Wizard Equqipment

[slev]

Actually, that's inspired me to change it!

Broach of Mending
This small, gold-edged gem bears potent healing magics that a magician can liberate.
You may use one of the following abilities whenever you could cast a spell, instead of using a spell card. This card does not need to be discarded to do so.
Any one target adjacent figure may recover up to one lost Body Point, you lose one Body Point.
You regain up to one lost Body Point
Wizard Only.
75GC (Starting)

[Anderas]

I've seen another one.
While copying and pasting in Excel to steal everything to generate my unique own set of cards, i found this one:

Card Text:
"Cast from an unusual metal, this key fits no lock. With it, the powers of earth may be focused.
If you use the Card “Rock Skin” while you possess this Card, the target may also re-roll up to one skull each time they defend.
If you use the Card “Pass Through Rock” while you possess this Card, the target will further not set off any traps as a result of their moving, and may pass through furniture.

Cast Action: Select one target figure in Line of Sight and roll a number of White Dice equal to half (round down) your current Mind Points. The target may recover a number of lost Body Points up to the number of skulls rolled.

Limits: Wizard Only

Price: 750

Well, here we are again: unlimited Healing from far away. This would force me to be very quick and dirty with the wizard, or it would force me to put unlimited Monsters on Board. The game could work this way - Descent is working this way - but it would lose its style.
I think if you give it the same bonus like the water healing spell, or if you allow it to heal to full body points, it is enough. I'd rather have unlimited Pass Through Rock than unlimited healing in my game.

_________________

Apart from that, i think this list is pretty awesome. It gives the Wizard a lot of opportunities to spend some gold and brings him on par with the other Heroes. I think, the effects of the foci are also well thought through. I will not implement all of them into my game as purchasable items, but instead it may happen that I drop the one or the other artifact on the table, that has, accidentally, the same card text.

[cynthialee]

Last few games we played, the Wizard was the only hero that didn't get random gear. Instead I pulled out the Robe, Ring, Bracers and Staff and just gave the cards to the Wizard player. Also all four schools of magic given to the Wizard.
It still was not enough to get the Wizard player to stop sandbagging with the spells. The player had the wizard hanging back and playing cleric. They ended the games with over half their spell deck un-played, every single time.
It doesn't seem to matter who plays the Wizard. They always sandbag on the spell casting.
Gets me to thinking of ways to alter the spell system.
Ideas so far:
1)Spells cast are rolled to see if they are lost. Basically every time a spell is cast there is a risk that the spell is lost, otherwise the spell is retained, but the spell can not be cast back to back. A different spell must be cast before the last spell was cast may be cast again.
2) Spell Point system.
3) A Wizard gets one school of magic that he may double up on. Which would open this one school up to being more likely to be used, but leaves the others in the sandbagged pile.
4) Components system.
5) Rewards system for magic cast similar to Experience Points. Say for every 10 spells cast the caster is rewarded a Magic Learning Point. When 10 learning points are accumulated the mage may learn a new spell.

So even when I buffed the Wizard with all the good Wizard only gear he still was too easy to damage, he inflicted a small amount of damage, and he only cast a handful of spells in the fear of not having spells later on. Best moment for our wizard was a fortuitous back attack with the Wizards staff on an Ork that probably left Ork goo on the walls. (we play with facing rules and attacks on the back are at +1 Dice)
I am reminded of the oriental wizard in Conan the Barbarian who was happy to land a killing blow with his spear...Not a good look for our Wizard.

The Wizard absolutely needs something like the Barbarians Amulet of the North that boosts his Body and Mind Points. 4 Body Points is so easy to carve through with a good dice roll or two with even low level monsters. Honestly....the Wizard doesn't even need a Mind boost, just some more Body Points and the dude can hang with the epic levels. If he would just cast some spells!

[knightkrawler]

Maybe something blatant and forceful would make players learn more aggressive spellcasting.
If a Hero casts no spell for five consecutive rounds, he has to hold up all his spell cards for the EWP to draw one. It takes effect immediately (or in some cases, doesn't cause it's inapplicable in that moment).
That's just a very quick brainstorming idea without thinking about consequences or individual spell effects.

Or: If the Wizard (not the Elf!) ends a quest with half his spells or more unused, he has to hold up his spells for the EWP to draw one. This spell has to be discarded and can not be used in the next quest. You could make this rule permanent, but with accomodating for it by making spells available for the Wizard to buy. With gold coins.

numbers for both ideas (number of rounds, number of unused spells, and so forth) should be finetuned, of course.
These are just quick haphazard examples of how to counter spellbagging.

[cynthialee]

I am more reward leaning than sanction leaning.
I hate to sanction a player for their actions in game. The fact that he didn't cast all his spells is in a way a sanction on its own. Could have been epic and they chose the mediocrity angle.
Then there was this situation that has come up a few times:
Wizard casts Genie and gets a grip of shields. Spell gone. Next action a flame spell ... monster rolls a 5 and a 6 on the saving throw! Two powerful spells in a row are basically thrown away for nothing as the Wizard gets to watch the Barbarian and Dwarf walk around one shoting bad guys.
A spell that fails is a wasted action even more so than a missed blow for a warrior. The warrior always has another grip of dice to roll so long as there is a weapon in hand. The Wizard can cast his most powerful magic and have it be a big bag of nothing.

[slev]

OK, based on feedback...

The World Key
Cast from an unusual metal, this key fits no lock. With it, the powers of earth may be focused.
If you use the Card “Heal Body” while you possess this Card, the target may heal up to two additional Body Points.
If you use the Card “Pass Through Rock” while you possess this Card, the target will further not set off any traps as a result of their moving, and may pass through furniture.
You may use the following ability whenever you could cast a spell, instead of using a spell card. This card does not need to be discarded to do so.
One target adjacent figure may re-roll up to one Skull each time they defend from now on. In addition, if the target is the caster, should they roll all white shields, they defend against the entire attack, regardless of the damage rolled. These effects lasts until the target loses any Body Points.
Wizard Only.
750 GC

This should now be an obvious choice for the wizard, should increase his survivability and also fix the unlimited healing potential of this Focus.

[slev]

One additional change:

Broach of Determination
This small, gold-edged gem bears potent calming magics that only magicians can access.
You may use one of the following abilities whenever you could cast a spell, instead of using a spell card. This card does not need to be discarded to do so.
Any one target adjacent figure may recover up to one lost Mind Point, you lose one Mind Point.
You regain up to one lost Mind Point
Wizard Only.
50GC (Starting)

[slev]

After the recent three changes, unlimited very slow healing is now available, but I stress slow. Using the Wand of Magic/Recall, you'd be looking at 1MP or BP per turn with the two broaches, twice that if the target is the (squishy) wizard.

The only other requirement then is to put a time pressure on the Heroes, which has been discussed elsewhere.

[cynthialee]

After the recent three changes, unlimited very slow healing is now available, but I stress slow. Using the Wand of Magic/Recall, you'd be looking at 1MP or BP per turn with the two broaches, twice that if the target is the (squishy) wizard.

The only other requirement then is to put a time pressure on the Heroes, which has been discussed elsewhere.

I like it and I don't like it. There are not enough heals with the way I like to play, but an unlimited amount of healing even if it is slow is some serious moxie. But then the way I play there is a risk of a new wandering monster every turn, so dilly dallying around waiting for the broaches to do their thing may not be the wisest choice.....

[slev]

I'm putting in a deck of GM nastiness. The GM gets a card each turn if there are no Monsters on the board, or if they opt to do nothing with the Monsters on the board. It doesn't force the Heroes to go like the clappers (c.f. "Descent"), but it does encourage some alacrity, which discourages the healing stream. It also makes cards like Swift Wind and the UK Potion of Speed, worthwhile.