Re: gauntlet templates and other questions
Sure.
Get an ethy or bonded mount and don't bother with wraith/lich, you will just end up dead trying to get away on foot. I've seen it too many times and it never stops being funny.
Pile on a bunch of SDI and get GM inscription. That should make up for the loss of mana leech. You cast less but can do more damage in the long run.
Train magic resist so that you'll never be paralyzed for more than a second or two. Kite the mobs just like an archer would - dmg spell, walk a few paces, dmg spell, walk a few paces, staying out of melee range.
If need be, keep a couple of earth elementals up and in guard mode. They are like having 175 more HP, plus the mobs have to cast 2 dispels to get rid of the pair, making them more useful than, say, a demon or fire ele which is one dispel then the mob's on your ass.
You can also lead additional mobs (aka adds) into a corner, have your earth eles attack them, then speed away. Mob AI is too stupid to come find you once the eles are dead.
The most important resists for a ranged char in gaunt are fire, phys and cold in that order. Fire for the FS and expl that mobs cast on you, phys so that DF reflect doesn't kill you, cold for mindblast.
Don't use magic arrow unless you are sure no one else is. The timer on it is broken, so only one person can use it at a time. Everyone else's will be wasted.
Room 1 - fireball spam
Room 2 - harm spam or fireball if you are a coward (or some asshat necro is casting corpse skin)
Room 3 - fireball spam, summon demon for poison dmg (you can still insult any asshat necro casting corpse skin)
Room 4 - ebolt or lightning
Room 5 - harm spam, earth eles or lightning if some asshat necro is casting corpse skin. Earthquake works but eats too much mana if you aren't in wraith
DF - any big dmg spell cast slowly, so you don't kill yourself on reflect .. I like ebolts
Note that harm is not affected by slayers, so use an sdi book when you are casting it. Neither is mind blast, fyi.
e: added some recent observations and reservations
