MAngband

I am considering starting a mage and would like a bit of advice on starting him off, namely race/stats.

How much strength is too low? I tried rolling a hobbit mage with strength as his last stat (for a final strength of 3 XD) and he was slow (-1) with a pretty slim loadout. Is this just par for the course?

What I tried was: Hobbit Mage, Int, Con, Wis, Cha, Dex, Str. My logic was that Int for spells, Con because I will need every hp I can get, Cha so I can get a good sell price (I was able to sell torches for $2), Wis for all of it's secondary stuff, and then dump dex and str. Is this viable? Am I putting too much emphasis on Cha?

My other thought wif the strength is a real issue: High Elf Mage, Int, Con, Str, Cha, Dex, Wis. The idea here is that High Elves already have some nice bonuses to save and such, and could get enough strength to not be slowed (does it matter?).

I would really like to make the hobbit work, but I was concerned about the playability of such a low strength character.

• Will I not notice the terrible strength after a few levels?
  Will those levels be so agonizing that I will never get by them without a friend?
  Can someone instruct me about what I might be doing wrong (or right) in my stat order choice?
  Or just recommend the hobbit or high elf that they would make?

Thanks in advance,

Binary

Check this: http://www.mangband.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1307

Thanks! This is a really nice starting point for general operating procedures.

Ok, Zal recommends gnome with INT, CON, STR, CHA, WIS, DEX, which as far as I can tell isn't TOO different from a hobbit. This leads me to believe that I won't miss the strength too much.

I'll try a hobbit with this stat order, see how long he lives. My only question:

Why is the strength third priority? Carrying weight?

Yes. Since each spellbook is 3 pounds, and you want to have multiple copies (2 or 3 usually) to avoid being stolen or destroyed by fire, it can weigh down a very weak mage.
In fact, strength rings can be very useful for a mage.

If you want my opinion, dump CHA. I'm pretty new to mangband, so I may be wrong, but charisma only affects sell/buy-prices, while every other stat affects your combat abilities. No matter what race/role, charisma is my last stat. It may be hard for the first 5-10 levels, but after that, cash really becomes no object in this game.

I disagree, but then, i commonly play half troll rogues. With them, unless you never want any money till you start getting charisma pots, your gonna want to choose charisma before others.

But really, for most every class, charisma is more important than at least one state. For magic people, its more important than wis. For holy people, its more important than int. For hurty people, its more important than int or wis. These are just my oppinions, but i suffer if i don't do stuff like this

For a hobbit, I'd go with

INT CON STR (DEX or CHR) lastly WIS.

This because Hobbits have great innate saving throws, and great ranged fighting ability, so getting a bow at the start is a must (longbow if you can afford that). And having DEX as the 4th stat usually improves to hit by 1 with a hobbit mage I believe. Later on (1500 feet), you get stat potions, and when you've maxed your stats, the starting order won't matter at all.

Then you dive down to 400 feet and avoid all orcs and most p's and kill the high easy monster with the bow (jellies, mushrooms, molds night lizards and such) - note that nagas and snakes have a high AC, so hitting them with a bow will be hard. But magic missiles work wonders here.

ZAL