HQ25 - Artifacts

[benvoliothefirst]

Some great food for thought here. Was having a total of four artifacts confirmed? I like the idea of each artifact adding 1 to a character's stats: One each for BP, MP, AD, and DD. Maybe the cursed versions attract monsters, but the hero versions have the same positive benefit without the curse?

What's the crown that Rogar had in the past, "The Star of the West"? Has that ever been made into an artifact card? If not it oughtta be! That could be the one that raises mind points by 1.

[knightkrawler]

What's the crown that Rogar had in the past, "The Star of the West"? Has that ever been made into an artifact card? If not it oughtta be! That could be the one that raises mind points by 1.

I concur. But it should do some other small thing for it to be more than just an alternative to the Talisman of Lore.
Maybe something like immunity to Cultist's special skill/spell or Mummies attack you with one less die or something like that...

[Count Mohawk]

I believe the original consensus was to have 4 "major" artifacts, plus a couple of lesser ones to scatter around as random bonuses for the Heroes to acquire.
Given that this is a 25-Quest pack designed for entry-level Heroes, I'd even argue there should be a couple more than that - after all, the base set has 14 Quests and either 5 or 10 Artifacts, depending on which side of the pond you inhabit. And some of those are "best in class" stuff that the Heroes may not want to be without, such as Borin's Armor and the Wizard's Cloak and Staff.

[Anderas]

I am thinking about a fireball staff that is different from our usual fireball staff.
Like, doing exactly the same but dealing Air damage. (Lightning bolts?) It could be used to deal more damage than normal to a boss basilisk. So it could be anti-stone really.

That quest could be somewhere in the lower quarter, to support the Wizard with a 1 die shooter staff and allow for some thematic boss fight.

Three quests: getting to know basilisks and hear about a boss variant, searching that particular staff somewhere, then encounter the boss basilisk. Two targets achieved: the Wizard gets something lasting, plus some quests that have a story but are not too strongly tied. Maybe the Boss basilisk could even have a stone statue standing around with a wizard's cloak or a talisman of lore...

[Count Mohawk]

I am thinking about a fireball staff that is different from our usual fireball staff.
Like, doing exactly the same but dealing Air damage. (Lightning bolts?) It could be used to deal more damage than normal to a boss basilisk. So it could be anti-stone really.

That quest could be somewhere in the lower quarter, to support the Wizard with a 1 die shooter staff and allow for some thematic boss fight.

Three quests: getting to know basilisks and hear about a boss variant, searching that particular staff somewhere, then encounter the boss basilisk. Two targets achieved: the Wizard gets something lasting, plus some quests that have a story but are not too strongly tied. Maybe the Boss basilisk could even have a stone statue standing around with a wizard's cloak or a talisman of lore...

I've made a couple of interesting ranged magical weapons we could crib for this thing.

One is a thunder spear, which cannot be defended against when thrown, although it's only 2 dice of attack. That's probably not what we're looking for here; however, if we consider that spells like Lightning Bolt generally deal damage without rolling dice, we could have the ranged attribute of a Lightning Staff count as always rolling 1 skull on attack, with the monster defending normally. That might be too good, though, since "always 1 skull" is about equal to "2 combat dice" in terms of average damage...

The other is an ice staff, which has a "ranged 1" option with an additional bonus: if you roll a skull when attacking at range, the target gets frozen for one turn, even if it defends. That of course would be much too powerful for a low-level Wizard, but the idea of having an incremental bonus seems sound to me. Maybe an Air-aligned staff has an alternative effect if you roll a black shield, such as a "chain lightning" effect allowing to hit 2 adjacent targets at once, or a blast of wind that forces the target back a square.

Of course, "extra damage to Basilsks" is also a perfectly serviceable bonus effect, and the only question I would have is whether or not it should also deal bonus damage to other reptilian creatures such as Kobolds.

[j_dean80]

What about a staff with 1 undefended skull and 1 defendable. Like an insta-kill for small monsters but not so overpowered against larger.

[Daedalus]

Some great food for thought here. Was having a total of four artifacts confirmed? I like the idea of each artifact adding 1 to a character's stats: One each for BP, MP, AD, and DD. Maybe the cursed versions attract monsters, but the hero versions have the same positive benefit without the curse? . . .

The narrative precept of four artifacts was suggested early on by Sjeng and adopted by every story arc, so I'd say it's safe to say they're planned for Quest inclusion. Should a better story come along that doesn't call for them, that's okay too, but we'll cross that crag when we come to it.

The idea of increasing stats by one appears sound. I'd add that the AD buff only apply to a limited circumstance like the Spirit Blade. +1AD would be too powerful compared to the other buffs if it were to apply to all monsters.

What's the crown that Rogar had in the past, "The Star of the West"? Has that ever been made into an artifact card? If not it oughtta be! That could be the one that raises mind points by 1.

I concur. But it should do some other small thing for it to be more than just an alternative to the Talisman of Lore.
Maybe something like immunity to Cultist's special skill/spell or Mummies attack you with one less die or something like that...

Even the bravest warriors fled the Black Banner, but they rallied around the Star of the West as their hope returned. Perhaps this glittering diamond could add +1 die to attempts to break mind-affecting spells (including Chaos, Cultist, Kobold Trickster, Swamp, and Beastman Wild spells) for all Heroes in the same room or corridor as the wearer. The wearer would also benefit from the extra Mind Point, effectively gaining +2 dice.

A couple of other artifact candidates based on official fluff occur to me: Durgin's horn was blown to signal Rogar's forces to pour down upon Morcar's/Zargon's Chaos horde. Also, Kenaron's sword slew many of the heavily-armored Doom Guard to protect the Emperor's retreat at Kellar's Keep.

[benvoliothefirst]

I heartily support all these ideas! I love the idea of tying up some of the dangling story threads alluded to in the original quest books.

There's another horn idea floating around the board somewhere. Personally I think it should play "the brown note" and cause all monsters on the board to be at -1 AD and -1 defend for a round since they're in gastrointestinal distress, haha

[Daedalus]

I am thinking about a fireball staff that is different from our usual fireball staff.
Like, doing exactly the same but dealing Air damage. (Lightning bolts?) It could be used to deal more damage than normal to a boss basilisk. So it could be anti-stone really.

That quest could be somewhere in the lower quarter, to support the Wizard with a 1 die shooter staff and allow for some thematic boss fight. . . .

I've made a couple of interesting ranged magical weapons we could crib for this thing.

One is a thunder spear, which cannot be defended against when thrown, although it's only 2 dice of attack. That's probably not what we're looking for here; however, if we consider that spells like Lightning Bolt generally deal damage without rolling dice, we could have the ranged attribute of a Lightning Staff count as always rolling 1 skull on attack, with the monster defending normally. That might be too good, though, since "always 1 skull" is about equal to "2 combat dice" in terms of average damage...

. . . Maybe an Air-aligned staff has an alternative effect if you roll a black shield, such as a "chain lightning" effect allowing to hit 2 adjacent targets at once, or a blast of wind that forces the target back a square.

I like the idea of a lightning artifact, but I'd add a Quest use-limit roughly equal to one or maybe two spell sets. I wouldn't want more, as it would push the Wizard into the role of a sniper, away from the original design which relies on spell versatility but weak combat. Also, unlimited bolts would render the staff and Wizard's staff irrelevant.

Unlike the auto-targeting of a spell, I can see a Lightning Rod (not a staff) using aim and shoot much like a ranged weapon. Like the Chaos spell Lightning Bolt, I don't see armor protection helping--your either blasted or not. Here's my submission:

Lightning Rod . This copper rod enables the Wizard to shoot lightning. The Wizard aims at any monster he can "see" and rolls a combat die. If hit, the target will lose 1 Body Point. If a monster is adjacent to this victim, the bolt arcs. The Wizard then rolls against the new target. If a black shield is rolled, the rod is drained and may not be used until the next Quest.

Were a boss Basilisk or whatever susceptible to lightning as called for in a Quest note, then losing two Body Points of damage would be appropriate, I think.

[benvoliothefirst]

...bonus points if you yell LIGHTNING BOLT!!! every time it arcs?