My Character Contest Entry - Retry

By Wandering Wiz, in Talisman Home Brews

Since the image does not seem to work, here is the general idea for the character:

In order to use this character, you must be playing with the Dungeon Expansion.

Character: Dark Elf

Strength: 3 Craft: 4 Fate: 2 Lives: 4

Special Abilities:

1) In order to use this character, you must be playing with the Dungeon Expansion.

2) You add 1 to your attack rolls whenever you are in the Dungeon.

3) You may evade creatures and characters in Caverns.

4) Black Elves will not attack you. Whenever you encounter a Black Elf you may take it as a Follower. You may add 1 to your Craft for each Black Elf follower you have.

5) You need only roll 2 dice in the Mines.

Start: Hall of Darkness (in Dungeon)

Alignment: Evil

Edited by Wandering Wiz

Here's my 2 cents. I like the character's flavor and unique abilities, however I think it has a couple of issues.

First, I think you should never mix the Dwarf's ability to roll only 2 dice in the Mine with a high starting Craft or other abilities to gain Craft more easily. The Dwarf is already an excellent rusher, despite starting with Craft 3 and having no special ability to gain Craft whatsoever. Your Dark Elf, on the other hand, starts with Craft 4 and just needs to draw a Black Elf or Vassal of Darkness (Craft 3 since you're evil vs your Craft 4 plus the bonus for Dungeon fights), and could already be heading for the Inner Region.

Also, why give a character who is obviously designed to hang in the Dungeon the ability to rush in the Inner Region? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

The second issue is that I don't think forcing a player to start in the Dungeon is a very good idea, especially since the Hall of Darkness is quite distant from the exit. The Dungeon is too dangerous for a freshly generated character, and since the Dark Elf is evil he will have a lot of troubles to heal the lives he lost in the Dungeon once he exits.

Thanks Loudo, you have two very good points. When I first played with the idea of an updated Dark Elf designed more for the Dungeon region I stated it at the Dungeon Entrance. Reconsidering, I think I will go back to that so the player has an easier option to go main board.

I was struggling with what special abilities for the character. Because I wanted to add to the flavor of the Dark Elf, I wanted it to get some advantage in the Dungeon thus the +1 to attack rolls. Your points regarding the 2 dice in the Mine, beginning Craft and the Inner Region are valid. I went back and looked at the original Dark Evil from a Version 2 expansion. It had abilities to drain a life by discarding a Follower and to force any character it defeated to lose one point of strength or craft. I like the idea for gaining a Life from a Follower, it helps with your point about the character having a difficult time restoring lives lost in the Dungeon. The ability to force a defeated character to lose one Strength or Craft may add to the favor of the Dark Elf since other characters would be less inclined to engage it in the Dungeon. I like that ability in lieu of the Black Elf and Cavern abilities which are both somewhat limited. So here is the revised version:

Character: Dark Elf

Strength: 3 Craft: 4 Fate: 2 Lives: 4

Special Abilities:

1) You begin the game with 1 Spell.

2) You add 1 to your attack rolls whenever you are in the Dungeon.

3) You may drain the Life force from one of your Followers by discarding the Follower and adding 1to your Lives.

4) Whenever you defeat a Character in battle or psychic combat, you may force that character to lose 1 point of either Strength or Craft instead of losing a Life. However, you cannot force a character to reduce Strength or Craft below its starting value.

Start: Dungeon Entrance

Alignment: Evil

Edited by Wandering Wiz

Sounds wicked but I would point out that of all things, (in my limited experience),as long as you have at least one gold, you could get your life back, so, unless your playing with runestones or house rules that afford you the opportunity to trade in at less than 7, most players would chose (unless it was their last or next to last) life. What about rolling a dice to see what you would drain?