Mages

Explore Mage classes in Shadows of Doubt: vanilla, Specialist, and Wild. Learn their unique abilities, restrictions, and spellcasting differences.

The vanilla Mage in Shadows of Doubt has specific class features: they cannot wear armor, are only proficient with daggers, quarterstaves, darts, and slings, and cannot gain proficiency in any fighting styles. They can cast any arcane spell from any magic school, gain 4 HP per level, and have Intelligence as their dual-class attribute. Without spells, a vanilla Mage is considered useless, requiring careful resource management to avoid resting after every fight. For a more robust playstyle, playing a Fighter/Mage or dual-classing Fighter -> Mage is recommended, though Kensai -> Mage is cautioned against. Multi- and dual-class combinations must adhere to the no-armour restriction to maintain spellcasting; Mage robes offer a decent alternative.

Specialist Mages in Shadows of Doubt focus on a single school of magic, gaining an extra spell of each level per day and a +15% bonus when scribing scrolls from their specialist school. They also receive a -15% penalty when scribing scrolls from other schools, a +2 bonus to saving throws (HUD (heads-up display — the on-screen icons showing health, ammo and the minimap)) against spells from their favored school, and targets suffer a -2 penalty to saves against their favored school's spells. Specialist Mages are forbidden from learning spells from the opposing school and cannot be part of a multiclass combination (except Gnomes, who are always Illusionists) or the second class in a dual-class combination.

The choice of specialization involves weighing the benefits against the spells lost:

• Abjurer: Requires 15 Wisdom. Opposing School: Alteration. Lost Spells include Disintegrate, Haste, Lower Resistance, Slow, Stoneskin, Tenser's Transformation, and Time Stop. Abjuration spells often lack saving throws, diminishing the school's benefits, and losing Haste and Slow is significant.
• Conjurer: Requires 15 Constitution. Opposing School: Divination. Lost Spells include Identify, Detect Invisibility, and True Sight.
• Diviner: Requires 16 Wisdom. Opposing Schools: Conjuration/Summoning. Lost Spells include Glitterdust, Melf's Acid Arrow, Flame Arrow, Symbol, and Stun.
• Enchanter: Requires 16 Charisma. Opposing School: Invocation/Evocation. Lost Spells include (Chain) Contingency, Magic Missile, Mordenkainen's Sword, Shield, and Web. Enchanters are potent due to their arsenal of save-or-else spells.
• Illusionist: Requires 16 Dexterity. Opposing School: Necromancy. Lost Spells include Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Animate Dead, and Skull Trap.
• Invoker: Requires 16 Constitution. Opposing School: Enchantment. Lost Spells include Chaos, Confusion, Emotion, Feeblemind, Friends, and Greater Malison.
• Necromancer: Requires 16 Wisdom. Opposing School: Illusion. Lost Spells include Blur, (Improved, Mass) Invisibility, Mirror Image, and Mislead. A Necromancer -> Cleric dual-class can be powerful, as the save penalty applies to divine magic like Slay Living, Harm, and Finger of Death.
• Transmuter: Requires 15 Dexterity. Opposing School: Abjuration. Lost Spells include Breach, Dispel/Remove Magic, and Protection From... Transmuters lose access to crucial utility spells.

The Wild Mage in Shadows of Doubt introduces randomness to arcane spellcasting. They gain an extra spell of each level per day and have a 5% chance of a wild surge when casting a spell. Spells can affect targets as if cast by a caster up to five levels below or above the actual caster level, and they gain access to three unique Wild Mage spells. The author expresses a strong dislike for Wild Mages due to the unpredictable nature of wild surges, which can lead to beneficial, neutral, or detrimental outcomes, such as a Skull Trap wiping out the party or a crucial Stoneskin spell fizzling.

Mage Spell Progression details the number of spells available per level. Specialist and Wild Mages can learn an extra spell of each spell level compared to non-specialists. The progression table shows the increasing number of spells available across levels 1 through 28+.