Arcane Wonders Forum
Mage Wars => Mages => Topic started by: Marhem on July 08, 2014, 02:36:35 PM
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Hi, thought i would make a couple suggestions about mages we might like to see in the arena. Please add other suggestions and critique. :)
Elementalist : Trained in 2 elemental schools of your choice. He would be a mage of variety as his attack spells would have a choice between attacks. It would have 4 attacks, 2 of witch you could use depending on your training. He would also summon elementals, depending on school training choice.
Weapons master: he is trained in the war and arcane schools. Solo mage, like forcemaster, would have very little creatures( floating bows, swords, shields, etc.) and would have many pieces of exchangeable equipment witch would be cantrip. His theme is power through energy weapons. One special ability is his melee attacks would be ranged 0-1, still having the melee trait.
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I like the Elementalist ideas. One of the first things I thought about building once I had the game was an Avatar mage who cast only Elemental spells but from all 4 schools. Here's one I've been thinking about.
Drow Assassin: Dark Elf, trained in Nature and Dark. Would be super cool to see "dark" versions of living creatures and maybe introduce some evil animals (Bugbears, Gnolls, stuff like that) and a Mage that would pair really well with [mwcard=FWQ09]Sectarus, Dark Rune Sword[/mwcard] and some poison style curses. The thief class is one that is really underrepresented in the game, and I love seeing Mages trained in multiple schools as well. Would have to pay triple for Holy or Fire spells.
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I've wanted a Dark Priest for a while but I dont know how you balance it power wise. You'd almost have to create a whole new symbol or find a way to allow them a specific number of holy and dark spells. Or if you want to get mathematical they have to pay 1.5 for holy/dark or something like that.
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One thing I think mage wars has overlooked and I think still would overlook in the siren expansion is Frost, which brings me to another idea.
(no idea the name): He/She is an Ice wizard who can summon Ice elementals, Ice imps, and other Ice creatures. One of her special abilities would be frozen ground. Every deployment phase the mage may place a frozen ground token on a tile (like vines). all creatures on the tile gain slow trait. The mage may summon ice creatures to that tile. Ice creatures gain the fast trait on these tiles. if a creature is attacked on one of these tiles and damaged, It gains a chilled token, if it already has one, it gains frostbite and looses the chilled. chilled does not go away on these tiles. The frozen ground token will disappear after 3 turns. If a fire spell is used in the tile, cancel the spell and the frozen ground is destroyed, if a creature with a burn token goes in or passes thru, the burn is destroyed and one turn is removed from the tile. Chilled: melee attacks on this creature add 1 dice to the roll. The creature gains the slow trait. The marker is destroyed after on turn if the creature is not on a frozen tile. Frostbite: melee attacks on this creature add 2 dice to the roll, 1 dice to all ice spell attacks. creature takes 2 damage every turn. If a creature has chilled and gains a second chill, destroy both chilled markers and replace with frostbite.
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Weapons master: he is trained in the war and arcane schools. Solo mage, like forcemaster, would have very little creatures( floating bows, swords, shields, etc.) and would have many pieces of exchangeable equipment witch would be cantrip. His theme is power through energy weapons. One special ability is his melee attacks would be ranged 0-1, still having the melee trait.
I like the idea. How about this? Instead of a "weapon" equipment slot and a "shield" equipment slot, he has two weapon slots and could use them both as a full action. I.e., dual-wielding.
Or maybe a trait on his mage card that gives him extra dice when using a two-handed weapon? (Which would make the orc warlord's hammer actually useful).
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I really like the dual wielding part, it would be like a master double strike. Or another thing is he could use a 2 handed weapon as a one handed and if he wanted to switch energy weapons, he could pay 3 mana at anytime one of his creatures move.
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Steampunk Gnome. Heavily focused on living conjurations like steam powered golems, clockwork hounds, and similar ideas. Give him a mobile spawn point like a walking fortress or something.
Unstable Necromancer variant. Turn the undead into living bombs. Plague bombs for zombies to poison folks and the skellys do bone shrapnel damage.
Muscle Wizard (forcemater variant). Unable to use equipment, but enchantments have double (both positive and negative) effects where applicable. His life and basic melee damage are high, his channelling is total garbage.
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Every mage has one primary magic type and possibly a secondary. I don't think Arcane Wonders will divert from that. I doubt we'll see mages with two primary or none. Maybe there will be an exception to this rule with an Elementalist.
Wizard, Beastmaster, Priest, Warlock, Warlord, Druid, Necromancer and Paladin are very basic classes from RPGs. Forcemaster and Siren are not your standard RPG class but they fit into the mage wars fantasy world just fine. The spell cards' flavor text mentions Primus, Tempus, Archeon, General and Warmaster. I think these flavor texts refer to individual's titles rather than hints at a new classes of mages. I don't think AW will go mad and introduce lots of crazy ideas for mages, they will stick to some of the classic fantasy classes.
All the mages have a subtype that they are really good at. Wizards got mana and metamagic, Warlocks have demons and curses, Necromancers have undead, Priests have healing, Forcemasters have force, Beastmasters have animals, Druids have plants and Warlords have command spells. I'm guessing the Siren will have control as in the spells charm and mind control. Paladin might have protection, light or something completely new. I'm sure there will be future mages released that are great at transform (turn to stone), psychic (sleep, mind control, charm, mind control) and poison (ghoul rot, poison blood, poison gas cloud).
legendary creatures such as Otto Kronig, master engineer and Sir Corazin, Blademaster aswell as goblin alchemist, even though he isn't a legend, suggest that engineer, blademaster and alchemist won't be mages but take part in the game as minor characters.
Since the game is called mage wars, I don't think we'll see classes such as warrior, hunter, rogue, ranger or bard. They might make an entrance as legendary creatures instead.
This game has no apparent race abilities. I don't think all high elves/dwarfs/orcs will be sharing any traits. All races seem pretty equal in the arena. AW wants the mages balanced. They all have 120 spell points and fairly close hp and mana. This makes me think we won't see Troll kings or fairy princess as mages but perhaps as legendary creatures.
spell card art that may hint at future mages:
[mwcard=MW1E23] Jinx[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06] Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI01] Destroy Magic[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E20] Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E24] Magebane[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E31] Poisoned Blood[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I11] Explode[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I16] Lay Hands[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E11] Divine Intervention[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E37] Sacred Ground[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I12] Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE01] Charm[/mwcard]
In conclusion, here are my guesses of future mages:
Arcane: Mystic, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Conjuror
Dark: Vampire Lord (vampiric), Witch (curses, frogs, cats, charms, poison)
Holy: Paladin (protection), Monk (air)
Mind: Siren (control), Seer (psychic), Illusionist (illusions)
Nature: Shaman (totem), Shapeshifter/Werewolf (lycanthrope)
War: No idea
Legendary creatures:
hunter
spider queen (spiders)
bard
scout
assassin
sage
warrior
troll king (trolls)
fairy princess (fairies)
ranger
rogue
I'm sure a lot of this has been mentioned in the forum before. I don't follow it and wanted to share my thoughts on what to look forward to in the future of mage wars expansions.
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I agree with almost everything you said, but I think subtypes are our biggest hint at what lies ahead. Subtypes are used most often for rings and spawnpoint restrictions so a common creature subtype indicates a future mage who focuses on that type. With several insects so far I think it likely that we will have an insect focused nature mage at some point.
I also think druids 1 level of water was quite a surprise so I think they will have more surprises in the future. Paladin will probably have level 1 war.
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Well,
1. Warlord is not technically a mage because (except dwarf) he all he does can be done without magic. Therefor it makes the shade possible.
2. Though you say the weapons master has too many main classes, he could be like the archmage.
If I'm forgetting anything, please let me know ;).
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http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=14161.0
The Warlord can summon creatures out of nothing but mana. Yes, he's a mage.
Command spells are too magical. Do you think a regular old goblin grunt knows how to charge without his warlord's battle orders? If it did, it would charge every time it moved and attacked.
IMO, Command spells command the body, while the words command the mind. Or haven't you noticed that casting charge on a friendly creature doesn't force them to charge at the enemy? It only makes them better at it if they do decide to charge. Casting on guard is a separate action from the creature guarding, and you can cast "On Guard" in a zone and not have any of them guard afterwards.
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The shade can summon creatures also, though there are limited options. Shadow stepping is also magical(similar to TP). It works.
Also, about the weapons master, he could be regular and just have all other schools coast triple.
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One thing I think mage wars has overlooked and I think still would overlook in the siren expansion is Frost, which brings me to another idea.
(no idea the name): He/She is an Ice wizard who can summon Ice elementals, Ice imps, and other Ice creatures. One of her special abilities would be frozen ground. Every deployment phase the mage may place a frozen ground token on a tile (like vines). all creatures on the tile gain slow trait. The mage may summon ice creatures to that tile. Ice creatures gain the fast trait on these tiles. if a creature is attacked on one of these tiles and damaged, It gains a chilled token, if it already has one, it gains frostbite and looses the chilled. chilled does not go away on these tiles. The frozen ground token will disappear after 3 turns. If a fire spell is used in the tile, cancel the spell and the frozen ground is destroyed, if a creature with a burn token goes in or passes thru, the burn is destroyed and one turn is removed from the tile. Chilled: melee attacks on this creature add 1 dice to the roll. The creature gains the slow trait. The marker is destroyed after on turn if the creature is not on a frozen tile. Frostbite: melee attacks on this creature add 2 dice to the roll, 1 dice to all ice spell attacks. creature takes 2 damage every turn. If a creature has chilled and gains a second chill, destroy both chilled markers and replace with frostbite.
How about Cryomancer for a name? Ice Magic would be his/her specialty, of course. Ice Elemental, Blizzard Terror, Abominable Snowmen, Yetis, Icicle Cave spawnpoint, Frostbreath Iceshard Dragon, and the Freeze condition are my suggestions. :)
Frozen Ground markers could be very similar to the vines, as you said, in that they could be sacrificed to cast Frost or Ice Magic creatures to their zone. There could be Ice attacks including freezing wind, icicles, and even a sword made of Ice.
Something that could tie into the Siren's strategy is the idea of Melting Frozen Ground: When a Frozen Ground marker is targeted by a Flame attack, it would cancel the attack and be destroyed like you said, and it could also create a small effect of water in the Zone until the end of the round. Perhaps it could be something like Flood that the Siren would also utilize. This would make a possible chain reaction between a Cryomancer, Siren/Hydromancer, and Fire mage: Cryomancer casts Frozen Ground, Fire mage casts attack and melts into water, Siren uses flood to summon a Water creature. This could be the very first example of Fire mages and Water mages having a cohesive strategy when teaming.
That 2V2 game would be epic, especially if it were Warlock + Fire Wizard on one team, and Siren + Cryomancer on the other team ;D - so epic! lol
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Why would ice slow creatures? Isn't ice slippery?
Also, that cryomancer just sounds like an ice version of a Druid. With way overpowered "vine" markers.
Tbh I kind if think maybe the typical conception of an ice mage that were all familiar with could use some refining. Everybody knows they use icy weather and ice monsters, and build scary palaces/fortresses of ice with icy booby traps, and freeze their enemies on blocks of ice, and are able to do anything that ice/snow can possibly be used for.
But I'm not sure what it would be trained in, besides water. Considering all the fortresses and constructs that ice mages make (the better to keep their hearts locked away in the icy prisons of their own making), maybe war training would make sense. It would be good for helping to expand the war school beyond soldiers, at least.
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Thematically I want a Bard/Skald character (so bad it hurts). Mechanically, I'm not sure how I would work this though; the Warlord already occupies the obvious (to me) design space.
Training in all Level 1 Schools seemed like an interesting idea, but it's actually boring (many tough choices, or splashing is removed).
A limited (per-game) pre-paring a spell from your discard pile? Or returning a spell from your discard to your spell book?
An interesting mechanic (maybe not right for the bard):
[# of times per game] you may pay 1 mana when casting an incantation spell, to give it the Cantrip Trait.
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Training in all Level 1 Schools seemed like an interesting idea, but it's actually boring (many tough choices, or splashing is removed).
A limited (per-game) pre-paring a spell from your discard pile? Or returning a spell from your discard to your spell book?
You mean like this (http://www.use.com/dc7f171f29729a88b46d?p=5#photo=5)? Not Bard themed, but similar mechanics...
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Witch
32 life, 0 armor, 10 channeling and 120 spell points
Trained in dark school holy spells cost triple during spellbook creation.
Whenever witch reveals a curcse enchantment she may have target creature gain 2 direct damage.
Once per round as a quick spell wicht may put an condition marker on a creature up too 1 zone away by paying it's removal cost +1. Or as a full action put any number off condition markers off her choice on target creature in the same zone by paying their removal costs +creatures level
3 die melle attack
Also she would have one equipment card wich only she is allowed too have: voodoo doll. It would cost 12 mana too cast and would allow the witch too target the doll instead off a creature she chosen. It would also be epic and say "if voodoo doll is destroyed deal 5 damage too the creature it was representing.
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Training in all Level 1 Schools seemed like an interesting idea, but it's actually boring (many tough choices, or splashing is removed).
A limited (per-game) pre-paring a spell from your discard pile? Or returning a spell from your discard to your spell book?
You mean like this (http://www.use.com/dc7f171f29729a88b46d?p=5#photo=5)? Not Bard themed, but similar mechanics...
Similar. For theme and balance reasons, I'd probably make the Cantrip or similar effect depend on a Set # of times, rather than mana. The ability would be used in almost every game, and won't be quite so abusive.
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Why would ice slow creatures? Isn't ice slippery?
Yea, agree that ice should slippery.
Maybe Ice floor / terrain may cause movement "overshoot" into another zone in move direction, and bump onto wall (if applicable) for additional damage.
Thematically I want a Bard/Skald character (so bad it hurts). Mechanically, I'm not sure how I would work this though; the Warlord already occupies the obvious (to me) design space.
Perhaps Bard will trained in Sound based Mind school, but must equipped with musical instruments.
Sound mechanism might affect certain targets, though not sure the details yet...
Anyway, just some ideas.
Happy MW.
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"Why would ice slow creatures? Isn't ice slippery?"
I am confused by your confusion. You go slow on ice so you don't slip and fall on your butt. It's kinda obvious.
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If alchemists aren't mages, then I don't think it's likely that bards will be...
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One that I think will be really cool is a Blood Mage trained in War or Arcane and Dark. Give him a smaller amount of mana and channeling (which can be upgraded with spell cards) but have him cast blood golems and blood spells using his life points instead of mana. There could also be a spell that lets him take back the creatures he summons with blood for a health bonus if his life starts running low.
I really like the idea of the Weapon Master too
An Ice mage would be great too!
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I was recently counting the mages from the different schools and noticed a few things. The most obvious is that 3 of the 4 core set mages have an alternate of the complementary gender appearing in an expansion, with a female Wizard noticeably absent. Also noticeable is that the schools haven't been equally featured. So far, there are 3 Nature (2 Beastmasters and a Druid), 3 Dark (2 Warlocks and a Necromancer), 2 War (2 Warlords), 2 Holy (2 Priests), 1 Mind (Forcemaster) and 1 Arcane (Wizard). If you look at the Elemental schools (ignoring the Wizard since he can be any of these), there are currently 2 Fire (Warlocks), 2 Earth (Warlords), 1 Water (Druid, but low level only) and no Air (although the Wizard's recommended starter book is Air).
If we assume the Siren will be Mind/Water and the Paladin will be Holy/War (? - could it be the first to be trained in 2 non-element schools?), then we would have 3 Nature, 3 Holy, 3 War, 3 Dark, 2 Mind and still just 1 Arcane. The elements would be mostly evened up, with 2 Fire, 2 Earth, 2 Water (although still only 1 that goes beyond low-level spells), but still no Air.
In order to even things up, it seems to me that the most obvious expansion after Paladin/Siren would be (1) an alternate female Wizard who specializes in Air and/or Water (with a preference for ice magic), and (2) an alternate male Forcemaster. The former would finally give us a second Wizard option, although it might be hard to balance without making the existing Wizard even more powerful (e.g. strong water/ice and air/wind spells); the latter would give the Forcemaster some help (as was done for the Warlord), since she has become one of the harder mages to win with.
Alt Wizard evidence: See recent promos including Windstorm, Gale Force Ring, Rain Cloud, Acid Blast, Staff of Storms, Lightning Strike, Wall of Poison Gas, Lightning Beetle, Leviathan Scale Armor, Storm Drake Hide. Some of these feature art with a white-haired female wizard (see Acid Blast and Windstorm), also shown here: (http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mage-wars-mages.jpg)
Of course, several of these promos, especially the Water spells, might be included in the Paladin/Siren expansion. Further evidence includes the Frost and Defrost keywords in print but without a purpose (assuming they aren't Siren-y), and I'm sure I'm not the only person who would like to see that rectified. And like others, I'd love to see some ice-related terrain.
Forcemaster evidence: Not so much, aside from the Forcemaster being in need of help and currently alone in her play style (aggressive and largely creatureless). There's the Wall of Force promo, but not much else. More mind spells would certainly be welcome, especially more illusion-like creatures, more Mind conjurations that help deal with the board state (analogous to Harshforge Monolith, etc), maybe a new spawnpoint/familiar or two (e.g. an analogue to a Battle Forge or Wizard's Tower for Mind mages), new equipment (Force Armor?), etc.
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The Sorceror that was mentioned in a podcast will have arcane and dark training
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The Sorceror that was mentioned in a podcast will have arcane and dark training
Is the female Wizard a "Sorcerer" or that something different? The art above has a (living) owl (familiar?) on her shoulder, and nothing in the image to suggest Dark. Similarly, the cards that depict her are all water or air school, with no suggestion of Dark.
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The female Wizard is a Wizard. A Sorcerer would be a new Mage entirely.
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The female Wizard is a Wizard. A Sorcerer would be a new Mage entirely.
Has there been any word on when she (Wizard) might show up? "Spell Tome" expansion following Paladin vs. Siren perhaps?
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Not yet. Right now it is looking like sometime after PVS.
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Was browsing around and just found the artwork for a male Forcemaster... flying, no less. Could be very cool if he had Flying as an ability, or even a new equipment or enchantment (with Magebind) that grants flying. Anyway, I'll still cross my fingers that the next Spell Tome expansion following PvS will be (female) Wizard vs (male) Forcemaster. Maybe call it "Mind Over Matter" or something...
(http://i.imgur.com/GKPs0jJ.jpg)
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Please forgive me "necro'ing" this thread, but I didn't see value in starting a new one on the same topic, and some of this discussion may still be relevant.
Gen Con interviews spoiled some info about upcoming expansions in the works. It sounds to me like the next several releases, not necessarily in this order, might look something like this:
Large 2-mage Arena expansions:
- Paladin vs. Siren (
fall 2015 spring 2016?) - Barbarian vs. Sorcerer (late 2016?)
Small 2-mage Arena "spell tome" expansions:
- Alt-Forcemaster (male) vs. Alt-Wizard (female) (sometime after Paladin vs. Siren?)
- ??? - see speculation below (sometime after Barbarian vs. Sorcerer?)
Battlegrounds alternate play mode expansions:
- Arch-mage (one-vs-many?) (summer 2016?)
- Dungeon crawl (cooperative vs AI? competitive vs AI? cooperative vs overlord?) (summer 2017?)
Academy core sets:
- Beastmaster vs Wizard (fall 2015)
- Priestess vs Warlock (fall 2015 or winter/spring 2016?)
- presumably more mages released in 2-mage sets
Speculation
In the spirit of Conquest of Kumanjaro and Forged in Fire, I would imagine the next small-box Spell Tome release following the one for Male Forcemaster vs Female Wizard would also feature alternate versions (e.g. opposite sex or different species) and more cards for existing mages that came out in the core set or large box expansions. Upon the next Spell Tome release, Druid and Necromancer will be the oldest mages without an alternate version, with Paladin and Siren being the next oldest. I'm not sure a second Druid vs. Necromancer would be ideal; perhaps we might see each of the Druid and Necromancer face off against other mages, similar to Warlock vs Warlord and Forcemaster vs Wizard. Or not. I don't know.
I got to thinking that there seems to be an Egyptian-inspired theme going on in several of the promo cards. Pharaoh's Cheetah. Ankh of Asyra. Maybe Lightning Beetle and Death's Head Scorpion (or is that a stretch?). Wouldn't it be cool if the Alt-Necromancer was the Etherian equivalent of an Egyptian Pharaoh or Queen, perhaps a Cleopatra that is all about raising mummies?! Ankh of Asyra would be a logical "anti-Necromancer" equipment for her opponent. I'm not sure who she'd go up against, but it would seem that somebody with Nature/animal training would make sense, given the Pharaoh's Cheetah and various insects/arachnids that would fit the theme. Or somebody with Holy, given the Ankh, Circle of Light, Elfric's Lifering, Temple Highguard, Joseph Trueblood, etc. Of course, we may very well see some of those cards in the Paladin expansion. Also, Asto Vidatu might be Egyptian enough (kind of scorpion-like "manticore") and would definitely be a good choice against a Holy mage - he even has the title of Angel Slayer! Maybe it will be an Egyptian-themed expansion feature Alt-Necromancer vs Alt-Paladin?
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In regards to the release of PvS there was a post by someone from arcane wonders(I can't remember who) a few days ago saying that Paladin vs. Siren will probably be coming out in early 2015. (:(I was hoping for Christmas)
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2016...Toxziq. http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=15916.0