Frostgrave - A study on Wizards

Hi Folks

As my city build progresses and the Frostgrave minis are getting a lick of paint I thought I would turn my attention to the nature of my first warband. It has become apparent from what I have read and heard the choice of Wizard is particularly crucial in this game, so with the trusty use of a spreadsheet I thought I'd investigate some of the various schools on offer.

Its important to note that each Wizards ability to cast a spell is dependent upon the schooling and as such the further away the spell you might want to cast is from your school of magic the harder it is to cast. Equally each of the sell has a base cast number  - the lower the number the easier it is to cast.

As you can see below I put together the following spreadsheet - this firstly shows clearly the aligned (green), the neutral (grey) and the opposed (red) schools of magic for each Wizard class.

Secondly I have listed all the spells and their base chance of success (BCS). I have totalled these rolls and have called them spell points.

 As you can see from the above pictures the totals required for each casters spells are NOT the same - in other words some Wizards have a much easier time casting the full repertoire than others. Indeed it would appear that the Enchanter class has the greatest number of easy spells whereas the Chronomancer has the hardest job.

This first observation suggests that it would be much wiser to select a Wizard from these more expensive classes if you want to cast the most expensive spells without the burden of additional modifiers.

It has been reported that it is good take a mix of offensive, defensive and off table spells. So we need to look at these in more detail.

The Wizard I want to use can throw spells on the offensive, enchant weapons and summon beasties. The classic Wizard of my old RPG games.

This would suggest that I should look at the Summoner, Enchanter or the Elementalist as my first choice...

The Summoner is aligned to the Necromancer, Witch and Elementalist
The Enchanter is aligned to the Witch, Sigilist and Elementalist
The Elementalist is aligned to the Chronomancer, Summoner and Enchanter

From the above it might appear that the Elementalist is the best choice to select from...

I get to throw those lightning bolts with no penalty, the range of 'cheap' spells in the Enchanter's repertoire only suffer a +2 to the BCS (8's now become 10's), and the higher cost Chronomancer's spells are still within reach as the wizard gains experience.

I can see that the Illusionist is directly opposed to the Elementalist - are there spells in this school I really need? Aside from Teleport nothing really grabs me...

So I think I have now settled on my first Wizard....

Wizards start with 8 spells

Three from their school of magic, one from each of the aligned schools, and two from any of the neutral (but different schools)

For my three core spells I will choose

• Wall (10)
• Elemental Bolt (12)
• Elemental Shield  (10)

From the Aligned Schools I am going to choose (+2 added to BCS)

• Crumble (12)
• Enchant weapon (10)
• Summon Demon (14)

and finally from two neutral schools

• Raise Zombie (12)
• Blinding Light (14)

Thoughts....

If you are interested in my Frostgrave terrain builds head here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/frostgrave-terrain-part-1.html

heres some pictures the finished boards