"The Wizard starts with a +2 robe, a staff, a wand of magic missile with 20 charges, a quill and ink (but nothing to write on)." - In-game description.
The wizard is a magic based class that favors life and light spells. If one omits the different magic preferences, the wizard is identical to the sorcerer. Wizards are the male counterpart of the white witch.
Stats[]
Alignments and Belief[]
(Non) Belief System: Consider Your Options.
"The wizard believes in no supernatural powers, but instead that he need only use his intelligence to solve any problem." - In-game description.
- Chaotic Good. "As a Chaotic follower he will throw caution and brain cells, to the wind if necessary;"
- Lawful Good. "As a Lawful follower he will be cautious about preserving his faculties;"
- Neutral. "As a Neutral follower he will not let his faculties drop below average."
Talents[]
- Battle Magery;
- Commerce;
- Dweomery;
- First Aid;
- Gastronomy;
- Literacy;
- Magic Precision;
- Nightmare Mode;
- Wizardry.
Starting Equipment[]
- Uncursed +0 staff (wielded in right hand);
- Uncursed +2 blue robe (being worn);
- Uncursed wand of magic missile (20 charges);
- Uncursed quill;
- Uncursed potion of Ink.
Starting Skills[]
- Life magic: 1 point;
- Light magic: 1 point.
Starting Pet[]
Strategy[]
The wizard is perhaps the easiest caster to win with: he has decent armour (for casters), a reliable early game offence option, a curse-detecting pet, and a belief with good panic buttons. Using them effectively reliably carries him through early game, which is the hardest.
Starting strategy is to rely heavily on your tabby. Have your tabby attack every enemy and then help with melee attacks. Tabby should fetch every item that might be cursed. Keep every item, including the cursed ones. You can sell them at shops.
You will want to save your wand of magic missile for mobs, especially sewers and doorways, and flying creatures that the tabby cannot attack. Try to hit 3+ baddies to conserve the power. 1-2 mobs is enough for you to level up to melee strength and not rely on your pet as much. The wand can also work as a thrown weapon for a small amount of poking damage, but be wary: humanoid enemies (goblins, kobolds) are capable of picking your wand up and zapping you!
Since you can't carry much, using a chest as a cache is important by level 400 or so. Keep it near a fountain or shop so you can find it easily on the map. Keep spares of good weapons and armour for companions and back up. Spellbooks should be kept as long as they are readable! You will need to relearn them a few times. Using portal stones to ferry the cache is highly recommended. By the time you get to the Roman Fort, you should have enough money to never worry again.
Wizardry and Magic Precision are both important abilities to level up. Commerce is also useful since the wizard will need to sell most items. You might find that you max out the shops available gold. Sell gems and jewels to the Gnomes and armour and weapons to the armoury to delay this. Leveling up First Aid is also vital, and Battle Magery can be useful depending on what items you randomly find. Generally, equip metal items if the defense boost is high enough to justify the spell reduction. Literacy is usually not helpful since identify all scrolls comes too late in the pyramid. Gastronomy is also unnecessary if you conquer the Gnome Mines and obtain the wine from the cellar, which usually provides all the calories you need for the rest of the game. Make sure to bless the wine at a sanctuary, and heal fully before drinking it so that it increases HP.
Level 400 is a good place to read scrolls. The most common are Identify, so start with your most numerous scroll first. Identify all scrolls, then wands, then jewelry, then potions. Be sure to distance yourself from your pet to avoid the Conflict consequences and remove all armour in case of Destroy armour. Throw your scrolls at a weak enemy to test them for a scroll of fire. Dipping bad scrolls and writing Identify instead is recommended at lower levels. Once you begin to identify potions, Enchant Armour and Enchant Weapon become more valuable. Don't enchant above +7!
The wizard should clear out the Gnome Mines before proceeding to the bottom of the dungeon, but the wizard should have lightning or teleportation spells on hand, or an amulet of reflection, in order to deal with Gnomish Walkers, which are otherwise difficult to kill. The gnomes in the mines have many wands of magic missile and striking, so even after the throne has been taken and the gnomes stop attacking, the wizard benefits from killing all the gnomes.
All of the gems should also be minded. It is best to avoid identifying gems since this will make many of them worthless. After mining gems, drop them to identify portal stones and weapon stones. Once a frost stone has been identified, identify a white gem. A white gem that is not a frost stone or worthless will be a diamond, which can be set in a staff with a stored spell to give it many charges. Other gems can be sold to the gnomes for gold. Ideally, the wizard will dual wield staves with matching stored spells (e.g. lightning in a staff of light, magic missile or healing in a staff of life) and bound diamonds so that the wizard can cast spells repeatedly without using mana; lightning, magic missile, and healing are all excellent spells to keep on hand. These staves can also be given to prisoners to allow them to cast spells.
Wishes are essential. 3 blessed +3 speed boots and 3 blessed +3 ornate robes should be your first wishes from fountains. Gauntlets of power (or dexterity if you use bows), a cloak of protection, and black spectacles can all be got from fountains cheaply. From a lamp, getting a spellbook of identify or a high level weapon is the best for saving money. Amulet of reflection are good, especially if you combine them at a forge or clothier into a powerful armour. And of course, an amulet of life saving is always a good idea. Its preferred to be worn, since it will destroy any armour its combined with. Midas bags also save lots of time and eliminate the risk of running shops out of gold. Bless all lamps to increase your chances for a djinni and do NOT light them before rubbing or it won't work. You should also obtain headgear and grease it so that you are protected from mindflayers, which can destroy the wizard's magical abilities quickly.
You need pets for back up! Keep all eggs and feed all dogs. You can feed a dog Werewolf meat at later levels and have a legion of pets pretty quickly. It's best not to turn your tabby into a werewolf, as she is much faster as a cat. She can also climb stairs! A scroll of Taming used on a Dwarf Lord or Ogre Lord will give you some muscle to balance out your spell based character. Prisoners are generally magic casters, so your extra Speed Boots and Robes can go to them.
Remember that the final dragon has to be killed without using magic, so you will need to use a combination of pets, prisoners, gems, potions, and melee weapons.