Best Specialist

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I've got a rogue/wizard which i will just level up with(to get lvl 1 wizard). I dont know which school of magic is most useful. And of course if it is worth at all to be a specialist?

 

Necromancer is the way to go. You'll miss out on Emotion:Hope though.

 

No HOPE?

Can't say I ever used that spell ...

Thanks for the info

 

The wizard in my party is an Abjurer...Not fantastic, but a lot of offensive spells. You lose some of the good ones though like invisibility, haste, slow...But you get most of the area-effecting, summoning and missile-type spells

 

I also have a sorcerer in my party So i could go for the kit that cant cast two or three great spells 'cous my sorcerer can do it for him

 

I prefer either the sorcerer or the standard mage to any of the specialists. No matter what specialty you take, you will miss out on some good spells. If you really want a specialist, take someone else that can cast spells from the school(s) you are sacrificing.

 

I think that the necromancer is the best. you have a lot of good spells and the opposite schools doesn´t atract me.

 

Ah i know this is an old thread but i was justing looking through em and wanted to know, how many of you care more for role-playing when it comes to a specialized wizard? I mean if I were to play a necromancer for example id want to take ALL necro spells, even if they were less then useful just for the sake of being the chosen school, same for any else. I mean, theres more to playing the game then just trying to walk through and beat it, right?

 

It doesn't really matter, if you have a level of any other spellcasting class your wizard will be able to cast any spell.

I never bothered with chosen schools that much. It's more effective to pick spell focus for the school you're going to use.

 

Evoker is nice. You lose Divination, the weakest and least useful spell school, AND conjuration, it has nice spells, but summoning spells can easily be subsituted by Animate Dead/Illusionary monsters etc. so no big loss IMHO. Plus your cleric/bard/druid whatever can summon too! Powerwords are nice and good but I never use them anyway.

 

I doubt that I'd be interested in making my primary mage a specialist mage. I'd hate losing any useful spells. However, I have played with a secondary mage that was a specialist mage, a Conjurer. She was a multiclassed ranger/conjurer. IIRC, she only took 3-4 levels of ranger, mostly for the stealth and various weapon profs. And I intentionally selected conjurer because I intended my sorceror to my the party's nuker while the conjurer would be the summoner and would use some of the useful offensive spells that aren't part of the more traditional spell choices for a nuking sorceror.

A "dual-classed" specialist wizard who is a secondary mage within the party isn't all that bad a thing, since the primary mage can cover all of the truly important spells. A "dual-classed" specialist doesn't need to have a perfect and complete spellbook. And if you're playing a multiclassed Spec Wizzy, you're already giving up some higher level power, so the concept of picking up an extra spell slot per level thru specialization is not a bad one.

And as Bailey mentions, it can add a good measure of role-playing flavor to the character, which, IMHO, only increases the enjoyment factor.

 

Specialist mages can take a level of sorceror to overcome their deficiencies. Its cheap and cheesy I suppose.

But look at it this way: sacrifice one level of spellcasting for the ability to cast a spell from any school.

I would probably choose necromancer, not too many major disadvantages if you have another spellcaster to fill in the blanks.

 

I do not know why people love necromancers, sure they are cool, but they lose illusion:mirror image is a spell imposible to subsitute by other means, and enchantment spells are many and powerful IMHO.

 

Proteus, I don't thinking that losing the ability to cast any spell in exchange for 1 additional spell slot per level is that big a deal for a secondary mage in your party. For a primary mage, yes, it would be a questionable exchange, but for a secondary mage, I think that it's a good deal, particularly when the secondary mage in question is also mutliclassed.


Silverstar, I agree, losing Mirror Image is a serious issue. In my experience, Missor Image is a mage's best defense. And I'd hate losing enchantment spells. I happen to make considerable use of many of the enchantment spells. I love'em because they attack the weakest saving throw that most monsters have ... the Will save. And they work particularly great in HOF, where most monsters have enhanced Fort saves, but not enhanced Will saves.

[ January 03, 2007, 22:15: Message edited by: crucis ]

 

The opposing schools table in the manual has many errors, so you can screw up quite well if you rely on it when deciding.

Diviner is nice, he only uses conjuration so he's superior to Evoker who also looses divination spells.

Another nice option is transmuter, you loose necromancy and abjuration.
Fireball looks better than skull trap and when you get the FoD spell the game is nearly over. Animate dead and dispel magic can be handled by the cleric, only the lack of stoneskin hurts if you don't have another mage or sorcerer.
A big advantadge is that you can make a potion which yields a permanent increase in HP during the game. So especially if you want to add a level of another spellcasting class it's the way to go.

 

I know diviners only lose conjuration, but an evoker sounds way cooler than a diviner. I do not think diviners are really that suited for an adventuring, combat-oriented life, for RP purposes.

Divining spells are very weak in IWD2, you can live without them. Identify is not needed when you have Knowledge Arcana. And other spells only dispel invisibility, and is not used for the %95 of the game. (plus clerics can still cast it if badly needed against certain enemies)

 

RP wise?? An Evoker or possibly a Conjurer...

Game play wise? Diviner hands down...

 

Executioner's Eyes is also a divination spell evokers miss.

 

^Yep, Executioner is a nice all around party buff, but it is 9th lvl, meaning you can not cast it for the majority of the game, and then the duration is too short for my tastes. IMHO.

 

E.E. is at most the 5th best of the nine 9th level spells. So missing it is no big loss -- you'll have more slots to prepare Wail, Mass Dominate, Gate, etc.

Unless you squat/mule, 9th level spells will pretty much be HOF-only. And in HOF you should surely have more than one arcane caster.