Wizard balancing

[mralexs]

So after a recent round where 4 wizards worked together a forced a shuttle call rather early, Wizards need some balancing. Some spells need to be locked out if you choose others, IE spell shield and forcewall. Wizard rounds should also be limited to 3 wizards, as 4-5 is impossible for sec to deal with if they're sticking together and working together as well.

Mostly a kneejerk reaction thread, the round was largely two robust wizards semi working together just clearing the station. (I was one of the two who killed MrAlexs)
Wizard is very powerful, I wouldn't be against reducing the number of them to spawn per round, but I see no reason to put in a spell lockout if you purchase other spells.

I would though, put in actual recommendations on how to actually balance wizards, like reviving the Wizards cannot use Technology PR. I would also put in that Wizard spells need to deal more damage to Pods/Minisubs, since thats largely why I steal Tasers as a wizard, since they are so hard to destroy.

Also make Fireball fire at the tile you click on so you can hit prone targets, and not fire in the direction you clicked (Hell do this for like, all projectiles if you click a target and not a tile.)
Blink doesn't blink out into space, is this a safety measure? It gets newbie wizards killed when they try to run, its only good for entering the station, not leaving.
Perhaps add more spell points, but take the TG idea for spells, where you can purchase a baseline version of a spell, making it somewhat weak, but also being able to buy a tier 2 and maybe tier 3 version of a spell to make it more powerful, or reducing the cooldown.

Take after DnD for Wizard nerfs, like certain spells being unable to be casted while silenced (Choking? Out of o2?), or some being unable to be casted while stunned, so that security can actually arrest the dang wizard for once. Maybe both! Only way I know of to quickly stop a wizard from casting is to literally put them to sleep.

A bigger thread to discuss Wizard Balance could be made, or the Dev team could just discuss it among themselves, as I assume they already do.

Anyways, one or two rounds where robust players actually get wizard and do dastardly things is in my opinion not a great reason to nerf an antag.

Many other systems of TTRPGs and video game ROGs do what I outlined above with locking out certain combinations of spells, or at least forcing a global cooldown for spells of the same type. Also encourages more tactical thinking than waltzing into a room, firing off all the spells then running away since you can pop off 1 or two spells