Mages: Where to put points next?

[SenSx]

Sorry for the late up for the topic, but I also wonder where to put my points for my mage.

So far hes got 24 points in ice magic, an 1 in spellcraft for the staff.
I can either boost the ice magic, if each points really improve the dps of the magic, is it?
Or boost spellcraft for faster spell and more wisdom, but it might be too late and thus not interesting to improve wisdom now as he is alwready lvl 7 or 8...

But i am planing on giving backstab to my unarmed rogue once he reaches lvl 50 in unarmed, so the invisible spell in air magic might be interesting...

Any advice?

[Hissssa]

You should have boosted spellcraft first for the wisdom bonus. Granted ice also gives willpower bonuses but for 1 more point you could have had a little more energy ( times whatever level you are which comes out to a lot more energy).

It's generally foolish to spend points on anything besides spellcraft or 1 element for a mage. Even if you put points to wear armor it wouldn't help because they can't evade or really afford to take hits anyway.

[SenSx]

Ok thx, well now im gonna put points in spellcraft so , even if I should have done that from start...
I alwready restart a game because of a fail rogue, I won't do that again.

[Xai]

I have just started Grimrock and after reading the forum have concentrated my points on Air (and 6 points to spellcraft).
My party is L4 now, i'm nearly on the end of L3 but found until yet just some scrolls for Earth, Ice and Fire but nothing for Spellcraft or Air. Did i missed some secrets or i will get it later? Atm is my mage nearly useless cause he cant cast anything, just mix potions and use throw weapons

Maybe i will really make a 2 Warrior 2 Rogue party in the next run

[Drax]

You don't need the scrolls to cast, they just explain the spells. If you'd like an early Air spell (level 4), check the spoiler

SpoilerShow

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[DeDGuY]

Ah, ok, so I was missing something then: more points into a spell line will do more damage. That makes sense. Any idea how much more though? i.e. How much more damage will my Fireball do at 50 spec into Fire than at 24 spec? Cheers.

Here are some rough estimates for end-game spell damage numbers... Please only use as a very rough guide.

SpoilerShow

I don't know "crit" rates so I didn't fully include them in these "averages" nor did I test for very long at all...
My mage party of 4 did not invest in spellpower except to use items (fire & poison).

lvl 50: Fireball = 150+ average, 330+ max crit. 33 energy; 4.54 damage per energy.
lvl 50: Lightning Bolt = 175 average, 400+ max crit. 40 energy; 4.37 damage per energy.
lvl 50: Ice Bolt = 85 average, 180+ max crit. 29 energy; 2.9 damage per energy.
lvl 45: Poison Cloud = 140 average for first 8 strongest ticks, First tick can crit for 58+. 17 energy; 8.2 damage per energy.
lvl 45: Poison Bolt = 75 average. 22 energy; 3.4 damage per energy.

Also, I can't even figure out if the items really help damage much, since even if I take the fire intensity item off my fireballs tend to do between ~135 and ~210 damage aside from crits. I underestimated fire average a little but the damage often shows right around 150 on normal casts so I just wrote 150.
As for damage per Energy used (if these Energy costs are even correct ^^;;), poison is the best if the close-range danger is not a problem, so I dunno where all the hate comes from. Everything immune to poison is easy anyway, right? I'm glad I included an earth mage in my all mage party.

Here's a little update with lvl 32 vs lvl 50 damage comparison

SpoilerShow

lvl 32 fireball: ~85-190 damage usual. Damage is most commonly around 110-150. crit something once for 300
lvl 50 fireball: 130-215 damage usual. Damage is most commonly around 140-180. crit something once for 330. Except I just crit for 430... Oh well these are my best guesses for how it works at the moment.