Wizard

Crew members of SS13, I offer you my sincerest greetings. My name is of no matter, but if you must call me something, you may call me The QuarterWizard. I would like to inform you that I am the noble leader of the Wizards Federation.

You may be wondering, "Why, why mighty QuarterWizard, why do you send wizards to the station to destroy us all?"

Well, denizen of the station, it's quite simple really: One or more of your crew has angered our magical Federation, and now you will all pay the price.

If you're lucky enough to only have certain members of the crew anger us, like that geneticist who once claimed that us magical folk are merely "products of genetics research", then you're more than likely to survive, assuming you give our wizard the means to escape early on. If not, well... Not even I, the mighty QuarterWizard can guarantee your safety. We train our wizards to be masters of many spells, so there is no saying how exactly you will succumb to our mighty wizards.

But, for you lesser beings, I have archived a list of our most common spells, so as to assist you simpletons in identifying just how skilled and varied our wizards can be.

Wizarding 101
If you are lucky enough to be chosen to be a wizard, you will spawn in the Wizard's Den, a completely inaccessible ship where you can safely plan your assault on the station. In addition to the various trinkets littering the Den, you begin with a spellbook in your backpack. Using the book, you can spend up to 10 spell points on any combination of wizardly magic that you choose. You also begin with a four-use Scroll of Teleport; if you don't take the Teleport spell, this scroll is how you board the station proper. Once you leave the Den there's no coming back, so make sure you're prepared!

Upon spawning, you'll be asked to choose a suitably (or unsuitably) wizardy name. The magic mirror in your bathroom will let you freely change your name, appearance, and most interestingly race, if you want to play as an alien wizard; remember that many races have noticeable drawbacks, and aren't considered human by the AI.

The most important part of any respectable wizard is their wizardly outfit. The hat and robes you begin with aren't just for style points; without them, roughly half of your list of spells become uncastable! If you don't like the classic blue wizard look, the Den has several other equally magical outfits of different appearances that all function identically. Unless you're playing a stealth wizard, keeping your pants on is absolutely vital. Do everything in your power to keep the crew from stripping you naked. Hurl spells, throw rocks, shout hurtful names at them. Whatever you do, don't let them touch the clothes.

Use the Wizard's Ship you start in to familiarize yourself with the spells before you teleport onto the station. You can even re-learn the spells as often as you'd like as long as you're here. Take your time, there's no need to jump in right away. You should also use the advanced camera console to spy on the station before leaving, to see what the crew is up to and find a safe place to teleport in.

Quick Checklist for new Wizards
1. Choose name, race and appearance with the magic mirror. 2. Spend 10 spell points with the spell book. 3. Make sure you are wearing one of the robes and one of the hats (unless you plan to stealth or use robeless spells). All robes and hats/helmets found on the Wizard's ship have the same stats. 4. (Optional): Bring anything else you think might be useful. The free staffs/brooms are just decorations or very weak melee weapons. 5. (Optional): Find a good location to teleport to with the advanced camera console. 6. Use the scroll of teleportation to teleport to the station. Remember, you do not start with a flashlight. Maintenance will be pitch black.

After arriving to the station, you can do whatever you want. Cast spells by clicking the icons that appear to your upper left. They will be red when on cooldown.

Min-Maxing
You can take any of your spells multiple times to upgrade them, generally giving them a lower cooldown. You can also turn yourself into almost any race via your Magic Mirror, some of which are more powerful than others.

Robed Spells
'''These spells require the Wizard's POWERFUL, MYSTICAL ROBES AND HAT. So wizards, for your own sakes, never take off your robes.'''

Robeless Spells
'''There are many other spells that do not require THE EXTRA MIGHT of a magic wizard robe. These spells are weaker, but nothing to laugh at.

Artifacts
'''These are not spells but tools that can be used by anyone. Extremely dangerous to a wizard should one of the crew members pick them up.''' Magical staves, swords and hammers generally never fit in backpacks or bags, and must be worn in the back slot. Remember you need a hand free to be able to use the scroll of teleportation to get to the station. You can not use the teleport spell to get to the station.

Magical Items
'''Wands, unlike staves, do not recharge over time. They can be recharged with the Charge spell, but even then they may lose maximum charges after every charge.

One-use spellbooks teach a spell to the first user. Everyone that reads it subsequently will instead trigger a recoil effect, usually harming the reader.'''

Rituals
'''Rituals are powerful, one-time use spell that can only be cast from your spellbook on your ship. These are generally either completely pointless or detrimental to the crew (and you) in some way or another; their true purpose lies in causing PURE, UNTAMED CHAOS.'''

Wiznerd Events
The big bad list of all the devious magical events that replace the usual random events on the station. These happen uppon purchasing the Summon Events ritual at least once, and their frequency increases with each purchase.

WARNING: This table has not been updated in a long time, and is severely out of date. Do not expect all of the events listed in this table to still be in the game.

Your typical wizard events round.

Magical Traumas
These Brain Traumas only appear when you (the wizard) cast the Curse of Madness ritual before heading to the station. There is a 20% chance that a person will have a Magical Trauma rather than a mild/severe/special trauma.

The AI and You!
NOTICE: THE WIZ IS HUMAN (unless he is a lizard wizard or a Skeleton, or something that's, you know, not a human.)

Usually, when you go on your long space adventure, you come across an AI.

The AI will either be nice to you and attempt to protect you from the evil crew, or it will track you the whole time, and attempt to trap you! (Luckily, you have been trained by the greatest!) If this happens, go into the AI core, and see how he can track you while it's dead.

If you're feeling nice and don't mind being stunned a few times, you can always pop into the upload! When you get inside, take a Freeform module, pop out, and make nice law explaining how you are practically god of the station, and return to the upload, and of course, upload it!

After that, the AI will be very nice to you, and serve you, his master.

A Friendly Wizard
Being a friendly wizard is not recommended on high population rounds, as it generally makes both crew and observers bored. Many hate friendly wizards for this and other reasons. But if you really don't feel like doing any harm, you are allowed to live peacefully among the crew. The staff is usually friendly towards non-harmful wizards [CITATION VERY MUCH NEEDED] if they announce themselves to be friendly, and the AI is usually programmed to prevent harm to you if you're human. So pop over to the HoP escorted by the Captain/HoS and request a proper ID card. Just remember that you are by law and backstory an enemy of Nanotrasen. All crew are allowed to kill you, and some may try.

Beginner and Popular Loadouts
Your first time playing as a Wizard can be disorientating and very hard, but also demanding. Just figuring out what spells to take is half the gamemode onto itself, the other half is utilising those spells. As such this section will detail some basic, but robust, starting Wizard loadouts.

You only get up to 10 spell points to spend, meaning your spell loadout will be limited; the costs of the spells below are shown in (parenthesis). So don't overspecialize.

The Beginner Wizard

 * Magic Missile (2)
 * Ethereal Jaunt (2)
 * Blink (2)
 * Fireball (2) OR Mutate (2) OR Mjolnir and Instant Summons (2+1)
 * 1-2 points left.

A basic, but robust set up. Gives you good offensive and defensive capabilities that favor hit and run attacks.

Ethereal Jaunt and Blink give you mobility, allowing you to pop up in rooms and hallways to attack, and spamming Blink can get you out of trouble in a pinch. Magic Missile is a very forgiving spell for players unused to click combat, as it homes in on enemies, but your targets may be able to outrun the projectiles in long hallways.

Fireball, Mutate and Mjolnir are the three most commonly used offensive spells. Fireball has a very low cooldown, can blast enemies at range, and can be used (carefully!) to open lockers and breach rooms, but runs the risk of blowing you up as well if used near objects or enemies. Mutate grants you Hulk strength and the ability to fire eye lasers by clicking on empty tiles on, but has a cooldown between uses, meaning you'll be left unarmed after the duration but before it recharged. Mjolnir is very powerful and can be thrown, but requires you to be proficient at melee combat, and taking Instant Summons costs an extra point. Pick whichever one suits your fancy.

The last 1-2 points can be used for anything. Taking two of the above offensive spells can give you more firepower, and if you want more defensive abilities, The Traps, the Gem-Encrusted Hardsuit, the Battlemage Armor, Disable Technology and Forcewall are all relatively user-friendly. You can also simply take any spell you think might be fun to use.

The Murderboner

 * Fireball (2) OR Mjolnir and Instant Summons (2+1)
 * Stop Time (2)
 * Ethereal Jaunt (2) OR Rod Form (2)
 * The Traps (1)
 * 2-3 points left.

Heavily oriented around attacking and killing the crew, you suffer from very little defensive spells, thus relying on being robust enough to kill anyone before they become a threat. The combination of Fireball and Stop Time is extremely effective at quickly shutting down anybody who comes close, and Jaunt remains an incredible mobility tool. Rod Form is a more offensive mobility option, trading Jaunt's invisibility and freedom of movement for the power to ram enemies you pass through and generally ruin the station's walls. The Traps is an extremely cost effective defensive tool, and can easily trip up pursuers to be murdered.

The last few points can again go to either doubling up on suggested spells or adding others of your choice. Magic Missile remains a useful ranged stun option, the Necromantic Stone or Soul Shard Belt can let you turn your kills into allies, and Repulse can be another emergency button if you find yourself in a disadvantageous position.

The Survivalist

 * Fireball (2) OR Mutate (2)
 * Blink (2)
 * Ethereal Jaunt (2)
 * Warp Whistle (1)
 * The Traps (1)
 * 2 points left.

If you don't care about killing but instead want to simply survive, this loadout gives you three mobility spells, as well as The Traps. You'll be very difficult to pin down, but your offensive powers will be lacking unless you steal mundane weapons from the station.

If you want to become even more unstoppable, consider taking the Staff of Healing + Instant Summons, or the Wand Assortment + Charge. Both give access to an on-demand full heal, which can be infuriating for the crew to deal with.

The Stealth Wizard

 * Fireball (2)
 * Knock (1)
 * Shapechange (1)
 * Wand Assortment + Charge (2+1)
 * 4 points left.

Playing as a stealth wizard can be risky, but fun. Make sure you choose a realistic name, because the Head of Personnel is going to ask questions if Meren the Unshakable asks for a new assistant ID, then try to teleport onto the station without getting caught. You'll have no access, so rush to find some clothes, then come up with an excuse to ask for a new ID, or simply do without. There's always the chance that the AI will see you warp onto the station in a huge cloud of wizard smoke, immediately ruining your plan, but if you can manage to get on board undetected, you'll have gotten past the first hurdle.

The crux of a stealth loadout is doing the best you can without wearing your robes; Fireball is loud and will probably give you away, but your best choice for a robeless offensive spell, and Knock becomes the wizard's emag. Shapechange can let you ventcrawl as a mouse, and the Wand Assortment can be hidden in your backpack to give semi-limited recreations of various useful spells.

With the last four points, there are two options. One, you can purchase additional robeless spells or items; notable candidates include Mind Swap, the Scrying Orb, the Warp Whistle, or even a Contract of Apprenticeship or Soul Stone Belt to dupe the crew into thinking they killed the main wizard or are dealing with a Cult. On the other hand, purchasing major robed spells and carrying your robes in your backpack can be an incredibly useful backup strategy in case the crew spots you teleporting onto the station.

Wizard Gang

 * 1-5 Contracts of Apprenticeship (2 each)
 * 1-5 Guardian Decks (2 each)
 * 1-3 Bottles of Blood (2 each)
 * 1-3 Bottles of Laughter (1 each)
 * 0-1 Necromantic Stone (2)
 * 0-1 Soul Shard Belt (2)

Less of a complete loadout and more of a general overview, wizards have a few options for summoning allies. It's highly recommended to limit the number of allies you take, and spend at least a few points on one or two spells to keep yourself alive.

Contracts of Apprenticeship summon a second player-controlled wizard with a preset spell list, based on which contract you select. The cost of the contract is significantly cheaper than the cost of the spells the apprentices gain, but they tend to be hyper-specialized. Apprentices are givens objectives to protect you, so there's no risk of betrayal, but the effectiveness really comes down to how skilled your fellow wizards are. In a worst case scenario, they can cause havoc in different parts of the station as a distraction.

Guardian Decks give you a random player-controlled holoparasite on use. Holoparasites are directly linked to you, can hide in your body at will, and effectively share your health; all damage they take is reflected to you, and they die if you die. A bad holoparasite can lead to your death if it sucks at dodging, but a good one can keep you alive and give you valuable backup, making multiple holoparasites a popular murderbone option. They come in a variety of random types with different effects, most notably the Dexterous type which can hold and use items; it's highly recommended to buy decks one at a time, and if you roll a Dexterous holoparasite, consider buying it a Staff of Healing.

Bottles of Blood summon Slaughter Demons, player-controlled monsters that can jaunt infinitely by emerging and diving into blood on the floor, meaning you can help them by intentionally making a bloody mess of the station. They tend to be powerful, and can heal by dragging corpses into blood with them, but come with a very important caveat: blood demons are 'not' loyal to you in any way. If you buy them, you're effectively adding independent antagonists to the round, although some players might willingly team up with you. Bottles of Laughter instead summon clown-themed Laughter Demons, which are exactly the same except their victims return to life if the demon dies.

The Necromantic Stone allows you to revive your victims as loyal skeletal thralls; simply smack a dead corpse with the stone, and they'll pop back to life as a spooky skeleton. Thralls are given fancy and robust Roman equipment, making them melee threats, and they retain all the gear-using and clothes-wearing abilities of a normal human. For best results, combine it with a way to actually kill people.

The Soul Stone Belt similarly allows you to trap the souls of your victims by hitting corpses with the soul stone shards. Use the complementary spell to summon a shell, and insert the filled stone to make a cult construct. It's highly recommended to make an Artificer first, as they can produce more shells and stones on a lengthy cooldown. Compared to the Necromantic Stone, soul shards are more resource-intensive and take more time, but you can theoretically convert the entire crew into an army of eldritch constructs.

Space Asshole

 * Summon Events x5

Did you know that your wizard ship has a camera console in it that you can use to observe what's going on in the station? You'll be using it a lot with this loadout, as if you die, the round will instantly end, ruining everyone's fun. Since you are almost certainly going to die within 5 minutes of teleporting down onto the station, it might be best to just stay on your ship for the whole round and never teleport to the station at all. Observing the events of the round through your camera console shouldn't get too boring, though, because the level 5 version of Summon Events summons an event EVERY MINUTE! Yes, that's right, a wacky wizard event will occur EVERY MINUTE until the game runs out of wizard events to summon! And YOU can watch the resulting chaos from the comfort of your own ship!

Of course, if you're going to spend an entire round in your ship, don't be surprised if the adminbus rolls up and starts messing with you. And everybody else in the round will probably hate you. But hey, you're the wizard, right?

Tips

 * It's a very, very good idea to grab some defensive equipment ASAP when you arrive on the station. Sunglasses will make you nearly impervious to Asimov Cyborgs, and insulated gloves are highly recommended for when the AI is inevitably subverted to try and kill you.
 * While knocked down, you can still cast most of your spells, with a few exceptions: Jaunt will make you invulnerable, but you won't move until the stun runs out, and touch-based spells like disintegrate will need you to attack the target.
 * Someone in the "Unconscious" state can be instantly Soul Sharded, regardless of health. Anyone under 50% HP can be KO'd by a briefcase with 100% reliability. See that assistant that burned himself to shit on the door? Briefcase bonk, shard.
 * Suicide bombing is a very easy way to kill a wizard but may get you banned if you fuck up. The general rule of thumb is, if you miss, you're gone. Welderbombings can also knock the wizard out if he's not very good.
 * Removing a wizard's hat or robes will often render him completely impotent, as very, VERY few wizards carry spare hats in their backpack. Acid or fire smoke grenades work well for stripping their hats. Muzzling them also makes them unable to cast most spells if you can actually hold down a wizard long enough.
 * The Staff of Animation can animate holographic objects. They retain their 'force' and do not disappear when they leave the holodeck/the holodeck is shut off. So you can load up the thunder dome simulation over and over for infinite E-sword buddies.
 * Wizard EMP shocks doors, so you should not better use doors as wizard, after you use EMP skill. Also the staff of animation is even more OP than Veil Render, just use it on knifes, hatchets and other items of big robustness. Combine this with EMPing security guys, which approach you and mutating in hulk, when you see guys with syringe guns (however, if chemist is not mainstream and deploys lexorin or unstable mutagen, you would get outrobusted) for greater effects.
 * The wizard's Knock spell opens bolted doors too.
 * The staff of change works on AIs.
 * Mindswap does not work on megafauna.

Specific Spell Tips

 * Summon Ghosts can be fun, but the ghosts can very easily tell the crew where you are. Strongly consider not casting it if you want any level of stealth; likewise, Slaughter Demons and other stealth antags really hate when the ghost court blatantly outs them.
 * Although the most popular and reliable offensive spells are usually Fireball, Mutate and Mjolnir, a number of other options exist. Smite is a long cooldown, melee range instant-kill, Lesser Summon Guns gives you infinite rifles on demand, Arcane Barrage is a magical variant of LSG, Lightning Bolt trades Fireball's raw killing potential for area stuns, the Spellblade can easily remove limbs, the Singularity Hammer is just as powerful as Mjolnir with the caveat of pulling enemies in instead of launching them away, and Spell Cards is a slightly underwhelming Touhou joke.
 * The Staff of Animation lets you bring objects and machines to life. The deadlier the object is as a melee weapon, the more devastating its damage, although your creations tend to be low-health and short-lived. For even better results, combine it with Flesh to Stone to turn crewmembers into loyal, murderous statues!
 * Disable Technology, like any EMP, can be extremely effective if you know when and where to use it. Shut down cyborgs, fuck with APCs, mess with doors, and instantly drain the power of stun batons, flashes and energy guns! Just make sure to turn your headset back on afterwards.
 * Likewise, Repulse is a highly underrated spell in its simplicity. Just being able to launch attackers away can give you enough time to finish recharging an escape spell, and if you're lucky, you might launch objects into people with enough force to embed them into their bodies.
 * If you want to mess with the crew and don't want to outright murder them, some fun gimmick spells include Staff of the Locker, Curse of the Barnyard and Staff of Change. The Staff of Change in particular can be a lot of fun, since anybody you involuntarily transform is allowed to act as an antagonist; there's always the risk of your targets turning into xenomorphs and slimes that immediately try to kill you, but you might also create a huge problem for the crew.
 * Lesser Summon Bees is an inherently comical spell that has the chance of filling your foes with horrific, debilitating toxins, but the bees are just as likely to go after you. Consider combining it with the Gem-Encrusted Hardsuit, which makes you sting-immune.
 * The Wand Assortment is an extremely powerful option, provided you can manage using so many items. For only 2 points, you get wands that cast Fireball, Create Door, Teleport Other, Heal (!!), Polymorph, and Instant Death (!!!). You can add the Charge spell for a third point, granting you a large number of casts of each. For reference, the combined costs of buying every spell individually would be 8. Remember you can zap yourself with the wands, and make sure nobody steals them!
 * Mind Swap can be risky, since it leaves both you and your target stunned for a duration, but pulling off a successful swap can let you completely juke the crew. For best results, try to use it when you're losing a melee 1v1, and nobody else is around to interfere.
 * Bind Soul effectively gives you extra lives for as long as nobody finds your phylactery. Hide it somewhere remote, ideally in another container, and consider moving it around between revivals as long as you won't be caught with it on your person. Also keep in mind that you become a skeleton, making you immune to temperature, pressure, chemicals and more, but revoking your humanity in the eyes of the AI and making it harder to heal yourself.
 * Instant Summons can technically be used on any item; if you really want to run a gimmick wizard built around, say, killing people with a fire axe, keep it in mind.
 * The Scrying Orb lets you talk to deadchat, effectively letting you listen to OOC conversations on the round, which alone makes it extremely powerful for learning about other antagonists. If you're really bored, you can also ask the ghosts for ideas on what spells to take, or just ask for wizard tips if you're new.
 * Curse of Madness is effectively a round-wide "fuck you" button that can scramble the brains of the crew and generally make a lot of people salty. For best results, think of something witty to use as your curse, though keep in mind nobody who hears it is obliged to listen if it includes a command.

...Now, fearless follower of the Wizards Space Federation..

I have but one question for you, now that I revealed all this knowledge to you,

Will you be ready?

With Love,

The QuarterWizard