Mage Wars Arena: Journeyman Mode

[Sailor Vulcan]

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Journeyman mode[/spellbookname]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Rules[/spellclass]

Same as regular arena, with the following exceptions:

1.) Reduce mage life by 10. Mages with 10 channeling have their starting mana reduced to 3 and their channeling reduced to 7. Mages with 9 channeling have their channeling reduced to 7 and their starting mana reduced to 0. Mages are level 4 and have 40 spellbook points.

2.) Max 3 copies of each lv 1 spell and 2 of any other spell.

3.) Spells level 5 and above are not allowed.

4.)  The arena is 2x3 zones.

5.) All attacks are reduced by 1 attack die. (Can't be reduced below 1.)

6.) For the first two rounds, nothing can attack or target enemy objects.

Alternative Rule 1.) No mage abilities. All mages have 24 life and 10 channeling, and a 3 dice basic melee attack (rule #5 still applies). Mages are level 4 and have 50 spellbook points.

[/spells][/spellbook]



This is intended to be a balanced and customizable version of Mage Wars Arena: Apprentice mode.

Thoughts?

Update 12/21/2015: Rule 1 should work with arena ability cards now. The no-ability card version of rule 1 is still available.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I've noticed that this variant doesn't feel anywhere near as strategic as it should be. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm wondering if it has to do with the mage ability cards. After all, regular apprentice mode doesn't use the mage ability cards at all. Perhaps in order to compensate for the use of mage ability cards from the full game, I should reduce the spellbook points to 40, just like in Academy? But that still feels vulnerable to hate strategies. Maybe we need Mage abilities specifically for new apprentice mode. What do you think?

EDIT: The problem might actually be with my spelbook designs. Perhaps I was trying to build books like the ones in the regular game when I should have been optimizing for this format.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I updated the rules. I think it should be much more fun and balanced now.

[wtcannonjr]

Note - the standard Apprentice Mode that comes in the 4th edition Core Set has spellbooks with about 50 spellpoints. You may want to increase to more than 40. I think you should also remove the Conjurations spell type from the game to keep with the Apprentice Rules.

Perhaps the mode you are building should be called the Journeyman mode since you seem to want it to fit somewhere between Apprentice and a Mage.

Just my two cents ...

[Moonglow]

WTcannon answered my question which was a little bit about how do these rules contrast with the original apprentice books/game. 

What's your rational for the different features?

1-3 seem quite similar to original, with the 10 spell book points noted by WT.  I'm not sure if the original apprentice - lets call it OA - mode restricted level 5, but it seems about right.

Reducing dice by one damage seems the biggest change.  What are you after here?  I thought that one of the appeals of apprentice mode was the shorter play time, this seems to go against that.

[Sailor Vulcan]

WTcannon answered my question which was a little bit about how do these rules contrast with the original apprentice books/game. 

What's your rational for the different features?

1-3 seem quite similar to original, with the 10 spell book points noted by WT.  I'm not sure if the original apprentice - lets call it OA - mode restricted level 5, but it seems about right.

Reducing dice by one damage seems the biggest change.  What are you after here?  I thought that one of the appeals of apprentice mode was the shorter play time, this seems to go against that.

The idea behind reducing dice like that was for balancing with the arena spells, which are more powerful than academy. To put it into perspective, the basic melee attack is 3 dice in arena and 2 dice in academy. Now, OA doesn't have 2 setup rounds either, so you could double move and fireball someone round 1 and make them half-dead instantly. OA balances that by making it preconstructed and making all four OA mages counters to each other.

As for why I made it 40 points, I originally attempted with 60 points and ability cards with level 5+ spells both legal and illegal. It didn't work right. Spellbooks felt like they were just weaker versions of their regular arena counterparts except with less answers to enemies and more vulnerable to hate. Although now that you mention it, it probably would be better to try 50 points first since I banned ability cards. If that doesn't work I'll move it back down to 40.

[Moonglow]

It wasn't clear that you were trying to balance with academy.  Why do you want to? Surely trying to weaken everything arena to make it fit with academy seems an over reaction to cards that are context relevant in a reduced arena format anyway? (i.e academy cards still have a place in arena, which you're designing for).

[Sailor Vulcan]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, I'm not trying to balance with academy, I was comparing this format to academy.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Update 12/21/2015: Rule 1 should work with arena ability cards now. The no-ability card version of rule 1 is still available.