Hello fellow players

So tomorrow we are starting a new campagin as one of the guys carnt participate we will be playing when he carnt.

I am intending to play mage. We have the 3 expansions (not shadows of nerekhall) and base game availibly. As i have played both the necromancer and runemaster before, i am going for either geomancer or Hexer, the only issue is, i carnt figure out what they are supposed to do, nor how to build them?

Where to start, what to do with them? The hexer seems to relay on surges to place hexes, but this is rather random, and the effects aint that awesome.

The geomancer, well he places obstacles, and well.... can attack with them when he places them.

Help me see some fun in either, its not couse we want to optimize, i would just really like to play one of them but they just seem.... well underwhelming and boring.

I like the geomancer a lot more than the hexer, way way more. The geomancer is complex and can be played in multiple ways, and will depend a fair amount on which character you choose to play with him. I'd recommend High Mage Quellen for the geomancer, you'll need the stamina.

The Geomancer can get an AoE stun, can learn to summon multiple obstacle stones and buff them up a bit, allowing you to plug gaps in hallways, gets free surges when his attacks target someone adjacent to his stone, and he can proxy attacks from across the map with them. He can learn to forcibly move enemies around, so on and so forth. It's a very solid class, but it's harder to play well than runemaster or necromancer. Getting a new weapon ASAP should be a big priority for you however, as the stasis rune doesn't have the necessary damage output to make full use of his abilities. I'd recommend avoiding the ability that blows up your stone as a blast attack, at least for a short while, as the Geomancer performs better and has more versatility when you try to get as many of the stones out as possible. The Geomancer is also the only mage I really like getting the red and blue die rune weapons for, as the lower range doesn't hinder him nearly as much due to the ability to make attacks with the stones, and the lower surge chance is countered by the free surges he gets from his stones.

I'm not a fan of the hexer really.

I haven't played Hexer, or seen him played... he seems overcomplicated and underpowered, which is a terrible combo. You don't want to have to attack over and over again to build up tokens, you want to attack once and blow everything up.

Geomancer, on the other hand, is probably the strongest Mage class. It has a huge amount of versatility, combos well with lots of different heroic feats/weapons, and can pump out a huge amount of damage without the Geomancer himself being in the thick of things. As Whitewing said, it is harder to play than Necro or Runemaster, but when played well, it is pretty nuts. (I suggest Landric the Wise for a brutal combo and being able to always trigger his heroic feat.)

I have played them all, and hexer is by far the worst.

The problem with the hexer is that the act of attempting to debuff enemies is less valuable in a game that's based on speed. Most maps are based entirely on trying to rush to a goal of some kind as fast as possible. Why then, would you spend actions to debuff enemies for future attacks? The only useful function of doing so would be if the benefits of the debuff outweigh the effectiveness of other options for that action: and the actions of a runemaster, for example, are quite potent. So the hexer's curses would have to be insanely powerful for it to be useful at all.

If you know the target is going to be around for 3 or more turns after your attack, then sure. But it's rare that a single target that is being focus fired lasts that long.

Dungeon delving at its finest..the race is on!

The Hexer is weak early on in a campaign, but as it progresses, can become one of the strongest support characters in the party. The hidden damage that hexes provide can help when you need to down high hp monsters, especially Act II variants.

If this is your first game though, I would not suggest this class. In fact, the Runemaster is probably the best wizard discipline for a new player because its very straight forward and it makes an impact in encounters immediately.

The hexer has massssive damage potential with hexing, every turn hexing as many monsters as possible then performing his hex spreading ability.... The problem with this is though is by the time the hex tokens start adding uo to anything remotely worth while all the monsters are dead anyway.

One of his abilites i find painfully annoying as an overlord is the one where he can get rid of a hex token to Damage a monster performing a move action. Melee monsters are gimped by this big time, also leiuenants/monsters who need to do alot of moving around the map to achieve objectives are severly hampered - definitely a game winning ability for the heroes and incredibly frustrating to play against as an overlord.

Agree with Bento, the damage on move ability is horrible to deal with, especially as to hex the target requires no damage to be done....

I know, I have that skill but I've only used it once or twice.

I think the Hexer is a wonderful support character (especially as the XP gets spent on better cards) but is much less useful in a 2-hero party. The Hexer fills a niche, but does not carry the team. I recently played a Hexer using Leoric, so I had a passive radial debuff in addition to the hexing. The OL was not a fan.

If you're looking for a straightforward mage, use one of the base classes- Runemaster has the potential to make heavy (and frequent) attacks, while the necromancer can really really do damage early in the game with the Reanimate, while saving his two actions for himself. I'm dealing with both of these classes in my current campaign as OL, and they're a pain in tandem.

The Geomancer is my favorite of the mages in terms of theme. A More complicated class, but very rewarding if you play to its strengths. I agree that Quellin was made for this class.

I also am using leroy as hexer. My all time favorite combo is jaes as runemaster.

I also am using leroy as hexer. My all time favorite combo is jaes as runemaster.

From now on, I am referring to him as Leoric Jenkins, descendent of the brave warrior.

Nope, leroy is where it's at.

Leeroy of the book