New Mage Idea: Artificer

[Ganpot]

I came up with this idea while thinking about mages which could specialize in types of spells (equipment, conjurations, etc.) rather than schools.  This mage specializes in equipment.

Artificer (open to better name suggestions)
Spellbook Points: 120
Health: 36
Channeling: 9

Training
War & Arcane
Can use ALL equipment (including mage and school specific equipment) at base spellpoint cost.  This does not apply to equipment with the Cantrip trait. 
Pays triple for all attack spells, as well as enchantment spells outside of the War and Arcane schools. 

Abilities
Instant Materialization:
Immediately after declaring an attack, the Artificer may cast any weapon spell from his spellbook and equip it by paying its mana cost.  That weapon is then used during the attack.  If he already has an item equipped in that slot, he first refunds the mana cost of that spell and returns it to his spellbook.  The Artificer cannot use limited-time equipment attributes (such as defense rolls) more than normal by re-equipping spells, and cannot equip the same spell more than once per turn. 

Predictive Defense:
Immediately after any attack against the Artificer is declared, he may cast any non-weapon equipment spell from his spellbook and equip it by paying its mana cost.  That equipment is then used during the attack.  If he already has an item equipped in that slot, he first refunds the mana cost of that spell and returns it to his spellbook.  The Artificer cannot use limited-time equipment attributes (such as defense rolls) more than normal by re-equipping spells, and cannot equip the same spell more than once per turn.

Pinpoint Accuracy:
He has the Elusive trait. 

Attack
Basic Melee Attack: quick-action, melee, 3 dice

Flavor Quotes
"I have dedicated my life to mastering every weapon in existence.  I have bent ancient artifacts and divine relics alike to my will.  Your pitiful bow does not scare me."   
"The dark knight Q'alth smirked disdainfully as Wecis began to wind up a punch.  The look of shock on his face when a hammer appeared in Wecis' hand mid-swing was priceless." 

Explanation:
I envision him working sort of like the Forcemaster, but specializing in faster ramp up time and more unpredictability (but less unit control).  Unlike other mages, the Weapon Master thrives on having a huge variety of overlapping equipment spells so that he can constantly switch to what's best for the situation at hand.  There's also some neat tricks players can use with his swapping abilities (including mind-games about what weapons/armor you're going to pull out next).  I've also found a gif that pretty neatly illustrates his first ability in action:  http://pa1.narvii.com/5819/9476e3ca1d02633b76bc9b9cb541eb5642cef5fc_hq.gif

What do you think?  Is the idea balanced/thematic/unique/fun?  I'd love feedback.  The first two abilities are extremely similar, but they would be way too powerful as a single ability (and take up way too much space on the card). 

[Borg]

I like the idea but wonder if it's going to work out as intended and as often as intended.
These abilities assume there are going to be multiple weapons and various non-weapon equipment for the same slots that are going to be effective against 1 mage which I think will not be the case.

For example, an Adramelech Warlock attacks you with a fire spell and you use the Predictive Defense ability to equip a Dragonscale Hauberk. I assume there's not going to be a lot of reason to change that armor for another armor for the rest of the game as the DH is the perfect armor in that situation. ( unless it's dissolved of course )
( however ... You might switch back and forth with a Demonhide Armor when the minions attack )

The Predictive Defense ability seems much better imo than Instant Materialization because whenever you are attacked you have a free action to add some equipment, whether it affects the attack or not is not important.

Weapons could potentially change depending on what you're attacking - eg Morning Star vs a Knight of Westlock, later on a Mage Staff vs an incorporeal object etc and this abilty could also be used to put weapons back into your spellbook to prevent them from being dissolved.

What if this "quick equipment" was refunded and returned to your Spellbook at the end of that attack ? That way you could really have equipment popping up and disappearing again with every attack, and it would keep it safe from dissolve as well. And you could still play "sticky" equipment as normal ( like rings etc )

And finally, you would have to keep roughly 4-8 mana aside every round for the entire game to fuel this ability. Not sure if that will be possible with a 9 channeling mage as this means you have like 4-8 mana less to build up.

Just a suggestion :

- Artificer channels 10 mana

- "Quick equipment" costs x mana to bring into play until the end of the round ( x is the level of the equipment )
that way you can bring a Dragonscale Hauberk into play 6 rounds before the cost equals out with a "hard cast", after that 6th time it becomes more expensive.
Reflex Boots for example would cost 2 mana to bring into play for 1 round.

- "Quick equipment" cannot be replaced by another "Quick equipment" for that same slot
this to avoid abuse like bringing a new Deflection Bracers into play every time you're attacked during that round

- "sticky equipment" can be replaced by "quick equipment"
the end result will be an empty slot at the end of the round though

- "Quick equipment" returns to your spellbook at the end of that round.
this way there is still possibility for a dissolve for the opposing mage and abuse is avoided

[Sailor Vulcan]

Pretty sure this is in the wrong section. Should be in the creative section under "custom cards". Also the title of this thread is misleading. Makes people think it's actually a new Mage rather than an idea for a Mage.

[Halewijn]

The idea of a mages switching weapons could be fun, but I'm not really sure I like the idea he can use "mage only" equipment of the other mages. He should get his own personalized gear.

Secondly: I'm not really sure what he's new flavor to the game would be. We already have the dwarf focusing on weapons. (And I guess the Paladin too)

[Gogolski]

Being a walking (indestructable!) battleforge that refunds equipment if you change it to other equipment seems really powerful, even with only nine channeling, as the refund will make your new equipment cheap, free or make you gain some mana.

He is almost corrode-immune with his equipment-change ability. He can change any weapon depending on what will do greatest damage (etherial) or depending on what will hit the target (reach)...

How many dissolves on average are in a spellbook? That's the only way to deny the artificer some mana...

Midgame/lategame the artificer will probably be able to cast a big bad creature every round with his mana surplus. They can do the job while he teleports away to safety after spwning the big baddy...

With both war and arcane AND all equipment, he has access to a huge ammount of spells at level cost!!
There's no reason for the artificer using attack spells, if he needs certain traits (piercing, or a damage type) on an attack to deal with certain conjurations/creatures, he can just change weapons or cast a creature with these traits. As for enchantments, there will be a few outside the war or arcane school which will cost tripple (a few bear strengths and cheetah speeds for extra hits and running to safety (he's allready elusive!), circle of fire and circle of lightning...)

[Laddinfance]

Great discussion, but yes this should be in the creative section of the forums.

[Ganpot]

I like the idea but wonder if it's going to work out as intended and as often as intended.
These abilities assume there are going to be multiple weapons and various non-weapon equipment for the same slots that are going to be effective against 1 mage which I think will not be the case.

What if this "quick equipment" was refunded and returned to your Spellbook at the end of that attack ? That way you could really have equipment popping up and disappearing again with every attack, and it would keep it safe from dissolve as well. And you could still play "sticky" equipment as normal ( like rings etc )

And finally, you would have to keep roughly 4-8 mana aside every round for the entire game to fuel this ability. Not sure if that will be possible with a 9 channeling mage as this means you have like 4-8 mana less to build up.

I imagine that the chest armor will generally be one of the least swapped pieces of gear for that very reason.  However, I can still see it being swapped if the enemy mage uses a utility attack spell (Chitin Armor against acid (once it's released), Wind Wyvern Hide against Jet Stream, etc.).  It would also be extremely useful against toolbox Wizards.  The Adramelech Warlock is probably one of the worst match-ups (since she's more long-range and focused almost purely on fire), but if for example the Male Warlock equipped Sectarus and was using fire attack spells, the Artificer could switch between Harshforge Plate (to counter curses) and Dragonscale Hauberk (to counter the fire attacks).  I do think changing weapons and other armor pieces will be more generally useful though. 

I considered having the equipment be returned after an attack ended, but I decided the ability wouldn't be strong enough.  One of the most powerful aspects of this ability is the ability to quickly assemble an entire set of armor if you're being attacked.  I also think that keeping the equipment safe from dissolves would lead to less fun for both the mage and his opponents.  Having the Artificer start with an absurd amount of equipment variety and potentially get it slowly whittled down over the course of the game means he'll have to adapt and possibly start using less-than-optimal equipment to fill in the gaps.  It ensures that targeting his equipment isn't completely pointless, but should only be used when you absolutely cannot deal with a specific piece of gear.  I am still debating whether equipment which you quick-swap should be returned to your spellbook immediately or at the end of each round (since it would make it a lot easier to keep track of what you've used). 

Yes, you would generally have to keep mana aside every round for this ability.  That gives the mage a weakness that can be exploited (draining his mana will cripple him), but I don't think it's a massive hindrance.  He wants to be casting a lot of equipment anyway, and he was never really designed with long-term economy in mind (similar to most 9-channeling mages).  So I don't think needing to store some mana would hurt him too badly. 

Pretty sure this is in the wrong section. Should be in the creative section under "custom cards". Also the title of this thread is misleading. Makes people think it's actually a new Mage rather than an idea for a Mage.

I hadn't actually thought about how the title might be misleading...  I'll try to edit it for clarification. 

The idea of a mages switching weapons could be fun, but I'm not really sure I like the idea he can use "mage only" equipment of the other mages. He should get his own personalized gear.

Secondly: I'm not really sure what he's new flavor to the game would be. We already have the dwarf focusing on weapons. (And I guess the Paladin too)

The concept simply wouldn't work without him having access to (virtually) all restricted gear.  There's simply not a lot of (powerful) standard gear at the moment (especially weapons).  It also makes sense thematically: he specializes in using other mages' equipment instead of his own.  If he couldn't use restricted gear, then he would need a truly massive amount of personalized gear which covered a lot of the same ground as pre-existing gear. 

The dwarf Warlord does somewhat focus on equipment, but not nearly to this extent.  The Artificer is basically an experiment of mine to see what would happen if mages could specialize in types of spells instead of just schools.  I'm considering designing a Conjuration focused mage as well. 

Midgame/lategame the artificer will probably be able to cast a big bad creature every round with his mana surplus. They can do the job while he teleports away to safety after spwning the big baddy...

With both war and arcane AND all equipment, he has access to a huge ammount of spells at level cost!!
There's no reason for the artificer using attack spells, if he needs certain traits (piercing, or a damage type) on an attack to deal with certain conjurations/creatures, he can just change weapons or cast a creature with these traits. As for enchantments, there will be a few outside the war or arcane school which will cost tripple (a few bear strengths and cheetah speeds for extra hits and running to safety (he's allready elusive!), circle of fire and circle of lightning...)

I am strongly considering changing him to War & Mind instead of War & Arcane.  Arcane seems more thematic in general, which is why I originally went with it. 

I also thought about giving him a 3x penalty towards most creatures, but I didn't want to make him too similar to the Forcemaster so I had to come up with something else.  I agree that just paying triple for attack spells would almost definitely let him off too easily (although it does somewhat hinder his ability to dish out long-range damage without remaining stationary), which is why I included the enchantment penalty as well.  The main reason I chose that particular detriment (as you described) is that I didn't want him to be able to easily buff himself or his creatures with nature enchantments. 

I'm not sure he'll really have a massive amount of surplus mana.  He still has to pay for all his initial equipment, and most mages (to my knowledge) don't typically waste mana by swapping out equipment.  So he'll probably have a similar mid/late-game economy to most 9-channeling mages. 

Great discussion, but yes this should be in the creative section of the forums.

Sorry, my bad.  There were new mage ideas in both this subforum as well as the "custom cards" one, so I wasn't sure where to put it. 

[Laddinfance]

You're fine Ganpot. I'm working on keeping the subforums more on topic. Carry on!