Now go play some heroes3+wog! I sense it's time for a replay in your case. It could result in an overdose though... A turn-based overdose. :lol:

I've got The Witcher: Enhanced Edition which I bought FOUR WEEKS AGO and I'm still in the prologue. Also Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. So I think it's RPG time. :-P

Don't forget to get wesp's fan patch for bloodlines. That is one awesome but rushed game with millions of bugs and unfinished features.(Especially the clan perks/histories a la fallout) The tragic death knell of the holy Troika. Still, they pulled through an amazing writing and atmosphere under Brian Mitsoda.

I'm plannin on gettin TW too. Too much hype with that game :) Can't resist it...

Great going...

heh I am alternating between TWEE and KBtL. I just made it to chapter 2 of TWEE.

i am still suck in land of death with my paladin at lvl 22. havent been motivated to play when fights takes 20 min at least to finish.

i've a question. do you have any problems to reach a higher level since you need far more xp on "impossible mode". i'm playing with a mage now and am still in darion, everything is going smooth but i think i get too little xp to reach level 10 before going to freedom islands which i used to have when playing on "normal mode".

and also a question to leadership. when should i start to go for leadership when leveling up? i'm at level 7 now and have only about 1700 including the flag which gives me 800. so my base leadership is only about 900 and thats really very little.

thanks for any suggestions :)

Thanks Eldritch for the tip re: Bloodlines patch. Got it now. :)

Laffwis, no it scales appropriately. Enemy stacks are 170% bigger and levels take 170% more experience, so it balances out. From memory, I am always around level 9, not 10, when reaching Freedom Isles so you are doing the right thing.

I would go for leadership all the time. IMO Attack and Defense modifiers are somewhat overrated. My order of preference (as a Mage) would be:

1. Leadership
2. Intellect
3. Mana
4. Attack
5. Defense
6. Rage

In the early game, leadership is close to useless. You should win all of your fights with intelligent spell usage, and with mage towers replenshing mana instantly, there's no reason not to do this at all. It's the fastest way to win battles, and it takes no losses.

At the end of the game, the difference of a few hundred leadership literally has no impact. On the other hand, attribute modifiers scale pretty well. I agree with you somewhat that defense is not all that useful. The stacks in the late game are so big that you need to minimize the number of times you are struck. And if you're not being hit, then there's no point in defense. But attack is still mildly useful, as it will help you focus fire on a single stack and wipe it out, with spells, in a single turn. Three points in attack is +10% damage. That's not jaw dropping, considering 1 point in intellect does ~+11% damage to spells. But it's nothing to sneeze at.

I also disagree with you about rage. Rage is incredibly useful, not always for killing stacks -- although maxed underground blades, blackhole, and soul drain are good for that. It is useful for crowd control and support. Ice thorns can delay melee stacks for two turns. THe stonewall can delay them for one. Timeback can effectively delay an entire army for a turn -- just send in a big stack on a suicide run, absorb all the blows (perhaps casting kamikaze on that same stack), then timeback to get your unit back to full strength. Glot's armor, with a bit of investment, can allow you to cast armageddon TWICE without taking any losses. Chargers can essentially duplicate the effect of the most overpowered item in the game (devourer of fury), and improve the efficiency of the somewhat cheap invisibility tactic that can allow you to go through the entire game with no losses, at least if you can find invisibility early.

Unfortunately, for the mage rage does not build up quickly. ANd inquisitors that are useful in the early game simply don't cut up, as damage dealers or rage builders, in the late game. Especially if you are going to build up black hole and/or soul drain, you need some serious rage. Seven roasted rats help, but I would take rage/mana over attack/defense any day of the week, and certainly over leadership too, at least until lvl 10-15 or so.

Intellect and mana are fairly straightforward. These are the bread and soy butter of the mage, and well worth investing in. If you have a big mana pool, you can pull some pretty crazy stuff -- such as the double armageddon with glot's armor first turn. In sum, my ranking would be the following for early game:

Intellect
Mana
Rage
Attack
Leadership
Defense

Starting at around level 15, I would say:

Intellect
Leadership
Mana
Rage
Attack
Defense

ok thanks for the suggestions, it's obvious that you need intellect and mana as a mage, but i still don't get the part with rage? if you don't invest in rage, you will probably reach 30-40 rage until end game (from my previoius walk throughs) and most of the rage skills only use about 20+ rage.

so actually you need maybe let's say 30 rage to have a little surplus and during battle it will replenish anyway?

or do you mean you want to use potions and fill up the rage before going into battle? then let's say you have maye 50-60 rage and it's full so you can use more powerful skills more often since gaining rage goes slowly?

but then again there are not so many potions to fill up the rage before battle.

i'm not sure if black hole is that usefull, since the max. damage is only about 1100 or something and for that you need - compared to sould drain, which indeed is maybe the best skill IMO - far more rage.

as we're talking about soul drain, to what extend shall one expand that skill? 20 %, 30, or 40 %? for 20 % you only need 5 rage (which means you can for sure use that skill every turn when maxed out; as a mage) and for 30 % 20 rage (maybe only every 2 turns?). i never expanded to 40 % since i think the proportion between damage and needed rage is not effective. but again, if considering the big stacks, maybe it could be worth to expand to 40 %?

could anybody clarify this, please? thanks :)