NEW Player seeks advice on template...

[Dreadmage]

'ello all!
I am a new player interested in playing a total mage, I have plenty of ideas, but figuring it all out is difficult to say the least.

Here is what I want: A mage that can cast it all, and scribe, inscription is important for me as a rp thing, and as a means to run my own mage vendors, eventually.

Idea:
Magery
Eval. Intel.
Necro.
Spirit Speak
Inscription
Spellweaving

I would hope to GM all of these, but w/o meditation, I am worried. So, I basically am seeking advice on how to be able to cast all magery, and word of death from spellweaving, and the (apparently) important necro spells (wraith form, evil omen, corpse skin, lich form). SS is needed for necro, EI is needed for magery, and inscription is needed because I just want it. It's something to do that is non-combat, so I can run a shop. I am new as I said, so my skill cap is 700, and PS's seem far off for me, they're so expensive!

So, you know what I want. Is there any way I can do it? Do I really need meditation, or resist spells? Could I survive the high lvl mobs like doom, and peerless, too many unknowns, ... mind racing, ... overload...overload!

Someone please help!

Thanks in advance...

 

[imported_GFY]

Part of the fun of UO is not being able to do it ALL.

Most players choose necro mage or arcane mage. It really is a pain to combine necro, magery, and arcanist.

Since your just starting out I would try inscribe mage first. The number of spells when you add necro or arcanist can be overwhelming to a newer player.

Here's a few ideas on templates to get you started.

Inscribe, Wrestle, Mage

Magery
Eval
Med
Resist
Wrestle
Inscribe

a good all around template with good offense and defense. Wrestle is your defensive skill so you can use slayer spellbooks and still have a good defense chance.

necro mage

Magery
Eval
Med
Resist
Necro
Spirit speak

This is also a good all around template however you will need a mage weapon with -0 magery as your defensive skill. You miss out on slayer spellbooks but you get all the necro spells.

Arcanist

Magery
Eval
Med
Resist
Spellweaving
Wrestle or Inscribe

You can chose your last skill because spellweaving is a stand alone skill, you don't need anything to go with it like magery needs eval and necro needs spirit speak.

 

[Dreadmage]

Ok, thanks for the help. I was hoping to be a "do it all mage", but I guess I might have been stretching it. I think I'll take your advice on the Arcanist Mage. Sounds like I get the most of what I want. Maybe down the line I'll try the Necro Mage, as a second char. I know I want to try taming someday, but right now it seems a little overwhelming.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

BTW: I noticed your Arcanist template only utilized 6 skills, not seven. In this case would it be acceptable to run Necro. up to 40.0 or so, just so Wraith Form is available? I read alot of posts where people praise Wraith Form for it's Mana Regen. If I could atleast add that, I think I would be very happy with the template. Also, from what I hear, powerscrolls are pretty expensive anyways. So I likely will not be able to afford them for a while anyways.

Just a thought...

Thanks again!

 

[imported_Farsight]

The intention of the spellweaving template is to have 115-120 in all skills.

Wraith form is good if you have very high spirit speak, otherwise you're just wasting your time with only 40 points in necromancy as a mage. Just make sure you have mana regeneration and mana reduction on your armor and you'll be fine.

 

[Dreadmage]

Gotcha!

So the Arcanist Template, when max is...

Magery, Eval. Intel., Med., SpellW. all at 120, and Inscription at 100.

In regards to the ability stats, I'm guessing...

Str. 70 (HP), Dex. 35 (Sta.), Intel. 120 (Mana)

...is this right? There's a cap of 120 on an individual stat right?

Correct me if I messed that up.

Thanks!

 

[eolsunder1]

close, 125 is the top cap naturally, so you can have 125 intelligence, which you want on any mage character. You can boost this up to 150 with items and there are plenty of mage items with intelligence boost (or rings/bracelets).

Dexterity isn't important except for weapons/healing, and you have neither. Boost strength up and dex down.

I think most people like 25 dex and 125 int on a mage, the rest into strength. you don't want minimum dex because then every so often you'll be damaged into low stamina and can't move. 25 dex is plenty to keep you just above that line.

 

[Dreadmage]

Ok, so I'm looking at:

Str.-75
Dex.-25
Int.-125

with Magery, EI, Med, Res. Sp., and Sp.W. at 120, and Insc. at 100.

Eventually. One final question, when I create this char, the mage temp. starts with 30 Wrest. that I don't need, so I would go custom class. Which of these are the hardest to raise? I suspect Inscription will be slow, so maybe start that at 40, another at 40, and one at 20, but which ones? The hardest to raise I would put my starting skill points in. So how should I set my template at character creation?

Thanks again!

 

[imported_Desolation87]

Magery 40, Inscrip 40 and eval intel 20. Med is very easy to gain, same as resistsing spells. But to be honest, you can pay gold to NPCs to be trained to almost 30 so it doesn't really matter!

 

[imported_GFY]

Strength = the number of hit points you have. More or less. I would push strength as high as possible. I'm at 100 str, 10 dex, and 120 int. Also in your travels look for + stat scrolls that you can aford. you can get +15 or so fairly cheaply get the highest you can afford. The more stat points you have the better.