The Wizard Clearing House of House Rules

[slev]

Another idea to fix the wizard, based on Anderas’ comments elsewhere.

Each Spell Card is given a Mastery score, from 2 (easy) to 4 (hard). This can also be applied to spell-like artefacts. Scrolls and other such one-shots, have a Mastery score one lower than normal.

Things like Healing spells and the Genie’s attack are 4’s, things like Clairvoyance are 2’s, and you can even put really basic stuff, like the Genie opening a door, at 1!

When a Hero wants to cast a spell, they roll a number of D6 equal to the Mastery of the Spell. If they roll less than their Mind, the Spell works. If not, tough, you’ve wasted your action, but nothing is discarded. Effects like the Elf potion that allows the spell to be retained after casting, instead allow you to roll one fewer D6 when attempting to cast a specific Spell.

The starting Wizard will mostly get 2’s to cast (just under 50% of the time, have difficulty with 3’s, and struggle with 4’s.

This also makes MP important to the Wizard beyond defence against Chaos Spells, which will have their Mastery at one point lower than the equivalent Hero Spells.

Mastery number off the top of my head. You will note that I gave a fourth spell to each group, as a variant of one of the Spells. This was to accommodate spells with multiple uses, but lead to a few ideas elsewhere, and I had to create some. I also adjusted the healing spells to allow for the fact that the Wizard especially can get them off more than once!

Tempest: 3
Swift Wind: 2
Efreet (Genie, Attack): 4
D'Jinn (Genie, Door): 1
Rock Skin: 3
World Walk (Pass Through Rock, targeting Others): 2
Pass Through Rock (targeting self): 3
Heal Body (adjacent 2BP): 3
Flame Strike (Fire of Wrath, line of Sight): 1
Fire of Wrath (no Line of Sight): 3
Ball of Flame: 2
Courage: 3
Healing Spring (Water of Healing, range 2BP): 4
Water of Healing (adjacent 2BP): 3
Sleep: 2
Veil of Mist: 2
Clairvoyance: 2
Treasure Horde (standard): 3
Find wealth (Treasure Horde, one card, Hazards have no effect): 2
Future Sight: 2
Dispel (Cancel ongoing): 1
Counter-Spell (Dispel, Cancel spell or magic trap as cast): 2
Invisibility: 2
Wall of Stone: 2
Chains of Darkness: 2
Cloak of Shadows: 3
Arrows of the Night (2 dice): 2
Soul Fire (Arrows of the Night, 4 dice): 3

And for those using my eighth “control” spell group:
Control Fiend: 3
Drain Mind: 2
Mental Fortitude (target anyone, 2MP): 2
Force of Will (Mental Fortitude, target self, 2MP, and extra cast action this turn): 3


I've not the time to develop or balence this idea, but if someone wants to run with it, I'd be happy to give pointers

[Count Mohawk]

Not bad, but it needs work. Rolling even 8 or less on with four red dice will only happen 5.4% of the time. Similarly, trying to get 6 or less on 3 dice will only happen 9.3% of the time.

Why not try flipping things over instead? I saw this mechanic in a "lock-picking" houserule set before, but it can easily be adapted for spellcasting. Each Spell gets a rating composed of a number and a Combat Die symbol, such as "Three Skulls" or "Two Walruses". The spellcaster rolls Combat Dice equal to their Mind score and attempts to get at least as many of the desired symbols as the spell's rating. If successful, the Spell is cast. The easiest Spell rank would be "One Skull", which at the Wizard's base of 6 Mind would be a near-certainty of 98.4%. Something like "Two Shields" would be more challenging: 64.9%. And then "Two Walruses" would be a meager 26.3%.

Of course, the downside to any system like this one is that Wizards do not like to see their magics fail, especially in the middle of combat...

[cynthialee]

I don't like it.
My luck I roll the points needed to cast the Genie, but then the Genie rolls out a handful of shields. 2 Dice rolls to be denied ... ?
No thank you.

How about spells that fail to work are not discarded? They remain in hand until they properly function.

[Count Mohawk]

How about spells that fail to work are not discarded? They remain in hand until they properly function.

When a Hero wants to cast a spell, they roll a number of D6 equal to the Mastery of the Spell. If they roll less than their Mind, the Spell works. If not, tough, you’ve wasted your action, but nothing is discarded.

Q.E.D.
Also, if I read the above correctly, the Wizard would not discard the spell if he succeeded either.

[slev]

How about spells that fail to work are not discarded? They remain in hand until they properly function.

When a Hero wants to cast a spell, they roll a number of D6 equal to the Mastery of the Spell. If they roll less than their Mind, the Spell works. If not, tough, you’ve wasted your action, but nothing is discarded.

Q.E.D.
Also, if I read the above correctly, the Wizard would not discard the spell if he succeeded either.

That is correct. The Spells are just a range of abilities you can try to trigger.

[slev]

Of course, the downside to any system like this one is that Wizards do not like to see their magics fail, especially in the middle of combat...

Yeah, but the again, the warriors don't like their attacks rolling no skulls either!

You're right on the problem though, I ran some numbers on the specific system:

Assuming 4MP (the Elf)
Mastery 1 = 66.66% success
Mastery 2 = 16.66% success
Mastery 3 = 01.85% success
Mastery 4 = 00.08% success

Assuming 5MP
Mastery 1 = 83.33% success
Mastery 2 = 27.77% success
Mastery 3 = 04.63% success
Mastery 4 = 00.39% success

Assuming 6MP (the Wizard):
Mastery 1 = automatic
Mastery 2 = 41.00% success
Mastery 3 = 09.25% success
Mastery 4 = 01.15% success

Assuming 7MP
Mastery 1 = automatic
Mastery 2 = 58.33% success
Mastery 3 = 16.20% success
Mastery 4 = 02.70% success

Assuming 8MP
Mastery 1 = automatic
Mastery 2 = 75.00% success
Mastery 3 = 21.30% success
Mastery 4 = 5.40% success

Assuming 9MP (max in my game)
Mastery 1 = automatic
Mastery 2 = 72.22% success
Mastery 3 = 37.50% success
Mastery 4 = 09.72% success

[cynthialee]

But it can be brutal if the Wizard has to roll to trigger the effect then the spell mechanics listed on the card can have a fail to fire clause. Like the Fire Spells that have you roll a couple dice looking for a 5 or 6 to avoid damage, or the Genie who may roll for crap or have all his points defended against on a defend roll.
When the spell has a potential failure element, rolling to be able to trigger the effect seems an additional trouble that penalizes the wizard. Even if he gets to keep his spells the worry about them not even working in the first place is a serious burden.

Maybe the idea has a kernel of goodness, but it would be too difficult to make with combat spells and healing consistently. What constitutes a powerful spell and a weak spell is debatable, to me Walk through Stone and Swiftwind are way more powerful than most players give them credit for. And on your list I would counter that Dispel and Counter Spell would be the most powerful spell effects, thus require the highest rating.

[cornixt]

How about spells that fail to work are not discarded? They remain in hand until they properly function.

When a Hero wants to cast a spell, they roll a number of D6 equal to the Mastery of the Spell. If they roll less than their Mind, the Spell works. If not, tough, you’ve wasted your action, but nothing is discarded.

Q.E.D.
Also, if I read the above correctly, the Wizard would not discard the spell if he succeeded either.

That is correct. The Spells are just a range of abilities you can try to trigger.

The concept works - no hoarding of spells, potential of upgrades for the wizard's abilities beyond more spells (and in line with fighting characters getting better at fighting). It also means you can keep the original HQ spells. The only flaw is with healing spells, since in theory you can make as many attempts as you need, an issue I came across with my similar magic reworking. I just dumped the healing spells and gave magic casters one free healing potion per quest, expires at the end of the quest.

[Anderas]

The concept needs a lot of testing. Possibly the wizard reuses three spells and ignores the other six.

That's kind of difficult. If someone has an idea how to balance then I'd be a fan of that idea.

It doesn't have to be 100% of course. The fight spell could be a little bit easier, the buff a little bit more complex, and things that can disrupt the game like sleep or dispell shall be more complex even for a mind point maxed wizard.

[slev]

Mulling this over last night, I realised this morning that I'd made a schoolboy error in my numbers. I set the lowest difficulty to two dice, to prevent too many automatic effects. I now realise that we can just declare that "a roll of all sixes automatically fails, regardless of MP totals". This then allows us to lower the difficulty of roll-for spells, and a few others, as needed. This changes the "auto" successes to 83.33%