The Wizard and game play questions

[Kitch1982]

So I have a couple of questions I want to ask about the Wizard (mainly his spells).

Firstly the casting of some of his spells and how it's meant to give you an advantage.

The spell Courage - it's my understanding that if you cast courage on yourself (playing as the wizard) the next turn you can attack with two extra combat dice. So you enter a room and come face to face with say a or a . You can't exit the room as i understand it you must fight or prepare to defend. Assuming you want to attack you can cast courage but then you can not attack, meaning gargoyle has a chance to attack you first. Does anyone else allow the Wizard to cast his spell and attack in this situation?

I totally understand that casting a spell is an action and you can only perform one action per turn but i think it makes courage in the above situation very frustrating. Ideally it's better to cast courage on another hero and allow them to attack (assuming their go is after you and before the Evil Wizard player).

What are everyones thoughts on the Wizard spells and how they work and does anyone play the Wizard differently to the house rules?

Next the WOM spells...so I'm currently working my way through all the quests (about to complete normal hereo quest) from here i plan to play, Return of the Witch Lord, Kellers Keep, Against the Ogre Horde and then WOM. Would you suggest doing the quests in this order? I realise the wizard doesn't get any new spells until this quest! Once he has access to this spells can the wizard then choose from these spell sets for the remaining quests? I am a little confused as i have never been past ROTWL!

Finally a question about equipment and potions (nothing to do with the wizard, just a question in general). Can you carry equipment over to new quests for example from first box set to another box set (assuming your hero doesnt die?) or do you always start a fresh each new box set? Same applies for potions, can you carry potions over qyest to quest?

Sorry i know theres a lot of questions here but I'm coming up with a list of my own house rules and want to make sure i can make an informed decision going forward. Thanks!

[Maurice76]

Firstly the casting of some of his spells and how it's meant to give you an advantage.

The spell Courage - it's my understanding that if you cast courage on yourself (playing as the wizard) the next turn you can attack with two extra combat dice. So you enter a room and come face to face with say a or a . You can't exit the room as i understand it you must fight or prepare to defend. Assuming you want to attack you can cast courage but then you can not attack, meaning gargoyle has a chance to attack you first. Does anyone else allow the Wizard to cast his spell and attack in this situation?

What are everyones thoughts on the Wizard spells and how they work and does anyone play the Wizard differently to the house rules?

It depends a bit on the cohesion of the group. If the group plays as a group (rather than an ensemble of four individuals), it's the duty of especially the Dwarf and Barbarian to provide a meatshield for the Wizard. Since the Wizard usually should avoid melee combat, the spell is best cast on the other Heroes. Of course, if danger is low, the Wizard could cast it on himself and go mayhem in melee the turn after . I am a bit fuzzy on the rule regarding play order; some playgroups allow the Heroes to act based on best opportunity (i.e. have the Barbarian go first to break into a new room, or have the Wizard go first to buff one of the others before doing something dangerous, etc ...), while others maintain a strict follow-up order.

Next the WOM spells...so I'm currently working my way through all the quests (about to complete normal hereo quest) from here i plan to play, Return of the Witch Lord, Kellers Keep, Against the Ogre Horde and then WOM. Would you suggest doing the quests in this order? I realise the wizard doesn't get any new spells until this quest! Once he has access to this spells can the wizard then choose from these spell sets for the remaining quests? I am a little confused as i have never been past ROTWL!

Chronologically, Kellar's Keep precedes Return of the Witch Lord, so I'd say you'd best swap those two. The available Spell sets are probably worthy of a house ruling: whatever the EW allows, I'd say. As it is, the extra Spell sets aren't that good, the original ones are better, so there's no real harm in allowing players to select them.

Finally a question about equipment and potions (nothing to do with the wizard, just a question in general). Can you carry equipment over to new quests for example from first box set to another box set (assuming your hero doesnt die?) or do you always start a fresh each new box set? Same applies for potions, can you carry potions over qyest to quest?

Of course. Building a Hero who can survive the more difficult challenges of the expansions packs is most of the fun, isn't it? Gold can help hire mercenaries later on, once gear upgrades are pretty much done. Heroes starting off fresh, without any gear or gold, in an expansion like Against the Ogre Horde or Wizards of Morcar will face certain death.

[Kitch1982]

Finally a question about equipment and potions (nothing to do with the wizard, just a question in general). Can you carry equipment over to new quests for example from first box set to another box set (assuming your hero doesnt die?) or do you always start a fresh each new box set? Same applies for potions, can you carry potions over qyest to quest?

Of course. Building a Hero who can survive the more difficult challenges of the expansions packs is most of the fun, isn't it? Gold can help hire mercenaries later on, once gear upgrades are pretty much done. Heroes starting off fresh, without any gear or gold, in an expansion like Against the Ogre Horde or Wizards of Morcar will face certain death.

This was my thinking also! I was playing the hero quest game for the Amiga the other day and you lose all poitions each quest, suddenly i panicked and wondered if i had been playing the rules wrongly all these years lol.

[lestodante]

Usually the Wizard uses courage on the Barbarian so he may kill as many monster as possible. The Wizard really needs a gear up to become more interesting for some players or he will just have a "helper" role.
Kellar's Keep should come first, then return of the Witch Lord will follow in my opinion. Even on the back of the boxes there is a short description wich may let you think that both quests come before the other, Kellar's keep was released few months before the RotWL.
Heroes may keep their equipment beetween quests and questpacks in my opinion.

[Maurice76]

Even on the back of the boxes there is a short description wich may let you think that both quests come before the other, Kellar's keep was released few months before the RotWL.

Actually, the epilogue of RotWL mentions that the Emperor is holding a banquet at the palace to honor the Heroes for defeating the Witch Lord. That's kinda hard to do if he's still holed up in the depths of Kellar's Keep .

[mitchiemasha]

he will just have a "helper" role.

People do think that but... I'd say more the "enabler" than helper. A good one will often lead the groups strategy. One doesn't need to be upfront and face to face to be important, think about the Evil Wizard, he's not even on the MAP!!!

[Kitch1982]

he will just have a "helper" role.

People do think that but... I'd say more the "enabler" than helper. A good one will often lead the groups strategy. One doesn't need to be upfront and face to face to be important, think about the Evil Wizard, he's not even on the MAP!!!

Good point. I actually like the Wizard. Once he has a staff, bracers and cloak of protection, i think he needs less protection. Add wand of recall and talisman of lore and he's not bad at all. Just looking forward to adding some additional spells with the WOM extension (even if they are a bit rubbish lol)

[clmckay]

[quote="Kitch1982]Good point. I actually like the Wizard. Once he has a staff, bracers and cloak of protection, i think he needs less protection. Add wand of recall and talisman of lore and he's not bad at all. Just looking forward to adding some additional spells with the WOM extension (even if they are a bit rubbish lol)[/quote]

I agree with a bit less max protection, I don't like the EU bracers for the Wizard.

Thematically it doesn't make sense that only the Wizard can use them and they give a+1DD. Instead, I switched them to allow any Hero to use and allow a reroll of 1 Black Die.

To me this feels like a perfect balance that works for all the Heroes.

[lestodante]

I agree with a bit less max protection, I don't like the EU bracers for the Wizard.

Not, sure... he still has only 4 BP. Fail to defend against an attack by an ordinary Orc and he risk to be left with 1 BP.
Talisman of Lore will not help him to much until he will reach the Ogre Horde quest pack.
Do not misunderstood me, he is my favourite character, just I will give him more spells.

[mitchiemasha]

Technically the Wizard is the strongest character. Cast rock skin on yourself at the start. Same body points as the barbarian thanks to a spell. As long as you don't go all Leroy you'll be fine.

Talisman of Lore will not help him to much until he will reach the Ogre Horde quest pack.

If playing my revised modular pack... The Talisman, because of the extra M, gives the wizard all 4 spell elements. The Elf would have the ELF spells. The increased Mind is wrote into the story of the full quest pack, it's why the emperors lost wizard turned into a zombie, losing his mind, trying to infuse Borins stone (with out the Talisman), the same technique Melar was using to make his unbeatable army of chaos warriors. Naturally, finding the Talisman... You awaken Melar and must defeat him. That's after trying to find some Remind, if you managed to rescue the Emperors Wizard (not killing the zombie), to heal him.

here's the draft... https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzUqo ... FkyU1BJT0k

Not to mention the true 'wealth' to Melars treasure. As if he'd "buy" an army!!!