The Court Wizard is Underpowered

Feedback/Suggestions
#1

People don’t like playing Court Wizard for a reason. It feels useless, and is pretty under powered.

For comparison, the Physician, even if the Neutral Killer is a Reaper, has one chance to save someone on average every night. That’s one chance to save someone per night. If you have a Possessor or Sorcerer, that goes up to 2 chances. And that doesn’t even count curing poison or bleeding.

On the other hand, the Court Wizard has one chance per 2 nights to save someone from conversion. While it may save a Blue Dragon and prevent a new evil from rising, considering all the other things Physician can save you from, it is the weaker class.

Now it can stop occupation, but this can also serve as a negative utility. For one, it can make the Drunk/Butler think you are immune, when you aren’t. It also effectively wastes Butler/Drunk’s night.

To make this a good class, it needs to change focus. I have one idea here, but I’m sure there are other solutions.

#2

I think the obvious solution to the CW problem is to make his swaps bypass redirect immunity. Then CW could put in real work and actually SUPPORT Blue Dragon.

2 Likes
#3

Unfortunately that didn’t work the first time they tried it.

#4

Why not?

1 Like
#5

I’m not really sure. I personally supported it but others were calling it a negative utility.

#6

It’s an ability that must be used carefully. That’s why it should be mixed with Magic Barrier to have some effect when using Tornado is not helpful. It’s like how you use Sacrifice as Knight when you aren’t using Cold Steel.

1 Like
#7

I would like to point out that stoping conversion is far from weak. There is a secondary benefit that it gives you than cannot be understated: It doesn’t just Prevent the loss of BD but it also preserves trust. In this genre that is HUGE as being able to keep confirmed BD confirmed is critical to wining the game.

That being said there is still a problem with the class and that is with how he is borring to play. He can be powerful but that power only comes if he sits there and barriers the same confirmed BD every night.

1 Like
#8

@knight tho

1 Like
#9

The only reason others were calling it a bad ability is because they weren’t using it properly. It’s like Transporter in ToS. Obvious choice there is not transporting anyone Night 1, where you’re more likely to mess up a townie’s action than a mafia or SK or werewolf. Same goes for Court Wizard, where a Barrier should be used N1, and then Tornado used to defend certain high-ranking BD and to counter-attack evils.

Maybe CW shouldn’t be given to newer players then, to balance things out.

5 Likes
#10

We already have a list of more advanced classes, right? All I know is King is on it. It definitely would be fitting for this.

It seems to me that Tornado should be its main power, while Barrier is for when you aren’t using Tornado.

4 Likes
#11

@knight tho

Knights can kill, which is exciting and can turn the game around.

The only reason others were calling it a bad ability is because they weren’t using it properly. It’s like Transporter in ToS.

Transporter has infinite uses, though. Having only two shots is a really, really huge drawback, since it means you don’t just have to predict who will be attacked and who the evils are to redirect the attack to, but you have to get the timing right. The most basic ToS Transporter strategy late-game is to repeatedly swap yourself with the most likely evil every single night, which will eventually get them when they try to attack you - the CW can’t do that.

On top of this, most ToL roles are stronger than their ToS counterparts (eg. Observer is LO + Tracker and can instantly determine faction twice; Physician is Doctor + weaker Retri; Hunter only kills evils and can also attack; Knight is BG + Vigilante and can survive their first successful protect.) CW is weaker, at least if you only consider his transports, so he seems even worse in comparison to the buffed classes around him.

One thing to consider in any redesign: It is extremely important that the CW continue to have no easy way to prove themselves. They’re one of the few roles available as easy claims for NKs / MMs / starting CLs / etc.

1 Like
#12

I put this on my megathread, but I’m gonna put it here as well:

Court Wizard (Blue Dragon Support)

Night Ability: Tornado: Bypasses redirection immunity, infinite uses.

Night Ability: Magic Barrier: Same, but also stops day abilities the next day.

Sage (Unseen Support)

Night Ability: Tornado: Bypasses redirection immunity, infinite uses.

Night Ability: Wall of Fire: Same.

1 Like
#13

I don’t like the idea of taking one of the few roles the NK / MM can claim easily and making it Unique, which makes it harder to claim. Like I said, preserving claimspace has to be the main thing we consider when tinkering with the CW - I seriously think that it would start to significantly damage gameplay if NK / MM claimspace were to shrink any further.

Besides, I don’t think tornados interacting is such a bad thing. There would be messages clarifying what the final result is, and it’s still only 2 CWs at most.

But perhaps we could just start with a more minor change and raise Tornado charges to 3, 4, or 5. It is a very powerful ability when spammed.

Or perhaps make it so every successful Barrier gives you a Tornado charge or something (“Absorb Magic.”)

2 Likes
#14

That would be unavoidable without reworking the Ritualist. A better way to go about it is to make it so if 2 CW’s choose the same target then both of them fail. Drunks should have this interaction too.

2 Likes
#15

I actually like the bus crash idea. That makes it easier to claim.

1 Like
#16

I’m not so sure. If you claim to have experienced a bus crash, people will ask the other CW to confirm. I guess it could fail silently, but that’s just going to be confusing.

#17

As long as everyone knows who they targeted, I think it’s fine. The Court Wizard’s can observe the effect if they believe it failed. Or they could check with the other claim for any discrepancies, or if they say they also swapped that person,

#18

Forget what I have said here

#19

It bypasses immunity.

1 Like
#20

Still getting used to that, then maybe just say they were prevented?