Playing a Wizard in Legends of Kesmai By Catweazle February 1998 Updated: July 1998 The purpose of this document it to pass on the experience of a long time Wizard player in Legends of Kesmai to others who might think of playing such a character. At the time of writing, Catweazle is a level 19 Lord of Illusions (magic level 16.9), born and developed in Legends (i.e. not transferred from Islands of Kesmai), so I feel that I have quite a lot of history to draw upon. The views and opinions expressed herein are all my own and would not necessarily be shared by all Wizards. This is very much a personal treatise. Why play a Wizard? Despite the disadvantages of the character, to which I will refer later, the Wizard is perhaps the player character that is most feared by the critters of Kesmai. Perhaps the only creatures who do not fear his approach are the most powerful lair inhabitants and even they will succumb to his attacks under the right circumstances. What other player type has such an array of powerful spells? The advanced Wizard has powerful personal spells that can inflict huge damage on the toughest of opponents, awesome area spells that can lay waste hoards of monsters, turn woodlands into wastelands and even permanently change the architecture of buildings and a protective shield spell that can save lives (his own and other's). So what are the disadvantages? Well for all his power, the Wizard is the weakest of characters and until he reaches the super league will never see 200 hit points. This makes him vulnerable during close encounters. For this reason, Wizards must quickly learn to "get them before they get you". Because of his vulnerability, the Wizard must rely very heavily on his magic rather than conventional weapons and must strive to develop his mystical skills rapidly. However, magic training is expensive and as a result the Wizard is almost always penniless as are any other player characters that contribute to his development. But gold does no good in the bank and what better way to spend it than on the training of a big Wizard? When creating a Wizard, it is important to allocate your creation points properly and to choose the correct homeland. Avoid Hovath and Mu as these both start Wizards at the lowest possible magic level. Barbarian is probably the best choice as it offers some skill in both greatsword and mace. Draznia offers some greatsword and bow skill (possibly useful when mana runs out). You will have 18 creation points to play around with. You must put at least one point in constitution otherwise your new character will not have the maximum hit and stamina points. If you feel comfortable in the Underworld, or have a drake potion to spare, just put one into constitution. Take your dock baby to Praetoseba or drink the DP to get the other three. If you don't like this option, set your constitution to 18, otherwise you will get bad rolls at level up time. You will only get this opportunity to set your intelligence to 18, so take it. Set your strength and dexterity to 15, otherwise you will not get all the adds available at level up. Pump everything else into Wisdom. No matter what you do, you will not be able to make a perfect point allocation. Intelligence and Wisdom are both needed to maximise your mana point gain at level up. These cannot be maximised without sacrificing some other character statistic unless you save three points by taking the underworld or drake potion option. If you have permanent strength, dexterity or wisdom potions available, you might as well give them to your Wizard now to maximise these statistics. Finally, Wizards start out with only 10 Charisma points. There is a lot of debate about the value of Charisma. My understanding and experience has been that charisma helps on two fronts. Firstly, when faced with a group, critters tend to attack the player with the lowest charisma first or (in the case of critters that move from player to player) attack the player with the lowest charisma more often. This makes charisma important to the Wizard, as he is usually the group member with the lowest hit points and therefore most likely to die if attacked. Secondly, high charisma increases the chances that a summoned demon will be lawful. I am not suggesting that creation points be put into charisma when rolling your Wizard, but I do recommend that he drinks any potions you may have stored away and certainly consume any he finds until he is maximised. You can start a Wizard character from scratch but it is not the easiest exercise in the world. Wizards are born with the lowest hit points of any character, thirty-six, hardly enough to fend off a single skeleton. Still, if you must start him from scratch, spend your first hour or so casting bonfires in the woods east of town in order to get your magic skill raised a bit. You can then move to the first level of the dungeon. With your low hit points you will have to play smart rather than bravely. If you find a relatively quiet facet, you can stay near the stairs and cast magic missiles at every critter you see. If you get into trouble you can dash back up the stairs to the temple where the friendly NPCs can handle anything that follows you up. You will have to follow this routine for quite a while, gaining experience and magic levels. Grab every coin and every piece of treasure you can find and train in magic. If you have spare cash, by all means get weapon and martial arts training, but remember that magic is what wizardry is all about and never sacrifice magic training at the early stages of your character's development. At magic level 4 you will be able to buy the protection from fire spell. This will enable you to be a little more adventurous as you will be able to cast bonfire on your own hex. Just be sure that you keep yourself protected. Killing yourself with your own spells is part of being a wizard, but it is profoundly embarrassing, especially on the upper levels of the dungeon. Once you start using bonfire, you will get your first taste of real wizard power as you watch creature after creature fall to a single cast and your love affair with the scorching element will begin. There are two important things to remember about fire. Firstly, be careful with it when other players are around. Most players on the upper levels of the Kesmai dungeon won't have fire protection and will die in your fire just a quickly as any creature. Indeed, some malicious players may even step in your fire deliberately to set a self-defence flag against you, allowing them to attack you without fear of karma or mark. Secondly, when you kill critters with bonfire, or any area spell, you will only get about 40% of the experience gain compared to killing them with a personal spell or in hand to hand combat. So, keep your fire for the bigger groups and using magic missiles when ever possible. I would suggest that you continue the above strategy until you reach level 6 magic, Shaper of Fire. If you already have some advanced characters in the game you may want to opt for a fast start option with your baby Wizard. There are two useful options; ancestoring and experience buying. Ancestoring a knight or a martial artist to a Wizard will give you half of the experience points of the ancestor character and also pass on some of the skills. The weapon and martial arts skill can be useful to a Wizard, but never forget that magic is your primary weapon. You can also elect to buy your new Wizard up to a decent level by just spending some cash with the sage. 20,000 coins will take him to level 8, 40,500 will take him to level 9 and 81,500 to level 10. Assuming good level up rolls, this should get his hit points into the 60's or 70's - enough to survive. If you have drake potions, feed them to your Wizard. There is no character that needs to have his hit points maximised more. If you really have money to burn, you may want to buy your experience levels up one at a time and carefully watch you magic point rolls. The maximum per level is seven and (at least for the moment) there is no way to regain any you lose during level up. Therefore, if you see rolls of 2 or 3 mana points over the first few level rises, you may want to think about scrapping that character and starting over. Don't get too hung up on mana points. My own character did not always get the best rolls and has only 77 points at level 19 against a possible maximum of 121. Yet he can hold his own with the best of them. It's not how many you have that count as much as how you use them. The new wizard should try to acquire the usual equipment such as rings, bracers, armour, etc., but there are some important points to remember. The most important item of clothing to any magic user is a robe. The merits of various robes can be argued, but regardless of these, the Wizard needs it for the increased mana regeneration it bestows. Wearing any robe of power will double the normal rate at which your magic points are restored and it is this feature that makes it the basis of any magic user's wardrobe. Always wear one and keep a couple of spares in your locker for emergencies. For those Wizards want to develop martial arts skill, it is said that the green kimono and the saffron robe are less encumbering than others. Armour is also important for its protective properties. However, Wizards should not wear metal armour as it interferes with magic casting. If you have to supply your own armour, troll scales make a good starting choice. Next best is salamander - useful because of its, admittedly weak, fire protection. As you advance, you may work up to the better scales - dragon, drake and ice-dragon. If you can get your hands on fire and ice protection (in the form of an amulet or ring) it will help to preserve you from your own spells. Finally, at least at the early stages, shield is more important than strength because of your low hit points. As you advance, your shield spell will become more powerful and you can substitute strength rings for shield. Believe me, you'll need the strength for all the gold you will be hauling around. As for weapons choice, that is really up to you. Your weapon is really only a second line of attack. Personally I prefer to use weapons with good blocking power which I regard as more important than attacking power. The black broadsword is useful and a returning weapon such as the returning hammer or axe can be handy. For the longest time I used a returning axe in my right hand (for both hacking and throwing) with a +3 threestaff in my left (for blocking). Nowadays I use a +3 staff in my right with my left empty and find it quite effective. Martial arts skill is always a good backup and it's worth putting in some time into getting this skill up to black belt or better. In the end though, playing a Wizard is all about magic. The wizard who has been "bought up" or ancestored, should follow a similar routine to the virgin Wizard, as outlined above. He can probably venture a little further and run away or recall a little less, but the basic strategy is the same. People often ask how to maximise their magic skill gain. There is only one way - cast then train then cast then train. When you have done that then do it again and again and again. Players often wonder what are the best spells to cast and the simple answer is "any spell that achieves its objective". That is to say, if you cast an attacking spell like magic missile at a critter and it hits, then you have gained magic skill. If you cast shield on yourself or any player not already protected by a shield spell, then you gain magic skill. However, if you repeatedly cast shield spell on yourself, before the previous one wears off, you gain no skill whatsoever. Remember that there is no advantage to having a full magic point bar. As you walk through town cast protection spells on anyone you meet, including NPCs. Do the same to players in the locker room. When you get the Wizard Eye spell you can make toads then kill them with whatever weapon you are carrying to gain both magic and weapon skill (though the weapon skill gain will be low). Make those magic points work for you. And train! Put every cent you have into the pocket of the Wizard trainers. You made this character for his magical ability - don't complain about the expense! Before we go any further, here are a few important "don'ts". Don't attempt to cast area spell within the confines of any town. Casting spells like fireball, ice storm, etc. in town is forbidden. Not only will they not work but you will turn neutral and be attacked by all the lawful NPCs. Don't engage in unattended scripting in order to increase your magic skill. (If you don't know what scripting is, just ignore that statement and don't bother trying to find out). If you are caught scripting you will be drummed out of the game - possibly permanently. Don't cast fire unless you are sure you are alone or that all the players around you have fire protection. Don't leave home without at least one silver dagger on your belt. Apart from thieves, Wizards spend the most time in a neutral state. Unlike thieves, Wizards have to apologise by taking a silver dagger to the confessor ghost and asking for forgiveness. As you advance, you will get ever more powerful spells. Don't cast them willy nilly - they can (and do) kill other players. Don't ever warm Dragon's Breath then double click on your own hex! Moving along, I suggest that you consider your Wizard a novice until he reaches Shaper of Fire - magic level 6. It is at this point that he will be able to buy perhaps the Wizard's most used spell - fireball. By now, he will hopefully be fully fire protected - he's going to need it. The fireball spell delivers a short but effective burst of fire across multiple hexes, destroying just about everything in its path. When you first get it, it will only cover a 3 X 3 area. As you advance in magic prowess, this will expand. It is important to learn how to cast this spell properly for the best effect. I always keep this spell macroed. Even though its full range is not available through text commands, it is useful to be able to cast it with a couple of keystrokes during those emergency situations, without having to bring up your spell palette. Let's say that your chant for the spell is "asti nimba iluni zit", you can assign it to a macro (say number 3) by typing, in command mode, DEFINE 3 '"asti nimba iluni zit"'. Thereafter, if you type "$3" "CAST" or "C" (in command mode), it will cast a 3 X 3 fireball centred on your hex. That particular routine has saved my hide on many occasions. Under less stressful conditions, the spell is more effectively cast using the spell palette and mouse. First warm the spell, then single left click on the warmed spell icon. This should change the cursor to crosshairs. You may then track out a path for the spell by single left clicking on adjacent hexes and double left clicking on the final, target hex. This final hex will be the centre of the fireball. Of course, if you want the fireball to be centred on your own hex or any hex adjacent to your own, you can simple double left click the crosshairs on the appropriate spot. Casting fireball three hexes away from yourself will cause fire in areas beyond your field of vision therefore will burn critters (or players) who cannot see you. This can be extremely useful in areas where you know there are critters lurking around the corner - but always be mindful of the possibility of other players being there too. Once you get fireball, you can consider yourself a mid-range Wizard. By playing intelligently you can solo areas where players classes with more hit points would die in a flash. This is because your spells can take out all or most of the critters in a single round. Stay away from lairs though - you are not ready for these yet. I will talk more about lair critters later on. Don't be afraid to run. If you see a zoo back off to warm your spell, then go after them. That hit point of yours won't last long if they get close to you. More spells will come as you progress. Ice storm is a bit like fireball but does more damage (to you as well as to your victims). The fire resistant enemies you me will probably fall to your ice. Concussion is quite powerful and can even knock holes in solid walls, but be sure to cast it three hexes away from yourself and anybody else you don't wish to harm. At magic level 12 you will get firebolt - stronger than fireball and more concentrated. One more level and you will get the dreaded whirlwind spell which can devastate huge areas. This is another spell which requires diligence if you are not to kill yourself or other players. Eventually you will get the famous Ice Spear (magic level 14) at which point you can regard yourself as a real Wizard. The Mage (for so the Wizard is called at magic level 14) is one of the most sought after players in the game. This is because of his powerful ice spear. The great book of help says: "Wizards use this spell to direct a large, sharp, high speed projectile of ice at a creature. The velocity of the ice shard is such that it is never blocked by armour. To throw an ice spear, first warm the spell, then double left click on the spell icon in the warmed-spell rack. The mouse cursor will change to a crosshair; place the crosshair over the icon of the poor, unfortunate creature that you wish to strike down with the spell. Left click once to cast the spell. This spell will do about twelve times the Wizard's magic skill level in hit points of damage. Ice spear will affect even those creatures that are normally immune to cold, since not many of them are also immune to being struck by a high velocity piece of ice." What this means is that ice spear hurts everything, including critters that normally require silver or blue-glowing weapons. This includes lair critters like Dragons, Drakes, Vampires and even Ice Dragons. Not only that, but the extent of the damage inflicted is enormous. Using the help file formula, a Mage should typically inflict over 150 hit points of damage per cast. Of course different critters will take different amounts of damage depending on their susceptibility, but the ice spear is still a formidable weapon that can take down the mightiest of foes. Once you have it, you will be invited or can volunteer to partake in some interesting lair critter hunts, although you will still have to wait a year or more before considering a solo effort on a drake, vampire or ice-dragon. I will briefly mention the wizard strategy for two for the most popular lair critter hunts. I'd like to say a word or two about lair hunts at this point. There is nothing in the "rules" about what you may or may not do, but there are some guidelines to good and considerate behaviour. If you come across another hunt party or individual on the scene before you, do them the courtesy of letting them do their thing first without any interference from you. Many thieves have died because a Mama party arrived on their ledge, thus attracting the attention of the drake. Always ask before jumping in to help if another party is in the throes of battle. Always decide in advance what the booty carve up is going to be. That way there will be no arguments later on. Your first thought should always be for the other members of your party. If someone dies, grab his body and possessions, get the heck out of there and have him raised and re-equipped. If someone is eaten and goes to the Underworld, grab his deathpile. The lair critter will always be there, but personal items can be hard to replace. Finally, as far as possible, only hunt with people you know and trust. Lair hunting is a team sport and without trust and co-operation between the members, problems are inevitable. Without the help of a Wizard, any successful attempt on the ice dragon's lair (Mama) will probably last an hour or more. With a wizard along, 15 to 20 minutes is the norm. The hunting party should include a high level martial artist or two, a knight or two or a combination of both. A thaumaturge is handy to have along, with no other purpose than healing the injured or raising the dead. The Wizard will need several mana potions (probably 3 or 4 if he is the only one in the party). If there is no thaumaturge present, a staff of healing will help keep the other players fit and healthy. The other players will probably load up with shield rings and bracers and so will not have the strength to carry the dragon corpse and may no even have a recall ring. Therefore, you should wear enough strength to carry the dead Mama and a recall ring set for the town so you can get the scales. There is a preferred hex on which the Wizard(s) should stand. This is the one that normally has a pillar of stone on it, though often this will have already been reduced to a pile of rubble. If the pillar is intact create a portal on it. Next, using Wizard Eye, make a toad and place it on the (now) portal hex. Rest to detach from the toad, move your character away from the toad and cast Find Secret Door. This will destroy the pillar and the unfortunate toad. The fighters should now move to the mouth of the lair and attract Mama out to the ledge. This is when you should start your ice spear bombardment. Use the text command "cast at dragon" rather than the mouse pointer as this will make your casting more accurate. If the dragon attacks you jump down (and pray that the drake has not regenerated) - your weakling wizard will not stand up to many Mama attacks. With 17 Charisma points, she has rarely attacked me unless all the other players have jumped out of the lair entrance area. Keep a watch out for players dying or jumping down so that you are not the only player up there. One advantage of fighting at the entrance rather than in the lair is that deathpiles may be retrieved out of sight of the dragon. It usually takes about 20 to 30 ice spears to complete the conquest, depending on how often you have to jump down and regroup, leaving the dragon time to recover somewhat. Vlad, the Vampire, is another popular target for parties with an advanced Wizard. He represents a trickier victim as the Wizard is likely to be wounded more often than at Mama's. In addition he has a menagerie of dangerous cohorts and a powerful hide spell. On top of that, he has recently acquired the ability to age players (bring a youth potion). To cap it all, the critter regeneration rate has recently been increased making escape more problematic. The Wizard should have little difficulty in clear the Tower of Darkness and the hunting party should assemble at the level below the penthouse. The knight(s) and/or MAs should go up first, followed by the Wizard. The first job is to clear the griffins, salamanders and liches. I find that ice storm does this quite effectively, though it takes several casts. Others have told me that firestorm helps, but I have never tried it personally. The important point for the Wizard is that all the fighting must be done on the stair hex. In that way he has a quick escape route down - simply typing "D" in command mode should take you to relative safety, where you can balm and recover your composure. Once the menagerie has been slain it is time to concentrate on Vlad. All the party members should take position on the stair hex. Then everyone should just pepper the vampire with everything they've got - silver greataxe in the case of the fighters and ice spear in the case of the Wizard. Players will be wounded and deathpile recovery from Vlad's penthouse is difficult, so caution is advised. If someone dies, grab the corpse, the weapons and jump. If you are wounded, go down a level and balm (watch out for regenerating critters on the level below). If the Wizard is left alone with Vlad, get out of there as quickly as possible as you won't last two rounds on your own. I cannot repeat often enough, that the secret to success is everybody staying on the same stair hex. Only that way can everybody see and hit Vlad and have an effective escape route. If players get knocked off the hex, they should head back to it rather than try to fight on a different spot. I should also mention a little about the Underkingdom, I guess. This has become an important land for the advanced wizard for three main reasons. Firstly if offers some great financial rewards. Gems can be found there that are worth up to 20,000 coins. I rarely return from a UK hunting trip without a net gain of 100,000 or more coins. Secondly, this is where you can find the famed PIMP (permanent increase mana potion) which when drunk will add up to six mana points. To get a PIMP, you will need to locate the kobold princess under the troll king's throne room and lead her on the perilous journey back to her father, Kookoo, king of the kobolds. For your information, she is whiney and slow (one hex per round) and getting her home is at least a two man job. She cannot see in the dark and having a thief cast night vision on her doesn't help. To open her cell, you will first have to buy a key from Googog and getting to him can also be a dangerous journey. Good luck! Thirdly, the UK is where you can acquire the Stormhalter staff. I don't intend to provide a step by step recipe for killing the Overlord, which is what you have to do to get the staff, but suffice it to say that it is a quest that requires a lot of planning, hit points and personnel. Stormhalter should be held in the right hand for maximum effectiveness. It will add +1 to your mana regeneration (i.e. if you wear a robe and hold the staff your mana will come back at three points per round). It is an excellent blocking weapon, although is offensively useless. To gain staff skill you will need to fight with a regular staff. Stormhalter also increases the eff- ectiveness of your cast shield spell (not shield rings). If you hold the staff in your left hand, it loses most of its properties although it will still block somewhat. With it in your right and another weapon in your left, it will not block properly but its other properties will still apply. One final word about the Underkingdom .. the reason that Wizards do so well there is mainly due to the fact that almost all its inhabitants cannot see in the dark. Most of us have developed the technique of casting one hex of darkness on ourselves and dishing out destruction from the safety of that sanctuary. Another spell I use quite a lot there is Wizardeye - especially before venturing down any stairs. What else can you do with your advanced Wizard? Well, I really don't want to give away too much and destroy the thrill of discovery. Anyway different players use their Wizards in different ways and who am I to say that they are right or wrong. We all have our own favourite hunting grounds and our own ways of hunting them. When you move into the more dangerous areas of play, you will encounter many critters that are immune to various spells. Not every creature will burn and more are immune to ice. Experiment with your spells and their effects on the enemy and you will soon develop a hunting method for each area. Wizards make great solo hunters because of their ability to take out vast zoos with a single cast. You major problem will be money for training. At level 16 magic I stopped magic training simply because I couldn't keep up with the cost (estimated at about 3,000,000 per rank). Instead I started to work on a variety of weapon skills and martial arts. Any money left over went to the sage. After all, only experience level rises will gain us the hit points with value so much. In summary, a Wizard is perhaps the most difficult character class to start and the most expensive to run. However, once he gets up to about level 15 in experience and has the ice spear spell, he is a character that can venture to the toughest of areas and harvest the greatest of treasure. Most important of all, your Wizard will provide with endless hours of online entertainment.