The Book of Poison

[Ronin]

When I originally spun that up, I think I was mainly just looking to shake up the engagement dynamics a bit on Ruthless Counter Strike.

If we wanted to go in an alternate direction, we could do something like...

When Poison is attacked and would receive one or more wounds, ignore one of those wounds and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll X or higher, Poison may immediately use his Spider Stingers special power.

Trying to riff a bit on Resilience type powers like Venom II's got, and Spidey Sense powers. It's a bit close to Symbiote Spidey's aggro spider-sense (in theme if not quite implementation), so that's neat.

I'd probably raise the Stinger roll and lower his Life with that power.

[Lord Pyre]

Is it worth it to dual species him as undead? We could make one”Ruthless Revenant Revenge” power that makes him undead and gives whatever counter ability we want.

Not pushing for it, just throwing it out there if that’s be appealing to anyone

[Ronin]

It's ambiguous whether or not he's proper undead, so I probably wouldn't spend card text on it.

[IAmBatman]

That’s a cool take.

[Ronin]

Cool. If people dig that general direction, I might also do a slight tweak on the Stinger power, mainly just to avoid the double d20 roll to use it. (As in, the defensive power makes you roll the d20 to get to use the power, then you immediately have to roll the d20 again as part of the power)

[tcglkn]

Yea seems like that would make him easier to balance.

[MrNobody]

I prefer the simplicity of the Counter Attack version, but I don’t know if I’m alone there.

[IAmBatman]

Depends on the tweak to the Stinger power. Let's wait and see what that looks like before deciding for sure which version is more streamlined.

[MrNobody]

I like Ruthless Counterstrike. I know Ruthless Counterstrike. New ideas scare me.

Mainly I just think the core concept is a lot of extra steps for what is ultimately the same gameplay effect. You take however many wounds, ignore one of them, roll the 20-sided, then use Spider-Stingers (or whatever the replacement power is) just to inflict a wound or two. It feels complex when higher life and the counterstrike effect basically do the same thing. The option to not choose the attacking figure is interesting, but I ultimately find the range more appealing overall.

Idk, I think both approaches work so I don’t want to give off the vibe I’m hating on it. That’s just my line of thinking.

[IAmBatman]

I like Ruthless Counter Strike too. I'm less keen on a slightly tweaked and slightly renamed version that I'll always confuse with Ruthless Counter Strike.

[Ronin]

I mean, point taken that resolving an effect in one roll is always cleaner than two, but I have a hard time crediting some of the things you're laying out as "steps".

I'd actually also be cool with something like:

Whenever Poison would receive one or more wounds from an attack, ignore one of those wounds. When Poison is attacked, you may choose not to roll defense dice. If you do not, and Poison is not destroyed by the attack, you may immediately use Poison's Spider Stingers special power.

So no d20 roll to use it, he can just choose to go aggro instead of defending. (Which works with the present version of Spider Stingers)

[IAmBatman]

Heh, that's interesting. Kind of like Calculated Defense on steroids.