Mages and CQC (close quarters combat)?

[hal]

As others have noted, without specifics to discuss, this kind of thread tends to be "hypothetical" in least.

The things to keep in the back of your mind are:

1) while mages have a lot of spells that can do some pretty interesting things, the biggest issue that faces a mage versus non-mage warrior is that the non-mage warrior (outfitted with a bow for instance), has a better chance of his ranged weapon hitting the mage at 100 yards, than a mage has of hitting the warrior with their spells at 100 yards.

2) every special attack the mage has costs them fatigue points, a finite resource whereas every attack the warrior makes does not.

3) Every spell that the mage casts directly at his opponent, as a whole, tends to have an escape clause involved where the warrior gets a saving roll vs the mage's spell. Not all spells - but a fair number to be sure.

With over 800 spells in GURPS MAGIC, dicsussing close quarter's combat tends to be something of a minor problem. Are we talking about a purpose built warrior mage? Are we talking about a mage whose "build" is such that he is supposed to be capable of earning an income during down time, be worth the while during adventures, and only rarely be involved in combat? With some spells that take more than a second to cast, and our poor mage is definitely going to suffer some problems within a Close Quarters combat scenario right from the start.

Thus, with all that discussed above - there are so many variables involved - further discussion on this topic is going to be largely a function of generalities that will not really answer the question.

Now - all of the above discusses metagame issues, we're not even getting into the issue of actual tactics and such. For instance - how did the warrior get to within striking range? Was it the result of an ambush in which the mage is surprised? Was it the result of an assault on a position that the mage can't retreat from? Is it a mage with access to Magery 3 spells such as Link/Delay and could have set up a nasty surprise for the inbound warrior? If it wasn't a "hold at all costs" type of scenario, why didn't the mage simply withdraw?

As for builds of mages that take into account various things, I'd likely suggest going with a shield armed mage who wears leather armor as well as carries a spear. He won't stand out as an obvious Mage, will be no better nor worse than an ordinary man with minimal "militia" training with Spear and Shield, and if you get right down to it, being able to cast spells while carrying a shield is a GOOD thing.

Well, 'nuff said by myself on this.