The Book of Blade (Nightstalkers)

[MrNobody]

We made a rules change, but as far as I know we didn't make any updates to the official C3G rules page or make any public announcement? Just seems like grounds for more confusion to me.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

We made a rules change, but as far as I know we didn't make any updates to the official C3G rules page or make any public announcement? Just seems like grounds for more confusion to me.

Sure, feel free to make another proposal then. I definitely didn't do anything with the results of the vote so you aren't wrong.

[IAmBatman]

Not a fan of that version of Stake Execution. It removes the biggest utility of the prior version (that you could still get a wound in if the attack failed and thus it was useful against commons and squad figures as well) and it has enough restrictions (5 spaces), (1 life left), and (10 or higher roll) to make it so you're not going to get benefit out of it in most games.

If the trigger is going to stay as niche as 1 life left, I think you really want to loosen up some other areas. 17+ to 10+ is a start, but I really don't think it's enough. You could also just make it any time Blade or a friendly inflicts a wound and lose the 1 life left bit, in which case everything else being the same would be fine.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I don't really get the point of Silver Weapons Special Attack being exactly the same as the regular Silver Weapons power on Blade 1 but as a special attack. And I think reusing names between special powers and special attacks feels cheesy IMO.

Like it lets him work a tiny bit better with Hellboy than Blade vI I guess? Except not really since the only thing that it matters for is the negation thing which might not matter against certain armies at all and you can trigger off of Hellboy's attack beforehand. And with Blade's bonding power you don't really want to pick him as Hellboy's partner anyway.

So like even in a Hellboy team, you'd just be better off with the regular attack boostable version.

Seems like we either want the Silver Weapons power, or we want a new special attack. "This other power that's already on the other version of this guy but as a special attack" doesn't seem appealing to me at all.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Not a fan of that version of Stake Execution. It removes the biggest utility of the prior version (that you could still get a wound in if the attack failed and thus it was useful against commons and squad figures as well) and it has enough restrictions (5 spaces), (1 life left), and (10 or higher roll) to make it so you're not going to get benefit out of it in most games.

If the trigger is going to stay as niche as 1 life left, I think you really want to loosen up some other areas. 17+ to 10+ is a start, but I really don't think it's enough. You could also just make it any time Blade or a friendly inflicts a wound and lose the 1 life left bit, in which case everything else being the same would be fine.

Assuming it is meant to trigger off his own attacks too, or even if it isn't really, it's already waaaay better than pretty much any of the other 'finishing blow' powers like that on Bane and Deadshot and Daredevil and the like. Do people really hate those powers or something?

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A thought about a different idea for a special attack, what about something like this:

DIE MONSTER DIE! SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 5. Attack 3.
When attacking with this special attack, all shields rolled count as extra skulls and all blanks rolled count as extra skulls if the defending figure is an Undead or a Lycanthrope.


IDK, just feels like a way to capture some of that too cool for school "you want something killed right, get Blade to do it" Wesley Snipes vibe.

[tcglkn]

It’s not that they’re inherently bad or anything, just that they trigger way often than you think they would because C3G is so Hero centric. And this one started with a roll of 17+ so even if you manage to trigger it ~2 times per game, you will only get it to work one in every three games. That’s a lot of words on a card for something that happens that rarely and is the key power for the card as it started out being here.

[IAmBatman]

I hardly ever get Deadshot's to trigger. Daredevil's does sometimes, but that's like the fourth most useful thing he does, whereas here it's set up to be the most useful thing Blade does, so it needs to be fairly useful?

[Dr. Jekyll]

I always felt like he should have a Swordplay power. Without forgetting about his ranged weapons, this is what I came up with. Probably not the best of ideas since he no longer would have a SA to use with Hellboy(II), but I thought I would put it out there.

Edit- I was just imagining him taking out hordes of vampires with his sword.

NAME = BLADE
SECRET IDENTITY = ERIC BROOKS

SPECIES = DHAMPIR
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = SLAYER
PERSONALITY = DRIVEN

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

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

POINTS = ???

PHANTOM WALK
Blade can move through all figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.

THEY CALL ME BLADE
When Blade attacks a non-adjacent figure with a normal attack, he may attack one additional time. If Blade attacks an adjacent figure with his normal attack and at least one skull is rolled, he may attack an adjacent figure again. He may continue attacking adjacent figures, rolling 1 fewer attack die for each subsequent attack, until you fail to roll a skull. Undead and Lycanthrope figures roll 2 fewer defense dice against Blade's normal attack.

STAKE EXECUTION 13
After an enemy figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Blade defends against an attack from Blade or a figure friendly to Blade, if the defending figure has only 1 Life remaining, roll the 20-sided die. Add 5 to the roll if the defending figure is Undead or Lycanthrope. If you roll 13 or higher, destroy the defending figure.

[Tornado]

That is cool. You could probably tweak that second power into a SA.

[Margloth]

Something that bypasses the healing/damage reduction that a lot of Undead figures do might be worth exploring.

I can see kind of combining the Execution and Let Me Show You How It's Done powers into one thing; Blade (from the movies anyway) always struck me as the type who's going to step in and finish the kill if you're not being ruthless enough. Maybe something like this?
RUTHLESS FINISH
If an enemy figure within 5 clear sight spaces of Blade is attacked and not destroyed, you may move Blade adjacent to that figure and inflict a wound on it. After using this special power, you cannot use it for the remainder the round unless the defending figure is Undead.

[tcglkn]

I do find it problematic that one of his main powers is an auto wounding power that wouldn't even affect one of our better Undead designs in Jason (the one you are more likely to randomly see in an army).

[IAmBatman]

Ruthless Finish above with a tweak that it does two wounds to undead would work for that.