Wednesday 3 June 2020

Frostgrave 2 – Wizards and Apprentices



June has come, which means we are just that little bit closer to the August release date of Frostgrave: Second Edition! (It’s also my birthday month – normally I would say to send all gifts care of the Osprey offices, but as those offices are closed at the moment, just send best-wishes!)

As with the first edition, the second leaps right in with creating a wizard, and, in truth, not a whole lot has changed. The system for creating wizards always seemed to be one of the strongest and most enjoyable parts of the game for a lot of people, so I didn’t want to mess with it much. You still choose from the same ten schools of magic, all of which have the same connections to the other schools. You still select 8 spells, following the same rules as in first edition. Now, some of those spells have changed, but we will get into that later.

In fact, the only changes I made to creating wizards are very minor, and all have to do with items. First, wizards no longer pay for their starting items. Charging a wizard 5gc for a sword, when the game is usually dealing with magic items worth hundreds of gold crowns just seemed fiddly, and tended to cause confusion in other parts of the system.

A few people might be horrified to learn that I have dropped the +1 Fight for wielding two weapons. The biggest problem with this is that it was just too good. Rules-wise, there was just no good reason not to do it (the hallmark of a bad rule). This in turn led to all these wizards running around like duelists with their swords and daggers, which didn’t feel right. Anyway, the rule is gone. On the other hand, the first dagger carried by a wizard (or apprentice) no longer takes up an item slot, so everyone gets a free back-up knife!

Following a similar thought process, two-handed weapons now take up two items slots, and wizards wanting to carry a bow will also have to carry a quiver. These rules are designed to offset the advantages conferred by these weapons, and make it less likely that wizards, especially higher level-ones who tend to have lots of magical gear, will carry them.

And that’s it for wizards; they are otherwise the same as in first edition.

Apprentices, on-the-other-hand, have gotten slightly better! (Do I hear applause? I did say slightly).  Basically, I made a couple of changes to their Stats. First, their starting Shoot score is now equal to the wizard's (+0). This is actually irrelevant to most people, but it eliminates the awkward -2 Shoot that all apprentices had. Much more importantly, Apprentices starting Health is now only 2 less than the wizard, meaning they start with Health 12 (instead of 10). While this isn’t a huge gain, it means that apprentices can take a little more damage, and, perhaps even more importantly, have a little more Health available to empower spells. As an interesting side-effect of these two changes, starting apprentices are only 6 levels below their wizard, so if your wizard dies, you only lose 6 levels when promoting your apprentice. This will hopefully lessen the psychic blow to players when their wizard dies, and help keep campaigns feeling more balanced.

Finally, Apprentices now only cost 100gc. This is part of a general restructuring of money, and has little effect on assembling your warband in the beginning, but does mean that it isn’t quite so costly to replace an apprentice down the line.

I'm sure everyone got an eye-full of that new piece of aRu-Mor artwork. I told you she should could paint, didn't I! Some may recognize the piece as illustrating the very first scenario in the original rulebook - well the Mausoleum is back for a new edition!

Okay, that’s all I’ve got say about the spellcasters at the moment. I’ll be back soon with a look at the soldiers, and how they have changed for the Second Edition…

17 comments:

  1. I am so looking forward to 2.0, and these changes don't bother me a bit. And because I just know this question will come up, I'll ask it first -- can you think of anything regarding Captains that might need to be changed to keep the balance of the new rule changes?

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    1. That'll become clear in the next post!

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  2. Thanks for the update Joe. So I am curious, with the reduction of cost, will that also lead to a lower starting amount to build a band? That extra 100gc means 2 more archers for many 8D

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    1. It's more complicated than that, but it'll become clear in the next post.

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  3. Good rules updates, that’s me sold on second edition!

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  4. Happy birthday month! The art is fantastic and has always been a great part of Frostgraves appeal for me. That and the grubby 'down in the dirt' aesthetic of its official miniatures. Slowly painting my cultists these days...

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  5. Happy Birthday πŸŽ‚πŸ₯³πŸŽ‰
    Great changes, probably makes it easier to include a captain. Amazing art.

    On a side note just saw the video for Frostgrave second Ed terrain from Kromlech! OMG...

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  6. This teaser content is getting me JUICED UP for 2nd Ed! Keep it comin' Joe!

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  7. So excited for Second edition to arrive now. Especially with more rules mirroring Rangers of Shadow Deep which I love. I do have a rules question I cant seem to find an answer to anywhere. If my Wizard has a two handed weapon and a staff at what point during combat do I declare what I'm using? If I lost the combat you could claim the staff to lessen the damage but if you win you could claim it was the two handed weapon to maximise damage. Is there a set rule for this or is my house rule of declaring before the fight rule the best solution? Appreciate any feedback and I wonder if second edition will provide more clarity on this? I think RoSD fixes some of this though with how it handles items.

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  8. I literally couldn't be more excited. Everything you've posted just sounds like it's going to make my favourite game even better!

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  9. Are you ending the nonsenses of infinite range spells, the bleeding that makes spell impossible to resist to and issues with LOS and Cover?

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    1. Your listing all the things that make Frostgrave cool. If you restrict range then spells will only get used in the last few turns when in range.If your having problems with cover your not using enough of it. Try an get into the feel of it. It really is cool. Do you really enjoy been 2 inches short of casting your big spell that much ? I thought the same when I first looked at the rule set but I was wrong. Having spells with ranges is just a hangover from other systems.Frostgrave does not need it.

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  10. I am super excited to see what else you have in store for us in 2.0.

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  11. Will there be an obscure monster, previously under supplied by miniature companies?

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  12. This is only related in that it involves spells cast by the wizards and their apprentices, but will constructs receive any sort of buff? they feel like one of the less useful summons and honestly demon summoning seems just superior in every manner.

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