Ye Olde Inn

I'm introducing the game to my nephews (8/9) and I was thinking about using the 3 extra player Wizard decks from Morcar (Detection, Protection & Darkness) into the base set to give them a wider range of spell choices. I'll be playing through the original set of quests. Looking over the extra spells they don't seem like they'd be overpowered in the original quests. Would they add too much complexity maybe for these beginning players - better to keep it simple and just have the original 4 decks?

Personally, I would just do vanilla for new players. Get 'em hooked then add stuff in to keep it exciting when interest lulls a bit.

The WoM spells are pretty on par with the original spells.
I do agree with clmckay though. Keep it vanilla to begin with.

In general I'm a fan of introducing the new content as you move on to the quests that actually came with said content.

MikeN wrote:I'm introducing the game to my nephews (8/9) and I was thinking about using the 3 extra player Wizard decks from Morcar (Detection, Protection & Darkness) into the base set to give them a wider range of spell choices. I'll be playing through the original set of quests. Looking over the extra spells they don't seem like they'd be overpowered in the original quests. Would they add too much complexity maybe for these beginning players - better to keep it simple and just have the original 4 decks?

Goblin-King wrote:The WoM spells are pretty on par with the original spells.

I disagree there. I think the WoM spells are quite a bit below the level of the element spells.

I made a slightly improved version of each of the WoM spells that you might want to try, otherwise you might find that nobody even bothers with those spells anyway. viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3280

They are certainly not overpowered

I stand by what I said in the other thread. The WoM spells are better suited as extra spells rather than alternative choices to replace the classic decks.
But some of the original spells are situational at best and useless at worst.

Thanks guys, I think i'll take your advice to hold off on introducing the WoM decks to the game right from the start. If the kids manage to make it to playing WoM quests down the road I might use GB's updated versions - the original clairvoyance certainly seems like a really unfair waste of a spell.

One way of introducing them is spell book artifacts. Another is to level up the heroes.

Wizard: L2-One extra spell set. L3-Another extra spell set.
Elf: L2-One extra spell set. L3-Move with the highest two of three dice unless wearing plate armour.
Dwarf: L2-Moves with the lowest two of three dice when wearing plate armour. L3-Defneds on black as well as white shields.
Barbarian. L2-Can use a battle axe with one hand. L3-Attacks with black shields as well as skulls in close combat.

If you add them as extra spells a good way of doing it is the wizard picks one, elf picks one, wizard picks two, elf picks one, wizard has the other two. That way it still goes 1-1-2 and the wizard still gets the last two. It nearly always ends up as earth, air, fire, detection and protection for the wizard, water and darkness for the elf in my experience, which is actually quite appropriate as the darkness pics show the elf using them and the other two show the wizard.

I prefer keeping the WoM spells for the Wizard only. The Elf gets his own that the Wizard can't choose.

j_dean80 wrote:I prefer keeping the WoM spells for the Wizard only. The Elf gets his own that the Wizard can't choose.

I agree with this.

They are ok for adding in later.
I never give them to the Elf. He gets the spells from the Elf quest pack and the Wizard gets all the elemental cards at the next step up and at end game play I let the Elf have all the Elf Spells, plus a few scrolls from the Artifacts deck, and the Wizard gets all the Elemental Decks plus the WOM spells.

The extra spell cards help with sandbagging issues. With a nice pile of spells the casters are much more likely to be in the spell casting business instead of the spell hoarding game.