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For my next session I'm considering pitching the player against a mage with some minions, but I have a problem with that.... 
- how much WP should he have in total? 
- hom much WP should he spend per turn? 

I find this quite tricky. If the mage has a lot of WP and PCs look like a threat he should be nuking them with lvl 4-6 immolation/burn blood every turn.
If I limit his WP pool, than he should probably nuke the most powerfull PC taking the player out of the game for the entire fight. 

How do you handle that: 
- causing 1-2 wounds/turn seems like I'm making it easy for the players,
- aut. breaking player with no defence option seems to brutal (don't remeber if they have enough WP for counterspell).

Did your PC faced any spellcasters in your games? How did that go? 

BR 
Michal

The new rules state that:

• NPCs do not use WP. 
• Sorcerers can cast any spell up to their level in that talent without any WP cost. 

If you want to do 4 damage with a sorcerer, she needs to be lvl 3 and have an ingridient. Or be a Half-Elf.

Make sure the sorcerer has a retinue of friends that can shield her from attacks, and 2-3 damage each turn on players will be properly dangerous for them, since they have to fight the retinue first.

The new rules state that:

• NPCs do not use WP. 
• Sorcerers can cast any spell up to their level in that talent without any WP cost. 

Thanks, I've missed that in the changelog. 
This method seems fair and easy!

Cheers
Michał

What are the goals of the “adversary sorcerer”?

Balance is only important if you think that this confrontation is just going to be A side standing up dueling B side and you want a roughly 50/50 over who wins. But why would both sides commit to those kind of odds?

I guess what I’m saying is: create a sorcerer based upon what makes sense and using the revised power level WP guidelines. And unless he’s suicidal I doubt he’ll be looking for a brawling match with your party unless he can get a bigger advantage than “balance”.

That was question, as I'm not going for a balance

If I make a sorc full of WP, I'm not going to restrain myself from nuking the biggest threat.
On the other hand I had fights (in DND) where 2 players were paralyzed turn 2, and then spend 30 minutes failing their end of turn rolls, again and again. That wasn't fun for the players.

This is why I was asking for some guidelines.

The mage is an alien being worshipped by miners, who dug it out of cave and then got brainwashed. So it's goals are simple, you either become part of the "herd" or you became herds' food.

I mostly decide before upon citumstance, or roll a D6/D8/D10 for how many WPs the NPCs have (then use the tactics that would be smartest depending on the number on WPs, including flee from the fight if its to few!). Then I try to play them smart/fun. This leads to the PCs trying to outsmart the Magic-user opponent with magical defences. I usually do my NPCs "magicbattleplan" before I now how the PC defend themselves from magic.

For instance if I have i NPC magic user that have 6 WPs. It may start to burn 4 points to Immolate the most dangerous PC (warrior or magician) and save 2 for magic defence/last ditch Immolation, maybe to break a wounded PC.

This apporoach usually gives very fast brutal and intense magic fights!