The Book of Kristoff von Doom

[Yodaking]

Yeah, I don't think it will be that hard to track as is.

[Viegon]

Cutting out the Unique/Common distinction and going with a simple one spell per round mechanic would work for me. It's the tiered mechanic that feels a bit too much to me.

[Ronin]

Updated the SP with the following:

DOOM'S WARD
Kristoff von Doom adds 1 to his Attack number while you control Victor von Doom. After revealing an Order Marker on the Army Card of a Unique Victor von Doom Hero that you control and taking a turn with Victor von Doom, you may take an immediate turn with Kristoff. You may not take any additional turns with any other figures.

MAGICAL APTITUDE
Kristoff may cast Spells as if he had the Magical Defense special power. Kristoff may not cast more than one Spell per round.

Beyond the tracking issue (which I agree is pretty minor), I'm not feeling like the tiered system really brings that much (if anything?) to the power and I'd rather keep it streamlined. This way is also more reusable.

The much more important issue, I think, is something we've been glossing over, which is the keyword issue. It would be nice if non-MD spell-casters interacted neatly with powers like Power of Zeus and Magical Protection. There's probably an argument for going back and updating cards like that (I took a tally a while ago and came up with 3-4 that would need an update) to account for spells, but we might get around that with some carefully-chosen language here.

Slightly tweaking the Jungle Plants wording, I figure this should work if we're fine with introducing the "While ... is casting a Spell" wording:

MAGICAL APTITUDE
Kristoff may cast Spells as if he had the Magical Defense special power. Kristoff may not cast more than one Spell per round. While Kristoff is casting a Spell, whenever a special power on an Army Card or glyph refers to the Magical Defense special power, it refers to this special power as well.

Pads out the power a bit, but it lets us get away with not updating powers that reference MD, and it gives pretty logical interactions across the board for the no-MD spell-casting set.

[Yodaking]

I agree that someone casting one of the SA spells that does not have MD should still be able to deal more than 1W to a figure with MD.

[TrollBrute]

Originally Posted by Ronin

MAGICAL APTITUDE
Kristoff may cast Spells as if he had the Magical Defense special power. Kristoff may not cast more than one Spell per round. While Kristoff is casting a Spell, whenever a special power on an Army Card or glyph refers to the Magical Defense special power, it refers to this special power as well.

This looks good to me. So does the rest of the design too. As a sidekick for Doom, I could see his cost coming up above what you have projected. He doesn't play nice with the Moloids though, so it's a tradeoff.

Only nitpick is that 5 Defense seems high, but that's based on not knowing the character pretty much at all.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I could see him hitting a little higher - maybe 95 or 105. (Definitely want that 5 in there; planning on maintaining that for all Doom-themed units to mirror the FF)

My logic on 5 defense is that he is sporting some Doom-designed armor. 4 wouldn't be a deal-breaker, though.

[TrollBrute]

Like I said, I don't the character, so I trust you here.

[Lazy Orang]

I like how that wording would also work with beneficial powers on your side that might help MD figures, if they exist, while also affecting opponents' defences - I like how he essentially has all the synergistic affects of MD but only when spellcasting, essentially.

[Ronin]

Alright, SP updated and pushed his cost up to 95 to start with. Not anticipating too many issues with this one, but I'll call in the CRB for a sanity check.
@dok @Dysole @weebaer @Soundwarp SG-1

Planning on proposing we go to initial after getting CRB input.

[johnny139]

I like this design - it's simple and works well. I personally don't care much either way about Magical Aptitude, which works but has never really been iconic for him... but it's justifiable and if you like it I won't complain.

The one thing I think it's missing is the true "heir of Doom" flavor. The fact that he actually loses his bonus when Doom dies - rather than inheriting his mantle - is actually a flavor break for me. Instead of getting +1 Attack while he's present, I'd like to see him get that boost once Doom has been destroyed.

[Dysole]

COMPETITIVE REVIEW BOARD CHECKLIST

Competitive Concerns
Does the design offer worrisome Order marker movement or efficiency? No.

Does the design offer superior Auto wounding? No.

Does the design cause the prevention of abilities (Blob, Polaris, Meteorite)? No.

Does the design move other figures? No.

Does the design boost other figures (outside of a narrowly defined set)? No.

Does the design have one or more excellent defensive powers? No.

Does the design auto destroy or take control of other figures in a way that unbalances the design? No.

Does the design have any other concerns? No.

Summary of Any Competitive Concerns/Suggestions for Changes:
I mean I technically could've answered yes to any of the above based on spells, but once a round? No, this guy should be fine.

~Dysole, feeling he'll end up at an a'ight figure

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by johnny139

I like this design - it's simple and works well. I personally don't care much either way about Magical Aptitude, which works but has never really been iconic for him... but it's justifiable and if you like it I won't complain.

The one thing I think it's missing is the true "heir of Doom" flavor. The fact that he actually loses his bonus when Doom dies - rather than inheriting his mantle - is actually a flavor break for me. Instead of getting +1 Attack while he's present, I'd like to see him get that boost once Doom has been destroyed.

I could see going that route, but I feel like that's a pretty big nerf, since Doom wants to stick around forever, Doombots and all. Part of why I stuck the attack boost there in the first place was to put a little weight behind the Doom synergy over the Adventurer one, and introducing too much tension between his bonding and attack boost scuppers that, so I probably wouldn't want to go for the 'after-destruction' attack boost without giving him some other Doom-y incentive to compensate.

If we wanted to give him a little more of that 'heir' flavor, what if we had him more literally inherit the mantle when Doom is destroyed? Just giving him something like this (I know, I know, I'm riffing on this same wording again):

If Doctor Doom is in your army and he is destroyed, Kristoff adds 1 to his Attack number and whenever a special power on another Army Card refers to Doctor Doom, it refers to Kristoff as well.

Letting him become "Doctor Doom" would give you something to do with the Doombots if they fail a roll and the real Doom dies while you still have Doombots on the field, and I've been thinking about a few other units that will definitely want to specifically synergize with Doctor Doom rather than call out a class (Servo-Guards for sure, maybe also some Latverian Civilians). So it'd make Kristoff a little more of a safety net for a Doom-focused army.