Lessons of Conaferos the Earth Wizard

In attempting to create an earth wizard, I ran into some problems. When you build a hero with most of his points invested in abilities (like our friendly dwarf warrior from a few posts ago), it’s not so hard to build him and max out the points. However, when you build a wizard (or another character with a lot of points in applications and fewer abilities overall), you run into trouble. Here are a few rules I assume should be included regarding magical items:

- I’d prefer that an item can’t grant you an application, only an ability. This one I’m torn on… can’t a wand of Stunning grant you stun as an application? If it can, then that solves the problem… his staff of earthen mastery gives him 10 CPs in applications… that seems reasonable.
- An item can’t grant more than +10 to an ability; I’m thinking that artifacts probably default to a +15 bonus. I could give Conaferos (our earth wizard below) a few artifacts, but that feels like cheating. You can’t build an ‘optimized build’ assuming that you’d have access to one-of-a-kind items.
- You can’t use multiple items granting bonuses to the same ability. You get the benefits of the most effective item only.
- An item cannot grant a bonus to Resolve. Resolve sort of defies magic; it’s the innate perseverance of the human spirit (or mortal spirit, I guess) in spite of the magical forces it faces. Magic can’t then enhance this same ability.


Conaferos, the Earth Wizard (99 CPs; +50 CPs from items)
Fighting +3 [Gauntlets of Fighting +4]; Might +1; Stamina +4 [Jewel of Stamina +6] (Armor)
Focus +12 [30 CPs; +10 Robes of Focus] (Warding); Earth Magic +10 [20 CPs; +10 Ring of Earth Magic] [Staff of Earth Magic grants applications Boost Armor; Boost Might; Earth Shield; Life Tap; Reflective Armor] (has applications Summon, Stun); Intuition +8 [10 CPs; +10 Ring of Intuition]; Resolve +10
Wielding his Staff of Earth Magic +11, Conaferos attacks with his bolt of earth at +12 and deals +21 earth damage.
Conaferos wears enchanted robes allowing him to soak +5 from physical attacks; his cloak of warding allows him to soak +13 from magical attacks.

- Boost Armor and Boost Might grant 10 CPs each to improve his own or allies’ armor and might (typically used on his elemental).
- Earth Shield grants him a pool of 10 points to add to armor soak rolls.
- Life Tap allows him to use his baseline attack spell to both deal damage and restore his own wounds equal to the damage he deals; if the attack deals 24 damage and the target soaks 10 points, Coniferos deals 14 wounds and also recovers 14 wounds (up to his maximum).
- Reflective armor forces all targets landing melee strikes against the recipient to suffer 7+ rating damage (17 points per strike), less their magical soak rolls. A target hitting Coniferos (after casting this spell) rolls 12 to soak magical damage; the target suffers 5 wounds from the reflective armor.
- Summon (application) allows you to call one or more creatures built on a CP total equal to rating x5.

Conaferos summons his elemental with his first turn (in most instances). If he can get a target in melee with his elemental, he casts boost spells on the elemental. If targets attack him directly, he casts protective spells like earthen shield, or reflective armor, depending on the situation.