First Time Wizard... Limited Castings?!

[mrrstark]

I've been sticking with Melee characters pretty much since I started playing ADOM. I decided to finally try out a magic character, the wizard, and was getting the hang of it until I ran out of casts of my damage spell. That character died very soon after.

So of course this mentioned in the manual, but I'd never noticed it, or known about it, or really understood the fact that # of castings of a spell is limited.

- How does a caster work around finite castings of their damage spells?
- Is even the wizard expected to seriously melee stuff to save on castings?
- Is there a way to get castings back? Rereading the books?
- Books are pretty heavy on a gray elf wizard, do I have to just be careful about which books are important enough to lug around with me?
- Is it wiser to read a book until it disappears? Does that give me max castings and then I don't need to keep the book?
- at the moment, I really don't get the wizard playstyle.

Thanks!

[plllizzz9]

- Is even the wizard expected to seriously melee stuff to save on castings?
- Is there a way to get castings back? Rereading the books?
- Books are pretty heavy on a gray elf wizard, do I have to just be careful about which books are important enough to lug around with me?
- Is it wiser to read a book until it disappears? Does that give me max castings and then I don't need to keep the book?

Answer to those all is pretty much 'Yes'. and mostly you answered yourself

[Mobius]

...
- Is it wiser to read a book until it disappears? Does that give me max castings and then I don't need to keep the book?

Perhaps not. I find that I get more casts at higher level / literacy / concentration / le So it might be worth reading a few times, and stashing.
Also if you have fewer casts left, you gain more. So once it's in the 200 range, consider stashing.

Other tactics - cast 'junk' spells for practice if you have plenty of mana. Exercises your mana. cast darkness 10 times, then light. Or magic lock.

[gut]

> - How does a caster work around finite castings of their damage spells?

Read book once, then stash it until you need a recharge. Pay attention
to your casting points, and if they drop to, say, 70, it is time for a
recharge. Your Le: stat caps how many casting points you get per read.
Lesson is, pick a wiz with high Le:

> - Is even the wizard expected to seriously melee stuff to save on castings?

No, always wield 2 shields.


> - Is there a way to get castings back? Rereading the books?

Yes, also learn when to bookcast spells (mainly utility spells, not offense though).

> - Books are pretty heavy on a gray elf wizard,

Don't carry books more than you have to, especially if you don't have a
waterproof blanket yet.

> - Is it wiser to read a book until it disappears?

If you have high Le: then probably yes, it is more convenient. If you have
low Le: though, it may be better to wait until you get a few increases.

> Does that give me max castings and then I don't need to keep the book?

No, casting points are (soft) capped by Le: stat.

> - at the moment, I really don't get the wizard playstyle.

Roll scum a Gray Elf wiz so that you start with, say Le:24 (Le:30 or more
is even better). Your casting points will cap out around 800 or so, and
you won't have to worry about running out of offense.

[Blasphemous]

In mid game it's a viable strategy to use melee on weaker/single monsters. At that point you usually have access to plenty of items some of which will surely include a decent melee weapon, like a sword of sharpness, which contrary to common belief is not that rare.
Also, the upcoming new version makes it impossible to cast spells while wearing two shields (already implemented in 1.2.0pre11) so it might be smart to start getting used to having a melee weapon in your right hand and mitigate otherwise low DV/PV by other items and/or scrolls of defense/protection.
When playing wizards I usually choose a race that will provide extra bonuses to already decent starting Le and Ma that wizards get. Like gut said, grey elven wizards with starting ~25 Le and ~20-25 Ma are really nice especially once you get to lvl12 or 18 and considerably reduce casting costs while at the same time reaching 30-35 Le and ~40 Ma just by reading everything you can read and casting spells all the time.
A good advice is this: try to line up monsters in tunnels/corridors so that one bolt will damage 5+ enemies. That way you save some castings in the crucial initial phase of the game and reduce the risk of getting surrounded. Melee chars take monsters on 1vs1 and quickly dispatch them, wizards try to get monsters piled up in one area and then use Area-Of-Effect spells to kill them all with a single spell.

Learn to be careful with destructive effects that spells have on items: fire will destroy mostly everything, just like acid and lightning.
Frost however will not touch scrolls and spellbooks, so important for wizards, so it's a preferable spell for vaults.
It will however destroy potions, more than any other items. No armor/weapons will be touched though. Frost/ice will not destroy 7LB or GoGS or any other similarly useful items otherwise vulnerable to elemental damage.
Use invisibility when you can. Casting bolts doesn't allow monsters to see where you are, but casting ball spells will invariably make you visible to affected monsters.
Raise spells effectivity to 20+ so that fewer monsters will be able to shrug off your bolts. Sometimes it's safer to remain invisible and slowly damage the enemy that shrugs every other bolt, rather than spam ball spells and risk being seriously damaged by dangerous monsters.

[gut]

If a 2nd shield isn't available, maybe use the gladius, it is great for defense.

[NMBLNG]

Early game I try to pick up a shield and spear or whip for the DV bonus.

Most spellbooks should be read until they're gone, the biggest exception being if you have a low learning score.
Another exception would be a spell that you know you will need to cast often. Frost Bolt in the Tomb of High Kings, Strength of Atlas, Teleport, Invisibility.
Save at least 1 spell book to book cast from, to train learning and mana scores(Strength of Atlas is good for this).

In general, take out weak monsters with melee attacks. Moderate threat monsters can be taken out in melee if you use missile weapons on them first. Dangerous monsters are to be killed by spells. But don't forget to train your spells! Getting them to +20 should be enough so that they won't be shrugged of too often, though Ball spells are usually harder for monsters to resist. 500 points in a +10 spell will be worth more than 1000 points in a +5 spell.

[Soirana]

No, always wield 2 shields.

Pretty much that. Ofcourse some shruggers [like staring/floating eyes] and suckers [like rats/goblins] are not really worth bolting. but even for wizzy training bow/xbow a bit is just great idea.

[anon123]

Frost however will not touch scrolls and spellbooks, so important for wizards, so it's a preferable spell for vaults.

I've had frost bolts drench spellbooks on the floor.

Magic missile is the best for clearing vaults, but there's a latent risk of YASD by hitting the wrong key

[Tyrnyx]

I too don't particularly enjoy casters. But you start to get used to it after a while. I'd suggest trying out monks or paladins. They might be more your style. Monks were for me.

sword of sharpness, which contrary to common belief is not that rare.

I have never found a sword of sharpness in the early game. ever. I look for special weights too. Perhaps the RNG just doesn't like me. I don't play too often but I have beaten the game twice now. (Once with a monk.)