I was wondering if anyone had thought about trying a "pure chess" (i.e. nonrandom) version of Mage Wars. Obviously, it would require a lot of changes, damage would be converted to an automatic 1 point per die with half of that (probably rounding up) being critical. Attack effects that use the effect die would have to go, or be replaced by an alternating counter that lets the effect land every other hit. The same is true for defenses. Inevitably, there would be some cards that just wouldn't work.

Still, I think it would be interesting. It would allow you to think further ahead.  Obviously, this would slow the game down and make it less casual, but it would also make the game even deeper and more analytical.

Yes, those prepared spells are just the spells you can cast during your turn. You aren't required to use them.

If a Forcemaster has charmed Thorg, is it still legal for Thorg to "taunt" the Forcemaster?

Thereby making the Forcemaster attack Thorg and break the charm, of course.

(They have a complicated relationship.)

Maybe they're screaming on the inside?

Yeah, it seems like "Agony" should have the "psychic" sub-category, but I guess you could imagine it either way.

Thanks once again, Arcanus. That clears up a ton of stuff.

The only questions I would have remaining on these "theft" topics would be:

1) Not technically stated anywhere that I can find, but is it safe to say that if you steal an object with a face-down bound spell that you gain the right to look at the card?

2) Since you still seem to be able to mind-control the goblin builder, can we say that the prepared spell can be looked at by the new controller and cast as long as it's allowed (i.e. not Warlord only)? If it's not cast, would the prepared spell automatically go back into the original owner's book at the end of the round?

3) With "steal enchantment", does the "new legal target" have to be a different target than the original target? Since we now have enchantments where control of the enchantment alone matters. Take "charm" for example: say two forcemages are fighting and there's only one creature on the board. One mage charms it, can the other mage "steal enchantment" the charm so as to switch who the creature is allowed to attack? Can you steal a zone enchantment like "fortified position" and leave it in place, just switching whose troops get the armor bonus?

Yep, that answers my questions, thanks.

The timing question was only a problem on the assumption that "hindered" status was permanent for the round once acquired. If you can become unhindered by changing status (flying, elusive) before moving, then there is no concern.

Thanks for the responses guys, but I still think there's some ambiguity here.

It seems well-established that if a creature is hindered and takes a move action, than it cannot move again by any means other than teleport.

But this rule: If a creature teleports before it takes any move actions, it can become un-hindered if it teleports into a zone without any enemy objects that can hinder it. suggests that if a creature gets away from effective hinderers before taking a move action, than it is home free. So couldn't the vampiress gain flight at the beginning of her turn to lose hindered status as well, if in a square with only enemy non-flyers?

And again, if not, is there any chance of an official ruling on the timing issue posed in question 2? I did notice some interesting wording in the rulebook (p. 29):

If a guard is not melee attacked, it may retain its guard marker until the start of its next Action Phase. (emphasis added)

The use of the word "may" there is very interesting. Does that mean there is a mechanism for a creature to decide to stop guarding at some intermittent point before it starts its next action? If so, that would resolve the timing issue.