[valkimedes]

In the Books, the sorcerers are really OP, they can do really amazing thing, but in the games... They are really weak! In the Witcher 3. I want to see really challenging fights against sorcerers in 1 vs 1

[Kallelinski]

That's really a good question, maybe it would be gamebreaking if they would make them as powerful as they are in the books.

It took 2 sorceresses to blow up a whole castle, that's pretty impressive.

[Maerd]

Yeah, in the books one sorcerer or sorceress were worth an army and that's why they were so powerful. CDPR really downgraded them.

[FoggyFishburne]

It'd be awesome, true, to face of against a truly insane mage and come out victorious. Bragging rights ftw!

But think about mages from a balancing point of view. It'd be pretty insane if everytime a mage enters the fray, he just obliterates everyone and everything. You want combat to be diverse and exciting. Having various different enemies doing different things and having mixed attack patterns, really brings combat to life and engages the player. It's basically a bit of story-gameplay segregation going on here. Mages are insane in the books while the game has to depict them a bit less insane in order for the game to be playable.

I don't mind at all. I haven't read the books personally, but they're two different mediums and portray things differently for different purposes. The game is supposed to be fun to play. I don't really care about the nitpicky über consistency, life's too short for that.

[arkblazer]

An excuse could be that niflgaard and the north had lost most of its strongest mages by then, likely most of the mages you fought were newbie,low ranking mages.

Old powerful mages still exist but they are few and far between by now. like the zerrakian mage of the first game, who had defeated geralt ( geralt, who btw was a guy who had beaten the strongest mages in the books.) or dethmold who single-handedly broke the walls of vergen.

Another thing is that a mage needs to "charge up" if im not mistaken. so he can be taken out if caught by surprise while he is relaxing. Like dethmold when he was with his lover or the mage Letho killed in the intro.

[Sirnaq]

Quote

Weak sorcerers

Casting firestorm that burned to a crisp two armies consisted of thousands of soldiers you call weak? Not to mention the most powerful bosses in both games are mages.

[Maerd]

Azar Javed was a pussy, he didn't even use magic when he was fighting. And Triss told that he was a powerful mage.

In chaper two of TW2 you can fight Dethmold in the caves on Iorveths path and he doesn't impress either. And you cannot say he wasn't prepared.

In the books Yennefer, for example, could turn the entire mob of people into geese and other animals (don't remember exactly) just like that.

[gab961111]

The mage with cynthia was cool. Clone stuff.

[Maerd]

Sirnaq said:

Casting firestorm that burned to a crisp two armies consisted of thousands of soldiers you call weak? Not to mention the most powerful bosses in both games are mages. ›››

That was the whole Lodge together, if you remember, not Sabrina herself.

[Sirnaq]

Maerd said:

Azar Javed was a pussy, he didn't even use magic when he was fighting. And Triss told that he was a powerful mage.

In chaper two of TW2 you can fight Dethmold in the caves on Iorveths path and he doesn't impress either. And you cannot say he wasn't prepared.

In the books Yennefer, for example, could turn the entire mob of people into geese and other animals (don't remember exactly) just like that. ›››

Only magic user that was canonically powerful we met so far was philippa. What about operator in tw2? Hardest boss battle in the game. Also both triss and dethmold in books are weaklings.

Maerd said:

That was the whole Lodge together, if you remember, not Sabrina herself. ›››

Doesn't really matter, it was only 7 of them and they basically created mini atomic bomb there. Also consider how powerfull curse sabrina used on her own.

[Glaroug]

Quote

Azar Javed was a pussy, he didn't even use magic when he was fighting

In chapter 2, the swamp weakened him greatly.

In chapter 5 he used a great deal of power to summon the koschey. Also, he was fighting two witchers (only Geralt if he-who-shall-not-be-named-for-spoilers-sake was not there) in close combat. Trying to cast a spell within sword range is just asking to die.

Besides, Vilgefortz, an incredibly powerful mage, outright owned Geralt with just a steel quarterstaff.

[Maerd]

Operator is not a mage, but some magical creature. You know, mages are humans in the end. They need to eat, drink and sleep at least, the operator is something else. Besides, he's not that powerful in the sense his power was in the gargoyles that were fighting for him, alone he couldn't do anything special.

[Costin Moroianu]

He was summoning the bloody things. Just like Sile and Phillipa could.

[Sirnaq]

Maerd said:

Operator is not a mage, but some magical creature. You know, mages are humans in the end. They need to eat, drink and sleep at least, the operator is something else. Besides, he's not that powerful in the sense his power was in the gargoyles that were fighting for him, alone he couldn't do anything special. ›››

Operator had all mages skills, so he was pretty much mage. Gargoyles were his summons, i se nothing wrong with that.

[Maerd]

Glaroug said:

Besides, Vilgefortz, an incredibly powerful mage, outright owned Geralt with just a steel quarterstaff. ›››

That was in the books. Mages in the books were very powerful. And, if I'm not mistaken, his quarterstaff was magically self-propelled. He even called it a "magic wand".

[Sirnaq]

Maerd said:

That was in the books. Mages in the books were very powerful. ›››

There were powerful mages in the books, but most mages were just as powerful as mages in the games. Read again thanned part and how most of them died there. Books geralt would easily slice his way through most sorcerers.

[Chopy]

In the books Vilgefortz was the only really powerful sorcerer.

Maerd said:

In the books Yennefer, for example, could turn the entire mob of people into geese and other animals (don't remember exactly) just like that. ›››

I do not recall that.During pogrom in Rivia , Yeneffer almost got her ass kick by a mob , she managed to scorch one or two peasants.Triss helped her , dragged her away and casted a powerful hail , than nobody was able to repeat.

[Kallelinski]

It was one of the short stories, the hunt for the dragon.

[Maerd]

Costin Moroianu said:

He was summoning the bloody things. Just like Sile and Phillipa could. ›››

Was he? I thought he died from one slash of overpowered alchemical build before he could lift a finger...

[slimgrin]

Sile traps a beast the size of a small office building, Sabrina torches an entire army, Phillipa controls a powerful dragon and guides Geralt through the mist. This is weak?