Playing as a mage (or wizard, sorcerer, etc) in fantasy RPG's.

[Jfswift]

Recently I made an experimental ninja/mage build in Dark Souls. Magic provides alot of utility with spells like hidden body and fun ones like White Dragon Breath for when I need more power (I actually prefer dark bead though).

With most games though, including pen and paper it's about 45/45/10 whether I chose mage, warrior or rogue.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

Personally I find every mage class in RPGS to be generally pretty boring and normally very weak. Except....in Baldurs Gate. Why? Because magic is very very powerful in that game and in DnD in general. Spells like the ability to be immune to nonmagic weapons, and stacking up spells that trigger on conditions. I find every other game to be so limited and underpowered.

 

[thiosk]

I'm always a Mage. Unlock the power of the arcane. But my favorite thing to do in all games is the creation of magical items.

Enchantment.

Hasn't been done well since morrowwind.

 

[zenoaugustus]

And I have a question for you. Later on you say that a high level mage is "boring". And earlier in your comment you say that your "stealth archer and mace and shield warrior can easily crush anything on master". How is that not boring to you? Where is the challenge? Of course it is different strokes for different folks, so I can understand that you prefer the others to mage. But that statement makes little sense to me.


Edit: and sorry for the goliath post. I don't mean to be overtly defensive or argumentative. Just trying to see where you are coming from.

I do see a lot of the points in this, I probably neglected conjuration too much on my first mage >.<
Maybe another go with the setup you have outlined might be worth a try, even if the levels just before getting expert level spells are going to be a *****. And conjuration + magic resist/block/absorb is genuinely bugged, which probably led to my neglect of conjuration I will download a mod hotfix! Said everyone who has played a Bethesda game...

Admittedly above a certain level, Skyrim is just boring. But at least getting there (level 10-35 or so) was very fun with a stealth archer. Seeing the strength improve and the scaling work in a not totally awful manner was fun and kept me playing. Stealth archer started out super weak and slowly improved, required less maintanence, had more power et cetera to reach such OP state. Slightly less true of the melee character, but it made dragon fights a helluva lot more interesting (and long -.-).

But with Mage, I just felt weaker and weaker every level. Once I hit Expert level spells things just took a sharp nose dive. And the damage doesn't scale to any useful degree at all! If there was a "fortify destruction/alteration/conjuration/restoration/illusion strength enchantment, I would likely be set, even if it was only 5-15% per piece at 100 enchanting and relevant skill.
And I agree about not using Master level spells, they are... badly designed.

And you didn't come off as aggressive, it is about Skyrim, the design of which is... less amazing than many say

Trust me when I tell you, there will be no debate in which character design is the strongest in Skyrim. Stealth archer might as well go in with no armor. And if you were wondering what my favorite character I ever made was; Stealth, Archery, Conjuration, Alteration, Illusion. Alteration armor, conjure bow, and if need be, disappear. It was so much fun.

 

[Strazdas]

i usually go for brute warrior, since im the "come at me bro, im in blinding armour and carrying 2 tones in backpack" kind of guy. but lately i have been trying wizardry and archery more, and buy they are inbalanced. you either run out of mana all the time and ahve to run back to get more, or have to pay ton for potions (note: in TES games thats not a problem because there is way too much money anyway) or are so overpwoered that everyone pales in comparison. so yeah, i had more fun being an archer actually, if only arror physics woulnt make them hit thin air....

 

[Brandon237]

Trust me when I tell you, there will be no debate in which character design is the strongest in Skyrim. Stealth archer might as well go in with no armor. And if you were wondering what my favorite character I ever made was; Stealth, Archery, Conjuration, Alteration, Illusion. Alteration armor, conjure bow, and if need be, disappear. It was so much fun.

Mine was even simpler, skip all magic 'cept for illusion, take Smithing and Enchanting >.<
Legendary Daedric bow + krosis + Dark Brotherhood enchantments + fortify archery/illusion. At first it is a ***** to fight those first caves of bandits at level 2, after that everything that moves within shooting radius is looted And yes, the armor is not actually necessary, I just used whatever is lightest so I can enchant myself to be even more OP with it

Another great thing about this build is that you only ever actually have to improve stamina. This gives you near infinite carryweight and sprinting time.

It is a good thing there is no Skyrim Multiplayer >.<

 

[Johnny Impact]

Skyrim

In most games you've got a giant sword, lightsaber, plasma rifle, etc. Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a change of pace. The first thing I decided was my Skyrim character would never touch a weapon. His open hand and ample willpower would be all he needed. While I did make and use a soul trap dagger purely for the capture effect, I have otherwise held to this restriction.

At level 35 I find I have to carry large piles of mana potions wherever I go, but that's okay, I maxed Alchemy. I'm one of those weirdos who enjoys picking berries. I still find the mix of spells more entertaining than just bonking things with a hammer or one-shotting everyone from half a mile away. I would not say mage is underpowered, I would say stealth archer is overpowered. I think it's more accurate to say mage is unforgiving of mistakes. If you get caught unawares you may die before you can bring up everything you need, whereas nobody spots a stealth master in the first place, and an armored juggernaut caught unawares can just ignore a hit or two while drawing his weapon.

 

[zenoaugustus]

Trust me when I tell you, there will be no debate in which character design is the strongest in Skyrim. Stealth archer might as well go in with no armor. And if you were wondering what my favorite character I ever made was; Stealth, Archery, Conjuration, Alteration, Illusion. Alteration armor, conjure bow, and if need be, disappear. It was so much fun.

Mine was even simpler, skip all magic 'cept for illusion, take Smithing and Enchanting >.<
Legendary Daedric bow + krosis + Dark Brotherhood enchantments + fortify archery/illusion. At first it is a ***** to fight those first caves of bandits at level 2, after that everything that moves within shooting radius is looted And yes, the armor is not actually necessary, I just used whatever is lightest so I can enchant myself to be even more OP with it

Another great thing about this build is that you only ever actually have to improve stamina. This gives you near infinite carryweight and sprinting time.

It is a good thing there is no Skyrim Multiplayer >.<

If there was, you can be damn sure they would've nerfed archery hahaha

 

[The White Hunter]

Is this because my mage is a Grey Warden? if not, can anyone explain any other reason why the Chantry wouldn't object to my Elf Mage (that can use Blood Magic) ruling over Amaranthine?

Well, you did kind of save the world. That goes a long way with pretty much anyone. Plus, this is a game where you can make a character like Wynne become a blood mage, so they do rely heavily on gameplay and story segregation.

OT:

Not sure what this topic is supposed to be about, if indeed it was intended to be more than bragging. Tell you about my times I played a wizard in an RPG? What does that even mean? Which times? Funny or sad? Glitchy or massively in-character?

Man I ended up killing Wynne and I don't even remember how :\

OT: Ehh, I'm more of a ultra dense tank kinda guy, take Skyrim where I played heavy armour and a warhammer, because blocking is for those not encased in demon metal.

As for Dragon Age, as said above, the writing is a bit shitty, it is however a fun game though. Playing a mage yourself is something I heavily advise in Dragon Age, the start can be a bit rough but having an extra mage about makes the game a lot less stressful.

 

[Lethos]

Mage is probably my favorite class. Shitting fire and lighting seems more interesting than waving a sword round.

Although I will say that killing dragons in Skyrim with magic feels really underwhelming. I think it's because the dragons don't really react to your spells, so it's like spraying it with a water gun till it flops over and dies.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

After playing an assorted cast of mages and necromancers in Diablo and Baldur's Gate I can safely say I'm not a fan of the spell-casting bunch. More effort is put on flashy casting FX as opposed to giving them any useful effect. That may just be my luck though, that I've stumbled upon games where the mage class was grossly uncared for. To this date the one time "being a mage" of any sort actually paid off was choosing the Dream Rod in Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Insanity72]

I never want to play as a pure mage, what I love doing those is playing hybrids.

Skyrim: Sword/axe in one hand, spell in the other
Dragon Age: Arcane Warrior
Dragon's Dogma: Magic Archer/mystic Knight
D&D 3.5: Dusk Blade