Talk:Wizard

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Revision as of 16:50, 14 February 2017 by Phol ende wodan (talk | contribs) (Race discussion: note why race discussion was moved to Race)
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The Wizard strategy entry states that daggers are preferable to staves. Why??

Because you will get Magicbane, which uses the Dagger skill, as your first sacrifice gift, throwing expert daggers does more average damage than quarterstaff, you can keep distance from your enemies, and has +2 to-hit bonus. 91.127.41.218 09:13, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Another point is that, once you've offed the Wizard, you'll be subject to random curses, and cursed two-handed weapons are a pain in the neck. You can't open your bag to retrieve your holy water or scroll of remove curse, you can't cast remove curse (it seems spellcasting requires the hands to be free to move), and if you're in Gehennom, you can't pray. About all you can do is try stepping on a magic trap and hope for its remove curse function.--Ray Chason 15:30, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Everytime I start a wizard I die around the mines area (i suck). But more often than not its because I run out of energy first killing all those damn gnomes (as I am an elf, also last game my pet died). Normaly my pet would take care of everything but I feel like I relying on mittens too much. Is their something I should be doing? I'm engraving elbereth alot too.Ha! Showed you! 10:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Wear-test all non-cursed armor. Learn to run away early enough. Kill several foes in line to save energy. -Tjr 22:39, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
Also, don't go into the Gnomish mines until you've beaten Sokoban. Even if you're a gnome or dwarve and all the gnomes and dwarves are peaceful, there are still some really bad monsters in there. Wait until you're pretty powerful.✑DemonSlayerThe3rd♠ 22:32, September 17, 2010 (UTC)

Max all Spell Skills?

I'm not sure I understand why a Wizard might max out all their Spell Skills.

Finger of Death? OK, let's max Attack.

Cancelation? There's Matter.

Escape? Presuming you're shooting for L30, you don't need expert to cast Teleport Away, and 2 Skill points to extend your Jump radius from 3.9 to 4.2 seems excessive to me.

Divination? With no spell over L5 and no effect upgrades at Expert, purchasing Expert in Divination is a sucker punch available to 4 classes.

Clerical? Definitly worth purchasing "Skilled" for the improved Remove Curse.

Healing? Purchase "Skilled" if you've got an aversion to using one of your unicorn horns to restore your stats.

Enchantment? "Skilled" gives an OK upgrade to your Confuse Monster spell. Worth a point?

128.205.85.125 15:14, 22 July 2009 (UTC)


Heck, I'll take it a step further: gaining levels is a sucker's game. I used to ascend Wizards at XL 30, but I've really gotten turned on to lower-level ascensions. I did my last one at XL 17, and only because I wanted intrinsic teleport control. Is it worth having to deal with Archons just so you can maximize your magic missile? I didn't advance anything but attack, matter, and clerical...and dagger, of course!

It is still good you can become expert if you really need it: For example if there is a useful high-level spell you want to cast but your experience level is not high enough or you are stuck with metal/mithril armor. I'm thinking of polymorph, charm monster, or (unfortunate armor) magic missile.
Expert attack skill does not improve your to-hit chances, as opposed to weapons skills. Don't waste your skill slots on that.
Other than that, I generally get skilled in divination for monster and item detection, clerical for remove curse, in escape for endgame levitation or perhaps medusa's, and not much else. -Tjr 22:35, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Teleport at Will

At Experience Level 8, wizards can teleport at will if they have teleportitis. Is that an "only if" condition for level 8 achievement or does it work if you get to Exp Lvl 9 and then eat leprechauns and nymphs? --FJH 00:38, May 16, 2010 (UTC)

Teleport at will is not an intrinsic, it's a command. If you have teleportitis and are at least level 8 (as a wizard...) then you have the ability to use ^T to teleport. -- Qazmlpok 01:04, May 16, 2010 (UTC)

Race discussion

I pruned the race discussion a bit to avoid repetition.

  • No race can eat their kin. The only difference is how common such corpses are.
  • pre-IDd elven boots are no advantage because they are trivial to ID: they come on elves (duh) and give a message when worn.
  • The gnomes and touchstones argument doesn't carry much weight because credit cloning is so easy.
  • Tooled horns and drums are awesome. They have a wide-area scare effect, also work on Elbereth-ignorers, and unfreeze pets after a floating eye encounter.

--Tjr 17:57, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Uh, can't orcs eat other orcs? -- Qazmlpok 18:29, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
Right, sorry. --Tjr 20:59, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
But that's already in the table. -Tjr 21:03, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
There was very little in the race discussion that applied specifically to the Wizard role, and nothing that can't be covered by the Strategy section. I moved this race pro/con list to the Race page, and edited the few items that were Wizard-focused to apply to spellcasters in general. --Phol ende wodan (talk) 16:49, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Encumbrance "cap"

In the discussions of races, the page mentions "reach the encumbrance cap" and "hit the encumbrance cap". But I don't understand what an "encumbrance cap" is. It is not explained. According to encumbrance, there is a 1000 "cap". So it seems this article currently written as if "reaching the encumbrance cap [of 1000]" is a necessary part of the game. Why not just make this article state that certain races have higher starting carrying capacity, rather than describing how certain races are somehow closer to the maximum allowed capacity? Presently, it seems kind of round-about in terms of talking directly about carrying capacity.

(Note: "cap" does NOT equal "capacity".)

--169.234.122.203 18:24, 2 October 2014 (UTC)