[Pod 1] Velkhor (Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite) - Playtesting

[The Long eared bat]

I like Misfortune Aura and Soul Decay Spirit.

[lefton4ya]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

Alrighty, now we can get into ironing out this guy's powers. I think the aura+spirit idea has remained a favorite throughout discussion, so for now let's stick to that. I personally prefer a negative aura that hinders allies rather than helping enemies, and I think that squares well with our choice of species--I don't see a demon helping his allies, and an aura that has to include enemy figures means that simply summoning him and leaving him in one spot with the Acolytes won't be all that effective.

Here's the combination of powers that I like best:

Misfortune Aura
After an opponent rolls defense dice for a figure within 4 clear sight spaces of (figure name), you may have that player re-roll all dice once. You may only use Misfortune Aura once per turn.

(I still think this aura fits a tormenting demon lord who deals in curses and spite. Adding a once per turn restriction at the end limits the amount of time and re-rolling it will add to the game.)

Demon's Frailty Curse 2
When (figure name) is destroyed, place this figure on any Unique Army Card. (Figure name)'s curse subtracts 2 from the defense value on that army card.

(This seems like the simplest direction to go with the spirit and I like it the most. Variants of Soul Decay Aura or spirit are intriguing but I think pushing on complexity and could be irritating to keep track of. -2 defense permanently on any unique card is quite powerful, but it won't justify this figure's price on its own.)

I'd personally push for some variant of these to be on the final card. I haven't, however, kept good track of everyone's preferences throughout discussion, so I'm curious where the rest of the Pod is at here.

Simpler is better IMHO - these are great!. Plus the combination of two powers it more thematic. I like the reroll defense - it is a unique twist to already established powers by Emperor Andask's Orb of Vengeance Aura.

Not sure if Frailty Curse 2 is too powerful and reducing to 1 is better, but makes interesting choice on whether to kill or not.

[All Your Pie]

After a little bit, here’s my thoughts

Misfortune Aura seems to be mostly agreed upon, although I do want to discuss some tweaks to the concept. I’m worried that as-is, it would be too weak. Compared to Orb of Vengeance from Andask, this figure has to do the legwork to get an enemy in his aura. When he does, he gets to re-roll enemy defense once, possibly turning s block into a hit. That’s decent, but it doesn’t seem as swingy or dangerous as re-rolling an attack.

Is there a way for the power to lose the once per turn restriction without causing game slowdown or decision paralysis? I was thinking something like making it mandatory—“after an opponent’s figure rolls defense dice, if they rolled enough shields to block all damage, they must re-roll all dice once” or something. Maybe I’m just off base about power level though.

For Soul Decay Spirit, I’d prefer a version that works on any army card. As follows:

When (unit name) is destroyed, place this figure on any opponent’s army card. Before a player takes a turn with that army card, they must immediately roll the 20-sided die. If they roll an X or lower, they must choose a figure from that card to receive a wound.

This would make the unit dangerous to kill even if there aren’t any unique heroes in your army. I still prefer the simpler Frailty Curse, though—cleaner to read and to keep track of throughout the game.

[Fakeraistlin]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

After a little bit, here’s my thoughts

Misfortune Aura seems to be mostly agreed upon, although I do want to discuss some tweaks to the concept. I’m worried that as-is, it would be too weak. Compared to Orb of Vengeance from Andask, this figure has to do the legwork to get an enemy in his aura. When he does, he gets to re-roll enemy defense once, possibly turning s block into a hit. That’s decent, but it doesn’t seem as swingy or dangerous as re-rolling an attack.

Is there a way for the power to lose the once per turn restriction without causing game slowdown or decision paralysis? I was thinking something like making it mandatory—“after an opponent’s figure rolls defense dice, if they rolled enough shields to block all damage, they must re-roll all dice once” or something. Maybe I’m just off base about power level though.

For Soul Decay Spirit, I’d prefer a version that works on any army card. As follows:

When (unit name) is destroyed, place this figure on any opponent’s army card. Before a player takes a turn with that army card, they must immediately roll the 20-sided die. If they roll an X or lower, they must choose a figure from that card to receive a wound.

T

Soul Decay...I like any army card, and excuse my ignorance of rules but if there is multiple squads of same army would they all be affected... that would be cool ... that would mean only heroes would attempt kill other wise multiple squads of x would be slowly decaying.

Also about getting enemy in aura, maybe give him
range of 3.

Still not sold on re-roll mechanic

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

When (unit name) is destroyed, place this figure on any opponent’s army card. Before a player takes a turn with that army card, they must immediately roll the 20-sided die. If they roll an X or lower, they must choose a figure from that card to receive a wound.

That's messy with the official rules for commons, where you have one card for each copy.. You could put this guy on one card and take a turn with a different card.

[Scytale]

The more I think about it, the more I'm against an auto-wound Soul Decay power. The opponent has absolutely no mitigation; ignoring a demon attacking them is not an option. Once the figure is placed, it's a countdown timer you have zero control over. Either you let the unit sit and get beaten to death, or you die by activating it. It's also abnormally brutal to low-Life heroes like Deathwalkers and (if we go that route) squads with few figures but high cost like Sentinels of Jandar.

[Pumpkin_King]

Chen Tang (jandar monk) does a similar thing.

Though I actually might bring up focusing on one power, the Misfortune aura. Maybe we can choose another figure to have a Spirit power. Maybe the healer lady.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Chen Tang (jandar monk) does a similar thing.

Chen has to move in and strike his target. This guy simply has to die, and never has to get near his target.

[Fakeraistlin]

Originally Posted by Scytale

The more I think about it, the more I'm against an auto-wound Soul Decay power. The opponent has absolutely no mitigation; ignoring a demon attacking them is not an option. Once the figure is placed, it's a countdown timer you have zero control over. Either you let the unit sit and get beaten to death, or you die by activating it. It's also abnormally brutal to low-Life heroes like Deathwalkers and (if we go that route) squads with few figures but high cost like Sentinels of Jandar.

Maybe limit curse only to destroying figure with only
50 or x percent of transferal?

[Pumpkin_King]

I should have made it clear earlier - I am also against an auto wound, I was just pointing out Chen, which you make a good point.

[All Your Pie]

It looks like we're fairly split about the Spirit power between Frailty and Soul Decay.

I think Scytale's point is very compelling--as written, it just isn't possible for an opponent to play around Soul Decay. I think there are ways we could address that, but none of them are particularly clean or easy. Implementing them would require a further layer of complexity on a power that is already the more complex of the two options. Even if we weren't trying to limit that complexity here, by that point it starts to read like a power that belongs on a separate card rather than sharing space with a somewhat novel aura.

I really think Frailty curse covers our intent here. It's simple, snappy, and easy to read, but still powerful enough to perhaps cause some hesitation from an opponent aiming to kill this guy. I expect that it would also lead to a better play experience, as I could imagine constructing a somewhat irritating army that relies on turtling and waiting out the clock on Soul Decay Spirit if we went that route.

[lefton4ya]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

Alrighty, now we can get into ironing out this guy's powers. I think the aura+spirit idea has remained a favorite throughout discussion, so for now let's stick to that. I personally prefer a negative aura that hinders allies enemies rather than helping enemies allies, and I think that squares well with our choice of species--I don't see a demon helping his allies, and an aura that has to include enemy figures means that simply summoning him and leaving him in one spot with the Acolytes won't be all that effective.

Here's the combination of powers that I like best:

Misfortune Aura
After an opponent rolls defense dice for a figure within 4 clear sight spaces of (figure name), you may have that player re-roll all dice once. You may only use Misfortune Aura once per turn.

(I still think this aura fits a tormenting demon lord who deals in curses and spite. Adding a once per turn restriction at the end limits the amount of time and re-rolling it will add to the game.)

Demon's Frailty Curse 2
When (figure name) is destroyed, place this figure on any Unique Army Card. (Figure name)'s curse subtracts 2 from the defense value on that army card.

(This seems like the simplest direction to go with the spirit and I like it the most. Variants of Soul Decay Aura or spirit are intriguing but I think pushing on complexity and could be irritating to keep track of. -2 defense permanently on any unique card is quite powerful, but it won't justify this figure's price on its own.)

I'd personally push for some variant of these to be on the final card. I haven't, however, kept good track of everyone's preferences throughout discussion, so I'm curious where the rest of the Pod is at here.

I agree with everything here, but especially bold underlined (including clean up ). Simple powers, but engaging choices: "When attacking with a Squad or multiple attacker, do I want to use Misfortune Aura on 1st attack or will they get luckier on second attack?" & " When I have a medium defense unique hero/squad, do I want to kill him first or let him live?" I think other suggestions are both more complex and less engaging in choices. Unless someone else as a simpler and more engaging choice, I'd like to go with @All Your Pie 's suggestion, but I do respect others if you disagree and think a more complex power is worth it and can make a case why.