HQ25 - Artifacts

[cynthialee]

I keep going back and forth with myself over Ork Bane and if it should work against other types of similar monsters.

I sometimes think it should work against Ork, Kobold, Goblin and Gnoll. But not fimir. Would help the heroes out.

[knightkrawler]

A comment in the quest book would easily fix that.

For this quest book, text referring to Orc/Orcs also includes Kobold(s) (and Fimir).

[Daedalus]

We were also trying the Kobolds in Sotiris Play By Post Game. From player's perspective, I can tell you that those guys are not fun.

They appear in groups as it should be, but then you go and kill them without ever reducing the number of attacks raining in. It feels like the attacks just have no effect at all.
Seeing the results I know that it's not that bad, but that's the feeling i have. It's like fighting water.

Maybe you could make Orc's Bane working against them, too. Or invent Kobolds Bane.

I read through the PBP. Some of it was situational, but I get what your saying about speeding up the slog of a longer combats. A Kobold-specific artifact sounds like a great idea to me! It offers not only a remedy for tidal surges of Kobolds, but also adds theme.

Maybe a weapon that targets Kobold and Fimir as swamp-kin. Give it a cold effect that allows a second attack against any Kobold or Fimir if the first attack succeeds. Or how about a dagger that allows a counter-attack as a secondary weapon against multiple Kobolds?

Heroes playing the original Warhammer Quest faced large numbers of snotlings with the same gang-up ability. The answer was a deathblow--kill a monster and you can continue the attack against the next adjacent figure, repeat and rinse until there are no more available targets. That was fun. The same mechanic could drive an HQ artifact. I like a broadsword that applies any unused skulls against Kobolds if they occupy the next adjacent squares.

[cynthialee]

How about
"Sweeping Attack" Cost: 1 Body Point
This attack form may only be used by the Barbarian and the Dwarf when wielding a Two Handed Weapon. If the primary target is slain, the next adjacent enemy may be attacked with the Combat Dice the weapon allows -1. Should this attack also slay an enemy, the next adjacent target may be attacked with the weapons base damage -2 and so forth as logic dictates.
Once an enemy has failed to be killed by the sweeping attack, the attack is over.
{Cost is reflective of the exertion required to launch such a devastating attack.}

[cynthialee]

Or Sweeping Attack Cost One Body Point
Roll the hero's maximum Body Points against Target 1, Roll at target 2 with Body Points -1, Target 3 Body Points -2 and target 4 Body Points -3.
Requires a Battle ax, Two Handed Sword, a Pole Arm or Two Handed War Mace. Staff and Spear are not effective for this attack.

[Daedalus]

cynthialee,
Your -1, -2 combat dice idea could work out better with a broadsword artifact as well. It would be more fun rolling new hits and more likely to generate kills. I prefer to keep it Kobold specific for theme, but your ability idea is solid as a general suggestion for open Quest games. Here's an attempt at an artifact:

Mob Foe

Two snakes twine this magical blade. When
using it, roll three combat dice to attack. If
you attack and kill a Kobold, you may
continue to attack other adjacent Kobolds
that lie in an uninterupted arc. Roll again
with one fewer die each attack until you fail
to kill one. May not be used by the Wizard.

[cynthialee]

cynthialee,
Your -1, -2 combat dice idea could work out better with a broadsword artifact as well. It would be more fun rolling new hits and more likely to generate kills. I prefer to keep it Kobold specific for theme, but your ability idea is solid as a general suggestion for open Quest games.

Maybe the tactic is learned from an old fighter who is rescued from a cave of Kobolds, Snottlings or Skaven. If the heroes save him he will teach them new tactics for fighting the diminutive monsters.

Require them to survive a few swarm attacks to pick it up on their own maybe? Say a champion skill...

[benvoliothefirst]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread (that seemed to have gone off track, but regardless...) but I am getting up to speed on this project and thinking about what makes sense for the narrative. It would be logical for each player to get one artifact, and the design document states that eventually they all get combined before the final showdown. There doesn't seem to be much more to it than that. I've been thinking about items that combine... How about five magical stones in a gauntlet?

Nah, I'm kidding, but it would be cool to see the heroes decide which of them gets to carry the combined artifacts, only to have that hero get sucked into the realm of chaos before the fight begins, haha. Or even TURNED INTO the big baddie! Maybe it's all the cursed artifacts from the chaos dwarves, and the heroes are supposed to "cleanse" them somehow, and instead when the hero puts all the artifacts on, that's the gateway that turns them into the big baddie?

Just spitballing here!

[knightkrawler]

How about five magical stones in a gauntlet?

Now, what does that remind me of? I can't quite put my fingers in it...

[Daedalus]

That's because you only have three fingers, mutant!

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread (that seemed to have gone off track, but regardless...) but I am getting up to speed on this project and thinking about what makes sense for the narrative. It would be logical for each player to get one artifact, and the design document states that eventually they all get combined before the final showdown. There doesn't seem to be much more to it than that. I've been thinking about items that combine... How about five magical stones in a gauntlet?

Nah, I'm kidding, but it would be cool to see the heroes decide which of them gets to carry the combined artifacts, only to have that hero get sucked into the realm of chaos before the fight begins, haha. Or even TURNED INTO the big baddie! Maybe it's all the cursed artifacts from the chaos dwarves, and the heroes are supposed to "cleanse" them somehow, and instead when the hero puts all the artifacts on, that's the gateway that turns them into the big baddie?

Just spitballing here!

Spitball away. I have some more possibilities to work off of.

In my opinion, it would be better to keep all four Heroes fighting of their own free will on the side of the Empire for the final conflict. That's what they signed up for! I for one wouldn't want my Hero taken from me at this climatic point.

Cursed Chaos Dwarf artifacts sounds cool. Maybe they are being collected as well, perhaps even by the unwitting Heroes? But how would Mentor miss that, being the caretaker of Loretome? If we could swing that as part of Mentor's plan, then the Chaos artifacts could be stripped from the Heroes; one of the plot arcs called for that ploy. Perhaps after that defeat the true artifacts (already in their possession?) are revealed to the Heroes that will undo the power of the Chaos artifacts. Only in this way is the apparently invincible and overconfident Nemesis vulnerable to true defeat.

Anyway, I see the Chaos Nemesis as being really powerful but susceptible to the combined attacks of all four artifact-equipped Heroes. I'd want more than a simple order of attacks as done with the Japanese Quest Book. I'm thinking more like when the X-men all must combine to take down Juggernaut. One artifact attacks the Mind, another Body, a third some kind of magical protection, and the fourth maybe prevents escape or something. Only after all four defenses are overcome may the Nemesis be taken down.

Should the artifacts be retained? If their standard abilities aren't overpowered, yeah. It could be their combination that makes them anathema to the Nemesis. Otherwise, they could be required to seal a gate or evil site or something at the end in order to remove them from the game.