Difficulty without stupidity: apprentice, adept, archmage

Tiers degrade resources and repertoire, never judgment — the design
constraint was that no tier may ever look dumb. The APPRENTICE draws
one card a turn instead of two (a poorer wizard, not a worse one),
spends counters only on heavy hits (thrift, not blindness), and
carries a modest spellbook: damage, summons, stones, keys, and
treasure play, with no afflictions, amplifies, ambushes, guarding
tricks, or deja-vu. The ADEPT draws fully and knows everything except
ambushes and amplify. The ARCHMAGE is the full curriculum. Every card
any tier plays, it plays correctly.

The lobby workshop gains a tier picker beside the temperaments
(default adept); the tier persists with the seat, shows in roster and
scoresheet ("⚙ apprentice mystery"), and rides the drive loop.
Measured where it should matter: in berserker combat mirrors the
archmage beats the apprentice two to one, while pure treasure races
stay honest — the handicap lives in the card exchanges a human
actually feels, pinned deterministically in the tournament suite.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

packages/web/src/App.svelte

@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
   /** Leafing through the face-up discard pile. */
   let showDiscards = $state(false);
   let chatDraft = $state("");
+  let botTier = $state("adept");
   /** Card whose official FAQ rulings are open. */
   let faqCardId = $state<string | null>(null);
   /** A discard-pile card enlarged above the pile. */
@@ -1051,11 +1052,16 @@
         {#if net.you === net.hostId}
           {#if net.players.length < 6}
             <span class="bot-row">
-              ⚙ seat an automaton:
-              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("hunter")}>hunter</button>
-              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("berserker")}>berserker</button>
-              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("worrier")}>worrier</button>
-              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot()}>mystery</button>
+              ⚙ seat a
+              <select class="tier-pick" bind:value={botTier} aria-label="automaton difficulty">
+                <option value="apprentice">apprentice</option>
+                <option value="adept">adept</option>
+                <option value="archmage">archmage</option>
+              </select>
+              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("hunter", botTier)}>hunter</button>
+              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("berserker", botTier)}>berserker</button>
+              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot("worrier", botTier)}>worrier</button>
+              <button class="stamp tiny" onclick={() => net.addBot(undefined, botTier)}>mystery</button>
             </span>
           {/if}
           <label class="check">
@@ -2012,6 +2018,14 @@
   .big-peek :global(.card:hover) { transform: scale(2.1); }
   .big-peek { display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; }
   .big-peek-note { margin-top: 6.8rem; max-width: 15rem; font-size: 0.8rem; }
+  .tier-pick {
+    background: #f6f0df;
+    border: 1px solid #b3a687;
+    border-radius: 3px;
+    font: inherit;
+    color: #43331f;
+    padding: 0.1rem 0.25rem;
+  }
   .bot-row {
     display: inline-flex;
     align-items: center;

packages/web/src/net.svelte.ts

@@ -428,8 +428,8 @@ class Net {
   }
 
   /** Ask the server how all our games are doing. */
-  addBot(style?: string): void {
-    this.send({ type: "addBot", ...(style ? { style } : {}) });
+  addBot(style?: string, tier?: string): void {
+    this.send({ type: "addBot", ...(style ? { style } : {}), ...(tier ? { tier } : {}) });
   }
 
   rollTableDie(): void {