[Pod 0] Honored Soul-Guides - Editing

[Pumpkin_King]

Would it be better to use the stats of the destroyed figure?

[All Your Pie]

I don’t know if that fits thematically. They’re ghosts, not shapeshifters.

[Pumpkin_King]

Yeah, you're right.

As much as I like the idea of using abilities from another card, on a squad (even a squad of 2) it's problematic. Maybe save that for the angel statue?

[NecroBlade]

That was just an off-the-cuff idea. I was going to suggest "X clear sight spaces" as well as a way to keep them from sitting around collecting souls. I don't like boosting stats as much as reusing powers. So on the other hand, here's another way to limit them:

FULFILLED DUTY
Once per game, before taking a turn with Honored Soulguides, choose a previously destroyed Unique Hero* in your army. Honored Soulguides can use all special powers on that Army Card this turn. After this turn, destroy Honored Soulguides.

So if you want to double Queglix Gun something, you can only do it once (even the proposed Glyph of Recall couldn't cheat at it).

*I see no problem including Squads, except having to make the wording clear if we want the whole Squad to be destroyed first.

[Pumpkin_King]

I'm not so much concerned with a power level (we can put in limiters - I'd be fine with a once-per-game thing like that) as I am with mechanical weirdness and edge cases.

I'd have to go through a list of heroes, but I'm certain there's a power that would just break the game when used in this way.

[All Your Pie]

I'm with PK here for the most part. Getting special powers to actually function correctly on other cards raises too many edge-case questions to just casually throw it on a design. That mechanical weirdness is greatly complicated by allowing a 2-person squad to use abilities from unique heroes. Would the Soulguides get two attempts to use powers like Mindshackle or Dragon Swoop? So many powers would have to have their wording custom edited to fit a two-figure card in order for it to work. That would mean the power text here would have to include multiple instances of conditions that find and replace text within the abilities being used by the Soulguides, and even then it's doubtful we'd get everything. That's simply too much of a hassle.

On top of that, a power like that would have to be costed for its best case scenarios--copying the powers off of a Hydra, Q9, Nilfheim, Braxas, ect. As such, it would price the Soulguides out of usefulness in other builds, making them extremely niche and rendering a power that on the surface has a ton of possibilities actually very linear.

All that to say, if we want to do a design that copies special powers in should be a Unique Hero that copies Unique Heroes, and it should be the only thing going on with the card. Any other arrangement is treading on the level of needless complexity.

[All Your Pie]

That said, here's an idea that might capture the theme you want more simply:

Last Will
After revealing an Order Marker on the Honored Soulguides and instead of taking a turn with them, you may choose a previously destroyed Unique Hero in your army. Place that figure on any space adjacent to an Honored Soulguide and immediately take a turn with them. After that turn, destroy the chosen hero and one of your Honored Soulguides.

I personally don't know that I like it better than a simpler, cleaner direction, but if we want something a little more unique I think this works better than power copying.

[NecroBlade]

You're right, something somewhere would break. I just wanted to bounce it around to see where it went. I think your "Revenant's Tome" solution is excellent! Limited to two uses and lets you re-use the Hero in a way that's on-theme. I love it!

[flameslayer93]

I’d be game for Revenant’s Tombing Heroes.

[Pumpkin_King]

I like that a lot actually.

[Astroking112]

Like others have said, putting Special Powers on other Army Cards opens too many rules issues and should be avoided. Turning this into a "Revenant's Tome" power is much more preferable, and I really like the way that this plays on the theme of a guide leading one of your figures on, especially if both are destroyed afterwards. The idea of reviving Q9 or Nilfheim for a turn is slightly worrisome, but destroying one of two guides to accomplish that is a heavy cost, especially as a unique squad with one life each.

For the rest of the design, I think that 5/1/2/4 with Stealth Flying ties it off nicely. They may be a little too easily destroyed with 4 defense if they're required to be kept near the destroyed hero that they guide, but given the potential of the power, I think that it's fine.

Are we fine with the name Honored Soulguides? I'd personally prefer to take on a more mythological name inspired by Norse beliefs, but I can live with the current name.

[NecroBlade]

I don't think they necessarily have to stay near heroes for this version, though any version where they don't just makes them an endgame unit (but a fun one at that).

I was never tied to Honored Soulguides. I see the Jandar angle in that name, but am open to suggestions (including Norse-based ones).