Mages that you would like to see in the game

[Hekireky]

With the game not even being released yet, we already know that there will be 4 types of mages: Warlock, Priesteress, Beastmaster and Wizard. However, if you are like me, you always have a craving to see or learn more. So I decided to start a topic in which we could discuss about mages we would like to see in the future of this game. You could describe the type of mage you would like to see, maybe offer a few examples of his cards that he would specifically use and of couse define his playstyle.

Alright, let me start first -

Since warlock is a straightforward hitter, priesteress is a turtle-like, beastmaster buffer and mob-like and wizard the subtle-like, I would like to see someone who would offer something important in exchange for something powerful and thus I present :

Blood Mage

His playstyle would be mixing mana with health points. For example, to summon a sloth demon (the weaker one), he could use it as his full-cast action with range 0 - 1, who would later, by feeding on his masters health, grow into a greater form and become a formidable threat to the opponent and his minions. The Blood Mage would somehow be able to generate his health back in the upkeep phase, for e.g. via Blood Crystal, which returns him 4 health points if he casted dark magic on his previous rounds and 2 health points if he didn't.

Yes, that would put the mage at stake of being killed more easily than any other magicka-wielding being, but the cost of his blood and mana, would really create something threatful. I would consider this for an expert player, not a begineer, because watching and manipulating two of your valuable resources to become the winner is a bit more challenging.

I have like a ton more ideas, but I will just post on more quickie, before this turns into a wall of text and thus I bring forth thee :

The Gray Wizard

I mean we all liked Gandalf (if you don't know who he is, go watch Lord of the Rings trilogy), because he turned from Gray Wizard to White Wizard. I also read some literature about gray wizards and they seem to be really good at two types of schools : Holy and Dark. And that would be my idea.

His ability would be to shift between two of his forms : Black Wizard and Dark Wizard. Switching between these forms would be costly and possibly you could think of some kind of cumulative resources that you would need to achieve to do so, but the concept behind his forms would be that he would have to spend less for those spells that would belong to his current form and those spells would be even more powerful. For e.g. a healing spell would normally return him 4 health points and cost 4 mana, but with White form, it would cost him 3 mana and would heal 6 points of his health and so on.

Really, these are just ideas and I hope people will share them here, because I am interested in hearing more interesting theories about mages you would think about that would seem cool.

[SeerMagic]

Necro
Shaman
Assassin (what ever the mage version of that is)
Mesmer

[C0ntAct HiGh]

I think a telepath would be great.  Someone who could essentially look through an opponents spell book, maybe see and react to the two spells picked for the round, and maybe be able to cast illusions of creatures in an opponents spell book.  Maybe in the end game even be able to influence an enemies use of their quick action!

[Klaxas]

i have been thinking a lot on this.

Elementalist  essentially no major schools of magic but knows all the minor ones.  master of the elements.  i mentioned this on BGG and they said they have one in the works.  sounded cool.

Elemental Savant:  where the elementalist masters all elements, the savant focuses even more strongly in one element.  so pick and element, they cain resistance to that element (probibly -2, immunity would be too powerful i think) also all other elemental schools would be restricted (3 times spell cost)  i would like to see the savant gain another ability based on the type of element she uses, or maybe pick a wall of her element and she has a supply of 3 identical walls of her element that dont cost spellbook points and are always returned to her spellbook (rather than discarded)  or something else element based these are just ideas.  maybe an ability to shapeshift into an elemental of her type.   maybe a basic ranged attack of her element. maybe like the mage but with slightly better mana cost and with a status effect.  sorry lots of ideas here.

Druid.  also one mentioned that is comming up.  i hope they can shapeshift.

necromancer-this one is just so obvious i know its comming already

Time Mage-  no idea how this one would play but i love the idea.

hmmmm have to think more on this.

[1unatic]

Awesome ideas guys!  As mentioned, some of these mages and concepts are already in the works.  It's great to see so much enthusiasm for the game's future growth before we've even hit shelves!

I am currently designing the ability sets for the 2 new mages in our upcoming expansion:
The Force Master (mind magic) and the Warlord (war magic)!

Once these mages enter the arena, each primary school will have a mage to represent it.

If you have any thoughts on what you might like to see in a Warlord or Force Master, feel free to share them with us through this forum - I will read every last post (even if I don't respond directly).

[Hekireky]

So I read Klaxas post and you mentioned you would like to see a Time Mage. Well, as far as I know how would he work, I once played this game on PC, called Spectromancer, which was also a game about mages and spellbooks, it worked really great, it had a really small community and I was pretty happy about it. Besides that, there was a class called Chronomancer, which in other words - Time Mage. The idea behind him was, that he could cast more times than the others, he would get more turns than the others and overall, he would be faster than you (in terms of turns).

So a Time Mage, for example, could make your opponent skip ready stage, a spell would be called Time Rift or something. He could get double action phases on his creatures or on himself, the spell would be called Haste. It is just a matter of your own imagination and of course BALANCE (which for the most, will cut your wings and drop you onto the hard and harsh floor ).

To 1unatic,

What I would love to see is Warlord to have some kind of magic banner, which could influence all the creatures in the game, e.g. give all of them +2 attack dice. Or field cards would be nice, such as a Underground Energy Cave, which on every creature that stops by, gets his hp healed by a number.
Force Master could have some kind of Voltaric Shield, just like the wizard has, but instead of preventing damage, anyone who would damage him in melee with his shield on, they would be knockbacked by 1 or 2 space. That would be annoying I guess for something, that uses melee, because to catch a Force Master, who will constantly knock you back will be rather hard and punishing

P.S. If you would like to check out the game - http://spectromancer.com/ (in the upper right corner, turn on the english language by selecting the EN flag)

[Dragkin]

I liked that Blood Mage a lot from above. Paying HP for mana is a pretty good mechanic that I like in some of the classes of other games. I could see a lot of abilities for this - I see it as really having abilities that require you to lose life, but also have lots of abilities to gain life to. Really like a mix of Holy magic with dark magic in a way.

I think a Storm Mage would be pretty good, actually. Specializes in water and wind magic, he could even have  a spell that sucks all of the opponents creatures and such into one zone. There's a tone that could be done with that.

I also like the idea of a shapeshifter. They can shift into special forms that give them different abilities and such, so you can take on a lot of different strategies based on what form you want to be in.  They would probably be a nature-based mage.

Lastly, I think a mage that works by pushing mana into spells to create bigger effects would be nice. His spells could have a different effect based on how much mana he puts into the spell, and so creates a very different playing experience.

Really, the game lends itself to a lot of very different ideas. There could be almost a limitless degree of possibility with new mages.

[1unatic]

I agree, the concept of blood magic has much untapped potential.  We actually tried to integrate this mechanic during playtesting through various spells such as ‘Dark Pact’, which would grant a large amount of mana up front in exchange for an even greater loss in life to be paid back over time.  Unfortunately, this particular spell did not make the cut for the initial spell list at release.  However, you can expect to see spells, mechanics, or perhaps even a mage that makes use of blood magic in the sets to come!

[Dragkin]

I love the idea of the Warlord actually. I was thinking maybe a kind of ability that he could make multiple attacks that get progressively weaker (like the first target he rolls 3 dice, then the second he rolls 2 dice and so forth). I also think the Warlord would be awesome if he had some kind of bashing type ability - he can knock somebody from one zone to another (like Force Push) and then have an ability that allows him to rush into them and stun them or something. I'd also like to see him interact with soldiers and such in a more tactical feeling way, kind of card to explain. Like, maybe his soldiers could create a temporary debuff on the target so that any subsequent attacks become better, stuff like that.

As for the Force Master, I think it'd be cool if they could create clones of themself. Each clone acts as a prescencence on the field for casting quick actions, but when they are targeted by an attack you flip it over to see if its the real one or not. I think that would be great and create a lot of interesting mind games for this caster.

[PGrande]

If there aren't going to be new magic schools, I think the new mages could be a combination of the existing ones.

Druid:  Nature/Air. The pacific counterpart of the beastmaster. The Druid strategy is to summon immobile plants and different conjurations that would do the job for him. Not all will be peace, if he needs to, he'll transform into a brutal beast able to shred his enemies but unable to cast spells.

Swordancer: War/Mind. A movement mage that can deal damage around him, beating enemy creatures and mages with his equipment and tricks. He'll have low HP but will be able to avoid and dodge damage.

Nightmare: Dark/Mind. This guy is evil. He'll find the weaknesses and fears of his opponents and exploit them, making them run away, unable to move or to do any damage. He can search through your spellbook for your worst nightmare: your biggest creature turned against you.

The Judge: Holy/Dark. He knows about the good and the evil and he'll use both in his favour. This mage can send the divine or dark forces to punish those who think different from him. His strategy will be based on retribution, if your opponent does that, then he'll suffer this, making him follow your plans to their inevitably lose.

[Arcanus]

Wow!  Those are great ideas!

I can picture a legendary blademaster. He can parry melee attacks very easily - getting 2 Defenses per round with his swords.

Nightmare - very cool!  Love the concept:  He can peek into the enemy spellbook, to use their spells against them as if reaching into their mind to find their fears

[Mgrancey]

Blue Mage/Mimic: Mind Water -- copies attacks and abilities of conjurations and summons.

Illusionist: Mind Air -- deception based, false images sent out as tokens, have to attack or something to reveal truth or fake mage or summon. Double sided tokens, marked as illusion or real upon successful attack. Nasty nasty combo if there's also an invisibility spell. Mwahahahaha!  There's probably something like this in the works already.

Time Mage: instead of More actions, he can recall spell from the past? (Pull one out of a discard pile) or capture one as it is cast and release it later.

Artificer: War/ Earth: Focuses on enchantments and magical items, aggressive close combat mage.

[Klaxas]

the artificer might be similar to the warlord thats in the works for the first expansion.  maybe not though not sure how the warlord plays

[Dragkin]

I think an artifcer, to make it different from a warlord, could be good to have it based on a ranged way of combat - using guns and stuff. Also be great if they could set up like some kind of turret or something, that has a ranged attack but can not move and such. It would be a great counter to the warlord, who would be pretty much the same schools, and create an interesting match up.

[Klaxas]

i love the idea for a turret type card.