Custom Hero - Gaia [Maze of the Drakon]

By AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Topic moved to BoardGameGeek!

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2567617/gaia-custom-hero-maze-drakon

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Czech version:
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This hero (4/5) is part of the custom expansion Maze of the Drakon
this hero is in play-testing phase , you can expect play-test results later

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FAQ:
Can I use Hero Ability multiple times in one turn?
Yes.

Can I use Hero Ability multiple time in one attack - suffer X Heart to add X Shields?
No, you can use it only once in the attack - suffer 1 Heart to add 1 Shield. Limit once per attack.

Can I use Hero Ability multiple time on multiple targets when they are affected by the AOE attack like Fire Breath or Blast ?
Yes.

Can I use Hero Ability on myself?
No, you can use it only on other heroes.

What If familiar from the Heroic Feat cannot expand in the selected space?
Expand familiar to the closest possible empty space.

Can I place familiar from the Heroic Feat in the space containing terrain?
Yes, terrain space still persists.

How long does the familiar from the Heroic Feat stay on the map?
Until the end of the encounter or until it run out of health.

Can I use abilities on familiar from the Heroic Feat?
No, both Spring of Life and Roots of Protection are NOT treated as the figures.

Does familiars block movement or line of sight?
No, they don't.

Can I attack Spring of Life?
No.

Can I choose not to roll the die when I am standing in the space containing Spring of Life?
No, you must always roll the die when you end your turn in a space containing Spring of Life.

When I only recover 1 Heart from 2 Heart roll, because I am at the maximum health now, does Spring of Life suffer 1 or 2 Hearts?
Spring of Life always suffers rolled amount and not recovered amount. In this case it would suffer 2 Hearts.

Can I attack Roots of Protection?
Yes, it works exactly same as Geomancer familiar Summoned Stone . Roots of Protection may be targeted and affected by any attack (even from heroes).

Can monsters move Roots of Protection with the attack ability, e.g. Ynfernael Hulk with Knockback ?
Roots of Protection are Unmovable and therefore may ignore any game effect that would force it to move.

Is attacked space changed when Roots of Protection are declared as the target of an attack instead of the original target?
No, this works exactly same as Knight skill Defend . Range and line of sight are still measured to the targeted space.

What happens if Shadow Dragon attacks hero standing in Roots of Protection and uses Fire Breath to affect 3 which are also standing in Roots of Protection?
Roots of Protection becomes target of an attack 4 times.

Does Spring of Life heals and Roots of Protection protects enemy figures when they are in their space?
Yes.


About:

I am integrating heroes from FFG Drakon 4th , which includes two heroes from the Descent box & rules art - Knight and Ranger and also great proxy for Tyrus . I wrap them under custom expansion "Maze of the Drakon" . Goal here is to make them interesting as much as possible, bringing something new to the game - I would rather have them weak with something new than overpowered.

Aurora , Ravvis the Ranger and Ocvist the Dragonslayer are done so let's continue with the Druid, healer archetype. Heroes have very limited design space and therefore I had to decide which way to go, since druid have huge variation of integration possibilities. I decided to go with the "nature connection" instead of classic healing or transformation druid. I highly recommend to take a look at Rugal's custom Druid class which integrate transformation into Werewolf, you can easily play that class with this hero!

It would be much appreciated, if you leave any feedback, suggestion, find typo, fix bad wording, anything.

Artwork:

We have art from the Drakon and for the first and only time I decided to use it. I think that this is only "alright" hero art from this game and at least we have obvious connection to an original game by using it.

Sadly I wasn't able to find HQ artwork, so I used combination of artwork from this news post and scan of the Druid card from the Drakon . However artwork is small and cropped and the card is also small with texture on it.

I spent some time improving the quality in the photoshop, removing the texture, painted missing connection, etc. and even though it is not ideal, final result turned out well .

To create Spring of Life and Roots of Protection tiles, I found artist of the Descent tiles - Henning Ludvigsen and I used his Imperial Assault tiles. I mixed them together and painted missing parts.

Name:

FFG didn't name her, so I came up with name connecting with the nature:

Gaia

Name Gaia [Gaea] is from the Greek mythology, personification of the Earth. That suits Druid nicely and fit with the other short names like Zyla , Tahlia , Sahla .

Fluff text:

“It is in nature where we truly connect with the mother and ourself.”

Nature connection quote with subtle hint about her origin.

Biography:

We have small little flavour text on the Drakon page which doesn't really say anything:
They had been trapped in the labyrinth for mere hours, but their partnership had broken in seconds. The druid moved more carefully now, hand pressed firmly against her side to help the blood clot. She entered a new chamber, and she peered left and right for any sign of Drakon or her former companions. Either would attack on sight, given her weakened state. In the center of this room, a wooden horn, carved with runes and archaic sigils, rested on a small altar. Before she set the horn to her lips, not a breath of air stirred the dust underfoot. But then she sounded the horn, and with its booming voice she called the hurricane…

I would like to explain her origin (which can be in Latari elves ) and give her a real story.

Yet to be written.

Stats:

In order to make her interesting, it's a first hero with two brown dice! Also there is not a single monster with two browns. You can check the comparison with the 1 gray defense die here . Statistically speaking it's almost the same, higher chance of throwing blanks (25% instead of 16,67%), but additional little chance of throwing 4 shields (2,78%)! Making her ability even more interesting. Since I wanted to have solid replacement for 4 10 4 Avric Albright , I decided to give her premium 5 stamina, with that her Health had to be 8 or premium 10. Since she already have unique defense, I decided to also break the common rules and give her 9 Health, something you could already see in the Charmy's balance patch .

4 Speed, 9 Health, 5 Stamina, 2 Browns defense.

There are only 3 healers with 5 stamina, Ulma Grimstone with 4 8 5, Augur Grisom with 3 12 5 and Aurim (CK) with 5 8 5 .

Attributes:

It's common for healers to have big Willpower and she shouldn't be an exception. Since she is the one connected with the nature, I decided to go with the 5 Willpower.

2 Might, 5 Willpower, 2 Knowledge, 2 Awareness.

Unique attributes, Rendiel have 2 5 3 1 and Serena have 1 5 3 2.

Hero Ability:

Initial idea used to be, that she created connection with the hero - feeling what he feels, making some sort of bond. I did wanted to make ability that helps other heroes with defense, but at the same time damages her.

Each time another hero within 3 spaces of you is attacked, after dice are rolled, you may once suffer 1 Heart to add 1 Shield to the results [limit once per attack] .

This is simple, yet powerful skill. Sometimes 1 shield is all you need to survive the massive hit or prevent receiving condition. But at the same time, it's at the cost of damage for her, she takes hit for you.

Similar abilities:
Jonas the Kind : Each hero within 3 spaces of you that has not performed an attack this round adds 1 Shield to each of his defense rolls.
Necromancer - Dark Pact : Your Reanimate adds 1 additional brown die to its defense pool. Each time you suffer Hearts, you may choose to have your Reanimate suffer all of the Hearts instead. Each time your Reanimate suffers Hearts, you may choose to suffer all of the Hearts instead.

In consideration was:
Each round until you suffer 1 or more Heart, if you or an adjacent hero are targeted by an attack, you may suffer 1 Fatigue to add other hero's defense pool to the attacked one. Both heroes suffer Heart from the attack result.
Too complicated mechanism and too similar to Tomble Burrowell ability and Spiritspeaker skill Stoneskin .

Each time a hero successfully defend attack, heal 1 damage, each time he receive hit, suffer 1 damage.
Elder Mok wannabe, not really interesting or fun.

Heroic Feat:

Based on the connection with nature, she modify the map with the nature elements.

Action: Place either Spring of Life or Roots of Protection in a space within 3 spaces of you.

Flexible heroic that focus on either healing or defending, but can backfire!

Wording based on:
Vyrah the Falconer : You have the Skye familiar. At the start of your turn, if Skye is not on the map, place him in your space.
Geomancer - Terracall : Action: Exhaust this card to place a Summoned Stone in an empty space within 3 spaces of you. While this card is exhausted, 1 of your Summoned Stone s may perform an attack during its activation (using 1 of your equipped Magic weapons).

In consideration was:
Action: You and adjacent hero each perform an attack at once that targets a same monster. 2 separated attacks are made but only 1 defense roll.
Not much fitting to an healer and not interesting enough.

Spring of Life:

Healing choice.

0 12 -
Any figure that ends its turn in a space containing Spring of Life immediately rolls 1 red power die and recovers Heart equal to the Heart rolled and Fatigue equal to the Surge rolled. Then Spring of Life suffers Heart equal to the Heart and Surge rolled.

Heal 12 (or more) Heart and some Fatigue. It's different approach of Avric Albright heroic, which might backfire if you let enemies heal from the pool!

Wording based on:
Lava: ...Any figure that ends its turn in a lava space is immediately defeated...
Crusader - Divine Light : Exhaust this card when a hero without a hero token on this card would be defeated. Roll 2 red power dice. That hero recovers Heart equal to the Heart rolled, Fatigue equal to the Surge rolled, and discards all Conditions. Then place that hero's token on this card.

Roots of Protection:

Defensive choice.

0 8 -
Roots of Protection may be targeted and affected by any attack and are Unmovable. When any figure in a space containing Roots of Protection is attacked by a Melee attack, they are declared as the target of the attack instead.

Successfully protecting group from Melee attacks, wasting 8 (and more) damage that could be dealt to your heroes. It's different approach of Roganna the Shade heroic, which can also protect enemy figures, if you let them!

Wording based on:
Geomancer - Summoned Stone : This familiar is treated as an obstacle, but may be targeted and affected by any attack (even from heroes). You cannot have more than 1 Summoned Stone on the map at a time, unless an ability allows it. Each of your attacks targeting a monster adjacent to a Summoned Stone gains 1 Surge.
Knight - Defend : When a hero adjacent to you is targeted by an attack, use this card to instead declare yourself as the target of the attack. Range and line of sight are still measured to the targeted hero's space.

Thank you for your time reading this ❤️ .
https://instagram.com/awesometree_in_the_dark/

Edited by AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark

This is great!
All your ideas have been amazing so far and the quality is so good.
I'll have to get myself a copy of Drakon and figure out a way to print those hero sheets with good quality!

I feel like the text on the hero ability and heroic feat are a bit confusing, but I cant find a better way to phrase it myself without making the text too long.

Keep doing what you're doing!

Edited by Dadler93

Thank you so much! You definitely should. Drakon is a nice little party game and miniatures fit's into Descent perfectly - theirs quality is between better 1st sculp and 2nd base game minis.

1 hour ago, Dadler93 said:

I feel like the text on the hero ability and heroic feat are a bit confusing, but I cant find a better way to phrase it myself without making the text too long.

I am trying to use already used phrases as much as possible and also keep it simple, as I am not an native speaker it's bit difficult, but I hope that folks here will help me fine-tune things.

If you find any typo or you have any idea how to improve things, please let me know. I am here to listen 🙂

Hi again.

I' m not sure if this is any clearer. English isn't my first language either :)

Hero ability

If you or an adjacent hero are targeted by an attack, you may suffer 1 🌢 to combine yours and the adjacent hero’s defense pools. Both heroes suffer ❤ from the attack result. This ability cannot be used if you have suffered 1 or more ❤ this round.

Heroic Feat

Action: You and an adjacent hero each perform an attack at the same time targeting the same monster. Each hero makes an attack roll and spends 🗲 separately, but the ❤ dealt is then combined. The monster rolls defense only once.

I'll keep thinking of other ways to phrase it.

I'm impressed you were able to create the full original artwork. Awesome ! Love it !

Big thanks to the link to my druid class which I highly tested and is balanced and fun to play.

So basically her hero ability is something like Tomble but for both heroes until the Gaia is damaged or full fatigue ? I wished the game has not 2 abilties the same so if you could come with another idea I would love it more.

And her feat shouldn't be of a mage or warrior ? Not clear. What about : "Action : you and an adjacent hero perform an attack. Add all the [heart] and [surges] of the adjacent hero to your attack results. And I'm affaid it would happen to create a so massive attack that a boss could be wiped on single strike. Maybe only adding surge to the attack results ?

2 Brown dice ? No a single 1 ? Why ?

So you had my druid class in head when creating this one ?

Not exactly what I was thinking ! 😉

Thank you so much @Dadler93 for spending time on this. It ' s appreciated!

16 hours ago, Dadler93 said:

Hero ability

If you or an adjacent hero are targeted by an attack, you may suffer 1 🌢 to combine yours and the adjacent hero’s defense pools. Both heroes suffer ❤ from the attack result. This ability cannot be used if you have suffered 1 or more ❤ this round.

"... combine yours and the adjacent hero’s defense pools..."
This is correct, but I didn't use word "combine" since it's not used on the other cards. Ability is directly based on the Tomble Burrowell and I used similar phrase as on his ability "...add the defense pool of that hero to your own."

"This ability cannot be used if you have suffered 1 or more ❤ this round."
This change make 100% sense, moving restriction into separate sentence and at the end, but it adds more words to already quite long ability 🙁 . I will try to come up with wording which would fit.

16 hours ago, Dadler93 said:

Heroic Feat

Action: You and an adjacent hero each perform an attack at the same time targeting the same monster. Each hero makes an attack roll and spends 🗲 separately, but the ❤ dealt is then combined. The monster rolls defense only once.

It makes sense to further expand the sentence to make it clear for everyone how the heroic feat work. I will update the card, thanks one more time 🙂 !

EDIT: I updated the card:
- Added missing "each"
- "single monster" instead of "same monster"
- "at once" instead of "at the same time" to avoid two same verbs (same monster, same time)
- "2 separated attacks" instead of "2 attack rolls"

11 hours ago, rugal said:

I'm impressed you were able to create the full original artwork. Awesome ! Love it !

❤️

11 hours ago, rugal said:

Big thanks to the link to my druid class which I highly tested and is balanced and fun to play.

So you had my druid class in head when creating this one ?

Not exactly what I was thinking ! 😉

No problem at all! 🙂 You are doing amazing job with your custom creations and helping mine a lot. Linking to your stuff is the least I can do for you.

11 hours ago, rugal said:

So basically her hero ability is something like Tomble but for both heroes until the Gaia is damaged or full fatigue ? I wished the game has not 2 abilties the same so if you could come with another idea I would love it more.

Yes the core mechanic is the same, but there is quite a lot of differences:

- You are Healer and you can use it on other heroes.
This is extremely powerful, especially that you can combine it with skills like Stoneskin.

- Both Heroes suffer Heart from the attack result.
This makes it heavily situational, since it can backfire extremely. It's not brain-death skill (big risk might bring big reward).

- It cost Fatigue and you cannot use the Feat when you suffer any Heart.
This makes it even more interesting and basically draw a shooting target at your head.
Overlord play against this hero differently then against Tomble, where you just ignore him. Also Healers are usually first priority to take down.

I am aware that some duplicates/similar abilities already exists in the game (e.g. Zyla and Tomble Burrowell Heroic), but I would say that this hero is unique enough so she doesn't fit into this category.

Sadly Hero Sheet text space is very limited, so I had to simplify initial concept a lot. First iteration created in January sounded like this:
Action: Choose a hero adjacent to you. Until one of you are knocked-out or you choose another hero, each time a chosen hero is targeted by an attack, you may suffer 1 Fatigue to add your hero defense pool to attacked hero defense pool. You both suffer damage from result of an attack.
Idea was that you mark someone from your group and then he can run away on the map solo and you are still protecting him. This was way too long and I had to simplify the ability a lot.

It took months to come up with the current version of the ability, I am not able to immediately come up with something completely different (another idea) that you would love more.

11 hours ago, rugal said:

And her feat shouldn't be of a mage or warrior ? Not clear. What about : "Action : you and an adjacent hero perform an attack. Add all the [heart] and [surges] of the adjacent hero to your attack results. And I'm affaid it would happen to create a so massive attack that a boss could be wiped on single strike. Maybe only adding surge to the attack results ?

You are well aware that Druids are not just an healers. That's why she have this attack heroic which nicely support her "connection" / "bound" with others. Also making this connected attack is also unique and something new - just adding some extra Heart / Surges is boring.

Yes it's strong, but you can still play around this. There are cards like Dark Fortitude and blue X didn't disappear. I don't think this heroic feat is overpowered and game-breaking.

11 hours ago, rugal said:

2 Brown dice ? No a single 1 ? Why ?

Because this is UNIQUE ! And that's the goal here. This is first hero with 2 brown dice and there is also not even a single monster with them.

She could be classic 4 10 4 Gray (definitely not Brown with those stats, duh), but having 2 browns is slight buff and makes her even more interesting - especially with her ability. Statistically speaking, power level is almost the same as 1 gray:
https://anydice.com/program/1986a.

I am sorry that you don't like this hero 😕 , since you think that the ability is not unique, heroic is not interesting & way too strong and two browns are weird. Basically everything that makes this hero interesting and new. You know what they say, big expectation big disappointment. Maybe we will come up with some tweaks and you will start to like her eventually, like with the Aurora 🙂 , at least I hope so.

Edited by AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark

Two brown defense is cool, never seen before 🙂

What about a fixed defense instead of 2 Brown dice ?

11 hours ago, rugal said:

What about a fixed defense instead of 2 Brown dice ?

I don't think that's a good idea since you remove hero player interaction from defending.

Hello there again! I completely reworked Gaia since she wasn't interesting enough, I just kept her "core" feeling.

Please check first post for up-to-date version 🙂 .

Stats:
I love her 2 browns, but I wanted to make her stamina 5 to make competition to commonly used healer Avric Albright . However having 4 10 5 felt too premium and 4 8 5 felt too little, because she needs some health pool for her ability. So I decided to go with 9 health. You can already see such a thing in Charmy's balance patch and since she is already unique with her two browns, I think this is completely alright.


Ability:
I like the flavour of "take a hit for others", however initial ability mechanic was too complicated and too similar to Tomble Burrowell ability and S piritspeaker's skill Stoneskin .
So I came up with this simple ability which can save life and help with the damage distribution between heroes.

Heroic Feat:
Previous Heroic didn't really fit into healer theme and therefore I decided to go with a full healing way. To make it more interesting, she can choose between defense / heal and place tiles (familiars) on the map until the end of the encounter! ... or until they die.
Spring of Life is different approach of Avric Albright healing heroic and Roots of Protection is different approach of Roganna the Shade protecting heroic.

This is basically first preview, lot's of text and stats will change. Please let me know what do you think about this and if you have any idea or feedback to share 🙂 . Appreciated!

Edited by AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark

I do like more thoses new abilities.

I like the idea of a feat offering 2 possibilities even if using familiars for abilities is a bit strange.

Thanks!

I do agree it's a bit strange to have "familiars" card for "tiles with effect" basically. But well it's a living nature after all, so not that much. At least with familiars cards I can increase limited design space and don't have to introduce new rules.

I've tought of a healer feat once : "Action : Roll 1 Red power die. Each hero figures within 3 spaces recover 1 heart for each heart on the die roll. Repeat this process during your next turn." (Maybe 2 turns). Maybe it is thé wording you're searching ?

I think the old version was pretty interesting as well.

This one seems even more fun and easier to understand though. Really cool tiles 👍

Keep up the good work!

I'm surprised I didn't realize this sooner, but I love the connection between Drakon (a tile laying party game) and how the feats of these characters lay down tiles as well. 😃 Hoping you keep this up for the Thief and Fighter.

22 hours ago, thinkbomb said:

I'm surprised I didn't realize this sooner, but I love the connection between Drakon (a tile laying party game) and how the feats of these characters lay down tiles as well. 😃 Hoping you keep this up for the Thief and Fighter.

You are absolutely right 😁 !

I don't plan to create hero card for Thief, because he is great as a Tyrus proxy . But I will create card for the Fighter after I finish Gaia 🙂 . I intend to make him brother of Grisban the Thirsty and Healer class instead of Warrior, because we are already have too many warriors, too little healers and you can play Apothecary class and call "elixir tokens" "beer tokens" which fits the mini 😄

To solve problem with personalized Drakon 4th heroes cards, I completly redesigned its graphics which you can see at the end of this post (only czech preview for now):

The thief could be a great addition since the game lacks of scouts. (In fact there is just too much warrior and not enough healers and mages)

Edited by rugal

I think I wil print this hero and test it. I do like the idea of a feat with 2 possibilities.

Here is my experience return :

  • Even if it's not important, the 9 life (odd) is ... odd (lol). All other heroes are even. Nothing important but that bugs me.
  • Nothing important, but her name is nothing so ... heroic to me.
  • The 2 brown dice can go from 0 to 4 shield with an average of 1,3, so it is a slightly better than a grey die (0 to 3 with an average of 1,3). Hopefully she cannot be a Monk so I think the balance is saved. 😉
  • I choosed to print the two effects of her feat on a single double sided card. About it, I think it is always better to use Spring of life rather than roots of protection . Spring will heal 12 hearts where the roots can avoid 8 hearts. But since Roots can only covert heroes from melee attacks, and roll no defense dice, 1 to 2 attack are far enough to remove it. So what about :

    " Roots of protection : each time a hero in a space containing Roots of protection suffers [hearts] from an attack, that hero may reduce the amout of [heart] suffered by any amount and place that much [hearts] ont Roots of protection instead. Discard it when it suffers 8 [heart]".

    So, this way, I do think there is a real choice, either protection or healing. If you wish, maybe some other templates can be found for theses abilities.


    Maybe 12 hearts is bit too much. Averic's feat heal that much, but at once, and here you can do it on many turn. Since descent is tempo matters, maybe the rolls should be limited, so spring of life could be

    "Spring of life : When a hero ends its turn in a space containing Spring or life, roll 1 red power die. That hero recovers 1 [heart] for each [heart] on the die roll and 1 [fatigue] for each [surge] on the die roll. Then, place 1 [heart] on spring of life. Discard it when the third token is placed."

    This way, you can either choose heal, and you have 3 attemps that can miss. Or choose to move damages suffered on the roots and you can avoid a condition, or something, and it can adapt from how you play (if you want to play as a tank, full healing, etc ...)

She's not a overwhelming powerfull hero but her feat has indeed some ideas into. Her hero ability is a bit weak since you will lose 1 heart to avoid 1 heart to be lost from another hero, so except for some special cases, that really weak. What about :

" Once per round, after a hero within 3 spaces of you rolls defense die, you may add 1 [shield] to that defense results"

?

Finally, her attributes : Too much of the game's mechanics are around the [willpower]. Usually, hero with heavy on this stats have big drawback and the ones with few are strong. Maybe you can enhance her a bit and reduce that value ? She could have high [knowledge] since few healers have this and as a "druid", there's nothing strange to be wise and scholar ?

image.jpeg.5991aeddec32c8b70401efd4251a80b6.jpeg

You can use this card to feature your feats effect (it comes from Runewars board game, I already used the winter card for my campaign "Oath of the Anvil" to feature the "snow weather effect".
Remove the part under the text to add an image, change the text, and voila ! 😉

Edited by rugal
10 hours ago, rugal said:

Here is my experience return :

You don't own me anything! But thank you a lot 🙂 .

10 hours ago, rugal said:
  • Even if it's not important, the 9 life (odd) is ... odd (lol). All other heroes are even. Nothing important but that bugs me.
  • Nothing important, but her name is nothing so ... heroic to me.
  • The 2 brown dice can go from 0 to 4 shield with an average of 1,3, so it is a slightly better than a grey die (0 to 3 with an average of 1,3). Hopefully she cannot be a Monk so I think the balance is saved. 😉

Yes, 9 life and 2 brown are odd 😄 . Those are little details to make this hero slightly different and unique.

The biggest "problem" with 2 brown dice are that you have 25% chance instead of 16,67% to throw blanks 😄 .
https://anydice.com/program/1986a

With names it is difficult, they even sounds differently in every language. For example, I published " Aurora " and Czech equivalent of this name is " Jitřenka " which is something completely different. You can see this on the czech card in the topic.
With Gaia I just wanted to connect her with nature somehow so I named her after god of earth .
I hope that with last dwarf hero we will come up with something that everyone will like:

10 hours ago, rugal said:
  • I choosed to print the two effects of her feat on a single double sided card. About it, I think it is always better to use Spring of life rather than roots of protection . Spring will heal 12 hearts where the roots can avoid 8 hearts. But since Roots can only covert heroes from melee attacks, and roll no defense dice, 1 to 2 attack are far enough to remove it. So what about :

    " Roots of protection : each time a hero in a space containing Roots of protection suffers [hearts] from an attack, that hero may reduce the amout of [heart] suffered by any amount and place that much [hearts] ont Roots of protection instead. Discard it when it suffers 8 [heart]".

    So, this way, I do think there is a real choice, either protection or healing. If you wish, maybe some other templates can be found for theses abilities.


    Maybe 12 hearts is bit too much. Averic's feat heal that much, but at once, and here you can do it on many turn. Since descent is tempo matters, maybe the rolls should be limited, so spring of life could be

    "Spring of life : When a hero ends its turn in a space containing Spring or life, roll 1 red power die. That hero recovers 1 [heart] for each [heart] on the die roll and 1 [fatigue] for each [surge] on the die roll. Then, place 1 [heart] on spring of life. Discard it when the third token is placed."

    This way, you can either choose heal, and you have 3 attemps that can miss. Or choose to move damages suffered on the roots and you can avoid a condition, or something, and it can adapt from how you play (if you want to play as a tank, full healing, etc ...)

She's not a overwhelming powerfull hero but her feat has indeed some ideas into.

Yes, both "familiar" cards should be back & front and same with the tiles 🙂 .

There is one important aspect of those effect - Spring of Life can heal more than 12 Health, since it can be at 11 Health and you roll 1 Red power die and heal another 3 Heart + 1 Fatigue. And same with Roots of Protection, if they are at 7 Health, they devours more damage.

It is important to realize, that also enemy figures can use those tiles and when heroes are not close to each other, Spring of Life is not an option. On the other hand, Roots of Protection can be placed 4 spaces away (3 + expansion) from you to cover single dying hero. It is basically Ispher heroic.

Early initial concept of Roots of Protection worked exactly as you are saying, but it felt just too strong and problem with "two option" heroics is, that they should be slightly weaker than heroics without choice.

Spring of Life heal is quite "big", but there are many disadvantages.

  • you roll just 1 red power die at the end of your turn, you must stay at one place for 2 turns to roll 2 red power dice
  • enemy creatures can drink from the pool too (even when they are at full health)
  • it is end turn effect which doesn't stand up hero

However this is quite challenging design which needs to be playtested. Next week we finish Shadow of Nerekhall campaign with Aurora, Gaia, Ocvist and Avric and than we will start new one with Gaia. If the heal / protection is too weak/strong, we can simply add/remove some health from the familiars.

10 hours ago, rugal said:

Her hero ability is a bit weak since you will lose 1 heart to avoid 1 heart to be lost from another hero, so except for some special cases, that really weak. What about :

" Once per round, after a hero within 3 spaces of you rolls defense die, you may add 1 [shield] to that defense results"

?

She already have great stats, so it is good if her "feat" is weak. However sometimes it can prevent receiving condition, it can save life and help with damage tokens distribution between heroes - which is important for healing effects.

I like that she takes hit for others.

10 hours ago, rugal said:

Finally, her attributes : Too much of the game's mechanics are around the [willpower]. Usually, hero with heavy on this stats have big drawback and the ones with few are strong. Maybe you can enhance her a bit and reduce that value ? She could have high [knowledge] since few healers have this and as a "druid", there's nothing strange to be wise and scholar ?

I was going for some unique attributes that are not used in the game, there is just Rendiel and Serena (both healers) with 5 Willpower and at least thematically it fit the theme - you know, balance "2 2 2" and connection with nature to keep it in balance "big 5 willpower". But sure, we can tweak those attributes, I just like the uniqueness which fits the game of course.

11 hours ago, rugal said:

image.jpeg.5991aeddec32c8b70401efd4251a80b6.jpeg

You can use this card to feature your feats effect (it comes from Runewars board game, I already used the winter card for my campaign "Oath of the Anvil" to feature the "snow weather effect".
Remove the part under the text to add an image, change the text, and voila ! 😉

Not a bad idea, just an esthetic thing.

6 hours ago, AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark said:

You don't own me anything! But thank you a lot 🙂 .

Yes, 9 life and 2 brown are odd 😄 . Those are little details to make this hero slightly different and unique.

The biggest "problem" with 2 brown dice are that you have 25% chance instead of 16,67% to throw blanks 😄 .
https://anydice.com/program/1986a

With names it is difficult, they even sounds differently in every language. For example, I published " Aurora " and Czech equivalent of this name is " Jitřenka " which is something completely different. You can see this on the czech card in the topic.
With Gaia I just wanted to connect her with nature somehow so I named her after god of earth .
I hope that with last dwarf hero we will come up with something that everyone will like:

Maybe too much of odd for me 😉

Yes, 2 brown dice will have a more often blank results. But it's still better than only 1 ... (Go away, poor Serena)

To be exact, Gaia (or Gaea) is a primordial titan, not exactly a "god" 😄

But I don't see your point : since these are "names", Aurora can stay in each languages as it, don't you think so ? I'm always a bit surprised when translating names.

6 hours ago, AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark said:

There is one important aspect of those effect - Spring of Life can heal more than 12 Health, since it can be at 11 Health and you roll 1 Red power die and heal another 3 Heart + 1 Fatigue. And same with Roots of Protection, if they are at 7 Health, they devours more damage.

It is important to realize, that also enemy figures can use those tiles and when heroes are not close to each other, Spring of Life is not an option. On the other hand, Roots of Protection can be placed 4 spaces away (3 + expansion) from you to cover single dying hero. It is basically Ispher heroic.

Early initial concept of Roots of Protection worked exactly as you are saying, but it felt just too strong and problem with "two option" heroics is, that they should be slightly weaker than heroics without choice.

Spring of Life heal is quite "big", but there are many disadvantages.

  • you roll just 1 red power die at the end of your turn, you must stay at one place for 2 turns to roll 2 red power dice
  • enemy creatures can drink from the pool too (even when they are at full health)
  • it is end turn effect which doesn't stand up hero

However this is quite challenging design which needs to be playtested. Next week we finish Shadow of Nerekhall campaign with Aurora, Gaia, Ocvist and Avric and than we will start new one with Gaia. If the heal / protection is too weak/strong, we can simply add/remove some health from the familiars.

oww ... ! I didn't saw that the spring of life could heal monsters. And as it is written, if the srping has 11 health, I would have skipped the roll since you would only recover 1. As rules stated, a figure can never suffer more [hearts] than it's life, that why Andira's feat is "double" of the [hearts] suffered, since if a monsters has 2 health, you cannot recovers more than 4.

So, if the overlord move the heroes, he can use the spring instead of them and cancel the whole feat ?

I did'nt play it well then.

Yes, I too think that a "double choice feat" must be a bit less strong but Orkell already has one feat that have 2 options too.

6 hours ago, AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark said:

She already have great stats, so it is good if her "feat" is weak. However sometimes it can prevent receiving condition, it can save life and help with damage tokens distribution between heroes - which is important for healing effects.

I like that she takes hit for others.

Fine, but you don't gain anything.

Each hero that grants + 1 shield or heart is pure bonus, here you lose 1 eventually prevent 1. Except to avoid a condition sometimes, most of times, it would be useless, unless playing a bard or a druid, since the bard has multiple heal and then it would be break and strong with druid.

6 hours ago, AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark said:

Not a bad idea, just an esthetic thing.

but important to avoid to mix things. I'm search a new design for the shapeshift (and I haven't found what I searched).

31 minutes ago, rugal said:

But I don't see your point : since these are "names", Aurora can stay in each languages as it, don't you think so ? I'm always a bit surprised when translating names.

I do agree it is a bit weird. But our czech publisher went nuts with all the names, so I was like: alright then, I will do the same thing 😄 .

31 minutes ago, rugal said:

oww ... ! I didn't saw that the spring of life could heal monsters. And as it is written, if the srping has 11 health, I would have skipped the roll since you would only recover 1. As rules stated, a figure can never suffer more [hearts] than it's life, that why Andira's feat is "double" of the [hearts] suffered, since if a monsters has 2 health, you cannot recovers more than 4.

Yes, that is why it is explicitly written in two sentences:

  1. Roll 1 red power dice and heal Heart and Fatigue
  2. "Then", no matter recovered amount, Spring of Life suffer rolled amount of Heart and Fatigue.

Therefore full heal monsters can exhaust it and it can heal into "negative" amount of its health - since heal is not connected to her health.

I am trying to fill FAQ with all those informations which might not be exactly and immediately obvious.

37 minutes ago, rugal said:

Fine, but you don't gain anything.

Each hero that grants + 1 shield or heart is pure bonus, here you lose 1 eventually prevent 1. Except to avoid a condition sometimes, most of times, it would be useless, unless playing a bard or a druid, since the bard has multiple heal and then it would be break and strong with druid.

I am bit scared of creating broken hero that I would rather create a weak one. And as you already written, she should be good as a bard or a druid.

I like that she finally have some simple ability. You saw the previous version 😐 .

32 minutes ago, rugal said:

So, if the overlord move the heroes, he can use the spring instead of them and cancel the whole feat ?

Yes!

5 hours ago, AwesomeTree_in_the_Dark said:
5 hours ago, rugal said:

So, if the overlord move the heroes, he can use the spring instead of them and cancel the whole feat ?

Yes!

This is dope!

in the hero ability part: ..."you may once suffer 1 "heart" to add 1 "shield"to the results."...

i think that "once" is not necessary.. it is understood that each time you use the skill you may suffer just 1 to add 1 if used.

btw, your contributions seem excellent and very creative, I can't wait to print your heroes

Edited by Pabliten

Thank you very much! ❤️

I do agree with you, only reason I included this extra "once" is because of a Ghost Armor ( After your defense roll, use this card to add 1 Shield to the results. ).

You can use that card multiple times - suffer X Fatigue to add X Shields to the results. I didn't want Gaia ability to be misunderstand that it works the same way - that you can suffer X Heart to add X Shields.