Rules Patch: Miscasts v8.1

##### Credit to Raymond (from the Lustria Online and Bugman's Brewery forums) #######
Also similar variations have been discussed throughout forums.

6-dicing spells of ultimate destruction sequentially and/or on first turn, to ensure they go off reliably, can precipitate a lot of frustration from opponents. The threat of miscast exists, but the amount of dice committed is irrelevant for the severity of the miscast (and thus not a deterrent). On the other hand, a unlucky miscast on few dice can be horribly crippling, and kill an entire game due to bad luck.

PROBLEM: The severity of a miscast is completely unconnected from the amount of dice committed, leading it to be little of a deterrent when considering 6-dicing spells.
SOLUTION: When a Wizard miscasts, roll D6+(number of power dice used). Refer to the following table to see what happens:

D6+power dice      Effect

                3-4         Magical Feedback (allied wizards take S6 hit, lose power dice)

                5-6         Detonation (S10 hit to all in base contact, lose power dice)

                7-8         Calamitous Detonation (S10 under small template, lose power dice)

                9-10       Power Drain (-D3 wizard level, cannot cast spells that phase)

                11-12     Dimensional Cascade (S10 hit under large template, wizard or power dice lost)

The details of each result above are as described in page 34. of the Warhammer Rulebook 8th ed.
Note: if a miscast is triggered by an effect that did not involve spellcasting or use of power dice (such as the Hellheart), assume that 2 power dice were used for the purposes of the roll.

This change simply reorders the miscast table, and makes it progressively worse depending on the base number of dice used. This causes that triggering a miscast on a high number of dice is an extremely risky proposition, either risking losing Wizard levels or a Dimensional cascade. Throwing more dice at a spell is literally playing with fire now. On the other hand, unlucky miscasts on a few power dice are no longer crippling.

Rules Patch: Winds of Magic roll v8.1

##### Credit to Raymond (from the Lustria Online and Bugman's Brewery forums) #######

The Magic Phase is a part of the game that can change the fortunes of players significantly, whether they are the caster of the dispeller. It is not only random, but the degree by which it can grant a sudden advantage to a player with is highly variable.

While the roll for the Winds of Magic is ultimately statistically fair for each player, because it is the same randomized value, the fact that the number of actual Magic Phases that really matter are so few means that it can be incredibly swingy. Especially for armies which use magic not as an additional bonus, but actually rely on the Magic Phase being successful.
In this way, there is no amount of wizard or magic items that can be brought that guarantees magical reliability, so that between two players a game can be ultimately decided because of two bad Magic phases in a row.


PROBLEM: the roll for Winds of Magic at each player's turn is very swingy, sometimes creating situations where a victory is earned purely due to a few bad rolls on the Winds of Magic compared to the opponent.
SOLUTION: When the first player in any given Turn rolls for the Winds of Magic, that roll applies for all players for that turn (ie. do not roll again for winds of magic for every player after the first, each turn). Place those dice aside in a place where they will be untouched, so that the following player(s) can refer to them when their Magic Phase comes up. At the beginning of next Turn, after all players had a go, roll the Winds of Magic anew.

Any effect that modifies or affects the roll of the Winds of Magic takes place when this roll is first made (ie. the first player's Magic Phase). Any effect that is triggered by the roll in the Winds of Magic when it's a specific player's turn (such as the Reign of Chaos table) only takes place during that player's turn, using the Winds of Magic roll rolled at the beginning of the turn.

This change retains the flavorful random value of the Winds of Magic, but eliminates imbalances between each player's Turn, which often lead to frustrating losses due to a simple die roll involving no decision from the part of a player. Each player gets equal opportunity at exploiting the Winds of Magic in each given Turn, eliminating a random factor which often led to uninteresting games.

(75 points worth of the Master of the Black Arts vampire power do seem worth it now, hey?)