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It seems mages are sort of left out of an obvious choice here. Either this is in or it had better be DLC. Alright, before this turns into a storm let me clarify. If you want to mix and match that's fine. It's perfectly viable to be a warrior vampire or werewolf mage. Now back to the discussion of mages and lichs. There may or may not be some spoilers ahead, just as a warning.
I am having the same opinion; yes there should be liches for mages. Though werewolves and vampires are not exclusive to warriors and thieves respectively. Every role can benefit from them. Liches however would be exclusive to mages because warriors and thieves don't really use mana. Maybe instead of a lich you can have a nazgul like creature?
I wasn't implying that. Of course I know that no matter what style you play you can be anything you want. I only meant they sort of fit the archetype. It's a neat and dark power bonus for people who specialize. Be a mage werewolf or a barbarian vampire. That's cool too.
Beast Form benefits from having high health and one-handed skill. Thus, it fits well with warriors. Vampires get several benefits that improve stealth with nothing that helps them in combat. They work best for thieves. Mages do get reduced illusion casting as vampires, but otherwise neither disease helps the magic-user archetype.
For one thing Vampires have always been conducive to any build type. In Morrowind there was a clan for each specialization and in Oblivion Vampires received bonuses to a variety of skills and attributes so as to be better at any Specialization.
It would be nice to see something fitting a mage, or fitting more than other play choices so to speak. I remember Red Dragon Disciple from Neverwinter, I really liked that, used to play sorceror and going RD diciple. It would be nice to see something resembling that. I’ve seen mentioning of liches, but I always thought of those as pure evil, so maybe something that fits both.
In NWN and NWN2, Red Dragon Disciple gave no increase to spellcaster level. Instead it gave huge strength bonuses. It was great to take a single sorcerer or bard level just so you could grab RDD in your melee build, but it was of no use to actual casters. I agree that a lich makes a lot of sense for mages. Much like werewolves and vampires, liches aren't automatically evil by nature. Most of them just happen to be evil anyway.
It's just that being a werewolf isn't as useful if you have lower health and one-handed skill, and being a vampire is terrible if you never use stealth. Both are fairly detrimental to the archetypes they don't fit. Being a werewolf prohibits ever being well-rested from sleep and the Beast Form power, while powerful, prohibits all forms of healing other than eating corpses while active. It also seems you can't cancel it prematurely and must wait for its time to run out. Vampires are weak to fire, plus they lose all regeneration of and take penalties to health, magicka, and stamina in the sun. Those are serious penalties to deal with. They are somewhat useful to any build though. Werewolf's Beast Form will still be mediocre for non-warriors and they're immune to disease. Vampires resist cold and get immunity to poison and disease.
I'm really hoping for a magic heavy DLC down the road. Maybe going to Summerset Isle and dealing with the Thalmor. It would be the perfect opportunity to expand on magic and necromancers (since they are mages anyway) and if lichs aren’t in the initial release then this would be the best time to introduce them.
I love the idea, especially considering Summerset Isle was one of the most speculated locations for TES5 before Skyrim was confirmed. It also seems very relevant now with the Thalmor aspect of the story. It just seemed way too far a location to visit, though.
What I'm wondering is if I can get a vampiric werewolf, or does the polymorphic disease stop me from contracting the disease from the werewolves? I know how MW worked it, but I'm wondering if it will be the same. And as stated before the benefits of sticking to an archetype are really rewarding. A boost in magical power among other things would certainly benefit a mage build.
Werewolf profit from the one-handed skill. Mages usually don't train that. Vampirism mostly improves stealth, which profit thieves the most, perceptibly, as warriors barely sneak and there is no profit for sneak magic attacks. Lich is a logical option.
I not at all bothered through the multiplayer. Paralysis wasn't precisely common within the campaigns and expansions in favor of either NWN game. I am able to see how paralysis immunity possibly will be useful against other players, but I'd still delay taking RDD until epic levels on a caster. Previous to 20, giving up ten levels of spellcasting power is presently not worth it. I've heard magic is previously quite powerful in Skyrim, however it certainly would make sense on the way to have liches or some other transformation for mages. Werewolf and vampire are extremely particular, as a result having a particular form for mages makes sense.
If appropriate a lich turns you in an undead mage character, one, why can’t I have a doppelganger spell and two, if you are able to reverse the belongings of vamirism subsequent to you turn undead why possibly will not you perform that with a lich. This is a magical world finally, whatever thing can occur.
Werewolf benefits commencing the one-handed skill. Mages usually don't instruct that. Vampirism mostly improves stealth, which benefits thieves the majority, obviously, as warriors hardly sneak and there is no advantage for sneak magic attacks. Lich is a realistic choice.