I have always enjoyed using custom content from the community when playing descent. Over the years I have created some of my own. I thought maybe I would post some the custom heroes that I have created. These heroes are some from Runebound Second Edition that never made it Descent. I work with Word so I have not converted them into a standard template. These versions have always served me fine. Each one of these have been used in at least one campaign and some of them have been used multiple times. I do not remember any major balance issues but I play solitaire so if something is unbalanced I am only hurting myself and I may be missing on some combo that would break things. I know that some of these have been done before by others with much more talent. Regardless, here is may take on these heroes.

When I created Kala I wanted her abilities to reflect her character. She seemed to me to be a fast and agile hunter but yet light and fragile so I tried to base her abilities around that. I feel like her heroic feat lets her "stalk" her prey much as a hunter would.

Here is Gyruk Kinslayer. I wanted him to be a brute so I gave him a high health value and black defense die. In return his speed is low and his fatigue is abysmal. I have used him on multiple campaigns and he is very different to play since his primary source of fatigue comes from declaring move actions to gain MP. This lets him power up some powerful skills but yet limits him overall. When I have used him he has not seemed unbalanced. In fact this is his "second edition" with slightly improved stats since he actually proved to be weak in a previous incarnation.

I always liked Okaluk and Rakash so I thought it would be fun to have a warrior version of that duo. I last used Telvan playing Rugal's Ascension of Margath campaign as a Martial Artist.

Here is Maliki the Claw. This version is a direct port from BGG. Here is the link:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1318038/maliki-claw

Maliki is a fun figure to have on the board and I last used him in a Shadows of Nerekhall campaign as a Tactician.

I just based Harthan's heroic feat around his name. He gets a free ranged attack with an equipped melee weapon. It has been a while since I used Harthan but he did well enough in the past.

Finally, for the warriors we end with Kael. When I look at him he seems like he is in great physical condition so I gave him the ability to recover fatigue as soon as he declares a rest action. His heroic feat is based on his Runebound description as a "Dorn Defender".

Anyway, that is all I have time for right now. I will post the scouts, mages and healers later. I hope someone enjoys these and if you have any questions let me know.

Dan Howell

Those are interesting, especially the reasoning behind the abilities. If you'd like, some people have made templates for D2E hero sheets, you could put these characters onto those for a more official look.

I like especially the offensive character of Maliki and the concept of Gyruk.

Kala seems to be a risky choice though. Eight HP, no defensive hero ability and a brown die.

Thank you for sharing these. I really like the variety those heroes represent and hope to find the time to test them.
The quickest option to give them a more official look is this neat little tool: http://dataflux.nl/descent/hero/

Thanks for the replies. As soon as I am able I will convert them to official format and post the rest.

Dan Howell

So here are the mages and one healer.

Elga's hero ability is based on her Runebound ability which allows her or an ally to heal after a successful attack. Her Runebound card also gave her a "Resist" bonus so that gave me the idea of Elga being able to cancel an attack that would cause a knockout. I always use her as a Spirtspeaker and she has done fairly well historically.

Ciridin's hero ability was taken from his Runebound ability which allowed him to spend fatigue to improve his skill tests. In Runebound he is described as a "Jungle Elf Druid" and it seemed thematic for him to have the ability to temporarily control a monster. It has been a while since I have used Ciridin but I do not remember any major issues.

For some reason during random draw at the start of campaigns, Tara has come up a lot. I have used her several times. Her most recent use was in Rugal's Ascension of Margath Campaign where she was a Spell Thief. She could deliver up some conditions when she had the inclination to do so. As above, her hero ability is heavily influenced by her Runebound ability which allows her to spend fatigue to supplement attacks. Her Heroic feat is based on her picture, I could just see her sending a bolt of magical devastation on a pack of monsters dim-witted enough to line up in her sites. It also reminds me of the old bolt template in Descent First Edition.

I will post the scouts later.

Thanks

Dan Howell

I really like those ideas. Some suggestions for the text on hero abilities and feats to get more consistency with the official cards:

Kala
A: "Action: Choose any empty space within 3 spaces of your figure. Remove your figure from the map and place it in the chosen space."
F: Place a hero token on the base of a monster in your line of sight. Each time immediately after the monster with your hero token moves 1 space, you may move your figure 1 space. Remove your hero token if you are not in line of sight of the monster or at the start of your next turn.

Gyruk Kinslayer
A: "When you suffer any amount of fatigue, you may choose to spend some or all of that amount as movement points from your movement point pool instead."
F: Use when you perform an attack with a melee weapon before dice are rolled. This attack gains heart equal to your might value.

Telvan And Orcbane
A: "At the start of your turn, you gain 4 movement points."
F: Use when a monster enters a space adjacent to you. Test Awareness, if you pass, all adjacent monsters are stunned. Then you may move up to your speed.

Needed to change the sequence a bit to clarify which monsters are stunned.

Maliki The Claw
A: "Each time your are attacked by a monster adjacent to you, you may choose to replace 1 gray defense die with a red attack die. The monster immediately suffers Heart equal to the amount of Heart rolled on the red attack die."
F: "Use at the start of your turn to recover 4 fatigue. Each other hero within 3 spaces of you recovers 2 fatigue."

Harthan Axe Caster
A: "Each of your attacks gains: Surge: +2 Heart."
F: "Use during your turn to perform an attack with an equipped melee weapon as if it were a ranged weapon. This attack is in addition to your 2 actions on your turn."

Kael Son Of Gurin
A: "Each time you perform a rest action, you immediately recover all fatigue instead at the end of your turn."
F: "Use during your turn. Until the start of your next turn, each hero adjacent to you adds 1 gray defense die to his defense pool."

Maybe a native speaker can look into the wording for the hero ability.

Spiritspeaker Elga
A: "Each time you perform an attack that is not a miss, you or a hero adjacent to you may recover 1 Heart."
F: "Use when you or a hero adjacent to you would suffer Heart equal to his Health from an attack, before being knocked out. You or the hero adjacent to you suffer no Heart from the attack."

Cirdin
A: "Each time a hero performs an attribute test, before dice are rolled, you may suffer 1 fatigue to subtract 1 Shield from the result."
F: "Action: Test Willpower. If you pass, choose a monster in your line of sight. You may immediately perform 1 move action and and 1 attack action with that monster as if it were a hero. You cannot choose lieutenants, agents, unique monsters or monsters with special rules in the quest description."

"Named monster" seems to be ambiguous. Not sure how to shorten and clarify this.

Runemaker Tara
A: "Before performing an attack, you may spend X fatigue to convert up to X range to Heart, or up to X Heart to range after rolling dice."
F: "Action: Choose an adjacent space that shares an edge with your space to define a direction. Trace a straight path of 10 spaces in that direction. Perform an attack with a Magic weapon that ignores range and line of sight. All figures on the traced path are affected by the attack. This attack cannot be affected by Blast.

As Sorcery works differently I think it is better to drop this term here.
Great idea but difficult to implement with the "counting spaces" routine of the Descent rule set. Here is my try. Not completely happy with it, though.

Maybe someone else can have another look to iron out any loopholes?

I want Malakili so bad.

9 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

I want Malakili so bad.

How about this figure from Reaper Miniatures:

Here is the link: http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/02880

So here are the Scouts:

So in Runebound, Saka and Kuto are portrayed as an inseparable team. I wasn't up to creating a new familiar so I came up with the idea of allowing Saka to perform and action up to three spaces away to represent Kuto helping out. Also, Saka's Runebound quote makes it seem like he works best with others around so his Hero ability is based on that.

Mirala's Runebound abilities center around purchasing items in the shop so I made the decision to allow her abilities to help in the Campaign phase instead of during the quest. I've gone back and forth on what the extra value of face-up search cards should be but at the moment, +5 gold has seemed OK. In Runebound she also had a lot of skills so I gave her a balanced trait line to help reflect this. This also helps to supplement her lack of in quest abilities. I last used her during a Shadow of Nerekhall campaign as a Pirate in which she saved Maliki just in time to let him defeat Mirklace in one of the few victories I have managed in that campaign.

Jaena seems like a shadowy ranger type to me so I based her abilities around that. She seems to operate alone so I gave her the Stealthy ability when she was operating away from the rest of the Heroes. Her Heroic Feat is similar to Tomble's but it seemed appropriate for someone who could disappear when necessary.

It seemed obvious to me that Elaria should be have advantages with ranged attacks. When I was thinking about her Heroic Feat I thought of all the times in fantasy movies and books that the skilled elf/archer struck the mortal blow with bow and arrow. I knew that I wanted her to have that ability. I have used her multiple times and always as a wildlander of course. Even still, it has always amazed me at the high number of times I have activated her feat and still managed to miss or come up short on surges.

Well the last one is Annen. Any Hero with "Trailblazer" in his name had better be able to help with movement. Annen's Runebound abilities reinforce this so I tried to come up with abilities that would allow him to help others move. The last time I used him he was a Shadow Walker and it was fun chaining his abilities with shadow shift.

Well that is all of the heroes. I know that some of the abilities are probably not that clear. When I first put these together I never really thought about posting them so the wording only had to make sense to me since I knew what I meant. Regardless, if anyone has any comments or wording suggestions I will implement them and update the images.

Thanks

Dan Howell

Hi Dan,

Thanks for posting the heroes, these all look very interesting. Just one question: Are there official miniatures for them?

Regards,

Delphi

Yes, the miniatures are from the Mists of Zanaga and Midnight expansions for Runebound Second Edition.

Dan Howell

All of these heroes are thoughtfully designed, which is great.

For Mirala, I would almost turn her feat into her ability (extra gold). The feat really should be something she can use during a quest, otherwise it puts her at a big disadvantage as a character (especially since currently neither her feat nor her ability are relevant except in a campaign phase).

Perhaps something which helps her get a search card, or distribute search cards.

"Use when you defeat a master monster. Draw a search card."

"At the start of your turn, choose a hero within 5 spaces. You and that hero may exchange equipment."

On 9/8/2018 at 9:58 PM, rdh174 said:

Yes, the miniatures are from the Mists of Zanaga and Midnight expansions for Runebound Second Edition.

Thanks for letting me know. I tried to find these, but since they are out of print they are ridiculously expensive, especially considering I'd only need the miniature anyway.

I still like a lot of the mechanics. Great ideas overall

Thanks to everyone for the replies and interest. As soon as I can I will incorporate the suggestions and update the cards.

Dan Howell

Here are my suggested changes for the remaining heroes:

Saka and Kuto
A: "Each of your attacks has SURGE: X HEART, where X is equal to the number of other heroes adjacent to the target."
F: "Choose an empty space within 3 spaces of your figure. Then perform an attack or a search action as if you occupied that space.

Did I get the Hero ability right? Or do you want to add a separate SURGE: 1 HEART abilty for each other hero adjacent to the target? As it is the hero ability might be a bit too strong.

Mirala Goodtide
A: "When receiving gold for search cards during the campaign phase, each faceup search card is worth an additional 5 gold."
F: " Use when you defeat a master monster. Draw a search card."

I agree with Zaltyre's comment above and modified the card accordingly.

Jaena of Sharuun
A: "If you are not adjacent to any other hero, each attack that targets you must roll 3 additional range beyond the normally required amount or the attack is a miss."
F: "When a monster enter a space withing two spaces of your figure, you may remove your figure from the map and place a hero token in your space. At the start of your next turn, place your figure in any empty space within 2 spaces of your hero token."

Wording changed for consistency with Stealthy and Tomble's feat.

Elaria
A: "Each of your attacks gains +2 Range."
F: "Action: Perform an attack with a ranged weapon and choose 1 targeted monster. The attack gains SURE SURGE: Defeat the chosen monster. You cannot choose lieutenants, agents, unique monsters or monsters with special rules in the quest description. "

As range is irrelevant for melee attacks the Hero ability can be shortened. Wording changed for consistency with Stealthy and Tomble's feat. I changed the feat to prevent that multiple targets can be defeated in multiple target attacks.

Annen the Trailblazer
A: "Each time another hero enters your space, that hero gains 1 movement point."
F: "Action: Each other hero may move up to 2 spaces. During this movement the number of spaces between you and the other hero may not be increased. "

Incooperated the uFAQ on the Geomancer's Gravity Spike skill that is somewhat similar.

1 hour ago, Sadgit said:

Elaria

A: "Each of your attacks gains +2 Range."
F: "Action: Perform an attack with a ranged weapon and choose 1 targeted monster. The attack gains SURE SURGE: Defeat the chosen monster. You cannot choose lieutenants, agents, unique monsters or monsters with special rules in the quest description. "

As range is irrelevant for melee attacks the Hero ability can be shortened. Wording changed for consistency with Stealthy and Tomble's feat. I changed the feat to prevent that multiple targets can be defeated in multiple target attacks.

Range is relevant for melee attacks in the case of a Stealthy target - as originally written this ability would not help against Stealth, with your re-wording it now would.

This is such a niche case as to be most probably irrelevant, but I thought I would point it out anyway

Your are right, of course. Dan to decide if he wants that small benefit if Elaria attacks with melee weapons against Stealthy targets.

OK, I have updated all of the cards in the posts above. After feedback from Sadgit, I did make a change to Saka and Kuto. Sadgit felt that his hero ability was too powerful so I went back to the original Runebound card and re-thought the ability. Saka's Runebound abilities were primarily focused on sneaking and hiding so I changed his ability as follows:

I was looking for a way to simulate his ability to hide so I came up with the idea of forcing monsters to spend MP to "look" for him before they could target him for an attack. If anyone else has any suggestions or thoughts on any of the heroes let me know.

Thanks

Dan Howell

That's a neat mechanic. You could also just give him the "Stealthy" ability (see: Deep Elves ) or an ability like the beastmaster's wolf (check out the Stalker skill)

Awesome concept and really like the hero cards visually. Are you talented enough to take on the missing Descent first edition lieutenants/avatars (I was just mentioning DIO approaches to missing content in my last post) - if someone could convert these enemies for D2e or we could do so between us that would be cool as I've already got/ am looking for proxy minis for them.

It would also be interesting to look at doing this for other Terrinoth characters from beyond Descent- RWM has given us some new entities and heroes/ characters we've maybe not previously considered for Descent.

Also for the dragon in this image. It's what I called a watercolour dragon inspired by the image here (fantasy section multicoloured dragon pic), need this as multi-purpose so can be mount, good, evil or neutral npc, feel free to have a go people! https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/#/genre

I'm going to be using this mini (although maybe it should be more correctly called a maxi) for it when it makes a Genesys RPG table debut too - it's going to be the 'top dog' correction 'top dragon' dragon. For the epic campaign I'm working on it's Ouroboros, first dragon - the one above all the others (Margath and 'friends'!) and very key to events. I've already set myself the epic challenge of trying to paint it like the watercolour dragon idea inspired by that FFG pic. The colours fit its universal/all creation/magic link thematically in my setting project. I think RWM may have some major Terrinoth dragons soon and I have a collection including the Descent ones (featuring some but not all the 1e ones and a few from other Terrinoth games) because dragons are epic! They also play a big role in the campaign I'm working on for Descent and Genesys (a big project which I'm having a lot of fun with). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V73ZWiCJzSg

Saka and Kuto seems a bit too powerfull to my opinion.
Only 1 movement point is already strong

Since Ciridin is a druid, he would be better as a Healer

On 9/3/2018 at 1:08 PM, Sadgit said:

Thank you for sharing these. I really like the variety those heroes represent and hope to find the time to test them.
The quickest option to give them a more official look is this neat little tool: http://dataflux.nl/descent/hero/

Is there one for other characters (lieutenants/monsters)- a template for these would be handy

No that I know off. But there are Photoshop templates for almost all cards in the BGG file section.

On 9/3/2018 at 1:08 PM, Sadgit said:

Thank you for sharing these. I really like the variety those heroes represent and hope to find the time to test them.
The quickest option to give them a more official look is this neat little tool: http://dataflux.nl/descent/hero/

Simply awesome tool, is there one for creating item/ability cards?