Unable to cast mage spells

[txmimi]

I don't understand why my mage can cast all her spells in one battle, then in the next one the text tells me her armour is too bulky to cast spells. She is way below encumbered, has no helmet, a bow and a sword that weigh less than anyone else's. I have taken off everything I dare to and still keep her alive. Why can she cast the spells sometime, but not consistently? It's not a matter of fatigue, the text just says sometimes that her armour is too bulky. Very frustrating, because she's rarely able to cast the really useful ones like haste or slow, and I can't seem to predict when they'll work and when they won't.

[Randomizer]

Bulky armor refers to the sum of bonuses and penalties to hit from weapons and armor. All mages start with being able to cast spells at -5% penalty and their are natural mage traits to increase the penalty that a mage can cast spells with no problems.

 

Encumbrance due to weight makes a difference only for action points.

[txmimi]

Hmmm. . .I'm not sure I understand what you said. . . but if no weapons or armor changes between battles, why is she able sometimes to cast slow and haste and sometimes not?

[Lilith]

Okay, I'll see if I can explain it more clearly. When you look at the stats of a piece of armour, some of them have hit penalties listed, like "-5% chance to hit" or "-10% chance to hit". A few items also have a bonus, like "+5% chance to hit". After adding up all bonuses and penalties, you want to keep the total penalty no worse than -5% (plus another -5% for every level of Swordmage trait you have), otherwise you may fail to cast mage spells.

 

I'm not sure why you'd suddenly go from being able to cast spells to being unable, unless you actually did switch out some equipment and forgot you did so. Some weapons have bonuses to hit, so even if you only switched weapons and not armour, that can affect things.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Yeah, it's most probably what Lilith said, another thing is that these spells have a range over which they work, so if your fighter is too far from your mage the spell won't work, I'm not sure what happens when there is a wall in between the mage and the fighter but that could be one reason too.

[txmimi]

I appreciate y'all's efforts to help me understand this. . . sorry for being dim. OK, her tunic, cloak, belt, ring, necklace, boots, bow, sword have from +1 to +30 over 10 different attributes and two -5's. Shouldn't that be OK? And when it's a matter of distance, the text usually says that, but the message I keep seeing is that her armor is too bulky to cast a mage spell.

[Earth]

I'm not sure what happens when there is a wall in between the mage and the fighter but that could be one reason too.

 

Casters try to reach target or won't do anything and player gets msg saying can't attack/use spell and mass spells targetss need to be close enuf.

 

I appreciate y'all's efforts to help me understand this. . . sorry for being dim. OK, her tunic, cloak, belt, ring, necklace, boots, bow, sword have from +1 to +30 over 10 different attributes and two -5's. Shouldn't that be OK? And when it's a matter of distance, the text usually says that, but the message I keep seeing is that her armor is too bulky to cast a mage spell.

 

tell us name of tunic, etc your mage is equipped with and we can tell which are causing problem.

[Jerakeen]

It's the two -5s that are causing the problem. Ditch one and see what happens.

[txmimi]

So, Jerakeen, the goal isn't a net -5? It's to have only one -5?

 

She's using slime-stained tunic, ever-rotting bow, crystal symbol, deadeye cloak, discipline blade, magestone band, girdle of insight, drake-hide gloves. . . and the two -5's are blessed boots and leather greaves.

[Jerakeen]

The goal is a net to-hit penalty no worse than -5. The rest is irrelevant to your question.

[txmimi]

Ok, thanks.

[Alorael at Large]

To clarify a bit, since it looks like you didn't understand, a net means that the total of all the penalties can't be any worse than -5%. Two -5% items gives you a net penalty of -10%, which is too much.

 

—Alorael, who will point out that this means you can only have one -5% item unless you find one of the items that gives you +X%. Most of those are weapons, so they're good for protecting mages who don't need to use a weapon but do want to wear heavier armor.

[Lilith]

To clarify a bit, since it looks like you didn't understand, a net means that the total of all the penalties can't be any worse than -5%. Two -5% items gives you a net penalty of -10%, which is too much.

 

Also, just to clarify one last time, this only counts bonuses and penalties to hit. Bonuses and penalties to any other attribute don't count.

 

So let's say Fred the Mage is wearing one item that gives him +5% to hit, one item that gives -5% to hit, one item that gives -10% to hit, and an item that gives +10% to blessings and curses. Fred's total hit penalty is (5% - 5% - 10%), or -15%; the blessings and curses item is irrelevant. Since the normal limit for casting mage spells is -5%, Fred will have to either remove the item that gives a 10% penalty or take two levels of Swordmage trait to cast mage spells.

[txmimi]

I see now. . . I didn't realize you count only bonuses and penalties to hit. Thanks all!

[mauvebutterfly]

Not to confuse the issue further, but wasn't it the case in some Avernum games that some of the basic mage spells (like bolt of fire and light) could be cast even when wearing encumbring armor, and that it didn't become an issue until somewhere around the slow and haste spells?

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Yeah, that happened till A3, this feature was removed starting A4.