Tadask's New Heroes and Revised Heroes

By Tadask Nezerull, in Descent Home Brews

Apologies if this was brought up and discussed earlier (there's a lot of thread here to chew through) but can Alena pay 3 fatigue to put a Dodge order on someone else, or only herself? The way the ability is worded it isn't clear.

Drazun's and Rania's hero abilities both seem overpowered to me. Others seem to think they're no so bad, but I dislike them. Especially in the advanced campaign where they could theoretically roll 3 surges on a single die.

Also, unless Drazun's image was chosen specifically to tittilate 13 year old boys I don't think there's any particular need for it. He doesn't even seem to have a slaver theme going on. I'm not opposed to a little sexy in my fantasy adventure, but if you feel a legitimate need to add censor bars (or use an image with them) then I think you're going a little farther than is called for in a game like Descent. Not meaning to sound too harsh or anything, but I'm sure there are other images of dragonkin type creatures to be found on the internet that don't have naked slave girls hanging around them.

I'm not sure I understand the comment about Tarracka not getting off-hand bonuses for two handed weapons. You can't gain an off-hand bonus from any weapon unless it has an Off-Hand block on the weapon card, and there aren't any two handed weapons with off-hand bonuses. Did you mean that she can't gain an offhand bonus from a one handed weapon while attacking with a two handed weapon?

Steve-O said:

1. Apologies if this was brought up and discussed earlier (there's a lot of thread here to chew through) but can Alena pay 3 fatigue to put a Dodge order on someone else, or only herself? The way the ability is worded it isn't clear.

2. I'm not sure I understand the comment about Tarracka not getting off-hand bonuses for two handed weapons. You can't gain an off-hand bonus from any weapon unless it has an Off-Hand block on the weapon card, and there aren't any two handed weapons with off-hand bonuses. Did you mean that she can't gain an offhand bonus from a one handed weapon while attacking with a two handed weapon?

1. Good catch. Unless she is intended to be able to place the dodge on others (and I rather expect not based on the previous discussions) then it should say '...on herself' after '... place a dodge order...'

2. I don't think he meant that. But the whole OHB thing needs clarification of intent before spelling it out on the card.
Options:
She is supposed to get OHB from 1H secondary weapons - needs rewording her ability slightly to match Laughlins 'as if in one hand' or whatever it is
She never gets any OHB so the only use of her ability is to allow a shield with a 2H weapon - in which case you might as well simply say that to keep things clearer.

Alena: I need to fix that wording a bit, yeah. I'll remake her to fix it soon, been really busy as of late.

Rania and Drazun: I've never played the Advanced Campaign, and never bothered to balance them for it. As far as I'm concerned they're not meant for SoB or RtL. And as for Drazun, that's just a picture I already had on my computer from a fan-made Magic: The Gathering set me and a friend were making. I can understand the concern, though, and I'll find another picture for him in the next update.

Tarracka: The text should read "Tarracka may use a two-handed weapon in one hand, but does not gain off-hand bonuses while using a two-handed weapon in her off-hand.". It's more of a clarification than anything, to keep newer players from asking questions. I had a similar hero that someone made with an almost identical two-handed weapon ability, and I've had that question asked of me like four times now. Also thinking of changing her ability to just hit an extra adjacent figure for each 2 fatigue she spends. Something like... "Tarracka may spend 2 Fatigue while attacking to also attack another adjacent figure. Tarracka may use two-handed weapons in one hand (Two-Handed Weapons do not grant any off-hand bonuses)."

Tadask Nezerull said:

Tarracka: The text should read "Tarracka may use a two-handed weapon in one hand, but does not gain off-hand bonuses while using a two-handed weapon in her off-hand.". It's more of a clarification than anything, to keep newer players from asking questions. I had a similar hero that someone made with an almost identical two-handed weapon ability, and I've had that question asked of me like four times now. Also thinking of changing her ability to just hit an extra adjacent figure for each 2 fatigue she spends. Something like... "Tarracka may spend 2 Fatigue while attacking to also attack another adjacent figure. Tarracka may use two-handed weapons in one hand (Two-Handed Weapons do not grant any off-hand bonuses)."

Just out of curiosity, what kind of off-hand bonus do these people think this other hero should be getting? Or they just keep asking if the hero gets anything?

They just keep asking if she gets anything at all for wielding a two-handed weapon in her off-hand. We're all avid D&D players, and they're not used to the simple rules in Descent XD

Tadask Nezerull said:

They just keep asking if she gets anything at all for wielding a two-handed weapon in her off-hand. We're all avid D&D players, and they're not used to the simple rules in Descent XD

Do you just say, "Depends on the weapon. If the weapon gives an off-hand bonus, it's printed on the card" ?

Pretty much. I let them know it's printed on the card XD

Tadask Nezerull said:

Whatdya think? I was half asleep when I made her, and .....

That's something u should NEVER say when u are offering your characters to the public for their playing pleasures. It gives the wrong impressions:

1) You don't really care. You just want to get characters out.

2) You are lazy. You do a half-job, and let the forum iron it out for you.

I think that was a very bad statement. But your works have improved alot, and I particularly liked the new pictures. I laughed alot at the Drazun dude and his censored gal. (Cant comprehend how u ever thought him to be a healer class, especially when he's dragging a naked girl around in chains.)

Just a note, I try to be honest as to when I create content, so you know whether to take it with a grain of salt (Given my newness to the game, all my stuff should probably be taken that way, though). Also, I tend to put the idea out there the moment I think of it, hence when I was half asleep. I'll be posting a better version of her when my computer stops being derp.

Yay, computer's finally stopped being made of derp. Tarracka was scrapped, for note. Made a character that was bugging me some, partially at the request of a friend >.>

He's big, slow, and tough. Say hello to Rumble. I know the incredibly low movement is a major hindrance, but the Health and Armor, and the possible damage bonus (Mostly with Store gear) is helpful. His high fatigue means he can hit heavy when need be, and can move quick when he absolutely has to. Feel free to leave feedback.

Rumble.jpg

Figure I'd Recommend: A repainted Ogre or Giant figure.

A 4-square hero can't fit everywhere heroes are supposed to go in some official quest maps, and can easily be blocked from others by a Crushing Block card. Many quests don't have room to fit all heroes on/adjacent to the starting glyph if even one of them is that big, and he can expect to cost the party several movement points at the start of each new area because they can't group up at the door as well. Simultaneously, he'll be able to ignore lots of hazardous terrain that's supposed to present a problem for heroes. I can understand the appeal, but it's just not a good idea; the maximum size of heroes needs to be set when the game is created and taken into account in designing all the quests and cards. You can't raise it later.

16/2 and cannot wear armor suggests a conquest value of 3, not 4. You're like Okaluk and Rakash in Chainmail, but without Stealth.

Thematically, I expect big creatures (especially melee ones) to have high speed and low fatigue, not the reverse. I realize that ogres and giants are slow, but that doesn't really make sense and results in all kinds of balance problems, especially because they frequently need to spend more movement to cover the same distance due to cornering issues. It's also established that dwarves have low speed and high fatigue.

You should also be careful about giving a hero less than 3 speed, because it makes it very difficult to justify spending any half-actions on movement; it can significantly skew their tactics. Having a monster preplaced in a quest whose job is to scare the heroes into kiting it is OK, and can be taken into account in the quest's overall difficulty; having a hero that can sucker-punch monsters if they're close but can't do much if they play smart is a much more dubious proposition. Yes, he has allies, but he's still supposed to pull his weight.

Paying 1 fatigue to gain S: +1 damage isn't very good, even on shop weapons. On a Sword, it's worse than Sir Valadir's ability unless you've already rolled at least four surges or you're at the dice cap, and Sir Valadir's ability is pretty weak; with most melee weapons in the game, it's completely worthless. It would be a somewhat more useful effect on ranged weapons or runes...except that all his dice are in melee and he can't equip runes.

If you made Rumble one space, raised his speed to 3, and lowered his conquest value to 3, I think he'd be fairly balanced, if rather uninteresting. As it stands, I think he's pretty much unplayable.

Yeah, as it stands he was mostly a friend's idea, and I'll definately see what I can do. I've been wanting to experiment some with unusual characters that still kindof fit the feel of Descent, and I didn't think about the drawbacks myself of a large character no being able to do much. I'll muss with his stuff some :3