Making the Wizard better

[joec]

Actually, I am revising that rule now.

2 points (either body or mind, hero's choice) for completing a questbook, but only one if the player had a Hero death.

[Ryno]

badass.

[Ryno]

I forget who came up with the idea - but someone in another post stated the idea of using the
spell cards in such a way so as to create a wait time - you keep a certain amount of cards in your
hand as being "in-play" - when you use a spell, you put it at the bottom of the out-of-play pile and
draw a new one.

This reminds me, I was joking with my friend about this, putting sand timers on top of each card in play, like the cool down timers we are used to seeing in wow, it sounds like fun as a novelty, but it wouldn't really work due to lack of relative time between real minutes and time it takes for a turn to finish, it's too hard to track number of turns, especially since this is heroquest and we are trying to keep things simple.

[joec]

Here's a way:

Set a number of active turns per spell. When a magic user casts the spell, take the card from them. Then give it a value... Say 15 or 25 for Zargon/Morcar to count down. That way, they can judge if a turn was useful or just lame waiting. Then Z/M can give them the spell back when the counter reaches zero

[ndsandman]

In most role playing games, sadly, the wizard type characters have always been a weaker class at the begining.
But if ... IF they survived in higher levels they had power to do heavy damage, but still not that great in melee.

My kids complain they can only cast 2 healing cards out of the entire deck. Once cast they can't cast again till next quest.
I too, have been thinking of a way to allow them the option to cast spells more than once, but still keep game in balance.
But also teach them about planning somewhat of a strategy. I had to laugh reading this topic's earlier posts.
My boys keep all spells darn nears to the end, and at times forget to even cast during major combat.
Sad to say durin todays adventure both spell users, wizard and elf lost their lives, both wanting to hold off till the boss
to heal, when a wondering monster killed them both. Both were at 1 body point each and I kept asking, as if as the Evil Wizard Player
had to make notes, what is your current body point score. Wizard had drawn both healing cards, and the barbarian had a healing potion, if they wanted to share with each other. This will come with time.... learning when to cast.

I hate to start cross gaming, to make games work, but if i have too i will.
I have been toying with the idea to allow them to pick a spell they want to cast twice, with the price of dropping 3 others.
Thus a wizard wanting to cast pass through rock, would have to drop 3 spells and only have 6 cards to cast, and the pass through rock cards could be used twice. 7 spells 6 cards. Would that be to harsh of a trade off?

[SirDionysDobermann]

I think we all encountered the same problem. With my group, there was the additional disadvantage that the Wizard player when drawing treasure cards almost always came across either Wandering Monsters or traps. This was only slightly balanced by the fact that in the European first edition the line "May not be used by Wizard" was missing on the Quest Treasure / Artifact cards. So the Wizard may use the Spirit Blade. I never changed that.

In most role playing games, sadly, the wizard type characters have always been a weaker class at the begining.

I have been toying with the idea to allow them to pick a spell they want to cast twice, with the price of dropping 3 others.
Thus a wizard wanting to cast pass through rock, would have to drop 3 spells and only have 6 cards to cast, and the pass through rock cards could be used twice. 7 spells 6 cards. Would that be to harsh of a trade off?

We have been playing this way:
Wizard and Elf may draw their own sets of spells in any combination they like (we have more than one set of spell cards). They still may only have nine or three spells respectively (plus additional spell options from Artifacts/Quest Treasures). First it turned out that the Wizard always chose three Balls of Flame, three Genies and three healing spells, the Elf settled for spells from the Elf Quest (Mage of the Mirror). It took some devious planning to get a more balanced play, though (for example, loads of monsters being immune to fire spells without telling the Heroes beforehand).

[HeroQuestFrance]

Due to problems with translations, in France the wizard was the worst character we could have.
Courage spell only works one turn (just imagine..) and rock skin was working one turn too.

So here is my update :

Courage & rock skin now work normally.
Djiin attacks with 5 dices a visible figurine OR resurrect a visible dead character.

Staff attack in diagonal and with 2 dices not one.
Wizard can buy the cloak of protection and "the remontant" (don't know if you have translated those gear cards of the french basic game for him) so he can have 2 more dices to his defense.
He can have have 2 more dices with american cards so his final defense reachs 6 dices !

I've modified one american artefact & added into my game so to resume :

-a nice update of his 12 basic spells
-he can have a magical staff (artefact) with a possible diagonal attack and 2/3 (against undead) dices to fight
-can get 6 dices to defense (2 to buy, 2 more as artefacts)
-can launch 2 spells in a turn (artefact card)
-can stock one before starting a quest (artefact card)

More :

-I've modified and made better his new spell cards (wizards of morcar) : more powerful & useful for the group !
-since the elf has now his own powerful cards (i've modified it too in a better way) our wizard has 21 spells to cast in a quest ! (elf now starts with his 7 cards)
-> of course the basic all 12 are available at start giving a nice choice of spells and a possible solo mode. The 9 others have to be unlocked (level up buying it training etc)

And thinking about a 5/5 spirit/body points ? uh ?

[Ethica]

Giving the wizard additional and varied spells and a few magical items is definitely the way to go.

I have made a new staff as a quest treasure that launches 2CD fireballs (as a substitute for the crossbow). This always gives the wizard an alternative to going hand to hand when he's run out of spells.

He will always be physically vulnerable and he just has to deal with that by being magical back-up and healer.

[el_flesh]

Yup.

Totally agree, and I have had fun playing the wizard.
Of course, got killed and wiped out the first time by trying to go hand-to-hand like a barb would.

[drathe]

Over the weekend, I played two Quests with a new group allowing the Wizard to use two of each spell per Quest. It makes a considerable difference. No longer was there any "save the spell for a possible end boss". The Wizard was able to take equal part in combat via spells and assist other Heroes in combat with spells like courage. I believe adding a second copy of each spell to the Wizard's arsenal to be the simplest way to make him more balanced when playing the American edition. As the other Heroes gain in equipment, I may consider creating an artifact that allows the Wizard a third set, or the Elf a second depending on who has it.