Magician
by Silvermage

Class: Sorcerer
Tag: None

Rules

My belief is you shouldn't accept anything form any one. No cash nor books. The only thing I would allow are scrolls (like Res or TP etc), potions (as long as not too many); You know, you run outta mana, you ask some to your friend to bring you stuff from town. And if anyone sees a book in Adria, you can pay them cash to buy it for you.

One of the main things in this subclass, is spell limitation. BUT, (IMPORTANT) you can read all books you find, you just won't use the spells for a bit. Also, you can't read scrolls of spells not allowed. (You can use the 2 Fire Walls ones in first Quest though.) Also, you can always use ID and Resurrect.

Items

Armor
Up to but not including Splint Mail.
Naj Light Plate is also acceptable.

Helms
Crowns, Skull Caps, and Caps only.

Shields
None.

Weapons
Dagger, Club, Spiked Club, Maces, and Staves only.

Enchantments
Everything you find is allowed.

Uniques
Any unique that is the base item type of one of the allowed items can be used. So the Wizardspike and Dreamflange is ok, but Scavengers Carapace is a no-no.

Spells

Restricted by rank. See below.

Degrees of Study

All the quests/tasks of a given rank you have to do solo. I haven't been thinking them out thinking on anyone helping you.

Student
The curious and unexperimented Student goes to Tristram to get Knowledge and Wisdom. To do this he goes down to the dungeons, and has to defeat Butcher using Tactics, for he knows the demon is too strong for him to vanquish... But the Student's Wits might just manage it.

Kill the Butcher and search Books and shrines... you need 2 FireWall scrolls... use the Butcher room trap, using only 2 (not more) FireWalls, then take him out with FireBolt or Charged Bolt, using Stair trap if desired (ok so this ain't so tuff... it's only the first task).

All spells of page 1 are allowed, except for Healing and Holy Bolt. Town portal is ALWAYS available (Mages don't like to walk, and no, we ain't Sissy you Barbarians, we are smart... J/K BARs ;)

Adept
After killing the Butcher, and gaining some knowledge, the Student becomes and Adept. This enables him greater mastery of Fire and Lightning, And so he can go on to defeat the Skeleton King (WITHOUT Holy Bolt. you may only use Holy bolt on Black Deaths for now. Then again, Firebolt usually gets them well...). This should prove to be a rather difficult challenge, so you need skill, as well as some scrolls might help.

Kill Leoric, continue searching for all the books you can get, don't use Holy Bolt.

Healing spell allowed in this rank.

Scholar
After killing the Undead King and thus freeing him of his curse, you'll do Book Runs in the Catacombs, you have to find at least 10 Books down there. You need all 10 Books found in Cats, and you also have to kill 3 Catacombs unique monsters (they might drop books anyway. If they do you have to find less bookcases, if not, you'll get items so don't complain) (YES, that means Archers and you don't have Mana Shield ... Buaahahhahahaha * evil grin *).

Find 10 Books in Cats, Find 3 Bosses and Kill them

Holy Bolt now allowed.

Sage
After doing some research (book reading in cats), you are introduced to more advanced studies. You can use Plain Lightning, and FireWall. You have to prove you wont let power get to you. To do this and pass to Elementalist, you have to Clear the Caves Levels using only FireBolt, Charged Bolt, and FireWall... With appropriate strategy its not that tuff... Be wise, Be a Sage, and Defeat them with brain not power.

Clear Caves (you can go fetch pots at town at will) using only Firebolt, FireWall and Charged Bolt (Heal allowed).

Fire Wall & Lightning allowed (BUT you can't use anything but those 4 spells when going for promotion to Elementalist)

Elementalist
After your intensive studies, you now learned greatly control of Metabolism, and you can freeze the monsters reducing their, effectively turning them to stone (mastery of Stone) for a limited period of time (you can use Stone Curse, but not in Killing Butch). You can also create a progressive Healing aura, that feeds of your Mana when your body need care (Mana Shield allowed now). With your new powers you feel ready to go after the dark load of terror, as you developed powerful attacks with Fire and Electricity (FB+CL allowed), this is one of the most powerful advances in rank. But you have to earn it, and prove your mastery of the arts.

Not only is The Dark Lord the 1st encounter here, you also step into the NM Diff and do a head to head with the Butcher, brought back to life through Dark Necromancy. The Control of the Air will be essential here, Creating Random Gusts of Wind that Phase you to random place, away from the Non Stop Butch (Phasing allowed, and needed)

Kill Diablo on normal difficulty

In NM difficulty, Duel the Butcher, using ONLY Lightning as attack, and Phasing. (You can still Heal/Mana Shield.) This means you dont fire a spell till you get him out of his room. You get him out, phase, THEN you start attacking and phasing.

Stone Curse, Fire Ball, Mana Shield, Chain Lightning, Phasing, Flame Wave and Telekinesis allowed.

Invoker
After doing some thing or other, you attain the powers of invoking and binding helpers to your will... This means you learn all the summon spells (meaning you now can use Elemental, Bone Spirit, Guardian and Golem). To prove your apt to progress to next level of Knowledge, you must first prove you completely mastered Invocation. To do this youll clear Hell in Nightmare difficulty using only these Spells as means of attack. Leoric is still cursed unlike you thought. Release the poor King of his Curse (youll get revenge on the Wicked Dark Lord yet!). Leoric has his army of undead, you have Guardians. Leoric is their General, Golem is your (dumb) General. Unfortunately, Leoric has been bolstered with new powers from whatever dark mage brought him back to life, so he is now unaffected from stone curse.

Kill all Skeletons on lvl 3 of Nightmare diff with Guardian... After all Skels are dead, Its Golem Vs Leo Time...

Kill The Black King (actually Leo is quite white... JK) using Golems. You may cast Another Golem when your current one dies facing Leo. No Stone cursing allowed on Leoric.

Clr NM Hell with only these Spells: (Mana Shield and Heal allowed), Elemental, Golem, Guardian, Stone Curse, Bone Spirit.

Bone Spirit, Golem, Guardian, Elemental are now allowed.

Arch Mage
You're ready for the true Hellish try outs (everything in Hell difficulty). *I have to think of something else above Hell and Caves for the Arch Mage to do* Besides, after killing those nasty mages in Hell, you learn to teleport, and so you're ready to purge the world of all of them. Lazarus, Dreadjudge and the Vizier are there somewhere. Seek them out, kill them. You wont tolerate those Witches. Kill also all the uniques Witches (they use Their magic Powers Wrongly, go fix that). You now have proved you can get all those magic users that aren't as good as you, not even close. You're a true... see next Rank :).

Search and destroy the following Uniques(in hell diff): WitchFire The UnHoly (Leader of Succubus, tempts men in their Dreams from level 12 - I know all Succubus are a bit fat and all, but according to Catholic tales, succubi did that); Witchmoon (Snow witch Leader, on level 13); DreadJudge (Leader of Magistrates, found on lev 14); StarEye the Witch (Hell Spawn Leader, lurks on level 14); BlackJade, Red Vex and BloodLust (always on 15, Lazarus personal Army); Vizier (leader of the Cabalists, found on Lazarus level, lvl 15).

After you have killed all those Magic Users (at least once), you can get to their Boss, and Master, Arch-Bishop Lazarus, The traitor (again, In Hell diff). You have to punish him and incinerate him. He has to feel it, so no Stone Cursing. To make sure he doesn't teleport away, Flame Wave him to death (ahahah, keep dodging those darn FBs he sends)

Teleport is now allowed. All Spells that are missing now allowed (Flash, Infravision, Nova per example. Note that Blood Star is a special case, so might be already allowed - See WitchHunt). However, Apocalypse is reserved for the MoM, so you cannot use it yet.

Master of Magic
Nicely done, your almost as high as it gets. You now use all spells, Lets see if you can depend on them only... Time to strip of material possessions and let your power flow freely. The Dark Lord placed a Magic Seal. What he forgot is, you can still go after him. You have to gain entrance to Hell trough Caves (naked and not going to town. You got to move fast! You cant go to Caves Equipped because of the magic Seal, but after you clear all the monsters, the Seal will weaken), and you can return to Town after Caves are Clean of Evil. Re Equip, in Town, and Refill inventory with Pots. Go down trough your TP and Kill the big guy.

Clear caves naked not returning to town (all on Hell difficulty)

Cast Tp go Town and Equip, Re Fill Inv with pots

Kill Diablo entering trough the TP you had, enter Hells trough Caves, don't go town until he is dead.

You can now use even Apocalypse.

Master of Dimensions
You did it, you have banished Diablo to Hell again (that finishing movie was for other lesser guys, not you... :) You have no restrictions now, unless the obvious Weapons and Armor restriction. Besides, who needs weapons when your the most powerful force in the Tower of Magic, if not the world? Now don't let power get to your head, and help the lesser Skilled Magicians achieve their goal of Knowledge, as your old master helped you.

Continue playing if you want, your Quest has ended. 3 dots, Golden, you still have only not to wear certain items (Axes, Swords, Plates, etc, as said in General Rules)

You need more stuff allowed? Get out of here : )

Special Event: Witch Hunt
Every 3rd level you have since you learn Blood Star (This spell is otherwise allowed since you find or buy it, no need for any special ranks), you fill your inv with pots, immerse yourself in Normal or NM Hell (actually, there are Succubi in Caves sometimes). Find witches. Clear levels of Non Witch enemies. With only witches alive, go town, strip, get 9 potions (full mana pots) and start killing witches without coming to town for more Pots.

To kill you can only use (ONLY) Bloodstar. If you want to waste your mana on Teleport, Stone Curse, it's up to you; you can actually save mana if you avoid some hits. Mana Shield is also allowed (and advised, but not required: Remember using Blood Star takes 5 life per cast).

The idea is to kill as many witches as you can with their own Weapon: Blood Star. With this in mind, you can only use 8 mana potions. The ninth shall be used right after you raise Town Portal and Mana Shield. In case you were sloppy and killed any Witches before you started (I mean, if you killed any while clearing the level of other enemies), you'll have to subtract that in the end, to the number it shows on kills. That means when you run out of mana, you point to one of the witches still alive and see how many you killed.

The score board is as follows:

- Succubus are 4 points each
- Snow Witch, the only with no Magic Resist, are worth 1 point each
- Hell Spawn are 5 points each
- Soul Burner are 5 points each

These scores were made of calculating the averages Hps of the witches, multiplying them by 4 if the witches had resist to magic, then doing the proportion between them. Of course there's an error, but skill is more important. Upon successfully killing witches, you're entitled to be called Witch Hunter. If you're on the top ten Rankings of Witch hunting, you are entitled to be called Exorcist.