War mage: Difference between revisions

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;[[Armor Use]]
;[[Armor Use]]
:War Mages take more often and cast spells less often than pure Wizards. As such, Leather Breastplate (27 skill points) or Cuirbouilli Leather (35 skill points) offer the best combination of protection, spell failure, and training point cost. War Mages often settle for Full Leather or Double Leather until considerably later in their career.
:War Mages take hits more often and cast spells less often than pure Wizards. As such, Leather Breastplate (27 skill points) or Cuirbouilli Leather (35 skill points) offer the best combination of protection, spell failure, and training point cost. War Mages often settle for Full Leather or Double Leather until considerably later in their career.


;[[Physical Fitness]]
;[[Physical Fitness]]

Revision as of 16:52, 19 August 2006

War Mages are a mutant sub-type of the Wizard profession.

War Mages generally rely on moderately strong physical attacks in combination with high damage factor weapons and the utility Haste (506). Due to the low cost of Spell Aiming, War Mages are generally (but not always) capable of bolt attacks, although not at the same strength of as a pure wizard.

Stat Placement and Race Selection

As the primary Wizard statistics, Aura and Logic remain extremely important for training point purposes.

Unlike for bolt-casting Wizards, Strength is a more important statistic than Dexterity. Since a War Mage will never be able to reach the physical attack strength (AS) of a Square, it is important that a War Mage maximize their AS however possible. For this reason, it is highly recommended that a War Mage select a race with a neutral or positive strength modifier.

Although not as important as Strength, Dexterity remains an important statistic, especially if the War Mage intends on training in Spell Aiming to supplement their physical attacks. Additionally, a moderate to high Constitution is useful for improving hitpoints and encumberance, since a War Mage is more likely to be successfully hit than a bolt-casting Wizard.

Primary Training Recommendations

War Mages train roughly equally in both physical and magical skills. Important skills include Two-Handed Weapons or Polearms, Armor Use, Combat Maneuvers, Physical Fitness, Arcane Symbols, Magic Item Use, Spell Aiming, Harness Power, Spell Research, and Elemental Lore.

Two-Handed Weapons or Polearm Weapons
This is a War Mage's primary attack skill, and should thusly be singled in for life. War Mages rely on weapons with a high damage factor (DF) to make up for their lack of AS. Two-Handed Weapons have a generally higher DF than Polearms, but lack the ability to use the combat maneuver Trip.
A few War Mages use One-Handed Weapons and a Shield, but is much less common due to the high training point costs.
Armor Use
War Mages take hits more often and cast spells less often than pure Wizards. As such, Leather Breastplate (27 skill points) or Cuirbouilli Leather (35 skill points) offer the best combination of protection, spell failure, and training point cost. War Mages often settle for Full Leather or Double Leather until considerably later in their career.
Physical Fitness
It is strongly suggested that a War Mage reach their maximum hitpoints as soon as possible. However, although additional training past this point offers some minor mechanical advantages, these training points are best spent elsewhere.
Arcane Symbols and Magic Item Use
Useful for reading/casting scrolls and using wands. Since War Mages don't use runestaves, there is little point in training past the point where they can effectively use any scroll or wand.
Spell Aiming
Since War Mages rarely use Elemental Focus (513) and generally have lower Dexterity than their pure counterparts, their bolt-casting abilities will be considerably lower. However, Spell Aiming is cheap to train, and is incredibly useful against creatures against turtled creatures, the undead, and creatures with bolt susceptibilities. Highly recommended to train in, unless you are short on training points.
Harness Power
Even War Mages need mana, which makes this is a mandatory skill. However, War Mages generally use considerably less mana than pure Wizards, so training beyond 1x may not be necessary.
Spell Research
War Mages will want as many spells ranks as they can comfortably afford.
Combat Maneuvers
Despite the lack of maneuvers available to Wizards, and despite its high training point cost, Combat Maneuvers remains an important skill to train in. The +.5 AS that comes with each training is its primary benefit, although Feint and Trip become extremely effective after three or four ranks in combination with Haste (506).
Later in their career, War Mages often add a couple ranks of Disarm, as it helps them resist disarming attempts by higher level creatures.

Secondary Training Recommendations

Elemental Mana Control (EMC)
Since War Mages use relatively little mana, they will not need to rely on Mana Leech (516) as much as pure Wizards do. Consequently, it is relatively unimportant for a War Mage to immediately train in EMC. Eventually shoot for 24 ranks (102 skill bonus) in EMC.
Elemental Lore
Is really nice icing on the cake for a War Mage.
24 ranks in Elemental Lore, Air will gain War Mages an additional two Floating Disk (511) items, Tonis Bolt, and most importantly, a -1 second reduction in Haste roundtime.
Elemental Lore, Earth also provides useful benefits, such as an increase in Strength (509) AS, as well as an increase in the hardness of Stone Skin (520).
Climbing and Swimming
Get them if you can't get where you need to go.
Perception, Survival, First Aid, and Spiritual Mana Control
All provide useful benefits, if you have the training points available.

Spell Training

War Mages train similarly to pure Wizards, with regards to spells.

Defensive Spells

All of these spells are extremely important to a War Mage, and should be trained as soon as possible, with the exception of Elemental Barrier (430), Stone Skin (520), Temporal Reversion (540), and Wizard Shield (919).

Offensive Spells

Although War Mages do use bolt spells, they primarily rely on their weapons for their offensive capabilities. It is imperative to learn these spells as soon as they available. Elemental Focus (513) gives a bonus of +20 bolt AS, but at a cost of -40 Physical AS. Due to this penalty, War Mages rarely use this spell.

Attack Spells

The most important attack spell for War Mages to achieve is Tremors (909), which is considerably more effective against like-level and above-level creatures than Elemental Wave (410). However, Elemental Wave is useful when hunting in busy areas, so as to not disturb those hunting nearby.

Haste (506)

Haste (506) is the single most critical spell in a War Mages' spellbook. It allows the War Mage to attack with a greatly reduced roundtime. Below is a transcript of a War Mage attacking a like-level Mountain Troll. 

> incant 506
You recite a series of mystical phrases while raising your hands, invoking Haste...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture.
You begin to notice the world slow down around you.  Strange.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
(Forcing stance down to guarded)

> stance def
You are now in a defensive stance.

A mountain troll swings a flail at you!
  AS: +190 vs DS: +266 with AvD: +43 + d100 roll: +36 = +3
   A clean miss.

> stance off
> kill
You are now in an offensive stance.
You swing a vultite maul at a mountain troll!
  AS: +193 vs DS: +73 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +59 = +217
   ... and hit for 75 points of damage!
   Whoosh!  Several ribs driven into lungs.
   The mountain troll is stunned!
Roundtime: 5 sec.
Roundtime changed to 2 seconds.

> kill
You swing a vultite maul at a mountain troll!
  AS: +193 vs DS: +52 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +28 = +207
   ... and hit for 60 points of damage!
   Internal organs bruised.
Roundtime: 5 sec.
Roundtime changed to 2 seconds.

> kill
You swing a vultite maul at a mountain troll!
  AS: +193 vs DS: +50 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +2 = +183
   ... and hit for 45 points of damage!
   Blow to back cracks several vertebrae.
Roundtime: 5 sec.
Roundtime changed to 2 seconds.

> kill
You swing a vultite maul at a mountain troll!
  AS: +193 vs DS: +48 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +60 = +243
   ... and hit for 111 points of damage!
   Crushing blow to the spine!
  The mountain troll slumps to the ground.
The mountain troll falls to the ground and dies.
The deep blue glow leaves a mountain troll.
Roundtime: 5 sec.
Roundtime changed to 2 seconds.

> stance def
You are now in a defensive stance.

As the War Mage gains ranks in Major Elemental Circle and Elemental Lore, Air, roundtimes will continue to reduce, allowing the War Mage to wield larger weapons in a shorter roundtime.

Advantages

  • War Mages are very flashy, often impressing those who watch them in action.
  • Up until around level 20 our so, War Mages are able to successfully hunt creatures roughly twice their level.
  • War Mages have a very effective bolt defense, making them much less vulnerable to bolt attacks than the typical two-handed weapon user.
  • War Mages have a wide variety of attacks, making them effective against most creatures.

Disadvantages

  • Although grouped War Mages are helpful in a utility role, such as buffing and casting Tremors (909), it is difficult for them to gain experience while hunting, as they tend to kill creatures very quickly.
  • Their low AS compared to squares means that War Mages may find themselves falling back to using bolt spells more regularly as they gain levels.
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