Help! I play caster, and need advice!

[breteas]

In my time on bg, I noticed it's rather hard to level casters. Am I the only one? I'm sure there are others? How can this be fixed?

[Lockonnow]

party and RP find a dm say i love and then he will add some xp to you

[decado]

Summon Spell is your friend.

Durations have been greatly increased. Summon, buff (Bulls, Mage Armour etc) and let it tank for you.

[Simian]

In my time on bg, I noticed it's rather hard to level casters. Am I the only one? I'm sure there are others? How can this be fixed?

Well, the difficulty of playing a caster usually comes from the fact you trying to make your caster excell in a field it has not been designed to excel.

For example, take a mundane Fighter, high strength and big weapon is all it takes to cleave through the low levels. But as a caster, you most likely do not the strength modifier, nor the proficiencies to wield the big weapon. This means that you have to do something else level up. You have to understand the class you are playing, in other words, you have to look into your spell book, read the spell descriptions and come up with a way to make best out of them.

Additionally, you should also consider looking at what scrolls are sold by NPC merchants. To save you the trouble, I could hint that a higher level summon spells always make a short work of those low level enemy spawns. Which means that you just need something long lasting such as an invisibility spell to remain out of danger while the summon does all the work for you.

Final thing to consider is that caster based PvP builds found on NWN2db.com have not been optimized for PvM. So if you are willing to start out with a slightly lower primary casting stat, you can boost strength to have extra carrying capacity for stuff, and constitution for hit points. And if you feel that such a build would be inferior in the long run, you can always RCR when you reach high enough level, and avoid the low-level hurdle.


Although, some casters are more suited for figther like grinding, but with them too you have to read your spell descriptions and pick the best spells to level up.

[dzidek1983]

@breteas

[Nomster]

Forgive but I am not sure if this thread is in jest or not... You have posted quite some tips on how to level a druid, mages are not that faaaaar off.

The first levels...

I have always placed some extra points in strength (because I am a pack rat and collect everything) but this is very handy in the first levels. So, I equip my mages with a regular weapon (possibly a crossbow as well) and a good stack of Mage Armor and Protection from Alignment scrolls. You want the scrolls and not the potions as scrolls are cheaper. If you still need extra AC, get Barkskin potions or Shield scrolls. A bit more costly than the first two... but if you have all of those, all you pretty much need to worry about is critical hits. For those occasions, a good stack of Cure Light Wound potions are handy. Summon scrolls may work too but I find the duration far too short personally and would rather spend the gold on scrolls that last longer. Magic Weapon is good too on your melee weapon.

Sleep is ~awesome~ if you are an elf so you can blast it around yourself and coup-de-grace foes that fall under it. The wand is quite cheap and has 50 uses. If you are not an elf, learn targeting. Generally, I find that low level spell slots should either be used to save up some extra gold on the mentioned scrolls or to fill up with Prismatic Spray (will also give coup-de-grace effect). Wand of Missile's is a good investment as well, also with 50 uses.

You can pretty easily solo the Hilltop Ruins with the above.

After some lootruns you should have a decent amount of gold. Before heading into more difficult areas it may be worthwhile to ask for an escort to Candlekeep/High Hedge and stack up on Heroism, False Life, Scorching Ray & Combust scrolls.

When you get more spell slots and progress in levels to where your spells actually can do some dmg and where your poor Ab becomes totally useless, toss away the weapons and become a spell-slinger and never ever speak of the first levels as a mage whacking kobolds with a club.

(Some people find the method distasteful for mages but hey... its effective)

-----------

I realized after I typed that perhaps you were looking at some specific levels instead of starting out.

[Lockonnow]

yes he is a old sorcerers i cant figue him out to but we dont care let us nuke this thread with magic lead

[Torgerias]

Buying a stack of Summon III scrolls from Sorcerous Sundries in BG makes levels 1-6 cake.

[Styxwash]

Buying a stack of Summon III scrolls from Sorcerous Sundries in BG makes levels 1-6 cake.

Or Polymorph Self =)

And ya, totally light hearted troll post right here, methinks.

[blue_penguin]

Buying a stack of Summon III scrolls from Sorcerous Sundries in BG makes levels 1-6 cake.

Or Polymorph Self =)

And ya, totally light hearted troll post right here, methinks.

Still useful! A lot of newbies don't understand the importance of consumables, or don't realize they can quickly gain the coin they spent on them.

*waves consumables awareness month flag*

[AC81]

Lol, Bre you funny bastard. You're useless at everything man, just make a fighter already ....

[ohboy007]

Summons, casters are ridiculously very easy to level if not more so than melee. Perhaps ubbered DM gishes have a lil easier time but I cant tell you how easy it is to buff a summon up, turn invisible, and let the beast do most the work for you with perhaps your caster backing him up with spells when it gets swarmed. This tactic works at every level of your progression. From that mangy summon 1 dog to the vamp/gate/summon 8 and 9 creatures.

[Deathgrowl]

Summons, casters are ridiculously very easy to level if not more so than melee. Perhaps ubbered DM gishes have a lil easier time but I cant tell you how easy it is to buff a summon up, turn invisible, and let the beast do most the work for you with perhaps your caster backing him up with spells when it gets swarmed. This tactic works at every level of your progression. From that mangy summon 1 dog to the vamp/gate/summon 8 and 9 creatures.

Now having experience as a caster wizard 30, a rogue 30, a gish 23 and a fighter 22, i can tell you that i disagree. The wizard was by faaaaaaaaaar the most tedious to level. Especially beyond 20. Because no matter how much you buff up your summons, they are going to get hit. And they have terrible AB. So they die fast and don't do much at all.

The gish was probably easiest to level, though also a bit tedious because of relatively low BAB.

The fighter has been pretty easy to level.

Rogue is always a pain the first 8-13 levels, before you get hips. After that it becomes easier. And it's one of those classes it is lots fun to be in a RPing party, as long as people don't run all the time.

[Archaos]

If you don't have any specific build in mind and want "a general caster", I would suggest that the first level being Fighter or Swashbuckler and then going into Eldritch Knight.

3 Fighter/Swashbuckler levels before level 20, are pretty good for a Wizard. They give you HP, armor, martial weapons and some decent fighting ability as well as survivability.

You can also combine the two with Eldritch Knight.
In the case of the Swashbuckler/Wizard/Eldritch Knight, you have a character that is a decent warrior and full caster (though with some delayed casting) and you add INT to damage.
If you take Combat Insight at epic levels, you get double your INT to melee damage.

Otherwise, if you're set to playing a pure caster, you need patience, use a ranged weapon and use LOTS of summons.
Some help is also good, especially when you can provide buffs to other people to protect you.
Also do quests and RP to get basically free XP.

[ohboy007]

Summons, casters are ridiculously very easy to level if not more so than melee. Perhaps ubbered DM gishes have a lil easier time but I cant tell you how easy it is to buff a summon up, turn invisible, and let the beast do most the work for you with perhaps your caster backing him up with spells when it gets swarmed. This tactic works at every level of your progression. From that mangy summon 1 dog to the vamp/gate/summon 8 and 9 creatures.

Now having experience as a caster wizard 30, a rogue 30, a gish 23 and a fighter 22, i can tell you that i disagree. The wizard was by faaaaaaaaaar the most tedious to level. Especially beyond 20. Because no matter how much you buff up your summons, they are going to get hit. And they have terrible AB. So they die fast and don't do much at all.

The gish was probably easiest to level, though also a bit tedious because of relatively low BAB.

The fighter has been pretty easy to level.

Rogue is always a pain the first 8-13 levels, before you get hips. After that it becomes easier. And it's one of those classes it is lots fun to be in a RPing party, as long as people don't run all the time.

Hm strange, I leveled super fast solo in the Dragon caves doing loops and my vamps were fully buffed and killed quickly down there. And I've had Epic rogues and a gish myself. Thing with my method is I never had to worry about being dispelled and if my summon got ate up, oh look, heres another summon. If your not using the vamp I can see what you are saying. But leveling with a vamp was so fast and easy it should be banned. J/K

PS: Also try using dominated creatures along with summons. Can do this in the dragon caves as well. I couldn't solo the dragon caves with my rogue for sure and i certainly couldn't kill the dragon for that sweet sweet 200 xp every 20 min or so.