me and my friends created a program that uses the Official Character creation math/rules that will allow us to make our own custom characters. aside from adding pictures, you can also change the UI color theme (the Red outline). we may decided to offer it to the public so long as we arent breaking any laws in doing so.

we decided that we wanted to have unique character abilities because we got tired of the vanilla Abilities that are in the Custom Character rules. im a huge vampire fan and originally wanted to do some sort of draining attack, however any type of heal/regeneration is really a touchy balance subject in RTL, so instead i decided to go with a fun utility type character.

as you see Count Stravokov has to spend 2 fatigue to transform into one of the forms. each form being an actual ability (Charge is an OL Avatar ability that allows the Avatar to move double movement and attack). now he has to spend the fatigue to use the ability, and can only use one form per turn.

so what do you guys think. does the character look balanced? keep in mind we only have RTL/WoD/AoD for the time being. but id like the community's impute to make sure he is within reasonable playing range for RTL campaigns.

Not bad. My thoughts:

1) 16 wounds is too much, I think 12 would be more balanced for this guy.

2) When he changes into said forms, does it change any of his attacks? So even as a bat he's still making an attack using a Rune or is he prevented from doing so?

3) In his own interests, I wouldn't split his skills that way. Characters tend to be better if their skills are split the same as their dice in my experience.

He did say he was using FFG's "build your own hero" rules, by which measure I believe this hero is legal if we assume the ability is a 4-point (medium power) ability. And skills are obviously split to give more BP, because that's one of the easiest abuses of those rules. (Those rules have a number of problems.)

I disagree about dropping wounds to 12 unless conquest value is reduced; a stat reduction may be in order, but a hero with 12 wounds and 1 armor worth 4 conquest seems a tad unreasonable to me. Though by the official rules, you could drop wounds to 12, reduce conquest to 3, and still come out 1 BP ahead (which would let you change the skills to match the traits) by switching to Nimble race, IIRC.

Yeah, I forgot to add about dropping him to CT3 if you reduced the wounds.

i agree 16 wounds is alot for something that can have shadowcloak but a real cool character

thanks for the reply everyone, yes the character has legal stats and has 4 points remaining, able to get a rank 2. i personally perfer the risk and having more wounds. but you make a good point about trading them up to the Conquest value. in all thank you very much for the feedback!!

Fulkren said:

But are you asking whether this is a well-designed and balanced character, or whether it is a well- optimized character under Kevin W's custom hero rules? Because those are very different questions, and the second is not a very interesting question when (a) those rules are known not to be balanced, and (b) you're making up your own ability, so from a legalistic perspective you're already cheating (and we can't even ask whether your ability is balanced as a rank 2 ability, because there's no workable standard for how strong a rank 2 ability should actually be).

Basically, people don't use the build-your-own-hero rules. Like the basic campaign rules, they're just not very good.

well like i explained this is a "house" character to our Descent group. i merely was looking for the community's take on it. obvioulsy i cant make an official character unless i was a developer of the game hehe, i just wanted to make a vampire character and this is what i came up with.

if you guys have other ideas for a vampire character id love to hear them, this is my first time making a Character so im not expecting to do it right the first time round.

Hi there, I am very interested in your vampire hero's idea. Can I use your abilities for my own custom vampire hero?

Hmm... You know, I'd like to get my hands on your little program :3

I've had a lot of ideas for characters floating around my head, but no way to make them into actual cards (Aside from Photoshop, which I have no access to).

Also, I like the character but he shouldn't be able to attack with weapons in a Transformed mode, in my opinion, and his Wounds really seem a bit high overall.

Hi Tadask,

Unfortunately.... Fulkren is probably already retired.

Awwwh. Ah well. And actually, on further reflection the hero looks fine other than the fact he can attack in his changed forms. Makes me think of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.