How the heck are you supposed to play a mage and survive?

Take fleshsmithing, golemancy, or promethian and get a pet. With fleshcrafting, all you need to do is kill 1 enemy and then you can start summoning zombies that will clear the first floor. Enemies will always attack pets over you so having a pet spell on hand is very important to escaping a tight spot.

Also, veganism can make the early game a little easier. Most of the enemies on the first floor are animals and you can let your pets slaughter them with impunity. There are also a few ranged animals and a lot of hard hitting diggles in the game and veganism gives you a ton of HP if you level it up.

 

the new Master of Arms gives a nice chunk of hp also, and if you master it early game you can easily get 8 or 9 armor absorb to carry you through the first few floors.

 

Pure mage build of doom? Simple:

Warlockery
Astrology
Emomancy
Necronomiconomics
Alchemy
Blood Magic
Viking Magic

Begin game. Cast Magic Steel and Radiant Aura. Walk around and kick things to death with Puissant Touch, net-gain of mana with Blood Magic. Level up Warlockery to level 3 for some defense (Mana Maille) and anti-caster power (Warlock's Challenge). Then push Emomancy up to Mark of the Black Eyeliner, being sure to spam My Chemical Explosion at every horde and zoo you encounter. Once you have Black Eyeliner + Mana Maille for Necro Resist, spike Necronomiconomics all the way to the top. From that point on, you basically have monstrous melee power with Puissant Touch+Mark of Chthon+Pact of Fleeting Life, monstrous AoE power with Chemical Explosion + Tenebrous Rift, and decent defenses with Mana Maille+Mark of Black Eyeliner+Radiant Aura.

That's only one easy mage. The real keys are either Warlockery or Viking Magic for that absolutely vital offense during those first 2 rooms. The Armor Absorb from Warlockery's loadout hat is pretty damn useful, too.

 

That build has tons of early game power, but I'm trying to visualize you handling endgame. I guess you can convert from a melee-ish hybrid to mostly caster and use Viking Magic as a single target nuking tree from distance. On the final few floors I found stuff hit HARD, to the point where it wasn't just named enemies that could do the counter-crit combos of death on you if you weren't block capped (which you wouldn't be, as a mage...unless you found some wild gear/encrusts). Solo burning stuff down with Viking Magic can work, but without Mathemagics to support it I'm guessing that would feel a bit slow.

Curious how this build played in the endgame for you.

 

Endgame is pretty straightforward. If it's a single enemy: Arcane Capacitor the turn before it steps up to you. Then Chronomantic Twist, Puissant Touch, Puissant Touch, release Arcane Capacitor. That should kill basically any single mob up to floor 13ish. After that you have to work a little harder to keep Essence of Battle up all the time so that your Chronomantic Twist gives you one extra Puissant Touch along the way. OR be ready to soften them up with an Eldritch Inhabitation as they come in.

If it's more than one enemy, hit it from a distance with My Chemical Explosion, Tenebrous Rift, The Stars Align, or for smaller hordes, Fulminaric Bolt.

If it's a caster, Emomancy can silence it and Warlockery can get it in melee range quickly. If it's a hardcore warrior, Skatha's Roots plus Arctic Vortex plus Unholy Warcry can do a lot to keep it less dangerous -- though usually with the Chronomantic Twist+Arcane Capacitor trick, it's not terribly necessary.

For ass-saving, you should have several dozen Invisibility Potions, Healing Potions, Mana Potions, and Spatial Instability Infusions. Also, saving every Greedy Blungecap you can find until floor 13+ is a good way to supplement Pact of Fleeting Life when you're low on HP.

If you're really worried about the need to play carefully, replace Astrology with Tourist and take your sweet time working your way through the dungeon.

 

Interesting. Sounds viable, thanks for responding.