Okay, I've played the vanilla version of Gothic 2 I believe 5 times, once for each guild and a couple of extra playthroughs, although it was years ago. The point is, I guess, that I'm not a newbie. And I just played through Gothic 1 and thought it was awesome. I started the gog NotR version as a mage, thinking the challenge would be interesting. I'm in the Eye of Innos chapter (3? 4?) and I think I'm going to give up on the mage thing. Honestly, what is the point? All of the decent spells cost a ridiculous amount of mana points to cast from a rune, but only 5 mana to cast from a scroll. I've picked the accessible areas clean of fire nettles, etc., and I'm a bit nervous about running out of money and mana potions. I leveled to the third circle, but there's no point in creating that summon skeleton rune since it costs friggin' 60 mana to cast and I only have 49 so far. I'm about level 13 and still can't kill off a single Seeker without the help of a scroll, which I could use as any class and still have some decent fighting skills to back it up with. I guess I could keep battling through this way, but see no point. And I kind of like the melee fighting in Gothic games anyway. So, it's back to the drawing board - I think I'll try the mercenary route.

you won't have more luck with a level 13 fighting character. 13 is way too weak for your progress. i guess you haven't been in jharkendar yet? give it a try, you anyways have to in order to fix the eye of innos. it's easier than seekers for the most part and you'll be way stronger when you come back.

to be honest i never played the vanilla version but acording to my knowledge the difference is huge. so the chalenge would be interesting isn't the needed attitude for starting with notr. you should be prepared to not being able to defend enemies who never have been a real threat in the vanilla version.

Well, I would love to get to Jharkendar, but I still need to retrieve 2 more pieces of the ring thing, and the one stone circle at the farmer's field is surrounded by 3 (maybe more - I don't want to get that close) Seekers. The other stone circle is in the middle of an area that I am too weak to enter in the east woods. I got the one up in the farmer's field. Maybe I will go ahead and hit them with a fire rain scroll and grab that piece. It looks like Lares might help me through the woods... Perhaps Jharkendar will re-inspire me.

Have you played through as a mage in NotR? I just think that perhaps there aren't any benefits to being a mage in this version of the game. Looking ahead, and having read some posts by people similarly frustrated, I don't think I will enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I don't mind a challenge, but there has to be a reward, if you know what I mean.

It is possible that I progressed through the plot too quickly for my experience points, probably because I remembered generally where things were, etc., and did have to resort to cheesy tactics in some spots (luring critters to NPCs who killed them for me, etc.), but not having much mana and terrible combat stats, those seemed like my only choices.

ok, i guess my post weren't really helpfull...

yeah i played through notr as mage but i'm always focused on melee. i actually learned all circles, some nice spells but for the most pasrt i used two handed swords.(i know, really mage like...).

anyways, lets see how we could get you to jharkendar. first if you have a save game from before starting the 3rd chapter it might be worth a thought to go to jharkendar before you trigger the beginning of the 3rd chapter so you nedn't face seekers while going after the ring peaces. afair the 3rd chapter begins after you return from the mine colonie(sorry, i have absolutely no idea what it's called in english) after you got the proov from garond for lord hagen(letter thingy saying there are really dragons).

even before there are seekers the forest is tough area, lares will help a lot. one idea to get to the stone circle in the forest without encountering too heavy enemies is to go from khorinis to the lighthouse. there is a crossing(left - lighthouse, right - some npc(niclas in german), ahead - forest). before the way leads up a hill(2 wargs) you should turn left till you reach the steep coast(innos shrine, 3 snapper). if you follow that coast you eventually come to a mounten(monitor maybe in english?_?) after following that for a while you should see the stone circle. if you are carefull you wont meet any wargs and seekers.
if you go there before starting the 3rd chapter there is still a easier way. go from akils farm into the forest till you come to a crossing, than turn right. i'm not sure, it's a long time since i last played it, but there mght be goblin skeletons and a weak skeleton.

in notr alchemie is absolutely mandatorry. without permanant mana potions you can't hope to get your mana reasonably high. you should learn mana up to 60(64) but no more than 90(94). than drink every mana increasing thingi you can get you'Re hands on. you should end up between 200 and 300 mana. should be enough.

i'd also advice to just go after some weak enemies, to get some exp.

i remember how hard seekers were, if you aren't good prepared(strong enough to kill them reasonably fast). even good prepared a group isn'T beatable without "special tactics" like a firestorm.

edit: i thought it a lot of fun to kill the orcs arround the castle with ice wave/death wave. so i think a well skilled mage is rewarding but a ill skilled mage will be frustrating as fuck. :)

edit2: don'T expect jharkendar to be easy there are some very hard points(troll, orcs) but as it's a "new area" there are also a lot of weak enemies and quests to get some exp.(the first time you have to fight orcs, there will be about 5 npcs helping you)

edit3: if you don't know that yet. "dark mushrooms"(well that thing replanishing 5 hp) provide a bonus to mana for eating 50 of them(+5 mana). if you are very wary you can get up to 50 mana tthis way.

Thank you for your detailed reply. Hmmm, maybe I could reload from a previous save and work on those stone circles. It would also help me if, like you suggested, I got my alchemy skills working a little earlier in the game - like before I'd chewed all those fire nettles! I will consider this. I must have a save somewhere in the second chapter - I save at the beginning of each, but also when attempting something potentially stupid - there must be one in there somewhere.

I did have some fun throwing fireballs at the orcs from castle walls. If only the militiamen weren't so stupid jumping off the 40 foot wall to their deaths like that...

I appreciate the suggestions. I DO hate quitting in the middle of something, but I have just been so frustrated with the slow progress. I remember in the vanilla game my knight could just walk up to those seekers and slice them into tiny evil pieces. This playthrough I've been just running away with my tail between my legs.

maybe it'd really be best to start over. in notr you have to plan in the beginning where and WHEN you want to invest your lp. especially to learn attributes before using permanent potions and stuff like that.
if you don't do that you need extreme strategies. i for one can kill nearly anything(except dragons and seekers) without learning much strength/weapon skill and for the dragons there are shrink scrolls and stuff like that but doing so is a tedious business.

well, probably you haven't much fucked up jet, as you are still rather low level. i guess it's "rescueable" by killing some weaklings to learning permanent mana potion and searching for the ingredients. while doing that you'll automatically get some levels. ;)

one thing i allways forget are transformation scrolls. they can help a lot(dragon snapper(can be found in a underwater cave near the bridge over that tiny river by the castle in mine colony), "shadow walker", "fire monitor") but i think there was some problem, without any mods you don'T receive the exp for kills while transformed but i'm really not sure. again thats something also fighters could do.

Well, I still haven't made up my mind what I'm going to do. And I haven't had a chance to play again yet. I think it would probably be fun to start over with a clearer picture of what I want to do.

I did find the dragon snapper scroll - used it (I think on those 2 bandits under the arch) - and actually leveled up while I was transformed, so, yes, if there was a problem with receiving experience while transformed it has been fixed.

What is the exact problem with them, can't deal enough damage? Because some creatures are resistant or even immune to certain elements, have you tried using some different spells other than fireball?

Well, I really had to get creative as a magician - scrolls are often better but not as available. Forget strength - get dexterity early and use rapiers for close combat. Use magical swords (especially ones that go "Zaappp!!!" - I will say no more :) ). Transform scrolls are very useful indeed (even wolves as it appears onlu humans attack them) as are helper scrolls (skeletons, demons, armies, etc).

I think this works here (but there are likely spoilers): search my name at this site (perhaps all posts by a particular member; in this case, me) - a lot of my early questions involved this very subject and a lot of my thoughts as well as a ton of great help from the experienced ones are there.

lordhoff, thanks for your help. I have restarted my playthrough as a mercenary, but I certainly will be replaying a mage eventually. I think doing my first NOTR playthrough as a mage was being a bit overambitious - for me that is. And frankly, I always THINK I might like playing a mage in RPGs, but really prefer the simplicity of warriors 90% of the time. Maybe it's the unattractive robes mages are always forced to wear. Or maybe I just like pummeling things.

I have read many of your posts already, having scoured this forum for clues to what I was doing wrong. Mainly I think I rushed through the main plot too quickly and missed the Jarkendaar content almost completely. I also sort of depleted my mana resources too soon. With NOTR you really do have to conserve. And be willing to slowly and patiently build your character.

My current mercenary character is much more fun for me. And I've gotten into Jarkendaar and am loving the new areas. I haven't even entered the valley of mines yet - just stretching things out, getting experience where I can and backing off when an area is obviously beyond my capabilities to explore without using every expensive scroll in the game.

It did take a long time to be accepted as a mercenary. I kept having to leave the farm, kill some more beasties, etc., raise strength, raise my 2 handed weapon skill, rinse and repeat. When I finally beat the snot out of Raoul it felt very, very good.

My next playthrough will probably be militia. But I think I'll try Gothic 3 before I go back to 2. I'm anxious to see whether G3 will actually be playable (with all the patches) on my current PC - the vanilla, unpatched version I had literally crashed every minute or so on my old PC.

I recently got 3 from Direct2Drive (defunct) and the new team doesn't have Gothic 3 information ready yet so I can't play the game. So, I just ordered it from GOG since who knows how long it'll be to when it will be ready. I'll be starting some time this week. Be interesting to see how our questions will be similar or not. Won't get "Forsaken" though (don't like cheap fakes :) ).

lordhoff, I'm with you on the cheap fakes thing. I would love to try Risen, though. Amazon is selling the disk for like $60.00! For a game that's already 'old' by today's standards! The other choice is Steam, which is much cheaper - but I don't like Steam, frankly.

I'm having another problem with G2 now, but I think I at least have some idea of what to try next (see my newest post about the game using an old physical copy).

Try here: http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-RISEN/risen

About 1/3 the price.