End-Game Archmage Toughness/Frailty Questions

[mpa]

I have been playing Archmage in ToME by save-scumming because I wanted to explore everything first before really playing. One problem I have been having in the Far East is getting killed by enemy mages. This is especially a problem when getting ambushed by orc patrols. If the patrol squad have a lot of mages in my immediate vicinity / LOS then the stacked damage is through the roof (The only reliable way out seems to be invisibility, which I hate to use because the screen is totally weird when invisibility is active).

So my questions are :
1. Increasing CON only gives pitiful increase in HP, so how do I significantly increase my archmage's toughness
a. against mages ?
b. in general ?

2. How do Physical / Spell save mechanics work ? Having played some DnD CRPG, I assumed high spell save means I would take less damage from spells and less chance of getting afflicted by spells (frozen, etc.)

3. Do other classes and race combo face similar problem ?

Code: Select all

Sex              : Male         STR:  32
Race             : Shalore      DEX:  28
Class            : Archmage     MAG:  98
Level            : 43           WIL:  82
Exp              : 78%          CUN:  33
Gold             : 2098.86      CON:  62

Attack(Main Hand):  20          Life             :     819/819  Encumbrance      : 72/224
Damage(Main Hand): 110                                          Difficulty       : Normal
APR   (Main Hand):   6          Mana             :     464/464
Crit  (Main Hand):  22%         
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00         
                                
                                

Fatigue          : 3%           Spellpower       : 162
Armor            : 66.806088311684Spell Crit       : 45.557435090948%
Defense          : 84.572214350349Spell Speed      : 1
Ranged Defense   : 120.01303320434

All damage       : 21%
Fire damage      : 31%
Cold damage      : 16%
Darkness damage  : 25%

Physical Save    : 97.135754741166
Spell Save       : 136.63575474117
Mental Save      : 46.75

All Resists:  10%
Physical Resist(cap):  13%( 70%)
Arcane Resist(cap):  18%( 70%)
Fire Resist(cap):  40%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap):   0%( 70%)
Lightning Resist(cap):  19%( 70%)
Confusion Resistance:  30%
Blind Resistance: 100%
Stun Resistance:  30%

b) Limmir's Ring of the Moon
Armor 0, Defense 10, Ranged Defense 0
Increases stats: 4 Constitution,4 Dexterity,4 Magic,4 Strength,4 Willpower,4 Cunning.
Increases damage type: 8% all.

c) Limmir's Ring of the Moon
Increases stats: 5 Constitution,5 Dexterity,5 Magic,5 Strength,5 Willpower,5 Cunning.
Increases resistances: 10% all.
Increases damage type: 8% all.

[Sirrocco]

saves help against effects. Nothing else.

Protecting yourself against enemy mages:
- Invest in con. It's not much HP per point, but it does add up. Also, it's pretty much a requirement.
- Pick up the combat training tree from the trainer in Last Hope, and invest in the Health skill (generic skill, requires con to unlock).
- The right sorts of wild infusions help a *lot* against enemies like corrupters and blood mages, who stick you with effects that reduce your resistance to stuff. Getting rid of the curses/hexes/diseases helps a lot, and getting a quick boost to global resist sure doesn't hurt.
- Shielding runes also help - they're basically a pool of self-refreshing HP that takes no time to bring up. Healign and regenerating infusions don't hurt either.
- Improve your resistances in general. Especially if you're running low HP, you need to keep those resistances *high*. Cold and fire are obvious resists to get for dealing with orcs - the cold gets the ice wyrmics and the cryomancers, the fire gets the fire wyrmics and the pyromancers. Necrotic resist helps a fair bit against the necromancers and blood mages. Archmages get a "premonition" sustain that can help out a fair bit here, as long as you're only being attacked by one thing at a time. Consider swapping your rings for resist all rings.
- Maxxing and sustaining essence of speed will get you faster turns, giving you more time to heal/teleport your way out of things.
- Playing a race other than Shalore might help. "Shaloran archmage" is pretty much the most fragile race/class combo in the game. Halflings, for example, are a fair bit more durable, as are Highers - and the Higher racial power can help a bit too.

Also, everyone has this problem to some degree, but, as previously noted, Shaloran Archmages have it the worst.

[greycat]

Do not let yourself get ambushed by the orc patrols. Seriously. They are the most deadly things on the entire continent short of the final battle. If you can swap in boots of speed before you hit the outdoors, you can generally outrun them. Otherwise, exercise extreme caution, and be prepared to head miles out of your way just to avoid them.

[marchewka]

Funny thing. My archmage lvl30 actually considers orc patrols as a good source of experience points. The key technique used is partial wall of stones + area effects from the water school + fire spells, and when the wall drops just time prison/flash/freeze the most dangerous foes. Killed like 10 already. Apart from the first one, where he almost died (my first orc patrol ever, did not know what's inside), the rest did not even come close to being dangerous, even with multiple orc berserkers + orc corruptors inside.

Essence of speed/shielding or innate speed burst of course help greatly too.

I found my second character to get to Far East, dwarf warrior, to be in much greater danger there. Died 3 times to the first patrol, then though he found a key to combating them, and then after some more successful patrol combats there came an "Ooops moment", and he died 3 times to another single patrol (killed all mages, and got shredded by a gangbang of zerkers).

[eronarn]

Do not let yourself get ambushed by the orc patrols. Seriously. They are the most deadly things on the entire continent short of the final battle. If you can swap in boots of speed before you hit the outdoors, you can generally outrun them. Otherwise, exercise extreme caution, and be prepared to head miles out of your way just to avoid them.

If you stand on a staircase in the wilderness and a patrol attacks you, it vanishes without incident.

[mpa]

Funny thing. My archmage lvl30 actually considers orc patrols as a good source of experience points.

I was experiencing the same thing. It was easy the first time around and good source to level up. But it got harder the higher my level is. At level 43, these orc mages are totally deadly. My must have mis-allocated my talents/attributes

S P O I L E R



Finished the game yesterday after many trial and error. The final battle was absolutely brutal. My resistance ring didnt help much because I was afflicted with spells that reduce all my resistance to -60%. One round of attack could reduce me from 1200 hp with regeneration rune to being deader than yesterday's fish.

If I were to play legit next time, I would probably get a great shield (even as a mage) in addition to wearing a whole lot of resistance items.

[Sirrocco]

Spells like this are why wild infusions are so worthwhile - not for the resist, but for the effect-cleansing.