Pan wrote:The Admiral wrote:WHIIRLING ATTACK: Can adjacent monsters roll defence dice against the 1 Body Point hit?
WATCHER'S AEGIS:Is the cancelled Body Point from an attack on Sir Halveris, his controller, or either?
SENTINEL SHOT: Not sure how this works as it seems more restrictive than a normal ranged shot, unless you mean shots in a straight line are not blocked by other figures?
Tavrik: Should he have 3 attack dice as he is armed with a crossbow?
FLAME BURST: How many dice are rolled for the Flame Burst attack and is it considered a successful attack if Body Points are inflicted on the target? Can adjacent monsters roll defence dice against the 1 Body Point hit?
Rampart of the dead: Does this act as a normal shield as well so that it adds 1 defence die?
The Repurgator: What sort of weapon is this and how many dice does it roll apart from the additional orange die?
Visage of Mortis: Is this also a normal helmet that adds a defence die?
Hey Admiral,
Glad to see you here, ready to fight some undeads
. You were, for the previous expansion, a huge help for constructive feedbacks. I am sure you will help improve this one as well.
I will try to get you the most honest answer about your questions.
1. No, the body point damage is automatically caused to all enemies on adjacent squares to him. But the first target (on who he rolled 3 skulls) should defend against this attack. The special effect happens after the 3 skulls are rolled, and may happen even if the attacked monster defends or partially defends against this attack.
2. Good question, and I realize now that the description is not precise enough. The aim with this watcher was to cancel a skull on his controller. I guess his special skill could also work for him if he is attacked, as soon as he is on a square adjacent to the Hero controlling him. So at the end, I would say that his special ability work for both him and the player controlling him. Otherwise this watcher might be too weak...
3. Sentinel Shot was supposed to work as a classic ranged weapon. I am not sure what is more restrictive here ? However, having the ability to shoot across your allies is a very good idea and an added value to the classic ranged weapon mecanic. Could be cool to integrate that.
4. I thought that 3 attacks dice was too much powerfull for a companion, above all for a ranged one. So I voluntarily decreased to 2 attack dice. Poor Tavrik got a budget crossbow...
5. I will try to explain a little bit the mecanic for Flame Burst : Flame Burst is always automatically casted when Vaeltrys attacks. Valetrys cannot attack in diagonal but can attack up to 3 squares away, in straight line. When attacking, he will roll 1 combat die. Monsters can defend against this attack. If Valetrys' attack is successful, 1 body point of damage is delt to all creature adjacent to the target. This burst cannot be dodged or defended. It is a kind of area of effect damage. So it is not easy for Vaeltrys to make a sucessful attack with only 1 dice, but when he does... He can clean an entire room. So you might aim at the weakest monster to try to make Vaeltrys'special ability proc.
6. I always thought my artefacts to be bonus items, as you can add their stats to your actual equippement. BUT, from a role-playing game perspective, it doesn't make sense to wear, for example, 2 shields at the same time... This is the first time I have this comment and I have to admit it makes sense. So if we want to fix this issue, we have 2 choices :
- have the artefacts to be more like a trinket, a rune or a jewel... A special category of items in addition to your current equipped gear... but I will have to draw new illustrations that is a lot of time consumming.
- just update the decription of the artefact to give it some additionnal stats, as it is a real equipped gear (like +1 in defense as a shield for the Rampart of the Deads). This is the easiest solution I think.
Same apply to your 7 and 8 questions. I will have to update the decription a little bit.
Thanks a lot for your questions.
I run my artifacts as gear equivalents (ie borins armor as a body slot).
For the Visage Helmet, you could go with either leaning it more toward a normal helmet with the armor and maybe equipment restrictions, or leave it as is as a kind of 'light' helmet that a wizard could use. I know the helmet for the AH version calls out it being metal and not wearable by the wizard, whereas the bracers as a body slot equivalent do not have that restriction. Given its more magical 'summon' ability, I would leave it as is- though having clarification for the design intent somewhere is probably a good idea for edge case stuff.
For the Repurgator weapon, it falls into a similar category where it is more on your design intent. While turning it into a traditional weapon was my first inclination (as the set of artifacts kind of creates a set of gear with a theme), and probably the one of many people, I think there is an interesting second option to consider. If you dont consider it a set as much (ie pairing it with the shield for combat), it could be used as an 'offhand' boosting type weapon and create an interesting choice for the players. With the weapon requiring a hand to wield for its effect, it then serves as a way to boost one handed weapons in a unique way where you are trading a shield or a stronger 2 handed one for the special effect of the artifact. I think the clarification it may be useful to have is what happens if they decide to wield this as their weapon and pair it with a shield. In that case I would consider their attack stat to be the same as if they were unequiped with a weapon (1) or however you normally play that.
For the Rampart shield, the instinct to add defense to it is pretty strong but it can fall into the same category as the other two where you are trading a special effect for the normal equipment effect. In this case you may want to consider if you want the wizard to be restricted from it. At first I think it may be too strong for them, but on further thought with their more limited dice pool compared to a barbarian with borin's armor it is less likely to trigger the special effect so probably balances out better even. It also has some neat interactions with classes like the Knight with their shield skills or others that may be restricted by shields or metal armor specificly.
At first blush, due to how I run artifact equipment I was strongly in the camp of adding stats, but as I worked through it- they may be more interesting and unique if they are 'special effect' type alternatives to the regular equipment.
For clarity on the amulet, I feel like the design intent is for one additional spell from any school still available? Like a single protection spell for wizard or single elf spell for elf if the 4 elements are already selected? How would you interpret the effect if there is only the base game 4 elements and they have been chosen? An extra cast of a spell like a reusable recall potion could work but from the wording seems counter to the intent. In the above example maybe you could cast an elemental spell that the other hero already used, but that sounds like it would require careful wording. Of course the easiest work around is to have more than just the Game System spells in some way, even if it is an extra set of elemental spells. At the risk of leaving it a bit of a dud in that limited spell situation, I think the feel of the effect of a bit of dabbling in extra magic is really cool. I also had the thought of how would you run this with other spell casters or non spell casters- would it have any effect, or only allow them to select 1 more spell that they could Normally have? It could run into the same problem though I think if they only had 3 or no spells to choose from.
Intent: Seems to be making one extra spell not normally available able to be cast.
Function:
If the idea is a spell held in the amulet akin to a spell scroll, what are the limits on who can use it and what spells it can contain.
If it can contain any hero spell and any hero can equip it the barbarian can start casting healing water or genie. This seems pretty strong and I think counter to the feel it's going for.
The wording of selecting an additional spell leads me to think you have to be a spell caster to begin with.
If the spell has to be one the hero can cast, that would stop the wizard from casting an elf spell, but not any of the elemental or Morcar spells or similar homebrew. It would also limit the heroes who could use it as I don't think any of the retail heroes get spell selection other than wizard and elf. If you had homebrew to add extra spells to a class like say the druid in the same school or a 4th fire spell when you have the other 3, I would assume that wouldn't be the intended result?
In the example of just base game spells if the wizard has it, then I assume would be able to select one of the elemental spells that the elf chose and go into the quest with 10 spells thus dabbling in a 4th element.
Don't get too stressed about these questions, on the fly with the more casual game I am running right now, I would maybe consider it any hero spell, but still require the user to be a spell caster of some kind. I find clarity on these things helps to hone design and bring out the author's intent. That and some players will break stuff first chance they get so having more guidance on the intent is useful to keep the intended feel intact. I think wording stuff in a sufficient and succinct way is a real skill that takes a lot of work but really shows the skill of a design.
I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the quest and seeing where it goes with act 3. The compendium lore split is really great for keeping the mechanical aspects of running the quest to more of a 1 page setup while removing the space restriction when it comes to lore. I haven't run Barrow yet, as I still have a couple assets to get in place and my main play group is far from being ready for it but it got me excited and I really liked the EU kind of feel that the stat blocks have that I expect will help the beastmen feel distinct when encountered. It also got me kind of into liking make my own tiles as my printer didn't want to cooperate, and having some outdoor spaces even if just for flavor is fantastic. Keep up the great work, you've set a high bar for quality.
