The Book of Sersi

[johnny139]

The Book of Sersi

C3G MARVEL WAVE 23
AROUND THE WORLD



Comic PDF



Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is HeroClix figures from the Critical Mass set.
Its model number and name is #089 / Sersi.

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Character Bio - Many millennia ago, before the dawn of man, it was the Celestials who arrived to direct our evolution. Though they granted sapience to all, there were a select few who were given powers far greater - the Eternals!

Among the Eternals was Sersi. Though a young girl, she was gifted with telepathic and telekinetic powers, alongside the incredibly ability to transmute matter, changing any man or beast into any shape. Always drawn to the human world, she became known to the Greeks as the sorceress Circe, and was written into legend for tempting Odysseus during his voyage, using her transmogrification skills to turn his men into pigs. In the modern age, she has served as an ally to the Avengers - but still, she remains tied to Olympia, the ancient home of her people, situated in far Antarctica.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Protector, Sersi has these Protector Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: johnny139
• Second playtest: TrollBrute
• Third playtest: Viegon
• Fourth playtest: TrollBrute
• Fifth playtest: Ronin
• Sixth playtest: TrollBrute
• Seventh playtest: Karat
• Eighth playtest: Asterius
• Art: Comic Art/Mini Art/Background
• Art by A3n

[johnny139]

NAME = SERSI


SPECIES = ETERNAL
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = PROTECTOR
PERSONALITY = INTUITIVE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 4
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 450

MATTER MANIPULATION 5
After revealing an Order Marker on this card and instead of taking a turn with Sersi, you may roll 5 combat dice. For each shield rolled, place a Wound Marker on or remove a Wound Marker from the Army Card of a figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Sersi.

TELEKINETIC TOSS 11
After moving and before attacking, you may choose either Sersi or a small or medium figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Sersi. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 11 or higher, you may place the chosen figure on any empty space within 4 spaces of its original placement. After the figure is placed, you may roll 1 unblockable attack die against that figure. Placed figures will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

REGENERATION
Instead of attacking with Sersi, roll one combat die for each Wound Marker on this card. For each skull rolled, you may remove a Wound Marker from this card.

SUPER STRENGTH
FLYING

[johnny139]

Comic Art:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:

Spoiler Alert!

[TrollBrute]

Very cool design, but I have some serious worries about her power level. I've found Spawn very nearly broken at times, mostly based on his 9 Life and Regeneration. Especially because he can wound without attacking, which Sersi can do, at almost the same ease (8+ instead of 7+). Sersei also lacks the take-wounds-from-attacking part that Spawn's healing has. Her cost is much higher, which helps, but I would feel safer at 6-7 Life.

Then there's Matter Manipulation. Very cool, but also very good. She has to give up her full turn which helps keep it in check some, but it's still a wound and a half on average. 4-5 per round, with the potential for 9 wounds in a round. It also makes her by far the best healer in the game. Pair her with Jocasta or Aaron Cash and they can keep anyone alive indefinitely. Or you could just use Jocasta/Cash to keep Sersi alive while she deals out crazy damage. Couple suggestions for tweaking the power:

• change it from skulls to shields
• make her choose between healing or dealing damage on a turn (no mix-and-match)
• similar to the one above, but change healing to happen on shields or blanks. Or even damage on shields and healing on blanks

[Spidey'tilIDie]

The only suggestion I have is for her bio: Olympia is so similar to Olympus, that I think its important to say "Olympia, located in Antarctica."

[johnny139]

Originally Posted by TrollBrute

Very cool design, but I have some serious worries about her power level. I've found Spawn very nearly broken at times, mostly based on his 9 Life and Regeneration. Especially because he can wound without attacking, which Sersi can do, at almost the same ease (8+ instead of 7+). Sersei also lacks the take-wounds-from-attacking part that Spawn's healing has. Her cost is much higher, which helps, but I would feel safer at 6-7 Life.

Then there's Matter Manipulation. Very cool, but also very good. She has to give up her full turn which helps keep it in check some, but it's still a wound and a half on average. 4-5 per round, with the potential for 9 wounds in a round. It also makes her by far the best healer in the game. Pair her with Jocasta or Aaron Cash and they can keep anyone alive indefinitely. Or you could just use Jocasta/Cash to keep Sersi alive while she deals out crazy damage. Couple suggestions for tweaking the power:

• change it from skulls to shields
• make her choose between healing or dealing damage on a turn (no mix-and-match)
• similar to the one above, but change healing to happen on shields or blanks. Or even damage on shields and healing on blanks

Power level is definitely my biggest concern here; the Eternals are immortal and unkillable, so it's tough to strike a balance between too good and too weak, thematically. Plus, when you have the power to bring people back from the dead and turn housecats into dragons accidentally... you're a bit stacked.

Limiting to just healing/damaging is definitely ideal. "Ors" are better than "ands" when it comes to gameplay, in my experience. I'd consider going to shields or blanks as well (maybe blanks, since we could increase the die count and make it "feel" bigger, even while reducing its reliability).

I'd be willing to drop Life a bit, or even Defense. Or up the roll on Telekinesis - or create a Telekinesis that's less likely to wound. In general there's a lot of numbers to fudge; I'm comfortable with lots of tweaks as long as she feels as potent as she is.

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

The only suggestion I have is for her bio: Olympia is so similar to Olympus, that I think its important to say "Olympia, located in Antarctica."

Fair point - done.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

@johnny139 Don't the Eternals go into a sort of hibernation/sleep when they get heavily injured. I seem to remember that they can sort of wake up and not remember who they are. Might be interesting to riff off of Odin's Odinsleep power to give that "air of imoortality". Just a thought.

[Margloth]

Why not drop Regeneration altogether and instead allow Matter Manipulation to affect Sersi as well? Would allow her to heal but at a slower rate (most likely).

[johnny139]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

@johnny139 Don't the Eternals go into a sort of hibernation/sleep when they get heavily injured. I seem to remember that they can sort of wake up and not remember who they are. Might be interesting to riff off of Odin's Odinsleep power to give that "air of imoortality". Just a thought.

I could see something like that working. Maybe removing Order Markers in order to remove wounds... or something like that.

Originally Posted by Margloth

Why not drop Regeneration altogether and instead allow Matter Manipulation to affect Sersi as well? Would allow her to heal but at a slower rate (most likely).

That's also an option, but I'd like to keep them separate, thematically... regeneration is something any Eternal can do, and is unrelated to Sersi's own personal matter manipulation skills.

[Viegon]

Here's my thoughts:
1) 8 life, 4 defense, and Regeneration is a bit much. If we're going to keep Regeneration, I'd like to see her life dropped to 7. However:
2) I like the idea of a regenerative hibernation. What about something along the lines of:

At the start of each round, you may place the green Sleep Marker on this card. While the Sleep Marker is on this card, Order Markers may not be revealed on this card and Sersi cannot move, attack, or use any other special powers on any Army Card or Glyph. At the end of the round, if the Sleep Marker is on this card, remove it and all Wound Markers from this card.

3) I really like the mix-and-match option with Matter Manipulation, and I think the "instead of taking a turn" part helps to balance it. However, switching it to activate on shields would be a good call. I'd also suggest dropping the range on it to 4 to match her base range and Telekinesis.
4) For Telekinesis, is it thematic for her to be boosted by Telepaths? If not, it seems to me we could do a simplified version that cuts out the Telepath interaction.

Overall, she looks like a very fun design.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Viegon

Here's my thoughts:
1) 8 life, 4 defense, and Regeneration is a bit much. If we're going to keep Regeneration, I'd like to see her life dropped to 7. However:
2) I like the idea of a regenerative hibernation. What about something along the lines of:

At the start of each round, you may place the green Sleep Marker on this card. While the Sleep Marker is on this card, Order Markers may not be revealed on this card and Sersi cannot move, attack, or use any other special powers on any Army Card or Glyph. At the end of the round, if the Sleep Marker is on this card, remove it and all Wound Markers from this card.

3) I really like the mix-and-match option with Matter Manipulation, and I think the "instead of taking a turn" part helps to balance it. However, switching it to activate on shields would be a good call. I'd also suggest dropping the range on it to 4 to match her base range and Telekinesis.
4) For Telekinesis, is it thematic for her to be boosted by Telepaths? If not, it seems to me we could do a simplified version that cuts out the Telepath interaction.

Overall, she looks like a very fun design.

I like the design but the power level does seem scary. So yeah I like what V is suggesting.

[johnny139]

Okay, so here's a shot a re-edit.

- I changed Matter Manipulation to 5 dice, triggering on blanks. This is a slight nerf (with 3 dice, it was an average of 1.5 skulls per roll and 1 shield per roll; currently it's .83 blanks per roll). In the comics, she's an "Adept Level 5," so I think it's a cool theme bit. Welcome to further fiddling though if we want to stay more mechanical with it.

- Swapped out Telekinesis for Telekinetic Throw. Slightly decreases the odds of wounding; we're switched to unblockable dice for telekinetic damage (at least, we did with the Phoenixes) and it clears a lot of text.

- Went with Protector for class; the Eternals exist to protect humanity so that seems like a decent catch-all class. Future synergy with "Eternal Protectors" could work as well for a Uni-Mind type power.

- I stuck with Regeneration and dropped her Life by 1... I'd like to avoid any fancy markers or anything, since ideally this power would be applicable to most if not all Eternals. If we want to swap it out I'd prefer something simpler - I'll think on it some more.

- I also dropped her move a bit, since she has Telekinesis to boost her there. Makes it more of a choice.

How are we feeling about this version?

NAME = SERSI


SPECIES = ETERNAL
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = PROTECTOR
PERSONALITY = INTUITIVE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 4
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 450

MATTER MANIPULATION 5
Instead of taking a turn with Sersi, you may roll 5 combat dice. For each blank rolled, you may deal a wound to or remove a Wound Marker from a figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Sersi.

TELEKINETIC TOSS 8
After moving and before attacking, you may choose either Sersi or a small or medium figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Sersi. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 8 or higher, you may place the chosen figure on any empty space within 4 spaces of its original placement. You may roll 1 unblockable attack die against the placed figure.

REGENERATION
Instead of attacking with Sersi, roll one combat die for each Wound Marker on this card. For each skull rolled, you may remove a Wound Marker from this card.

SUPER STRENGTH
FLYING