The Book of Mantis

[Spidey'tilIDie]

To cut this off in the future, may I suggest we all start a final brainstorm phase in our own Workshop threads? Basically, if we know we want to run something next, re-post it and ask for any more thoughts because “I want to make this my next design.”

~Spidey, who actually thinks you may have done this, but is trying to help.

[Lazy Orang]

I've been doing that and I think it's a good idea.

[Margloth]

Would Cosmic Grounding prevent figures like Creeper from defecting? As I read it it would. I’m not against the power working that way (a lot of these kind of figures aren’t drafted a lot because of this, and she could be a nice compliment to them), but you may want to compile a list of “turncoat” figures and see if there are any scary ones.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Margloth

Would Cosmic Grounding prevent figures like Creeper from defecting? As I read it it would. I’m not against the power working that way (a lot of these kind of figures aren’t drafted a lot because of this, and she could be a nice compliment to them), but you may want to compile a list of “turncoat” figures and see if there are any scary ones.

Genis-Vell comes to mind.

[Margloth]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Which is already being represented by her ability to completely shut down an attackers turn. I'm Wolverine with 3W and in a rage with 4 attacks coming but instead I take 1W and don't get to make any of those 4 attacks because she can see my moves coming before I make them and is a gifted melee fighter who can strike my nervous system in a way that temporarily disables me. Now she gets to attack and disables me some more. The card is double dipping on her ass kicking powers, and while she may be able to kick some ass that is not what she is known for. I would have a hard time with anyone at all having that combo of powers due to 'fun and balanced game play' concerns. Pick one disabling power or the other, but both is overkill.

Nerve Punch fits my (limited) knowledge of the character.

PreCog Strike’s d20 is easily tweaked if it comes in too strong. I would say it could probably be more like 14-15 or so (is she faster/more responsive than Mystique, for example?). Plus in a GotG build she’ll generally have 6 defense dice to fall back on to.

[Lazy Orang]

Yeah, Precog Strike is a power from a 300 Point character that I have often found to be incredibly powerful and frustrating (seriously between that and Godkiller, Gorgon's awesome). It could be a little strong here.

[johnny139]

Nerve Strike feels, to me, like a great power for her old school 70s version and a solid power here. Since I doubt we'll ever get to a unique "70s Vietnamese Avenger" version of the character, since no one really cares about her... it fits.

For Cosmic Grounding, my only real niggle is with the class change - in the comics, she doesn't "recruit" anyone. She's not really a manipulator in that way. She just sort of... nudges people. If they feel like "man, this sucks, I want to leave," the makes them feel "man, this sucks, but I can deal with it." She's not running recruitment drives, she's not changing how people act or think, she's just pulling some strings. If we can come up with a class that feels appropriate I'm not against the idea, but I'm struggling to. She'd be changing Personality before she changes Class.

[Arkham]

Calling off the vote to get this sorted.

Spent some time reading and researching through the history of the character. I don’t think the empathy aspects are as defining of a character trait as I originally thought. I’m also thinking her entire Cosmic Grounding power can be scrapped for something else for this reason. As Johnny said, she really does just psychically manipulate/nudge people to work together. That being said, we can take a more proactive approach to Order Marker flex instead of reactive shielding.

As for her Precognition, she doesn’t seem to want it to affect the outcome of anything. She’s even willing to accept her own fate of death without feeling the need to alter things she sees in her visions. So dropping Precognitive strike makes more sense than dropping Nerve Punch. Nerve Punch absolutely fits the character.

Instead, I see Astral Projection is a pretty prominent power that sees a lot of use from her in her history, so a take on that would be fitting. Otherwise, an ability that lets her rebirth herself from a plant after being killed would also be kind of neat and fitting.

All this in mind, I’m thinking I’d like to change things to this:

NAME = MANTIS

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = EMPATH
PERSONALITY = ????

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = ~200

EMPATHETIC LINK
At the beginning of your turn, if there is at least one Order Marker on this card, you may move an unrevealed Order Marker on any card in your army to any other card in your army that does not have the same Species, Class, or Personality. An opponent may never remove or rearrange Order Markers on cards you control.

NERVE PUNCH
When attacking an opponent's adjacent figure with a normal attack, add one automatic skull to whatever is rolled. If Mantis inflicts one or more wounds on an adjacent Unique Hero with a normal attack, you may immediately remove one unrevealed Order Marker at random from the defending figure's Army Card.

ASTRAL PROJECTION 6
Once per round, instead of her normal move, Mantis may use Astral Projection. For the remainder of Mantis’ turn, opponent’s figures may not use any special power on their Army Cards. Astral Projection has a move of 6. When Mantis moves with Astral Projection, she gains the Flying special power, can move through all figures and obstacles such as ruins, and never takes leaving engagement attacks. After moving and attacking, place Mantis on the space she previously occupied before using Astral Projection.

Cosmic Link is a natural fit for the Guardians. Allows some good Order Marker protection and flex akin to Sage, but limited to 1 OM move at a time, as well as the move must go to a card with a different species, class, and personality. This will be in-line with Star-Lord armies, while avoiding her becoming a center piece to pre-established species/class/personality based synergies. This represents not only her telepathy and empathy, but also her psychic nudging of people to work with those they may not want to, by having the OM go to someone with a different species/class/personality than them.

Astral Projection is a nice movement ability that gives her some decent capabilities. It’s kept at once per round to keep it in check. Granting flight, moving through obstacles(looking at you cityscape), immunity to all opponent’s specials(no blob holding her Projection down), and no leaving engagements. It also allows her to essentially go and attack a figure elsewhere, if she’s surrounded by figures. Of course, after it all, she is placed back where she started. She could even go retrieve a glyph.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I was going to suggest a Celestial Madonna themed power (it's her nickname in most of the 80s), but you 'd me with a really great design!

[johnny139]

I like that Cosmic Link (though something like Empathetic Link as a name feels appropriate if we wanted to keep that theme), but I hate to say I don't really remember her ever astrally projecting, either. Again, I've only seen her in a Cosmic context, so I could be wrong. Her precognitive abilities (even if she doesn't use them actively) amd empathetic stuff are the big tickets.

[Lazy Orang]

I really like that Cosmic Link power, though I'd suggest changing it to Empathetic Link like Ronin said. Don't know anything about her astrally projecting. If she has Precognition but no real drive to change what she sees in her visions, you could give her something like Limited Precognition off Gypsy. You could argue that if she doesn't care about changing the future she shouldn't have the ability to let you see what it is so that you can, but then I'd argue that that ship sailed with Doctor Manhattan.

[Arkham]

Name change is fine.

I'll cook up something Precog related instead of Precog Strike.