I identify the problems with the Court Wizard thusly:
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Barrier feels unimportant and lacking in impact.
The emphasis here is on the ‘feel’ part as correctly targeting Barrier can easily win the game by blocking converts. However the effect is very polarized. It either does nothing, or frustrates the enemy players, which within the game might be fine but not for the overall health of the game. -
Tornado is annoying.
Especially early game when nobody has any information to work with. When CW had Tornado as his main ability, people were thrown all around, targeting themselves or people they had already confirmed, bringing a very annoying element of randomness to the game. Confusion is good, that you can deduce out of, that’s a challenge. But a malicious CW, not so.
Another problem with Tornado was what it shared with Barrier. You could go through an entire game without ever feeling like you made any impact on the game, while in other games, your tornadoes instantly win the game by pitting killers against one another and such.
How do we go about solving these issues?
Firstly, Court Wizard has to feel impactful, even in games where they aren’t outright winning the game. When over the course of 7 days nobody trips onto your Barrier, you just feel like wasted space, that gets instantly executed by the BD. Sure, accurately Tornadoing an evil person dead is similar to the greatness that Phys get when healing somebody or a Drunk debauching an attack, but more often than not, this isn’t the case.
Secondly, Court Wizard is an important claim to the evil players. When a class has the potential to have no impact, it’s hard to disprove. It’s important to keep this element in the game, or maybe even amplifying it?
Thirdly, Wizarding. When I think of a Court Wizard, I think of great mages with all sorts of tricks. Just being able to prevent people from getting drunk is quite below Merlins of the world.
So here is my suggestion for the Court Wizard remake.
Court Wizard: Support BD
Converts to the Sage and the Ritualist
Passive: Forgetful
You start with only 2 of your night abilities, chosen randomly.
Passive: Rest
When you don’t take action during the night, your 2 night abilities are randomized and restored back to 1 charge.
Night Ability: Tornado
Charges: 1
As is currently
Night Ability: Barrier
Charges: 1
‘Inoculates’ target player from the next harmful effect at night (same rules as current Barrier). Doesn’t prevent day abilities, such as Nightshade, Troll Box or Chill. That player knows when they have been Barriered and when the Barrier has been used
Night Ability: Divination
Charges: 1
Read into the intents of target player, reading through their logs, similar to Noble’s Snoop.
Night Ability: Fairy Aid
Charges: 1
Send a friendly fairy to heal target player, similar to Physician’s Heal
The aim with this change is to create a class that is the master of magic’s. This Court Wizard has a few tricks of their own, but can also serve as an emergency option for a few other BD roles. Similarly, the wide array of options can surely create a good cover for any evil people. The randomness of available abilities and limited uses prevents things such as ‘inoculating’ Barrier, or Tornado from completely throwing the game into disarray. This also gives the Court Wizard players another decision to make in whether to use some abilities or sleep the night off to get new ones.
Sage: Support Unseen
Passive: Wicked Ideas
You start with only 2 of your night abilities, chosen randomly.
Passive: Malicious Purposes
When you don’t take action during the night, your 2 night abilities are randomized and restored back to 1 charge.
Night Ability: Tornado
Charges: 1
As is currently
Night Ability: Flame Wall
Charges: 1
As is currently
Night Ability: Disfigure
Charges: 1
Disfigure target player. If they die this night, they appear as chosen class instead, similar to Herbalist’s Defile
Night Ability: Fairy Trickery
Charges: 1
Send a malicious fairy to trick investigator’s, similar to Dutchess’ Dark Wisp
The Court Wizard’s evil twin is a different beast. A dangerous amalgamation of some very powerful, and fun, Unseen abilities. Dark Wisp leads to interesting days when that so obvious Assassin wasn’t so obvious after all. Defile is a personal favourite in creating confusion, which the Unseen enjoy. The problem is that there rarely is the opportunity to enjoy these games. While making them too common is an easy mistake, having them as options to tricky Sages is sure to lead into fun experiences.
There may be some problems in fitting all of the abilities within the limited description space, but this can be solved, for example linking directly to other abilities CW ‘borrows’ from, like Heal and Defile. Other option would be to shrink the Day Ability bar away and have four slots for Night Abilities.
