Ketchupgeek's Customs

[Ketchupgeek]

Hello all, and thanks for stopping by!

This is where I'll post some hodge-podge ideas for customs based on D&D characters my friends and I have played. Most power choices seek to reflect the characters as best as possible. I tried mostly using existing powers because the wording is all ready to go as is.

If you recognize a mechanic and I haven't properly credited someone by all mean feel free to correct me. If by chance you don't want me using your mechanic, just let me know and I'll make swapping it out a priority.

Feedback is appreciated, as I'm new to the whole custom creation thing and my point evaluations might be massively off base. I don't have any figures specifically planned for any of these, so suggestions are welcome, as I would like to eventually get adequate figs for my friends to enjoy.

(Bear with me as I'm not sure how this formatting is going to look)

The Champions of Fallhaven:

Spoiler Alert!

Rhogar Frostborn

Paladin of Bahamut who hailed from a northern snowy land and was all about JUSTICE!

Oleander

A rad, leaping dragonborn samurai who used lightning based attacks.
Splinter as a placeholder fig until I can find a suitable lithe dragonborn.

Zorek

Bugbear barbarian with a penchant for smashing inanimate objects when angry.

Beinion Turin

Half-elf bard who made heavy use of vicious mockery and bardic inspiration when he wasn't being the comic relief character. (On account of several bad rolls he experienced some... interesting situations.)

Crag

Earth genasi warden who was all about locking people down and making them attack him.

Loch Valen Conscripts

Spoiler Alert!

Garkas Rockhart

Dwarf fighter who used two shields as weapons. When he wasn't getting drunk with his pet pig.
His shield spike power came from Pumpkin_King's Chirruk Ripscale.

Bevo

Goblin fighter NPC that always knew how to make an entrance by leap stabbing an enemy and hitting us with a thumbs up.

Aurelius

Stoic way of the shadow monk who was the sole survivor of an explosion in a villains lair.

Opirus

Dragonborn great weapon fighter with acid breath.

Rolandon

The comic relief character of our 5e campaign. Believed there was a conspiracy where everyone was secretly bees. Had his fair share of unfortunate situations, involving drug addiction among other things.

Vandaerys

Elf ranger equipped with a sentient longsword named Tyrana. (need a good mechanic for this still)
Was a snob for quality booze.

Cynelian Guildmates:

Spoiler Alert!

Aldys

Druid who rarely used his wildshapes in combat, but rather for utility. Shilelagh was his go-to.

Uncle Tungsten

Dwarf stone sorcerer with a trigger finger for flinging fireballs.

B.O.O.M.

Warforged Fighter who improperly used swears when he wasn't tanking blows for the party.

Swish

Kenku rogue who met his unfortunate demise at the hands of an ettin, hence the fragility in melee range.

Grojoxxa

Lizardfolk war cleric who kept asking the party if "they were gonna eat that" in regards to dead foes.

Alton O'Vara

Halfling rogue who on more than one occasion hid under a dead body to get the jump on an enemy.

Scoundrels of the Realm:

Spoiler Alert!

Grimm Thunderfist

Orc barbarian who wants to overthrow the current leader of his clan and take the seat of power for himself.

[TREX]

Fun ideas for customs here. Using your characters from dnd campaigns is a creative way to come up with characters.

[Knight of Scape]

I only looked through the Heroes of Fallhaven, but here are some thoughts:

Rhogar Frostborn: He's a bit boringly similar to Rhogar Dragonspine (exact same stats and one of the same specials). I'm not sure if Dragonspine's special attack is actually worth 20 points, but I could believe it. I think that giving him some kind of snow themed power to make him more distinct from Dragonspine would be good. I recommend giving him something more than just regular movement on snow (heavy snow/ice aren't that commonly used). I think that Snow Strength (from Nerak) or maybe Cold Healing (from Greater Ice Elemental) could work well.

Oleander: Leaping Limbs is almost never going to do anything. With 6 move and 5 height, the only way he could use it moving upwards would be if he started adjacent to a space exactly five levels higher than him that he wanted to climb onto. As for going down, it basically lets him ignore falling damage, but there aren't a lot of boards with drops of more than 5 levels, and when a board does have a big drop like that, you usually don't want to jump off it, even if you're not taking damage, unless you have a way to get back up.

If you want him to have a leaping power, I might take Stealth Leap (from the Shaolin monks). You'd probably have to remove engagement strike to fit it on the card, but engagement strike doesn't really do all that much for a range 1 figure anyway (there's not too much reason to move next to Oleander when he has to move next to you to attack you).

Also, 85 seems a bit high. I think I'd usually prefer Arkmer over Oleander (the 1 extra attack and the 5 range outweigh Oleander's extra move and his special attack), and Arkmer only costs 50.

Zorek: This guy seems like he would be interesting to play. A single attack of 4 is weak enough that your opponent might just want to ignore him so he doesn't get any benefit from his rage, but with Reach he'll often have an easy time grabbing height and being annoying. With 2 defense, it's possible to try to take him out all in one turn at the start of a round, but if you fail, you're looking at a nasty counterattack. I like him.

Baenion: He'll be really strong in very large point value games (particularly since you can combine him with Raelin). In a standard 500 point game, it'll be harder to get good value out of his aura, and the 2 defense means that he'll die really easily to ranged attackers. Personally, I'm not a fan of adding more unconditional aura effects to the game, because they're really hard to balance, but if you're going to do it, putting them on an expensive and frail figure like Baenion is the way to go.

Crag: Seems fun and probably reasonably-costed. Trying to maneuver him so that you can run in and engage a bunch of figures to Earthen Spikes should be interesting. The weak attack and the fact that he can hit people with Earthen Spikes without using an OM means that your opponent isn't going to want to attack him, and may actually have to consider whether it's worth disengaging to avoid combat challenge, so I think the powers work together to good effect here.

[Ketchupgeek]

Originally Posted by Knight of Scape

I only looked through the Heroes of Fallhaven, but here are some thoughts:

Rhogar Frostborn: He's a bit boringly similar to Rhogar Dragonspine (exact same stats and one of the same specials). I'm not sure if Dragonspine's special attack is actually worth 20 points, but I could believe it. I think that giving him some kind of snow themed power to make him more distinct from Dragonspine would be good. I recommend giving him something more than just regular movement on snow (heavy snow/ice aren't that commonly used). I think that Snow Strength (from Nerak) or maybe Cold Healing (from Greater Ice Elemental) could work well.

Oleander: Leaping Limbs is almost never going to do anything. With 6 move and 5 height, the only way he could use it moving upwards would be if he started adjacent to a space exactly five levels higher than him that he wanted to climb onto. As for going down, it basically lets him ignore falling damage, but there aren't a lot of boards with drops of more than 5 levels, and when a board does have a big drop like that, you usually don't want to jump off it, even if you're not taking damage, unless you have a way to get back up.

If you want him to have a leaping power, I might take Stealth Leap (from the Shaolin monks). You'd probably have to remove engagement strike to fit it on the card, but engagement strike doesn't really do all that much for a range 1 figure anyway (there's not too much reason to move next to Oleander when he has to move next to you to attack you).

Also, 85 seems a bit high. I think I'd usually prefer Arkmer over Oleander (the 1 extra attack and the 5 range outweigh Oleander's extra move and his special attack), and Arkmer only costs 50.

Zorek: This guy seems like he would be interesting to play. A single attack of 4 is weak enough that your opponent might just want to ignore him so he doesn't get any benefit from his rage, but with Reach he'll often have an easy time grabbing height and being annoying. With 2 defense, it's possible to try to take him out all in one turn at the start of a round, but if you fail, you're looking at a nasty counterattack. I like him.

Baenion: He'll be really strong in very large point value games (particularly since you can combine him with Raelin). In a standard 500 point game, it'll be harder to get good value out of his aura, and the 2 defense means that he'll die really easily to ranged attackers. Personally, I'm not a fan of adding more unconditional aura effects to the game, because they're really hard to balance, but if you're going to do it, putting them on an expensive and frail figure like Baenion is the way to go.

Crag: Seems fun and probably reasonably-costed. Trying to maneuver him so that you can run in and engage a bunch of figures to Earthen Spikes should be interesting. The weak attack and the fact that he can hit people with Earthen Spikes without using an OM means that your opponent isn't going to want to attack him, and may actually have to consider whether it's worth disengaging to avoid combat challenge, so I think the powers work together to good effect here.

Thanks for the feedback!

I see what you mean about Rhogar, it was just my luck that my dnd pally got his name from a 4e character creator for a dragonborn, and scape rhogar is also a paladin. I could consider some other type of healing power, and I think I'm going to lean into the ice/snow synergy.

Oleander I'll probably swap that leap in and drop engagement strike for counterstrike to keep on theme with other samurai, re-balance stats and points from there I guess.

Baenion was one that I wanted to make sure he was expensive and frail as you noted. That way if he wouldn't be Raelin+ level of strong.

[Ketchupgeek]

Slowly updating some card images with figure pictures