Is the 2021 Wizard too weak?

[Onan]

Yes definitely too weak. Agree with all the comments. Controversially I give all Spell casters the ability to attack AND cast a spell each turn.

The more I think about it, the more I like it. Can the wizard still exchange his attack action for a spell action? This would allow him 2 spells per turn.

[Parzival]

The obviously-based-on-HQ game Dungeon Saga (Mantic Games) allows a Wizard to “recharge” spells. The spell is cast and the card is turned clockwise sideways (or potentially upside down). At the end of the Wizard’s next turn, any casted spell cards are rotated counterclockwise 90°. When they are back to fully upright, the spell is recharged and may be cast again. This would be easy enough to bring to the game. (More powerful spells might be rotated clockwise up to three times.)

Some spells require the expense of a magic crystal, which can be generated as an action. I can’t recall the full function of that— haven’t looked at the rules in a few years. if I recall correctly, you can also use a crystal to cast more than one spell.

Both of these concepts are easily applied to HQ (I suspect they are also based on WarhammerQuest, but I’ve never played that).
I’m not a fan of the crystal bit, but rotating a spell is simple, and a nice solution. Maybe it’s even an action. So you can either Cast a Spell or Restore a Spell in your Wizard’s turn, but not both.

Here’s how it could work.
A Wizard (or Elf) chooses Cast a Spell as his action. The spell card chosen is flipped, and cannot be cast again until Restored. Restoring a Spell is an Action; the spell card chosen is flipped again, and can be cast in any subsequent turn.

CON
This might be too powerful in the long run, as it alters strategies and tactics, and certainly gives a party considerable value in healing spells, which the game mechanics do not anticipate.

Hmmm…

AFTERTHOUGHT EDIT:
Use Mind Points to restore spells.

As an Action, a Wizard or Elf may attempt to restore a used spell to use it again in a subsequent turn. The Hero rolls 1d6 and compares the result to his current Mind Points. If the result is equal to or less than the current Mind Points, the spell is restored, and the Mind Points are reduced by 1 “from the strain of reshaping the winds of magic to the Hero’s will.” A Hero with 1 Mind Point may never attempt this action (as such would kill them anyway).

This puts a practical limit on restoring spells, and makes for a good strategic choice, while also potentially increasing the danger for the Wizard Hero, but with all the agency in the player’s hand.

[wallydubbs]

The Wizard is indeed the most learned character and quite weak compared to the other heroes. He requires a completely different tactic as opposed the other heroes. Though he's not viewed as the main hero in any case, he's the one that gives the most assistance and occasionally allows other heroes to do some things they wouldn't normally be allowed to do. Most of his spells are 1-hit-wonders, though thanks to Wizards of Morcar you can now add a bit of versitility with other spells that may not match the other spells but a good player could find some use out of them.

I once did a round-table tournament in Arena mode, putting all the heroes against each other. As a starting Wizard with no artifacts or equipment (not that he can use any), he did tally 3 wins against the Bard, Dwarf & Explorer. As limited as the Wizard is, his spells do apply opportunities.
After applying artifacts and equipment to all the heroes the Wizard did much better as some of his spells can work around the armor of other heroes.

[carthoz]

Our wizard player also complained about being too weak and limited while all the other heroes get stronger and better equipped. So I reworked the base game wizard spells and the elf spells from "Mage Of The Mirror". They can now be empowered by using mind points, often with different options on how to spend them (or even spend more mind points to activate both empowerments).

You can find them here (layed out in A4, but should be printable on Letter, too):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ItZMiZYonUlvQ25DZ4YL5hCGsuloYpYP/view?usp=sharing
Please ignore the 3 barbarian skill cards included, they are still work-in-progess

[SirRick]

I like the spell recharging idea from Dungeon Saga.

Another approach to consider could be similar to d&d, in which the spell cards the Wizard has are “known” spells. The number of cards are also his available spell slots. Basically you could burn any spell to cast another one you still know. For example, the Wizard could burn a Courage spell to cast Genie, but since the Courage
spell card was used, he can no longer cast Courage later in the quest. I would not allow people to burn spells to cast additional healing spells however, that would be too powerful, but still they could consume a healing spell to cast a different spell if they wished.

You could also consider something fairly simple such a Wizard with Fire spells having infinite casts of Fire of Wrath, or some other Zargon-approved spell from the ones the player has.

[Thrasher79]

Hi,

I have introduced a new way of casting spells for my version of the Wizard Quest. SirRick, I think this comes close to your original idea.
Here is the relevant excerpt:

9.3.2.1 Mages’ Guild

In this guild, the mage can learn the skill ‘Inner Power’. This skill represents a completely new magic system. ‘Inner Power’ grants the mage 5 magic points for every point of intelligence. Plus 3 Power Points each for the status titles “Hero”, “Master”, “Grand Master” and “Lord”, and 3 Power Points for each extension learnt. These are consumed when a spell is cast. When a spell is cast, the card is no longer discarded as before; instead, the wizard deducts the required Power Points from their supply. Each spell costs a certain number of points. However, the following rules must be observed:
• Each spell may only be cast once per round.
• Each spell may only be cast a limited number of times per quest. This number is determined by dividing the current Intelligence points by 2. Odd results are rounded down. The Counter-Spell can generally only be used once per quest.
• Spells marked with a + cost the indicated number of points only when used for the first time in a quest. Each subsequent use costs one point more. For a ++, the number of points increases by 2.
• Status-altering spells (e.g. Bravery, Granite Skin) can only be active once at a time. As long as a hero is under the effect of such a spell, it cannot be cast on any other hero.

If the wizard’s points drop to 0, his magical power is exhausted and he can no longer cast spells. However, there are potions with which he can partially or even fully restore his magical power. Learning this ability costs 700 gold coins and cannot be undone. If the wizard wishes to return to the old system, he must visit the guild again and relearn the old system there for 300 gold coins.
The following power points are required for the individual spells:



I had the list and the excerpt from the rules translated online. Please forgive the errors in it.

Best regards, Thrasher79