The Book of Doctor Fate

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by A3n

Ok as LD my decision is:

I still want to avoid adding to Event Heroes as they are powerful enough to make their own luck & too self important to listen to Dr Fate.

Cheers

Works for me!

[IAmBatman]

Works for me. Good job banging our heads together, team.

[Griffin]

Originally Posted by A3n

Ok as LD my decision is:

I still want to avoid adding to Event Heroes as they are powerful enough to make their own luck & too self important to listen to Dr Fate.

Cheers

I love it.

[IAmBatman]

The text for Magical Defense needs to match Scarlet Witch's:

MAGICAL DEFENSE
When Doctor Fate is attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Magical Defense special power, the most wounds Doctor Fate can receive from that attack is one.

After that change, is this guy ready for an initial playtest? Of the new designs, he seems the most ready to go, and I'm chomping at the bit to start another test!

[A3n]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

The text for Magical Defense needs to match Scarlet Witch's:

MAGICAL DEFENSE
When Doctor Fate is attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Magical Defense special power, the most wounds Doctor Fate can receive from that attack is one.

After that change, is this guy ready for an initial playtest? Of the new designs, he seems the most ready to go, and I'm chomping at the bit to start another test!

Are you sure it doesn't? I'm pretty sure I actually did a copy & paste from the photoshop version of her card. Is what's on her card wrong?

[IAmBatman]

Hmm, we need a ruling from Sir G here.
On Scarlet Witch's actual card, like here, it's "can take for this attack is one."
On Sir G's spreadsheet, which I was going by (but I guess shouldn't have been ) it says "can receive from that attack is one."
I think "receive" is the more official verb than "take" but I'm not sure ...

[A3n]

SirG to aisle 3!

[IAmBatman]

Well, other than that wording issue, which we have plenty of time for, do you guys feel that he's ready for an initial playtest? I'd love to start on him tomorrowish.

[IAmBatman]

Oh, also, you left an "n" out of "friendly" in the Teleportation power.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Well, other than that wording issue, which we have plenty of time for, do you guys feel that he's ready for an initial playtest? I'd love to start on him tomorrowish.

I'd love it if you did.

[IAmBatman]

C3G PLAY TEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT (DOCTOR FATE) PASS @ 290-300

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
PASS

- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
PASS

- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
PASS

- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit to powerful or too weak.
PASS

- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
PASS

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PASS

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
PASS

- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
PASS

- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
PASS though I didn't use the D20 boost much just because I didn't get any real opportunities where rolls failed by 1 or 2. Over the course of many games, though, I'm confident this will pop up.

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
PASS I think he has a fairly high learning curve actually. I think I'm still learning how to best utilize him. He's fun to play, though!

- Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero/ Does it pass? PASS @ 290-310

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Scarlet Witch (285)

Test One: Doctor Fate wins on Turn 1 of Round 2 with no wounds. His Teleportation Spell helped him get close fast, Scarlet Witch's Chaos Magic Curse didn't really affect him much as only losing Magical Defense during his turn would've hurt. With both of them having Magical Defense, it came down to dice rolls and stats, which Doctor Fate won on.

Test Two: The rolls went the other way and Scarlet Witch won on Turn 2 of Round 2 with 3 of 4 wounds on her card. Scarlet Witch can also bypass Doctor Fate's Magical Defense, and better attack rolls made it happen for her here.

Test Three: Scarlet Witch wins on Turn 3 of Round 3 with 2 of 4 wounds on her card. Doctor Fate was regularly rolling 1 and 2 skulls on 5 dice, and the few times he rolled more, Scarlet Witch managed to use her Hex Sphere Disturbance to undo things.

Doctor Fate loses this match up, but I think his superior stats may help him do better against other heavy hitters than Scarlet Witch might.

TEST 2
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Wonder Woman (300)


Test One: Wonder Woman owned this match up, lassoing Doctor Fate early (his teleportation spell not allowing engagement made this very difficult to avoid) and winning on Turn 1 of Round 3 with only one wound on her. Having Magical Defense nullified, subjected Doctor Fate to 3 wounds on one early attack. Wonder Woman rolled 3 shields on defense more times than I can count and was very difficult for Doctor Fate to hurt.

Test Two: Wonder Woman wins on Turn 3 of Round 1 with 2 wounds out of 6. She nullified Doctor Fate right away again (he had no real way to avoid it given her move of 7 and flying) and put a lot of wounds on him fast with two attacks.

Test Three: Wonder Woman wins on Turn 1 of Round 3 with 4 of 6 wounds. This time Doctor Fate managed to disengage early and claim height on Wonder Woman for most of the match. She's still a very nasty counter to him overall.

So far Doctor Fate probably feels more like 280 or, at max, 290. I theoryscaped him at 300, but I think a lot of that might come from his synergies with others.

TEST 3
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Martian Manhunter (300)


Test One: Against another unit that offers a lot of his cost to synergies, Doctor Fate got on a hot streak and won after One Full Round with only 1 wound on him. Martian Manhunter, unlike the previous two match ups, had no direct answer to Magical Defense and poor defensive rolls of his own doomed him.

Test Two: More dominance by Magical Defense as well as superior die rolls by Doctor Fate leads to Doctor Fate winning on Turn 1 of Round 2 with only 1 wound.

Test Three: Doctor Fate wins on Turn 2 of Round 2 with 3 of 5 wounds. I've never seen so many defensive whiffs on 5 or 6 dice in one game! The difference is, when Doctor Fate whiffs, he only takes one wound, whereas when Martian Manhunter whiffs, he usually takes two to three wounds.

Though he had help from the dice, Doctor Fate dominated an opponent with no real answer to Magical Defense.

TEST 4
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Red Tornado (300)


Test One: Doctor Fate wins on Turn 1 of Round 2 with 1 wound. Red Tornado's Air Elemental Flying was nice for gaining height advantage, but Magical Defense prevailed.

Test Two: Both units had wicked attack rolls and horrible defense rolls, but Magical Defense saved Doctor Fate's bacon once again and he won after One Full Round with 2 of 5 wounds. Using Air Elemental Flying to secure height advantage for most of the match up didn't do enough for Red Tornado.

Test Three: Doctor Fate wins on Turn 2 of Round 2 with 4 of 5 wounds. Red Tornado was actually rolling right along until Doctor Fate put 4 wounds on him with a 5 skull attack at the end of the match.


TEST 5
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Supergirl (320)

Test One: Supergirl's got the defense to go toe-to-toe with Doctor Fate and wear down his Magical Defenses - she wins on Turn 1 of Round 3 with 3 of 6 wounds.

Test Two: Supergirl wins after Two Full Rounds with 2 of 6 wounds.

Test Three: Supergirl dominates this match up, winning on Turn 1 of Round 3 with no wounds. Doctor Fate couldn't seem to roll more than 2 skulls on any attack, making it nearly impossible to crack Supergirl's defenses.

He's got some great match ups in this range and some horrible ones ... so far, without his synergies really coming into play, Doctor Fate feels like 290-310.

_____________________________________________________________

- Squad / Does it pass? PASS @ 330
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Beat Cops x5 (325)

Spoiler Alert!

Test One: Doctor Fate wins on Turn 3 of Round 8 with 3 of 5 wounds on his card. Ranged fliers can dominate squads on this map. This was no exception.

_____________________________________________________________

- Squad / Does it pass? PASS @ 270
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate vs. Street Thugs x4 (300)

Spoiler Alert!

The Thugs win on Turn 1 of Round 4 with 9 of 16 Thugs left. The extra activation each Order Marker compared to the Cops and the +1 attack and defense thanks to concrete helped Thugs overcome Doctor Fate having major height advantage all game.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass? PASS @ 290 points
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate (300), Alfred (60), Batman (200), Black Canary (190), and Green Arrow Ollie (150), and Robin (120) (1020) vs. Darkseid, Solomon Grundy, Lex Luthor Battlesuit, Shadow Thief (1020)

Spoiler Alert!

Doctor Fate's boosts weren't as helpful as I'd theoryscaped. He's still fun, but he had no answer for Darkseid here (nor did anyone else) as the villain from Apokolips, with only a little help from Grundy, tore through the entire cast of heroes. Darkseid with 2 life left, Grundy with 1 life left (never died), and full life unactivated Lex and Shadow Thief won this one on Turn 2 of Round 9. Doctor Fate lasted until Round 7 and put 2 wounds on Darkseid. Darkseid also put two wounds on himself with failed special attack rolls, so Doctor Fate did more than anyone else did here. D20 rolls just weren't good enough for Doctor Fate to bother boosting and Darkseid just killed too fast for Fate to set up much with his teleportation spell. Ouch.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass? PASS @ 290 points
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate (310) and MODOK (360) (670) vs. Annihilus and She-Hulk (670)

Spoiler Alert!

She-Hulk won on Turn 1 of Round 4 with 3 wounds on her card. MODOK died early due to Annihilus tearing through him with the Cosmic Control Rod and his normal attack. The X-Marker was on Doctor Fate's card in hopes of boosting MODOK's D20 roll, but it backfired here. Doctor Fate's synergies didn't really help MODOK at all, but he, with a lot of dice luck, did manage to put all the wounds on Annihilus (after he healed the first two that MODOK put on him) and 3 wounds on She-Hulk (two with the Cosmic Control Rod) before getting killed. This one felt pretty balanced - Annihilus was just a tough match up for MODOK and I didn't utilize MODOK that well due to an attempt to make Doctor Fate's synergies help him (which they really didn't).

- Army Test/ Does it pass? PASS @ points
Map: Platforms 5 and 6
Units: Doctor Fate (290), Darkseid (380), and Red Skull (190) (860) vs. Thor and Loki (850)

Spoiler Alert!

Thor won on Turn 2 of Round 8 with only 2 of 8 wounds. Limiting Darkseid to three turns in three rounds proved disastrous, as his special attack failed to crack Thor's defense all three times, Doctor Fate's D20 boost was thus worthless, and Thor and Loki took him out before he got a fourth chance. Red Skull did manage to kill off a full life Loki in Round 6 on a roll of 16 that then wiped out the rest of Red Skull and Doctor Fate's round. Thor proceeded to finish off Red Skull, leaving a one wound Thor facing off with a full life Doctor Fate. Thor made short work of him, getting about one wound on every attack. Doctor Fate managed to hit Thor for one wound in return. This match up felt fun and balanced. Had Darkseid managed a little more punch, this might've gone the other way, but I think piling Order Markers on Darkseid and just attacking with him over and over might've actually given me the better chance here.

[A3n]

Linked in OP for you kind sir.