The mysterious arcane knowledge that these persons wield is often frightening. At the outset, these people may not seem to present a challenge for a good sword or a stout club, but as their studies grow, they have been found to be formidable opponents. They can be limited by their power level, but more than one mage has been known to inflict great fear in others and when they were seemingly defeated, disappear. Not dead of course, but preparing to return and finish the job they started. The prime requisite of Mages is INTelligence, allowing them to learn powerful spells.

Prime Requisite: Intelligence.

Mages in General

Mages specialize in casting offensive spells. Mages can fetch and enchant gear more easily than most other classes, which makes them handy either for equipping alternate characters or for earning money by selling enchanted gear. Mages tend to die more easily because they have lower hit-points than many other classes and tend to wear less-protective gear.

Creating a Mage

Characters of any race may be mages but some races are far better suited for it than others. Races with high intelligence, such as centaurs, draconians, dragons, drow, elves, high elves, and sprites, tend to make excellent mages, though griffons are a notable exception. Likewise, races with low intelligence, such as giants and gargoyles, tend to make poor mages, though they may have some small usefulness in "fading" gear.

Mages at Lowmort Tier

Choosing Gear

Fighting

Soloing

Grouping

Practicing

Trainers

Blah, blah, blah...

See Mage Trainers for a list of mage trainers.

Skills

Blah, blah, blah...

See Lowmort Mage Skills for a list of skills that mages may learn at lowmort tier.

Worshipping

Mages, as with all classes, may worship any deity from level 10 onward. Some deities, though, are better suited for mages than others, namely Bhyss, Shizaga, and Quixoltan.

Bhyss and Shizaga, especially, are popular among Avatar MUD's mages. Both of these deities decrease buffing-spell armor class, making their worshippers less desired by others to provide spellups. Both also reduce melee damage but increase spell damage, though Bhyss does this more than Shizaga does, making him ideal for mages wishing to maximize their overall combat damage. Bhyss, however, also reduces gains in hit-points and practice-points, making his worshippers easier to kill and slightly slower to develop skills. And Bhyss also hurts with enchanting, whereas Shizaga helps with it, making Shizaga ideal for mages wishing to maximize their effectiveness at enchanting gear.

See Worship for more detail regarding worship choices and their effects.

Mage Prestige Options

Level-50 mages may choose to become wizards. As wizards, they will gain less hit points but more mana, they will do less melee damage but more spell damage, and they will forfeit their ability to learn certain psionic spells during hero tier but will gain other unique abilities instead. See Wizards for more information about this prestige class.

Mages at Hero Tier

Fighting

Mages at hero tier may have more trouble finding groups than characters of many other classes. This is especially true at lower hero sublevels, where mages tend to die more readily and tend to run short of mana during runs.

Soloing

Mages who solo may find it best to regenerate in mana gear, then to change into tank gear and surge-disintegrate mobs. Popular mobs for low-hero mages to kill solo for experience include Shashwat Nisha's "yaks" and cobblynau, Sir Michael's Stronghold's wandering peasants and such, and Shadow Keep's rotting corpses and hound dogs.

Grouping

Mages sometimes tank in hero groups but not often.

Mages usually serve as hitters in hero groups. Many tanks expect their low-hero mage hitters to carry both mana gear and hit gear during runs, to wear their mana gear until they reach their base mana, and to change into their hit gear afterward. High-hero mages with greater base mana may opt to wear only hit gear.

Mages occasionally serve as healers in hero groups. Some tanks actually prefer to group mages who heal with brandishes over clerics who heal with spells. Mages who maintain a stockpile of healing brandishes, such as gold dragon orbs, staffs of Typhus, and white marble crosses, may be able to find groups slightly more often than those who do not. Brandishes usually require far more time to collect than to consume during runs.

Devoting

Mages who devote themselves to Bhyss will experience both benefits and detriments; on one hand, they will have one greater maximum intelligence, which may or may not enable them to become adept at skills more quickly and which will increase their spell damage slightly; however, on the other hand, they will also have both one less maxium constitution and one less maximum dexterity, which will reduce both their hit-point gains and their ability to avoid damage and will thus make them a bit more "splatty" than they already are. In summary, if and when they devote themselves, they will dish out damage even better but take it even worse.

Mages who devote themselves to Shizaga will have one less maximum wisdom, which may--or may not--reduce their practice-point gains at hero tier; thus, mages worshipping Shizaga who are eager to learn all of their hero skills as quickly as possible may wish to postpone devotion until later in hero tier. If and when they devote themselves, they may benefit slightly from having one more maximum dexterity if and when they are attacked.

See Devote for more detail about devotion and its effects.

Mages at Lord Tier

Mages tend to find groups more easily at lord tier than at hero tier. They may also practice a skill that enables them to rename objects. Much information about lord tier is kept secret; lord-level mages who wish to learn more about their class at this tier may find it on the Lord WIKI site.

Mage Remort Options

Mages at lord tier may remort into sorcerers, either human ones at sublevel 100 or ones of their current race at sublevel 200. See Sorcerers for more information about this remort class.