How annoying is it to be a Dark Elf Mage?

[VincentVolaju]

So I've decided to give Mage a shot and see how it goes. I'm a bit undecided on the race though

I think Dark Elf look the coolest, so I am leaning towards that. However, the biggest turn off from it is them being an evil / kos race.

So I wanted to ask you Dark Elf Mages, how annoying is it?
Are there many random NPCs that are KOS to you when traveling around?
Are traders in zones not willing to sell to you because of your dark skin?
How limited are your places to bank?
How much more difficult does it make being a solo Mage, if youre a Dark Elf?

[Man0warr]

Dark Elf Magicians can choose Agnostic, so the issue with being Evil/KoS isn't that big a deal. You can walk into most parts of Freeport for example.

[Tunabros]

not annoying just kill everyone

[VincentVolaju]

Dark Elf Magicians can choose Agnostic, so the issue with being Evil/KoS isn't that big a deal. You can walk into most parts of Freeport for example.

Even being Agnostic though, won't vendors ignore you for being a Dark Elf? Like for example, if I am in NK killing guards; I can't sell them to the Gypsy camp if I a Dark Elf, right? Or is that incorrect?

Also, I do plan on soloing like 90% of the time, because I usually play in off peak hours. I'll probably duo or small group a bit here or there when available, but for the majority of the time, I'll be soloing. Also, I can usually only play 2 hours or so a night, so I likely won't be doing a whole lot of dungeons either. So I'd imagine guards will be a pretty common thing for me to level up on throughout the levels.

[Kowalski]

Benefit to being DE is the ability to hide plus you can always change your appearance by doing a portion of a quest which yields halfling illusion.

My 2c on it

[Stonewallx39]

I have a dark elf wizard who’s 51. It can be annoying at times, but frankly being evil is very freeing. Yes you will run into merchants who are dubious and won’t sell to you, it that happens on every race. Frankly it’s not bad, there are merchants that will sell to you within a zone or two of most xp spots. Make sure to have a few cloudy potions handy fit invis (10p in most cities off a merchant) and you’re golden.

Pro tip, you can hide to turn in quest that require indifferent. If the mob is kos you just need a wall or something where they won’t aggro. Hand them the goods, the. Hide and check the con until hide succeeds, then turn in your quest and profit.

Dark elf look and feel very cool. Plus that night vision is no joke. My 2cp at least, it’s totally worth it.

[Sabin76]

As stated, there are very few places you really have to watch out for as an agnostic DE Mage. There's a cleric in EC huts near Freeport that will wreck you (remembering now that I need to pay her a visit...), the Dorf hanging out at the docks in BBM (already paid her a visit...), 1 or 2 NPCs that hang out at druid rings (not the druids, but their friends), and so on, but you really have most of the world available to you.

Honestly, the most annoying thing is needing someone to buy your level 16 and 20 pets for you in OOT because the vendor won't sell to you. Neriak literally has everything else you would ever need as a mage.

[NegaStoat]

A Dark Elf magician can do the Janam + Rebby quests about 18 times total to be able to buy / sell / bank in freeport. If you are Agnostic, you can walk right into North Freeport without invis and the guards will grumble but leave you alone. In Faydwer, you have Invis at level 8 to use both elf banks in the area and you have the Butcherblock + Steamfont druid ring vendors to buy / sell to, so that takes care of that.

Honestly, because the class has Invis on their spell list it opens up most of the world for travel, and Agnostic gives you a great starting place to do faction work for a location you really feel you need. I'd say go for it, because you get Hide as a racial for extended breaks and they look amazing. Others will scream that Gnomes are superior for door peeping and engineering, and honest, they might not be wrong.

[VincentVolaju]

A Dark Elf magician can do the Janam + Rebby quests about 18 times total to be able to buy / sell / bank in freeport. If you are Agnostic, you can walk right into North Freeport without invis and the guards will grumble but leave you alone. In Faydwer, you have Invis at level 8 to use both elf banks in the area and you have the Butcherblock + Steamfont druid ring vendors to buy / sell to, so that takes care of that.

Honestly, because the class has Invis on their spell list it opens up most of the world for travel, and Agnostic gives you a great starting place to do faction work for a location you really feel you need. I'd say go for it, because you get Hide as a racial for extended breaks and they look amazing. Others will scream that Gnomes are superior for door peeping and engineering, and honest, they might not be wrong.

What is good about Engineering? As far as I know, it was just to sell the under water breathing masks, right? Or are there more useful things than that?

[Jimjam]

Stalking probes are handy, especially to FDers.

[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]

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 :)

[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.