Hi all,
I just started IWD and managed to get through the prologue (man, that ogre was brutal). But I'm really disappointed in the number of spells that my mage can cast (a grand total of 1).
Would anyone reccommend using specialist mages over generalists?
I am considering building a party with 2 specialists, an Illusionist and a Necromancer, just to get more spells at low levels.
Will this cause me any real problems later on?
Thanks.

-WSCraft

If you know how to do it, try to dual class a human fighter into mage. Because even with those extra spells, in the first half of the game your mage won't have much to do: put him to crossbow duty. But you don't need to sacrifice him into a multiclass fightermage, just create a level 1 human fighter and have him change at whim into a fully functional bowcaster mage.

Usually you hear suggestions about illusionist (that gnome combo) or necromancer: but in my experience, there's some abjuration spells that will make you cry if you miss them. Better deal with it asap! :P

I recommend to get a sling with bullets and only crowd control spells like sleep until you have more slots to memorize. You don't really need to specialize unless you don't mind losing spells from the opposite school, if you do mind then get a general mage. Most of the damage comes from a bow user (specially long bow) so don't worry if your mage doesn't do that much damage in the beginning, use him as a support mage for the first few parts of the game. Later on your mage will be a power house.

If you want to cast many spells per day specialising your mages is definitely worth it.
You can beat the game with 2 specialist mages in the party. They'll be quite useless at low levels compared to warriors but later in the game they'll get more spells.
Be aware that only one scroll exists for most spells so you'll have to distribute the scrolls wisely.

I'd rather take a bard as secondary arcane caster instead of the necromancer. They are perfect diplomats, get more hitpoints, level faster and therefore get higher casting levels (longer lasting haste for example) than mages and get useful songs (the level 11 song removes the need for normal healing spells and lets your priests memorize combat spells instead).

The thing I don't like about specialist mages is that you are sacrificing a complete school of magi or sometimes 2 for an extra slot to memorize, for me that's not a good reward. Mages level 1 no matter if general or specialized have little power to cast. Just get him a sling with bullets and wait for him to level.

Bard are also good, level faster with mage spells but remember if your going to cast you can't wear armor.

Alright, thanks for the tips, fellas.
Since I didn't know about the problem with scroll availability, I'll probably restart with a bard instead of a second mage.
I might also splash some fighter levels so I can use bows more effectively.
Thanks again.

-WSCraft

Don't worry about scrolls, there's at least 2 of each. Get two different specialty mages so you will at least be casting different spells.

And leave bards alone.

Don't listen to xdiesp, you create whatever party you enjoy the most, at the end is just a game to have fun.

See, the thing I liked about taking 2 specialists, one illusionist and one necromancer, is that the schools oppose each other (iirc) so, I could have the extra spell slots early on and not miss out on any spells later on.

After goofing around a little in-game, I wonder if an all wizard party would be viable.

All specialist mages except transmuters have different forbidden spell schools than illusionists and combine well with them.
Since you get up to 20 different spells per spell level, many double scrolls exist and one good spell per casting level is enough to be quite effective you can even have 6 useful specialist mages if you distribute the scrolls wisely. Just don't expect to get self protection spells for everyone.

I think if you want multiple mages the best way is to have 3 tops, maybe 4 if you multi class the thief, reason is I believe a tank and healer/buffer are needed in party based games. Try it out and let us know. I am interested in your outcome.

Yeesh. That challenge might be better suited to someone who knows the game a bit better than I do. My first party just arrived in the Vale of Shadows this morning. ;)

Could you imagine that party? All wizards... Full of grumpy old geezers, they would irritate every NPC they came across, They would be banned throughout the whole of the Dale, it would be frightenly horriffic! And I can't even imagine, how they would agree upon who would have the honor of lighting the fire at night with their wizardry...it would be chaos! It would make a fun Play.

I had a fairly easy time with one specialist and one general mage in my party. The specialist was a conjurer, and the general was a multi-classed thief/mage. Seemed to be a pretty good balance. I also has a bard in the party, so between the three of them, I had all the schools pretty well covered.