Wild Mage

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I have always played some type of melee character (mostly paladins) when I have played ToB. I have decided to play a straight mage and have choosen the Wild Mage. Has anyone played this type of mage before? What are your thoughts on the class. How good are the spells Reckless Dweomer and Choas Shield?

 

Don't use Reckless Dweomer without chaos shield - even at high levels. I have to admit that I used shadow keeper to give my fighter/mage the spells so I don't know what its like but I got both levels to 40 solo and I was still getting bad surges when trying to cast high level spells without the chaos shield and Impr. Definatly is fun though

 

Tried it once and it was the most fun class I've ever played. It's not really a powergaming class because of the wild surges, which means that they are not entirely reliable. On the other hand there are some very nifty effects. But they never really impacted me badly, the worst I ever got was that the spell fizzled in a fight against a Dragon. Most of them aren't that harmfull.

As pointed out by Malovae, don't use the dweomer without the shield, preferably the higher variant (level 7). But it's one of the greates low level spells. At low levels you can use them to try to cast spells you shouldn't be able cast at that level. At higher levels keep some around to replace spells you've exhausted or call on some situational spells which you don't find it worth to constantly memorize. With shield at higher levels the odds are 50% the spell will work and 20-25% the spell will backfire. The rest of the cases just add some power to your spell.

They have the advantages of being specialist without losing spell choices. They have to some small degree the versatility of a sorcerer. And they sometimes get better effects for their spells at the cost of sometimes lowering the effect. One of the things to keep in mind is that with every spell you cast, the caster level used for the spell is your level + or - 1 to 5. This is part of the statement getting more power or less for the spell .

If you play for fun, I'd say go for it.

 

I concur with Malovae and Meatdog--wild mages are a lot of fun to play because they're always a bit unreliable. Even when casting normal spells you can get random effects, though this is more than made up for by the Reckless Dweomer spell. Have fun but be patient--you will get creamed occasionally because some spell fizzled, but you will also get the occasional triple-strength Horrid Wilting to make up for it.

 

Quick followup question.

Does casting the Chaos Shield help with getting better wild surges, or at least making sure that they are positive more that negative?

 

Yep, chaos shield gives you better odds of getting a beneficial wild surge, when one occurs.

 

I've soloed a wild mage (a half-orc at that) and it was a lot of fun. It is more of a roleplaying character imo so, I think you can have a lot of fun with rolling with the wild surge punches. Did you mean to cast stoneskin and end up destroying an inn full of peasants? Oh well, that's part of being a wild mage.

The shields don't guarantee you a 'good' surge. They just increase the likelihood by adding a set number to your roll. Check the wild surge table in the back of the manual. Higher numbered surges tend to be, but are not always, positive.

I only used the reckless dweomer as a last resort. Other than that, it is like playing any other mage - you just aren't ever really sure what to expect. Good luck.

 

I didn't think much of the kit at first, but when I played it I found out it can be both overpowered and underpowered at the same time.
It's also very fun to roleplay.

Area Effect + No Save + Chromatic Orb was a shocker, and so was regaining all my lost spells while using Dweomer after having pushed the whole lot against Sendai.
Bird magic or silence in the middle of the Demogorgon fight or when you're surrounded by level-draining wraiths didn't turn out too well, though.

 

Another positive thing about the shield is, that by increasing the roll, you have a better chance to get 100 on the roll, which means the wild surge does nothing and the spell is cast normally. That's what I meant with the 50% chance that the dweomer will simply give you the spell you want without drawback (and also without bonus) at higher levels with the shield active.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Image my surprise when I used the Dweomer to cast a Fireball and it ended up casting Globe of Invulnerability on the Otugh (sp). Can't wait to get her out in the open and see what happens.

 

In ToB I had lost my gold because the imps in Watchers keep did that on me with a lucky roll. I had 110.000 or so I thought there was also a roll you could destroy your own gold, pray you wont get those

 

Never tried the Wild Mage, there is not much to the wild mage apart from a random spell caster thingie that changes you into a squirel right? ;o

 

Well, he is a special mage with all the extra spells but without any opposing school, making him the class with the most spells for any PC-