The Wizard Clearing House of House Rules

[mukami]

If you don't want to change the spirit blade you could add a Wizard Sword to the armoury. Wizard only magical broadsword, 500gp.

You could add a Conjuration spell group.

* Spectral Sword (One turn short sword)
* Spectral Arrow (One turn short bow)
* Spectral Shield/Ward (One turn shield, reflects spells on )


Edit: Monsters don't have armor...

[Anderas]

That's a nice one. Maybe the weapon lasts until the fight is over, to be worth it. I like them.

[Kurgan]

An old and long thread (many great ideas)! My own ways I've expanded the Wizard in my campaigns are these (and thank you all for the inspirations along the way!).

Let me preface by saying I've added a Legacy of Sorasil inspired Mystic and Ranger, both with the same armor restrictions as the Wizard (but not the same weapon restrictions... Ranger can use anything. But the Mystic can go up to a Broadsword or Flail, so 3 dice attack adjacent/2 diagonally, but only 1 at range maximum). To clarify, if anyone besides the Wizard tries to use the Wizard's Cloak/Staff he doesn't get the bonuses, they act like an ordinary Cloak of Protection or Staff, so best to give it to the one it was intended for.

(Using NA rules but) Add back in Bracers and Cloak. Cloak (not to be confused with the Artifact known as Wizard's Cloak) can be used by any Hero, but it's more expensive than Chain Mail (and has benefit by not adding to damage when falling into Pit of Darkness).

Sling is a weapon (usable by Wizard, but not exclusive to him).
Torch and Whip are weapons a Wizard can use (again, not exclusive).

This is using my Hero Upgrade System. When a "Champion" or above wears the Talisman of Lore, it grants 2 Extra Mind points, rather than 1.

So what about exclusives? Well a "Champion" level Wizard (3-5 quests completed) uses black dice when using the Wizard's Staff, and may substitute 1 Green Die when wearing the Wizard's Cloak.

When he reaches Champion level, some of his spells get slight buffs using the German colored dice (depending upon what he chose of course). Veil of Mist & Pass Through Rock get +1 square of movement. Swift Wind gets 2 extra squares of movement. Courage adds Black Dice. Rock Skin adds a Green Die. Genie gets a bunch of random colored dice (they could be purple or orange, for example, that have the chance for double skulls). Ball of Flame and Fire of Wrath get stronger... the victim has to roll a 6 to avoid damage.

My leveling system lets the Elf draw ONE random potion card between quests, and at Champion level he draws 1 random Spell Scroll (2 random Spell Scroll draws at Knight level). Like the Wizard, these random potion draws can be stockpiled (no "use it or lose it" rule). And as with other items, they can always gift or trade them with other Heroes.

At "Knight" level (10-14 quests completed) the Wizard gets another upgrade. In addition to what came before (except now Rock Skin uses two extra White dice instead of one extra Green one), he can now sacrifice three unused Spells (Spell Scrolls can also be used) of one Element type to summon an elemental. The Elemental is a short-lived, but room clearing powerhouse who is almost unstoppable (only dies if passing through another Elemental or if someone uses an opposite element spell on it, like Water against Fire). An Elemental can last from 1-7 turns, based on a random die roll when Summoned and is under full control of the Summoner. The Mystic gets the same power at Knight level.

I would introduce a special "Wizard's Aresenal" supplemental Armory, that is only for the Wizard. Probably after he reaches Champion level (at the very least).

Sure, I suppose anyone can buy from the high priced equipment here, but ONLY the Wizard can use them. They're useless to any other Hero (so they could purchase for him to use). And these items are not just going to be an object that lets you use a spell, but most of them are either single use per quest or 3, 5, etc uses per quest. There are items that give a benefit or can be used more often but lose their effectiveness if his Mind Points drop below a certain level (some require more than his usual mind points). For example there is a very expensive, magic tome that allows him another set of 3 spells for each level of Mind Points he reaches.

And yes, after each Quest, he may draw 2 random potions from the Potions deck. And if he searches a room with a Sorcerer's Table for Treasure (and no Quest treasure is specified in that room) he may restore one spent Spell OR (if he has no spent spells) he may draw a random Spell Scroll.

And yes, if the Wizard (or Mystic, or Elf probably) searches an Alchemist bench for Treasure (and no quest Treasure is specified), they may draw a random Potion from the Potions card deck. One search per character per quest in either case.

As others have already done, I also introduce Artifacts that give the same sort of boost for the Wizard as for the Barbarian (Amulet of the North) and Elf (Elven Bracers). So 2 extra body points and 1 extra mind point when he acquires it.

I like the Wizard and think he's pretty good already and for the advanced player to use effectively, but while upgrading the other Heroes it doesn't seem fair to leave him behind!

I try to keep the basic mechanics simple but just add more opportunities. So completing more quests = more power tweaks and possible draws. Also, as far as Furniture interaction, when a Weapon's Rack gets searched (and there's no specific treasure) that's an Equipment Deck draw, for anyone (depending upon the quest, I may remove the Battle Axe and Plate Mail just so it doesn't become too easy to get those to sell off). When there's a bookcase, at least for three Quests, that's a chance to discover one of the Scrolls of Battle.

I do use the "Evil Wizard Deck" to keep play speeding along, and also the Combat Cards (and usually not just for "pure fighters" either... each Hero draws 2, Zargon draws 4... unless the Heroes are Knights in which case Barbarian and Dwarf draw 3 each and Zargon draws 6... new cards each quest, regardless).

My "Searching" rules work this way. It's NA style, except you can also search each corridor for Treasure. Each Room or Corridor gets searched this way once. However I think sometimes I would allow the same Alchemist's bench or Weapons rack to be searched by multiple heroes (once each). So other than searching a pit trap you happen to be in, there's a limit to how many times you can search for Treasure in each quest. And I only shuffle the Treasure deck between quests, not every time you search. Of course my Treasure deck is thicker, as it includes the NA cards + the unique EU cards, plus the Expansion Treasure cards, plus a few more to round things out (so its a bit safer than the standard deck). Plus if you have an active Torch from my new armory, you can ignore "Hazard" cards. I threw in 2 each of the "draw random potion" and "draw random spell scroll" cards into the Treasure deck, as well. So there should be plenty of opportunities to get some of those. When you get a Potion card that has a monetary value on it, between Quests you can buy as many copies of it as you can afford at that price from the Alchemist shop. You can also sell back an unused potion at the printed value. Spell Scrolls are usable by any Hero, as usual.

My "Spell Scrolls" deck doesn't have the "ruined scroll" so it's always something useful. My "Potions" deck, does have the recommended "poison" options, so you risk end up losing a body or mind point at times! The Equipment Deck doesn't have any rusted equipment so it's always good (unless you really didn't need another dagger). I only put doubles of the Helmet and Shield in there, as recommended by the Premiere edition. Otherwise it uses my expanded Armory.

PS: The Evil Wizard Deck does include a card that has you "drop" (lose) a potion. The Combat Cards deck has at least one where a Monster can steal a potion. So there are other ways to slow down Heroes who are inclined to stockpile them (of course a potion you never use, is no benefit).

[Kurgan]

The "Net" idea is pretty cool, capturing Goblins! I have my own thoughts...

If you find the torture table can you put an ork on it and extract information?

No but you can with a Goblin. I haven't wrote that Quest yet though. It involves a net, which the heroes find, there is also a net in the armoury (it's in another thread). The quest is to be designed to introduce the mechanic to the Heroes. The Goblin will tell where secret doors and traps are hidden. The net has a 1Cd6 in attack. If the hero wins they capture the Goblin. Now the Hero must sacrifice 1 rolled Md6 every time they move. It's a lot harder to capture bigger monster but they wont blab anyways. Other Quest have needs for the Net.

I don't think the Heroes would ever really torture an enemy captive, even a Monster prisoner, but here is how I would handle it... if they capture an enemy (using the appropriate Combat Card) they can get info, and it's at Zargon's discretion how it works. Maybe an undead would just mumble incoherently (useless). A weaker monster would point you in the general direction of where you need to go on the map ("North!") and that's it. Can you torture the guy? Maybe you roll once and if it's a black shield he tells you the truth, white shield he tells you a lie, and skull he just laughs in your face. Every time you attempt to torture (turn the rack, let's say) you lose a Mind Point, since it's against your Hero's code. If you do it too many times, he dies, either because of the torture itself or he's got one of those hollow-tooth suicide capsules.

What happens to the captive? Do you just knock him unconscious (for his boss to find and "deal with you later")? I'd say after getting the info, he either runs away (off the board, back into your monster pile), or maybe his escape means he's stronger the next time you might face him (black dice attack and/or blue dice defense? being alerted to your presence). Or maybe you can hire him as a monster mercenary. It would be funny if it was a very powerful monster, so perhaps a boss Monster would just end the quest and you can hold him for ransom. Or maybe it would be a matter of he just automatically escapes without giving you anything (like the Escape spell, since the goal is still to destroy him). Then again, if you are lucky enough to get that card and held out long enough with it to beat him, maybe the Hero should get this one (after all, you did roll enough to kill him, technically). (The below image is borrowed from the excellent Combat Cards Deck hosted on Phoenix's page)

[Karlssonontheroof]

It seems to me that the odds of recasting a spell based on a single D6 roll vs mind point test has too large a gap in odds between one mind point or one difficulty point.

1/6 = 16.7%

My proposal would be;

After casting a spell for the first time, it is not lost, rotate it to mark it as cast. On a future turn you may attempt to recast a cast spell if you roll equal to or under your mind score on 2 red dice (2D6). If you fall to cast a spell your action is finished.
+1 to the room for powerful spells,
-1 to room for weaker spells
Healing spells cannot be recast, discard all usual.

The odds are as follows (approx).


3. 8% Elf powerful spells
4. 14% Elf
5. 28% Wizard powerful spells / Elf weak spells
6. 42% Wizard
7. 58% Wizards weak spells
8. 72%


Shift everything up one if you have the talisman of lore.



Point 2. If you want further wizard advancement. I would include an item to purchase, upgrading the damage dealing spells

Eg. Spellbook
Unlocking Arcane Mastery improves the damage dealing spells.
Genie (powerful) 7 dice
Fireball (powerful) 3 body points 2 red dice
Fire of wrath (normal) 2 body points
Arrows of night (weak) 3 dice

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Problem 1: The advancement mechanism in HeroQuest, is flawed (in general, separate topic around fixing those problems) with regards to the Wizard for 2 main reasons

a) The Wizard doesn’t have access to a lot of the weapons & armour available to other Heroes so for him the ‘acquire gold and use it to upgrade weapons & armour’ advancement mechanism is extremely limited.

b) The USP of the Wizard is spell casting so problem (a) wouldn’t be so much of an issue, if the advancement mechanism provided the Wizard with a way of boosting his spell casting, giving him a parallel advancement path to the other Heroes but it doesn’t

Problem 2: The Wizards strength is a high Mind point value, but Mind points in the basic game are under-developed / under-implemented so his strength is not adequately played to.

Problem 3: The Wizard’s Starting Body Point value is too low, even accepting that he is thematically the weakest Hero in this regard, for example the Healing Potions in the UK/EU version restored 4 Body Points and the Healing Spells restore 4 body points, the Wizard must wait until he is dead to get the full benefit.

Proposals

• Change the Wizard’s starting Body and Mind points from 4 and 6 respectively to 5 and 5. This resolves problem 3 whilst still retaining the thematically important Wizard having the highest MP and lowest BP of the Heroes and serves three purposes
Note: need to review the Mind Point Values of Dread Spell Casters in various Quests to see if they need an equivalent drop to retain parity

• Allow the Wizard to use the shortsword, this expands his advancement through upgraded weapons and armour slightly (dagger->staff->shortsword – 2 steps) and allows him access to artefacts such as Orcs’ Bane whilst keeping him limited in terms of his use of upgraded weapons & armour which fixes problem 1 (a)

• Create a path for advancement for the Wizard that parallels the standard “acquire gold and purchase upgraded weapons & equipment” path (more on this below – see “The College”) to fix problem 1 (b)

• Define the Strength of Mind test in the rulebook explicitly so it can be easily reused in other Quests (for example KK gate) – partial fix of problem 2

• Define the effects of zero Mind Points in the rulebook as that is missing, unless otherwise stated in the rulebook, if your Mind Points are reduced to zero then you are dead – partial fix of problem 2

• Increase the number of spells, artefacts and special abilities for Heroes and Monster that utilise Mind Points – partial fix of problem 2
Some examples of that last point

• Healing Spells – Heal Body and Water of Healing - the number of body points restored is based on the current MP of the caster

• Fire of Wrath & Lightning Bolt, Firestorm spells – the amount of combat dice rolled in attack is based on ½ the current MP of the caster (rounding up)

• Summoning Spells – Summon Undead & Summon Monsters – the number of monsters summoned is based on ½ the current MP of the caster (rounding up)

• Special Monster Ability – Lich / Wraith such as The Witch Lord – Mind Stealer – A monster with this ability can carry out a special attack on an adjacent target as an action instead of a normal attack. They roll one combat die in attack for each of their current Mind Points and the target may defend by rolling one combat die for each of their current Mind points. For each Skull that is rolled by the attacker, which is not cancelled by a (white) shield, the defender loses 1 Mind Point, and this can be used by the monster to restore a lost Body Point

• Mind Stealer Amulet – ROTWL Quest 5 Bellthor is wearing this artefact - The Mind Stealer Amulet activates once at the end of each of Zargon’s turn and can be used against any Hero that the wearer has line of sight to, as per standard ranged attacks. The effects are the same as the Mind Stealer ability. If the wearer is destroyed, then this artefact explodes, and the mind shock wave will render all remaining Heroes unconscious. (Note: Reducing the Mind Point value of a Hero to zero in this Quest will render them unconscious, rather than killing them, although Mind Point restoration works as usual, and they are removed from the board until the next Quest.)

• Introduce a Mind Stealer spell (a variant of the Mind Stealer ability above) that can target any Hero within line of sight, caster rolls a number of combat dice equal to ½ their current MP value, target rolls a number of combat dice equal to their current Mind Point value, any Skulls that are not blocked by the targets Shields result in a Mind Point being lost and the caster restoring a Body Point (KK Quest 9 The East Gate – Borokk could be used to introduce this new Dread spell and potentially also have a scroll of two of the same and this could ultimately be one of the new Mind Element Spells)

• A Magically Warded Gate requires anyone attempting to pass to take a Strength of Mind test and roll two sixes to be allowed through, failure ends their turn, and a Wandering Monster appears (for the specific example of the East Gate in KK, the Dwarf needs to only roll a single six)

The College

In essence “The College” is a concept that allows a complimentary parallel path of advancement for the Wizard equivalent to that of the other Heroes – the “acquire gold and buy upgraded weapons & armour Between Quests at The Armoury” path. This path can be summarised as “acquire gold and buy additional spells Between Quests at The College”

• The Elf chooses spells from the Elf deck freeing up the fourth element for the Wizard

• At the point of Hero creation, The Wizard’s spell choice is fixed, he doesn’t get to change that choice Between Quests

• Between Quests allow the Wizard to spend his gold on learning new spells at “The College” subject to the following rules

1. The maximum number of spells that can be known by a spellcaster is based of his starting MP value (including any artefact bonuses such as the Talisman of Lore) i.e., one spell set (element) for each starting MP over 3 – this is backwards compatible as in the official game the Wizard has MP6 and has 3 spell sets (elements) and the Elf with MP4 has 1 spell set (element)

2. You must learn all spells of a particular set (element) before moving onto spells of another set

• Expand each element set from 3 to 5 spells by including some extra spells for example from WOM (implementing this rule would also allow the Elf to choose up to 5 spells rather than 3 from the elf spell deck and would also include some potential new Dread spells)

• The Wizard starts with a MP5 and therefore has two full sets of elements of his choosing (at Hero creation) so a total of 10 spells – not vastly different from the original 9

• The Talisman of Lore found in the original game system quest book boost the Wizard’s MP by one point, granting him access to learn a third element (an additional 5 spells bringing his total spells up to a 15-spell maximum)

• An additional artefact with comparable properties needs to be created and located in another Quest Pack, perhaps ROTWL, giving the Wizard access to learn the fourth element (up to 20 spell maximum)

The Fifth Element

• Consider introducing a Fifth Element called Mind or Will, including the artefact to boost the Wizard’s MP to 8 to allow access, perhaps as part of the Wizards of Morcar/Zargon Quest Pack, which introduces another set of five spells around Mind Control giving the Wizard a potential of up to 25 spells