NAME =
DROW ASSASSIN
GENERAL =
UTGAR
PLANET =
TORIL
SPECIES =
DROW
UNIQUENESS =
COMMON HERO
CLASS =
ASSASSSIN
PERSONALITY =
TRICKY
SIZE/HEIGHT =
MEDIUM 5
1 LIFE
6 MOVE
1 RANGE
3 ATTACK
3 DEFENSE
35 POINTS
Shadow Shift
After revealing an order marker on, and taking a turn with a Common Drow Squad, or Common Drow Hero, you may choose one of the figures that attacked or moved this turn that is within 6 sight spaces of a Drow Assassin whose base is no more than 5 levels higher or lower than the base of the chosen figure. You may Switch the Drow Assassin with the chosen figure. If you do, you may immediately take a turn with that Drow Assassin. Figures moved by Shadow Shift never take any leaving engagement attacks.
Sneak Attack 2
If a Drow Assassin is attacking an opponent's figure that is adjacent to at least one other figure you control, add 2 dice to that Drow Assassin's attack.
Hide in Darkness
If a Drow Assassin is attacked with a normal attack and at least 1 skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If that Drow Assassin is on a dungeon space, add 3 to your die roll. If it is on a shadow space, add 6 to your die roll. If you roll a 1-15, roll defense dice normally. If you roll a 16 or higher, ignore all damage that would have been inflicted by the attack.
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Creativity: I have a bias towards bonding abilities. I enjoy using them in game, but when it comes to designing customs I don't like using normal generic bonding powers. The Drow especially felt like they shouldn't have the Normal bonding you would expect to see from any other faction. To ensure that I didn't need to make a new Squad to replace the Deepwrym as the B&B, I created Shadow Shift. Shadow Shift was an ability I came up with a little over a year ago or so, and I really liked how it felt on the Drow. The wording is heavily borrowed from the Horned Skull Brutes Barge into Battle ability, but with Bonding thrown in. Sneak Attack really helps spell out the Assassin theme that I'm going for with the Drow Assassin, and I think it fits well with the idea of an underground civilization which is what the Drow are in DnD. They play like you would expect an Assassin to, they follow the group, and wait for the right time to jump in and stab their target in the back. I have really liked the way they incentivize a more strategic play style.
Accessibility: The figure is called "Lolth's Sting - 53", and another of the same sculpt is called "Lolth's Sting 05 Promo"
Troll and Toad: 1 currently, though they had more a little while ago, and will probably get more again.
Miniature Market: at least 40, with 20+ listed for both Sculpts.
Cool Stuff Inc.: 15 in stock currently.
Amazon: 4 from various sellers.
Ebay: over 20 from various sellers.
Game Hollow: 9 currently available.
Me: I personally have purchased 20 extra figures from an ebay seller that had was selling a lot of them, and I am willing to sell these for $2.50 each to whoever is interested until I run out.
EDIT: I now have 96 of this figure.
I have also found 34 of the figure on RPGlocker.com
All that together totaling to
100 + 200 + figures available.
Balance: Over the course of my design process with this unit, I have had this gal at prices ranging from 25 points all the way up to 100, and She has been both Unique, and Uncommon at various times. I don't have a number for playtests, but she has felt in line with the two figures I feel are closest to her comparatively. Those figures would be the Drow Chainfighter, and the Nottingham Brigand. The Chainfighter is very fun to use, and has some very solid stats for 25 points at 4/4 with 6 move. The Assassin is 3/3 with 6 move, and you have the potential to get 5 attack with the right setup, so their stats are very comparable. Sneak Attack is a bit harder to pull off, and the Assassin doesn't have a ranged ability, so without bonding about 20 - 25 points so far. Of course the Assassin has bonding so the points need to account for that, and thus we reach 35. In a vacuum not as useful or versatile as the Chainfighter, but with Bonding and the right positioning, the Assassin can shine brighter at the right times.
The Brigand is a Bonding Comparison. The bonding itself is harder to use with the Assassin as you still need to place your order markers normally, and you have to make sure you move your figures in such a way that you can still activate the Assassin. The stats aren't quite as easy to compare between these 2. The Brigand is a 3/2, but lacks a potential attack boost. It does however have a range of 7, and range with kiting, or a meat shield, can usually win against melee. The Assassin as a single attacking melee hero the Assassin might at first glance seem like it isn't quite as useful, but She has Shadow Shift, which has a lot of utility. Overall I think they carry a similar potential threat level, but in different ways.
The Assassin adds a pretty high threat range of 12 to your army, if you're willing to really push her out of position. Don't let this fool you though, She's really not going to play her best used like that, and Sneak Attack plays into that a lot. With her being that far out of position her likelihood of surviving it very low. When she dies after pushing out too far, not only do you loose your bonder, but you don't take any advantage of her Sneak Attack to do so. At the same time, it can be worth it to get an attack off on Realin or whoever is important to your opponent's army, so there are times when you might still want to send your Assassin on a suicide mission. I feel that this plays into the Assassin Feel though, a general probably would consider sending an Assassin off on a Suicide mission to try to take out an Opponents biggest threats.
Playability/Fun: With the exception of the Chainfighter, the Drow presence in Heroscape feels nearly nonexistent outside of Dungeon crawls. I am the only person I have ever seen play a full Drow army at a tournament, and most people really don't seem to care for them. Looking at the CUC, the biggest change they made to help them was to add Bonding, and this is what I did, but in a different and more interesting way I think. With the Assassin the Deepwrym feel way more useful, and the Chainfighters are a great way to move your enemies into a good position to Sneak Attack. She's also a great early game glyph grabber, though you'll probably want to switch her out for a Deepwrym pretty quickly due to her usefulness. Shadow shift adds a whole new dynamic to the way you play an army, and it's a lot of fun. The mobility the Assassin has once She is up to the front of the battlefield helps her get to the right position to pull off some sweat back stabs.