Because we miss a homebrew section, like the first edition forum, I'll post this here

The Acolyte of the Phoenix is a Healer archetype I thought up because I wanted to think of how a Heal o Time class could work.

The Acolyte of the Phoenix, Acolyte for short, uses flame tokens for their heals. Flame tokens are put in a hero's play zone and, barring any other special skill, get used one at a time at the end of that hero's turn. They all get discarded without effect if that hero is defeated.

Besides the HoT theme, I wanted to get another theme going, that of self harm for gains. Let's see how well I did that, starting from the Acolyte's starting equipment:

Blazing Censer

Acolyte starting weapon, two-handed, melee

Blue attack die + 1 red power die

When you miss or deal no damage with this weapon, suffer 2 wounds

2 surges: +3 wounds

Robes of the Phoenix

Acolyte starting armor

Exhaust this card to prevent suffering 1 wound, only if it was suffered because of one of your own skill cards

Do you think the Blazing Censer is too powerful for its drawback? I don't think so. The Robes of the Phoenix don't add a brown die; this is intentional, as no other class in the game starts with additional defense dice.

Flames of Renewal

Acolyte starting skill

cost: 2 Fatigue

Exhaust this card to choose a hero within 3 spaces to suffer 1 or 2 wounds; they gain as many flame tokens.

At the end of a hero's turn, if they have flame tokens, they must discard one. Whenever a hero discards a flame token they recover 3 wounds.

If I compare this to Prayer of Healing:

-It's ranged, meaning the Acolyte is much more free in movement and positioning

-It's less powerful, more reliable: not rolling the die means that if you spend 2 fatigue on it you always get 2 wounds worth of heal for each fatigue

-It's more expensive if you only cause 1 wound, more risky if you cause 2 - you either have to wait for the hero to be wounded enough to certainly recover all 6 wounds or risk wasting healing, and what if they get defeated?

The first level 1 skill is closely related to Flames of Renewal

Fiery Assault

Acolyte level 1 skill

cost: 1 fatigue, 2 wounds

Action: Exhaust your Flames of Renewal skill to perform a Melee attack; it gains an additional yellow power die and surge: a hero within 3 spaces of you gains a flame token

Buying this skill allows you to set aside temporarily your main healing role to greatly gain in damage - at a cost.

Immolation

Acolyte level 1 skill

You gain +1 Stamina

Once per round you may suffer 2 wounds and spend them as if they were a single fatigue instead

Once per round you may suffer 2 wounds before rolling dice ofr an attack to gain an additional surge

As clarification, since the card is not exhausted the Acolyte is able to invoke both effects in a round, once each. The first effect works for fatigue you spend: you cannot use it for fatigue you suffer.

Fire Shield

Acolyte level 1 skill

cost: 1 fatigue

Action: exhaust this card. As long as it's exhausted heroes within 3 spaces of you gain 1 shield to each of their defense rolls. any monster attacking affected heroes in Melee suffers 1 wound before dice are rolled.

Soothing Warmth

Acolyte level 2 skill

Your Flames of Renewal grants an additional flame token, to the same hero or to a different one within 3 spaces of the targeted hero. Whenever a hero discards a flame token they may choose to recover 1 fatigue instead of 3 wounds.

Is it somewhat lacking for a level 2 skill?

Soul Conflagration

Acolyte level 2 skill

cost: 3 fatigue

Action: suffer damage up to your Health minus 1. Every minion monster adjacent to you is defeated.

Depending on when you have to use it and how smart the overlord is at placing monsters, this skill could be either terrible or awesome, I guess. If I were to play this class I'd take it only as a deterrent - one of those cases where the threat of using it is actually as powerful than the skill in itself.

Avatar of the Phoenix

Acolyte level 3 skill

cost: 2 fatigue, 4 wounds

Overall, I like it. Posted a couple thoughts below:

Fiery Assault

Acolyte level 1 skill

cost: 1 fatigue, 2 wounds

Action: Exhaust your Flames of Renewal skill to perform a Melee attack; it gains an additional yellow power die and surge: a hero within 3 spaces of you gains a flame token

Is it intended to not cause damage to the other hero in this case? I'm curious if flame tokens should always cause 1 damage to a hero when they are received. (You might need adjust other skills to compensate; just a thought, though)

2 wound cost also seems a bit much. Maybe 1 wound?

Immolation

Acolyte level 1 skill

You gain +1 Stamina

Once per round you may suffer 2 wounds and spend them as if they were a single fatigue instead

Once per round you may suffer 2 wounds before rolling dice ofr an attack to gain an additional surge

As clarification, since the card is not exhausted the Acolyte is able to invoke both effects in a round, once each. The first effect works for fatigue you spend: you cannot use it for fatigue you suffer.

There is no difference in terms of game mechanics between "spending fatigue" and "suffering fatigue". FFG never actually uses "spend" in reference to fatigue, they always use the term "suffer". Since in other cases, when you suffer one from an external effect, if you don't have any, it counts as 1 wound, I don't think you need to worry about the clarification much.

To keep things in line with other abilities, I would just turn it into an Exhaust mechanic and make it an either or. While "Rounds" are technically defined (Hero Turn, then Overlord Turn), it's not something particularly used much by other mechanics; everything else is turn based. Alternatively, you could make one of them a passive ability (2 wounds = 1 fatigue) or just say "Once per turn" and the other one an exhaust ability. Also, for balance purposes, you may want to just make it 1 for 1. There's already a hero that can do this.

Fire Shield

Acolyte level 1 skill

cost: 1 fatigue

Action: exhaust this card. As long as it's exhausted heroes within 3 spaces of you gain 1 shield to each of their defense rolls. any monster attacking affected heroes in Melee suffers 1 wound before dice are rolled.

This feels really powerful for only a single fatigue. If it was just the shield aspect, I'd say leave it, but with the damaging aspect, I'd probably push it up to a cost of 2 fatigue. Hard to say, though.

Soul Conflagration

Acolyte level 2 skill

cost: 3 fatigue

Action: suffer damage up to your Health minus 1. Every minion monster adjacent to you is defeated.

Depending on when you have to use it and how smart the overlord is at placing monsters, this skill could be either terrible or awesome, I guess. If I were to play this class I'd take it only as a deterrent - one of those cases where the threat of using it is actually as powerful than the skill in itself.

If combined with a healing potion, this basically has no downside (except that it'd take up an entire turn). But since it's only adjacent minions, it's probably not overly powerful.

Avatar of the Phoenix

Acolyte level 3 skill

cost: 2 fatigue, 4 wounds

Exhaust this card at the start of your turn. As long as it is exhausted you gain the following traits:

At the start of your turn suffer 3 wounds. Each figure that starts their turn adjacent to you suffers 1 wound. You can use the Fiery Assault skill even if you didn't buy it; if you bought it you can use it without paying for its fatigue cost. Once per turn you may refresh your Flames of Renewal skill. When a hero discards a flame token he must discard an additional token.

This card does not refresh as normal. When you would be defeated, you instead suffer damage up to your Health minus 1 and refresh this card, then flip it over. It is unavailable until the start of the next encounter.

This will never fit on a card.

Channeling the Phoenix is no easy task. The Acolyte suffers greatly, but with some smart fatigue management and a rest here and there I think they can get this going for the whole encounter - provided the heroes can kill monsters fast enough for them to drop the Acolyte down.

So let's break this one down a bit and see just what is useful and maybe trim things so that it would fit on a card.

Cost: 4 wounds - Probably a bit much. There's already 3 wounds that are going to be inflicted right away. It is a bit ambiguous though; I can see people ask if they actually suffer 7 wounds or only 4. I'd probably also move this to "at the end of your turn", to make for some more interesting choices. He can use it for the turn even if close to dying, do some stuff, then will die.

"Each figure that starts their turn adjacent to you suffers 1 wound." - Good, clean, simple.

"You can use the Fiery Assault skill even if you didn't buy it; if you bought it you can use it without paying for its fatigue cost." - Probably a bit complicated. I'd personally drop the first part, and just leave the second part. Or perhaps just change it to "All skills cost 1 less fatigue" or "All skills may be used by suffering wounds as fatigue" depending on the balance you want to strike.

"When a hero discards a flame token he must discard an additional token." - I'm not seeing much point to this one, and would probably just drop it.

"This card does not refresh as normal. When you would be defeated, you instead suffer damage up to your Health minus 1 and refresh this card, then flip it over. It is unavailable until the start of the next encounter." - I'd probably break this up: "When you would be defeated, instead suffer wounds up to your Health minus 1. This card only refreshes at the end of the encounter."

Fiery Rebirth

Acolyte level 3 skill

cost: 3 fatigue

Action: Exhaust this card to immediately defeat a hero within 3 spaces of you. At the start of their next turn, that hero instantly stands up, recovers 6 wounds, 2 fatigue and gains 3 flame tokens. They can take two actions as normal. Put one of their hero tokens on this skill as a reminder until they revive.

I probably wouldn't use "stands up" here, I would just say "At the start of their next turn, that hero instantly recovers..."