IshMEL's Customs: Updated 7/11/2018

[Arch-vile]

Interesting. He's quite a good 20-point filler for any army with at least one nonbonding hero in it. Of course, he's really not all that good himself. Very neat custom.

[IshMEL]

Thanks, Arch-vile!

A question (for you and everyone else) -- do you think it would make any difference if I made Seevric into an Uncommon Hero? Something like "Tersec Bodyguard." I ask because there aren't enough minis for this design to qualify for SoV, but if I include the other Utapaun Soldiers as "alternate sculpts" I might get it up to 100.

Any thoughts?

I wish there were a way for me to sort minis by availability...

[IshMEL]

Revised version of Lord Revadac. At the suggestion of the 3FG, I've removed Necrotic Force, which was a cool power, but too hard to balance, and Lord R had too much going on with it. Here's the new version:


Lord Revadac



Figure: Direguard.

Valkrill
Unique Hero
Undead
Lord
Relentless
Medium 5
90 points

CADAVEROUS TOUCH 11
When Lord Revadac receives one or more wounds from an adjacent figure's normal attack, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll an 11 or higher, the attacking figure receives one wound. Cadaverous Touch does not affect Constructs or Soulborgs.

INSANE COMMANDER
If Lord Revadac begins his turn adjacent to at least one friendly figure, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-3, he must attack one adjacent friendly figure and then end his turn. If you roll a 4 or higher, continue his turn normally.

6 Life
4 Move
1 Range
4 Attack
2 Defense

Bio: In life, Lord Revadac was ruthless. "There is no cost too high for victory" was his motto, and while he crushed his enemies, it was his own people who paid the price. Many a time did Redavac lead his troops to be slaughtered, heedless of whose blood stained the battlefield. And so his own people named him in whispers "Revadac the Cruel," although none dared oppose him. But one night a witch appeared in the Great Hall of Castle Revadac. Her son had been killed in a needless assault that had claimed the lives of the sons of twelve villages. She demanded that Lord Revadac turn from his evil ways. Taking his sword and shouting his motto, he killed her on the spot -- and watched in horror as his sword arm turned cadaverous. The witch's dying curse wasted his body away, and he was doomed to wander the land in skeletal form. The curse drove him insane -- to the delight of Valkrill, who prizes chaos and madness as much as Revadac once prized victory.

Synergies:
Zombie Hulk: As Undead, Lord Revadac may benefit from the Zombie Hulk's Paralyzing Fear defense penalty when attacking other figures.

Skeletons of Annellintia: As a Unique Lord, Lord Revadac may work with Necromancy.

Death Knights of Valkrill: As a Medium hero with "Relentless" personality, Lord Revadac may benefit from the Death Knights of Valkrill's UNHOLY BONDING activation synergy.

[IshMEL]

So, what are the worst stats you could give a figure and still make it draftable? How about a figure you will never put an Order Marker on?
I give you "Dr. Zed":



Figure: D&D "Brain in a Jar." About $5, and not very available. Oh well.

Dr. Zed
Cyborg
Psychic
Egomaniacal

Life 1
Move 0
Range 0
Attack 0
Defense 1
Vydar
50 points

PSIONIC FIELD
Each time an enemy figure moves either 1, 2 or 3 spaces away from Dr.
Zed, immediately roll the 20-sided die.
Ÿ* If you roll a 1-16, nothing happens.
Ÿ* If you roll a 17-19, the figure takes 1 wound and ends its move.
Ÿ* If you roll a 20 or higher, destroy the figure if it has only 1 life remaining. Otherwise, remove any Order Markers on its card. You now control that Army Card.
Psychics, Animates and Mindless figures are not effected by Psionic Field.

CARRY ME
Once per round, if an unengaged figure you control begins its move adjacent to Dr. Zed, you may place Dr. Zed adjacent to that figure at the end of its move. You may then target one enemy figure within
3 spaces with Psionic Field.

REINFORCED GLASS
When defending against a normal attack from a non- adjacent figure, Dr. Zed adds 2 shields to whatever is rolled.

Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

General Vydar needed a Psychic to counter the increasing number of Psi attacks on his troops, and Dr. Zed was a perfect fit.

As a scientist, Dr. Zed had spent his life studying the powers of the human mind. His research into ESP, telekinesis, telepathy and mind control had earned him both the ridicule of the academy and the backing of certain government agencies so clandestine they did not know of each others' existence. With their funding and technology, he began to bring together the paranormal and the the supernormal. Cybernetics, he was sure, held the key to amplifying the abilities of those humans with psychic powers.

But his experiments kept failing. And failing as in dying. Even the clandestine government agencies could not procure an endless supply of "gifted" subjects. Worse, Dr. Zed could not ensure an endless supply of excuses of why he still had no results. Fearful of having to report ultimate failure (or worse, a quadruple audit), Dr. Zed tried to recruit his own subjects. He soon found that anyone psychic enough to warrant experimentation also pretty much knew what he was up to before he could make the attempt. A brief but messy foray into enhancing monkey brains went nowhere good, and trying to create a psychic hivemind from a swarm of bees was, in hindsight, a pretty bad idea. Desperate to show results (and knowing of the Clandestine Agencies' unpleasant methods of removing failed assets), Dr. Zed did what any Mad Scientist would do -- used himself as a subject.

The results were spectacular. It turned out that Zed's cybernetic implants, when used on an active psychic, overloaded the brain's circuitry. But when implanted in the brain of a latent psychic, which Zed proved to be, they not only awoke those powers but improved them.

Dr. Zed went on a spree of mind control, telekinetic assault, and gluttony. (Cybernetically-enhanced psionics uses up a tremendous number of calories.) At first he focused on revenge against his academic nemeses. Then he moved on to the amassing of wealth, power, and a small but useful corps of mind-controlled servants. Finally, he attempted to manipulate his former funders into fighting against each other. However, one of the Clandestine Agencies had long ago replaced its faceless, mindless bureaucrats with faceless, mindless android bureaucrats (who required neither a pension nor a health plan). Immune to Zed's mind control, they folded, spindled, and mutilated him. In triplicate.

Zed came to Valhalla too late, his injuries too severe. Even the healing energies of the Wellsprings could not reverse the robotic mutilation. But General Vydar was not to be denied his psychic warrior.

When Dr. Zed regained consciousness, he could see nothing. He could feel nothing. His mind floated in a sea of darkness. He reached out with his mind -- the cybernetic implants still seemed to work -- and there met with a cold intelligence. Vydar.

"Welcome to my army, Dr. Zed. I hope you will find your new accommodations to be... comfortable." And Zed received the image of his own brain, floating in a jar, on top of Vydar's tablemap. Thus his new life, as Vydar's least mobile warrior, began.

A few notes on this figure. First, the way Psionic Field is worded, Zed needs no line of sight. So you can park him behind a wall and it will still take effect. Also, a figure approaching him must roll against Psionic Field 3 times, once at 3 spaces away, then at 2 spaces away, then at 1 space away. If my math is right, which it seldom is, he has a 12.2% chance of taking control of a Hero approaching him 3 times, and a 36.6% chance of stopping an enemy and inflicting a wound over 3 chances. The 50 points is a guesstimate. Used correctly, he could set up a pretty decent "minefield" defense.

As always, any feedback is much appreciated! Thanks for taking a look.

[caps]

I think it would be more clear to say "Each time a figure moves onto a space within 3 clear sight spaces of Dr. Zed..."

The power level on that power seems kinda' swingy for his value--by that I mean that it's too powerful for his points because of how good it could possibly be, but if you raise the value too much he'll be too high in value. I'm not sure about rolling Psionic Field into Carry Me at the end there, either.

Between you and me, I'm not sure what I think of Revadac as a Relentless hero.

[IshMEL]

Thanks for the feedback, cap. On reflection, while I really like the mind control thematically, it makes it pretty hard to balance. Here's a simpler version:

Psionic Field
Each time an enemy figure moves onto a space within 3 spaces of Dr. Zed, immediately roll the 20-sided die.
* On a 1-2, if the figure is Psychic, destroy Dr. Zed.
* On a 3-17, nothing happens.
* On an 18 or higher, the figure takes 1 wound and ends its move.
Animates and Mindless figures are not effected by Psionic Field.

Carry Me
Once per round, if an unengaged figure you control begins its move adjacent to Dr. Zed, you may place Dr. Zed adjacent to that figure at the end of its move.

I added the "Psychic combat" element to psionic field, and took out the targeting / free attack in Carry Me. Possible tweaks: make Psi Field work on 19 or higher instead; reduce range to 2.

[IshMEL]

Revised card for Dr. Zed. Major changes: Range of Psionic Field is now 2 -- 3 seemed excessive. Also the effect now stops the figure from attacking this turn, which I like thematically and makes up some for the loss of mind control. I upped the point value to 70 -- having a passive ability to control a field of 18 hexes seems like it could have a pretty high strategic value. Will see in playtesting if I ever get the chance to test these guys!



PSIONIC FIELD
Each time an enemy figure moves onto a space within 2 spaces of Dr.
Zed, immediately roll the 20-sided die.
Ÿ If you roll a 1-2, and the figure is Psychic, destroy Dr. Zed.
Ÿ If you roll a 13-17, nothing happens.
Ÿ If you roll an 18 or higher, the figure takes 1 wound, ends its move, and may not attack this turn.
Animates and Mindless figures are not effected by Psionic Field.

CARRY ME
Once per round, if an unengaged figure you control begins its move adjacent to Dr. Zed, you may place Dr. Zed adjacent to that figure at the end of its move.

REINFORCED GLASS
When defending against a normal attack from a non-adjacent figure, Dr. Zed adds 2 shields to whatever is rolled.

As always, your comments are welcome!

[nyys]

Hey IshMEL, concering Lord Revadac, just to expand further on why I vote nay to review.

First I'll just say that this is your vision for the unit, if this is how you see Lord Redvac, don't let what I say change your mind. Not every unit is going to appeal to everyone.

When I think of an insane skeleton, I think of the skeletons from the movie Army of Darkness (clip1, clip2), which are very comedic, and is the basic reason I voted nay (some of the other judges didn't mind, so maybe I'm the odd one ).

For my money, to have the theme come through for this guy I think I would have liked any of the following (or some form of) for his personality/the name of his special power: Cruel, Fanatical, Brutal, or Savage.

Again though, that's just me. Make sure you're happy with the custom first before considering changes.

[IshMEL]

nyys, Thanks for your advice and your suggestion. I do want to stick with my vision for the custom, it seemed that I could do that with making some minor changes in wording. Your suggestions here and the others in the forum are helping me refine that.

BTW, Army of Darkness = Awesome.

[Dad_Scaper]

I like the idea of a d20 power that forces a resurrecting Lord to attack an adjacent friendly figure. That's an interesting combination of theme and mechanic.

Glancing through your thread, I see you discarded tricky bits before nominating him to the SoV. That's a very important step and one that's difficult to take. Kudos for that.

Good luck with the custom. I think the objections were all reasonable and in my day I would have probably voted similarly to nyys, but you're close on this one.

[IshMEL]

Thanks Dad_Scaper! I did end up refining the card a lot -- had many ideas for making the powers "cooler" but took the advice to simplify, simplify, simplify. Still trying to figure out what to call that first power... it'll come to me eventually.

In the meantime, a revision of a current card, and a new custom!

Eyrian Scout v. 3

Same as before, just using the official language on trees and jungle:

Spoiler Alert!

Next up, Verdana, a human druid:

Card:

Spoiler Alert!

Stats:
Verdana
Ullar
Human
Unique hero
Druid
Devout
Life 3
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 1
Defense 2

60 Pts

Strength of the Earth
Verdana rolls 2 additional defense dice while on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space. Verdana rolls 2 fewer defense dice while on a road, wall walk, or dungeon space.

Arboreal Command Special Attack
Range 6, Attack Special
Roll 1 attack die if the targeted figure is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space. For each Evergreen Tree or Jungle Piece adjacent to that figure, roll 3 additional attack dice.

Ullar's Hope
If Verdana is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, any friendly figure within 4 clear sight spaces who follows Ullar and is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space adds 1 to its defense number.


Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

Among the druids, Verdana was deemed most learned. Not as devout, or as experienced in woodlore, or as powerful with enchantments as others on the Council. But none had Verdana's depth of knowledge. She had read every scroll in the Tree of Knowledge, had learned long-dead tongues, had traveled across the lands in search of books, stories, information only remembered in children's rhymes. For there was one name she sought. Not one of the Elders, or the Dryads, or the spirits which once breathed life through every blade of grass. No, it was a name out of time, a name from another world, a name that bound together all who fought for the Land and the Balance, on every World. She found clues, hints, descriptions of the creatures who fought in his name. Of Elves she knew, although they had long passed out of her world. But monstrous vipers, winged horses, lizards who walked, dragons and giants -- were these creatures of legend only? Or did they really band together on some other Plane, brought together under one name?

Of these stories there were many. But that name eluded her.

Until one vernal day, when a Beech told her of a scroll long forgotten, secreted in the Bog of Brevlos, an evil place where the Druids' woodlore held no power. Verdana went in to the cursed Bog, which few had done. She came out again alive, which none had done before or since.

(Later, when the Tale of Verdana was sung, no Teller could agree on that part of the story. Some sang that she had made a deal with the Creature that dwelt at its heart. Others, that she had bested it at The Oldest Game. Still others that she had never left, that it was the Creature itself who had emerged from the Bog, wearing her shape. Although they debated, no Teller ever ventured into Brevlos to find the truth.)

What is known is this. She returned to the Council with the ancient scroll, and those there with the Art saw a Shadow over her, and wondered what terrible price she had paid for knowledge. Verdana, triumphant, unrolled the scroll before the Council and read what was written there in a language no living tongue but hers could utter: "ULLAR."

And at that moment, she and the scroll were gone.

Some among the Druids said it was the price she had paid for forbidden knowledge. They whispered that Verdana was heard calling out in dreams, trapped in the Blasted Lands. Yet the wiser said that ULLAR had heard her call and taken her to him, never to walk our Earth again. Her knowledge passed out of the world, and the name was never spoken by any who had heard it.

How beautiful were the stars of Valhalla, thought the Druid, on opening her eyes in the new world. How familiar the grass under her feet!

Figure:
Pathfinder Human Druid, over 100 listed, as cheap as $0.79 on Auggie's.

Notes:
The attack and low defense seem appropriate for the fig -- she's just holding a scroll, after all. Her usefulness is obviously terrain and Ullar dependent, but on the right map she could work. I'm not sure if I've underpowered "Ullar's Hope" -- it's only 1 die and 4 space aura with terrain and general restrictions, compared with Raelin's 2 dice / 4 space defense aura, and she's only 20 points more. My original version had a larger aura (7 I think). Maybe I'll go back to that...

Any thoughts on costing or powers, appreciated as always!

[IshMEL]

I decided I liked her better with the larger aura. Here she is with the 6 aura:



And here's my powered-back-up Dr. Zed:



Will update the OP.