The Wizard Clearing House of House Rules

[slev]

I have bought the multicoloured dice and am using them as part of the rebalance to the game and this adds a lot more flavour to each character.

If you look at the foci, many of the probabilities are suspiciously similar to the probabilities of those dice...

[cynthialee]

I am bumping this thread in hopes that others who haven't seen it will and then they sound off and add their 2 centavos.

[Decipher]

I have made several Artifacts for the Wizard along with a few new spells. Still working on them. Going to release them later. I believe the Wizard is weaker when it comes to physical combat, even against a single Goblin. The way to boost a Wizard is with new spells, better Artifacts exclusively for him. However or whatever a Game Master does to boost the Wizard, balance must be maintained at all times, especially when making new Artifacts and or spells.

[slev]

I've been working on the idea of creating extra spell groups. The Wizard has access to these, as does a Champion Elf. Their use is less obvious than the basic eight groups. They give the Wizard a whole slew of optional abilities. I'm trying to make each Spell Group equally useful.

Each group counts as two of the eight "types" in my game (fire, earth, air, water, darkness, detection, protection, control). Some types cancel out (Water + Fire), some are too similar (Earth + Protection), so this leaves 20 new "Arcane" spell groups to be made. These groups include Light, Energy, Ice, Metal, and others.

I'm not decided on whether or not to make Foci for these, although they shouldn't really be needed, given the range of powers in the original eight Foci I made.

[Anderas]

Currently i am thinking about the same.
I got my german dice some weeks ago, and ever since i am thinking about possibilities to build them into a nice deck of equipment and artifact cards.

I am about to finish my Base Quest Book, and then that's the next point on the Agenda.

I want the Wizard to max out at 5 Defense dice and 3 Attack dice if he manages to get Borin's Armor and Spirit Blade - they will be allowed for the Wizard in my system; so that he doesn't need to fear the "one Chaos Warrior Attack" problem anymore. (Yes i know the Spirit Blade provides 4 Attack against Undead) And just in case somebody takes away these two Artifacts, a second choice shall be available that allows him to max out at 4.6 Defense. For the Attack, I'd like to make the choice complicated by providing nice artifacts that allow less Attack but better Sorcery, or more attack but only against certain enemies and such kind.

Anybody else shall max out at 4/5 or at 3/6; except the Barbarian who shall always have an attack die more. So the difference stays.

I am not a fan of a defensive game of scissor-rock-paper, though - you could do that with elemental defense like "the fire defense works best against fire, but not against water attacks".... It's just too easy to break it if you're Zargon and you know what the Hero brings.


I was deep thinking about Karlen's Circlet as well. Theoretically it is a very good attempt; but in the end i have an entire sub-system just for the wizard. I am sure it works: Tested by drathe and others, it has the advantage that it was already in use. It provides everything you need from Wizard-strength point of view. You can even throw in a new gem if you find the Wizard is still too weak.
I just don't like it, somehow. I can't even tell you why.

What i like, to bring the Wizard on par, is instead of adding more Spell groups, add two Spells per Group more which you can access only one by one after you bought the access to them for gold. They can either be weak variants you can reuse eternally; or they can be one-time like the others. I think we have sufficient Spell Groups - 8 of them - there is just two elements missing and they're complete.

For me, from Fluff point of view, I miss Light and Energy. Light as opposed force to the darkness Spells, and Energy as representation of pure magic (accidentally having things like "Lightning Strike" and "Dispel Magic" inside)

But rather than inventing two more spell groups, i think i would prefer to have a quest pack related spell group. No need to complete the fluff (if the fluff is completed, what's left to discover?); I'd prefer to have swamp spells in the lizardmen expansion; Beast magic in the Beastmen expansion, Sand&Scorpion Spells in a desert expansion and so on and so forth. So no more spell groups, rather more spells per group for me.

[Decipher]

I've been going through all my Dungeons & Dragons books looking for more spells. The thing with HQ is I think they pretty much covered all the bases with all the spells. Finding D&D spells that are different than the HQ spells and also fits into the HQ theme is difficult.

[cynthialee]

HQ needs the following spells in my humble opinion:
Detect Magic
Dispel Magic
Light Spell
Detect Evil
Detect Traps
Blessing
Curse
Summons Monster
Tensors' Floating Disk
Charm
Feeble Mind
Ray of Enfeeblement


All of these are old school D&D/AD&D spells that would work well in an HQ system.

[Decipher]

HQ needs the following spells in my humble opinion:
Detect Magic
Dispel Magic
Light Spell
Detect Evil
Detect Traps
Blessing
Curse
Summons Monster
Tensors' Floating Disk
Charm
Feeble Mind
Ray of Enfeeblement


All of these are old school D&D/AD&D spells that would work well in an HQ system.

I have a summon monster one already. One summons 3 Goblins or 2 Orcs or 1 fimir. Than I have a separate one that summons a Chaos Warrior. How would the Detect spells work?

[slev]

How I'd do the detect spells:

Eye of the Thief
This spell may be cast on any one figure in Line of Sight. The target may see traps. The EWP should reveal any and all traps that enter the target's Line of Sight. This effect lasts until the target loses any Mind and/or Body Points. Discard after use.

Aetheric Site
This spell may be cast on any one figure in Line of Sight. The target may see magic. The EWP should reveal any and all Spell cards held by Monsters. The GM must also state is any Potions, Artefacts, or other magical treasures are hidden in any room the target enters. This effect lasts until the target loses any Mind and/or Body Points. Discard after use.

Sense Malice
This spell may be cast on any one figure in Line of Sight. The target may sense Monsters. The EWP should reveal the number (but not type or disposition) of Monsters in the room or corridor beyond any door at which the target stands. This effect lasts until the target loses any Mind and/or Body Points. Discard after use.

[slev]

I have equivilents of Charm, Dispel Magic, and Enfeeble Mind in my HQR set already