Others have posted about this before, but I wanted to try to get some discussion going around the Zanaga heroes. These are the only other Terrinoth heroes from Runebound that never got released into Descent, so I think it makes sense to try to make heroes for them. @Sadgit has already made 2 heroes for Runemaker Tara and Elga, I'll post those here for completeness purposes only but there's no intention of modifying these as they've already playtested them thoroughly. For more information about these last two, check out the Sands of the Past expansion.

These designs have been posted before, but I cleaned them up quite a bit. The only new one is Kala, because I didn't really like the previous design.

I don't like that much Zanaga's heroes. Maliki indeed needs his place, with Elga and Tara (even if there is already a Tarha)

Since there is already many warriors and scouts, adding them to this archetypes doesn't seems usefull to me.

So, I don't see Maliki as other than a warrior so let us keep it that way, but I am not so fond of his hero ability, If you do it, then, the red deals only damage and cancel no damages ? Since he has 10 health, he will often be defeated ... I hate Nara for that, si having a hero like her is nothing I wish for ... I see Maliki as a lion, having a war cry forcing a monster to focus on him or maybe his feat.

I don't like Kala and Annen so I never through about them, they even don't seems as part of the universe. They look like scouts, but they are already too much, healers and mages are missing from almost a half.

Saka and Kuto could be healers, no ? I don't see them as warriors, but more scouts or healers. By the way, Kuto is by far too strong. With a shadow walker by tour side, monsters have not a single chance to survive ! Maybe Pierce 1, or limiting it to your attacks.

3 minutes ago, rugal said:

Since there is already many warriors and scouts, adding them to this archetypes doesn't seems usefull to me.

Yeah, I agree, but there's a dearth of Mages/Healers in Terrinoth. What can you do?

3 minutes ago, rugal said:

So, I don't see Maliki as other than a warrior so let us keep it that way, but I am not so fond of his hero ability, If you do it, then, the red deals only damage and cancel no damages ? Since he has 10 health, he will often be defeated ... I hate Nara for that, si having a hero like her is nothing I wish for ... I see Maliki as a lion, having a war cry forcing a monster to focus on him or maybe his feat.

Agree about Maliki being a Warrior. I think the Hero Ability is neat. I'm not sure what you mean by "the red deals only damage and cancel no damages" -- you can't use it as a Defense die, if that's what you mean. I agree about his 10 health, it's low for being a lion. Maybe change movement to 4 and health to 12?

3 minutes ago, rugal said:

I don't like Kala and Annen so I never through about them, they even don't seems as part of the universe. They look like scouts, but they are already too much, healers and mages are missing from almost a half.

I think they don't seem like part of the universe because Zanaga is unique. It's a forest area. But it is canon. The Terrinoth RPG book describes it well.

3 minutes ago, rugal said:

Saka and Kuto could be healers, no ? I don't see them as warriors, but more scouts or healers

I didn't choose Warrior for Saka, that was the designer of the card. However, if I had to choose I would choose Warrior. If you look at the Wiki entry for Saka here's what it says:

Saka and Kuto are a pair of adventurers from the continent of Zanaga. Saka wears tribal gear and trusts his hyena companion, Kuto, more than any humanoid creature. Saka is a follower of the god Jarrar.

Quote: "You strong. Maybe stronger than Saka. But you hear that laughing? Kuto laughs because of funny joke - you never fight just Saka. You fight Saka and Kuto together."

And then here's the Wiki entry for the god Jarrar:

Jararr, often referred to as Jararr the Hunter, is a primordial deity worshiped on the jungle continent of Zanaga.

Jararr is a panther god and brother to Hamzah the Pridelord. Vicious hunters offer prayers to this solitary god, though it is taboo to do so, particularly in Singhara tribes. Some adventurers seek out Jararr in attempt to join him in his dangerous hunts.

Singhara society believes that if Jararr rises to power, he will bring about the Wild Hunt, forcing all life to struggle between being predator and prey.

So Saka is a "vicious hunter".

1 hour ago, ComtriS said:

Yeah, I agree, but there's a dearth of Mages/Healers in Terrinoth. What can you do?

Balancing the avalaible heroes by creating only mages and healers

1 hour ago, ComtriS said:

Agree about Maliki being a Warrior. I think the Hero Ability is neat. I'm not sure what you mean by "the red deals only damage and cancel no damages" -- you can't use it as a Defense die, if that's what you mean. I agree about his 10 health, it's low for being a lion. Maybe change movement to 4 and health to 12?

I think they don't seem like part of the universe because Zanaga is unique. It's a forest area. But it is canon. The Terrinoth RPG book describes it well.

In fact, if you replace a defense by with a red power die, by the rules, you lose the shield to cancel damages to exchange it to damage the monster by the hero ability. So, maybe it should be "When a monster adjacent to your resolves an attack while adjacent to your, roll 1 red power die. That monster suffer 1 heart for each heart on the die roll" (the "immediately" word has no purpose). But it is really strong, with Andira near, dealing damage to him is a real pain since most monsters may be wiped at their first blow ! Personnaly, I'm sorry to say that I don't like this ability. Maybe as a feat for the whole turn, but since Andira already has something like this, and awfully strong, I would not go this way with him.

For Saka and Kuto, "vicious hunter" would indeed be scout (bounty hunter for the better example). But many heroes in the first edition of descent were converted into the second (there was no healer for example, zyla was more of fly scout and not a mage, Ispher some sort of balanced character between scout warrior and mage, etc ...) so there is no need to get stick to those.

As for Runebound V3, most of the universe was kept, but many were thrown out, so, I don't mind changing them to so another archetype.

By the way Maliki and Saka are not correct : their emblem is red but all small green circle should be red

10 hours ago, rugal said:

Balancing the avalaible heroes by creating only mages and healers

I understand the thought. But Annen is clearly not a healer or a mage. It would seem odd to make him one, when it's obvious that he's not. The same goes for Maliki, Kala, and Saka. It's still important to stay consistent with the character quotes and the Terrinoth lore.

10 hours ago, rugal said:

In fact, if you replace a defense by with a red power die, by the rules, you lose the shield to cancel damages to exchange it to damage the monster by the hero ability. So, maybe it should be "When a monster adjacent to your resolves an attack while adjacent to your, roll 1 red power die. That monster suffer 1 heart for each heart on the die roll" (the "immediately" word has no purpose). But it is really strong, with Andira near, dealing damage to him is a real pain since most monsters may be wiped at their first blow ! Personnaly, I'm sorry to say that I don't like this ability. Maybe as a feat for the whole turn, but since Andira already has something like this, and awfully strong, I would not go this way with him.

I agree the wording is not so good on Maliki. However, let's do some math.

Average red die damage: 2.17
Average grey die shields: 1.33
Damage from Andira: 1

So you're taking 1.33 damage to deal 2.17 damage, which is a net of 0.83 damage. This is comparable to Andira, so what's the problem?

10 hours ago, rugal said:

For Saka and Kuto, "vicious hunter" would indeed be scout (bounty hunter for the better example). But many heroes in the first edition of descent were converted into the second (there was no healer for example, zyla was more of fly scout and not a mage, Ispher some sort of balanced character between scout warrior and mage, etc ...) so there is no need to get stick to those.

As for Runebound V3, most of the universe was kept, but many were thrown out, so, I don't mind changing them to so another archetype.

Saka/Kuto, yes you're probably right that he should be a Scout. Zyla is a Fae (fairy), which are known to have magical powers. Furthermore look at their quotes:

Zyla:
"Can't hit what you can't catch!"
"Pursue me all you want; we’ll meet when and where I decide – and there you will die."

Saka:
"You strong. Maybe stronger than Saka. But you hear that laughing? Kuto laughs because of funny joke - you never fight just Saka. You fight Saka and Kuto together."

You can't tell me that Saka sounds like a Mage after reading that.

6 hours ago, rugal said:

By the way Maliki and Saka are not correct : their emblem is red but all small green circle should be red

Yes, I'll fix this. I've just been modifying these in gimp, so I don't have access to the other colored gems (which can only be loaded in photoshop from the template).

So, if Hugo can change archetype, then, some here can also

On 11/3/2020 at 6:37 AM, rugal said:

So, if Hugo can change archetype, then, some here can also

Then make your suggestions on the archetype changes.

13 minutes ago, ComtriS said:

Then make your suggestions on the archetype changes.

Saka and Kuto primary as a scout, second as healer (bugs me as warrior)

Maliki can also be a scout, maybe even a healer since Lyssa is a mage ...

Just some idea to see if he could fit outside of a warrior class, since they are so many

I like these- some interesting new characters for Descent, and good to have a 'lion' catfolk (Singhara) one- something else to playtest (that moment when you realize a board game hobby could be your full time job )

My project visits Zanaga further down the lion I mean line with some Singharan adventures (the lionfolk are the Singhara) so I might make use of these

Wonder what the actual count of heroes and enemies is from all the Terrinoth games- must be quite high