This companion document to the Q's Guide to being a Mage in Dereth lists the mages compared on an individual basis and explains their progression along with just the skill ratings and no fancy calculations. The following mages were compared:
Four-School | Mana-C Spec | Creature-Spec | Life Spec | War Spec | Creature and Mana C Spec | Life and Mana C Spec | War and Mana C Spec | Og Mage | Opal Mage | Battlemage | The Grandpa Mage
Through the first 20-30 levels, focus was given to attributes with leftover experience going to the main magic skills in even amounts, with perhaps a few throw-away points put into secondary skills. At some point in there I did raise run to the point where it could be raised to 200 through creature buffs. From that point on I did still add to Stats, but shifted emphasis to skills, adding equally to all schools until Item was at 220 and Creature was at 240. From that point forward, every two points to War and Life got a point added to Creature, and every four points got a point added to Item.
The attributes for every type of mage were as follows:
| Level | 1 | 5 | 15 | 25 | 35 | 45 | 55 | 65 | 75 | 95 |
| Strength | 60 | 60 | 60 | 110 | 140 | 150 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 170 |
| Endurance | 50 | 55 | 75 | 110 | 130 | 140 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 160 |
| Coordination | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 70 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 110 |
| Quickness | 10 | 10 | 30 | 60 | 90 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 110 |
| Focus | 100 | 110 | 140 | 180 | 190 | 200 | 210 | 220 | 230 | 245 |
| Self | 100 | 110 | 140 | 180 | 190 | 200 | 210 | 220 | 230 | 245 |
| Health | 25 | 30 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 160 | 170 | 180 | 180 | 190 |
| Stamina | 50 | 60 | 100 | 170 | 210 | 230 | 250 | 260 | 260 | 270 |
| Mana | 100 | 110 | 190 | 250 | 280 | 300 | 320 | 340 | 350 | 370 |
This was done to provide as much of an even comparison as possible. Additionally, as many skills are obtained at levels divisible by 10, the comparisons were done at every five levels to give time for loving to be given to newly acquired capabilities.
Despite what may think from reading all the message boards out there, not everyone creates a Battlemage or an Og. By far the most common mage template in Dereth either has nothing specialized or only a single skill. Face it, not everyone is a powerleveler,
Overall, here is how these mages rank.
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In combat and support, these types of mages tend to start out in the middle of the pack, perhaps above average, but close. As they progress, however, their extreme counterparts soon begin to outshine them. The exception to this is in the defensive arena, where the ability to add more skills helps these types of mages put a few more tricks up their sleeves.
The Four-School Mage |
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This is the traditional mage of choice for most first-timers. You get a taste early on of every school, and as you progress you have the ability to add several other skills to enhance your gaming experience. The combination of skills available make this a strong defensive mage, and until the mid levels, fairly strong in combat and support. Way back when 50 was considered high level and the specialization bonus meant maybe 13 additional points to a skill, this was probably the most desirable of the mage templates. Nowadays, however, it has a tendency to suffer in comparison at higher levels when looked at from a pure combat standpoint. Those that stick by them, however, find that the diversification from the additional skills more than makes up for the lower magic schools. After all, in normal hunting the functional difference between buffed war of 380 and a buffed war of 330 is minimal, but the difference in having lockpick is all the time in the world. |
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The Mana Conversion Specialized Mage |
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This mage is very similar over it's career to the four-school. You don't get as many skills, having six less points to spend, but you do find it easier to squeeze off spells when you're in a pinch. Mana Conversion also has a high divisor, meaning that it won't raise at the same progression as your magic schools, and non-specialized mages have to put a lot more experience into it than those who are specialized. As with the four school, this is a great mage in the early to mid levels. By the 40s, however, the combat ability and support ability begins to lag behind as the mages who specialized schools finish and can really start throwing their weight around. Defensively, however, this is a good mage to have no matter what level you are. |
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The Creature Enchantment Specialized Mage |
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This one starts a little slow on the defensive side, and lasts a little longer in the support and combat arenas than the Four-School Mage and the one specialized in Mana Conversion. High Creature Enchantment can bring a lot to your average mage, until they can cast level V and VI spells without having to go through a long series of buffs. As mentioned early on in the Guide, Creature Enchantment is the least essential yet most convenient of all the schools. It earns this distinction through it's very nature; you use it to increase all your other abilities, especially the ones you can't live without. |
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The Life Magic Specialized Mage |
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As Life Magic is considered by many to be the most essential and most powerful skill in the game, this type of mage is perhaps the most common of the single-school specialized templates. It stacks up quite well in all areas until the high levels, and even then is quite effective when compared to the other single-school specialized mages. As Life Magic is the lynchpin of a good defense, it's not a surprise to find that defensively this is a competitive template over the entire career. Also, your life mage will not really start falling below average in combat effectiveness until somewhere around the late 60s or early 70s. Since most people still don't play a single character that long, it's no wonder that this is so popular. |
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The War Magic Specialized Mage |
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As you might expect, the War Magic specialized mage is always at or above average in combat ability. Defensively, it actually does fairly well in the middle levels, although that's not what this mage is about (hey, sometimes the best defense is to blow them away before they get to you!). The only area where this mage is consistently lacking is support. Well, I am sure that most mages will be just fine with this. Frankly, support probably wasn't filling their vision when they created their mage and elected to specialize War. |
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As mentioned previously, Mana Conversion is oftentimes your best friend. It also has a high divisor, which makes it a good specialization candidate for the higher levels only. I read a lot about people who talk about how wonderful a skill it is to specialize and how the high divisor makes up for the cost and difference in the template that specializes in a magic school. But, let's face it, the high divisor advantage only kicks in after you've already raised it a ton. The mage going from 160 to 170 mana c may spend more than the one who's specialized, but it's not a LOT more. The mage that's going from 220 to 230, however, is really spending a lot unless he's specialized. That said, take a look at all these stats and see when you get that high. Odds are, you probably aren't.
The nice thing about these types of mages is that they are not only fairly versatile, they are pretty good at everything at nearly every level. Many of them take a while to finish, and that is reflected in the poor showing in defense (which gains from multiple skills) early on. However, if you're a casual player in it for the long run, you are sure to enjoy what they have to offer, and although there will probably always be someone out there that's better than you (isn't that always the case?), you're going to be above the line pretty much throughout your career.
Not surprisingly, the high mana conversion of these mages almost guarantees superior support at later levels.
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Frankly, this is the domain of the experienced player. All of these templates are fairly crippled at the early or mid levels, and as far as combat and support, they all excel at the high ones. Selecting one of these generally means you are resigning yourself to being a specialist, using your own magic skills for nearly everything. However, if you are the type of person with the patience and dedication to get to the higher levels with one of these, you are almost guaranteed to be in love with your template once you finish.
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The Og Mage, Specialized Life Magic and Creature Enchantment |
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Ah, the Og Mage, Media darling of Dereth! Popularized by Og the One Eye, who showed us all how great it could be to have two magic schools specialized. Time was that most players didn't think too far past 40 and specialization wasn't worth a whole heck of a lot. Well, with powerleveling dungeons and the specialization bonus that was added in the summer of 2000, old Og suddenly looked like a genius. And why not? As far as overall combat, this isn't the best choice in the lower levels. However, high creature and life combine to not only make this template strong on defense throughout it's lifespan, but also excellent at support. Experience savings from specialization nicely bring up War, Item, and Mana Conversion, an effect that makes the Og one of the best powerlevelers in the game. |
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The Opal Mage, Specialized War Magic and Creature Enchantment |
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The story has it that Opal (Frostfell) was created in the heyday of the Og, and was running the beaches one day showing up all the spear warriors when someone asked her if she was an Og mage. "No," she replied, "I'm an Ugh Mage." Such is the force of her personality that the Ugh name didn't stick, and this template was christened Opal in her honor. You cannot take this template and be sympathetic to the Spear warrior, it's not legal. Why Ugh? Well, try the first 16 levels. No life magic is going to put all kinds of hurting on you. Try no Item enchantment until 40! Ugh! The upside is that once you finish you are a combat machine. You're also no slouch at support either. |
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The Battlemage, Specialized War Magic Life Magic |
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Ok, I told a fib earlier. The Og WAS the Media darling. Once folks started thinking that 40 was a reasonable wait to finish a template, it wasn't too long before they decided that 50 was ok too, and the Battlemage took off. You can't find a message board on magic without a thread on why the BM is better than the Og, and another thread on why the Og is better than the BM. Don't these people remember when people thought Animal (Frostfell) was a gimp? Well, the man who proved the doubters wrong created what is one of the most powerful mages on all the servers today. Sure, the Battlemage is never going to turn heads with it's defensive prowess, but who cares? He kills the critters before they get to him. Later in life the Battlemage is also fairly good at support, but that's not the focus. Across all mages, all classes even, the high level Battlemage is probably the best killing machine in Dereth. |
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The Grandpa Mage, Specialized Life Magic, Creature Enchantment, and Mana Conversion |
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When Grandpa of Solclaim was released from the Sanitarium, he created this template and was quickly put back in. Well, maybe that's exagerrating, but you do have to be a little nuts to take this template. It takes longer to finish than any other one I know of with the exception of the extreme Og Archer (Healing at 90???? What are those guys thinking anyway?). If you take this one, my recommendation would be to start with 100 strength and use your racial weapon (start Sho or Gharu) to kill with. Yes, the lower levels will be exceedingly painful, but you knew that when you created. The upside of these levels is that you're always going to be good at support, and you'll even catch up to the Battlemage at around level 110. Basically, if you ever finish you will be what I consider to be the finest mage in Dereth once you do. And my dirty little secret? I have a mid-level Battlemage that I finally quit playing in favor of my Grandpa. Even without war, he's just more fun. For the truly experienced only... |
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