The Book of Kristoff von Doom

[Ronin]

The Book of Kristoff von Doom

C3G MARVEL WAVE 27
YOUNG MARVELS


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Secret Invasion set.
Its model number and name are #026 / Kristoff.

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Character Bio - Kristoff was orphaned as a young boy when his mother was killed by a power-hungry ruler who had managed to wrest control of Latveria from its usual dictator, Victor von Doom. Doctor Doom, upon disposing of the pretender to his throne, took in Kristoff as his own, and made the boy his heir. As he's grown older, Kristoff has periodically rebelled against his adoptive father, and spent time both with the Fantastic Four and at his father's right hand. He even inherited the mantle of Doctor Doom for a time, when Victor was believed dead.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Human, Kristoff von Doom has these Human Synergies.
• As an Adventurer, Kristoff has these Adventurer Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• Kristoff's Doom's Ward special power allows him to take a turn after Doctor Doom, and his Doom's Heir special power allows him to add to his Attack and become a Doctor Doom when Doctor Doom is no longer in your army. Current Doctor Dooms and Doctor Doom Synergies.
• Kristoff's Magical Aptitude special power allows him to cast spells, and gain these Magical Defense Synergies while casting a spell. Current Spells.

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a Human, Kristoff interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a figure that can gain Magical Defense Synergies, Kristoff may interact differently with these special powers.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Ronin
• Second playtest: Arkham
• Third playtest: L0B5T3R
• Fourth playtest: Lazy Orang
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Arkham
• Kristoff von Doom created by John Byrne
• Comic art by John Byrne

[Ronin]

NAME = KRISTOFF VON DOOM
SECRET IDENTITY = KRISTOFF VERNARD

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ADVENTURER
PERSONALITY = BRILLIANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 115

DOOM'S WARD
After revealing an Order Marker on the Army Card of a Unique Doctor Doom you control and taking a turn with Doctor Doom, you may take an immediate turn with Kristoff. You may not take any additional turns with any other figures you control.

DOOM'S HEIR
If there is a Doctor Doom in your army but you do not control a Doctor Doom on the battlefield, Kristoff adds 1 to his Attack number and whenever a special power on another Army Card you control refers to Doctor Doom, it refers to Kristoff as well.

MAGICAL APTITUDE
Kristoff may cast Spells as if he had the Magical Defense special power. Kristoff may not cast more than one Spell per round. While Kristoff is casting a Spell, whenever a special power on an Army Card or glyph refers to the Magical Defense special power, it refers to this special power as well.

[Ronin]

Comic:

Spoiler Alert!

Figure:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:
Probably anything that would work for Doom should be good here. Throne rooms and castles and so on.

[Ronin]

Kristoff is mostly pretty simple, so the big issue here is sorting out exactly how we want a non-MD spell-caster to work, in some of the nitty gritty implementation details.

I forgot to put it in this write-up, but T-Ray has a stab at language that has him counting as having MD (not giving him the power, but picking it up for keyword purposes) when casting SA spells. Doing something like that gives the caster some more natural interactions if they try to attack Hellboy or Captain Marvel (Billy) with a spell.

Worth noting that it would be easy to have Magical Aptitude count as Magical Defense for all keyword purposes always (using wording similar to Animated Vines' Jungle Plant language that lets them count as Jungle Pieces). My first instinct is not to go that route, partially because it loses us the ability to differentiate between MD figures and non-MD spell-casters in special powers and partially because it feels to me like it loses the theme of "this guy can do magic, but he's not always doing magic all the time for everything" that I'm going for here. I could probably be won over on that point, though, since there's probably not a "silver bullet" solution that results in 100% thematic interactions all the time.

The other thing I forgot to amend here is that Kristoff's mini is in Medium 5 territory, not 4, so I'll have to update that when the breathing period is up as well.

[Viegon]

I don't know the character but the design is cool.

For Magical Aptitude, having to keep track of how frequently he can casts spells seems a bit annoying; nothing too extreme, but still a bit tedious. Not sure what other kind of restriction to suggest though...

[Ronin]

We could streamline that restriction to just "can't cast a spell more often than once a round". I don't think the Common/Unique distinction is that key, and taking the multi-level system out keeps it pretty easy to track.

[Lazy Orang]

Honestly, I like the tiered restriction.

Love the design, btw - cool to see a low level magic user, and a sidekick for Doom should be a lot of fun!

[Ronin]

Fwiw, I think tracking it will be pretty easy to keep track of his spell usage when he's being run in an Adventurer build or with Doom I, where he's probably the only spell-caster you've got. In that situation, you're probably only drafting one Unique Spell anyway and you've really just got to track Common spells as a once per round thing.

Throw him in with Doom II or other magic users and I can see it getting a little annoying, though.

[Ronin]

If we wanted to get around tracking things, we could do something like this:

If there is at least one unrevealed Order Marker on this card, Kristoff may cast Spells as if he had the Magical Defense special power. After Kristoff casts a Spell, you must remove an unrevealed Order Marker from this card.

Neither Doom does anything with the "X" and Crystal's the only Adventurer I can think of who does, so he's not stepping on many toes with that take on the power.

[Lazy Orang]

Yeah, but... it might, and with a generic power, I don't think that just taking into account the builds Kristoff will be in is a good idea - it could work, but I think we should be aware that this power will probably get reused.
I honestly don't see the issue with tracking things - it won't be that hard to remember, tonnes of cards have Once Per Round and Once Per Game powers.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Yeah, but... it might, and with a generic power, I don't think that just taking into account the builds Kristoff will be in is a good idea - it could work, but I think we should be aware that this power will probably get reused.
I honestly don't see the issue with tracking things - it won't be that hard to remember, tonnes of cards have Once Per Round and Once Per Game powers.

The re-use point is fair. But honestly, I don't think it's going to be a super widely re-used one. Occasionally for sure, but I think the mid-level spell-casting power (for T-Ray and co.) is the one that's going to get more mileage.

Lots of cards have once per round/once per game powers, but they're typically for more memorable effects. You're going to remember when Thor lightnings the crap out of half the opposing army. You're not necessarily going to remember who cast some of the more subtle spell effects when you've got a few spell-casting figures on the field.

I do mostly agree with you on tracking, but I see V's point here, and I've been rethinking the Unique/Common distinction a bit. The Unique spells aren't necessarily better or anything, and I don't think the tiered mechanic adds much. I think dropping down to a "once a round" restriction is probably the way to go, one way or another.

[Tornado]

I do not see a problem with the original version.
After you use a Unique Spell, flip it over and slide it under Doom's card.
For Common, flip it when cast and keep it next to Doom's card until the end of the round.