Grimrock

Hi all.

So - is there any reason to choose the wizard class over the battlemage class (no matter the party position)? I'm not at my PC at the moment to check all the stats for direct comparison, but If the only difference in class starting bonus is 2 willpower for the wizard, it seems the higher combat stats and HP/energy bonus the battlemage receives is superior.

Thank you in advance for your input.

-Balcombe

Better energy gain and bonus will

Willpower is bugged, so the +2 is a lot less valuable than it should be. You're probably better off going with the Battle Mage.

Wizard still have better energy over the battlemage just from raw bonus per level. Also as a back liner you can dump more in will then you would a front liner meaning more base energy even without the possible bug of no bonus per level from the stat.

That been said right now they are fairly close and realy depends on if you want a raw nuker/glass cannon or a more beefy mage that can take a hit at a small loss of fire power.

Jad wrote:Willpower is bugged, so the +2 is a lot less valuable than it should be. You're probably better off going with the Battle Mage.

Bugged or not, doesn't matter. More energy is more energy and trust me: you WILL need it!

Battlemage is vastly superior at the moment due to the bug that doesn't let you scale on level-up with more Willpower.

You'll only have a measly +10 Energy bonus for picking Wizard and +2 more Energy for each level-up compared to the Battle-mage.

Not to mention they hit for the same damage anyway, so it's not like you'll have to sacrifice much offense to gain so much more bulkiness.

Picking Wizard right now with the bug will probably let you cast one more spell than Battlemage usually would (maybe two later in the game) but the character will be much more prone to deaths.

Bear in mind that one of the big perks of the battlemage is weight reduction on armor, which only matters if you're actually wearing armor, and if you want to do that without sending your Evasion into the dumpster, you need to invest in the Armors skill. Any points you spend in Armors are points you're NOT spending on magic skills, and since you only have a limited number to work with, this means that your battlemage is going to have lower damage (because their magic skills are lower and giving less of a boost), or will be forced to specialize in a narrower range of things than the all-magic wizard.

Even the offhand defense boost is of dubious value here: the wizard, by not investing in armor skills, is more likely to cap out one element early and may cap out two elements, giving them better overall resistances.

Neutronium Dragon wrote:Bear in mind that one of the big perks of the battlemage is weight reduction on armor, which only matters if you're actually wearing armor, and if you want to do that without sending your Evasion into the dumpster, you need to invest in the Armors skill. Any points you spend in Armors are points you're NOT spending on magic skills, and since you only have a limited number to work with, this means that your battlemage is going to have lower damage (because their magic skills are lower and giving less of a boost), or will be forced to specialize in a narrower range of things than the all-magic wizard.

Even the offhand defense boost is of dubious value here: the wizard, by not investing in armor skills, is more likely to cap out one element early and may cap out two elements, giving them better overall resistances.

Very true. I neglected to take that into account.

My heavy armor Battle Mage is doing really well into the game so far though and his damage output is good for where I'm at.

The OP is asking the wrong question. It's not why choose Wizard over Battle-Mage, the question is why chose Battle-Mage over Knight. For those who played Dragon Age, the Battle-Mage is akin to the Arcane Warrior. It's a spellcaster, yes, but it's not intended to be a Wizard replacement.

If you are making a pure spellcaster there is absolutely no reason to choose a Battle-Mage over a Wizard. The equipped armor weight mitigation is useless for robes (you won't have extra skill points to take light armor), and the defense and resistance gained is just not going to be high enough to make much of a difference, whereas extra energy just might. Plus hanging out in the back you should be relatively safe anyway. More energy = always awesome. You end up getting more health as a Battle-Mage, but ask yourself, when rolling a Wizard would you want to dump more stats into vitality over willpower? The Wizard doesn't need it. It's about more energy for sustained nuking, shielding, and control.

Now what the Battle-Mage is for is to make an Arcane Warrior type character that is going to wear Heavy Armor. The significant armor weight mitigation lets you wear heavy suits of armor when you don't have a high strength, and the extra defense and resist makes up for the lack of a shield. You also get more health, allowing you to tank. You get less energy but have to diversify your skills somewhat as well to make the build work, and may very well want to take a melee weapon skill. Battle-Mage has great synergy with Insectoid racials that are otherwise mostly useless for Wizard.

Now what the Battle-Mage is for is to make an Arcane Warrior type character that is going to wear Heavy Armor.

Maybe. But mine wears light armor, and focuses far more on strength and willpower over vitality.