17 hours ago, mkevans80 said:

I think the simplest way to fix it would be to keep the price at 4, and simply remove both stress clauses. The ability would simply read: When attacking, if the defender does not have any focus or evade tokens, you may roll one additional attack die.

One thing I'm not inclined to do is keep the "take a stress" clause but remove the "must be stress-free" clause. ?

The problem is that I _really_ want to stack this on a PTL Tycho or Jake, but the "must be stress free" portion kills that.

Don't get me wrong: I like where you're going. And given the other potentially bad combos, I think you might be correct about the stress. But. I want to see A-Wings get a 3rd Die with good maneuvering.

10 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

Alternatively, remove the 'gain stress' part only and keep the 'if you have no stress' part.

-> Suddenly it becomes usable but 'still in line' with the other 4-pointers.

-> Expose is similar; if the card would say to perform a free action after the Expose action, it would be usable.

Hmm, I see a nice symmetry if all three 4-point cards if they grant big bonuses, but basically require you to be stress free... either explicitly in the terms of an "if you have no stress" Opportunist and Expertise, and implicitly with a version of Expose that takes an action to use but grants a second free action afterwards.

However, would Opportunist be as good as Expertise with that limitation? Expertise gives you a free offensive focus, essentially, with only stress shutting you down. Opportunist would have the same stress-free requirement, plus an additional requirement of needing a target that isn't tokened up. I suppose that adding a die that you could still modify with TL/focus could be stronger than just getting your dice focused up. Hmm. Will have to ponder.

I do understand Pundit's desire for a 3-die shot on certain A-Wings though!

1 hour ago, kris40k said:

You risk pushing non-token-stacking lists even more out of the meta in the attempt to bring Opportunist back into play.

Unless this new Opportunist became a must-take in the same vein as Veteran Insticts, PtL, and Attani, I really don't know that it would be that big a deal. Punishment for non-token stacking is already a thing. This homebrew modification (that will mostly likely never make it to print, not even in a FAQ) is pissing in the ocean. It's also the way the designers are taking the game anyway.... just look at all of the cards that have been coming out (Expertise, Hotshot Copilot, etc).

I would leave it the same, but instead of adding 1 attack dice, i would give it "add one crit result to your roll".

25 minutes ago, mkevans80 said:

Unless this new Opportunist became a must-take in the same vein as Veteran Insticts, PtL, and Attani, I really don't know that it would be that big a deal. Punishment for non-token stacking is already a thing.

Totally agree. Just think we disagree about if we need to punish it even more.

25 minutes ago, mkevans80 said:

It's also the way the designers are taking the game anyway.... just look at all of the cards that have been coming out (Expertise, Hotshot Copilot, etc).

Actually, I disagree with your assessment of those two cards. Hotshot Copilot punishes token stackers; it's worthless against someone that doesn't have any Focus tokens. Expertise actually rewards not stacking tokens as well, as it allows you to get the offensive Focus benefit without actually having to have a token on you.

But, that's just my opinion on how to houserule it. It would be better cheaper, but not without drawbacks. /shrug

I would leave it the same, but instead of adding 1 attack dice, i would give it "add one crit result to your roll".

...and I have just stapled it to Backdraft.

By that logic, opportunist by design cant function since no matter how you word it without completely rewriting it and just keeping the name its going to punish people who didnt bank tokens.

3 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

By that logic, opportunist by design cant function since no matter how you word it without completely rewriting it and just keeping the name its going to punish people who didnt bank tokens.

Unless they have to meet certain requirements and take a drawback themselves...like the stress requirements. Then I feel its more acceptable, like Juke has requirements that have to be met.

It's not a zero sum, black/white situation, @Vineheart01

Just throwing this out there... instead of revolving around tokens, what if Opportunist simply gave you an additional die or some other kind of bonus (free focus/TL effect) if you attack a target that is stressed (and/or ionized)? Stress-giving lists were already rather popular fairly recently, and this might make them stronger (don't get me started on my hatred for Stresshog), but it would be great in a list against Attani Mindlink... stress out one ship, all the others become more vulnerable to your Opportunist.

4 minutes ago, mkevans80 said:

Just throwing this out there... instead of revolving around tokens, what if Opportunist simply gave you an additional die or some other kind of bonus (free focus/TL effect) if you attack a target that is stressed (and/or ionized)? Stress-giving lists were already rather popular fairly recently, and this might make them stronger (don't get me started on my hatred for Stresshog), but it would be great in a list against Attani Mindlink... stress out one ship, all the others become more vulnerable to your Opportunist.

I think that would be a good idea. Something like Eaden Vrill but on ships actually played . It would bring some important decision making about PtL and Mindlink lists, which I think would be a good thing for the game.

I could get behind that, opportunist would mean more on taking advantage of someone thats stressed out rather than "unprepared"
Definitely needs the "If you are not stressed" clause though if that became a thing. That would be way too easy to get w/o a shutdown mechanic.

1 hour ago, mkevans80 said:

Hmm, I see a nice symmetry if all three 4-point cards if they grant big bonuses, but basically require you to be stress free... either explicitly in the terms of an "if you have no stress" Opportunist and Expertise, and implicitly with a version of Expose that takes an action to use but grants a second free action afterwards.

However, would Opportunist be as good as Expertise with that limitation? Expertise gives you a free offensive focus, essentially, with only stress shutting you down. Opportunist would have the same stress-free requirement, plus an additional requirement of needing a target that isn't tokened up. I suppose that adding a die that you could still modify with TL/focus could be stronger than just getting your dice focused up. Hmm. Will have to ponder.

I do understand Pundit's desire for a 3-die shot on certain A-Wings though!

You forgot about the -1 agility if using Expose, so thats still situational, unless you want to be blown into bits and dust. Both, Expose and Opportunist are situational upgrades which limitations make them too difficult to use. For both cards you need to build a list around to make them work. And this isn't going to work. So just ease some of those extra limitations and you see some use.

Interesting note regarding my idea to change opportunist to revolve around stress: I had created a homebrew EPT that did that already. I called it "Merciless." Was 4 points, no downside... just an extra red against stressed targets. Haven't playtested it yet.

And speaking of Eaden Vrill, in my personal homebrew rule pool, I am planning to rework Eaden Vrill's ability to be that when he attacks a target that is stressed, he can remove a stress from the target to gain a special effect... either adding a hit/crit result (kind of like an offensive Latts), or getting a dice mod effect akin to spending a TL or focus. Haven't decided which it'll be yet. Will probably also do away with the "primary weapon only" limitation, as I don't really understand why that's even there. Same with the lack of EPT...

I really don't understand FFG's insistence on making lower-PS guys so much worse (worse abilities, no EPT) than the high-PS guys. Aces are good intrinsically anyway just by virtue of having a high PS for a few extra points. It should be a harder choice... do I take the low-PS guy with the amazing ability, or the high-PS guy with a good ability? They are doing this more lately, but they should have done it from the start. It's no wonder you never see low-PS interceptors and such when they have a $hit ability, low PS on a ship that needs to reposition, and no EPT.

Now days I think Swarm Leader is the top card for increased attack power, it is both cheaper and easier to use than Opportunist. Compared to Opportunist, SL can add 2 dice (instead of 1) and requires a similar level of squad support requiring ~2 other ships contributing, although it's much easier to just evade in the right place than to strip tokens. The advantages to Opportunist are that it works with secondary weapons and it is possible to make a self contained combo with Hotshot Copilot+Gunner.

With the official wording and compared to things like SL or Fearlessness I'd say Opportunist is worth somewhere around 2 points for most builds, but pricing is always done by its most powerful application.

As was pointed out above, removing the stress mechanics could lead to multi-attack opportunities, which means it's worth more points again. Examples being Green Squads with Snap Shot or triple-shot Bossk. If you just remove the stress mechanics I'd say it's still worth at least 4 points (maybe more). If you then add a "once per round" limit then it's back to being more like 2 points.

Sorry if these points were covered already, I've only had time to read and ponder from the first page.