Has anyone done an analysis on WHFRP 2nd ed Lores?

[Komatik]

Is there one? Most of the games I get to play in are WHFRP, but I don't know of any places where people would've analyzed anything about it, whether the magic stuff or in general.

[Dead_Jester]

What do you mean by analysis? Evaluations of the relative strenght of each lore? The best path (of the 3 available in Realms of Sorcery/Tome of Faith) to choose?

In any case Strike to Stun (http://forum.strike-to-stun.net/) has probably the largest amount of WFRP stuff for first and second edition.

[Komatik]

Yeah, power level/versatility evaluations and such, as people often to for D&D. My system mastery is too low to reliably evaluate things, many things can seem good but end up bad in practice or the reverse.

Thanks for the link <3.

[Dead_Jester]

I have some experience with WFRP, so here is my evaluation of the 8 magical lores. Note that this should be taken with a grain of salt, as I have not personally played with every single spell list in their optimal conditions.

Lore of Beast has good utility, and, if the campaign involves a lot of travel in the wilds/wild animals, you get alot of extra utility from it. Some good buffs and debuffs, although a lot of them rely on the wizard going in melee, and the transform spells theoretically preclude further caster. Overall one of the weaker lores.

Lore of Death has good utility, a lot of fear-based stuff, some good debuffs and a few nukes. Suffers somewhat in campaigns where the enemy is fearless/high WP (ala Lizardmen or Daemons) or where there are no undead. Overall, middle of the pack, but really good in some circumstances.

Lore of Fire has only 2 or 3 spells that aren't outright nukes or blast spells, including one that makes people immune to fire damage (stops a lot of friendly fire). Power of this lore is entirely relative on the campaign; if you need a lot of damage, especially AoE damage, than Aqshy is your best friend. If you are in an intrigue campaign, well, the potential for explosive distractions is always useful. Overall, the lore goes from weak to strong based on the campaign.

Lore of the Heavens has a lot of utility spells, including one of the only source of rerolls in the game, a few good lightning nukes, a few good debuffs in the form of curses, although many of which are more suited for long term play rather than short term confrontations. Overall, one of the better lores.

Lore of Life has a lot of plant related utility, a surprisingly large selection of AoE spells, and a few good self-buffs. Very few buffs for other people, which is sad really, as many of them would be better on others. Very dependent on being in the wilderness. Overall, probably the weaker lores.

Lore of Light has a good selection of healing spells (if you want to heal as a mage, you need this lore), some buffs and debuffs, a few damage spells, and a few spells that counter daemons. Of course, the Lore loses some potency if a Clerir of Sigmar or Shallya is present, or if no daemons are encountered, but overall remains of the better lores. I might be slightly biased here, but Light Elemental is my personal favorite list.

Lore of Metal has a whole pile of buffs and debuffs, a few good utility spells (including rerolls for all allies around you), but only a single direct damage spell. However, a lot of the utility and debuffs requires metallic or magical objects, and the Lore loses some potency if they are not encountered. Overall, a middle of the pack lore.

Lore of Shadows has, as could be expected, a whole lot of stealth and illusion based buffs and utility, as well as a few damage spells. This lore is much stronger in an intrigue campaign, where stealth and illusions are really good, but many of the spells also have combat potential. Overall, a middle of the pack lore, that can be very good depending on the campaign.

An important thing to remember is that although no lores are absolutely terrible, some are more versatile than others, and have greater utility even outside of their prime environment. Furthermore, the type of story told will greatly influence the potency of each lore.

[Komatik]

From what I've read of the other Lores, Necromancy (Core 2nd ed) and Nagash (Night's Dark Masters) seem pretty limited (even if we suppose a, say, houseruled Vampire caster who doesn't suffer the extra insanity/other nuisances the living suffer from merely using black magic), while the Hedgefolk's witch lore seems wtf amazing with insane amounts of useful utility spells.

[LCP]

Both Necromancy lores are quite combat-focused, but in that context I'd say it's hard to call them weak. The ability to summon allies (and not allies stronger than you which have a significant chance to turn around and eat you, which is what you get with daemons!) is pretty big. Thanks to how deadly combat is, you really don't need flashy damage spells if you can just get a gang of skeletons to stab your enemies for you.

I think Vampires have a non-houseruled way to avoid the side-effects of dark magic use (somewhere in Night's Dark Masters)... but if you're playing a vampire PC and it's not some kind of crazy all-vampires campaign, I've got to say that's not really WFRP.