[larsdangly]

Just to argue with myself, there is a sense in which I agree that the revisions create a significant combat imbalance. Staff attacks might not deliver a massive amount of damage per turn, but they do effectively, and automatically check-mate one of the few ways you can go after an experienced wizard. If a wizard can do 2d+4 damage to you every turn, automatically, at 2 hexes range and through armor, and characters are generally limited to 40 stat points (meaning your ST is probably not going to be above 15-18, regardless of who you are), then you have pretty long odds if you spend even as little as 1-2 turns at close range. So, in addition to having a nearly unbeatable recipe at missile range (e.g., reverse missiles+wizards wrath), and a nearly unbeatable recipe at thrown range (rest of spell book), wizards are extremely dangerous at close range without even expending ST. I'm not sure what the experience was in play testing, but it does seem like an unnecessary gift to wizards in combat.