In this blog post, we’re going to keep a light on how cool our Wizard friends are. Last post we looked at the lore behind the Wizards. The great expulsion and how they’ve ended up exiled and hunted to the ends of the earth by the Silent King’s hunters, the Order of the Blackened Hand. This week we’re going to talk a little about design, and tactics of everyone’s favourite glass cannons.
I love Wizards. Sure, you could be a Fighter. Big and burly and swinging a sword like it’s a popsicle stick. That’s cool, but bending the forces of reality? That’s awesome.
Wizards in Endless Dungeons are the weakest when it comes to hit points. While they hit as hard as a Paladin or Barbarian out of the gate, the fact that they can use almost none of the weapons or armour you’ll find in the dungeon will quickly find them falling being their more physically able meatshie- companions. Unlike the more robust characters, the Wizard starts the game with their full complement of powers and as used slowly decline in ability.
The Wizard will start each game with six randomly determined spells out of a total of twelve, spread across five possible spells: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Strength, Protect, and Teleport. As a spell is used the Wizard loses it, and cannot cast it again for the duration of the game.
Fireball and Lightning Bolt are direct damage spells, with Fireball dealing a swath of damage across multiple foes, and Lightning Bolt hitting one foe hard. Strength and Protect allow you to boost an ally’s stats for a battle, and Teleport allows the Wizard to pull the party across the dungeon, making them invaluable in a deadly encounter or at the end of the Dungeon when the party is trying to flee.
The design methodology behind the Wizard is a bit of risk/reward, and a bit of knowing exactly when to use those one-time expendable abilities. Do you keep the spells for a particularly difficult encounter? Or do you use them at the earliest opportunity? The Wizard has four hit points, which means even a small skirmish can cut a Wizard in half, and there is a very real possibility some bad rolls will see them dead very early in. Have the meatshi companions been taking hits so you could save those spells only to see the Wizard fall to some nasty rolls? Or has he been blasting away to keep them in peak condition?
The Wizard presents a real opportunity for the party to have some added firepower and support options, but at the cost of being very poor in actual hand-to-hand combat. It’s strongly recommended the Wizard takes the back slot in the party. Being hit only on a 6 is going to greatly extend the life line of this very frail member of the party.
The Wizard is very broad, and there is lots of opportunity to add more for the Wizard. More spells, specialist classes, and maybe even an apprentice could show up in new content for Endless Dungeons!
– Chris
P.S. Raistlin was definitely an influence for the Wizard class. Does that make the Fighter Caramon?
