I've asked it before, I'll ask it again - Gothic 2

[Hobo Elf]

But how the fuck are you supposed to play as a Fire Mage in Gothic 2: NotR
I've tried it once when I first started playing Gothic 2: NotR for the first time - huge mistake. Spell damage and manage cost ratio is completely ass with the rune spells, and I now realise that scrolls are the way to go around this. What other tricks should I learn as a Mage? Alchemy is a given; infact it's pretty much mandatory for everyone with the way NotR scales LP costs. What about Pickpocketing and Lock picking? Never tried those skills, are they worth the LP? I'm just trying to make as much cash as possible so I can buy every single scroll and potion.

 

[Jools]

Dunno about the mage, I haven't played the game in a while. Lockpicking is definitively worth it, Pickpocketing slightly less.

 

[Crichton]

It's just like playing merc or pally, just a little more tedious. A few tips:

-You'll still have to fight in melee, consider magic not as a means of winning but as a sort of "force multiplier".

-Direct damage magic will never kill anything on its own, particularly in NotR where HP bloat reaches new heights. It helps to look up the damage resistances of various creatures (hint, everything's fire-resistant) but it'll never do enough damage for you to fight effectively with it given your mana constraints. Just chip away at enemies and finish them off in melee.

-You're going to spend a lot of time backtracking to a bed, get used to it.

-On the bright side, summoning magic is great; that 5th circle, "Army of Darkness" spell will be a superweapon for the last ~2 hours of the game.

-In vanilla G2, it's possible to basically learn how to fight and then join the monastary. There might still be enough points to do that in NotR, but it's going to be close.

 

[Captain_Obvious]

The mage is very easy if you specialize in summoning. Goblins will kill everything, even trolls, then, as you advance, skeletons and demons/archdemons. You just need to patient, it takes a while. The rune of Beliar for zombies works too, but you need enough mana to summon 4 of them. It's harder with direct damage spells though, yeah, unless you have fire rain.

 

[Hobo Elf]

True about the summon spells, they are ridiculously powerful. God damn demon will wreck anyones shit. Still, it's obvious that playing Gothic 2 as a conventional spell slinger ranges from impossible to impossibly nerve grating; makes you wonder why the fuck anyone would even bother learning rune magic in that world when Scrolls are so accessable and cheap.

 

[fragonard]

I played G2Notr many times and the best character for me is a mage/archer combo. A bow gives the best damage and safety (distance) for the first ten levels and then it's a solid back-up for spells. The above posters are quite correct about summons; several Goblin skellies will take out trolls and anything else eventually, and ice lance will handle fire lizards and other critters from a safe distance. That's all you need until you get far enough along to get a demon.

 

[SCO]

In Gothic 1 there was a bug to make a kensai mage.

Just before deciding whether to joint the guards or the mages in the old camp, go to the mage at the door and say you want to be a fire mage, and talk to the main mage. When he says to follow him to the circle don't (and you obviously have to talk to him while he isn't there).

Go instead to the guard and be accepted into the guards. Then you can get training in weapons and a simple armor. Then go to the circle and get accepted. I don't think your training privileges continue though.

Also, if you become a mage ...

 

[Jaesun]

Just play Risen instead.

 

[SCO]

Why the fuck can't we be necromancers again in gothic 2 guys?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Just play Risen instead.

I have. Many times. I was planning on playing it again after Gothic 2. Mages were still kinda shit in it, but for different reasons. Only 3 rune spells? Are you kidding me? The fuck is up with that? At least nuking shit to death was a viable combat option.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah the magic differences in Risen were a WTF moment. Hopefully will be better in Risen 2 :fapfapfap:

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I have heard there is a patch somewhere that takes NotR back to the original difficulty. Perhaps someone else here knows where it is.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Remember when you were so resistant to the idea of playing Risen, Jaesun?

 

[Jaesun]

heh yeah. Though you did finally talk me into it 11332.

And glad you did.

 

[fragonard]

I have heard there is a patch somewhere that takes NotR back to the original difficulty. Perhaps someone else here knows where it is.

There is NOTR customizer on World of Gothic mod section. It lets you adjust things like buy/sell levels, LP per level, mana cost, etc.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Yeah the magic differences in Risen were a WTF moment. Hopefully will be better in Risen 2 :fapfapfap:

Yes. I'm anticipating Risen 2 to be Gothic 2 level of awesome seeing how Risen was Gothic 1 level of awesome.

 

[Kraszu]

You can use raven sword, its magic extra damage is good enough for Orcs, for dragons you can use daemon summoning scrolls.

 

[dr. one]

You can use raven sword

you can´t, mages don´t get it.

ice block, ice lance, summon goblin/skeleton are good to have. you can learn ice lance right at the start of expansion world.
you get mana boost for every 50 black shrooms eaten.
Ignaz, the alchemist in Khorinis has some shapeshift scrolls, which i think are good to be used early to gain easy experience (don´t level up while in the beast form though, there´s a bug related to this iirc).
from time to time you get a companion, so take advantage of it (cleaning Valley of Mines with Diego can be especially profitable).
consider upping dexterity a bit, there are some good one-handed weapons with relatively low requirements (one good is where the two trolls dwell, one even better is in Xardas´ old tower, you should be able to snatch both with a bit of reloading or scroll usage).

 

[Lightknight]

-On the bright side, summoning magic is great; that 5th circle, "Army of Darkness" spell will be a superweapon for the last ~2 hours of the game.

Really ? In G1 it was shit. I summoned the skeleton horde to battle the last boss, and had to wait until the enemies kill them all, because skeletons did jack, except obstructing my movement.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Army of Darkness was great in Gothic 1 for XP.

Yes, you got XP for killing your own summoned skellies.

IIRC, they fixed that in G2 (NotR).

 

[Murk]

-In vanilla G2, it's possible to basically learn how to fight and then join the monastary. There might still be enough points to do that in NotR, but it's going to be close.

In my last play as a mage in NOTR I noticed that melee skills do NOT cost double to increase even after becoming a full mage.

I found using a one-handed weapon to be very useful for its quick dodging/blocking, and that a back up bow or crossbow can be very beneficial for weaker but still dangerous enemies like the flying creatures or most simple 'animals'.

It was as a mage using a crossbow I found archery to be so useful that I stopped, started up a ranger character (merc->drag hunters) and found archery to be idiotically overpowered after chapter 1. Before that it is seriously a scraping survival (the best part of the game).

 

[Flanged]

I played G2Notr many times and the best character for me is a mage/archer combo. A bow gives the best damage and safety (distance) for the first ten levels and then it's a solid back-up for spells.

A couple of levels ago, I never would've believed that was possible without having some heavy melee skills as backup as well, but now I can kill a Shadowbeast with my crossbow without even getting a scratch. Four bolts in the face and they go down.

That might be because I put zero LP into mage skills, though, and a ton into DEX. Let's face it, in the Gothic world, magic is best left to NPCs, except for a few plot uses where you'll be given a scroll or something. Going mage is best left for your final playthrough, when you know all the dangers already.

Dr. One: "there are some good one-handed weapons with relatively low requirements (one good is where the two trolls dwell, one even better is in Xardas´ old tower, you should be able to snatch both with a bit of reloading or scroll usage).

That's a lovely weapon. Still using it myself in Chapter Four. Grab it as soon as possible. Don't know if you can take Diego there with you, but he'll help. You can trap the thing that lives there in a doorway to make it easier to kill, but it's still deadly as fuck.

 

[Murk]

Master Sword can also be purchased from Martin -- if you hit that issue where he equips it on himself -- look up how to activate 'marvin' mode and take control of him, go to the inventory and equip something else, then take control of your character again and buy it off him.

the dex based blades go Sword (20 dex, 40 damage +5% 1h), raper* (50/100 +8% 1h), master sword (60/120 +10% 1h skill), then betty (110/130)

it actually looks like a saber where-as the 'sword' looks like a rapier (as does the master sword), translational issues i guess

 

[Elzair]

How are fire mages in NotR compared to vanilla Gothic 2? I remember playing a melee mercenary in vanilla and hitting a wall in Chapter Four. Then I restarted and became a Fire Mage, and during the last three chapters nothing could stand against me. It was the same with Gothic 1.

 

[Zomg]

NotR erases most of the mechanical differences between the classes due to the armors you get in the expansion area (which start at around parity with all the first tier faction armor and get better as you find more IIRC) and there are so many scrolls you hardly need to get runes before you run out of logical places to bother.