The Book of Medusa

[Viegon]

The Book of Medusa

C3G MARVEL WAVE 28
MARVEL COSMIC


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Guardians of the Galaxy set.
Its model number and name are #039 / Medusa.

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Guardians of the Galaxy: The Inhumans Fast Forces set.
Its model number and name are #002 / Medusa.

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Character Bio - Like most Inhumans, Medusalith Amaquelin was exposed to the Terrigen Mists at a young age, giving her a head of long, thick red hair, each strand of which more durable than steel wire and incredibly strong. She became very close to her cousin, Blackagar Boltagon, whose devastating voice prevented him from being able to talk. Over years the two formed a close rapport, with Medusa often communicating to others for Black Bolt, and eventually their relationship became romantic. As Black Bolt ascended to king by blood right, Medusa became his queen. Later, Medusa's ship was shot down during a battle, the impact causing her to lose her memory. Found and manipulated by the super villain the Wizard, Medusa joined the villainous team the Frightful Four and battled the Fantastic Four. After a few battles against the heroes, Medusa's Inhuman family found her and brought her back to the city Atillan, where her memory eventually returned. Despite her first interaction with the Fantastic Four, Medusa later filled in on the team when Susan Richards left, and even after Susan’s return, Medusa remained a close ally to the Fantastic Four, often splitting her time between her duties as queen and helping them.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Marvel figure, Medusa has these Marvel Synergies.
• As a figure with a secret identity, Medusa has these Secret Identity Synergies.
• Black Bolt may choose an additional figure to take a turn with his King of the Inhumans special power, when he begins his turn adjacent to Medusa.
• As an Inhuman, Medusa has these Inhuman Synergies.
• As an Adventurer, Medusa has these Adventurer Synergies.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Medusa has these Super Strength Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a figure with a secret identity, Medusa interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Medusa interacts differently with these special powers.
• Tiny and huge figures are not affected by Medusa's Hair Assault 12 or Entangling Hair 12 special powers.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Viegon
• Second playtest: Ronin
• Third playtest: Lazy Orang
• Fourth playtest: Ronin
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by japes
• Medusa created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
• Comic art by Jim Cheung

[Viegon]

NAME = MEDUSA
SECRET IDENTITY = MEDUSALITH AMAQUELIN-BOLTAGON

SPECIES = INHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ADVENTURER
PERSONALITY = DEVOTED

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 2
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 370

PREHENSILE HAIR
When moving up levels of height to move onto a space with Medusa, do not count spaces for the first two levels and only count one space for each two levels after the first two. You may ignore Medusa's height of 5 when climbing. Medusa does not have to stop her movement when entering water spaces and may move over obstacles with a height of 8 or less.

HAIR ASSAULT 12
Instead of attacking with Medusa, you may choose a small, medium, or large figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Medusa and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher, you may either inflict 1 unblockable wound on the chosen figure, or you may place the chosen figure on any empty space within 3 spaces of its original placement. Figures moved by this special power never take leaving engagement attacks. After using Hair Assault, Medusa may use it 2 additional times.

ENTANGLING HAIR 12
Immediately after any opponent's numbered Order Marker is revealed, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher, all opponent's small, medium, and large figures within 2 clear sight spaces of Medusa cannot move for the duration of the turn.

SUPER STRENGTH

ORIGINAL DESIGN:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = MEDUSA
SECRET IDENTITY = MEDUSALITH AMAQUELIN-BOLTAGON

SPECIES = INHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ADVENTURER
PERSONALITY = DEVOTED

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 2
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = ??

PREHENSILE HAIR
When moving up levels of height to move onto a space with Medusa, do not count spaces for the first two levels and only count one space for each two levels after the first two. You may ignore Medusa's height of 5 when climbing. Medusa may move over water without stopping, move over tiny and small figures without becoming engaged, and move over obstacles with a height of 8 or less.

HAIR ASSAULT 13
Instead of attacking with Medusa, you may choose a small, medium, or large figure within 2 clear sight spaces of Medusa and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher, you may either inflict 1 unblockable wound on the chosen figure, or you may place the chosen figure on any empty space within 3 spaces of its original placement. Figures moved by this special power never take leaving engagement attacks. After using Hair Assault, Medusa may use it 2 additional times.

ENTANGLING HAIR 13
Immediately after any opponent's numbered Order Marker is revealed, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher, all opponent's small, medium, and large figures within 2 clear sight spaces of Medusa cannot move for the duration of the turn.

SUPER STRENGTH

[Viegon]

So, Medusa has a lot going on. For one, her powers can be represented in a variety of ways, and beyond that, she’s filled a few different roles over the years. Iconically, she’s the wife of Black Bolt leading the Inhumans at his side, and a repeat fill-in member of the Fan4. But in more recent years, she’s taken over leadership of the Inhumans without Black Bolt.

I don’t feel like we can accurately capture all of that in one, so my approach was to do the above design (which fit for the Fan4 ally version), and later give Black Bolt a powerset that pulled her into the leadership role. Does that seem like a good approach to everyone?

I like where her current powerset is at, but I’m open to changes. I’m also looking for personality suggestions if anybody has any.

OTHER COMIC ART:

Spoiler Alert!

MINI BACKGROUND:

Spoiler Alert!

An ancient city look to represent Atillan I guess?

MINI PICS:

Spoiler Alert!

TBA

[johnny139]

As discussed, still in favor. She's gonna be VERY strong, I think, with all of those figure movement shenanigans and auto-wounds, but we have a lot of numbers to tweak up and down, so we'll see how she tests.

I like her as Devoted, that's what first came to mind for me.

[japes]

She was also a member of the Frightful Four as well with Wizard, the Sandman, and Trapster so this version works there as well. It's a small movement but she can help move some of her figures around.

Very excited to see her begin. She is on a list of figures I have no card for. I think it might actually be the mini in the OP.

[Viegon]

Originally Posted by johnny139

As discussed, still in favor. She's gonna be VERY strong, I think, with all of those figure movement shenanigans and auto-wounds, but we have a lot of numbers to tweak up and down, so we'll see how she tests.

Yeah, she's got some very competitive play type powers and solid stats to back that up, but I'm comfortable with her coming in anywhere in the 300-360 range for points. Any higher than that and we'll need to tweak her downwards.

Originally Posted by johnny139

I like her as Devoted, that's what first came to mind for me.

Cool, that was my first pick as well.

Originally Posted by japes

Very excited to see her begin. She is on a list of figures I have no card for. I think it might actually be the mini in the OP.

Yeah, she's one of those bigger name characters I'm surprised we never got around to yet. I believe I have the mini too, part of the reason I picked that one (also because it's the cheapest and most available).

[japes]

Originally Posted by Viegon

Yeah, she's one of those bigger name characters I'm surprised we never got around to yet. I believe I have the mini too, part of the reason I picked that one (also because it's the cheapest and most available).

If it's the cheapest most available then odds are it is the one I have as well. If that's the case we should be set for photos...

[Yodaking]

Using Hair Assault 3 times per OM seems like way too much. A 40% chance to deal an auto wound on any figure at all, rolled 3 times per OM, 9 times per round, 12-18? times per game (at 6 def. & 6 life she will survive for a while, especially if melee figures can't move adj. to her). Dealing 1W to an enraged Hulk/a fully adaptive Doomsday/Superman/Flash/Blob/Spider-Man/She-Hulk/Fan4 backed up by Sue/etc. is certainly more devastating than dealing 1W to a run of the mill 5-6 def. figure. Then the figure movement would only be used if it was perceived to be a better value than the auto-W inflicted option, moving a figure down to low ground to set up an ally for a big att. or moving an engaged figure away from the unit they are attacking in order to save a figure's life (often her own). Combined with her 2 space Blob effect and you really get a potentially game changing power set as the moved figure gets stuck there and can't move to a new location. Melee figures can be completely negated, unable to move or attack and completely wasting an OM 40% of the time while she continues to deal up to 3 auto wounds per OM to them.

[Viegon]

Magneto (II) can deal an auto-wound and toss a figure at a 60% chance, and he can use it twice per turn (and its really easy to boost that roll). Considering that her cost shouldn't come in too much lower than his, that seems like a pretty fair comparison.

Entangling Hair is scary when combined with Hair Assault, but she's really not that much different than Graviton who can do the same kind of thing, but with Gravitational Grasp being much stronger and Graviton having higher survivability.

As I said, if she's coming in too strong, we'll just tweak her down (either bumping up the D20 roll or lowering her stats).

[dok]

She definitely seems quite strong, but the 13+ for both the cyberclaw and the autowound/attack powers should limit her somewhat. Her strongest move will be taking a big bruiser and then tossing him 2 spaces away, so she can poke at him for autowounds and then kill his ability to fight back 35% of the time.

I'm surprised to see her being targeted at such a high point total (and relatedly, the 6 life/6 defense), but I guess my experience with her is from some comics from a long long time ago where she wasn't represented as quite that powerful.

Mostly I'm just excited to see the Inhumans getting brought in, though.

[Viegon]

Yeah, I think Medusa has been progressively shown more powerful over the years. That's not to say that we necessarily need to aim for a more powerful version of the character its just the version of the character I'm most familiar with.

If people would prefer it, I'd be fine going into testing with the rolls bumped up to 14 or 15+.

[TrollBrute]

I like it overall. I think if she comes in too strong, my preferred first fix would be cutting Hair Assault down to twice-per-turn, followed by stat lowering. I don't think Entangling Hair needs to go higher on the roll, and I like having the two powers at the same roll.