>So this boils down to. I'll spend some coin, you let me
>fight a mob 1:1 and if I win, you tell me where my wand is.
>
>I honestly don't see how this balances out well. The fight is
>likely going to be extremely difficult, at which point it's
>not necessarily going to be viable.

Well, yeah, that's basically the idea. If you're so good at this game or if you've spent so much time and effort that you can get enough preps on your own to beat a really, really tough 1:1 fight, then you shouldn't really have to go play 'needle in the haystack' through all the same zones again.

OR it you're not so good, but you're willing to risk several con and time on a very hard fight to get the perfect saves, luck and whatnot then maybe you get lucky as an alternative to looking everywhere including places you can't even imagine.

The idea was to give an option without making it easy. Even if an option is incredibly difficult, the fact people have a choice tends to make them at least feel like they have some sort of control rather than just jumping through hoops mindlessly (which really is wand gathering). Even if only 5% of the mud could beat these fights, it would probably keep 25% of the complainers off your back. :-)

Anyway, thanks for reading the idea. Good luck with the changes. I'll go back to mages when the locations are common knowledge again or you find a better system.