About to start chapter 4 now with the main area, add-on area, and Valley of Mines (except the dragon lairs) all cleared. Naked stats at level 39 are: 84 Str, 88 Dex, 81 Mana, 59 1H, & 38 Bow with 71 LP currently available. In case it isn’t obvious, I’ve been saving all the permanent Mana bonus items/rewards. Initially I wasn’t going to use them until I hit 124 (which is when raising it would cost 5LP per point)… but I don’t think I’ll gain enough levels to make it that far, and so will instead use them once I hit 94.
At this point a few things have become clearer and I’ve had to revise my earlier plan. Learning Ice Lance was a mistake (it’s faster and cheaper to kill things in melee) and I’m going to skip learning the Awaken Golem spell since there are plenty of scrolls lying around. I think I’ll also skip Destroy Undead since the only thing it seems to be really useful for are Shadow Warriors (Skeleton Mages turned out to be very easy to kill in melee), which are rare.
Seekers ended up being a joke since their direct damage spells are the same as yours (i.e. bad). Sure they might cast Rain of Fire, but you can clearly see when the spell switch happens and they should be long dead before then. Compared to the hoards of Orcs and Lizard Men I’ve had to clear out so far they’re a walk in the park. Speaking of Lizard Men, I find it odd that they die quicker than Orcs.
One last thing to note is that the Gold/NotR version of the game has removed most of the stat-boosting items from the Valley of Mines. Elixirs that used to be in remote locations are gone, Dragon Roots appear to be gone, the lone King’s Sorrel is gone, and most of the Goblin Berries are gone (I found two; there used to be 9). So keep that in mind when planning your build.