So I have promised a variant to provide for a solo mode. It entails you fighting three of the five monster transformations at a time until all five are eliminated. What you do is choose a color and its respective tile. Only one sector board is used, and side B seems to work better than Side A, otherwise you get attacked a lot more often; portals are not used but the wrap-around rule is still in-effect. Everyone starts at 15 health (more or less health points depending on how much challenge you want). Shuffle the five creature transformations and then lay each transformation next to the compass, represented by one through four. Put the last transformation card to the side, then roll the d4. Choose that creature as your first monster and place it next to its respective color. Then lay the fifth card where your first pick was previously next to the compass. Roll again at least two more times until the final two colors are represented. Leave the compass and remaining two transformation cards as is, as they will be used later.
Your wizard starts at the center of the map. Treasures are placed but are otherwise unused; merely, they are provided for Heave-Ho, if you would use it. For cardinal direction purposes, line up the sector board to be even with the compass, and then roll the d4 for your first, second, and third monster summons on the open sections of the map. Monsters may not share the same square when summoned. Roll the d4 until the creature can be summoned at one of these open spaces. Draw your five cards, play as normal, and survive!
Deck Creation rules : use whatever cards you like. I prefer to choose my own schools, even if this means drawing junk at some points. Some cards will have no effect and waste space in your deck. If you see this as challenge to get to better cards, more power to you. Otherwise, draft what you want in the deck so long as it is 50 or more cards. Keep in mind the more powerful and useful the deck you build, the easier your delve will be. Consider maxing monster health to 20 instead of 15, and maybe also decreasing your own if the sessions seem too easy. Remember: the Transformation School will be missing its 5 Transformation cards: that is normal for this solo variant!
Monster AI rules : use the monster as printed. Monsters do not draw cards. When your turn ends, each monster activates in the chronology they were selected. Monsters move their amount of available movement and then attack if able. Monsters always use the shortest path to move towards a wizard. If a monster would enter the wizard's square (except Big Man, see below), he stops and attacks, then ending his turn. All monsters have the Shatter card ability. If a monster is ever trapped or your wizard has walled himself in, the monster(s) will crack walls instead; the monster does either one of two actions with his turn when this happens:
1) If no walls have been cracked already within movement of the monster, he will move as close as possible to the wizard and then crack the wall that will give him shortest movement to the wizard. For each physical damage, the monster inflicts a crack as his attack.
2) If a wall is cracked already within movement of the monster, he will move to the cracked wall and then crack the wall for each physical damage he inflicts as his attack.
If the wizard becomes accessible again, the monster uses any remaining movement left to pursue and attacks if able.
Big Man Form monster rules : the Big Man monster can push his allies and enemy. He always goes towards the enemy wizard. If there would be an intersection as he is pushing the wizard, you choose where you and the Big Man go. He will use his three movement if able and then attack (so you should be pushed always if you continue to stay next to him; usually a painful idea). Big Man also obstructs the path of his allies; for these purposes, he counts as a non-attackable wall, and his allies will follow the next shortest path to the wizard if Big Man comes between the wizard and them.
Slime Form monster rules : the Slime monster does not hurt his allies when moving through their squares. He does however use each leftover movement as an extra damage against the wizard if the Slime monster shares the same square (so he can do a total of 3 damage a turn if the wizard shares the same square or ends up adjacent to the Slime monster). Incidentally, the Slime monster never attacks, which may prevent some counter cards from interrupting his damage-movement ability. The Slime monster does however crack walls similar to how other monsters do, as if he were attacking, depending how much movement he has left available.
When a monster has zero life, it is killed and the wizard absorbs the monster. The monster's transformation card is added to the wizard's hand and he then discards down to his maximum hand size if necessary. If there are any remaining monster transformation cards, roll a d4 till one is selected as a replacement. Then roll the d4 again for the monster summons when his turn would activate his color order. He activates on his turn. The wizard wins if all 5 monsters are killed.
Variant ability for monsters : if the wizard is not within 5 movement of the monster when it activates for his turn, he attacks the wall that would give him the shortest path before moving unless an adjacent wall is already cracked; then he will proceed to destroy that wall, if able. If the wall still stands after the attack, the monster does not move for his turn. Next turn, if the wizard is still outside 5 movement, the monster attacks again, attacking the wall with the most cracks he is adjacent to. If the wall is destroyed after his attack, he moves towards the wizard on the shortest path to get to him. I have not tried this variant ability yet but I assume it will make evading the monsters later much more difficult and will be fun seeing the map fall apart as the monsters become more enraged at the labyrinth you hide in.
Let me know what you guys think and if you have any other ideas to offer!