CronArmy's new Custom Thread!

[CronArmy]

So I'm newer to scape, but I thought I'd give making a few Customs a go. I'm starting off with a few ideas from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Feel free to leave comments and input! Hope you like them!

Harry Dresden

Spoiler Alert!

Changed him around again after more feedback! I priced him after some play testing, ended up being a great clean up figure. Abit like KA.
Also Still looking for a figure, Tall, leather jacket, staff. If you know of a good sculpt I could use, Thanks!

Sue the T-Rex!

Spoiler Alert!

(Supposed to say "may not" attack same fig twice)
Sue is inspired by a certain Dino Harry briefly teamed up with, for those who have read the books, you'll know how awesome she was. But I wanted her to be cool thematically, but also be a solid option for an arrow grunt army. I changed her base stats around since last time, also adjusted some wording for her special. I compared her to Q10 when pricing, not set on it yet cause I've had some fluxiation during playtestimg. Let me know what you think!
Her Figure: D&D Giants of Legand #68 Fiendish Tyrannosaur

Thoughts?!

[Dad_Scaper]

Thanks for sharing, CA!

I *love* the idea of a custom for Harry Dresden. There may be one around already, I don't know, but I think you nailed it by trying to capture his theme with just the bracelet and the soulfire special attack.

He does a lot of fighting in melee, so I think the Range 1 is a good thematic choice. I wonder if there's a different direction to take the Shield Bracelet, though. His shield bracelet is a way for him to shrug off massive attacks, but he can't keep using it, right? It has to get recharged or something? So maybe something with markers:

Place two Shield Bracelet tokens on this Army Card. When Harry Dresden is attacked with a normal attack, before rolling defense dice, you may remove one Shield Bracelet token to ignore all skulls rolled in the attack.

It's a powerful ability, but I think you want a powerful hero here. I would also considering dropping his melee attack to 4 and bumping his defense to 4, because of the magically-impregnated leather duster.

I would also correct the spelling of "tricky" and copy the wording of the special attack from a hero who already has something similar, like Heirloom. Also, given Shield Bracelet's power (as I suggested it), I would give him 4 life instead of 5. If you keep Shield Bracelet as is, obviously you will keep the defense at 3.

He'd be a lot of points. Get him the way you want him first, then we can talk points. I am sure there are bigger fans of Dresden than I, and they may have thematic pointers you'd be interested in. @Aldin ?

Also, you mention "CV3" customs. This is *your* customs thread, and doesn't really have anything to do with the C3V. Thanks again for sharing!

[JC McMinis]

I agree with Dad_Scaper on this. However like he said if you decide to keep the Shield Bracelet the way it is the proper wording is such.

SHIELD BRACELET
When defending with Harry Dresden, each shield rolled counts for one additional block.

[CronArmy]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I changed Harry around abit based on your suggestions! I'm thinking his price should be somewhere around Sgt. Drake 2.0, but not for sure.

[Ixe]

Harry Dresden
I've never actually read or seen anything with Dresden in it, but I can comment on the design at the very least. He looks pretty versatile between his high melee attack and ranged special attack (which is really a slightly longer range shotgun), but I'm not sure if he's quite at Sergeant Drake levels point wise. He isn't as maneuverable and lacks the significant protection provided by Thorian Speed. Shield Bracelet is not for nothing, but some of that will more or less balance out with his life.

I actually really like that you choose to use that power after the attack is rolled but before the defense. Wound negating powers like the Mezzodemons' Exoskeleton allows you to use it after wounds are dealt where the significance of the choice is reduced. Using it against a massive attack roll is obvious, but what about a more middling attack? What if he's at 2 life and has to defend against a two skull attack? Do you potentially waste it now or do you risk it all with a defense roll? That sounds like some fun game play to me. The power itself would need to specify how many markers he starts with.

Sue
The name reference is lost on me but the design looks fun. I'm surprised to see her with higher defense/relatively lower life (for a figure of that size). I would expect it to be the other way around, but there's nothing to say it can't be this way (look at Brunak). Her Bloody Rampage special attack is indeed terrifying. It doesn't quite have the range of Deathwalker 8000's special attack so it is easier to terminate by lack of having another target, but the extra attack makes it significantly more likely to inflict a wound in the first place. This can obviously be very powerful against clustered, low defense squads, but I'm a little more concerned with low defense heroes and how she can carve through them in a single round (potentially with attacks to spare). That's fine if that's your intention, but it may affect her price overall. In any case, she does look like fun to play.

Thank you for sharing. I hope this is helpful.

[Dad_Scaper]

Interesting.

If I remember Sue's role correctly, you may wish to consider dropping the Special Attack in favor of a "Carry" ability, as you would find on Theracus or Brunak. Also (again, thinking about the book), I might bump Move to 6.

One interesting possibility is also Disengage, not because she's sneaky, but because she's fast & has a thick hide. I'm not sure if I'd use it, but it crossed my mind, so I'm writing it down for your consideration.

[CronArmy]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Interesting.

If I remember Sue's role correctly, you may wish to consider dropping the Special Attack in favor of a "Carry" ability, as you would find on Theracus or Brunak. Also (again, thinking about the book), I might bump Move to 6.

See I thought about using "Carry", but there was also another point in the book where she stopped listening to Harry because she went mad with bloodlust. I felt like that would be the more fun way to depict her, ya know? Though I do think I will bump her move to 6 now that you mention in.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

One interesting possibility is also Disengage, not because she's sneaky, but because she's fast & has a thick hide. I'm not sure if I'd use it, but it crossed my mind, so I'm writing it down for your consideration.

Ahh I love the idea of Disengage with her! Totally fits thematically. My only hesitation is with her special attack, could disengage make it even more deadly? It already has the potential to be very devastating in the right circumstance, would bring able to disengage to move along to the next attack make it more so? I'm not for sure, ideas on that? Cause otherwise I think it'd fit in very well!

Thanks for the feedback, always usful!

[Dad_Scaper]

I didn't remember about Harry losing control. You have to limit the thematic expressions of fictional characters to some point in their timeline, though, and your decision to limit it to a bloodlust scenario makes sense. In that case, I would be less likely to use Disengage, because she's not moving (and carrying) with a purpose, he's just raging.

[CronArmy]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Harry Dresden
...but I'm not sure if he's quite at Sergeant Drake levels point wise. He isn't as maneuverable and lacks the significant protection provided by Thorian Speed. Shield Bracelet is not for nothing, but some of that will more or less balance out with his life.

I actually really like that you choose to use that power after the attack is rolled but before the defense. Wound negating powers like the Mezzodemons' Exoskeleton allows you to use it after wounds are dealt where the significance of the choice is reduced. Using it against a massive attack roll is obvious, but what about a more middling attack? What if he's at 2 life and has to defend against a two skull attack? Do you potentially waste it now or do you risk it all with a defense roll? That sounds like some fun game play to me. The power itself would need to specify how many markers he starts with.

First off, thanks for the feedback!! See the price for me is tricky, cause he isn't quite like any other figures that I know off. What would your thoughts be on a proper price? I've thought anywhere between 120-170.
As for the shield bracelet Dad_Scaper deserves the praise. I just copied and pasted an idea he had, I loved the way it makes you take calculated risk just as you did!

Originally Posted by Ixe

Sue
The name reference is lost on me but the design looks fun. I'm surprised to see her with higher defense/relatively lower life (for a figure of that size). I would expect it to be the other way around, but there's nothing to say it can't be this way (look at Brunak). Her Bloody Rampage special attack is indeed terrifying. It doesn't quite have the range of Deathwalker 8000's special attack so it is easier to terminate by lack of having another target, but the extra attack makes it significantly more likely to inflict a wound in the first place. This can obviously be very powerful against clustered, low defense squads, but I'm a little more concerned with low defense heroes and how she can carve through them in a single round (potentially with attacks to spare). That's fine if that's your intention, but it may affect her price overall. In any case, she does look like fun to play.

Thank you for sharing. I hope this is helpful.

First do you think the defense is to high, I've thought about dropping it to 5, but I'm not sure. And as for your concern about her special attack against heros, I've had the same pause. I've only play tester her once and took 6 lives from Brax in one turn...But I want her to be a threat to heros as well. So I'm considering putting a limit on it. Like a max of 2-3 additional attacks. Thoughts on that or other ideas?

Thanks again for the feedback, I love it!

[Dad_Scaper]

Based on what you described in the theme you're trying to capture, I agree that the price is too high. You may also wish to modify the SA to replace both moving *and* attacking, considering it involves movement. Also it is imperative, IMHO, to add language forbidding her from attacking the same figure twice. Otherwise it's too much.

[McHotcakes]

The Dresden files is one of my favorite book series, nice to see a Harry custom. Now the thing about Harry, and any magic user, is that it is really hard to capture everything they can do on a single card. You seem to have a good custom for him though. I would suggest taking a look at the HoF design for Harry Potter. Specifically the magically equipment power. If you go that route you could turn the shield bracelet, his blasting rod, and all of his other toys into glyphs. Just something to think about.

Theme wise I would suggest turning his Army to Ullar. Ullar is filled with magic users like Harry, and Vydar is filled with advanced tech that Harry doesn't mix well with.

Another point I would drop Harry's normal attack to 3. He can throw a punch but he is no fighting expert, at least not without magic. Of course that would mean bumping up his special attack to 4 to show he is better at magic than physically fighting. I'd also bump to his life to 5, simply because Harry takes a lot of abuse in the books, but he always seems to get back up.

Last thing I promise. Reaper Minis has a figure that looks remarkably close to Harry.

[Dad_Scaper]

Good suggestions, but for one.

I don't like him as Ullar. Nature magic isn't his thing, and there *are* creatures in his world who would be Ullar. My first instinct was Vydar, too, because of his shifting loyalties, but on reflection I don't think that quite captures him. He is too principled to belong to Vydar, which might instead be a suitable general for the Winter Queen.

No, I think the general for Harry is Aquilla. He is principled, but he is also wild, and can be savage. He (obviously) is primitive both in his tools and in his technique. He is not sufficiently disciplined for Einar, not sufficiently rigid for Jandar, not sufficiently unprincipled for Vydar, and obviously not evil enough for Utgar or Valkrill. I think Aquilla nails it.