I’m new to LARPing and Empire and thinking about doing my test of citizenship at E2.
I want to go into magic but want to be on the front lines in battle, I was thinking about being a battle mage but wasn’t really sure what it entirely was can someone explain?
Battle Mage as the skill allows you to wield a staff rather than a rod for casting magic. It also allows you to use Mage Armour which increases your Hit total by an extra 2. Magic cannot otherwise be cast when in armour, including ritual.
The benefit his is you’d be slightly hardier and the staff gives you extended reach for touching to cast spells over a rod and a longer bonking range for more mundane Hits.
Generally Mages, when deployed in battle, work in groups to achieve specific tactics such as all using Shatter to open a chunk of a defensive line, but that’s just one of the options to approaching magic in combat.
For Magician and Battle Mage it is a 4 Point investment of your starting 8 but if you decide to try this route for your first event and really do not rate it, you can request a full respec (for your first event) and you do not have to spend your points prior to the Event. So make sure to explore magic off the battlefield to see if it’s something you enjoy the roleplay of!
Thank you this was very helpful.
I have a few questions though, what is a 4 point investement and what is a full respec.
Also what are the spells they can cast and can battle mages still use swords as well as staffs?
You have 8 points to spend on character skills and similar, when starting a new character.
(these are sometimes referred to as XP, or experience points, as you get more, very slowly, in play)
If you’re spending 2 points on the skill Magician, and a further 2 points on the skill Battlemage, then you’ve already spent 4 points on your character concept. A “4-point investment”.
A “respec” or respecification is another term from other RPGs, and means rebuilding the character. A “full respec” would thus mean going to the Games Operation Desk (GOD) and saying “I want to refund all the points I’ve spent on my character and sort out all their skills again.” And if it’s your first event, they generally say “no problem, let’s go!”
For later events, it’s possible to do so 1 skill at a time. I recently dropped the 1 point skill [Chirugeon] for the 1 point buy of [Extra Spell: Mend]
Any character can use swords (and axes, and maces, and other 1 handed weapons). Mages can also use rods and wands. Battlemages can use staffs as well.
So you CAN use swords still, but not at the same time as the 2-handed staff.
The complete list of skills to spend points on, for reference, is here:
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thank you
Whoops, missed this question.
Anyone with Magician gets the spells:
Detect Magic
Open Portal
Create Bond
as standard.
Other spells are purchased individually with character points, using the [Extra Spell] skill. Note there are two lists of spells, regular and offensive, but for purchasing the spells they are are identical.
A classic battlemage build would therefore be:
Magician: 2
Battlemage 2
Extra mana 1
Extra Spell: Repel 1
Extra Spell: Entangle 1
Extra Spell: Heal 1
(Total of 8, for a staff-wielding mage-armoured wizard able to really mess up an enemy battle line, and heal his buddies. 4 hits, 6 spells.)