I wandered around the forest for a while taking down mobs to hit level 6. Mostly quest mobs but others as well. One example is our old friends the Forest Wolf Pack. 4 Wolves and an Alpha:

Forest Wolf LV 1 25 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 50/s

Skills: Slash: 15 damage | Bite: 20 damage

Alpha Forest Wolf LV 5 150 EXP

Hp 150 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 20 damage | Bite: 25 damage

Narrator:

HP: 170 | Mana: 385

With my newfound Phase 2 might this was an easy fight. Extend and Quicken first, then Stupefaction on the Alpha. Follow up with 2 Arcane Missiles in 2 seconds, causing me to take 60 bite damage. Another AM and 40 bite damage. Another and -20 bite damage.

-60 health -40 health -20 health

-120 health

-60 mana -60 mana -60 mana -40 mana -40 mana -40 mana

-300 mana

-5 seconds

Stun is still on the alpha for 10.675 seconds. I've regened 50 mana so 135 remains. I cast Arcane Missile 3 times for the final kill. I likely could have avoided taking 70% of my health but why bother? Of course I lose 40% of the exp from the Wolves and get no boost from the Alpha. 25*.6=15*4=60 and then 150 from the Alpha. Still it wasn't long ago where I was pounding them with a stick and desparately AoE rooting them. I would have taken far less damage against 3 minions, 60 instead of 120. I suppose I could have cast Lockdown and saved a few more hits at the cost of a bit of waiting and staff poking.

Against most single target monsters I was now quite hard to stop. I encountered 2 Dusk Prowlers at the end of my day hunting in the woods but not at the same time.

Dusk Prowler LV 9 400 EXP

Hp 600 STR 20 DEX 10 CON 40 MOV 50/s

Skills: Slash: 25 damage | Bite: 30 damage | Armored: 20% PHY MIT | Oh My!: -40% disable duration

Narrator:

HP: 170 | Mana: 385

Easy peasy. Quicken, Stupefaction. No boosts. 6.84 second stun.

385M-80MC=205M+20MR=225M

I no longer need to deal physical damage. I cast Arcane Missile 5 times.

225M-200MC+50MR=75M

I cast Stupefaction and charge the Alpha after with my Haste speed buff up. 1 second and 1 second.

75M+20MR-60MC=35M

I have now dealth 250 damage to my enemy. 7 more Arcane Missiles would work. My new staff deals:

10+STR+INT/2=20+15=35D

So it would take 10 staff hits. I have the Prowler under Stun for 5.84 more seconds. 5 hits. Cast Stupefaction, 5 more hits and its over. Even easier than the Wolves. Luckily from 2 of these guys I pick up a whopping 1120 EXP. Not bad. After all that I realized I didn't spend my skill points. I load 2 more into Stupefaction to max it out. Well not really since Arcane is Phase 2. I get to town and turn in my quests. That puts me 2000 EXP into the next level.

+4000exp (5200/3200) (2000/6400) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 6!!!!

You have gained 20HP, 30MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point(bonus)!

190 Health | 415 Mana

I now have 2 more skill points. I drop them into Arcane Missile for obvious reasons. 60 total damage. Fully maxed out with skills it would deal 150 damage(unreduceable). It could be impacted by buffs, just not magic resistance or mitigation. It sadly doesn't benefit from high INT since it ignores resistance or mitigation. It is impacted by low INT however. WIS saves will drop damage to 50% or 25% depending on the opposed check. Arcane Usurption treats a spell as Arcane for all purposes so it does ignore both resistance and mitigation.

Now I can select two more skills. I take both options from the Arcane Talent:

Arcane Endowment: +6 mana cost _ +6 damage _ +16% damage | 4 spells | Cast 2s | 60 mana

Arcane Proficiency: -20% mana cost(multiplicative) | 4 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Vigor: +20% duration | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Those are my 3 options. I didn't even consider Arcane Usurption since I don't have non-Arcane damage spells yet. In the end I am worried about mana, especially for Arcane Missile spam, so I leave Vigor, an otherwise amazing option, for another day. I did consider Boost from the Metamagic tree, but it is slightly weaker than I'd like even as High Mage compensates for it being Phase 1. I suspect I might take both Vigor and Boost next level. Keep in mind that I don't know I am getting a Damage Type Free Talent from my quest. Obviously I might have saved some Selection points, if not Skill points, had I known that.

Taking these two Arcane Enhancement spells, the closest thing to Metamagic besides perhaps skills from the Adept Talent(I know this only in hindsight), which focus on mana efficiency, does complicate my spell chain. It also forces me to take time in battle to recast if I choose. One advantage of these two over Vigor is they both work on 4 spells. You can hold Metamagic and Arcane Enhancements for the spells you want, they don't auto trigger on every cast. That would have been a serious downgrade.

In any case I go to the Guild stores and grab some gear with my 4 Gold. I pick up a CON/Health Amulet for 2 Gold. 50 health and 1/4H per second, lol, plus +5 health per level. I am now sitting at 240 Health. I also sell my current mana ring for one giving 100 mana, costing me the other 2 gold plus trade in value. I now have 465 Mana.

I start off on my first serious quest at this point. Adventure Awaits!

I rush through the woods at dawn clearing the usual forest trash on the way. Not much that is dangerous to me now. For a player with a Basic, Uncommon, or perhaps even Extraordinary template this would be a level 10 area. A legendary player mght need to be at level 8. Luckily for me and my attempt to be the best mage in the world, as a player with a Unique(Secret Background) Template I can bull through at level 6.

I finally hit the swamp after 6 long hours. I've got roughly 8 before the nasty stuff comes out. I hope to reach level 7 before then to help me survive the night if I can't find shelter. I run into my first serious monster an hour later. A Swamp Ogre... Seriously? I'll later discover this is a pattern, the developers considered themselves too clever by half.

Swamp Ogre LV 11 800 EXP

Hp 800 STR 40 DEX 10 CON 80 MOV 20/s

Skills: Smash: 50 damage | Slam: 80 damage | Armored: 20% PHY MIT | Ogre!: -50% disable duration

Narrator:

HP: 240 | Mana: 465

I prepare my new arsenal for the fight. I cast Extend, followed by Proficiency. Then Arcane Endowment(~Proficient/~Extended), then Quicken(Proficient/Extended). Can't be too careful. I try to cast Spell Count spells before Timed Spells for obvious reasons. Quicken at 7.5*1.2*1.375=12.375s of Haste. Now we are ready to go. Next up we have Stupefaction! 8.5*1.375*1.2*.5=7.0125s of Stun. Both spells are under Proficiency so I save some mana.

465M-72MC-48MC-60MC=285M

I have 2 more spells under Proficiency and 4 under endowment. Endowment but I am down to 1 Extended Spell. Saved for Stupefaction again probably. I then cast 2 Arcane Missiles which are both Endowed and Proficient and Hasted. (40+6)*.8=37MC

285M-37MC-37MC=211M

Haste 12.375-1-1-1=9.375

Stun 7.0125-1-1=5.0125

I deal (60+6)*1.16=77.56*2=155 damage.

800-155=645

I cast Endowment again, its a roughly 25% damage increase, but it only costs 50% or so extra mana and it ends up even on time vs an extra missile. I've got 6 charges of Endowment left and and 1 Extend charge and 0 Proficiency charges.

285M-60MC=151M+10MR*4=191M

Haste 9.375-1=8.375s

Stun 5.0125-1=4.0125s

I next cast 3 Arcane Missiles and 1 Stupefaction.

645-229.75=415.25

191M-138MC-MC60+40MR=33M

Haste 8.375s-4=4.375s

Stun 4.0125s-1=0.0125s+7.0125s=7.025s

I had 33M and 240H and just 2 charges of Endowment. I needed to recast Quicken for 10.2s of Haste. The cost would be just the regular 40. I run to the beast and attack for 35*.8=28 damage, cast Quicken, then attack again for another 84 damage. I now have 3+30=33M.

415-112=313.25

33M

Haste 4.375s-2+10.2-3=9.575s

Stun 7.025s-5=2.025s

I've knocked it down to ~42% health but things are getting rough with mana and Stun. I takes 2 seconds to hit me but it would do 50 and then 80 and then 80, and then I'd be dead the next hit. 8 seconds. I can deal 9 staff hits and then recast Quicken in that time and then Stun it before it gets through its attack. However with 33+120=155M-40-60=55M that leaves me at 1 hit with a single cast of Stun. Luckily I can chain Stun for I don't care Quicken again. However that leaves me with very, very limited DPS. In the end I take it down, 1 hit from death, slowly abusing Stun.

For EXP I get 800*1.5=1200. Not amazing but not bad. I started at 2000. So halfway not including previous trash mob slaying. I pick up a few items, mostly useless to me personally. Some gold. I also realize I have +50% mana regen so I've been using the wrong mana numbers this whole time. Something to make sure I keep track of in the future. Some of these fights may not have been as close as I recall. Its been almost 40 years though so cut me some slack, I'm an old man now. Regardless I end up around 4400 EXP with only a few more hours till nightfall. Frankly this swamp is dangerous as hell.

I end up fighting a few Swamp Serpents and another Swamp Ogre to hit my next level. The second fight finds me in a much calmer state of mind, subjectively in my narration, due to my much better mana management capabilities.

+4000exp (8400/6400) (2000/12800) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 7!!!!

You have gained 25HP, 30MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point(bonus)!

265 Health | 495 Mana

I realize at this point I didn't allocate my stats last time so I have 4 to go. I dump them into CHA so I can pretend I didn't lose 2 Mana on that last level. I need CHA anyways don't judge me.

I put my 2 skillpoints into Magic Missile. Gotta get that DPS. 70 base damage. I have 2 selection points which I drop into Boost and Vigor. More Haste, more Stun, more Root, more Damage. Gotta be tough to clear out this swamp. Really need to max out on mana items after this though, even with my newly remembered regeneration boost. Maybe I should dump my stats into WIS for a while. 12 WIS with my Manawell Ability is worth a solid 9 regen a second.

I've also learned some lessons about the mana vs casting time efficiency of some of my Enhancement spells. Casting efficiency is good vs multiple targets but less relevant vs single targets. In any case I push on into the swamp, glad my low but existing natural health regen handles these vapors and fumes. Terrible smelling place.

I reach whatever the swamp version of a glade is in a few hours, only seeing weaker swamp creatures. Probably because smart swamp creatures sensed the evil here and moved on. There is an extra nasty pool of fluids here as well as a hut. Before the pool kneels my Quest Goal, staring into the waters. Next to him sits a tumeric colored creature that appears to be a nymph. However my basic Illusion magic skills let me see through the facade. It may have been a water nymph once but its something more horrible now.

They are engrossed in conversation as I approach. Discussing magical theory and chemistry. I assumed it had something to do with that rancid, putrid, vile pool. They look up as I approach and the "Nymph" is clearly not happy. I engage the half-elf in a discussion of his brother and family. Luckily social bonuses work on horrifying decay nymphs.

After a tense "discussion" I agree to leave the half elf alone with his reeking lover. W/e, he's already mixed, and I am a player so I don't really care. It is probably for the best. I'm not sure this is a fight I could win. Thank god for bonus dialogue... For braving the swamp and accepting their relationship I finally get my first Free Talent, the aptly named Miasma. They were studying that, erm, unique magic here at this pool. I stay for 2 days, a sad loss of grinding time and a relatively unpleasant experience. Luckily the software in those days wasn't any better at stenches and slimy, clammy sensations than at sex or suffering.

Aside from my time, I lost something to get this Talent. Both the reward of gold and a regional half-elven and elven reputation bonus. I am only thank my social bonuses let me avoid a regional reputation drop. I did miss out, I later learned, on some elf related quests and rewards, but Miasma is a Tier 1 Damage Talent although it uses long duration curses and debuffs and so forth. Not Pyromancy by any stretch. Still Pyromancy is only Tier 3 so not a total loss. Plus it synergizes with my build, and later on I would learn it had a unique synergy with Chronomancy. Time Magic is the best magic afterall.

I leveled up for finishing my quest and farming the swamp on the way back and once I hit the town I paused to evaluate my prize. There are two other ways to pick up Miasma but it is pretty rare as Free Talents go and given its synergy with my build I would later conclude the loss of Elven quests was worth it. There is room for debate but Miasma is just a fun Talent so I Rule of Cooled it as an outright win.

Free Talents come with a bonus ability point and 2 options added to your overall ability tree under the archetype section. You also get 2 starter selection points just for that talent. No skill points and no extra points per level. You get 5 free stats as well. Presumably incase its a Talent in an Archetype you don't have a Template for yet.

Effluvium: Enemies under affliction have DoTs on them increase duration by 20%

Smog: Enemies under affliction miss 25% of basic physical attacks

Not to hate on random chance based options but obviously I took Effluvium. A single Miasma spell, or other affliction style spell triggers the effect and it works on all DoTs. Effects and damage benefit from the increased duration. Yes please!

+4000exp (14800/12800) (2000/25600) Lvl Up!!! Lvl 8!!!!

You have gained 25HP, 30MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point(bonus)!

290 Health | 525 Mana

I used 1 point for Charisma, 1 for Mem, and 5 for Wisdom. I used 2 skill points on Arcane Missile. 80 base damage. Level 6.

Miasma as a Tier 1 Talent provided 4 skills at Phase 1. Which is good since I had 4 selection points.

Miasma Phase 1 Spell List:

Splash: 25 damage + 5 DoT/3s + CON -10% | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Infect: DEX/STR -10% + 5 DoT/10s | 3 target Mark | ranged 20 feet | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Fester: 4 DoT/10s | Mark+ 3 target Mark | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 20 mana

Envenom: 8 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Obviously I take all 4 skills. So stat damage impacts enemy stats temporarily. This lowers damage, move speed, health, etc. Mark is a mechanic where you some spells produce and some require Marks. They last the duration of the spell but spells that require them play out their full duration. Mark is only an acquisition requirement. Not all spells that require Marks also add Marks.

While all Miasma offensive spells apply Affliction they don't all apply or require Marks. Specifically Envenom and Splash are Acid/Venom damage and don't engage with Marks. Infest and Fester are Disease. Later spells engage with Darkness and Poison and Bleeding and these involve Marks in some way. Rot damage does this as well. Fire also applies marks if a DoT is involved. Lightning and Ice do not.

Phase 2 is where Miasma really takes off. It also synergizes well with Rogue Archetypes as well as Talents involved Darkness or Degredation. Time Magic actually has some good duration and DoT options in later Phases, including Phase 2. I didn't know this then but I wanted to upgrade Chronomancy anyways. Because Time Magic is the best magic.

I spent the gold I made from kills, since I didn't get my quest gold, buying another mana ring. +100 mana. I also snagged a magical garment for +10% physical mitigation. Expensive but worth it. There were no amazing health accessories in the area so I couldn't go that route. I could theoretically wear armor but it wasn't ideal for a mage, especially low level armor.

In my next log I'll dig into my first Epic Quest, a quest from the Mages Guild that paid off a lot down the line. Also you'll finally get to see a fight where I calculate my Mana Regeneration properly. Super embarrassing. Miasma really relies on Haste to work for me. At least if I want to keep power leveling. In fact Haste really carries me as a character with no party assistance. I actually briefly join some NPC parties/groups in my epic quest. Till next time.