Who is the best Caster for High Magic?

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taldarinzphoenix
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Who is the best Caster for High Magic?

#1 Post by taldarinzphoenix »

Between the options of Teclis and Alarrielle, who do you think is the best Wizard we have access to as the go to caster or High magic? I know it isnt the most powerful of our lores, or the best use of Teclis (selecting loremaster of high magic) but in a 2500 or 3000 point list who reins supreme?

If I ran Teclis, I would put him in a unit with an annointed of Asuryan (likely with a crown of command if not with white lions) to get the ward save started. the upside of Allarielle is that she brings her own 5+ ward vs Mundane, so you dont really need to spend the points on the Annointed. of course she gets a smaller pool of spells and has to roll for them.

so whats better? Teclis, with an innate +6 to cast spells from high magic, a choice of all the spells, with the once a game ability to absolutey dominate a good roll on the winds with his staff ability? or the lower points cost of allarielle, her healing ability and innate 5+ ward vs nonmagical damage?
SpellArcher
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Re: Who is the best Caster for High Magic?

#2 Post by SpellArcher »

taldarinzphoenix wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 9:26 pm I know it isnt the most powerful of our lores
This is interesting. High Magic was the go-to for a lot of tournament lists. In particular Shield of Saphery combined with Phoenix Guard is very strong, whilst a Star Dragon list for example benefits greatly from the movement and healing. Teclis though, probably wants to be in a big unit of White Lions, which the army will build around. This kind of roster arguably benefits less from High Magic.
taldarinzphoenix wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 9:26 pm 5+ ward vs Mundane
Yes, I think this is really key. Teclis needs to be cautious exposing himself to combat, even with an Anointed. He can probably only count on getting off one High Magic spell per turn against good defence, to boost his Ward save. He can have one supercharged phase but after that he has to be very careful. He can be pushed to the second rank for safety, for example by going really narrow with the Lions. Then though, the unit won't do much damage in melee.

The Everqueen on the other hand, can count on at least a 4+ Ward every turn and this extends to her unit, which becomes an absolute steamroller. I just feel that HIgh Magic makes more sense on her than on Teclis because of this unit mechanic. Big T is of course awesome (my HIgh Elves went down 8-12 to him and I didn't play badly). I do feel though that he needs the flexibilty of all the Lores and can't make full use of High Magic.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Who is the best Caster for High Magic?

#3 Post by Prince of Spires »

I think the main reason to take Teclis is chosing spells from all lores. He's absolutely terrifying if he goes for that.

The thing with High Magic is that it's a great lore, but it's strength is in the synergy with the list and augmenting stuff HE are good at. That doesn't fit with Teclis's role most of the time. Having said that, with the +6 to cast I disagree with SA that you can only count on getting 1 spell off. You can reliably 2-dice 5 of the 7 spells in the lore, and even convocation can be attempted on 3 dice. Of course you can get a terrible magic phase, but even with 1 dice you can go for most spells, with a 66% chance of getting them. You should get 2 off at the minimum in most phases. And if you get a good roll for winds, you could very well attempt 7 spells in a single phase with a good chance of meeting all their casting values.

Allarielle by comparisson isn't as great a caster. There is little that separates her from a random lvl4 mage, other than the ability to cast a single spell twice in one turn. Yes you can bring the banner of Avelorn, but that's very expensive and frankly wasted on High Magic, with the augments having casting values of 7+, 5+, 5+ and 8+. You don't really need another +4 to cast those.

With all this in mind I would have to go with Teclis. He's just the better caster. If you're bringing Allarielle just for High Magic, why not simply bring a generic lvl4? It would be different perhaps if she could chose her spells. But right now, I'd go with Teclis all the way.
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