So, here´s my take on the Satan Servant / Devil´s Minion (or whatever you like to call it...) published by Mephisto magazine (and FFG). I read a lot in the forums about the problems of many of these Mephisto-characters and just tried to alter some of them a bit to make them more interesting and a bit more playable. (I didn´t reinvent them like Elliott, who gave them some wonderful new twists
)
Before you start to complain that there are simply too many special abilities (10...
), I guess it´s due to the fact that I tried to leave the base concept of Mephisto magazine intact, accepted the character´s handicaps, but feld the need to add some new abilities. (Some of the minor changes were inspired by others in the forums, especially the slightly improved healing abilities.) I think that the special abilities of a character should normally be reduced to some incisive points.
Oh yes, and please don´t complain about some bad english... (?!)
All the base skills (Strength, Craft...) are unaltered, so you can concentrate on his special abilities. I marked them as "old" (which means "original"), "altered" and "new". Oh, and I copied the wording of the old abilities from one of the translations found in the forums.
Satan Servant
Strength: 2 / Craft: 4 / Fate: 4 / Life: 4
Start: Graveyard / Alignment: Evil
Special Abilities:
- (old) When you attack another character, you may choose to make the attack psychic combat. You may not do this when you are attacked by another character.
- (old) If you encounter a Spirit, you may choose another character who will be attacked immediately instead of you. The Spirit moves immediately to the space of the chosen one.
- (old) You can claim the following cards at a roll of 1-4, when another character draws them: Devil, Mephistopheles and Phantom.
- (altered) Instead of rolling a die on the Graveyard or drawing a card on the Cursed Glade, you may choose to heal up to two lives, gain one life, gain a Spell or be teleported to any space in your region.
- (old) You may not voluntarily enter the City, Tavern, Village or Castle. If you are forced to enter these locations, then you may not use the possibilities of these places.
- (altered) You may not use any weapons in battle except weapons that can´t be used by characters with good alignment. You may also not use any Armour other than shield.
- (new) At the start of your turn, you may choose to perform a dark ritual by calling the Forces of Darkness. You miss your turn, but you gain a Spell for each gold you sacrifice, if your craft allows.
- (new) Whenever you encounter an enemy or character in battle or psychic combat on the Runes, you may roll 2 dice for your combat roll and add them together.
- (new) When you pray at the temple, you have to subtract 2 from the score.
- (new) Your alignment is always evil.
So, there you have it. I honestly tell you I haven´t "playtested" it and I don´t have a clue if the changes make the character more enjoyable. Talisman sessions are rare these days.
Feel free tu use it (or just use some of the new abilities), or to further experiment on it.
The idea was obviously that the Mephisto-character had some basic problems. (Where can I replenish lost lives ? Where to spend my gold ?) On the other hand, I liked the base concept that the Satan Servant isn´t permitted to enter places like the Village or City, so I left his handicap as it was. I liked the idea that he becomes a stronger character in the darker, less civilized middle region, where he draws some power from these ancient runes. (Praying at the temple is dangerous for him, though.) I think his ability to sacrifice gold for Spells (see Alchemist) is a fair deal because he has so many restrictions on spending gold. And I guess the Forces of Darkness who guard the Dark Cultist like to offer a helping hand to him as well...
Others have limited his ability to have other characters attacked by spirits to the same region (which seems to be some kind of a golden rule in Talisman), but I kinda like the idea that you can even send them to other boards. If you think it´s silly to have a highland-spirit suddenly pop up in the dungeon
, simply change the ability to "the same region". (I wouldn´t allow the Satan Servant to send them to the inner region.)
I´m not so familiar with many cards of the expansions (I own them, but shuffled them into the original deck without reading them, haven´t played many of these cards), so I can´t assess if everything makes sense. For example, I don´t know if there are many weapons that can´t be used by characters with good alignment. I just thought the Satan Servant´s ability to use special weapons shouldn´t be restricted to the runesword.
Oh, and if he needs to enter one of his "no-go-areas" like the City or the Village due to a warlock quest, I wouldn´t consider this to be voluntary.
I guess one of the Satan Servant´s main challenges is to enter the middle region quite early, where he has some fighting advantages on the Runes-spaces. Would you prefer him to start in the middle region, for example on the Cursed Glade ?
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas, and please call my attention to obvious flaws (considering the mechanics of the game).
