First Character: Barbarian King Olaf!

By Frozencore, in Descent Home Brews

Posted at

At the start of Olaf's turn, he may place up to 3 Bloodlust tokens on himself. Each token immediately causes 1 point of damage (ignoring armor) and grants Command 1 until the end of the Round. <SS> : Remove 1 Bloodlust token OR regain 1 wound.
Olaf dies if he does not have more remaining wounds than Bloodlust tokens.

- OR -

At the start of Olaf's turn, he may place up to 3 Bloodlust tokens on himself. Each token immediately causes 1 point of damage (ignoring armor) and grants Command 1 until the end of the Round. The damage from a Bloodlust token cannot be healed until the token is removed. <SS> : Remove 1 Bloodlust token OR regain 1 wound.

(There's a slight change from what you described, but maybe easier to explain?)

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Frozencore said:

I both rolled out the dice and calculated the statistics mathematically, did you? By both rolling and by simple math I got an average of a little under 1 health per attack with a gold weapon. Each dice has a single surge on 2/6 sides for melee weapons, and odd numbers of surges are lost, making it even harder to get wounds back. Lets say we do a battle action, that is <2 on average. Conversely with the same action he could have done 8 more damage by not using the surges to heal himself. That's a pretty heafty chunk to lose, especially considering that damage could have killed the monster anyway. Sure he can take the one skill that gives you free surges, but that would be at the expense of another good skill like Leadership or Knight, a fair trade in my opinion.

Morthai/mahkra I like your suggestion, as it is certainly easier to keep track of. It is, however, less risky than the current method as the damage right now can only be healed by surges, and in your suggestion it can be healed by health potions. The issue that is really hindering the clarity of the ability is lack of space on the card. I know what I want it to be, but I am limited in the amount of words I can use to describe the ability.

Essentially: At the begining of his turn Olaf my choose to place up to three Bloodlust tokens on himself to gain an equal amount of Command. The Command lasts until the end of the round, but the Bloodlust tokens remain. When his remaing wounds are equal or less than his Bloodlust tokens Olaf dies. Spend 2 surges to remove 1 Bloodlust token or to regain 1 wound.

Many (in fact, half of 2H melee, as well as a magic treasure in each category) silver and gold weapons give bonus surges, and often these weapons deal enough damage anyway that they don't even need to spend surges to kill their targets.

Weapon Mastery (a first choice skill for any melee hero) combined with Frost Axe (Gold, WGGY, 2 free surges), Longspear (Gold, RGYY, 2 free surges), Grinding Axe (Silver, RGG, 1 free surge), Bo stick (RGY, 1 free surge) or any 1H weapon with a variety of other 1H weapons giving off hand surge bonuses will result in a significant number of surges before the dice are even added.

There are also power potions to give Olaf 5 trait dice in vanilla, or the equivalent of at least 7 trait dice in Advanced Campaigns.

I think you seriously underestimate the likelihood of large numbers of surges being regularly available to Olaf, especially once silver and gold weapons are in use.

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mahkra said:

At the start of Olaf's turn, he may place up to 3 Bloodlust tokens on himself. Each token immediately causes 1 point of damage (ignoring armor) and grants Command 1 until the end of the Round. <SS> : Remove 1 Bloodlust token OR regain 1 wound.
Olaf dies if he does not have more remaining wounds than Bloodlust tokens.

- OR -

At the start of Olaf's turn, he may place up to 3 Bloodlust tokens on himself. Each token immediately causes 1 point of damage (ignoring armor) and grants Command 1 until the end of the Round. The damage from a Bloodlust token cannot be healed until the token is removed. <SS> : Remove 1 Bloodlust token OR regain 1 wound.

(There's a slight change from what you described, but maybe easier to explain?)

I love the second idea, it seems pretty much spot on with what I had envisioned. Whether that is balanced or not is another story, and it seems like everyone has their own idea as to what is fair or not. I guess that is really the issue here, there is no power or ability that is similar, so therefor we have no other point of reference.

I ask, though, what character isn't crazy good with 5 trait dice, gold items, and perfectly selected skill cards?

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There will always be differing opinions on balance issues because much of it depends on play style and party composition. Just test the character in some actual games and see if he works for your group. As long as he works for you, it doesn't really matter if other groups don't like him.