Two classes done!
The Wizard’s a no-nonsense ranged spellcaster with a great Intellect stat who’s made out of tissue paper. He starts with Fireball, a ranged damage spell, and a neat little crowd control skill called Teleport Away:
If things get too hot – fwoof! – the problem enemy’s gone. Course, he still has to deal with them later.
As you level up the Wizard there are a few different paths to go down – and they’re less clear cut than the Fighter’s.
The new or upgraded skills you can get through the skill tree are Leech, which lets you steal a few hitpoints from an enemy in melee; Ice Blast, an area-of-effect upgrade to Fireball which also slows enemies; and Enslave. Knock an enemy down to less than 50% health and cast Enslave at them and boom, they’re permanently on to your side.
Well, until they die or you leave the area. 🙂
The other major talents in there are Willpower, which reduces enemy magic resistance so all of your spells are more effective; and Inspiration. Once you’ve got Inspiration, every time you cast a spell, there’s a 20% chance it’ll be available to cast again immediately. It’s pretty great!
Besides those five core talents and the choices they imply, there are four talents around the edges to dump points into – boosting your own magic resistance, improving the damage of Fireball/Ice Blast, increasing your max HP or channelling magical enemies to deflect physical attacks with Forcefield. All very Wizardy.
So there are a few different core builds available. Throw points into Toughness, Leech and Forcefield and you’ll have a sturdy melee Wizard who can lead with Ice Blast to slow enemies down, then lay into them with weapons and Leech away valuable hitpoints. Focus on Spell Damage, Inspiration and Ice Blast and you’ll have a devastating long range caster. Work up to Enslave and you can grab yourself a pet who’ll tank for you, a bit like a Ranger’s dog, though monsters tend to be kinda dumb and flimsy.
Whatever path you take, there’s always Counterspell and Willpower up at the top to help you against enemy casters – and you’ll probably find yourself mixing up the stat boosts a bit so you don’t have weak points.
Finally, there’s now a rejected Wizard core skill out there to find:
So if casters are causing you trouble, that’ll be one to look out for – whatever class you’re playing. 🙂
That’s two of the three basic classes fleshed out. I’ll fix up the Thief next! He is going to be wily.