For example, Cassiel is mega fragile. I've seen her go down very quickly, sometimes as soon as very next turn after being summoned, getting hit by a huge range attack such as thunderbolt or meteor from 3 range, or an air attack that gains bonus against flying, then pushes Cassiel into arena wall for that +3 dice bash attack on top of the 4+ die rolled for the wind attack.

I thought "Oh Guardian Angel has Intercept + a Defense roll". But of course, one second later hits "Flying lose flying until not guarding at all anymore, so no Intercept on Cassiel's behalf" 
Seriously, I think Cassiel is legit hindered by the Flying trait. It's way more a liability than bonus for her with her low HP and zero armor.
Ultra fragile, and an in-the-air target for everyone and their mother with no possible layers to at least get through first.

So is there anything that be done to protect fragile flyers other than stacking multiple +armors and defense enchantments on them like they're your main Aggro Mage or Aggro Buddy (but not)? Because that's a waste of actions and mana to protect something that's not front-line.
You would think a flying creature that chooses a guard action, could defend both sorts equally. Guard on ground as default, but can also guard a fellow flyer by swooping up quick for the attack.

I am close to just eating up the Spellbook Points and inserting a Main Wings curse, just to put it on Cassiel to ground her just to allow basic protection options such as Guarding with Intercept-capable creatures. Would be a better mana and action investment than Cassiel+Rhino Hide+Cobra Reflexes+Bull Endurance+more.

As normal, any mage/creature/object can't have more than one of the same named enchantment attached to it.
However, can a Mage have different equipment cards with Curse Item attached simultaneously?

Just wondering since the objects are all separate, being equipment, but the equipment collectively are on the same mage.

Having too many expansions and such begins piling up spellbooks with designs that may not match the theme of most used flavors. And people who I show the game to sometimes don't entirely see the 'point' of the physical spellbook and just suggest carrying the deck around MTG style. A valid choice, but just not in line with the flair I associate myself with (I pimp my games a lot).

This is just a baseline. No flavor or extras really added beside the charm and beads. Each Mage I use will be receiving unique patterns drafted from this base and add accessories as appropriate (pyramid spikes on Warlord? Gems on Wizard? etc). And as evident, these covers are also functional with closures and inner pockets to carry the unique markers and extras.

And after my primary mages, I plan to do covers for my friend's mages as well. And if I can bring myself to, I may even do the unused classes as well. Just for the sake of an art & creative project. So I'll be updating this thread as this whole creative project continues. 

So while playing with a friend recently, It occurred to me that while there's Harmonize (+1 channeling for anything with channeling trait) could we ever see basically a curse to cause -1 Channeling?

Would be useful to shut down the economy of spawnpoints, familiars, and the ubiquitous Battle Forge. Or maybe even hurt a mage themselves for mana. Of course it'll be a quick target for a dispell, but so are a lot of other enchantments like a Ghoul Rot, Finite Life, Mind Control, Magebane, etc.

So would this be something viable?

Looking through some of the Dark creatures, it got me on this train of thought when reading the surprisingly Lovecraftian mythos name of the Shaggoth-Zora.

So perhaps there are some forgotten and no longer worshiped Gods of Ancient Etheria that a few mages still follow. And since these forgotten ones largely exist between and in multiple dimensions, a follow must master arts of time-space, hence the Mage class title of "Rifter" or similar (Riftmaster, Riftlord, etc)

Even though it may be easy to place such a mage and his creatures/toolset in dark, I believe Arcane with a support of Dark would be the most thematic. Arcane creatures are full of the oddball and hard to pigeon hole type creatures, as well as the fact that in Lovecraft mythos, several lesser creatures and monsters are in fact simply aliens and/or results of experiments and dark engineering.

So, Rifter. Trained in Arcane and level 1 Dark. A mage feared for his ability to throw threats from any angle, and any time.
Channeling and other stats up for balancing, but likely geared toward something for just few creatures.

Abilities, potentially a self-targetable teleport quickspell. range of 1 zone away. 

when casting creature spells, he may pay an extra mana tax (perhaps linked to level+) to place creature 1 zone away instead of own zone as default.

A mechanic similar to Druid's vine markers. But instead are rift markers. Up for discussion how similar or different they'll function to the vine markers.

Immune to a new status condition, "Unstable" that redirects forces and time. Similar to Daze, must roll to attack, if failed, then attacks highest level creature in zone if able, Mages included. Roll effect die to break ties.

Conjurations:
Possibly mostly incorporeal. A spawn-point that spits out creatures in a random 1 zone radius, roll to determine direction.
Another, a sort of 'alternate dimension' that locks those already in zone, unable to interact or be assisted by outside elements. A completely off limits zone for as long as the duration (dissipate style tokens) or until the conjuration is destroyed from inside the zone.
Portals. Pretty much similar to the hidden tunnels of Warlord, but must come in pairs or more. Allows mage and own certain type of creatures to teleport between.

Creatures:
Lots of tentacles, blobs, and other amorphous servants. Uncontainable being a common trait for the Rifter's roster. Perhaps some more tricky ones being mixed school, Arcane/Dark. The 'big' creature of his being able to move truly silently and mysteriously. The card possibly being kept out of the board, but in place is a small stack of tokens (perhaps just 2). These tokens move independently and simultaneously, following set rules and allowable move points. When ultimately conjoined again, they 'spawn' the creature for his action before resuming moving in the void again.

Enchantments:
Geared towards high mobility and placement, as well as instability of enemy actions. Perhaps one that makes a creature's move actions all considered teleport actions instead. And another that can make an enemy re-roll their attack (a reverse Akiro's Favor). A time slowing curse, which functions like a reverse defense, in what the target may roll a defense to avoid the coming but slowed attack.

Incantations:
Many will involve redirecting damage and flow of actions (time shifting). One could give a creature a trait similar to attacking conjurations, in that they read "Before or after any friendly creature activation, X may take X action" basically allowing two creature activations within a turn. (likely the casting cost+X of the creature for balance). Another that transports damage done to a target, such as attacking one creature, but the damage is instead inflicted on another legal creature elsewhere.



That's all I can come up with off the bat. I did try to stay away from some of the too Lovecraftian themes such as insanity and madnesses (that would be mind school anyways) but wanted to play the other angle that these creatures and any practitioners control space and a degree of time, as they can channel between dimensions and slip their will through various voids, keeping closer to established mage wars flavor rather than basically guest-staring the every-game's Cthulhu expansion.

Has anyone else ever put together a playlist for Mage Wars? I'm a type that's huge on atmosphere and have various playlists for my game night sessions based on what we're playing, from horror, sci-fi, bluff/betting games (think 70's and 80's classic rock in a Dive Bar), and others.

But recently I just began putting together a playlist for Mage Wars. It would probably come at no surprise that much of it comes from various film, anime, and video game soundtracks as they often have the orchestrations for what Mage Wars represents. Battle, Glory, Epic Magic, Kingdoms on the line, etc.

For a small sampling, here are some;

Nox Arcana - Eternal Champions (though track ends in fact at 4:17, the videos seem to mesh the final tracks of the album into a single one.
Red Sonja Soundtrack - Fighting the Soldiers
God of War III Soundtack - Overture/Main Theme
Audiomachine - Earth Shaker (drums)
Conan the Barbarian Soundtrack - Riddle of Steel/Riders of Doom
World of Warcraft Soundtrack - Seasons of War
Position Music - Ira Deorum

As well as many others from the soundtracks of Escaflowne, Death Note, Lord of the Rings, Bayonetta, Xena: Warrior Princess, Titus, and many others, including the odd tracks here and there from the niche musical talents who work in this genre as their regular thing.

Would also love to see if any others have their own favorite battling tracks & playlists.