Artifact: Striking Staff

[JasonMCM]

New artifact card

Discuss.


Note: If anyone likes drawing HQ-like pictures I have placed an artchive request for this card at the following link [art request]

[knightkrawler]

Hero groups will give this to the Wizard, provided they have weapons for 3 attack dice or more.
Giving it to the wizard will make a bad wizard player act like the barbarian with maybe casting 3 of 9 spells per quest.
I'm of two mindsets about this. I like the artefact itself, but not the effect on a wizard player who doesn't really want to play a wizard, which frankly, is a common problem.

A good wizard player - which is where this artefact is perfect - uses it in a room full of goblins and other monsters. A room full means 4 or more, mostly. Hero group enters room, one after the other hero attacks a monster and they want to take out as many as possible, the wizard going after a goblin.
Everybody knows a bunch of goblins with 10 move and 2 attack is way more effective when they can attack than beginning heroes think.
This is the wepaon against them.

[JasonMCM]

It is also very useful against a monster I am working on that defends on all shields and currently has 6 defense dice. Probably going to be the only way to hurt it other than luck.

[knightkrawler]

Also, Doomguard. 6 Defend dice, 1 black shield negates all attack skulls.

[Gold Bearer]

It's not as good as the Hell Dagger because that gives a more interesting than normal attack. This is a straight 50% chance of causing 1BP damage. It's more interesting against those special enemies though.

I was thinking of a using a Wizards Staff that attacks with two and gives one less defence dice than normal. That would make the Hell Dagger pointless though thinking about it. It wouldn't be worth using it because it's equal to a standard attack with two dice on average. Maybe I'll do it with a sword instead.

[Daedalus]

I was thinking of a using a Wizards Staff that attacks with two and gives one less defence dice than normal. That would make the Hell Dagger pointless though thinking about it. It wouldn't be worth using it because it's equal to a standard attack with two dice on average. Maybe I'll do it with a sword instead.

A weapon with average AD of 2...you mean like a battle axe? A 2 AD staff that ignores 1 (successful) defense isn't equal to a battle axe in at least the case of a multiple BP monster not defending successfully at all. Take a Fimir, for example. Your staff is equal to a battle axe when the Fimir rolls a black shield every other turn (on average), as both weapons should still score 1 hit. However, the other half of the time when the Fimir rolls no black shield, the battle axe should score 2 hits while the staff should still score its constant 1 hit. That makes the battle axe 25% more effective against Fimirs.

The full extent of the weapon comparison no doubt can be described more fully and accurately, but I hope you can see that your staff idea is sufficiently differentiated from 4 AD weapons (and don't forget the diagonal attack and Wizard use). You may want to try it out.

[Gold Bearer]

I was thinking of a using a Wizards Staff that attacks with two and gives one less defence dice than normal. That would make the Hell Dagger pointless though thinking about it. It wouldn't be worth using it because it's equal to a standard attack with two dice on average. Maybe I'll do it with a sword instead.

A weapon with average AD of 2...you mean like a battle axe? A 2 AD staff that ignores 1 (successful) defense isn't equal to a battle axe in at least the case of a multiple BP monster not defending successfully at all. Take a Fimir, for example. Your staff is equal to a battle axe when the Fimir rolls a black shield every other turn (on average), as both weapons should still score 1 hit. However, the other half of the time when the Fimir rolls no black shield, the battle axe should score 2 hits while the staff should still score its constant 1 hit. That makes the battle axe 25% more effective against Fimirs.

The full extent of the weapon comparison no doubt can be described more fully and accurately, but I hope you can see that your staff idea is sufficiently differentiated from 4 AD weapons (and don't forget the diagonal attack and Wizard use). You may want to try it out.

I meant it attacks with two combat dice and give one less defence dice, but the way you described it is more interesting.

[mitchiemasha]

I like this staff. Possibly should become the wizards most powerful weapon, able to upgrade too. Very powerful in EU rules nicely balanced in US. A high price tag would fit nicely.