Is there a purpose to the spell twist wood?

[lestodante]

1.) What is the range of the spell, does it have to be within line of sight?
2.) Does it effect just 1 monster or 2?
3.) Does it effect the heroes as well? Hypnotic Blaze doesn't spare them, why should this?
4.) How do we know whose weapons have wood in it. The Fimir is carrying a battle axe, but that doesn't necessarily imply the handle is made of wood.
5.) What about the Ogre, his weapon definitely appears to be made of wood, but there's no telling how much his attack dice relies on the weapon or the force he's exerting to swing it.
6.) Monsters' attack and defense strength is not determined the same way as the heroes is. How are we to determine all of their unarmed stats?
7.) Is the Ice Gremlin holding a staff or just a stick? Either way, is it made of wood? What is his attack Strength without it?
8.) The Polar Warbear's club could be made of wood... does that negate his first attack?
9.) How will the heroes know when to choose this spell, do we forewarn them that Elven Archers will be in said quest? (They only appear in 2 quests).
10.) Does the spell have any effect on furniture?
11.) What about the Archemage, the figurine appears to be holding a wolveshead staff, he/she has some valid attack Strength. Would it effect him/her and to what degree?

1 as all the spells, line of sight counts
2 any monsters visible by the spellcaster
3 no... only against monsters. I like the idea that a magic user has some kind of control over his spells
4 Fimir axe is made of wood, just look at pictures when it is painted in brown
5 same dice attack but need to roll black shields instead of skulls
6 as in point 5, it is the fast way to handle it in my opinion and add a concrete penalty to the affected monster
7 they hold a ice stick so they are not affected by the spell
8 as point 5, he attack with black shields
9 why they should know? They will never wknow what's expecting them in a new quest
10 it says "any wood weapon" so not on furniture, but it may be interesting to apply on closed doors, traps and more
11 I guess the archmage will use a mirror magic spell to avoid the effect. She still has spells anyway.

[wallydubbs]

I could live with the Black Shield thing, it seems reasonable.

In regards to it not working on heroes as well; the spell does specify crossbows, bows and staffs. In some occasions we'll come across an orc with a crossbow or goblin with a bow... but I don't believe there's ever a specific point where a monster is armed with a staff (save Grak).
Some would say this spell should apply to heroes as well. Hypnotic Blaze is a very powerful (in my opinion), so the fact that it can backfire on heroes is an eloquent way of balancing it. Have you playtested the black shield thing to see if it balances out?

[lestodante]

Using the black shields instead of skulls was a rule that we applied with my team many many years ago, because in the Witch Lord expansion pack there's a quest where the Heroes start from the cell and are unequipped; so what to do if they will meet a monster BEFORE reaching their equipment?
Not so much to test in my opinion, since it can happen very rarely.

[Kurgan]

I would treat it as what shows on the miniature/card (barring any extra explanation in the quest notes). I would treat it as I treat my "rust" spell (a modification given to my new "Mystic" character class) except for wood rather than metal (most weapons are a composite of both anyway though for this purpose I will avoid the question of whether a sword is partially wood or not... maybe the handle is ivory or bone and wrapped cloth instead).

It works at range, and ruins the enemy's wooden weapon, reducing them to 1 attack die, unless it's a strong monster then they are only reduced to 2 attack dice.

[Kurgan]

To add a little more, as my version of the Rust spell (Mystic) reduces "strong" monsters to 2 attack dice... just because their cool weapon goes away, doesn't mean they suddenly lose their superior physical strength, and this is just the wood equivalent of that.

I explicitly added a line to the Wizard's (Alchemist's) staff that it resists this type of spell as well as rust (technically one version of Rust don't work against Artifacts, another only works on "Equipment"). I would treat "Twist Wood" the same way with a monster that has a wooden weapon.

Twist wood works on wooden weapons, which are normally immune to the "rust" type spells. All of the Mercenaries with ranged weapons also have a way to attack adjacent. Some of them explicitly only have one (meaning they use a dagger or are unarmed), while others get a broadsword for example.

The use on spear traps thing sounds amusing (instead of a spear, suddenly a tangled tumble-weed hits the hero in the face), the only problem is you'd have to use it on the already detected trap, at the cost of an action.

Would it work on a tree monster? I'm presuming a "mimic" monster isn't actually made of wood... what about a door?

[wallydubbs]

Twist Wood renders all wooden objects Useless.

What is the purpose of a door?
To be opened.

The door is useless and cannot open. Refer to Keller's Keep The Great Citidel quest note A for further information.

Elf: "I cast Twist Wood on the Dark Warriors, their crossbows no longer work!"
Barbarian: "Nice job, but now I'm having trouble opening this door."
Dwarf: "Try harder laddy."
Wizard: "Ah, I think my Genie can help us with that!"

[Kurgan]

And it won't work on witches either, I take it...

[Kurgan]

This great thread keeps bringing me back...

I think it is sound, but still way to complicated. You are zargon and your players need to understand that. Also i think the mummies and skeleton statement is a little strange, a skeleton could choke or bite and is animated by the same forces of chaos as the mummy, at least 1 atk. its not a martial artist skeleton is it?

MARTIAL ARTS SKELETON is a funny, but brilliant idea. I may have to use that somehow...


So my plan is again to use Twist Wood similar to Rust. It will disable a crossbow (or any sort of bow, really) or wooden staff to nothing. Standard monster is reduced to one combat die (unless he has a backup weapon, all my ranged Mercenaries have a backup short or broadsword, though those elves specifically use daggers) while "strong" Monsters are reduced to two, and I explicitly include Fimirs and Chaos Warriors. Good point about the Ogres. Spiked gauntlet is still usable and a wooden club may be damaged but the Ogre himself is still strong enough to pummel you for 2 combat dice per attack. Polar Warbear uses a paw swipe. Maybe these guys are just more used to fighting with weapons, so it still has a benefit. This would prevent it from being either useless or all-powerful.

I've made an exception for the Alchemist's Staff (Wizard's staff). It's constructed of special materials that resist rust, corrosion and warping, so if the bad guy has one of these, the Spell will have no effect (unless his wooden belt buckle is affected, causing him utter embarrassment for one turn, giving the Heroes an extra chance!).

I believe there is at least one official Quest that specifies that the Orcs use staves (and Orcs or Goblins with bows appear occasionally throughout the Quests or if you use the Combat Cards), but apart from this, Twist would might otherwise nerf some of these evil Wizards you encounter in various packs.

The "force open treasure chest/door" option is pretty cool too, I think I'll use it. If Zargon anticipates a problem he can always decide beforehand that the door is made of stone/metal. There IS a card in the Evil Wizard Deck of a furniture Mimic, that would be a cool way to destroy it. Now if you (foolishly) warped the Weapons Rack, I'd say you can still search it to see if there's one good weapon left in it... and disabling the spear trap is also a go. After all, it's a one use spell (unless you have an artifact that says otherwise). Might as well reward cleverness.

[Daedalus]

1.) What is the range of the spell, does it have to be within line of sight?
2.) Does it effect just 1 monster or 2?
3.) Does it effect the heroes as well? Hypnotic Blaze doesn't spare them, why should this?
4.) How do we know whose weapons have wood in it. The Fimir is carrying a battle axe, but that doesn't necessarily imply the handle is made of wood.
5.) What about the Ogre, his weapon definitely appears to be made of wood, but there's no telling how much his attack dice relies on the weapon or the force he's exerting to swing it.
6.) Monsters' attack and defense strength is not determined the same way as the heroes is. How are we to determine all of their unarmed stats?
7.) Is the Ice Gremlin holding a staff or just a stick? Either way, is it made of wood? What is his attack Strength without it?
8.) The Polar Warbear's club could be made of wood... does that negate his first attack?
9.) How will the heroes know when to choose this spell, do we forewarn them that Elven Archers will be in said quest? (They only appear in 2 quests).
10.) Does the spell have any effect on furniture?
11.) What about the Archemage, the figurine appears to be holding a wolveshead staff, he/she has some valid attack Strength. Would it effect him/her and to what degree?

1.) Since Twist Wood is part of an NA expansion, range is LoS.
2.) It affects 1 monster. The singular use of "weapon" and "a" infer "any" has the meaning any (one) of a kind. If the spell were meant to affect multiple targets, it would have been stated, ". . .any wooden weapons, such as staves, bows, or crossbows,. . ."
3.) No, it doesn't affect Heroes. The spell is cast at one monster's weapon.
4.) When in doubt, refer to the published art to determine if a weapon contains (tan to brown) wood. Failing that, common knowledge of the majority case for the weapon works.
5.) I choose to reroll any skulls, which halves an Ogre's attack probability.
6.) Same as #5, but reroll skulls for any monster.
7.) Based on #4, it isn't made of wood. Using #5, roll the standard Attack Dice, then reroll any skulls.
8.) Yes, the attack of the club could be negated, but I favor #6 and would reroll skulls instead.
9.) Information in the Quest Notes shouldn't be revealed ahead of exploration, so a hard no. If you qualify more weapons to be affected, there isn't a need.
10.) I'd judge Twist Wood only affects weapons as stated in the spell's description.
11.) Sinestra's staff isn't an artifact, so the spell specifies that the staff is rendered useless. Since her attack is greater than the one combat die granted from a staff, apply #6 and reroll skulls.

[Kurgan]

A "Wizard's Staff" is 2 attack dice, but is also an artifact, so should be immune, being magical (but is not the source of spells, so has no impact on a character's magical ability in this case).