Ye Olde Inn

For your consideration. I have finally finished designing 7 new spell colleges for spellcasting heroes to choose from. These are meant to be available from the very beginning of The Gathering Storm, and are designed in the same vein as the original elemental colleges (one powerful spell, one moderate, and one weak). If you have not seen it already, it will help to check out my Spellcasting House Rules thread:
http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3184

The link below is to my Homebrew Project site where all the card images are. You'll notice I have re-worded all the original game spells to fit with my house rules, but the effects of each of those spells didn't change (much), they are just much more clear and concise. I'm looking for some feedback on the new spells (which are by no means set in stone). I may have missed an exploitable loophole, or misjudged power level on some of them, so let me know what you think:

http://www.showdowndave.ca/heroquest/cards-spells.html

Please keep comments in this thread about the new spells, not the house rules I introduced in the other thread.

I'm a sucker for new spells, it seems; I've commented in pretty much every new thread involving enhanced Wizardry. Why stop now?

The wording on these spells is very clear and concise. Some of the new ones, however, are rather more powerful than the original dozen. I'm assuming that two spells with the same Spell Value are intended to be about the same power level throughout the various colleges.

• Resurrection (Light 3) looks powerful at first glance, but it's balanced by the fact that it can only be cast when a Hero takes fatal damage. Heal Body and Water of Healing may restore fewer Body Points, but they can be used at any time.
• Am I understanding Soul Shadow (Shadow 3) correctly? It reads to me as 'make a clone of yourself, with effectively 2 Body and 2 Mind Points, that can also cast your Spells'. If the shadow casts one of your spells, do you have to put it into the re-cast pile? And if the shadow attempts to re-cast a spell, who loses the Mind Points if any Skulls are rolled?
• You should probably indicate that Metal Detection (Metal 1) only searches one room or corridor in the text. As written, it gives the impression that the entire dungeon is searched for special treasures at once...
• For Enchant Weapon (Metal 3), does the spell wear off when an attack with that weapon rolls no Skulls or when it deals no damage (after the Monster defends)? If it's the latter, the spell is comparable to Courage (Fire 3), since the enchantment will break after 4-6 blows, depending on what gets enchanted and how burly the monsters are. Courage will be stronger against tougher monsters, while Enchant Weapon retains its power for potentially multiple rooms. I wanted to say that Enchant Weapon should stay in effect for until the Hero rolls no Skulls in an attack swing, but that would basically make the spell permanent for the rest of the Quest, especially on a Battle Axe (for an average of 32 buffed attacks).
• There are very few situations where you would want to cast Seal Door (Wood 1), but in those situations erecting a 10 BP wall to cover your escape can buy several turns to escape the monsters chasing you. Remember, without ranged or diagonal weaponry, only two monsters can attack the door per round (by trading places each turn). If it was me, I would personally tick the door down to 6 or 8 BP, but it's hardly broken at 10, if only because of how little play the spell will actually see.
• Tangle Vines (Wood 2) trades the reliability of Tempest for the ability to stun multiple targets. If a target frees itself at the start of its turn, can it move or attack on that turn?
• Regeneration (Wood 3) feels underpowered to me, especially compared to Resurrection (Light 3). The spell can be cast ahead of time, effectively healing a Hero above his normal Body Point maximum, but to get the mileage out of it you have to guess (or predetermine) which of the four Heroes is likely to suffer a deathblow, else the spell gets wasted by dint of affecting the wrong target. Also, only healing for 2 is a very low payoff, especially for a value-3 spell. I'd bump this one up to healing at least 3 BP, and 4 would not be out of the question either.
• Ice Shards (Ice 1) is actually quite a lot stronger than Fire of Wrath, except in the very unlikely circumstance your Hero encounters a monster with 10 or more Defend dice. It also beats out Ball of Flame for all monsters with 4 or less Defend dice. To make this spell closer match Fire of Wrath's power level, it would need to deal an average of 1.5 skulls of damage, which you could accomplish either by rolling three Combat Dice to attack, or by rolling one Combat Die and dealing 2 Skulls if a Skull is rolled or 1 Skull if not.
• Deep Freeze (Ice 2) is basically an instant-kill spell, even though the monster remains alive on the board, because unless you froze the monster in front of a door or equivalent, there's no reason for the Heroes to break it out and the monster can't break free himself. It's a little more situational if you would allow other monsters to attack their comrade to free it, but still quite strong, at least as good as Tempest.
• Hailstorm (Ice 3)... Great concept, but far more powerful than any other attack spell the Heroes can use, and not just because it's an area-of-effect spell. It would actually be stronger than Genie even if it only affected one target.
• Thunderstorm (Lightning 2) is much stronger than Tempest because it stuns all figures in the same room. Sure, you might hit one or two Heroes if they're positioned poorly, but you'll almost certainly make up for it by hitting 3-6 monsters.
• The Chaos Spell Lightning Bolt (Lightning 3) tends to do a lot of damage to the Heroes when they bunch up. As a Hero spell, it's certainly weaker than Firestorm (and Hailstorm), but on par with or somewhat stronger than Genie, again depending on monster layout. Would you consider reducing the range on the spell, i.e. "deals 2 damage to target monster and 1 damage to each other figure in the 9 square area surrounding it"?
• Push (Mystic 1) has some interesting applications quite aside from being strong. In the weakest possible case (shoving a Goblin or Orc into a wall), the spell deals slightly less damage than Fire of Wrath - and it only goes up from there. Banging two Chaos Warriors together would almost certainly hurt them both, possibly badly. Or if you were very desperate for some quick damage, you could shove the Barbarian into another monster, which would maim the Barbarian but probably kill whatever you shoved him into (half of his starting 8 BP causes about 4 damage). It would probably be better to tone this one down a touch (or buff Fire of Wrath, for that matter, but I'll get to that at the bottom).
• And then there's Meditation (Mystic 3). Despite this spell restoring Mind Points (i.e., the resource used to re-cast multiple Spells), the Wizard cannot get ahead by repeatedly casting it, which I regard as a useful safeguard against player shenanigans. I did the calculations: if the spell is re-cast, the Wizard loses an average of 0.34 Mind Points per attempt, gaining at least 1 Mind Point only 20% of the time, but losing at least 1 Mind Point 46% of the time (factoring in both the MP cost from Skulls rolled and the chance of failure from Walruses).
  (If the spell restored 3 Mind Points instead of 2, the Wizard would gain an average of 0.24 Mind Points per re-cast attempt, gaining at least 1 Mind Point 45% of the time, or losing at least 1 Mind Point 33% of the time. I'll leave it up to you whether or not you think allowing for such potential abuse is worth it. Note that the two-Walrus clause prevents this from being a truly infinite exploit, since the spell will be discarded after an average of 14 attempts.)

Nothing on the list is blatantly exploitable, but there's definitely a lot more power in your new spells than there was in the original four sets. If you choose to make edits based on my analysis, I recommend you give a little thought to the math behind the damage your cards can deal, as that seems to be where most of my critiques lie.

I really like these. I agree with everything Count Mohawk said. But these are well designed and thought out cards.

Oddly enough, I find these cards don't offend my pet peeve about cards needing to resemble the originals. They certainly don't, but they are very appealing. I could see myself mixing these in for my group just as is.

Very nice, thank you for sharing.

So the Regeneration spell...

The way it is worded I could cast this spell on a compatriot as we walk into the dungeon and it is active until the condition of death is met.
If I have the ring of spell storing I could choose this spell and protect two of my comrades with this spell from the moment we enter the dungeon.
Kinda powerful. I wouldn't have an issue with this spell in a high level game, but as an available spell for basic bitches; naw.

Count Mohawk wrote:I'm a sucker for new spells, it seems; I've commented in pretty much every new thread involving enhanced Wizardry. Why stop now?

The wording on these spells is very clear and concise. Some of the new ones, however, are rather more powerful than the original dozen. I'm assuming that two spells with the same Spell Value are intended to be about the same power level throughout the various colleges.

Two seperate spells with the same value don't necessarily have to be the same power level. I wanted each college to have a 1, 2, and 3, but I think it is ok if one college has a more powerful 3, but less powerful 1 and 2. I want the colleges as wholes to be comparable to each other, to make it debatable which colleges are the best to take, and to have spellcasters consider changing up colleges every once in a while, rather than sticking with the obviously most powerful throughout every single quest.

[*]Resurrection (Light 3) looks powerful at first glance, but it's balanced by the fact that it can only be cast when a Hero takes fatal damage. Heal Body and Water of Healing may restore fewer Body Points, but they can be used at any time.

Yes, it seems powerful, but you have to be in sight of the figure exactly when it dies, making it quite conditional and sometimes counter-able by Zargon (I'll move this little Goblin in front of your wizard, then attack the Elf with 3 Chaos Warriors!)

[*]Am I understanding Soul Shadow (Shadow 3) correctly? It reads to me as 'make a clone of yourself, with effectively 2 Body and 2 Mind Points, that can also cast your Spells'. If the shadow casts one of your spells, do you have to put it into the re-cast pile? And if the shadow attempts to re-cast a spell, who loses the Mind Points if any Skulls are rolled?

You are reading it right. Make a clone of yourself (doesn't clone magic items), effectively has 2 Mind and 2 Body points (but not literally, as it may have to use Mind points to resist a spell, etc, in which case it uses the Mind Points it cloned, which is why I worded it the way I did). Shares spell cards, meaning if the clone casts a spell, it is put in the re-cast pile, if it re-casts a spell, the close looses the mind points. It shares the spell cards themselves, but the clone is still the one casting or re-casting the spell.

[*]You should probably indicate that Metal Detection (Metal 1) only searches one room or corridor in the text. As written, it gives the impression that the entire dungeon is searched for special treasures at once...

Good call! I am changing this card to be more specific for rulings. It can now only be cast in a room unsearched for treasure, and will reveal the top two cards, taking Gold! and returning others. This will count as a treasure search.

[*]For Enchant Weapon (Metal 3), does the spell wear off when an attack with that weapon rolls no Skulls or when it deals no damage (after the Monster defends)? If it's the latter, the spell is comparable to Courage (Fire 3), since the enchantment will break after 4-6 blows, depending on what gets enchanted and how burly the monsters are. Courage will be stronger against tougher monsters, while Enchant Weapon retains its power for potentially multiple rooms. I wanted to say that Enchant Weapon should stay in effect for until the Hero rolls no Skulls in an attack swing, but that would basically make the spell permanent for the rest of the Quest, especially on a Battle Axe (for an average of 32 buffed attacks).

Originally I had meant it as good until no skulls rolled, but you have convinced me otherwise! I will change it to "when an attack fails to cause damage." I think it is ok to nerf this one a bit anyway because Sword Fling can be a very powerful level 2 spell.

[*]There are very few situations where you would want to cast Seal Door (Wood 1), but in those situations erecting a 10 BP wall to cover your escape can buy several turns to escape the monsters chasing you. Remember, without ranged or diagonal weaponry, only two monsters can attack the door per round (by trading places each turn). If it was me, I would personally tick the door down to 6 or 8 BP, but it's hardly broken at 10, if only because of how little play the spell will actually see.

Ya, I struggled the most coming up with cool concepts for Wood. I thought Seal Door would allow a Wizard to be a little more adventurous, even opening doors on his own! If he knows he has the back up of sealing the door when faced with a particularly tough room, he may be encouraged to explore a little more. Plus, this spell now becomes the ONLY method that exists to close a door once it's been open. I figure some heroes might want to take Wood just to have that one-of-a-kind ability. I think I will bring it down to 8 BP though. Shouldn't be too hard for monsters to break it down considering the door has no defend dice.

[*]Tangle Vines (Wood 2) trades the reliability of Tempest for the ability to stun multiple targets. If a target frees itself at the start of its turn, can it move or attack on that turn?

This one is somewhat powerful for a level 2, but that was intentional to make up for Seal Door being the least powerful level 1. I worded it "make an Attack on the vines," so it would be clear that the targets will have used an action to free themselves. Also note that this spell only causes targets to become immobile. They can still cast spells and attack (ranged or adjacent) if they choose not to attack the vines holding them in place. I thought this would make it more interesting and different than Tempest and Thunderstorm.

[*]Regeneration (Wood 3) feels underpowered to me, especially compared to Resurrection (Light 3). The spell can be cast ahead of time, effectively healing a Hero above his normal Body Point maximum, but to get the mileage out of it you have to guess (or predetermine) which of the four Heroes is likely to suffer a deathblow, else the spell gets wasted by dint of affecting the wrong target. Also, only healing for 2 is a very low payoff, especially for a value-3 spell. I'd bump this one up to healing at least 3 BP, and 4 would not be out of the question either.

Good point. This is essentially a regeneration shield. You are bang on about the guessing which hero will be most likely to receive lethal damage. I struggled with this one (like I said, Wood was the toughest), trying to make it different from Resurrection. I tried coming up with a way to make it actually heal slowly after damage is suffered, but couldn't think an elegant way to make that work while not being overpowered. If you have any suggestions for this, please share!

[*]Ice Shards (Ice 1) is actually quite a lot stronger than Fire of Wrath, except in the very unlikely circumstance your Hero encounters a monster with 10 or more Defend dice. It also beats out Ball of Flame for all monsters with 4 or less Defend dice. To make this spell closer match Fire of Wrath's power level, it would need to deal an average of 1.5 skulls of damage, which you could accomplish either by rolling three Combat Dice to attack, or by rolling one Combat Die and dealing 2 Skulls if a Skull is rolled or 1 Skull if not.

Dude, I love your math practicality for explaining power level. This is the kind of insight I was hoping someone would help me with! I completely agree with your assessment of this one. I made it Attack with Skulls because I wanted to convey through mechanics the main difference between ice and fire. Fire is not affected by armour and shields (roll red dice, always the same attack no matter what the target), even an armourless monster can drop and roll or otherwise avoid a fire attack. Ice is directly affected by armour and shields (reliable attack but can be defended against). The more heavily armoured the target, the less damage it receives.
I want to keep that same concept, so I think I'll go with attack with 1 Skull. Makes it less powerful, but Ice has two of the best spells at level 2 and 3, so I think that will balance it nicely (see below, I'm going to nerf Hailstorm too based on your math). Ice Shards will still be very nice against Gobbos and Orcs, but worse than Fire when the Chaos Warriors show up.

[*]Deep Freeze (Ice 2) is basically an instant-kill spell, even though the monster remains alive on the board, because unless you froze the monster in front of a door or equivalent, there's no reason for the Heroes to break it out and the monster can't break free himself. It's a little more situational if you would allow other monsters to attack their comrade to free it, but still quite strong, at least as good as Tempest.

I do allow any Figure to attack any other Figure, so my idea was that if you froze a Chaos Warrior, the Goblins around him would try to hack away at the ice. I will consider putting in a clause that allows the target to eventually break free dependent on body points.
SIDENOTE: If you don't allow a hero to attack another hero, then the chaos spell Command would suck! That's a discussion for another thread though.

[*]Hailstorm (Ice 3)... Great concept, but far more powerful than any other attack spell the Heroes can use, and not just because it's an area-of-effect spell. It would actually be stronger than Genie even if it only affected one target.

As mentioned above, this needs to be nerfed. I originally compared it to Firestorm (Chaos), which is VERY powerful, but realize now that I made Hailstorm even MORE powerful!! Changing it to Attack with 2 Skulls. (Same concept of Fire and Ice as explained above).

[*]Thunderstorm (Lightning 2) is much stronger than Tempest because it stuns all figures in the same room. Sure, you might hit one or two Heroes if they're positioned poorly, but you'll almost certainly make up for it by hitting 3-6 monsters.

Yes, this is a powerful variation of Tempest. I really liked the idea, and probably would have made this the level 3 spell if Lightning Bolt didn't exist. How can I have lightning magic without lightning bolt!? This was tough for me because I did not want to change the Chaos Lightning Bolt. If you have an idea to nerf Thunderstorm, I'd love to hear it!

[*]The Chaos Spell Lightning Bolt (Lightning 3) tends to do a lot of damage to the Heroes when they bunch up. As a Hero spell, it's certainly weaker than Firestorm (and Hailstorm), but on par with or somewhat stronger than Genie, again depending on monster layout. Would you consider reducing the range on the spell, i.e. "deals 2 damage to target monster and 1 damage to each other figure in the 9 square area surrounding it"?

As I mentioned above, I don't want to change Lightning Bolt. All my house rules are meant to be addons to the original HeroQuest, and I'm really set on the idea of integrating my new stuff with the old. I think this is ok as the level 3 Lightning spell because Teleport isn't that strong. This shows even more, however, that I need to nerf Thunderstorm.

[*]Push (Mystic 1) has some interesting applications quite aside from being strong. In the weakest possible case (shoving a Goblin or Orc into a wall), the spell deals slightly less damage than Fire of Wrath - and it only goes up from there. Banging two Chaos Warriors together would almost certainly hurt them both, possibly badly. Or if you were very desperate for some quick damage, you could shove the Barbarian into another monster, which would maim the Barbarian but probably kill whatever you shoved him into (half of his starting 8 BP causes about 4 damage). It would probably be better to tone this one down a touch (or buff Fire of Wrath, for that matter, but I'll get to that at the bottom).

This spell was made intentionally potentially strong. The reasoning being that to use it to best effect, you would have to venture into the thick of the battle (have to be adjacent to target) which is a risky move for the Wizard. Since Mystic's level 3 spell only restores Mind Points to the caster, it is more likely for the Wizard to choose Mystic instead of the Elf. Plus, Deflect Spell will not see nearly as much use, especially since Zargon will know who has it and probably make sure he doesn't cast any Attack spells in sight of the Wizard. I also did consider the Barbarian fling to try for massive damage, and I liked the idea so much that I actually wanted to encourage it! Imaging the Barbarian standing in front of the Wizard with his Broadsword pointed at a Gargoyle. He yells, "NOW!" and the Wizard force pushes him across the room, shattering the Gargoyle to pieces! That would be a memorable event for the heroes, even if the Barbarian looses half his BP.

[*]And then there's Meditation (Mystic 3). Despite this spell restoring Mind Points (i.e., the resource used to re-cast multiple Spells), the Wizard cannot get ahead by repeatedly casting it, which I regard as a useful safeguard against player shenanigans. I did the calculations: if the spell is re-cast, the Wizard loses an average of 0.34 Mind Points per attempt, gaining at least 1 Mind Point only 20% of the time, but losing at least 1 Mind Point 46% of the time (factoring in both the MP cost from Skulls rolled and the chance of failure from Walruses).
(If the spell restored 3 Mind Points instead of 2, the Wizard would gain an average of 0.24 Mind Points per re-cast attempt, gaining at least 1 Mind Point 45% of the time, or losing at least 1 Mind Point 33% of the time. I'll leave it up to you whether or not you think allowing for such potential abuse is worth it. Note that the two-Walrus clause prevents this from being a truly infinite exploit, since the spell will be discarded after an average of 14 attempts.)

This one I originally had as a simple "Restore 4 Mind Points", and yes, you are right I wanted to safeguard re-casting every turn before exploring. I really only wanted this spell to be cast about 2 or 3 times a quest, which is why I added the full restore option. This is a tough one to get right, and probably the most potentially exploitable, so I want to err on the side of too risky rather than too easy. It also slows down the game as heroes will wait around for the Wizard to re-cast multiple times before moving on. I'll revisit this and try to come up with a better way.

Nothing on the list is blatantly exploitable, but there's definitely a lot more power in your new spells than there was in the original four sets. If you choose to make edits based on my analysis, I recommend you give a little thought to the math behind the damage your cards can deal, as that seems to be where most of my critiques lie.

Thank you so much for your insights, they are truly appreciated! I worked very hard on these and the second set of eyes and brains definitely helps them be the best design they can be!

cynthialee wrote:So the Regeneration spell...

The way it is worded I could cast this spell on a compatriot as we walk into the dungeon and it is active until the condition of death is met.
If I have the ring of spell storing I could choose this spell and protect two of my comrades with this spell from the moment we enter the dungeon.
Kinda powerful. I wouldn't have an issue with this spell in a high level game, but as an available spell for basic bitches; naw.

I forgot to write in one of the clauses when I posted my rules: Buff and Hex spells can only have one copy in play at a time. Even with the Spell Ring. If a Caster wants to cast a second Regeneration, he would have to end the first one.

Well, here comes round two of the Count's suggestions!

Showdown35 wrote:Regeneration (Wood 3)
Good point. This is essentially a regeneration shield. You are bang on about the guessing which hero will be most likely to receive lethal damage. I struggled with this one (like I said, Wood was the toughest), trying to make it different from Resurrection. I tried coming up with a way to make it actually heal slowly after damage is suffered, but couldn't think an elegant way to make that work while not being overpowered. If you have any suggestions for this, please share!

In my set of advanced Wizardry, I have a spell also called "Regeneration", which heals the Hero by 1 Body Point each turn. The Hero must also roll a Combat Die on each of his turns; the spell breaks if either a Black Shield is rolled or the Hero reaches his Body Point maximum. It's a bit strong, healing an average of 6 Body Points, but the fact that the Heroes have to wait for a while and/or wade into the thick of battle to get full benefit out of it helps keep it from being too strong. Like you, I also disallow "stacking" buff effects, so there's no chance of making a Hero into an invincible Troll or something (well, that and the spell card for Regeneration is "use-once-per-Quest").

Showdown35 wrote:Deep Freeze (Ice 2)
I do allow any Figure to attack any other Figure, so my idea was that if you froze a Chaos Warrior, the Goblins around him would try to hack away at the ice. I will consider putting in a clause that allows the target to eventually break free dependent on body points.

Ah, OK. That keeps things balanced. When the monsters can help each other out, Deep Freeze only becomes perma-frost (ha ha) if it's cast on the last monster in a room. Also, if you use BP as the self break-free mechanism, it becomes basically alt-art Sleep, which is A-OK.

Showdown35 wrote:Hailstorm (Ice 3)
As mentioned above, this needs to be nerfed. I originally compared it to Firestorm (Chaos), which is VERY powerful, but realize now that I made Hailstorm even MORE powerful!! Changing it to Attack with 2 Skulls. (Same concept of Fire and Ice as explained above).

That'll work. I have no beef with area-of-effect attacks in and of themselves, just overly strong ones.

Showdown35 wrote:Thunderstorm (Lightning 2)
Yes, this is a powerful variation of Tempest. I really liked the idea, and probably would have made this the level 3 spell if Lightning Bolt didn't exist. How can I have lightning magic without lightning bolt!? This was tough for me because I did not want to change the Chaos Lightning Bolt. If you have an idea to nerf Thunderstorm, I'd love to hear it!

What if you limit Thunderstorm's range to the 9 squares surrounding the caster? That way, you can still stun multiple targets, but you have to wade out into the thick of battle to get the most effect out of it.

Showdown35 wrote:Push (Mystic 1)
This spell was made intentionally potentially strong. The reasoning being that to use it to best effect, you would have to venture into the thick of the battle (have to be adjacent to target) which is a risky move for the Wizard. Since Mystic's level 3 spell only restores Mind Points to the caster, it is more likely for the Wizard to choose Mystic instead of the Elf. Plus, Deflect Spell will not see nearly as much use, especially since Zargon will know who has it and probably make sure he doesn't cast any Attack spells in sight of the Wizard. I also did consider the Barbarian fling to try for massive damage, and I liked the idea so much that I actually wanted to encourage it! Imaging the Barbarian standing in front of the Wizard with his Broadsword pointed at a Gargoyle. He yells, "NOW!" and the Wizard force pushes him across the room, shattering the Gargoyle to pieces! That would be a memorable event for the heroes, even if the Barbarian looses half his BP.

I missed the requirement that the Wizard be adjacent to his target; that helps a lot with the balance. I like how we both thought of the Barbarian-shove as an attack option. And if you want to make sure he survives, give him Regenerate (as it currently exists) beforehand and shove him when he's on his last Body Point! Muahahaha!
One question: can you Push a figure away from you into a wall if they're already adjacent to that wall? (And if so, should you be able to?)

Count Mohawk wrote:Regeneration (Wood 3)
In my set of advanced Wizardry, I have a spell also called "Regeneration", which heals the Hero by 1 Body Point each turn. The Hero must also roll a Combat Die on each of his turns; the spell breaks if either a Black Shield is rolled or the Hero reaches his Body Point maximum. It's a bit strong, healing an average of 6 Body Points, but the fact that the Heroes have to wait for a while and/or wade into the thick of battle to get full benefit out of it helps keep it from being too strong. Like you, I also disallow "stacking" buff effects, so there's no chance of making a Hero into an invincible Troll or something (well, that and the spell card for Regeneration is "use-once-per-Quest").

That's not bad. I could try that and I don't think it's too powerful at level 3. Water and Earth each heal 4 BP immediately, so 6BP over 6 turns seems pretty balanced. I'm not too sure how I feel about the "roll a Combat Die every turn" thing. I try to avoid effects that have to be tested every turn (they are both easy to forget, a pain to correct when they are forgot, and time consuming). I may make the spell break restriction different.

Deep Freeze (Ice 2)
Ah, OK. That keeps things balanced. When the monsters can help each other out, Deep Freeze only becomes perma-frost (ha ha) if it's cast on the last monster in a room. Also, if you use BP as the self break-free mechanism, it becomes basically alt-art Sleep, which is A-OK.

But Sleep tests on Mind Points! So Deep Freeze would be alt-art, alt-condition Sleep... Anyway, still not sure if I need the "break free" option. Even if it is the last Monster in the room, Zargon could send a corridor Goblin found later on into the room to free the Frozen monster. Also, if it's a boss Monster, usually it needs to be killed to finish the Quest anyway, so the Heroes wouldn't leave it there. Also, as soon as the Caster wants to Freeze another monster, the first one is freed, so it's not like they can leave a trail of Frozen monsters in their wake!

Thunderstorm (Lightning 2)
What if you limit Thunderstorm's range to the 9 squares surrounding the caster? That way, you can still stun multiple targets, but you have to wade out into the thick of battle to get the most effect out of it.

That's not a bad idea, although I did have another thought this morning. What if I make the room blocked off from entrance. So it would be like this:
Thunderstorm
Hex Spell (2)
All other Figures in the room with the Caster skip their next turn. No Figures may enter the room until the Caster's next turn. Caster cannot choose to end this spell.

Limits the amount of damage the other heroes can do while monsters are stuck, but still provides utility: the caster can cast it and run away (or have a free turn to attack if he wants); he can delay the monsters to allow the rest of the party to catch up; heroes at the door can shoot into the room for some cheap attacks (I might have to limit sight into the room if that's too cheap).

Push (Mystic 1)
I missed the requirement that the Wizard be adjacent to his target; that helps a lot with the balance. I like how we both thought of the Barbarian-shove as an attack option. And if you want to make sure he survives, give him Regenerate (as it currently exists) beforehand and shove him when he's on his last Body Point! Muahahaha!
One question: can you Push a figure away from you into a wall if they're already adjacent to that wall? (And if so, should you be able to?)

Great question! It would sure gum up the card with text if I had to restrict using it next to a wall. I'm thinking I'll allow it. The force of the close up magic push directly against a wall could do quite a bit of squeeze damage, so I think it still makes sense. Not as fun, for sure, but still logical. Essentially, in that situation, it's more like a force Punch.

Thanks again for the comments!

Showdown35 wrote:Regeneration (Wood 3)
That's not bad. I could try that and I don't think it's too powerful at level 3. Water and Earth each heal 4 BP immediately, so 6BP over 6 turns seems pretty balanced. I'm not too sure how I feel about the "roll a Combat Die every turn" thing. I try to avoid effects that have to be tested every turn (they are both easy to forget, a pain to correct when they are forgot, and time consuming). I may make the spell break restriction different.

Well, you could say something like "Target a Hero and put 6 counters on this card. Remove a counter on each of that player's turns, and the targeted Hero heals 1 Body Point. The spell breaks when all counters have been removed.", although the way I phrased it is extremely clunky and should be revised if you wanted to try that. Beyond the "here's some healing counters" gimmick, I don't have any other ideas at the moment.

Showdown35 wrote:Deep Freeze (Ice 2)
But Sleep tests on Mind Points! So Deep Freeze would be alt-art, alt-condition Sleep... Anyway, still not sure if I need the "break free" option. Even if it is the last Monster in the room, Zargon could send a corridor Goblin found later on into the room to free the Frozen monster. Also, if it's a boss Monster, usually it needs to be killed to finish the Quest anyway, so the Heroes wouldn't leave it there. Also, as soon as the Caster wants to Freeze another monster, the first one is freed, so it's not like they can leave a trail of Frozen monsters in their wake!

Those are both valid points. In that case, yeah, the self-dethaw clause seems unnecessary.
...Why do "thaw" and "dethaw" mean the same thing? Funny how the English language works.

They don't. I think you are probably combining defrost and thaw, which mean the same thing.