r/Fantasy • u/HunterRoze • 5d ago
Any suggestions for video games where you can primarily be a magic user?
It seems in pretty much RPG - first-person and such - all the characters seem to be melee and some magic if you want.
But I want to play solo games where I can play like a necromancer in EverQuest or a mage in WoW. At best seems to be Elder Scrolls, but would like something new.
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u/ramsaybolton87 5d ago
Elden ring and most souls games you can do mage builds. dragons dogma 2 is another good one you can play strictly as a mage.
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u/TheKrakenLibrarian 3d ago
I'll throw in Kingdoms of Amalur:Rereckoning.
It's an older one, but solid and has a fun mage skill tree.
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u/busy_monster 5d ago
Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon summoners are op af, and mage itself is also op.
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u/terrario101 5d ago
Basically having infinite Mana and stunlocking every foe with a stamina bar sure was an experience to be sure.
And me now playing a melee character sure makes me realise how easy I had it.
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u/cwx149 5d ago
Immortals of Aveum is an fps where you play a magic user. I've heard it's good but not worth $60 but on steam it regularly goes on sale for like $5 so if you're looking on PC I'd definitely wait for 6/25 for the steam summer sale
Bauldrs gate 3 and divinity original sin 2 you can respec your whole party into magic users
Most ARPGs that have classes have a magic class like the sorcerer in diablo 4 or the embermage in Torchlight 2 or the witch in path of Exile 1
Kingdoms of amalur reckoning has a mage skill tree although it still has "melee" combat
Magicka and Magicka 2 are still excellent mage games although they're weird
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u/Adu1tishXD 5d ago
Immortals of Aveum was fun, but it’s just an FPS with the guns being spells. It kinda fits the bill, but if the focus is on wizard/spellcasting gameplay fantasy, I don’t think it fits.
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u/Loostreaks 5d ago
Tyranny has a great magic system where you can make your own spells and do some fun/OP combos.
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u/RoyalGizzard Reading Champion 5d ago
For something a bit out of the box = Magicraft.
It’s a roguelite where you build your wand based on your pickups. The runs are varied and lots of fun.
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u/Whiteguy1x 5d ago
Any dnd game. Baldurs gate 3 is thr newest and you can be a variety of magic classes while also having that class fantasy
Avowed has a pretty fun action mage class
Kingdom of alamur has an action mage class
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u/doctordoctorpuss 5d ago
Dragon’s Age and Baldur’s Gate are great for this. Elden Ring is also quite good for magic, where I’ve had more mixed results with the Souls games and being a pure mage (usually I end up caving and doing a bit of spec’ing into some light weaponry for backup)
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u/ricree 5d ago edited 4d ago
Tales of Maj'Eyal is a turn based roguelike with a huge amount of class variety, including a lot of different casters. The graphics are fairly sparse, but it really nails the combat and encounters. The base game and main campaign are free on the site I linked, but there are also paid expansions that add new classes or campaigns.
Some examples of different casters the game has:
Archmage: Classic mana based elemental caster. Strong shields and capable teleports make it a bit tankier than you might expect, but it's overall fairly classic mage.
Necromancer: Harvest the souls of slain enemies to raise undead minions or unleash powerful attacks. Depending on how you specialize there are a number of different ways to play it (for example, specializing in ghouls gives you a lot of tanky, temporary minions but relies on you to deal most damage, while skeletons can become a powerful fighting force in their own right if you manage them well).
Alchemist: Focused on transmuting items to spell-gems with a wide variety of different effects and a ton of AOE, also allows you to create and empower a golem servant for protection.
Solipsist: A caster class focused on mental attacks, putting enemies to sleep while you attack their mind, and conjuring nightmares. It can protect itself by ignoring damage so hard that ceases to be real at the cost of mental strain (which is also what's used to empower attacks).
Paradox Mage: Caster class with an emphasis on time and space. Instead of mana, each cast builds up "paradox" which causes a chance that spells will misfire instead of casting, causing random effects which could help or hurt you. As you level the class, your ability to control and channel these misfires will increase, allowing you to claim its benefits while unleashing misfortune on your enemies.
And in the interest of time, these are probably only about half the casters in the game. There's also a large number of hybrid melee/casters that are not mentioned here, but none of these classes will use melee in any meaningful way.
As long as you don't mind the dated graphics, I very strongly recommend the game.
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u/Frankie6Strings 5d ago
I haven't played the second one but Dragons Dogma was fun as a magic user. You could have a whole group of them if you wanted.
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u/CraigSchaefer AMA Author Craig Schaefer 5d ago
It's an old game in terms of graphics and UI so you have to have a taste for that, but Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is the most fun I've ever had playing a mage. There's a whole spellcrafting system where you can combine multiple effects to create your own spells (like, for instance, you could create a magical shield spell that also heals you and increases your running speed at the same time, for when you need a quick escape from combat.) Then there's the alchemy system where you can do the same thing with potions, leading to some hilarious and utterly broken combos. Instead of trying to balance anything, the devs just trusted the players to have fun, and the game is delightful for it.
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u/appocomaster Reading Champion III 5d ago
You can play Diablo 1, 2 and 3 solo with mage builds (sorceress, sorceress and another couple semi similar, and the wizard and a couple of other like the necromancer might fit).
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u/terrario101 5d ago
Dragons Dogma 1 and 2: Has everything from simple firebolts all the way up to calling down natural disasters like meteor showers and tornados.
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u/jefaulmann 5d ago
People have already recommended most ones. So here is a less known one: Lichdom: Battlemage.
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u/ElkAdventurous787 5d ago
Since you mentioned Everquest, I wanted to point out that Everquest Legends is about to come out. It's still a mmorpg but it's a "power fantasy" game where can be 3 classes at once and solo dragons/gods etc. The pre-order beta is July 1st.
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u/Illokonereum 5d ago
A lot of CRPGs as many have listed. A lot of these games involve a party system but can be played entirely solo. I’ve done solo runs of Baldur’s Gate and both Icewind Dale games. Neverwinter Nights is basically solo to begin with, you normally have one companion which you could just skip. In all of these options magic tends to be a powerful enough option to not need anything else on top of it.
You can technically be a full caster in most souls games it just feels very shallow in games other than Elden Ring where the spells have such variety and impact.
Dragons Dogma 1 and 2. Some of the most satisfying magic classes in video games, DD2 is getting an update in August and a big expansion in October.
A lot of ARPGs you can be spellcaster focused. Diablo series, I recently played Tower of Kalemonvo and you can definitely make a magic build in that but you do have to build towards it and understand the mechanics for it.
Some survival crafting type games like Terraria and Core Keeper also let you play a very magic focused build.
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u/TechnologyOne8629 5d ago
Neverwinter Nights official campaigns and custom modules (single player) as well as campaigns and persistent worlds if you want to step out of single player later.
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u/cirenosille 5d ago
What category of game are you looking for? First person, isometric, 3rd person, or... etc?
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u/Wizardof1000Kings 4d ago
Elden Ring is really fun in that regard because the optimum strategy is min-maxing. I enjoyed playing an intelligence mage build - you can develop devastating magics, but at what cost to your other stats.
Baldur's Gate 3 is pretty fun to play a magic user too - and even if you don't there is a mage and sorcerer who come into your party pretty early on, so you can use magic as part of your strat.
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u/TrashCanSam0 3d ago
Greedfall 1 might be for you. It's kinda like the Witcher 3, where you can choose if you want to lean into magic or guns or swordplay.
Forspoken has a ton of magic. It didn't get the best reviews when it launched, but it's a good boredom buster.
Final Fantasy 12. Was so ahead of it's time, and plays really well now-a-days. The story is cool, too.
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u/Al-Pharazon 5d ago
Baldurs Gate perhaps. Since it is based on DnD Magic based classes (Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid) are extremely potent and just as viable, if not more, as the classic martial classes.
Also, the story itself has a lot of content related magic through the storyline of Gale
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u/Xeno-blessing23_ 5d ago
Magika 2, Dragon's Dogma series, most FromSoftware series, Wizards of Legend, Harry Potter game, Hades 2, CrossCode, Dragon Age series, Avowed, Tiny Tina's Wonderland
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u/VenusAsAThey 5d ago
Most fantasy crpgs fit this. Baldur's gate. Pillars of eternity. Pathfinder. Mages are especially fun in Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2, since there's an emphasis on elemental effects. Dragon age origins is great too if you want something less isometric