[Prev] [Solo Quest Pack] [War Priest] - Faith and Conviction

[The Road Warrior]

I'm not really sure yet but there are a few options.

The Warrior Priest from WHQ has the following line about armour:

Armour
A Warrior Priest wears no armour other than the breast plate - +1 Toughness. He is not averse to buying furs, however, if the weather is inclement, and these offer some extra protection as well as warmth.

so maybe armour restrictions is acceptable?

One option to replicate this in HQ may be to include the breast plate as a new equipment card allowing the player to roll 3 defence die or (+1 if you're an NA player) with a possible upgraded breast plate that offers 4 defence die (or +2). The two options from the WHQ app here are 'Blessed Plate' and 'Armour of Meteoric Iron'. The Warrior Priest could then be restricted from using any other ARMOUR equipment cards.

Another option could be to limit him to blunt weapons only.

This would mean the only weapon available from the armoury would be the staff. I could include a two handed warhammer equipment card* in the QP that allows you to roll 3 dice in attack. This would prevent the player from also using a shield giving them a choice of either.

Staff, Shield, Helmet, Chainmail = 2 Att 5 def (EU only, NA would still be 4 def as the staff is two-handed)

~ or ~

Warhammer, Helmet, Chainmail = 3 Att 4 Def

They could of course swap the chain mail for plate armour but in my experience no one ever does because the movement penalty is not worth the extra defence die.

A third option could be just to ignore what I wrote earlier and allow the Warrior Priest to buy and use any equipment from the armoury. The prayer's were what I really wanted to include in the game anyway.

Just thinking out loud.

always appreciated. Thank you



*a warhammer would also tie in nicely with the Trollslayer whose rules explicitly state he may use hammers even though there are none available!

[Daedalus]

After rereading this topic I'm a little confused about how prayers work.

Prayers
Before play begins the player should take the three new decks of Prayer cards, Retribution, Salvation and Invigoration. Each deck should be shuffled and then placed face-down within reach.

Once per turn the Warrior Priest may pray to the Gods. The player should take the top card from one of the the prayer decks and place it face-down in front of them. They should then role one combat die. If a white shield is rolled the player may turn over and read the card. The effects of this card last until the beginning of the Warrior Priest's next turn, when it is discarded. If a white shield is not rolled the card should be immediately discarded without being read. The Warrior Priest may never draw from the same Prayer Deck on two consecutive turns.

I had originally assumed praying was an action, like casting a spell. But then I noticed something in the next post that I had missed before:

...The idea of limiting praying to when the Hero performs another action comes from Dock's Warrior Priest amd should prevent the player from abusing the Prayers of Invigoration....

This states praying is combined with another action--right? I don't get why this is so. It appears to me that a Prayer of Invigoration can be attempted only once, is then discarded, and is used much like a healing spell. Where is the abuse possible here with only a 33% chance of a prayer working before it is discarded? Has your system since changed to my original understanding of the OP? If so, I'd edit in that praying is an action.


Now on to something more recent:

The Warrior Priest from WHQ has the following line about armour:

Armour
A Warrior Priest wears no armour other than the breast plate - +1 Toughness. He is not averse to buying furs, however, if the weather is inclement, and these offer some extra protection as well as warmth.

so maybe armour restrictions is acceptable?

One option to replicate this in HQ may be to include the breast plate as a new equipment card allowing the player to roll 3 defence die or (+1 if you're an NA player) with a possible upgraded breast plate that offers 4 defence die (or +2). The two options from the WHQ app here are 'Blessed Plate' and 'Armour of Meteoric Iron'. The Warrior Priest could then be restricted from using any other ARMOUR equipment cards.

How about a breast plate (EU: 3 DD or NA: +1 DD) and vestments of protection (+1 DD), both of which are usable only by the Warrior Priest? Other armor is restricted. This both parallels a Wizard's choices in an EU game and fairly resembles the WHQ card and items.

Another option could be to limit him to blunt weapons only.

This would mean the only weapon available from the armoury would be the staff. I could include a two handed warhammer equipment card* in the QP that allows you to roll 3 dice in attack. This would prevent the player from also using a shield giving them a choice of either.

I like this.

[Daedalus]

I have some feedback/comments about Poisoned Spring. Let me know if your interested in more of the same later for the other Quests. As a general comment, I like the poisoned spring background and tiles as a simple, unique theme to start things out. Also, a solo Priest with Mercenary followers is a cool idea.

Map
What is the meaning of the arrow in the corridor just north of the entrance and the other arrow in the corridor just west of the central chamber? The spring appears to originate in the room with the Cursed Priest, then flow out near the entrance. There's a rubble tile amidst the spring--is this some kind of choke point for the spring that allows water to flow through while completely blocking movement? If so, I'd make a note of it to clarify things a bit.

Parchment Text
I love the text font you posted--clever! If you're interested in some minor grammar edit suggestions, let me know. This could include the entire Quest, though I realize this is a first draft only and may not be needed.

Since the crops have failed, why not have this Quest occur during winter? This will not only add to the bleakness of the Townsfolks' plight, but it will also work to explain the icy river tile from the BQP.

Notes
Consider changing "The river is not Icy and the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer damage when moving through the river." > Though the spring is poisoned and and a bit icy, the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer any damage when moving through it. Heres a non-winter alternate: Though the poison has bleached the rocks of the spring a deathly white, the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer any damage when moving through these squares.

B. I'd amend "Use the Chaos Sorcerer to represent the Cursed Priest." > Place the Chaos Sorcerer on the square marked with an "X" to represent the Cursed Priest. Otherwise, just add an "X" before the monster's heading as you did with the next Quest.

I'd change "He rolls the following dice:" > He has the following stats:

I'm looking forward to seeing all of the Quests of this series!

[The Road Warrior]

Thanks for the interest Daedalus, I really need to put some effort into finishing this off. I've just been so busy this year...

In response to your questions...

Prayers
I'm pretty sure I edited the section from the OP about prayers. I'd have to check my old notes but I think originally there were less cards that were shuffled back into the deck after use. The player could have abused this by just staying put an praying each turn until they got the card they were looking for. Currently praying is a bonus action that can be done once each turn in addition to the normal actions. As you point out, there is now no opportunity for abuse as each card is discarded whether the die roll has been successful or not. The player will only get to pray 12 times per quest, which I actually don't like as it doesn't quite feel right, but so far it has worked out ok in playtesting.

Armour and weapons
I still no closer to deciding exactly how to handle this.

The Warhammer is definitely in, at 3 Attack dice. The tie-in to Solace and Redemption is just too good to ignore.
There will also be a Warhammer artefact. I'm not so sure how this will work but I'm leaning towards 3 attack dice, Chaos Warriors and Gargoyles must roll 1 (maybe 2) less defence dice when attacked by this weapon. Any ideas on how best to word this. I'm looking for something extensible as I'm planning on adding Chaos Dwarfs as well and they would also fall under this rule.

Map
The white arrow is part of the falling block trap. It's how they are handled in the EU 2nd edition. The full text for this will be included in the QP.

When the player moves through a square containing a falling block symbol, a block will fall. It will land on the nearby square marked with the arrow on the Quest map, blocking the way. Any character or monster in the square into which the block falls must roll three combat dice. The victim must lose one Body point for each skull rolled, and then move to an adjacent unoccupied square. If the victim cannot move to an adjacent square, he is eliminated by the falling block.

[The Road Warrior]

As a general comment, I like the poisoned spring background and tiles as a simple, unique theme to start things out. Also, a solo Priest with Mercenary followers is a cool idea.

It's actually kind of important and sets up the theme of the whole QP, which is the Chaos Stone. Thantos' Chaos Stone is going to be the main objective of the final quest. I felt the Mercenaries were necessary to properly demonstrate the full effect of the Priests Prayers.

Map
The spring appears to originate in the room with the Cursed Priest, then flow out near the entrance. There's a rubble tile amidst the spring--is this some kind of choke point for the spring that allows water to flow through while completely blocking movement? If so, I'd make a note of it to clarify things a bit.

Exactly. The player is supposed to follow the stream back to it's source, where he finds the Cursed Priest.
The rubble tile does block movement, the idea is that the stream passes underground and the player cannot follow. As you play through the quest this makes more sense than it appears to when looking at the map. I think the section of stream up to the blocked tile is the same length as the long stream tile from the BQP. So the game plays like this.
Turn 1
The player enters the quest. Morcar lays out the long stream tile, the door and the rubble tile in the first corridor.

Turn 2
The player (maybe) moves South. When they get to the corner Morcar lays out the rubble tile in the centre corridor at the end of the stream tile. This blocks LoS to the stream tile beyond it.

Later...
The player opens the door into the corridor that surrounds the central room and Morcar lays out the two new stream tiles stretching East and South towards the 2 goblin archers. The player can now see that the stream passed under the blocked square tile and came out the other side.

A note would add to the flavour of the quest, but is not necessary. And space is limited for quest notes in these Quest Packs. (I'm trying to stick to 1 side of A4, in the style of the original EU quest packs.)

Parchment Text
If you're interested in some minor grammar edit suggestions, let me know. This could include the entire Quest, though I realize this is a first draft only and may not be needed.

Since the crops have failed, why not have this Quest occur during winter? This will not only add to the bleakness of the Townsfolks' plight, but it will also work to explain the icy river tile from the BQP.

I'm always open to suggestions, but may not always follow them. One of my main aims with these Quest Packs is to produce pdfs that closely resemble the original EU Quest Packs. Unfortunately this means that space for Quest notes is very limited and every word must serve a purpose. Some of these notes and parchment text have been heavily edited to save space.

Notes
Consider changing "The river is not Icy and the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer damage when moving through the river." > Though the spring is poisoned and and a bit icy, the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer any damage when moving through it. Heres a non-winter alternate: Though the poison has bleached the rocks of the spring a deathly white, the Warrior Priest and his companions do not suffer any damage when moving through these squares.

I think I prefer you're second suggestion. The primary aim of this note is to inform the player that the stream works differently to the BQP.

B. I'd amend "Use the Chaos Sorcerer to represent the Cursed Priest." > Place the Chaos Sorcerer on the square marked with an "X" to represent the Cursed Priest. Otherwise, just add an "X" before the monster's heading as you did with the next Quest.

I'd change "He rolls the following dice:" > He has the following stats:

Again, it is formatted to match the original EU Quest Packs. I have missed the X before the Monsters heading in the post here but it will appear in the PDF.

Let me know if your interested in more of the same later for the other Quests....

I'm always interested in hearing feedback. Thank you

[Anderas]

I just entered your first quest into the "difficulty estimator", a thing Count Mohawk was providing to me on request, for an entirely different project.

In poisoned spring they will lose between 5 and 10 Body points, depending on how long the mercenaries are able to survive. If they survive long, it will be between 5 and 8 BP loss. If they survive not long, the group's loss will be between 7 and 10 BP. That's quite about perfect in difficulty! Throw in the healing ability of the warrior priest and the quest should be playable with losses, but not too tight.

I like the background of the poisoned spring. However, i didn't understand from the quest description that the Warrior Priest shall follow the stream upward to the source. Maybe it is because my english is not perfect? After i did understand the objective, i liked that quest a lot, because there is something new inside. Good! HQ is partly about exploring, so something new is exactly what should be there.


The second quest, it is a typical go in and get X Quest. You can't lose, except if you die. You participated a lot to the "Quest objectives that can be lost" thread. How about implementing something from there, in order to enhance the gameplay a bit? For example, what about a goblin or an orc with the "Steal Item" ability as wandering monster as soon as the Jade Ring is in the pocket of the priest. It will appear on the next treasure search. That monster will receive a little script in the quest notes that he shall take get the Jade Ring and run away to the entry. Let's see if the Warrior Priest is quick enough on his feet to get it back! Goblins are quite fast, so maybe an Orc or Fimir is better suited. More difficult to bring down, but easier to keep up with. Mind, this shall only appear after the Jade Ring is found and only one time!

if the stealing monster escapes, a short side quest to track him down is an option.

[The Road Warrior]

I just entered your first quest into the "difficulty estimator", a thing Count Mohawk was providing to me on request, for an entirely different project.

Very interesting feedback but I don't think you can beat a bit of good old fashioned playtesting. One play through this quest providing a very amusing moment involving the prayer deck, a goblin and falling rock trap but that's a story for another day...

I generally found that the Mercenaries were both dead by the end of the quest.

I like the background of the poisoned spring. However, i didn't understand from the quest description that the Warrior Priest shall follow the stream upward to the source.

There was a line once in the text that set this out as the aim of the quest. I probably edited for brevity but when I wrote the quest this was definitely the idea. I'll have to check what the text says in the pdf and maybe edit it again to make it clear that following the stream is the aim of the quest.

The second quest, it is a typical go in and get X Quest. You can't lose, except if you die. You participated a lot to the "Quest objectives that can be lost" thread. How about implementing something from there, in order to enhance the gameplay a bit? ...For example, what about a goblin or an orc with the "Steal Item" ability as wandering monster as soon as the Jade Ring is in the pocket of the priest. It will appear on the next treasure search. That monster will receive a little script in the quest notes that he shall take get the Jade Ring and run away to the entry. Let's see if the Warrior Priest is quick enough on his feet to get it back! Goblins are quite fast, so maybe an Orc or Fimir is better suited. More difficult to bring down, but easier to keep up with. Mind, this shall only appear after the Jade Ring is found and only one time!

if the stealing monster escapes, a short side quest to track him down is an option.

Good ideas but I think losing the Jade Ring as soon of you find it would defeat the object of this Quest Pack, to introduce a new Hero with his own set of skills, equipment and artefacts and demonstrating how they work together. The Chronicles of Sir Ragnar is my vehicle for non-linear quest ideas

[Anderas]

Ok.
if this quest is only there to build the narrative for the equipment of a new Hero, it would be quite stupid to remove it again. However, a potion of narrativium on top would be good in this case. I think about it and come back if I have an idea.

For your playtest of Quest 1, poisoned spring, I guess your priest came back with 2 or 3 Body Points? I guess yes (except for possible healings). This is where I prefer to calculate, to get a general idea if the monsters are fitting with the Hero. A playtest can't do that. But I think the playtest is nevertheless necessary for the general mechanics, extras and interactions in a quest. So yes I would do both. Would be sad if the time for a playtest is wasted because of a bad monster choice. in the poisoned spring for example these evil goblins with bows can really be annoying if you roll too bad for movement inside the stream. I was falling in love with them on the first glance. For me, they are the perfect choice.


1st Edit

Ha
maybe I had the idea.
let a monster appear and steal the ring, but then it doesn't run away. Instead it states something like that it is HIS ring. Then, it goes to a corner of the same room or aisle, and uses the ring against the priest by rerolling something for a chaos spell. So the ring is not lost, it will come back soon, but the encounter presents at the same the use of it.

2nd Edit

Calculated the second quest now:
* i ignored the hunting Party to be found in (B). As they are encountered in no defined situation, the calculation of it would be pure speculation. If you want you can count that they remove 3 additional Body Points.
* Gruuk to be found in (C) is included

Dependent on the equipment of the Priest in this second quest, it is an average of 8-9 BP loss, in 15% of the worst cases the group loses 12 or more BP, not including the traps.
The Potion of healing to be found in (A) has 3 BP, reducing the 15% worst case to 9 BP loss (so, exactly all BP available).
Based on this, there is one BP (+Traps) missing at the end of the quest, so i would advise to change the Potion of Healing to 4BP.
--> Ok here you can come around the corner with a solid playtest! As i have no clue how the prayers play out.... if you try healing whenever possible, there should be one healing all six turns. If they care for the last one BP missing (+Traps) then it is perfect: Not easy but manageable, exactly as it should be!

Throw in the Hunting Party for 3 BP and I would rate this quest "Hard" (still with no clue about the prayers, mind).

Now i would like to play this quest, to be honest. Sad that i've read it!

You change the layout slightly and we do a pbp?

[The Road Warrior]

In an effort to get this project moving again I spent a bit of time thinking about the Warhammer artefact I wanted to add in to this quest pack.

I originally said..

There will be a 'Hammer of Sigmar' style artefact (probably renamed). Again I haven't really thought about what stats/powers it will have.

A weapon that has a bonus against Chaos Warriors and/or Gargoyles would kind of complete the set. After all we do already have Orc's Bane and the Spirit Blade.

I was originally thinking the Spirit Blade rules reworded to target Chaos Warriors and maybe Gargoyles. But that seemed a little lazy. So now I'm playing around with this idea



Is 3 attack dice too strong for this weapon? If it were 2 attack dice how would it compare to a Broadsword or Battleaxe?

---

Throw in the Hunting Party for 3 BP and I would rate this quest "Hard" (still with no clue about the prayers, mind).

Now i would like to play this quest, to be honest. Sad that i've read it!

You change the layout slightly and we do a pbp?

Sorry, I missed your post or edits

Thanks for the analysis, 'hard' is definitely the difficulty level I am aiming for with these Solo Quest Packs. Sadly I don't really have the time to run pbp games at the moment or I would take you on the offer.

[The Road Warrior]

I'm adding a Warhammer to the armoury in this Quest Pack....
I have no idea how to price this weapon. It is wildly inaccurate but when it hits, it inflicts some serious damage (if your into stats, see the section below)



After running some numbers on this weapon I have to say that I'm a little too excited about playtesting it.

So for those that like numbers (who could maybe check my math)....
I tried to compare the warhammer to a broadsword and a battleaxe by comparing the probability of each weapon dealing 0,1,2,3 or 4 Body points of damage against different monsters. And here are my results....

	Warhammer	Broadsword	Battleaxe
0 BP	47.9%	31.1%	19.5%
	-	35.6%	29.4%
	37.6%	26%	31.1%
	-	7.2%	16.6%
	14.5%	-	3.5%

	Warhammer	Broadsword	Battleaxe
0 BP	54.2%	37.1%	24.4%
	-	34%	29.7%
	33.8%	22.9%	28.7%
	-	6%	14.4%
	12.1%	-	2.9%

	Warhammer	Broadsword	Battleaxe
0 BP	59.8%	42.7%	29.3%
	-	32.2%	29.5%
	30.1%	20.1%	26.3%
	-	5%	12.5%
	10%	-	2.4%

I think it's going to be a fun/interesting addition to my game. But in the hand's of a Trollslayer it's going to be a little bit too good...maybe.