BGTutu as a wild mage

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I am looking forward to playing BG1 via BGTutu later this week when I get a copy of BG1 in my greedy little hands. I am dutifully reading up on mod load order, etc while I wait for my copy of the game.

I have my heart set on a chaotic good wild mage. A thought occured to me. One of the fun parts of the class to me is the way that the casting level of the wild mage fluctuates by +/- up to five levels. What happens as a wild mage when I am only level one and I get a -1 to -5 level fluctation? The wild mage class was designed for SoA where the wild mage is at least level 7 so there was no way to bottom out. In Tutu does that mean that in the early levels I can only have positive fluctation in caster levels? If this isn't a common knowledge question already would somebody who has Tutu mind loading up a wild mage and playing around with spell casting to find out?

 

I think level 1 spells that cast with a level decrease just remain level 1 spells. So, yeah, when you're level 1, you'd get either positive or no fluctuation.

But remember you won't be a level 1 mage for too long, since it takes but 10,000 XP to get you to 4th level, for example!

 

That's what I was hoping to hear. I figured that'd be the case but wasn't positive since wild mage wasn't designed for BG1.

I'm not picking wild mage because I think it is uber for getting a boost for the first few levels. I just like the idea of seeing some true chaos in my game. I'm pretty sure the caster level fluctuations and wild surges mean I'll have more reloads then if I took a more traditional mage. But the fun I'll have!

 

I know what you mean. I've wanted to play a Wild Mage for ages now and always avoided reading too much about wild surges, so I'll be surprised most of the time.

Not sure I'll start out with Tutu rather than straight into SoA, though.

 

I've played a Wild Mage in Tutu briefly, and I have to say that it was really fun. Not only was the power there, but I loved the option of being able to cast more spells of a higher level through the Reckless Dweomer. Plus, familiars in Baldur's Gate 1 kick butt!

 

I played with a wild mage twice in EasyTuTu. And I can say it is so much fun! I had so many wacky wild surges.

Some were beneficial and miraculous...like when I casted a magic missile at a named tough assassin and it held him. Twice I had Area Effect with Melf's Minute Meteors which gave all of my party those useful meteors! (once to a tough skeleton warrior nearby too!)

Some were rather disasterous and required a reload:turning to stone while casting Melf's Minute Meteors or having a cow explode on my head when attempting to mirror image and flee. Or worse, wild surges can happen when using innate abilities:I tried to use Cure Light Wounds ability to help a party member and whoops it turned out to be a fireball bursting in the middle of my already badly wounded party. I also petrified Khalid while trying to cast Haste once. Heh heh.

Some were a little of both. Like when I wasa wounded, seperated from my party while fighting an ogre magi. I tried to cast a weak spell on the magi who was about to kill my poor mage, it turned into a Gate, I fled to other corner of the labyrinth, badly wounded and afraid, while stupid Ogre Magi attacked the terribble Nabassu. A wrong move as he was mutilated badly in a few rounds. I stayed in my safe little place and read the combat text till the demon was gone. It was exciting!

As for your question. If you are lvl 1 you do not get the maximum plus or minus 5 to your casting level. As you lvl up, the possibility gap of your magic increases, by +-2, +-3, +-4 and eventually 5 at lvl 5 or higher. This is true according to PnP rules and I don't remember an instance that my wild mage got a +5 lvl boost when casting a spell at lvl 1 in my game. Otherwise a lvl 1 wild mage could (with some luck) easily end up casting a magic missile like he is lvl 6 which is unbalancing. You still always cast a spell at a minimum lvl of 1 though.

 

That's the kind of fun I'm talking about! Hopefully I can start playing soon. Thanks for the clarification about the randomizing of caster levels.

Edit: Did you play with JOG's Wild Mage Additions? The spells there look pretty good. I'm thinking about waiting for BG2 before I use it.