The Mage

"I like the Mage. I love the Mage! I'm not good with him, but I still love him. That's the true Mage experience." - Dieuwt

The Mage is one of the main classes of Ruby Caverns. He is focused on magic damage, staying on a distance, and playing it safely.

However, not only is he tricky to use, he has few actual combat bonuses that come up when cornered, that only sprout when dealt with carefully and skillfully.

Backstory

The Mage's College has finally run dry. There is nothing more to discover. All spells, no matter how basic or complicated, have been casted hundreds of times. All the other were burnt, lost, or simply locked up and forbidden. And yet, nothing has been discovered. Absolutely nothing. Some teleportation, a bit of force, and something close to animal manipulation, but nothing more. All these things can also be done with modern science and good thinking, and faster too. Thousands of years of magic research, all for nothing. Of course, no sorcerer was happy about this... but what can you do?

One Mage, in a desperate attempt to learn more about ancient techniques of moving huge rocks, killing enemies instantly, and creating matter from thin air, read every old book about magic. Fiction. Yet, something stood out... most of the stories could simply be debunked by logic and facts, but one story about a creature named Raimor, assumed to be non-existent, simply couldn't be disproven...

The location was crystal clear. There was a map, directions, and coordinates. Nobody has ever thought of actually following it, of course... so when the Mage arrived at the destination, ready for yet another disappointment, the ground slowly crumbled, and an entrance could be seen.

Heavily intrigued, he went in. There were no signs of life, except for some monsters, and one shady looking figure... but one chest, surrounded by some kind of aura, stood in front of him. Inside was the most powerful wand anyone has ever seen. Weak compared to a decent sword, but it worked on a distance, and even through walls...

The Mage immediately realized that there had to be more of these unseen artifacts, but deeper down... so the only option would be to descend ever further. The Medal, the God, the buried magic that he read about... could it be true? Could progress finally be made again?

Abilities

While the Mage seems useless at first, with only his Wand to directly aid in battle, his abilities become more useful later on, especially when multiple magic items are acquired. The Wand itself is also a great tool overall to deal with enemies behind walls and swarms, and even a relatively safe option against bosses, which works well with his floaty fall too. This makes the Mage the best choice against any boss, early or late.

His biggest game-changer, however, is the Wall Shift scroll. While it cannot be played, it can completely screw up your run, or save it. Since it resets all enemies you will get much more experience that can be used later on, it resets bonuses that are always good to have, and the boss resets as well, giving a guaranteed free item, mostly magic ones. But since it also requires you to fight against yet another wave of enemies, with a character that's not too good with that, it is a risk to use and will often go without being used at all.

In conclusion, the Mage hugely benefits from magic items and the more he collect the better he gets, in exchange for an early penalty in combat plus hard usage.