Learning to spell

Didn’t want to ramble on too much in the other article but I wanted a, hopefully, brief run through spells in Frostgrave. Why I’m picking what I am and my thoughts on choosing spells.


Thaumaturge is not my first pick of wizard. It’s not my last but I had some cool ideas for other bands. They’ll turn up at a later date but, for now, I’ve got my holy order. I generally like trying to mix theme and effectiveness (I’m going to try to avoid competitiveness because it has bad connotations). Effectiveness is bang/buck so to speak and whilst I’d never say that effectiveness is my prime concern, I hate playing something that is inherently useless because of my choices. The rough calculation I can see is that wizards icing wizards is the way to go in terms of straight power but there’s also a lot to be said about running away with treasure.


As a rule reducing the number of dice rolls is a way of building in reliability. A d20 is a fickle tool. I’ve played too much dungeons and dragons to believe otherwise. They’ve been shamed and celebrated but, as an entirely self-proclaimed amateur designer, I loathe the d20. There’s so much variation. I’m getting distracted but the point is that I’d view experience>treasure because you know what you’re getting. Experience will generate static modifiers which help your d20 become a more useful tool by having less variation (this isn’t meant to be a bash of the system but it’s an important fact to understand when it comes to contested rolls…..). Got distracted again….


So your attack spells are the safest way of your wizard ending other wizards. That’s more difficult as a thaumaturge. I’ve gone for the view of a traditional cleric mixed with a really old fashioned bank. This means buffs and investment protection. Other people may make more money than I will but my goal is to lose less. I see +fight as a defensive buff. It’ll save me from those pesky dice. Healing and post-game fixing will protect me from having to retire a wizard and buying an expensive apprentice. It’ll help my 100 gold investments safe. Is it as sexy as throwing fireballs at the enemy, incinerating my foes with magic? No! Bad decisions will cost me but there may be a change to buff my wizard up to be some kind of super warrior, smiting warriors like he was some kind of superhero.


What have I picked? Heal, Shield and miraculous cure from thaumaturge. Let’s break these down first – I immediately discarded the anti-daemon stuff. It’s situational and I rarely choose marmite options (though I may end up with them later). Next I discarded restore life because it needs a 20 to cast and that’s one hell of a gamble to take up a starting spell slot (d20….fickle). Now I’m left with a choice of 3 from 5, which is much easier. Heal keeps my troops fighting and is an easier cast (lowest in the list) so I can cast it more easily to earn them XP. It serves a purpose on every level. Then I came to some more difficult choices. Miraculous cure is out of game so less useful but wounded wizards can be an expensive prospect and my little design brief above was ‘preserve investment’. Heal fits that too. That left me with a 1 from 3, a less happy selection than before. Dispel, blinding light and shield. Dispel looks quite good on the surface but it only deals with a hand full of persistent effects so I discarded it fairly quickly. It’s somewhat situational and, whilst I’m sure enchanters would hate it, I figured I’d use my limited pool for more generic use. So…blinding light or shield? Both have the same casting value. Blinding light looks kind of awesome in some ways buuuuuut shield is less reliant on the positioning of my enemy. I can get more castings off early game whilst I prep my crew for a fight. There will be turns I won’t be able to do anything so what better than a buff?


I think that’s given a bit more insight into my process. The rest of my spells? Combat awareness (+2 fight for the rest of the game is just useful and, again, can be cast in those early turns. Fight is both offensive and defensive. Someone attacks you? Roll + fight. You attack someone? Roll + fight. Plus they do more damage! I really wanted a way to throw in some more buffability (new word there, get used to me making this stuff up) and with shield and combat awareness on my Templar…..well, that’s quite a man! Teleport is next because……I really don’t like the illusion list and it seemed like a good ‘runaway’ spell (Must. Protect. Money). I think there are some cool tricks on the list but I found it hard to keep it with my theme. Sometimes you’ve got to look at the lore and just accept it. It still makes me a bit sad….


Sigilist spells actually really appeal to me. I had a hard time sorting through for what I wanted to do. I went with power word. I saw it as a prayer to the gods and with it, I can add to the reliability of a spell (combat awareness/shield/heal). My last two were enchant weapon and elemental hammer. Why? Elemental hammer is my smite. It’s calling the divine smackdown. You don’t like someone? HAMMER! Enchant weapon felt similar. A muttered blessing and it can hurt ethereal things (and it adds fight). I really thought about taking enchant strength…I really did. Enchant weapon won out for three reasons……a) it adds another tool to my toolbox (magic weapon), 2) it’s an 8 to cast versus a 10 for the +2 fight from enchant strength and finally…it’s only +1 fight different. It’s so small on the variance of the dice.


I’m sure I’ll do some more ‘learning to spell’ later on as I encounter my foes in Frostgrave (or start a new band because my choices sucked so much). Think I’ve picked well/poorly? Leave a comment and tell me if you think I’m too cruel on the humble d20!

 

Buffability?