buffing the wizard

[Tott]

Nice cards Tott! Where did you get the artwork?

mainly... er, borrowed form magic the gathering world of warcraft card games.

[cynthialee]

Nice cards Tott! Where did you get the artwork?

mainly... er, borrowed form magic the gathering world of warcraft card games.

[drathe]

Quick question-

Does anyone else not allow the wizard use the spirit blade?

I don't, as the American version I'm using restricts the Wizard from wielding the Spirit Blade. It would suck should the other three Heroes die (unlikely) during a battle with the Witch Lord.

*Wizard stands there thinking... "Well, *lemony goodness*!"*

[Daedalus]

Earlier, Ethica mentioned some other threads about this topic.  Here's a more recent one called Thought for Any Spell-Casting Heroes.  Develped from my reply on p.3, this edited, expanded house-rule makes spellcasters, especially a Wizard, more powerful: Re-casting, boosting, and maximizing spells.

Probably more than you're looking for, but it's my thought on giving the Wizard a pair.

[torilen]

Cyndi - you can also check this out:
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=464&p=3455#p3455

This would allow for the recasting of spells, as long as the caster can get access to the
needed items. You could either have them in a store between quests (something good
for the players to spend their gold on), or include it as treasure throughout the quests.

Could also provide for interesting quest goals - the caster wants to be able to cast certain
spells, and needs to go on a quest to find the needed components for it.

[cynthialee]

I do like the idea of spell components.

It isn't that the mage 'forgets' a spell after casting it....just a simple matter of economics...enchanted rubies and saphires are not easy to come across...

[Ethica]

I like the idea that before a quest the wizard prepares spells with chants, rituals, inscence etc. (which may take hours) and creates a kind of Macro if you will, to unleash the spell swiftly at the desired time.

[el_flesh]

Hope I'm not repeating something that's already been said, but - if gems/jewels are needed to cast spells, then let the wizard turn in any such treasure card and get a spell of his choice back!

You could always buff him by making his magic staff gain TWO dice of magic attack instead of one.
Can add a die of defense for that same staff too - make it like Gandalf staff master.

[Sjeng]

living in london, im sure i had the european edition , im also certain i got it the very first christmas it was out so id assume it was probably the first edition as well. there was definetly no cloak of protection and no bracers either. im also pretty sure that some of the special items like borins armour and the spirit blade had the 'canot be used by the wizard' rule as well. im also certain that the only piece of normal equiptment he could equip was the staff too. i will dig out my set and find the cards to check.

I have a Dutch 1st edition set, and my deck also does not have the Wizards Cloak nor the Bracers. The PDF files on this site which I presume have the 2nd edition cards in them does contain these two items, also in Dutch, so they were added in the Netherlands as well. I was getting frustrated at losing my wizard time after time. I already lost 3 of them in the last 4 quests, simply because he would get ambushed, failed to kill with a spell, or simply get surrounded by more monster than just one, and with 1 or 2 lucky hits and failed defenses, he'd be dead. There was no way to add defense dice and everytime he dies, you lose his staff (fortunately it's only 100g, but it keeps the rest from buying more gear).

Which raised another question during my latest games: What do you do with lost equipment that is unique, such as Borin's Armor or Orcs Bane? Do you ever add them back into a quest, or are they forever lost? Or can surviving heroes pick up the fallen comrade's loot? Or only unique loot?
If the wizard wears Borin's Armor, can he also wear the wizard's cloak over it? And the bracers? This would give him 6 defense dice, which might be too much. You could say either Borin's armor OR the cloak + bracers. I think 4 defense diece should be the max, at least during the original game and KK (haven't gotten any further yet, so perhaps later on 5 or 6 defense dice would be appropriate). Your thoughts?

My heroes are getting slaughtered lately, so I need a way to buff the wizard (I'll print the cloak and bracers), and I need to re-introduce some unique items, without making it too easy.

[cynthialee]

I allow living heroes to recover the gear of a dead hero. The hero that wishes to recover the gear must make it to an adjucent square of the dead guy and use his action for the round looting the corpse of his home boy.
To pass out equipment heroes must be next to each other and both loose an action as items are distributed.