Spells of Metamage,Battlemage,Spellweaver

The game recommends to start with one of the above mentioned magic user character, or at least this is a reasonable choice because we can't find this characters in the early (and middle) game to join to our party.

When I start a game and select a magic user, I decide which one is closer to me on base of his/her spells mainly.
On base of the spell repertoar is possible to make a picture what kind of character really is that magic user.
Here in Drakensang the decision is not easy, because there is really no information about the spells and further development of this spellcasters.

Would you be so kind to tell me about this spells which were useful and which were useless, or just to send a rough view of the best offensive/defensive spells.
Thanks.

Started with a Metamage for example, and found his first skeleton summoning spell not so useful, and heard from other players the metamage spells is quite useless when the story begins. What about his further spells?

A good mage needs at least one summoning spell, one offensive spell, some protection spells and several stat boosts.

Summoned creatures are not only important to make damage, they also distract enemies. Keep in mind that as you raise your spell skills, you can determine how powerful your summoned creature will be. I found that some spells are exchangable. My mage had three summoning spells at the end, but I always ended up summoning just one kind (fire elemental). Blinding, slowing down and other spells for reducing the abilities of enemies are also useful.

Ignisphaero is the msot kickass offensive spell IMO, but you get it rather late.

I also never boosted charisma, intelligence or intuition. Most of the time I boosted constitution and strength.

I'm not that far in the game but with a Spellweaver customized to rise a little the summon spell… I end in almost never using summon and feel it useless apart at the very beginning.

Spellweaver seems interesting because it has (if I'm not wrong) a faster mana regeneration rate but honestly I felt the ranger choice I used in the demo would have been a better choice.

Well the point is perhaps I'm not that far in the game (just explored the sewers to find the stone and almost at the end of the investigation). But I suspect that summons are just too weak, even when maximized, to be really useful.

Other than that, too many sort of buffer spells, buffer spells are boring. Well at this point great game anyway.

Originally Posted by Dasale
I'm not that far in the game but with a Spellweaver customized to rise a little the summon spell… I end in almost never using summon and feel it useless apart at the very beginning.

Spellweaver seems interesting because it has (if I'm not wrong) a faster mana regeneration rate but honestly I felt the ranger choice I used in the demo would have been a better choice.

Well the point is perhaps I'm not that far in the game (just explored the sewers to find the stone and almost at the end of the investigation). But I suspect that summons are just too weak, even when maximized, to be really useful.

Other than that, too many sort of buffer spells, buffer spells are boring. Well at this point great game anyway.

You are really wrong. I started the game with a battlemage (no summoning), and I was doing just fine until I started fighting the tough fights. I then restarted the game with a hmm… the one that can summon fire elementals, and it's much easier now. The pet does nice damage and takes some beating, plus it can keep 1 or more enemies occupied while I kill others. I don't know how I could survive some of the battles I've been in without a pet.

I wouldn't call that elementar a "pet".

If I remember correctly, it would be called a "Jinn of Fire" in Aventuria. because all "elementals" are usuaslöly called "Jinns" of a certain element.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I wouldn't call that elementar a "pet".

If I remember correctly, it would be called a "Jinn of Fire" in Aventuria. because all "elementals" are usuaslöly called "Jinns" of a certain element.

Well, I used 'pet' as in the MMO version of the word, basically, any creature that you summon and follows you around (animal, elemental, undeads, thugs, generic soldiers, etc)

Okay, I see.

The Metamage skeleton minion gets quite powerful, can knockdown, power strike etc. It ends up having some nice plate and a big two hander (at least as far as I am with my mage). Dies a little easy sometimes, but keeps 1 to 2 guys off me while I debuff/damage.

I'd probably play a pirate or warrior/soldier next time to take advantage of the elf chick you find.

Originally Posted by wolfing
You are really wrong. I started the game with a battlemage (no summoning), and I was doing just fine until I started fighting the tough fights. I then restarted the game with a hmm… the one that can summon fire elementals, and it's much easier now. The pet does nice damage and takes some beating, plus it can keep 1 or more enemies occupied while I kill others. I don't know how I could survive some of the battles I've been in without a pet.

Well are you playing this game solo or what? I wonder what it worth inside a party of 3 or 4.

But the point could be that the Spellweaver is a wrong choice, I haven't tried other classes so other summons.

EDIT: At character level 3 spell maximized I only summon a wolf, that said all how useless it is, could be Spellweaver the wrong choice.

I'm in the middle - just starting Blood Mt. For my battlemage, I have to say that with Fastness of Body, a magearmor spell, he has the best armor rating out of the whole party, including Frorgrimm and Rhulana. It's very long lasting, about 300s or so. Very valuable buff… unfortunately, it's caster only. The spell talent is at 11 now, and in the beginning, before I could raise it, my battlemage took major damage… now, except for wounds, his health bar very rarely goes below half.

dont forget to get the healing spell CarcusRex! So important!

Originally Posted by Damian Mahadevan
dont forget to get the healing spell CarcusRex! So important!

Indeed! Already got it. Gotta up the talent points on that one a little though. Thanks for the reminder.

Originally Posted by CarcusRex
I'm in the middle - just starting Blood Mt. For my battlemage, I have to say that with Fastness of Body, a magearmor spell, he has the best armor rating out of the whole party, including Frorgrimm and Rhulana. It's very long lasting, about 300s or so. Very valuable buff… unfortunately, it's caster only. The spell talent is at 11 now, and in the beginning, before I could raise it, my battlemage took major damage… now, except for wounds, his health bar very rarely goes below half.

all casters get that spell (or can learn it). Hint: even the charlatan

So it seems there are spells generally available for any kind of magic user…

.. and most of them are 'buffer' spells (which way Dasale mentioned before).

…and there are special spells for each mage class?

Or a spellweaver can use elemental summoning, and the battlemage undead summoning?

(Thanks your answers Grandor Dragon and Dasale anyway)

Originally Posted by Octopus
So it seems there are spells generally available for any kind of magic user…

.. and most of them are 'buffer' spells (which way Dasale mentioned before).

…and there are special spells for each mage class?

Or a spellweaver can use elemental summoning, and the battlemage undead summoning?

(Thanks your answers Grandor Dragon and Dasale anyway)

So far I've seen 2 types of spell restrictions:
- Race. There are spells only usable by elves for example
- Class type. Some spells are restricted to mage classes (or mage school) only. I haven't seen a restriction on the actual archetype (like, only for Battlemages). I don't think there are any like that.

To complete a bit about summoning, I met my first tougher encounters, more than 10 rats attack or behind the new temple multiple eostuff . For the pack rat attack I have been quite happy to have my wolf summon I even used it two times during the battle.

For the fights against eostuff I used constantly the summon. I think this summon change every two levels, 1&2 a rat, 3&4 a wolf.

The only way to know would be to have all hidden attribute of each type of summon or try them all to compare skeleton/elemental/animals.

Alas I think that for me the the game will be hard to replay because of its organization and best qualities.

There are basically three categories of spellcasters:

I. Full human mages: Battlemage, Healing Mage, Elementalist, Metamage
II. Human half-mages: Charlatan, Alchemist
III. Elves

Casters of category I can learn all spells except elven spells. Casters of category II can learn a subset of the spells of category I (most importantly: no summonings, no area of effect damage spells). Elves can only learn elven and general spells and are quite limited especially in terms of combat spells (they only have Thunderbolt for direct damage).

I've seen that "Helpful Claw" is indicated as "for fully trained mages only", however a ranger can learn the spell, iirc. Don't know about an elven fighter. However, this spell would be the only exception in category III.

It should however be noted that many spells can only be learned later in the game, especially a wide selection of human spells only about 60-65% into the game, but a few casters start with those spells.
So for instance, while elementalist, battlemage and healing mage can learn the skeleton summon, they can only do so about 60-65% into the game (around character level 10 or so), so the metamage has exclusive access to this spell for huge parts of the game.
Same is true for the elementalist's fire elemental summon, the healing mages "Calm the body, calm the mind" (or smthg. like that) spell, the charlatans "Fandango of Fireflies", and probably some other spells. Some mage and the elven spells however can be learned a bit earlier (but partially still a good deal into the game).

Originally Posted by Dasale
For the fights against eostuff I used constantly the summon. I think this summon change every two levels, 1&2 a rat, 3&4 a wolf.

Yes, they don't change appearance every modifier level, but they increase in strength with every modifier level. The level 2 rat should have a little bit more vitality and endurance than the level 1 rat.

Visual changes for the "Helpful Claw", as far as I remember (could be wrong by 1 or 2 levels):

Is there a place that lists the stats of the different summons? My elementalist has a level 11 fire elemental now, but I also have summon shadow and summon djinnie. I haven't tried summon shadow yet, but summon djinnie doesn't have a 'level'. It does hit hard, but doesn't have the fire shield. I would like to know more to be more informed in what situation is each summon more effective, but don't think the right-click help says anything about it

I get information from resources of the game.

All spellcasters is divided into 4 types :
-fullmage, human : Battlemage, Healing Mage, Metamage, Elementalist
-halfmage, human : Alchemist,Sharlatan
-fullmage, elves: Spellweaver, Ranger
-halfmage, elves : Fighter

All spells is divided into 5 types:

1.Common (all spellcasters can learn this spells):
-Eye of Eagle, Ear of Lynx
-Fastness of Body
-Attributio Charisma/Dextery/Agility/Intuition/Strength/Cleverness/Constitution/Courage
-Move as the Lightning
-Balm of Healing
-Lightning Find You!
-Attribute Restoration
-Hawkeye Marksmanship
-Light in the Darkness
-Thunderbolt
-Master of Animals
-Clarum Purum
-Plumbumbarm Heavy Arm
-Psychic Focus
-Calm Body, Calm Spirit
-See True and Pure
-Sleep of a Thousand Sheep

2.Human (all human can learn this spells):
-Analytica Arcana
-Corpofrigo Cold Shock
-Duplicatus Double Vision
-Iron Rust Rot
-Fandango of Fireflies
-Horriphobus Phantasm
-Ignifaxus Burst of Flame
-Culminatio Ball of Lightning
-Paralysis Stiff as Stone

3. Human, fullmages:
-Aerofugo Vacuum
-Summon Djinn
-Eclipsus Shadow Force
-Elemental Minion
-Foramen Foraminor
-Gardianum Magic Shield
-Ignisphaero Fireball
-Skeletarius
-Tlaluc's Pestilential Breath

4.Elves (all elves can learn this spells):
-Ice Cold Warrior
-Meek You Be
-Elfenword Silken Speech

5.Elves, fullmages :
-A Helpful Paw

PS I know my English is bad , sorry.