[Pod 0] Velnesh Alphas (Leyline Phantoms) - AotV Testing
 

VYDAR :vydar:
VELNESH ALPHAS
Velnesh
Unique Squad
Class Experiments
Personality Menacing
SIZE HEIGHT Medium 5

LIFE 1 (3 figures)
MOVE 4 / BASIC 5
RANGE 1 / BASIC 1
ATTACK 4 / BASIC 4
DEFENSE 4 / BASIC 4

80 POINTS

SHIFT
After moving normally, you may immediately place a Velnesh Alpha on any empty space within 2 spaces of its current placement. Velnesh Alphas will not take leaving engagement attacks while Shifting.

BLINK
After a Velnesh Alpha rolls defense dice against a normal attack from an opponent's figure and is not destroyed, it may move using its Shift special power.


Character Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

-Rulings and Clarifications-
TBA

-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received
TBA

Synergy Benefits Offered
TBA

-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-
TBA

Playtest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14-17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

Love these guys. I imagine them as aliens - beings made of weird energy that phase through reality. I love the idea of them having a "telefrag" power. Telefrag is a term used in games where a teleport exists, and you're able to kill an opponent by teleporting into/through them.

Phaseborn Hunters

Prismite
U.Squad
Hunters
Wild

1/6/1/4/4

Telefrag SA.
R5/A4
No LOS needed. If the Hunter destroys the figure, take its place. If not, place it adjacent to the figure.

Phased Out
Has no visible hit zones if there are no revealed OMs on their card.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

I dig the Telefrag power, and I see you went with NB’s Phased Out idea. I like it! I can see them going for 90 points.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

Telefrag actually seems quite strong to my eyes, and I don’t know that Phased Out is a neat enough defensive power to justify being a new one when Stealth Dodge or the like would do. Some tweaking could probably alleviate those concerns, though. Here are my initial thoughts for these guys if we want to go a different direction.

1/6/1/3/4

Blink
Instead of moving normally with a Phantom, you may place it on any empty space within 3 spaces. When a Phantom is placed with Blink, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

Phase Grab
Before a Phantom uses its Blink special power, you may choose an adjacent small or medium figure. After placing that Phantom, you may place the chosen figure on any empty same-level space adjacent to that Phantom. Placed figures will not take any leaving engagement attacks. [figure race] are not affected by Phase Grab.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

Tethering Raelin (or another cheerleader) might be a bit of a problem with Phase Grab, but I like the idea of teleporting around while pulling other characters in (and out) of the mix.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

Mm, fair. Could always restrict Phase Grab to opponent's figures, I suppose.

EDIT: Another, separate option would be to change base move to 4 and make Blink an instead of attacking power. This would make it a little more powerful in the early game but would force a choice between attacking and blinking and would also prevent the phantoms from immediately capitalizing on a Phase Grabbed figure

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

Possibly you could tie phase grab to a d20 wound - making it more helpful for hurting enemies but also making it a risky decision to grab an ally.

I’m still a fan of the telefrag visual and theme, but I’m not tied to that specific special attack, or even a special attack at all. If we can capture same feel and theme, I’ll be satisfied.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

I also like Stealth Dodge as a defensive option. Nice and simple.

Re: [AotV] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Pod 0 - Design
 

I like this a lot. The visual of these guys blinking in and out, bouncing around the battlefield is a good one.

I like this, too. Would give us a melee Stealth Dodge Squad to go with DW7K, as we have Krav and Skahen to fill the SD Squad and Hero roles.

I also do like no hitzones with no revealed OMs (plus or minus allowing figures to move through them maybe), but it's hard to argue with the simple reuse of SD here.

One more thing: I want them to have 4 Attack. I know #arms = #Attack is not a thing, but I like it as a moment for someone to read the card and discover, "Four arms, four Attack, cool!"

Re: [Pod 0] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Design
 

Let’s see a really simple design here:

Prismite Hunters

6M 1R 4A 3D (stats can be tuned accordingly, but I don’t like 4M here).

Phantom Walk
Stealth Dodge

Nothing flashy in this power set, but this does allow us to add another power while hitting the “pass through figures” and “bullets pass through them” notes at the same time. Whether this is a Telegrab (my personal favorite), Phase Grab (ehhh), nothing (:shrug:), or something else yet could be open for debate.

Re: [Pod 0] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Design
 

I like them having stealth dodge and phantom walk, but my want for simplicity is making me wary of three powers. It helps that those two are very simple.

Re: [Pod 0] UNIT NAME (Leyline Phantoms) - Design
 

I don't mind just Stealth Dodge and Phantom Walk--3 def still makes them fragile enough in melee that I doubt they'll be too frustrating. If we add a third power to that, though, I think it'd have to be something we haven't seen yet. Adding a big ranged special to that toolset feels off, and Blink and Phase Grab are only really interesting when used together, which would be two powers.

In terms of complexity, I think we're fine to add three powers to a card every now and then, so long as we're fine with leaving cards with only one power every now and then. It's interesting to note that the main designs being proposed so far have been two powers, which suggests that we're taking to the lesson of simplicity pretty well but we might be trying to even things out too much. There can be peaks and valleys to it, after all.