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. They can generally do more damage than characters of many other classes as long as they do not become depleted of their mana; this dependence upon their mana supply may be their greatest weakness. Mages, with their in-class transportation spells and surging ability and such, can obtain and enchant gear more easily than characters of most other classes, which makes them rather handy either for equipping their alternate characters or for earning money by selling enchanted gear to other players. Mages also tend to die more frequently over time than characters of other classes for a variety of reasons, such as their lower hit-points and their tendency to wear less-protective gear, particularly mana gear.

Creating a Mage

Characters of any race may be mages but some races are far better suited for magery than others. Characters of races with relatively-high intelligence, such as centaurs, draconians, dragons, drow, elves, high elves, and sprites, tend to make excellent mages, though griffons are a notable exception to this. Likewise, characters of races with relatively-low intelligence, such as gargoyles, giants, goblins, troglodytes, and verbits, tend to be poor mages with high rates of spellcasting failure, though they may have some small degree of usefulness in effectively "fading" gear.

Mages at Lowmort Tier

Training & Practicing

Blah, blah, blah...

See Mage Trainers for a list of mage trainers.

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 a god or goddess at level 10 or beyond. Some deities, though, are better suited for mages to worship than others, particularly Bhyss, Shizaga, and Quixoltan.

Bhyss and Shizaga are most popular among Avatar MUD's mages. Both of these deities decrease their worshippers' melee damage but increase their worshippers' spell damage, which is very beneficial to mages because they do more damage via their spells than via their weapons; Bhyss, however, does this more than Shizaga does, making him ideal for mages wishing to maximize their overall combat damage. Bhyss, however, also reduces gains in both hit-points and practice-points over time, 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. Both Bhyss and Shizaga decrease their worshippers' buffing-spells' armor class, making their worshippers less desired by other characters, especially tanks, to provide them with such spells.

In short, Bhyss may be better suited for mages who plan to do nothing other than hit in groups, whereas Shizaga may be better suited for mages who expect to solo some, particularly to fetch and enchant gear.

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

Fighting

Soloing

Grouping

Mage Prestige Options

Level-50 mages may choose to become wizards instead. 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

Training & Practicing

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 Bhyss worshippers 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 to Shizaga, 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.

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 either tank gear or hit gear in order to fight, using a surged disintegrate spell to kill 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 who run low on mana during runs may attempt to alleviate this problem somewhat by "catching tics."

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 thus be able to find groups slightly more often than mages who do not. Brandishes are best collected well before they are needed, as they tend to be consumed on runs faster than they can be easily replenished.

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 (or may not) 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.