AoS Simple fix for magic

[Canas]

I've been working on extra rules for magic to make magic more meaningfull, but the result so far is quite a lot more complicated than the Original rules. Even if they are still fairly straightforward.

However, now that GW is extending magic as can be seen for example in the tzeentch tome I've had an idea that sounds quite good and is a hell of a lot simpler.

So it's the following:

• Arcane bolt is no longer a basic spell, instead everyone that'd know the spell now has a ranged attack "arcane bolt".It has 18" range 4 attacks, hits on a 3+ wounds on a 3+ -2 rend and deals 1 damage. In the case of stuff like pink horrors that "know" arcane bolt only their leader/captain-thing would have this ranged attack.
  
  The intend here is the following:
  1. Remove the potential mortal wound spam that the Original arcane bolt resulted in
  2. Give wizards, especially the weaker ones, a viable attack so they're actually doing something. For example a starpriest right now is basicly just standing their looking pretty most of the time. He can't go in melee, he can't shoot, he just has his 1 spell & his staff buff.
  3. Have an attack that isn't particularly overpowering, so wizards won't outgun an archer unit, while still being fairly reliable and quite good against the heavily armoured stuff.
  4. Arcane bolt as a spell is fairly pointless as it generally competes with the special spell anyway. E.g. if a starpriest is facing chaosdeamons there is literally no reason to ever cast arcane bolt.

• Rule of one is changed to be "a unit can only be under the effect of 1 cast of the same spell at once". So no stacking multiple mystic shields on the same unit.

• "Arcane interference": If you try to cast a spell substract 1 from the casting roll for each time you've attempted to cast this spell in the current hero phase. This stops people from bringing several wizard and using the special spell to spam mortal wounds.
  • There is one exception: spells like lord kroak's celestial deliverance whicare already designed with the intend to be used multiple times. As long as the second attempt at the spell is done by the same wizard it doesn't suffer from arcane interference. Also, you'd only get the negative effect once per wizard who has attempted to cast it in this case. Not once per casting attempt. E.g. say you've 2 lord kroaks and kroak 1 has casted celestial deliverance 3 times kroak 2 now reduces his casting rolls for celestial deliverance by 1 and not by 3. Whereas if kroak 1 had casted 3 mystic shields kroak 2 would have -3 to his casting rolls for mystic shield.

• If you're being blown to oblivion by the likes of lord kroak, nagash or kairos, suck it, they're powerfull wizards this is their thing.
  
  
• For summoning use the generating of reinforcement points like I've described in the post I mentioned earlier.

I think this combined would solve the issues that wizards currently have with being overpowered without the rule of 1, without immeadiatly hamstringing them like the GW rules currently do. Especially if GW continues to give us extra spells to empower our wizards with like they did for tzeentch. In between these rules, the extra spells & a wizards base capabilities the only thing that seems to still really be lacking is spell interaction (you cast A so I counter with B) and something to distinguish magic from "normal" abilities. But it seems like a much more solid base.

Also, this has the rather large advantage of working perfectly fine with the existing spells unlike my other attempt which requires quite a lot of rewrites.

Thoughts?

 

[Crowsfoot]

Sounds good, as you already say were severally hamstringed with the rule of one probably more than any other faction, the low choice of spells makes it pointless taking multiple wizards, casting mystic shield for instance should be allowed by each wizard but cannot target the same unit and if that was applied to other spells I can see that working.

 

[Canas]

I'm going to combine this with the rules I've already made up in my earlier post and I'l divide this in an "Essentials" and an "advanced" bit. I think what I've described here works well as "Essentials" but it still lacks in giving the wizards power, which my more complicated ruleset did do. All of it combined would actually be quite good and fix a lot I think. Gimme a week to rewrite stuff

 

[Ritual]

I like your thinking, for our general magic dudes.

Kroak needs something more though, something like Lord of Change... For that number of points he needs to be on the next level.

 

[Canas]

@Ritual if Kroak is allowed to cast his celestial deliverance as intended & summon at a reasonable rate he'd already be considerably better. If you add in the other rules I've made he actually becomes a force to be reckoned with. I shall update my rules, now if only I had time

 

[Aginor]

I like your thinking, for our general magic dudes.

Kroak needs something more though, something like Lord of Change... For that number of points he needs to be on the next level.

Absolutely agree.

Kroak and Nagash are the most powerful wizards ever, only gods themselves have more power. Yes, they have to be stronger.
A Slann now is a joke since we don't have spells to choose from.

I'd like to see choice.
Give us:
- area attack
- single target attack
- Healing (area or single target)
- Summoning stuff in a balanced but less restrictive way.
- buff spells for hit/wounds/save/damage/move/spell range/weapons range/line of sight restrictions/units flying/dragging flying units down/move or teleport units/move terrain/holy carp I could go on and on and have no clue why those don't exist yet.....
- debuff spells for all of the above
- situational debuffs. Debuffs that trigger when a unit does something like using an ability, entering/leaving terrain, moving close to another unit, attacking, taking wounds, dying etc.

Your (and other people's) work is a huge step in the right direction @Canas . I really hope GW does something for magic.

 

[ChubbSkink]

Yes our Slaan are bloated skinks ATM. They are supposed to be powerful wizards. I hope we get them in the next iteration.. In the meantime I'm liking this optional rules.

 

[Canas]

I've added these rules to my existin rules & generally improved that document. I need to go through my existing spells again now since this new basis might make some of them a bit on the weak side, but the general idea stands. This might actually be quite decent. Anyways, have a look.

 

[Canas]

So, I've readjusted the spells I've made up to be more in line with the existing spells. Thoughts?

 

[Canas]

I've made the spells a bit more interesting, also I'l go back to my main thread now seeing as I'm now effectivly maintining two threats which is a bit silly.

Edit: now with the correct file