The second Dragon Warriors book, "The Way of Wizardry" is, as the name suggest, about Wizardry, in the form of Sorcerers, Mystics, magic stuff and two sample adventurers that are fairly wizardry. I do like a straightforwards and descriptive name.
Chapter One
This is fairly introductory stuff, dealing with magical combat, spell duration and how Sorcerers and Mystics are different from Knights and Barbarians. Notably, that short adventurers favour the former, but longer ones favour the latter once all the magic is used up. So, tweak the adventure by dialing up or down the number of zombies you have to get through before reaching the end boss, I guess.
Also, there are two main ways you can zap people with spells. You have Direct Attack, in which case you are attacking directly, and it's a roll under your Magical Attack minus their Magical Defence on 2d10. The other way is Indirect Attack, in which case you aren't casting at them per se, they are just in the way of the jet of flame or whatever you've just created, so their innate magicalness doesn't matter, it's how fast they can duck. Indirect Attack spells have a set Speed, while Direct Attack is based on the caster's stats, so varies depending on Rank and Characteristics and so on.
Chapter Two
This deals with Sorcerers, which are conventional wizards. Their non-magic stats are unimpressive, being the same as a standard human, but with 1d6+4 HP rather than 1d6+3. They also take combat penalties and risk miscasting spells for wearing armour heavier than Hardened Leather (AF2). They don't start with armour, though. They do start with either a Staff or a Shortsword. The Shortsword is better in all respects, so I guess the Staff is just in case you want to look more wizardy. You also get 2 potions from the Master Sorcerer that trained you, which apparently is a tradition.
You also get 4 Magic Points to start with, and usually another 4 (sometimes only 2 or 3) when you go up a Rank. You can cast any spell whose Level isn't higher than your Rank, and it costs its Level in Magic Points (normally). There are 6 spells per Level (presumably to allow miscasts to pick a random spell on a d6 of the same level) and 10 Levels, so 60 in all.
I won't be going over all 60, but some highlights include:
Dragonbreath, the level one attack spell, Speed of 12 (so you need 9 or less to hit another average Rank 1 Sorcerer or a normal human, not great) and does 1d6+6 HP damage, minus Armour Factor, if any. A Rank 1 Sorcerer has 1d6+4 HP (+1 when they reach 2nd rank, 4th, 6th etc), a human 1d6+3. So one spell that hits would ruin your entire day.
Lesser Healing, the level one healing spell, gives someone 2 HP back. So one spell would not really unruin your day very much.
Inflict Wound, the level two attack spell, your Magical Attack against their Magical Defense, 5 HP damage, armour doesn't help. Is this better than two Dragonbreaths? I'm tempted to say no just because the description just says "inflicts a 5 HP wound", which is rather uninteresting as spell descriptions go and has a bland name.
Tangleroots, the level two "vines/roots/creepers/things grab your legs" spell that every magic system seems to end up with. it says it immobilizes the target, but they can cut, tear or bite their way out (and there's rules and number for that), so only partially immobilized. The spell description says that it's commonly used to stop things chasing you, or to stop them evading another spell. But it totally fails to gives rules for this. You could argue that it means you can't Evade and so are automatically hit, or that it reduces your Evasion to 0, which is not the same thing. I'd also expect it should attack your Attack or Defence and maybe your Reflexes, but nope, no rules for that.
Wolfcall, the level three summon animals spell. Cast it, and 2-12 rounds later, a wolf turns up. One wolf is not terribly impressive, and you have to sit around until it turns up.
Shadowbolt, the level four attack spell. Speed 14 and 2d6+10 (minus armour) damage. Only slightly faster than Dragonbreath, but PCs only get +1 Evasion at 5th and 9th rank. Again, can easily ruin someone's entire day if they are 4th Rank or less.
From level five onwards, you get insta-kill (or equivalent) Direct Attack spells. Do you need a level 5 spell that banishes someone to limbo and another level 5 spell that turns someone to stone? Followed by a level 6 spell that makes someone's heart explode? Ok, you can put some differences in range, number of targets, and not having your heart explode still gives you nasty chest pains if the spell doesn't kill you, but there's not really that far you can go from "the target is removed from play.
Sword of Damocles, the level six attack spell. Notable because it doesn't have to go off at once, you can choose a trigger condition and the thing hangs around until it's set off. Allowing Sorcerers to enforce their will on others when not around.
Astral Gate, the level eight travel spell. Doesn't expire by itself, but there's a 1 in 6 chance of it expiring every time someone goes through it, which seems likely to split the party in a really annoying way.
Rune, the level eight Explosive Rune spell. Only, instead of a set amount of damage, you cast whatever other spell you want into it, which gives you more options there. Only one per Sorcerer at a time.
Animate Bones, the level nine necromancy spell. There's a level five one as well, which gives you 1d6 temporary zombies, this one gives you one permanent skeleton, but it only works if you've personally killed the body yourself. One permanent skeleton at a time, and having to kill your own ingredients means you're not so likely to get skeleton armies, but gives something to guard the Sorcerer's tower.
Battlemaster, the level nine summoning spell. Notable in that it doesn't summon a Battlemaster, it summons the Battlemaster, there's only one of them, but "he exists on many planes simultaneously" so he can be summoned more than once at the same time. Could have just as easily have said there are lots of identical Battlemasters and you get one of them, not sure the point of that description.
Raise Fog, the level nine raise fog spell. Level nine? You can make people's hearts explode from level six.
60 is not a massive amount of spells, but there seems to be a reasonable selection. Nothing jumps out as being game-breaking, and there's some nice toys to play with, though there's also some filler.
Sorcerers also make magic thingies, from Rank four they can create magic scrolls. Each scroll uses 2 Magic Points which the Sorcerer can't recover until the scroll is cast. They can start potions from Rank 6, but they don't get the full lists until they reach Rank 10. They can start on talismans from Rank eight. Though, people start throwing around spells to make your heart explode at Rank 6 and the Raise Dead spell (or the potion that does the same) is only available at Rank 10. So, good luck actually surviving long enough for those rules to apply.
