Boss I know of, that rips melee builds to shreds (level 42 with dual wielded Katanas + 5, on a PW that goes to level 20) - I took it down with ease. How? GS and BBoD.
As I have suggested, for Bosses, use your spells. That is what they are there for. That is why the MM does not multi-class. Your Melee capability is only for getting you to the Bosses, with most of your offensive spells still available and is not meant for the Bosses themselves.
Also, there a lots of PWs that tend to stretch out an area, where no rest is available, to restrict a Mage's effectiveness. The MM build allows one to overcome these types of areas with impunity. I also know a lot of PWs that find ways to do away with Invis/GS protections, which causes quite the problem for most solo Mages.
Note that I am not suggesting the MM to everyone, nor do I think that a Mage should be played this way all the time. It is just a very interesting variant - a new, possibly exciting way to play a Mage.
As we all know, there is no "perfect" build. The MM has weaknesses - buffs being dispelled, Knockdown Specialists and Disarm Specialists being some of them. But the MM does have ways to at least deal with the situations, if they have time to prepare. Also, I believe the MM has limited effectiveness on Moderate to High Magic PWs/Mods.
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From: Europe Posted: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 08:50PM
Quote: Posted 12/27/05 20:44:29 (GMT) by WebShaman
It is just a very interesting variant - a new, possibly exciting way to play a Mage.
not exactly new, and the approach is very similar to the Cleric's. but it is indeed a very exciting way to play a Mage, especially considering all the good advice givenin this thread.
