Top 8 Reasons Sigilist is Best

Inspirobot will destroy the lies.

Though it might seem strange to us laymen, it seems that there is a practicality to lugging around all your books everywhere you go.  Long have gamers lamented such, as DM's & TO's (Dungeon Masters & Tournament Organizers) have been forced to lug large libraries to gaming venues for decades.  Now, a wizard comes from the Frozen City to show us how to put all that parchment, paper and papyrus to good use - the Sigilist.

Scrolls, grimoires and quills.  Fortunately, the magic that comes from the mystic symbols scrawled therein doesn't necessarily need to be legibly read by everyone it's going to affect.  The Sigilist appreciates this nuance, as most folks in Frostgrave can't read so well.

The aligned schools for the Sigilist are Thaumaturge, Illusionist and Enchanter.  The opposed school is Summoner, so apparently evil symbols are hard to draw on paper.  That's probably why weekend cultists so rarely succeed at performing a summoning.

Top 8 Reasons Sigilist is best!

1. Absorb Knowledge
• Free XP, as long as your wizard doesn't get taken to 0.  Easy to cast, but can only be cast by a wizard out of game.  A solid choice, especially early in the campaign.
2. Create Grimoire
• Free money, but can only be cast by your wizard out of game.  Again, early in the campaign this can really put you ahead, and whether or not it's better than Absorb Knowledge really depends on how fast you're losing soldiers.
3. Draining Word
• One of the best debuff spells in the game actually targets a wizard's spell.  A single spell (the one you hate the most) becomes 3 points harder to cast, but this is indiscriminate and applies to your spellcasters as well.  The good news is, both wizard and apprentice can cast this spell, making it hard for opponents to rely on their best magics.
4. Explosive Rune
• A staple offensive spell, but rather hard to use.  It's a respectable +5 shooting attack, but obviously it's use is going to be restricted.  However, you can have three per spellcaster on the board ...so if you take a few turns you can basically mine an area and deny a great deal of enemy movement.  
5. Furious Quill
• Another offensive staple for the Sigilist, this spell is more of a sustained curse than an actual attack.  However, while under attack by the quill, it will make soldiers much less effective all around.  Pair this with Draining Word and you can really make it hard for enemy spellcasters to cast their most powerful spells.
6. Power Word
• Like Draining Word, but with a bonus instead.  Avoid casting this for spells your opponent shares!  For that reason, this will probably be more situational later in the campaign when all the wizards have found more spells and share more than one or two.
7. Push
• One of my favorites, this spell is close to being the most useful one in the game.  Any spellcaster can do with this spell - it has the potential to really upset your opponent's strategy!  Of course, it doesn't do damage unless whatever you launch hits the ground after a precarious fall.  Remember to Push folks off higher terrain at an angle...it goes DIRECTLY away from you!
8. Write Scroll
• Unlike grimoires, you can actually use scrolls.  It is what it says on the tin:  a one-use spell, pre-cast.  Write 'em up whenever you have the downtime...and your apprentice should definitely be doing this.  During the game, it helps to have scrolls of spells you already know, as the scroll will act as a fail-safe during casting.

It's not what you've got in your spellbook, it's how you use it.  At first, the Sigilist might seem a little underwhelming, but if you select Sigilist you are definitely playing for the long game.  After collecting a few more spells, this wizard can really diversify the kind of hindrances they can inflict on the enemy, making their own range of direct damage spells less of an issue.

For myself, Push is an immediate grab.  After that, Explosive Rune and Write Scroll are the other Sigilist spells I'd start with.  The former acts as area denial, and Write Scroll will allow you to make sure you get critical spells off when you need to.  The aligned schools have a lot of utility spells, so make sure you don't neglect your soldiers with spells like Heal and spells from the Enchanter list.

I think a large spread of different troop types suits the Sigilist best, unless you've got a specific tactic you're wanting to exploit.  Allowing for a lot of different responses to different situations, having several different troop types also might cause  your opponent to wonder where exactly you might be going with all this...and such diversions will help when facing off against more aggressive spellcasters such as Elementalists or Necromancers.