The Wizard Clearing House of House Rules

[Jafazo]

Definitely, I agree.

I just glanced at the Elf's spells and jeeze. Disappear... tsk tsk. Elf puts on Platemail armor reducing his movement to 1 red die, casts Disappear, runs around the whole board revealing everything with immunity to attacks, traps etc. smh

[Gold Bearer]

I never thought of that. Still, at least it's incentive to actually buy the plate mail. Shame it's the elf though, really doesn't suit him. It should be the dwarf who buys it.

I think this is probably an oversight. I think since plate mail halves your movement it should be if you roll over four instead of over eight.

[Jafazo]

Nah the problem is mostly with the spell. It shouldn't give you immunity to traps and other attacks. I'd probably leave it to read that the spell ends if you roll less than half your movement speed's maximum value rounded down. So if you roll 2d6, a 6 or less ends it. If you roll 1d6, a 3 or less ends it. Keep it so you can't perform any actions but as soon as the spell ends your turn is over. You spring traps like normal but can't be the target of any normal attack or spell.

With 10 body points those ogres are nasty as hell!

It's too obvious they designed spells like Deep Sleep specifically for the Ogres. One turn of free hits!

Flashback is just way too much of a pain in the ass. Undo'ing things gets messy real fast.

Twist Wood is a problem when that one player comes along. Not all monsters weapons are defined as being made of wood and even if not, handles to some could always be wooden. The one player with some extra '*Play-Doh factory*' in him could also blackmail a wizard wielding a wizard's staff. "Fork over 50 gil every quest or I'm gonna pretzel that *lemony goodness*." Same for any hero who likes his crossbow.

Slow is a death sentence for ANY boss monster. Elf, don't leave home without it. Everyone makes sure to buy a crossbow and when that boss is found, Wizard can open with two Tempests if he Spell Rings it, then, if it's still alive, the Elf can hit it with Slow and everyone can keep moving just out of range of its 1 square while pelting it with crossbow bolts.

Overall, I dislike the Elf Spells.

P.S. oh, my Goddess I'm cracking up at the board's censoring feature. It changed A****** to "play-doh" and S***" to, lemony goodness. *Rolls on Floor Laughing*. Tempted to type a bunch of NoNo's just to see what other HaHa's the board comes up with! Love it

[Gold Bearer]

Nah the problem is mostly with the spell. It shouldn't give you immunity to traps and other attacks. I'd probably leave it to read that the spell ends if you roll less than half your movement speed's maximum value rounded down. So if you roll 2d6, a 6 or less ends it. If you roll 1d6, a 3 or less ends it.

You mean three or more. Nine or more ends it as standard so eight or less doesn't end it. I think four or less with plate mail because it halves your movement so eight or less becomes four or less and there's no need for rounding.

Flashback is just way too much of a pain in the ass. Undo'ing things gets messy real fast.

Hmm, well it only undoes one movement and one action, unless the elf used the wand of recall, or heroic brew I suppose.

Twist Wood is a problem when that one player comes along. Not all monsters weapons are defined as being made of wood and even if not, handles to some could always be wooden. The one player with some extra '*Play-Doh factory*' in him could also blackmail a wizard wielding a wizard's staff. "Fork over 50 gil every quest or I'm gonna pretzel that *lemony goodness*." Same for any hero who likes his crossbow.

Wooden weapons are EWP's discretion. I think the weapons that apply should be decided before the game starts. I rule that heroes can't attack or target each other with aggressive spells. Blocking's fine, 'No I'm not letting you past so you can steal the treasure in the chest!' It makes swift wind and veil of mist much more useful if they're not working together.

Overall, I dislike the Elf Spells.

I get the strong feeling that the expansions (Euro and US) after KK and RotWL weren't made by the same people that designed the base game. They don't wquite fit the original game.

P.S. oh, my Goddess I'm cracking up at the board's censoring feature. It changed A****** to "play-doh" and "S***" to, lemony goodness. *Rolls on Floor Laughing*. Tempted to type a bunch of NoNo's just to see what other HaHa's the board comes up with! Love it

Play-dof factory. Lemony goodness comes out of your play-doh factory.

[knightkrawler]

Nah the problem is mostly with the spell. It shouldn't give you immunity to traps and other attacks. I'd probably leave it to read that the spell ends if you roll less than half your movement speed's maximum value rounded down. So if you roll 2d6, a 6 or less ends it. If you roll 1d6, a 3 or less ends it. Keep it so you can't perform any actions but as soon as the spell ends your turn is over. You spring traps like normal but can't be the target of any normal attack or spell.

With 10 body points those ogres are nasty as hell!

It's too obvious they designed spells like Deep Sleep specifically for the Ogres. One turn of free hits!

Flashback is just way too much of a pain in the ass. Undo'ing things gets messy real fast.

Twist Wood is a problem when that one player comes along. Not all monsters weapons are defined as being made of wood and even if not, handles to some could always be wooden. The one player with some extra '*Play-Doh factory*' in him could also blackmail a wizard wielding a wizard's staff. "Fork over 50 gil every quest or I'm gonna pretzel that *lemony goodness*." Same for any hero who likes his crossbow.

Slow is a death sentence for ANY boss monster. Elf, don't leave home without it. Everyone makes sure to buy a crossbow and when that boss is found, Wizard can open with two Tempests if he Spell Rings it, then, if it's still alive, the Elf can hit it with Slow and everyone can keep moving just out of range of its 1 square while pelting it with crossbow bolts.

Overall, I dislike the Elf Spells.

P.S. oh, my Goddess I'm cracking up at the board's censoring feature. It changed A****** to "play-doh" and "S***" to, lemony goodness. *Rolls on Floor Laughing*. Tempted to type a bunch of NoNo's just to see what other HaHa's the board comes up with! Love it

It has been done, and it's funny. You can switch it off if you want to.

Also, invaluable insights. Thank god I rewrote all these spells considerably, if I used them as templates at all. I can't even remember.
For example, Twist Wood now just has the target ignore 1 skull in their attacks.
Working with Count Mohawk's icons to specify spell effects is just the way to go.

[slev]

The dice result you're searching fore is "if all rolled dice are 5+". That then auto-scales with the number of dice you're rolling!

[slev]

Quick link for completeness...

My "Apprentice Magic System", designed with the younger players in mind. Also includes a set of magical equipmenbt, so the Wizard has something to spend gold on!

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3479

[Gold Bearer]

The dice result you're searching fore is "if all rolled dice are 5+". That then auto-scales with the number of dice you're rolling!

But that changes the chances of the spell being cancelled if you're rolling two dice. The odds are 1 in 9 of rolling high enough to cancel the spell if it''s both dice above 5 but with the standard 9+ the odds are 2.5 in 9.

[slev]

Roll a white die with your movement dice. If you roll walruss, the spell ends?

Slightly more complicated, but no scaling needed.

[Torgo]

I just always house ruled that only the Wizard can read spell scrolls. It makes sense fluff wise that only the Wizard would have studied reading magic (much like reading sheet music) while the Elf draws his magic from "feelings" rather than long study. I also added quite a few scrolls to treasure searches. Pretty much any time the bookshelves or Sorcerer's table appear they have a scroll or two on them. I found this gave the Wizard a bit more oomph.

There it is, that's what I was looking for. This is the way I handled it. Only problem is the game still doesn't hand out enough spell scrolls throughout the adventure. Solutions to that were to just include spell scrolls throughout the game as Zargon. I even tried making some of the spells purchasable in the armory, this also gave the wizard something to spend his money on. Worked wonders, no need for extra rules, problems solved.

100 points to you Torgo

Thanks! Yeah the next time I get a group together to play I think I will add some scrolls for purchase for the Wiz.

As far as the Elf spells discussion. I always hated the Elf quest pack spells. Never used them and never will. They're either kinda broken or completely useless with no in between. Then again, I only run the original quest book and the first two expansions (I add Ogres in Kellar's Keep and Wraiths in Witch Lord). The culmination of my quests is the Witch Lord pack. As that is 34 quests between all three books which is really more than enough for a complete campaign in my opinion. Though I do allow the Heroes to buy potions from the Alchemist's shop right from the beginning.