Mage Knight: Sorcery New Game Mechanics

Spellbooks and Spells
By Kevin Goddard

Mage Knight: Sorceryintroduces a revolutionary new game mechanic to Mage Knight: spells and spellbooks. These new game mechanics will add new strategy and options to every game.

A spellbook is an item that is played per the standard item rules found in the Mage Knight complete rules of play. In Mage Knight: Sorcery, all of the spellbooks start with a "R" in their collector's number, indicating that they are relics as well. However, when a warrior is equipped with a spellbook, that warrior becomes a Sorcerer.

Visually, spellbook cards look just like relics, with an additional piece of information: the spellbook's capacity. The capacity is the number of pages that the spellbook can hold. The more pages, the higher the point cost of the spellbook!

See the next post for the rest of the article!

Spells are a new type of card element in Mage Knight. During setup, if a player brings a spellbook, he assigns it to the appropriate warrior before deployment. Each spell is placed face-up beneath the spellbook that contains them and the top spell is called the "bookmark spell".

Each spell has several common elements: a browse cost, spell text, optional faction requirement, page count and an optional affinity page count. Some spells also have a spell element that punches out of the card just like items do.

The spell text describes the effect of the particular spell. In this case, Arcane Sight says:

Target the caster or a single friendly figure in base contact with the caster. The target ignores other figures' Ghostform and Limited Invisibility.

Arcane Sight ends if the target makes an unsuccessful ranged combat attack.

Pretty straight-forward. If a sorcerer casts Arcane Sight, he chooses a friendly target (himself included) and places the spell element on the targeted warrior. Until that warrior misses his ranged combat attack, he can ignore other figures' Ghostform and Limited Invisibility.

Arcane Sight's page count is 4 pages. This means that if a sorcerer was using Tome of Brass, he would have 20 pages left for more spells. A spell like Arc Lightning has an Affinity page count as well:

This means that if the wielder is a member of the Atlantean Empire faction, he will only use 8 pages in his spellbook, while all other warriors, generally, will have to use 12 pages.

Remember how I mentioned that the top spell in the stack is called the "bookmarked spell"? This is important, because only the bookmarked spell can be cast. If a sorcerer wants to cast another spell, he must browse his spell book. Browsing requires the player to "pay" the bookmarked spell's browse cost, and then choose another spell from the stack of spells. The current browse costs are:

	At the beginning of your end phase, browse. No action is required.
	If the sorcerer has one or two action tokens, remove one. Give the sorcerer a special action to browse.
	Give the sorcerer a special action to browse.

For example:
Ben’s bookmarked spell is not the spell he wants to use. Ben chooses to browse the spell so that he can bookmark a more useful spell. The browse cost is . Ben’s sorcerer has no action tokens, so he foregoes removing an action token from his sorcerer and gives the sorcerer a special action to browse. He selects a new spell and places it on the top of the spellbook stack. Ben completes the action by giving the sorcerer an action token.

Only face-up spells can be cast, which is important, as some spells require that they be returned to the stack face down. This means that the controlling player will have to spend at least one turn to browse the spell stack (and possibly take action tokens). However, if a spell does not have that requirement, it goes to the bottom of the stack, face up, and the controlling player chooses a new bookmarked spell.

Some spells actually say "Do not cast…" on them. These spells have an immediate effect when they are in the stack, even before the game begins. Form construct is such a spell:

There are currently four different types of spells in Mage Knight: Sorcery: Sorceries, Enchantments, Glyphs and Illusions. Sorceries are spells that have a variety of immediate effects. They do not have spell elements. Arc Lightning is an example of a Sorcery. Sorceries are cast using a ranged combat action.

Enchantments are used to enchant a single target figure, imbuing it with some effect. Enchantments have a spell element that must be placed on the targeted (affected) warrior. Enchantments are cast using a special action.

Glyphs work on specific points of the battlefield, as oppose to specific warriors. When a glyph is cast, a spell element is removed from the card and placed in base contact with the caster. To maintain the glyph, the sorcerer must maintain base contact with it; if he leaves, it ends. Glyph spell elements cannot be placed in base contact with each other and do not prevent base contact with objective tokens or terrain features. A sorcerer casts a glyph using a special action.

Illusions affect the entire battlefield, similar to domains. When an Illusion is cast, it is removed from the stack and placed face up on the battlefield. If an Illusion ends, it is removed from the game. Sorcerers cast illusions using a special action.

Mage Knight: Sorcery introduces the wand type proficiency – Counter Spell. Counter Spell is used during the opposing player's turn. It is used to attempt to cancel the spell that has just been cast. The casting sorcerer rolls two six-sided dice and adds its unmodified attack value (including attack bonus, if any) to the result. The countering sorcerer rolls one six-sided die and adds its unmodified attack value (including attack bonus, if any) + 1 to the result. If the countering sorcerer’s result is higher, the target spell fails, and is placed face down on top of the spell stack. Since the spell is face down, it cannot be cast again. There are some spells, called counterspells, which help the countering sorcerer, but they must be his bookmarked spell.

In previous sets it almost seemed as if the wand type warrior was being penalized. Special abilities like Magic Resistance and the Magic Immunity defense type, provide most warriors with a defense against the magical warrior. Relics and domains also give players the opportunity to defend against this archetype. With the addition of spells and spellbooks, players may find that even these defenses are not enough!

Check back in a few days for the next New Game Mechanic Article – New Subfactions!