So you want to be a battlemage?
Are you sure? Let's make sure, first are you new to AC? if so then this is probably not the template for you, it requires a good amount of resources and knowledge of AC to be played successfully. If your starting out AC for the first time I would suggest you start at http://cod.xrgaming.com and look in their essay section to find a good sturdy template for starting out.
Your not a newbie? Do you have a well established main character? Then you're a prime candidate. Gather up as many C notes as you can carry, about 5 gold notes, your old matty coat and leggings and lets get started.
History
The BM template has been around as long as AC has. It was created by a mage called Animal. If you don't know who animal I suggest you read this interview with him http://www.angelfire.com/sc/demonserv/AnimalI.html basically he's one of the best mages in dearth, he was (I believe) the first person to kill BZ on all servers, so to say this template is viable is an understatement
The Template
spec : War, Life, Loyalty
train : (nothing)
ManaC @7, Item @20 Creature @50
race : Gharu
The idea is you want your to most offensive skills spec'd. So you spec Life and War. By doing this you are able to easily vuln creatures then finish them off with war. This is not a draining template in my opinion. Sure you can go that route if you want, after all you do have life spec'd but why? You spent a hell of a lot points to spec war just to drain. So go out blow stuff up! After specing war and life you have nothing left over but 2 little points. If you choose gharu as your race this give you the choice between loyalty and asses item. Why loyalty over item? Like I said this template is for those people that have established characters so pledge this character to one of your vassals so that you get the xp earned or pledge it to a clan trade mule. This is what I did, I pledged Dizz to my trade mule and it's definitely worth it. Specing Asses Item is kinda silly, at level 18 Dizz has an Asses Item of 150 and I have never put a point of xp in it!
Why Item at 20 instead of creature? It isn't mandatory to do it this way but let's examine this a little. Creatue gives you the ability to buff your skills and to yield creatures to make them easier to hit. Item allows you to buff your armor and learn the all important portal Spells. To me not having portal spells till 50 would drive me insane, this can now be compensated with portal gems. These are expensive but could make it easier to go to 50. So here's why I don't say critter first, Let's face it you're not going to go to the island till 45+ we're talking about level 20 - 45+ at these levels by the time you hit 30 you're going to be able to take almost any creature in dires except for grievers, some higher level shadows, etc. But who really cares, at these levels you need a steady stream of xp coming in to push you up to level 50 fast where you reach your prime. To do this you need to kill tuskers, tons and tons of tuskers. Tuskers have a magic defense of 170-185, you'll be at this level of skill in your 20's so all you need to do is buff your armor and go at 'em. But you can't go at them effciently unless you have a handy portal to get there thus you need item. (By the way I'm not talking about BSD)
The Stats
This is where people start to dispute things so I'll give several here and let you choose.
100/10/10/10/100/100 - The str extreme template. Advantages : Carry huge amounts of comps and Armor. Later if you decide to use your staff for fun you'll have some good base stats for it. Disadvantages : LOW ENDURANCE! Ack you'll have lots of down time early on and you'll have to dump loads of points into it just to make it livable.
10/100/10/10/100/100 - The end extreme template. Not to many people choose this one anymore. It's obvious advantage is that you'll have huge amounts of stam to produce mana for you but your always going to be wishing you had more strength. This template assumes your going to be buffing a robe most of your life which is fine except that as a BM you won't be getting item till 20 so you'll be making lots of runs for comps because you won't be able to carry to many with your early armor
60/50/10/10/100/100 or 50/60/10/10/100/100 - The Compromise. One of these 2 are the ones that I suggest. I like a little more strength so I went with 60 in it. These stats should progress nicely as you level and you'll have enough strength to carry some armor and lots of comps and the Endurance to reduce the down time.
Why no Quickness or Coordination? Coordination does not effect a solitary skill on a BM. Don't even put a point into coord. Quickness is nice but not mandatory. You can get a society ring to help a little but the only reason to have quickness is for your run so you have 2 skills to bump to help get this skill up. Trust me on this by the time you get in your 20's you'll have around 100 quickness which is fast enough for a while.
The Gear
For starters you'll probably want to get a good pair of shoes, gaunts, helm, leather pants and a Matty Coat. That's right "The Uniform of a Newb" Make sure all this stuff is below 5000p so you won't lose it on death. Speaking of which you need a few death items. Especially for starting out I usually get 6 greater mana stones from Eastham. They have a value of 5500p each so they should cover everything your going to start out.
Next get the society gear. This stuff has really made this template easier to play. Your not going to have an Arcane Lore above 60 forever so this stuff is Great! Get yourself the Life and War wands, The focus necklace, The Endurance ring and if you have another gold note get the quickness ring. I suggest you do all this with a different character because all the running around you have to do is a little ruff at 10 quickness. Also if you can find a willpower 2 bracelet somewhere you should be able to use it. For more help on the society quest go to maggie's site at http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/
Where to level
This is all subjective and hopefully you'll read my diaries on ideas where to level. I'll cover levels 1-20 in this guide.
Level 1 - Just learn all your level 1 and 2 spells, you'll almost get to level 2 doing this alone
Level 1-3 Fight drudges, gnawlers, and wasp in the general area of your starter town, each stuff and it'll help you get your feet.
Level 3-10 Nothing beats a beach, I suggest Eastham's beach but just about any will do. Be careful of the Azure grommies ;)
Level 10-15 Find a mountain. Great stuff in the mountains, you can hunt matties, golems and lugies. Any mountains will do, I suggest Mayoi's or Quali's
Level 15-20 Hit the Dires. Yup that right you can take the dires by the time you're 15 just pick and choose your fights and be prepared to run. The easiest access to the dires is from Mayoi.
To sum up this is how I level dizz to 20. Started in Rith, worked my way to Eastham. Hunted on Eastham beaches till 10. Worked my way up to the beach portal (you can get to mayoi from here) went to mayoi. Hunted in the mountains there till 15 then hit the dires. Easy as pie!
That's it. Have fun and blow stuff up! Questions, suggestions? email me.