Let's try and keep things civil, guys. We should talk about the facts and not each other. Personal comments won't get us anywhere.
With [mwcard=FWC10]Ludwig Boltstorm[/mwcard] I think we can all agree that with his armor and life he is a little squishy for his price point. Not more so than other ranged combatants, really though. The main question seems to be if his attack is worthwhile though.
Looking at the extremes of facing an opposing creature with either 0 armor or infinite armor (aka Resilient) then only an attack that does 9+ dice of damage would be equivalent (or has a direct damage trait like Burn or Rot to compensate). No other creature deals 9+ dice of damage for the casting cost of 13 mana, nor do any have a trait that can compensate enough to rival Ludwig at these extremes. Even if we throw other spells to buff their damage into the mix, I'm having a hard time finding a creature that will be able to put out this level of damage every single round without going over a total expenditure of 13 mana, plus then we are investing more actions into the mix as well (summoning + buffing).
Against an armor value in between the extremes, it would still require at least 8 dice to compete. Now, other traits like Piercing can help lower this number as well, though. Even with these lower standards, it is very difficult to find any other creature who rivals Ludwig for only a 13 mana investment, although buffing one up to this level for that price may be more possible.
Thus, I concur that Ludwig has an extremely good attack in terms of damage for his level of investment. However, he is squishy, his attack is severely limited by the 1-1 range, and he is very susceptible to things like Agony, Aegis, and Weak. Whether all of this is worth including him in your spellbook is kind of a matter of opinion. Personally, the 1-1 range is what excludes him from my spellbooks because I find that very difficult to coordinate effectively without a lot of babysitting. But it's not impossible to do.
