Master of Magic: Favorite Custom Wizards
Michael Sandy
about favorite custom wizards, and I have a few
more now.
Vampire: 4 Death, 1 Nature, 1 Sorcery, 1 Chaos
Archmage, Channeler, Node Mastery
Starts with Life Drain, Black Sleep and Ghouls
The basic Vampire kit is Archmage, Channeler and
Life Drain. Some variants use Alchemy to convert
taxes into mana into improved casting skill.
The plan of the Vampire is to use Life Drain to
create undead which garrison cities which allow
a high tax rate which feeds the ever increasing
Magic Skill of the Vampire, allowing more Life
Drains to be cast each combat.
This isn't a terribly reliable strategy, but it
is kind of cool, and once it gets going can
generate a _huge_ casting skill.
Fame-bots: Fame, Warlord, Charismatic Life
Wizards. Attract Hero, cast Heroism on them,
purchase artifacts for them. Again, not
terribly reliable since you can't make heroes
or merchants show up reliably.
Warlord, Alchemy Life Wizard is a powerful base.
+1 level and +1 to hit beyond that, along with
Heroism, allows pretty formidable starting units.
There is always the question:
"Is it better to cast Heroism in combat, and get
it earlier, or to cast it overland, so you don't have
to keep repeating it?"
Node Lords: Node Mastery allows a wizard to cast
spells from any school in a node. This means that
a clever wizard can often grab a node early and
get double benefit from it for longer.
Sorcery Master and Conjuror make a nice combo,
because they reduce the cost of Phantom Warriors
to 6.
Node lords can usually trade spells with the AI
wizards, ensuring a good spell collection, and
their large power base allows them to cast and
maintain lots of spells, even with only a few
cities. In the mid game, they will be able to
research spells quite rapidly, including the
rarer spells they forgoed by choosing to diversify.
Rune lords are another favorite of mine.
Start with a 4, 2, 2 book wizard, and take
Archmage, Runemaster and Artificier. They
can generate mana equal to their casting skill
by making and breaking artifacts. This can
fuel magic assisted victories early on. However,
as the battles get further from the player's
Fortress, the increased casting cost will start
to wear. And casting overland spells will cut
into their ability to generate mana.
Also, Runelords get a nice discount on one of the
most frequently cast spells, Magic Spirit.
So Rune lords have it easy early on, but then stall
a bit. However, they have the most awesome endgame.
With 1/4 cost Artifacts, heroes can be equipped with
some pretty awesome artifacts.
Consider a Wind Walker with:
Staff: x4 Black Sleep, -4 to save
Ring: +3 movement, -3 to save
Ring2: +3 movement, -3 to save
hanging out with a Ghoul.
Fly up to city, tower or ruin. Sleep everything
that can be slept, feed it to the ghoul. Use
the Wind Walker to transport the new large army
somewhere, lather, rinse, repeat.
Hello undead Archangel. Expensive to maintain,
but you don't have to keep it long.
Or a +6 attack, +3 to hit flaming bow, with
a +4 attack, +2 to hit, +3 movement ring.
Sean likes Death magic and Trolls, which sounds like
a nice combo. However, you can't guarantee that you
will get spells like Beserk or Black Channels early.
Also, a death specialist won't help trolls versus
the numerous flying and firebreathing creatures that
can be found all over Myrror.
Other popular wizards:
Mono-tone wizards: 11 books of one color.
In theory, starting with a rare or uncommon spell
gives a pretty big edge. However, there is still
the problem of the large casting skill required to
cast the spell and mana to pay for and maintain it.
What good is it to summon Torin if you don't have
enough mana to cast Heroism on him as well, or
can't maintain the spell?
Also, there are bound to be some things your color
can't handle. Eventually, all that remains will
be stuff your color has difficulty handling.
11-book wizards often have great starts, but then
stall out in the midgame or endgame.
What races go well with what wizards?
If you take a Warlord wizard, you should probably
pick a race with good starting units. Units which
require less than 200 production or so of buildings
to start recruiting.
If you have a wizard whose early conquests are likely
to be mana fueled, (such as Conjurors, Node Lords and
Runelords), you should probably pick a race for its
support units:
eg:
Halfling for its good farmers and low unrest
Human/orc for engineers
Nomad for the ability to produce Rangers.
I can't see myself ever taking Myrran without
Archmage and Warlord. Why have a kick butt race
and not buff them up a little bit? Also, Myrrans
usually have a decent power base, but a lousy
casting skill, Archmage fixes that nicely.
Other concepts:
I once tried Sage Master, Conjuror, Runemaster,
hoping to be able to research Summon Hero and 1/4
cost and cast it at half cost. However, those
bonuses act as a multiplier on your research points,
not a reduction in the cost to research the spell.
You still get half off casting Summon Hero, but
it will take you a while to get the spell in the
first place.
Michael Sandy
Kevin
then going on a ruthless compaign of taking over every city and computer
player you see can often lead to a very quick assured victory. The only
challenge will come from any wizard that started on the second plane,
becuase wraith's aren't normall strong enuff to take the bigger mosters
that guard the towers, so you will have to build your cities and rely on
mortal units to conquer the second plane, as long as you spread like the
wind (ignoring everything exept cities to take) shouldn't be a problem.
Michael Sandy
> In article <39F1AD60...@home.com>, kre...@home.com says...
> > The 11 book strategy in death and casting wraith's as soon as possible
> > then going on a ruthless compaign of taking over every city and computer
> > player you see can often lead to a very quick assured victory. The only
> > challenge will come from any wizard that started on the second plane,
> > becuase wraith's aren't normall strong enuff to take the bigger mosters
> > that guard the towers, so you will have to build your cities and rely on
> > mortal units to conquer the second plane, as long as you spread like the
> > wind (ignoring everything exept cities to take) shouldn't be a problem.
>
> I used to play around like this, but using Shadow Demons. You take a heap
> of Death books then research like crazy until you get the Demons. With
> their built-in planeshift and strong ranged attack you can take over all
> the neutral cities on a whole plane fairly easily, if you get in early
> enough.
That is my preference as well. Also, like all melee units, Wraiths
have a built in obsolesence. After the easy stuff is cleared out,
everything that is left is stuff that will chew the Wraiths up, like
high resistance missile troops. Shadow Demons become less useful,
but they don't get chewed up in combat.
The really nice thing about Shadow Demons is that you get a better
idea of what races are out there. Why spend a lot of funds developing
a Klackon city for engineers if there are Dwarven cities in Myrror?
Given the choice between developing a Beastman city to develop
Priests and, say, a Nomad city, you are better off with a Beastman
Priest.
What are the weaknesses of 11-book wizards?
Sorcery and Death magic lack cheap unit enchantments, and the
sorcery unit enchantments don't increase their combat power.
Life Wizards don't have any direct damage ability, which means
lone units can't do as much damage on defense.
11-book wizards often rely on powerful creatures, but in the nodes
will be the same creatures but more numerous. Also, Life and Death
wizards will have difficulty casting spells in nodes, and so will
develop their nodes somewhat later.
Chaos wizards lack defensive magic, and nature has a very difficult
time dealing with Wraiths and other Life Draining creatures.
Michael Sandy
Calvin Evans
> then going on a ruthless compaign of taking over every city and computer
> player you see can often lead to a very quick assured victory. The only
> challenge will come from any wizard that started on the second plane,
> becuase wraith's aren't normall strong enuff to take the bigger mosters
> that guard the towers, so you will have to build your cities and rely on
> mortal units to conquer the second plane, as long as you spread like the
> wind (ignoring everything exept cities to take) shouldn't be a problem.
I used to play around like this, but using Shadow Demons. You take a heap