While I tend to quick cast Teleport Trap in my zone on turn two to give myself some extra time, I also sometimes cast a reasonable "defensive" creature on the first turn where I think that my opponent or his likely turn one creature might try to get to my Mage early. The creatures that I usually choose are: Devouring Jelly with Wizard (hard to kill and hard to ignore), Bobcat pet with Beastmaster (defense plus the extra hit points both help), and Skeletal Knight Eternal Servant with Necromancer.

This isn't the way I typically like to start a game with these Mages, but you need to have more than one opening plan, since you have to be able to handle all kinds of openings from your opponents... aggressive or otherwise.

The Mages that I see as potentially aggressive include: Forcemaster, Warlock, and Holy mages in general (due to Divine Intervention).

Also... if you don't have a Teleport Trap, quick casting a Decoy in your zone can have the effect of warding off the use of Divine Intervention in particular. The theory is that your opponent will presume that you have a Teleport Trap in the zone, and not want to "waste" the 10 mana to reveal the spell on his Necro Vampiress (or whatever).

Tim? It seems that we're split between west and south parts of town, and our new Mage couple lives well out Pendelton Pike on the east side. SE side would be a bit of a drive, but a lot closer than heading out to his place.

He's not saying that it will ever be revealed if it sticks....

By "birdies" I assume you mean thunderift falcons - is it your intention to request that one of the most efficient creatures in the game be given even more advantages by allowing it to be guarded?

Yes, Falcons... and yes. Mostly though, my main point for discussion was that I would like to see a way for a flyer to "guard" (or whatever term you want to use) other flyers, of for creatures with Intercept to be able to protect flyers. Neither apparently can't be done now.

Quote from: DaveW on June 05, 2014, 06:19:39 PM

Besides, it'd be nice to use Tarok's bonus vs. flying creatures defensively once in a while.

You can already do this by guarding something non-Flying with Tarok, like your Mage.

I don't want to guard with Tarok at all as the rules are currently written. It would put him into a position where he will have to take non-flying creature attacks while on guard. I want to use his bonus against flyers defensively.

The timing of the passage attacks, I'm sure. I forgot the reasoning behind not losing the armor.

When a creature guards, it loses the Flying trait. There are times, however, that I would like Tarok to guard some Falcons in his zone. Is this possible? I'd like to find a way to do it, if I can.

I just had a thought... an "Escort" trait would be nice... something akin to fighters being used in a close escort role in WWII.

Fortified Position can be used to be a kind of Corrode Barrier also. Sit on a Fortified Position with no other armor, take two Corrode, move away and back and no more Corrode. Takes an action that might be better spent, but if you have the time or need to save mana and have nothing to melee attack... this might be interesting. It might be interesting using a couple of these (in different zones, of course) with unarmored creatures on the move along with shift enchantments as has been mentioned elsewhere. Get Corroded, move out to another zone with a Fortified Position, and you still have your armor and the Corrodes go away.

I would not like to see any effect that forces a creature to use its own next action to move farther away... especially if the creature is slow (resulting in multiple turns to recover from the effect). If there were such a spell, however, it would have to be at least a level 3 spell, and cost on the order of 8-10 mana. (Mana cost is based on Turn to Stone at 2 +4 per turn, and Banish at 14 for three turns... the 0-2 mana reduction would be due to the creature's ability to do other things that might be useful, and due to the choice as to which zone it would move.)

Just on spells vs. undead:

It might be interesting to have a Holy spell that potentially(?) causes a "turned" condition on undead. This condition might essentially be a "stun" effect against undead... No move or attack, and remove after activation.

This might be an Incantation cast on the creature, an Equipment spell (Amulet?) allowing the wearer to "turn" undead (probably with mana cost based on level of creature), or a powerful Light-based attack spell that causes the condition in exchange for a lowered damage output.

An enchantment "Aura of Light" (or an Equipment spell providing such an aura) might be a damage barrier against undead creatures.