Arcane Wonders Forum

Mage Wars => Player Feedback and Suggestions => Topic started by: Wildhorn on November 17, 2013, 08:51:49 PM

Title: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Wildhorn on November 17, 2013, 08:51:49 PM
Since it is allowed to cast equipments on other mages, it would be nice if next expansion would include some cursed items. This would force them to either dissolve them or replace them with their own equipments.

Some ideas (with very bad names):

Boots of stumbles: When you make a move action, you have to roll a 7+ else it fails.
Gloves of peace: -1 to non-spell ranged and melee attacks.
Bulleyes armor: +1 to ranged attacks that target you
Concrete boots: You gain the Restrained and Unmovable traits.
Vampire Cloak: Every upkeep you take one damage and controller of this cloak heal one damage.
Boots of feather: When affecter by a push effect, you are pushed an extra space (could be good or bad for this one)
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Zuberi on November 17, 2013, 09:32:39 PM
It's an interesting idea, but I don't think such spells would be very valuable. For two reasons.

1) You can't cast the spell if their mage already has equipment attached to that location. Essentially they can put up a permanent counter to your card unless you dissolve it.

2) It is too easy for your opponent to remove. All they have to do is cast a piece of equipment that benefits them and that they probably would have liked to cast anyways, and for no extra cost what so ever your equipment goes away AND is now permanently blocked from being recast on their mage unless you dissolve it.

I do believe I read somewhere though that they mentioned the idea for cursed equipment where you gain a drawback as well as a benefit. I could imagine something like a chest piece that gave +3 Armor but also Lightning +2.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: aquestrion on November 17, 2013, 09:38:36 PM
But if cursed equipment had a trait IE cursed,(this equipment cannot be replaced by another piece of equipment that targets this slot)then it would make the wearer have to dissolve it
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: sIKE on November 17, 2013, 11:43:13 PM
1) You can't cast the spell if their mage already has equipment attached to that location. Essentially they can put up a permanent counter to your card unless you dissolve it.

Where did you get this from? It is my understanding (I am wrong more often than I am right) that I can cast a piece of Equipment into an already used slot. Normal rules would happen, the old equipment goes back into the spellbook and the new piece takes its place.

As for cursed equipment, it is an interesting thought, however I am not sure I want to spend an action that way. though I could see it being fun to replace a Warlocks Lash of Hell Fire with a Cat'o'Nine tails >:)
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Zuberi on November 17, 2013, 11:47:27 PM
Page 20 of Rulebook v2.0

Quote from: Rulebook
You can cast equipment on an enemy Mage too, but you cannot cast equipment on a location that is already taken on that Mage.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: sIKE on November 17, 2013, 11:52:24 PM
Learn something new everyday. It is there too in the v1 rules. over a year of playing and there is still such fine details to learn!

So maybe a cursed ring would work well in this scenario.....
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Sailor Vulcan on November 18, 2013, 10:50:55 AM
I think there should also be cursed wristbands/bracelets. The problem with that is that one if them would take up "half" the gloves slot, and I don't imagine all cursed bracelets to come in pairs.
Perhaps there could also be "blessed" equipment that CAN replace cursed equipment?

Speaking of bracelets coming in pairs, it would be funny if there were "magical friendship bracelets"

Something like:

Name: Empathic link
3 mind 1 dark
Type: Equipment-bracelet
Mana cost: 4+X

Empathic link equips to all friendly mages. X is the number of friendly mages.
You gain intercept when guarding a friendly mage. When a friendly mage dies, all friendly mages die. You can transfer any amount of mana to one other friendly mage in your zone during the upkeep.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Aylin on November 18, 2013, 08:08:13 PM
I think cursed equipment would be pretty cool.

They would need some text preventing them from being replaced by the equipped mage without first being dissolved. It would probably just be a new Keyword.

I loved using Cursed Equipment whenever I used to play Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Wildhorn on November 19, 2013, 08:28:55 AM
It's an interesting idea, but I don't think such spells would be very valuable. For two reasons.

1) You can't cast the spell if their mage already has equipment attached to that location. Essentially they can put up a permanent counter to your card unless you dissolve it.

2) It is too easy for your opponent to remove. All they have to do is cast a piece of equipment that benefits them and that they probably would have liked to cast anyways, and for no extra cost what so ever your equipment goes away AND is now permanently blocked from being recast on their mage unless you dissolve it.

I do believe I read somewhere though that they mentioned the idea for cursed equipment where you gain a drawback as well as a benefit. I could imagine something like a chest piece that gave +3 Armor but also Lightning +2.

1) This is not that much a problem.

2) Cursed equipment could have the trait Cursed: Require to pay X mana before you can replace it. But even if they don't do, it would force your opponent to cast earlier some equipment that they might have wanted to keep for later. Lets say you cast a cursed Wand of Zapidiboo (which zap for 1 damage the mage holding it), now that mage either take 1 damage every round or get his Mage Wand out now (which he was saving for Heal late game), which you promptly dissolve.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: jacksmack on November 19, 2013, 08:52:20 AM
I dont think it will ever see the day.

Its gonna be too easy to screw over opponents who have PREPARED spells they cannot cast because they have to dissolve on themselves first.
Then you nullify them and its gonna take them 3 steps to get an item on.

Get rid of nullify - dissolve - cast equipment
Nothing else takes 3 steps to get done. Why? because it is impossible without a spawnpoint or familiar - and they should be optional not mandatory.

Hell... The Battleforge is gonna serve a brand new purpose of spamming curse equipment while the warlock do curses on his own.

Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Aylin on November 19, 2013, 06:45:35 PM
I dont think it will ever see the day.

Its gonna be too easy to screw over opponents who have PREPARED spells they cannot cast because they have to dissolve on themselves first.
Then you nullify them and its gonna take them 3 steps to get an item on.

Get rid of nullify - dissolve - cast equipment
Nothing else takes 3 steps to get done. Why? because it is impossible without a spawnpoint or familiar - and they should be optional not mandatory.

Hell... The Battleforge is gonna serve a brand new purpose of spamming curse equipment while the warlock do curses on his own.

I guess Dissolve -> Wall of Thorns -> Force Push doesn't have three steps. Perhaps I miscounted?
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: ACG on November 19, 2013, 11:04:33 PM
I don't know if equipment cards specifically designed to be cursed are necessarily a good idea, but the idea of cursing equipment is definitely a good one. If casting equipment on useful slots and then cursing it is a problem, then the curse could be restricted to enemy equipment only. Of course, equipment swapping isn't terribly common, so I suppose you could also curse the mage to fix all of its equipment in place.

If you can cast your own equipment on the mage and then curse it, it might block a strategy of theirs, but they still get a free piece of equipment that their opponent had to pay for. Since it can't be mage exclusive equipment (I think), it may even be equipment they can use.

Also, with corrosion entering the meta, armor swapping may become much more prevalent, so cursing armor could be an excellent counter.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: jacksmack on November 20, 2013, 06:01:36 AM

I guess Dissolve -> Wall of Thorns -> Force Push doesn't have three steps. Perhaps I miscounted?


Not sure if serious...
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: lettucemode on November 20, 2013, 02:47:16 PM
I am with jacksmack on this.

I think that Cursed equipment could maybe work...it would just be hella awkward. Trying to get the cursed thing off with a Nullify on you is a huge tempo loss for pretty cheap, not counting the fact that you can't use one of your prepared spells (the armor you really wanted to cast) if the other player gets theirs on you first.

The closest thing to it is casting enchantments on an enemy mage...however there's more than just Dispel to get rid of or avoid enchantments. Nullify, Purge Magic, Destroy Magic, Seeking Dispel, enchantments that cancel out others....meanwhile Equipment has only one spell - Dissolve. Meaning that if cursed equipment became a thing there'd need to be a few more equipment-related non-equipment spells tested and released, otherwise Dissolve would shoot up in value and a lot of books would be forced to dump other stuff to make room for them.

But even if new cards were released, now every spell book has to make room for more removal...it's too much to cram in IMO. Books already can't defend themselves against everything in the game by design...why add more categories to that? Why make matchups more coin-flip-y (did I bring the right cards to have a chance against this unknown spellbook or didn't I)?
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Zuberi on November 20, 2013, 03:10:40 PM
I think the best idea thus far was Wildhorn's proposal for a Cursed trait that gave Cursed equipment a built in dissolve. You can still replace it with your own equipment any time you want, you just have to pay extra to do so.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: lettucemode on November 20, 2013, 03:19:36 PM
I don't like the idea of a built-in Dissolve for extra mana. To my knowledge pretty much everything in the game so far can be countered with equal mana and equal actions (unless the caster discounted the cost with rings) or no mana but extra actions, as in attacking a conjuration or creature. And even then it is still considered a tempo loss. If there was a way to get cursed equipment off you which is equal actions AND extra mana, then it's an even bigger loss of both tempo and mana to do so. So Dissolve is still way better, it will still shoot up in value, and you'll still need to make room for more of them. So I don't think that suggestion solves the problem.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: Zuberi on November 20, 2013, 04:15:17 PM
It would be similar to Explode. With Explode you pay extra mana to get rid of the equipment + get an attack. With the Cursed trait, the player could pay extra mana to get rid of the cursed equipment + get their beneficial equipment. For example, they have a cursed chest piece on you that costs 5. You want to cast your chest piece that costs 6. You pay 11 mana and it is a done deal.

You would then have the question of whether the cursed equipment should go back to the person's spell book or be destroyed. Either way could work, with the spell book option reducing the mana cost necessary to get rid of it. It's just a matter of taste. I would prefer if the Cursed equipment was destroyed.

I still don't like the idea of cursed equipment in general, really. However, if it did make an appearance, that is the best suggestion thus far in my opinion.
Title: Re: Cursed Equipments
Post by: lettucemode on November 20, 2013, 04:57:06 PM
I see now. I thought the suggestion was one action to remove the cursed equipment and nothing else. slotting your own replacement at the same time works a lot better.  sorry for the misunderstanding Wildhorn and zuberi.