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« on: August 05, 2012, 04:27:20 PM »
Wizards will excel at any sort of combat with "one big bad dude". They get to unleash their awesome all at one target, repeatedly.
They will fall behind in multicombatant scenarios. When there are say, seven, eight or nine targets pinging at the group he wont necessarily have the resources to take them all down by himself. It becomes very dangerous since he will be exposed to multiple attacks per attack he does. This means he'll have to expend resources on keeping himself alive and fighting the enemies.
This is where non-wizards can really shine. They aren't necessarily limited by a resource mechanic in the same way that a wizard is, so they can rather carelessly attack while the wizard will have to pick and choose his targets. This gives everybody nice spotlight time. (IE: A Bunch of 3 refresh nasties, if you have four players at refresh 10, thats 40 refresh for a nice challenge. 13 Opponents is a nice sized bout.)
When you do have to introduce a "Big Hulking Bad Brute Thing" into the mix, try to give it some "Pee Wee" support. You will want to organize the playing field in such a way that they aren't all in the same zone. (IE: The Ick and some Red Court Infected/Vamps as support.)
Do not be shy about limiting downtime. A wizard will recoup his resources between every scene, so sometimes an extended scene should be called for, a protracted fight makes wizards very very nervous. (IE: Chase scenes, where the group is fleeing something bad.)
You can "pre-challenge" the wizard before a knock down drag out fight as well, and this is a nice way to give the wizard a "moment" while also limiting his impact in the combat encounter. A mystical roadblock that only he can nullify means he will come into the fight a little tired to begin with. (IE: Opening a way into the nevernever before getting to the battlefield.)
Arranging things so that the wizard will have to deal with a threat while the other players deal with the combatants is another great way to make sure that everybody gets to shine. Perhaps the wizard has to perform a ritual "under fire" while the rest of the group defends him. (IE: He has to dismantle a spell in progress while the caster's mooks are opening fire on him and his companions)
Creatures which have an effect on the mental stress track are *absolutely terrifying* opponents for wizards. Suddenly the wizard is Defending himself from physical attack, attacking, and getting mentally attack all at the same time. That's three types of resource drain at once. This can be dangerous though since other character types are usually less robust in the mental defense area.
Environmental Hazards can play a big part in limiting a wizard's effectiveness as well. If your wizard is constantly throwing about fireballs then peppering the scene with highly flammable materials is a great way to discourage him from being brash. It is completely fair that if the wizard Nukes something so hard core that there are 3 or more shifts of excess that that remaining energy does *something* bad to the scene (like setting the aforementioned flammable objects ablaze).
Purely mundane human opponents can also give a wizard pause. Lawbreaking is a big deal and that will limit his options dramatically. Give those same humans otherworldly support and they can easily become a viable threat even without the lawbreaking limitations. (IE: A Fae sorcerer gave them very effective glamour armor and weapons, or someone like Cowl is doing a Regeneration spell on them like the Ghouls in the Deeps in White Knight).
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