The Book of Psimon

[IAmBatman]

Well this guy should be a key piece.

[japes]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Well this guy should be a key piece.

THE KEY PIECE actually.

[IAmBatman]

Thought that was this guy?

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Thought that was this guy?

See? there's lots of good stuff left in DC for C3G!

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: PSIMON

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Psimon (230), Jinx (170), Mammoth (230), Oracle (110), Atom (Ray Palmer) (50), Hellfire: Fireball spell (x2) (10) vs Wrecking Crew (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Initiative Fearsome Five. Psimon goes first, walking toward the middle, then Says Mammoth should join him. He tries to have Jinx join too, but she doesn’t hear him.

The Wrecking Crew goes, starting with Wrecker. Wrecker walks towards the middle, then throws his Crowbar at Psimon, but only can roll one skull on three dice thanks to Mental Dominance. Psimon is unwounded. Wrecker rolls a 10 and keeps things going. Bulldozer goes, getting his full Charging Headbutt effect, but Atom manages to take only one wound. Wrecking Crew doesn’t hit again.

Psimon, even with Oracle’s Secret Attack Plan and height, can’t wound Wrecker. He has Jinx fly over and fail to hit Bulldozer, then Says Mammoth should attack, but Mammoth’s one skull and one blank are laughed off by Bulldozer.

Wrecker goes, putting one wound on Jinx, whose field does not save her. Then Bulldozer goes, and the jinx field fails again, leaving Atom to fall. This inspires Wrecker, who moves up to take Atom’s spot, and hit Jinx from height. Jinx Field finally hits, and Jinx blocks the three skulls that are rerolled into one. Disheartened, the Wrecking Crew stops for now.

Psimon draws first blood, rolling all skulls and hitting Wrecker for one wound. He activates Mammoth, who whiffs his attack, and can’t seem to get through to Jinx.

The Wrecker pounds Jinx from height and Jinx Field misses by one. Jinx takes a second wound. Thunderball goes, attacking Jinx from range and height disadvantage. Her field fails again, but she blocks his attack. Jinx Field stymies the Wrecker turn that follows. Jinx Field turns a 5 skull attack by Thunderball into a 2 skull attack, but Jinx still takes her third wound. Jinx Field turns Wrecker’s 4 skull attack into 1 skull, but then Jinx whiffs on defense and is KO’d. Thunderball fails to hit Psimon. Wrecker does hit Psimon for 2 wounds. Then finally, finally, the Wrecking Crew runs out of steam.

Round 2: Initiative Fearsome Five. Psimon fails to hit Wrecker. He can’t tell Thunderball what to do.

Wrecker hits Mammoth for four quick wounds from height. Then Bulldozer finishes Mammoth.

Psimon goes and tries hitting and then controlling Wrecker. No go on either front.

Wrecker KO’s Psimon even with 2 attack dice subtracted from Mental Dominance. Oracle collects the remaining OMs. The Wrecking Crew stalls out.

Oracle edges forward.

Wrecker engages Oracle from height disadvantage and puts 3 wounds on her. Bulldozer gets his full charging headbutt and finishes Oracle.

Unit Summary: Psimon got all the Order Markers here and a full shot. Right now he doesn’t have much offensive oomph himself and the figures he has an OK chance at activating don’t either. I only got one double activation and then his allies quickly fell. I never managed to mind control an enemy.
The dice seemed to favor the Wrecking Crew over all, but they were also rolling more on attack and defense and had lower thresholds to hit on their D20s (except Psimon’s threshold to activate Mammoth. Jinx’s activation from Psimon Says is a 12+ but Wrecking Crew is 10+ on Wrecker and the 14+ on the others becomes 11+ when a figure is destroyed during their turn).

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 1 Wound on Wrecker.
• PSIMON SAYS: 4 of 8 (3 successes were Mammoth)
• MENTAL DOMINANCE: Subtracts 2 dice (x2)
• MENTAL SHIELD: Not used.
• Damage Taken: Fell in Round 2.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Wrecker with 5 Life and Bulldozer, Piledriver, and Thunderball with Full Life win.

[IAmBatman]

Early returns. I have two other matches set up (one against Titans and one against Fan Four) but I'm holding off for now to give a chance for any adjustments you want to make.

Here's my early impression. This guy's cost range, as constructed (and as dependent on the Fearsome Faction to make Psimon Says go) is probably 170-190. If you want to hit 230 or even 200+, I think adjustments are needed.

If you like the design as is and just want to hone in on price, that's cool too. Just let me know which you prefer.

As is, though, I don't think he's competitive at 230 points and I'm not sure he's got enough oomph for the faction in general quite yet.

[IAmBatman]

I think his closest comparison is Mister Fantastic. The stats are more or less a wash - better move and defense on Mister Fantastic and better range on Psimon.

Both have SS. Mental Dominance helps Psimon stay alive and Rubber Wrap is great for keeping Invisible Woman safe and thus keeping Mister Fantastic alive. Let's call that a wash.

Mental Shield and Mister Fantastic's movement power are both useful - I'd give the edge to Mister Fantastic there, but let's call that a wash too.

The bonding powers are the meat of the card. Yes, Psimon can mind control enemies sometimes and that's worth something. But:

Mister Fantastic bonds with one figure on 4-11, two figures on 12-17, and three on 18+

Psimon bonds with one figure on 17+ and a second figure on 17+; they can be any figure, which is an advantage over Mister Fantastic, but at those odds you might as well just put the Order Markers on the other figures.

Which means to compete you're pretty much limited to Fearsome figures. That's 12+ for one and 12+ for a second compared to what Mister Fantastic offers (almost always one bonding at 4+ and only one roll of 12+ instead of two for two plus).

And Psimon doesn't have the top end 3+ activations to match Mister Fantastic. That and the mind swap of Psimon are a wash, IMO.

Yes, Psimon can benefit from Weak Minded bonding (though the numbers are still against him here) but Fearsome figures are also a much, much weaker crop than Adventurers. Jinx is a good match for Invisible Woman, but Mammoth is a very poor man's Thing, and nobody's standing in for Wasp, Human Torch, Iceman, Silver Surfer, etc.

I think to make Psimon viable you'll need to drop his rolls to Mister Fantastic levels or lower for Fearsome figures. I'd start by making the Fearsome bonus +10 instead of +5. That way he gets each bonding on 7+ rolls, or 3+ rolls for Mammoth and Meggan.

[Tornado]

Pretty much exactly what I was going to suggest.

[japes]

What about this,

Purple Man is a 14 and Puppet Master is at 16. So I'm thinking we hit the middle at 15 for the enemy take over. He's at least on their level.

Then keep the +5 for Fearsome 5 members.

So that would be 6+ for Mammoth and 10+ for the rest compared to 4+ and 12+ for Mr. Fantastic. Slightly worse for the first and slightly better for the second and no top end of 3 figures.

Plus the 15 for the enemy makes him worthy even if he loses his teammates.

[IAmBatman]

We can try it. My opinion is that with inferior teammates he’s not going to be on Mister F’s level even with the same D20 odds and having to hit two rolls instead of one make that 10+ worse than it seems, but if those are the numbers you want, I’m happy to test there.

[IAmBatman]

Notable that Puppet Master actually gets two shots at 16*, increasing his odds to hit at least one and giving him a chance at a big turn, and Purple Man is 13+ as ling as he can see his victim’s target point, which isn’t tough.

I think you could go 14+ and not be in the danger zone.

Edit: and Purple Man costs 165 and Puppet Master costs 140.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by japes

What about this,

Purple Man is a 14 and Puppet Master is at 16. So I'm thinking we hit the middle at 15 for the enemy take over. He's at least on their level.

Then keep the +5 for Fearsome 5 members.

So that would be 6+ for Mammoth and 10+ for the rest compared to 4+ and 12+ for Mr. Fantastic. Slightly worse for the first and slightly better for the second and no top end of 3 figures.

Plus the 15 for the enemy makes him worthy even if he loses his teammates.

I like that idea, as I like that the mind control of enemies becomes viable and a genuinely useful aspect of the character rather than almost an afterthought, which is the sense I originally got - especially helpful once his teammates start dropping.

I'd still expect him to end up lower than Reed like that, though - ~210, tops.