So I'm just about ready to submit Agrith-Naar as seen above. BUT, here are my concerns:
1) I'm afraid Quad attack will scare judges and C3V members alike when voting and playtesting. In truth though, while it has incredible potential, you have to play it right in considering his SbB ability which kills his own units or himself. If you use him to rush in and assassinate a key figure, it's also very likely that key figure has been protected enough that nearby units can retaliate and attack back. That, or if he tries to attack multiple figures, he'd have to engage multiple figures in order to capitalize the potential. Kevindola has done a great job in playtesting him with me some, and it's been nice to see that even he's had his fair share of tough decisions when deciding how and when to use A-N. That of course doesn't speak anything to the units design other than it's not always the best idea to use him every turn simply because he has to be able to return more than he's taking in that turn. He feels well enough balanced to submit as-is...but I fear an outcry for OP would come...and I'd hate for him to run the gauntlet just for judges to nix him per his Quad attack was too powerful at times, which they wouldn't necessarily be wrong. His attacks can do some serious damage, but during the course of the game, he levels out by how much he kills his own units or himself to take his turns.
Okay so that's the first thought...
2) Acolytes get stronger as their bonding options get stronger. So far the only option that doesn't really have a weakness is Morgoloth. Skull Demons only have 1 attack, so pretty possible to kill an Acolyte if the attack misses, and Corvor blows up anything including his own guys and is a little slow and low def. So really the Demons are big baddies but with abilities that mitigate their overall power in combination with the Acolytes. Playtesting has shown A-N to have that same effect the way he is required to kill himself or another figure in order to take a turn. This is actually quite good at mitigating his overall impact on the game because of how much of himself or your own army you need to destroy to utilize his attacks. So while I feel he's balanced, I worry I'm adding another strong option to Acolytes and there would be an outcry of "OP!" The question will end up being, is his ability mitigating enough.
3) If I were to consider changes, I would simply change the attack power. Double attack would be fine, but then he's too much like Morgoloth. A special attack could suffice, but then I'm worried about room on the card, and special attacks tend to be significantly stronger - unless I did like 4 att of 2 and made his base att 4 - but then his stats are just like Morgoloth again. So here's what I'm considering...
OPTIONS:
- Submitting him as-is and trusting my playtesting
- Changing the direction of the design by making his stats more unique to the units role as a demonic hunter. I'm considering doing something much more unique like 8life and 0Def, leaving his Quad att and then changing his personality to Mindless. The idea behind that statline would be that he's solely a tool. A Demonic being, summoned for one purpose: to Mindlessly hunt prey. As a Mindless Hunter it does give him an image and role of indicriminate killing and disregard for personal safety (hence the 0 def). The 8 life would ensure he's got some time to deal some damage, but I'd also likely drop his points to 80-90 because of how quick he could/would go down with focused attacks. I'm not sure this is my favorite option as it would be significantly changing the design, but it does have some merit and I like the uniqueness of it.
- Just change the Quad Att to a Special Attack where he can do 4 att of 2 (and maybe increase his base Att to 4).
Would appreciate some help in thinking through this! Thanks!