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Mlai

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Posts posted by Mlai

  2. Posted

    Neat idea, but in order to make this new class actually "new", the spells should be more creative and fanciful. None of his spells should be direct damage/armor effects. Any direct dmg spell, such as Fireball (complete with Blast and Burn), should have an element of unpredictability, for example the wizard must roll for max range, and if he gets an X that means spell blows up in his face.

    What kind of creative spells? For example, maybe a spell that switches the location of a monster (in LOS) and a hero.

  4. Posted

    Also, like the Marshal, the Gambler's power should mainly involve "interacting" with the OL rather than just having ATK/DEF bonuses. Things like betting against the OL and/or his deck in some way, and if winning, penalizing the OL's actions. Otherwise who is he "gambling" with?

    Make him a real pain in the butt.

  5. Posted

    (1) Does this class allow you to have more than one face-up card kept in the play area?  Or do you have to discard the previous face-up card (still unused) if you draw another one?

     

    IMO, only 1 face-up card should be allowed at a time.  Maybe later skills allow more.  If you keep the exhaust mechanic, then maybe it's ok to have more than 1 face-up card at a time because it takes turns to "build up the hand".  But I would add some number cards as "duds".  Not complete duds per se, but just smaller bonuses.

     

    (2) You can actually go pretty crazy with the rules of this class, if you're a poker lover.  You can allow the entire deck of 52 cards, and rule up some sort of poker mini-game where the gambler player is trying to get a great hand which would give him awesome power-ups.  LOL but that may be overdoing it; reminds me of the Mathematician in Final Fantasy Tactics.

    InfinityBlack14 reacted to this

  6. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    I know balance is important, but I'm not arguing over your balance skillz here.  I'm talking about basic game design, which I don't need to balance-playtest to have an opinion on.  I wouldn't use your custom Druid class as it is now, because it doesn't WOW me on the fun factor.  I don't look at your werewolf and feel "Wow, that skill looks brutal!  I'm gonna jump around the room and make howling noises when I play that!"  Yes, I understand you gotta give the WW more ATK/DEF dice in Act 2.  But what matters is how you achieve that effect.

     

    And adding more advantage to it would be really broken. And using you idea to give a leap attack with a dice bonus would mean that the werewolf would do normal attack with only Blue + Red ? in act 2, it's neally useless, even the Raven flock has Blue + Red + Yellow dice on each regular attacks.

     

     

    See the contradiction?  First you say giving the WW a special attack would make it overpowered, then you say oh but the WW's normal attack is weak and useless.  Yes!  Because I meant to balance it that way!  You think I'm just trying to give the WW carte blanche advantages so he breaks the entire game, and you think I would think that's good gameplay?  No.

     

    I already told you why I intended it that way: Instead of giving the WW a straight power-up where you don't have to strategize on how to use it, you give him a special ability that's pretty good in order to cover for his "weakness" half the time.  That way, the player has to play the WW intelligently to make him shine, not just walk up to monsters and start rolling dice.  And I did hear you when you said "the Druid is Healer class; his forms are not supposed to replace the Warrior class."  So the WW would have combat disadvantages to balance his combat advantages, to make him stand out with smart use, but not to make him all-around better than Warrior, or function the same way as the Warrior.

     

    The above is the part which I agree with Tomkat.

     

    You're in druid and need to change to werewolf. You spend an action, you can. If it's fatigue cost, if you don't have it, you can't, you need a rest action before, and may be killed. In short, you always have an action to spend to change form but you may not have the fatigue for it. The Ovelord may stun you but you still have at least 1 action left, but the Overlord can make you lose all your stamina without any limitation. 

     

    That's great!  That makes for a character which must be strategized to be used well, but when used well can shine!  I like that the Werewolf doesn't need to waste actions to transform, but instead has a weakness which the OL can exploit to prevent him from transforming whenever he pleases.

     

    Uses Action: You can always spend an action to transform.  No brainpower or planning needed.  But overall economy of actions is sacrificed for that ease of use.  Doesn't matter how smart you are, if you're a druid you will have to waste some actions.  Rewards dumb players and penalizes smart players.

    Uses Fatigue: You can save your actions for winning the game, but you can get yourself killed if you don't manage your Stamina.  And you have to outsmart the OL because he has ways to "attack" your Stamina.  Strategizing needed.  Penalizes dumb players and rewards smart players.

    InfinityBlack14 reacted to this

  7. Posted

    Actually, for militia and gaurds, we seem to have that covered come february with "Runewars Miniatures Game" on the Daqan side.

    But what matter is whether or not the minis will be 25mm scale, so that town guards don't make the base game heroes look short.  Will Runewars go with 25mm, or their new 28mm scale which you can find with the newest Descent heroes?

    If FFG is just going to go 28mm, then I might as well just go buy some WotC or Reaper minis as they're easier to find for me.

  8. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    Game balance is great but not if the play isn't fun. I've participated in community balance patch mods, so I have plenty experience with that dichotomy.

    I'm not saying making the werewolf stronger in Act 2 is wrong to do. But wasting a card just to give the form a yellow dice or black dice is not evocative. It doesnt make you feel like oh boy this class looks violent, aside from the plastic mini of a werewolf that was arbitrarily chosen. Where is the wolf in the rules?

    So what to do? For example, you could say ok, this card gives Leap Attack ability, and in addition this card ability gives additional attack dice during this special attack. There, 2 birds with 1 stone. It also makes more planning necessary because the card would be exhausted, which means this +yellow die special attack is only once a turn, rather than once you get this card all your attacks are straight-up stronger you don't even have to think anymore.

    That is just a quick example prior to balance tweaks. But you see what I mean in terms of game design.

    As for action vs fatigue, did you just say that fatigue is more costly to the hero?? No, even if transformation costs 2 fatigue, it is still less costly than costing an action. 1 action = 1 full rest.

  9. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    I agree partially with Tomkat and Rugal. First I need to admit that I do not personally like or would use Rugal's custom classes, but I do like the thought experiments of talking about his custom classes.

    Tomkat: I agree with Rugal that having ability cards which only give 1 form or the other more power would make for lopsided builds which defeats the purpose of a class which should be able to jump between 2 equal but different "skill trees".

    Rugal: I agree with Tomkat that many of your cards give un-exciting progression. Card: Now your werewolf gets an extra yellow die... woot? What Tomkat wanted were visceral thematic skills which make you feel like you are an apex predator.

    Now, I also partially agree with Tomkat that using an action to change form is too huge a cost for switching. This game is all about economy of actions; losing actions repeatedly as a hero just for setup of accessing skills... it's handing the OL the game. Yes, Quick Transform fixes that (partially)... but it's a 3xp card!

    But I also agree that free switching is too powerful. So, how about you can switch without action (limited to start of turn only), but it costs fatigue? Or, make Quick Transform a 1xp card.

  10. Posted

    I want a familiars and citizens figure pack to replace most of the tokens! I would wager quite a few people would pick that up. Proxies just aren't cutting it.

    While I'm also OCD in wanting everything represented by minis, I do recognize that having the occasional peasant represented by plastic is not needed for most players.

    However, I do feel that having the NPCs whose purpose in any particular encounter is to fight, move around, and get attacked is important for plastic representation! If I'm asked to use them to fight, I need more tactile indicator than a coin-like token! Please give me Town Guards With Crossbows and Town Guards With Spears in the next H&M pack!

    Some might say, just proxy. But I've found that Descent is actually hard to proxy for if what you need are humans. 25mm? Most minis are heroic 28mm (Reaper Bones, WotC, etc); I don't want town guards who make my base game heroes look short! How about FFG's own Battlelore Daqan soldiers? They're 23mm they're the size of goblins!

    Descent 2e, just give me a few all-purpose town guards/ militiamen with blunted weapons, frightened visages, and a resigned posture. They know why they're in the game; as speed bumps for the monster waves!

  12. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    No, it's not. It's more like the usual classes with the 3xp less and 3 other cards instead, 1 for each level of XP.

    You want a lateral expansion where you get a new set of abilities for the same characters you've always been using as Healers and Mages.

     

    Instead, you are getting different sort of lateral expansion, where now you get to use old (but custom-recombined) sets of abilities for characters who could never access them before.  That's a lot of new interplay between different class cards which never worked together before, and between hero abilities/feats and class cards which never worked together before.  That's not yet counting the set of 3 new cards which you can mix into this combination set.

     

    I love tooling around with old assets to make something new, maybe even more than just getting brand new stuff.  That's why I like to extensively mod my favorite PC games, rather than just go out and buy some new PC game.  I like to see new life breathed into something which may have lost its vitality.

     

    People who play M:TG would get why this is just as good an expansion of possibilities.

  14. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    Hmm, looks similar to the Battlelust skill my custom barbarian lieutenants have.  Battlelore reinforcement packs gave me these cool tokens and I had to do something with them!

    BT06-layout.png

     

    Got a new Warrior class I've been mulling over a bit, the Barbarian. This class utilizes Adrenaline tokens that give him passive boosts based on how many you have on your hero. Let your Adrenaline drop too low and you suffer negative effects so be careful. Again, posting it now but I'm fully aware of some timing issues with the Adrenaline tokens and skills. Hoping to get some input from the community. Thanks for checking it out guys!

     

    I recommend changing "Adrenaline" term.  It is a modern technical term which doesn't evoke medieval atmosphere.  Use "Battlelust".

     

    * The Barbarian class utilizes 3 Adrenaline tokens which are limited by its supply.
    The Barbarian starts each encounter with 2 Adrenaline tokens on his hero sheet.
    At the end of each encounter discard all Adrenaline tokens.

    Starting Weapon: War Axe
    2-Handed, Axe
    R/R Dice
    When you roll 1 Damage on a red power die for an attack, the attack is considered a miss.
    You may spend 1 Fatigue to reroll 1 red power die.

     

    Starting equipment normally don't have cool names.  I recommend "Heavy Axe" or "Heavy Club".

     

    Starting Skill: Adrenaline 0 Fatigue
    At the start of your turn, discard an Adrenaline token.
    When you are defeated, discard all Adrenaline tokens.
    Place an Adrenaline token on your hero sheet after each Melee attack you perform during your turn is resolved.

     

    I think you should only +1 token if the melee attack actually does damage to an enemy, or at least hits the enemy even if it's blocked.

    Since the hero potentially has 2 chances per turn to add a token, I say +1 only if melee does damage.

     

    Apply the following effects to you based on the number of Adrenaline tokens you have on your hero sheet:
    0: -1 Speed, -1 Damage from each of your attack rolls
    2: Add Pierce 1 +1 Damage to each of your attack rolls (just making things consistent, less variables).
    3: Add +1 Damage and Bleed +1 Surge to each of your attack rolls (I think +Surge is more flexible, also it's Old Nanok's ability).

     

    Aside from just passive bonuses/boni, some of the higher-end skills should require a certain number of Bloodlust to activate.  What

    this does is the Barbarian effectively has a 2nd fluctuating pool of "Fatigue" to use for combat, and his normal Fatigue can be used for

    everything else.

     

    1XP Skill: Endure the Pain 0 Fatigue
    At the end of the Overlords turn, if you suffered 4 or more Damage and was not defeated during the Overlords turn place an Adrenaline token on your hero sheet.

     

    Call this skill something more humorous and macho: No Pain No Gain.

     

    I say make this skill easier to remember by changing it to:

    "At the end of the Overlords turn, if you have less than half your starting HP but more than 0, place a Battlelust token on your hero sheet."

     

    1XP Skill: WIP
    *Want this to be a free attack skill during the Overlords turn specifically. Basically the way Berserkers Counterattack works but different.

     

    Sounds like my barbarian's Counterstrike skill, which is basically a boardgame rendition of Street Fighter IV's Super Armor feature.

    See: http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Armor

     

    Also: Exhaust this card to activate this skill.  This card costs 1 Battlelust to refresh.  (Skill costs no fatigue to use.)

     

    Counterstrike: Instead of rolling Defense dice against a melee attack, this hero may choose to suffer all HP damage as Fatigue (up to max Fatigue),

    and retaliate immediately with a melee attack, as long as he is not otherwise prevented from doing so by the attack he had just suffered.


    1XP Skill: Heightened Senses 0 Fatigue
    When you defeat a monster with a Melee attack while you have no Adrenaline tokens on your hero sheet, place an Adrenaline token on your hero sheet.
    This is in addition to placing an Adrenaline token with Adrenaline.

     

    Name Change: Who's Next

    Get rid of the "while you have no tokens on your hero sheet."  Defeating a monster should always net you a token.

     

    2XP Skill: Ferocity 2 Fatigue
    Exhaust this card when you perform a Melee attack, after dice are rolled and choose 1 power die.
    You may reroll the chosen die up to X times, where X is equal to the number of Adrenaline tokens you have on your hero sheet.
    You must keep the new result.

     

    Name Change: I Ain't Missing You At All

    (LOL kidding.)

     

    Exhaust this card when you perform a Melee attack, after dice are rolled.  This card costs 2 Battlelust to refresh.
    You may reroll any die in your Attack pool a total of X times, where X is equal to the number of Adrenaline Battlelust tokens you have on your hero sheet.

    You must keep the newest result.

     

    This word change allows you to not just re-roll 1 die (blue or otherwise), but any number of dice, as long as the total number of re-rolls do not exceed X.

    For a 2 Fatigue (or 2 Battlelust) cost you need this flexibility.

    2XP Skill: Stop at Nothing 1 Fatigue
    While you have 3 Adrenaline tokens, gain +1 Speed and you cannot be Immobilized.
    Use this card during your turn when you resolve an attack with a Melee weapon to gain 2 movement points.

     

    Name change?  One For The Road

    Maybe you see my running theme... Trying to think of macho phrases to use.

     

    Exhaust this card during your turn when you resolve a Melee attack to gain 2 movement points.  This card costs 1 Battlelust to refresh.  No fatigue cost.

    2XP Skill: Tribal Tattoos 1 Fatigue
    While you don't have Light or Heavy armor equipped, you may use this card when you are attacked after dice are rolled to add 1 Shield to the results and after the attack is resolved the monster suffers 1 Damage.

     

    Exhaust this card during your turn when you are attacked, after the attack dice are rolled.  Add 1 brown die to your Defense pool.  After the attack is resolved, the attacking monster suffers Damage equal to the total Shields you rolled. 

    This card can only be exhausted while you don't have armor equipped, and costs 1 Battlelust to refresh.  No fatigue cost.

     

    For a 2 XP skill which costs 1 Battlelust to refresh, +1 shield and +1 damage seems too small a benefit.

     

    3XP Skill: Burly Brawler 1 Fatigue
    Gain +4 Health.
    Each time you declare an Unarmed attack, you may move 2 space and add 1 red power die to your attack pool.
    Use this card after each Unarmed attack you perform that doesn't miss resolves. If you do, the target is Stunned.

     

    I'm not too enthused about a 3 XP card which asks you to be un-armed.  By the time you can afford a 3 XP card, you should have found a good weapon.  Also, the Monk will be the open-handed specialist anyways.

    I say make this card Old Nanok's feat: "You are unaffected by this attack."

     

    Name Change: I Have The Power

    Exhaust this card when you are attacked, after the attack dice is rolled.  You are unaffected by this attack.

    This card costs 2 Battlelust to refresh.

     

    3XP Skill: Unleashed Fury 1 Fatigue
    Exhaust this card during your turn while you have 3 Adrenaline tokens to perform an attack that targets each monster adjacent to you.
    After the attack resolves, you may move each monster targeted by the attack 1 space.
    When this card refreshes, discard 1 Adrenaline token.

     

    Name change: Wheel of Pain, or One Stood Against Many

    This card costs 2 Battlelust to refresh.

  18. Posted

    Thus, we'd be getting 25-50 gold instead of 125+ - which I doubt is worth choosing 1 out of 2 missions and denying extra XP for OL.

    Bottomline: Yes, it looks winnable for heroes, but I'd rather collect 1 clergy and all ST yielding 125+ gold and by cool stuff right off the bat.

    You'll notice that as a trend: Yes, you can "win" the quest, but depending on what you get as reward you may rather just get as much gold out of it as possible.

    OL earning an extra XP is no match for heroes getting a lot of gold, with which they can buy much better equipment to crush monsters with.  It's part of why Treasure Hunter is such a strong class, IIRC.

  19. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    Inner Strength -> Primal Strength?

    Shapeshift card, Werewolf Shape:
    1. At the start of the hero's turn in werewolf form, automatically spend 1 Fatigue and recover 1 HP.  The hero immediately reverts back to standard form if there's no available Fatigue to spend.
    2. 'Stealthy' ability

     

    I feel like there should be a restriction on how long you can be in this powered-up werewolf mode.  By restricting it, you are also free to make the form more badass without becoming unbalanced.

     

    Feral (Feral Blood) card, Werewolf Shape:
    Add 1 GREEN power die to your attack pool.

     

    The green die has more surge, which allows the hero to stay as werewolf longer (if he chooses).

  20. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    Annointed is not so great but Totem's favor is strange since there's no totem and could block the possibility to play a totem based class)

     

    About the druid's word logic, I'm not sure. In my idea, a druid is a shapeshifter and cannot be anything else (see diablo 2, for example), so I created it this way with this in mind.

     

    Removing the fact that the druid and the werewolf have separated HP amount would change the logic and the balance of the class. The idea was to make a healer that could change into a warrior with some restrictions. What would be the use of morphing into werewolf if you gain only some dice change and the loss of equipment, and furthermore in the first quests ?

     

    I'm going to test it some more and see about balance and troubles and change some things with thoses returns.

    1. The "Anointed" card combines 2 dissimilar abilities, and was therefore hard to name.  If you don't want to use the word totem, then I can only suggest "Blood & Claw".

     

    2. As for druids... I am only familiar with the historical and mythological basis for druids, since I'm a fan of Arthurian and Celtic lore.  I don't know what Blizzard and Wizards Of The Coast have done to corrupt the word, except to say that I turn my nose up at whatever they have done.

     

    3. I don't understand why you think the WW needs a separate HP pool in order to be a warrior.  For example, if you gave it a black die, natural regeneration, the ability to shrug off light damage, and increased ability to dodge... why would it need more HPs?

     

    I think what he means is that normally a Druid can shapeshift into multiple things, not just a (were)wolf? So that way there is room for a class that has different mechanics and allows for more forms.

    Nawh, I didn't mean that.  I simply meant that a Druid is more like a pagan wizard, as opposed to the more urbane Hermetic wizard.

  21. Posted · Edited by Mlai

    Looked through your cards and felt that the names could be better, or reflect a theme better on a whole.

     

    Druid: Change name to... Skin-Walker?
    Branch Staff: Change name to... Evergreen Staff?
    Werewolf Shape: Change name to... Lycanthrope?
    Animist: Change to... Animist Vigor?
    Anointed: Change to... Totem's Favor?
    Primitive: Change to... Dancing Earth?
    Feral: Change to... Feral Blood?
    Mother Earth: change to... Great Mother?
    Nature's Power: Change to... Wild Guardian?

    Gaea's Will: Change to... Gaea's Bounty?

     

    1st thing I did is remove the word druid, because a skin-walker is closer to what the cards envision, so "druid" can be saved for a proper druid class which comes along.  It also takes the class out of strictly Celtic origins, as therianthropy is a global mythic trope.

    The other name changes are either to make them sound more descriptive of the actual ability, or to better fit theme as I see it.

     

    I also agree that the werewolf should not have separate HPs; it is needlessly fiddly.  The hero and his werewolf form should share the same HP pool, and the werewolf is simply hardier by means of defense dice and other innate abilities.
     
    By selecting the class, perhaps the hero can gain +2 HP right off the bat on his/her basic class card.

  24. Posted

    "all seeing" triggers the 1hp 1fatigue recovery from "soothing insight". As beta tester i can say this is intended to work this way.

    All the different card effects stack onto the insight token, correct?

     

    Soothing Insight also states "A hero with the insight token may discard it during his turn to recover 1 HP."

    So that would stack with Victory Fortold?  "Discard the insight token for that hero to roll an additional green power die on the attack."

  25. Posted

    I think FFG is aiming for the Marvel vs Capcom strategy of game balance: Everything is so chaotically broken and imba, it settles into its own kind of balance.

    That's what will happen when your multi-class feature means you can combine any deck from category A with any deck from category B, each one sporting 4-5 decks for like 20-25 possible deck combinations.  There is no way we won't get some power decks.

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