While I finish developing the Neutral alignment card/back and spells, I've decided to also include 2 or 3 Characters based in the expansion's Neutral (Balanced/Nature) scheme. I'll post them here in "Beta" to print and try out, though some abilities are nulled unless played with the In the Balance expansion packs (see TalismanIsland.com). There are also some terms to understand, such as Starting versuse "Natural" and "Current" Craft / Strength... or may simply ignore these and simply treat all Stength and Craft references by the standard rules. Eventually, I'll develop standees as well and, where possible, include male and female versions.

Here's one to play test. Right-Click and save to get the full resolution version. Graphic quality is slightly lower than the coming final version in order to keep file size low for now.

And now a Standee to go with it.... Image is viewed at half resolutions, so right-click and save / view to see it in full

Critique and suggestions for characters are encouraged, but you might try playing them first.

Hi JC, great stuff again.

Hands up I have not played but a couple of things from first glance. Only very minor .

• Praying in Forest
  
  I really like this idea, so much that it was in my ideas for a character...
  
  Perhaps for even further balance, you could choose to treat as Chapel or Graveyard. (maybe only allowed to make that choice the first time?)
  
  To me, maybe the pray+1 should start on a new line.
• Charming Dragon
  
  You have a comma inside the quotes rather that outside.
  
  Not quite sure if you mean never attack a Dragon as in this Dragon or any Dragon.
  
  Also, I presume the result is that you Evade . It is pretty tough to manage, maybe you could reward more by allowing
  the Dragon to become a Follower for one Battle of your choosing before flying off to the Discard pile/unoccupied space of your choice...
  
• Image
  
  To my eyes, the lighting/shading on the flowers seem to be different to the character.
  
  Perhaps she could be kicking up some faerie dust from the flowers...

Hi B.

BanthaFodder said:

The whole thing with praying in the graveyard never sat well with me; I'm of the old "invoking" approach. The whole thing with Neutral in my expansion is a nature oriented, and a theurge of such would be more priestly in reference to using the Chapel's table in the Forest. Plus it's just simpler to do a direct reference rather than a choice to keep track of.

BanthaFodder said:

I'll give it try and see if I can make the spacing work

BanthaFodder said:

1. Ah, well, I'm in the USA. And that's the way US punctuation works; I'll tweak it.
2. It should be "any"; it's part the verdant code that Dragons are semi-sacred beings. I'll fix it.
   
   ASIDE: Metaphysically, in the real world, the dragon was used in ancient and old earth religions as a metaphor/symbol of all living animate life rolled into one form. Its matching metaphor for inanimate life is the tree. The roots of this goe way back to before recorded history. Some comparative theologians believe the Genesis tale of the serpent in the apple tree was a demonization of these older symbols collectively; it wouldn't be the first time one religion did that to another (or many).
3. In a way, but not really. If it said "evade," that has restrictions by the rules. But it doesn't, does it (wink). And it should be difficult to affect any creature so potent.
   
   Too many characters pull off the "follower" trick or influence powerful Enemies too easily. Such and other abilities should be based on (1) a character attribute starting, with skill points only, or total all bonuses, or (2) the potency of the Enemy, or (3) both. Current flat random rolls or automatics used by characters are only done so that some can quickly "level up" temporarily or permanently without "doing" anything. It's lame, even for the goal of speeding up the game. NOTE: that criticism IS NOT aimed at you or anything you've said; I'm just explaining my position and how I do things and why.
   
   The priest's power (via Craft) is its influence through "holiness" and the ability to apply that influence.... it is not really a special "ability"; that's just the only term applied to anything a character can do besides kill stuff.
   
   There is a notion in something you mention, though it means getting more wordy on the card. Perhaps if the Priest succeeds, it could send the Dragon to any space in the same region. I kind of like that. But the priest would never enslave it.

BanthaFodder said:

You're absolutely right. I tried to find "rendered" grasses etc. to use but couldn't find any that would be easy to work with and weren't horribly done. (The priest herself was taken from a sample advertising render of clothing for Poser characters... with a tiny bit of post work by me.)

What you see there was created with photos of real world plants layered masked, selection lifted, touched up, and the layers having some quick art effects applied (Topaz Simplicity 2.0).. somethings in multiple layers per layer. In my wanderings on the net, I keep an eye out for 3D plant renders that aren't too cheezy so I can redo that part of the image later.

I'll try to have a revised Verdant Priest up sometime later today. There will be at least one more Verdant Character, and perhaps something else as well. But they will have a slight slant towards use with the ITB expansion.

Here is a revised edition of the "Verdant Priest." The new file overwrites the previous one, so if you think you're seeing the same image as last time, do a forced refresh of this web page. The image is still in high compression versus the final version that will be packaged with In the Balance, Part 3.

JCHendee said:

JCHendee said:

I agree, though my first thought that it was aligning the character more to Good than Evil (which in actuality is probably accurate for a Nature based character rather than strict neutrality.) I originally was thinking that Good can gain Life and evil, Fate, perhaps Neutral should be able to choose.

Maybe a version of both their rules:

Roll 1 die: 1-4) Ignored 5) Gain 1 Life or Fate 6) Gain 1 Spell

JCHendee said:

1. Aha, I sit opposite someone from the US, he said he was taught the same way but it is changing. To my Anglo eyes it just looked wrong. I blame Benjamin Franklin.

2. Interesting, I did not know that about the trees, although I cerainly agree about the trashing of the native religions and customs. I remember reading (a long time ago about the conversion from matriachal to patriachal society (excuse my spelling, English is not actually my strong suit!) that was very interesting.

3. No criticism taken. It just seemed that the chances of being successful (rolling under 4 on 2d6 essentially 12:1 chance and there are not that many Dragons anyway, meant that to just walk away seemed like a bit of so-so ability. On the flip side, characters can get easily overpowered with abilities.

I get the point about Enslaving the Dragon, that was not what was on my mind, it was more friendly than that... I guess if you ask them to fight you are not really looking after their best interests.

Placing them on another space directly though is a good idea I think and can give you some tactical descisions to make.

JCHendee said:

Hey, its a million miles better than I can manage at the moment. Maybe just a change of pallette away from pink may help.

Keep up the great work. Maybe I can get enough friends together to play a game with ITB one day. With just myself and Mrs. BF we have only played 2 games ( She is two and oh...) and hardly touched the deck really.

Aha, you updated as I was writing.

That looks good actually.

Thanks... and do very much appreciate the input!

And I made some more minor adjustments, including a hue shift to eliminate the "pinks."

AND A STANDEE TO MATCH! With a new label frame to match 4ER design instead of 4E.

Another character for review in low quality temporary files. Right-click / View Image for full size. I consider all abilities here to be just notions, and I'm already concerned that one is too potent.

A slight update to the Verdant Warden... make sure you force refresh the page to see the changes

And a little something on the nastier side. I seem to remember an old character (possibly 2E) by the same title... but what the heck, no other title adequately describes when this guy does... at least for what a real duelist was and what little of that translates into Talisman.

And another one for review... I plan on having six new characters to package with In the Balance, Part 3.