Mage (Heavy armor/clothing)

[thurisaz]

I wanted to make a mage that could go in melee, once all of her spells are gone (which i have made), but i have a rather important issue.

I simply refuse to believe that im better off going with clothing than with heavy armor, everyone keeps telling me i should wear clothing (because of the altered spells i believe?), but going in melee with clothing as a strength type of player, is gonna hurt. I miss out on 8 points of ac (can recover some of those points with cats grace though).

Am i really better off wearing clothing (which would be very cool tho, since that frees up the epic feats i'd normally have to use for auto still spell 1 2 3), or should i stick with my heavy armor, keeping in mind that ill be going melee most of the times.

AC is a precious thing for a melee type...

[Delfestra Ruinvorn]

You are MUCH better off wearing clothing.

90% conceal at level 60, and immunity to levels 6 and below - and that is just the altered bonuses from one spell.

If you wear heavy armor, you lose that. Also, read things like Premonition carefully. And probably Tenser's.

If you're looking for 8AC - get tumble. You'll get 6 by level 60, and probably 2 more through skill bonuses from items or dex.

Plus, there are robes with extra spells, but not much in the way or plate armor for it.

If you want to seriously combine magic and melee - check out the two quasi classes of bane knight and staffmaster.

But let me tell you - your attack bonus as a mage will not even come close to touching monsters at high levels. Even with Tenser's its a stretch.

Melee is what we have pets for - like the Epic Dragon of Uselessness, or the Ensnared True Denizen that always loses vs Visage of Doom

[thurisaz]

_Should_ have at its least an unbuffed ab of 38 with a mundane weapon at lvl 40, for a melee thats rather low, but considering that i have 32lvls of sorcerer, that aint so bad if you ask me.

How much ab should a normal fighter have at lvl 60? Above 60AB?

Cant really tell how much ill have by then, but its worth trying, better than just having to run when you are out of spells eh

But ill have a close look at all the altered spells, and most likely ill follow your advice, because things like 90% concealment and immunity to spells below lvl 6 (out of curiousity, what insane spells gives this at lvl 60?), is just too insane to ignore.

And if i wont hit anything at the higher levels, why did they bother to add those two quasi classes then, seems pretty useless

Besides mages that purely rely on their spells are extremely boring if ya ask me, cast till you (literary) drop

[doomsdaybringer]

Today at 12:20pm, thurisaz wrote:_Should_ have at its least an unbuffed ab of 38 with a mundane weapon at lvl 40, for a melee thats rather low, but considering that i have 32lvls of sorcerer, that aint so bad if you ask me.

How much ab should a normal fighter have at lvl 60? Above 60AB?

Cant really tell how much ill have by then, but its worth trying, better than just having to run when you are out of spells eh

But ill have a close look at all the altered spells, and most likely ill follow your advice, because things like 90% concealment and immunity to spells below lvl 6 (out of curiousity, what insane spells gives this at lvl 60?), is just too insane to ignore.

And if i wont hit anything at the higher levels, why did they bother to add those two quasi classes then, seems pretty useless

Besides mages that purely rely on their spells are extremely boring if ya ask me, cast till you (literary) drop


my meleer mostly end up with 55( monk) to 64ab at lvl 40......with +12 glove or +9 weapon

as for your 38 ab at lvl 40 isnt bad but if you like swicth from melee to caster and back a cleric may sever you best..... as long as the dm stop nerfing it....


[accidentally modified by Funky, and restored]

[FunkySwerve]

To answer your question about ab by level 60, at least 65 for a meleer. You should have much more than that, but I'd call that the floor. My staffmaster should have 72 ot 73 at 60, iirc. My heavy hitters are around 75-80 ab dualling - haven't verified exact numbers (and those may be subject to prevarication on the part of the character sheet).
Funky

[thurisaz]

funkyswerve said:

To answer your question about ab by level 60, at least 65 for a meleer. You should have much more than that, but I'd call that the floor. My staffmaster should have 72 ot 73 at 60, iirc. My heavy hitters are around 75-80 ab dualling - haven't verified exact numbers (and those may be subject to prevarication on the part of the character sheet).
Funky

So it is possible for a melee mage or staffmaster as you call it, to get an AB sufficient enough to actually hit anything?

[archmage]

It is most certainly possible for Bane Knights or Staffmasters to hit things at high levels, yes.

[FunkySwerve]

thurisaz said:

So it is possible for a melee mage or staffmaster as you call it, to get an AB sufficient enough to actually hit anything?

I'm not calling a melee mage a staffmaster. The staffmaster is one of our quasiclasses, as is the bane knight. They base their dcs off str instead of int or cha, allowing them to achieve much higher ab than usual for a caster. A melee mage is unlikely to hit anything in HG unless they take mostly category 1 ab classes in pre-epic levels, and even then will have trouble since they have to bump int or cha instead of str, costing them around 25 points of ab. That's one of the reasons that we added the quasiclasses. You can find info on them in the Customization board above.
Funky

[Delfestra Ruinvorn]

doomsdaybringer said:

(out of curiousity, what insane spells gives this at lvl 60?)

Ethreal Visage. You have to be a pure caster to get the full effects, but read the spell description in the item-shop book.