Mimir
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Quote:Originally written by Archmagus Micael:
What I'm trying to say is: Most Mage spells are affective against most things, but Priest spells do more damage to certain monsters.Quote:Originally written by Old Scratch:
My archer has been the most useful character -
Is it me, or do mages really get the short end of the stick compared to priests?
No one denies the immense usefulness of Ice Lances early on, nor, say, Haste, Slow, or Dispel Barrier at any point in the game. But it seems to me that in the late game, mages start to really be shown up by priests. In Avernum 2, I recall realizing that Arcane Blow was barely an improvement over Fireblast, even though it cost an extra five spell points. Both did mediocre damage. Meanwhile, my priest could just cast Divine Warrior on my fighter once, and together they'd mow down hordes of Elite Warriors and Golems without even breaking a sweat. Not to mention Divine Restoration. And with Divine Fire, which, I believe, both required a lower skill level and cost less spell points than Fireblast, my priest could beat my mage at his own game.
Now, in Avernum 3, Divine Warrior is gone, probably because it was too overpowered. (Arcane Shield has likewise been watered down, though. It only grants invulnerability at level 3 now.) In its place is Divine Retribution, which does a great deal of damage and enfeebles to boot. Arcane Blow is significantly better than Fireblast, but, well… I looked at the formulae for calculating spell damage in the manual, and they didn't seem easily comparable, so, compulsive mathematician that I am, I drew a graph! It uses the third-level version of each spell.
(And before anybody asks, yes, I have no life.)
As you can see, Divine Retribution is generally better than Arcane Blow, and Lightning Spray is generally better than Fireblast. This changes only at very high levels, when the caster has a spell bonus of 45 or more. I doubt that anyone will get that skilled during the course of an ordinary game.
And let's not forget that the skill for priest spells costs less than that for mage spells. And you can cast priest spells while wearing armor.
Conclusion: It's unbalanced. Damage-dealing mage spells should do more damage and cost less spell points. Mages are supposed to be the real damage-dealers, after all.
A3: Poor mages!
in Avernum Trilogy (2000-2002 original versions)
Posted