How annoying is it to be a Dark Elf Mage?

[DMN]

Permanent blue balls.

[jolanar]

Playing a dark elf agnostic character the faction is decent in the human cities, but bad pretty much everywhere else, including Highpass.

On the plus side you can travel to Grobb/Oggok which I'd probably rather have than any city in Faydwer anyways.

You will get hide, but as a magician it will be pretty useless since a successful hide will kill your pet.

[Vexenu]

Unless you really like their aesthetic for whatever reason, Dark Elf is objectively the worst Mage race. Hide is worthless on a class that will have a pet up 99% of the time. And Mages can summon a Coldstone (which you can stick in the otherwise useless ammo slot) to have Ultravision. There's basically no upside whatsoever on a practical level. Of course, race is pretty irrelevant on a practical level for all Mages (besides Gnome wallvision for Eye of Zomm/CoTH cheesing, which you can mimic with a shrink pot if you really need it). Fashionquest/aesthetics should ultimately win out, though.

[Allurya]

It's great!

[Gustoo]

If you want to be a dark elf be a dark elf. Doesn't make much difference and being evil scum and antonica based you have convenient access to level up spots while being near evil banks that will take your money in ogre and troll city and neriak.

But you will never hear the sweet songs of the halfling village without doing some faction work.

[Philistine]

Originally Posted by Gustoo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But you will never hear the sweet songs of the halfling village without doing some faction work.

Or until you become powerful enough to enter the home city of the puny halflings as their foe and exact your vengeance upon them for a lifetime of racism!!

Do iiiit [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Gustoo]

Having some places in the game that are happy hometowns are nice, since most of the game is just NPC's that want to kill you. That is the worst part about being evil race, is that there are less places to call home. Iksars only get to be Cabalis without faction work.

Traditional evils have

Tunnels Freeport
Tunnels Qeynos
Neriak
Ogguk
Grobb
Paineel? Not sure if trolls and ogres can go in paineel non KOS
Goodies have

Felwith
Kelethin
Kaladim
Akanon
Rivervale
Freeport
Qeynos
Surefall
Erudin

That said I think it is easier for an evil to collect the most complete positive faction than it is for a goodie. Evil humans for example can go to almost everywhere with marginal faction right from the get go. As a bristlebane worshipper I am not very KOS in a lot of places and with DE mask I got a lot of pals.

[Foxplay]

Best mage is gnome, simply because they don't need shrink pots to drop eyeballs for solo coth. Although if someone is anchor for you it doesn't really matter

Racial starting stats really don't mean anything for magician as INT will be easy to get to 200+ regardless of race with even mediocore gear.

In general the whole race / religion faction problem is completely irrelevant with the exception of enchanters / agnostic. Old world zones pretty much nothing sees invis and you use them less and less when kunark / velious are available. Both of those expansions race and religion mean very little

[Cen]

Faction for Agnostic DEs is far harsher here then classic, but it's still not horrendous.

You will be KOS to highkeep guards even though you should be dubious for example.