[AotV] Pre-Brainstorming Thread

[Captain Stupendous]

Originally Posted by Ericth74

I hear you and that makes complete sense. My only counterpoint would be Grimnak was in the 1st master set and gave orc bonuses with no other orcs in the set.

Certainly Grimmak is no cheerleader though.

That's fair. After thinking about it a bit more, we could also just "pull a Concan" and have the ability affect both Hunters and Devourers. Devourer is also such a niche class that adding it doesn't significantly expand her synergy beyond the Anubians.

INTO THE NIGHT
Friendly Hunters and Devourers are never attacked when leaving engagement with a squad figure within 6 clear sight spaces of Arlinn.

This version is arguably slightly less elegant, but I do like how it includes the Badru, Anubians, and Varkaanans in its effect, while also working with the Ukushisa within the master set. Also, the name "Into the Night" is generic enough that I could thematically imagine both Hunters and Devourers vanishing "into the night," as it were.

[Strack9]

I've been lurking lately and following some of the progress on the AotV threads and wanted to try to put some brainpower towards some of the unassigned figures so here's my stab at turning Arlinn Kord (wolf form) into an Anubianesque hero.

ANUPET (Anput?)

Wolf
Unique Hero
Devourer
Relentless
Medium 5

Life 5
Move 6
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 4
Points 90


Unleashed (Furious) Frenzy

After you take a turn with Anupet, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 16 or higher you must (may?) place a wound marker on Anupet and take another turn with her.

Furious (Unleashed) Assault

Anupet must attack all figures adjacent to her. Roll each attack separately.




I wanted to get an Anubian feel with a d20 roll and a berserkerish chance to deal herself damage. There’s no direct synergy with the Anubians, but she can stand alone in a master set.

Spoiler Alert!

synergies:

- DUMUTEF GUARD : Devourer Attack Enhancement
As Devourers, Anupet may benefit from Dumutef Guard’s DEVOURER ATTACK ENHANCEMENT.

- KHOSUMET THE DARKLORD : Relentless Assault
Having a relentless personality, Anupet may benefit from Khosumet the Darklord’s RELENTLESS ASSAULT attack bonus.

- DEATH KNIGHTS OF VALKRILL : RELENTLESS HEROES : UNHOLY BONDING : As a Medium hero with "Relentless" personality, Anupet may benefit from the Death Knights of Valkrill's UNHOLY BONDING activation synergy.

- ORNAK : Red Flag of Fury
As a unique hero that follows Utgar, Anupet may benefit from Ornak’s RED FLAG OF FURY activation synergy.

- KNIGHTS OF BLACKGAARD : RELENTLESS ARMY ATTACK BONUS
Having a Relentless personality, Anupet may aid the Knights of Blackgaard with their RELENTLESS ARMY ATTACK BONUS.

- VARKAANAN DARKCLAWS / VARKAANAN GREYSPEARS / VARKAANAN QUICKBLADES / VARKAANAN SWIFTFANGS : WOLF PACK: UNIQUE WOLF ARMY CARDS
As a Unique Wolf figure, Anupet may aid the Varkaanans with their WOLF PACK activation synergy.

[Strack9]

I also feel that desire to help the Anubians and I like this:

Originally Posted by Captain Stupendous

Leader of the Pack
After taking a turn with Arlinn, you may move X (3 or 4 maybe?) Wolves X amount of spaces (4?)

except I think it helps the Varcaans move too far when they're using their Wolf Pack power to bond with a wolf hero, especially because Arlinn already synergizes with them just by being a wolf. Maybe if it were common wolves only, or Devourers. Has anything been talked about being turned into a Devourer from these sets yet?

What about a Frenetic Aura that lets one improve their 20-sided dice roll for the cost of a wound? There's some AotP figures shaping up to use the 20-sided die??!

Frenetic Aura
After rolling the 20-sided die for the Army card of a figure you control within 4 clear sight spaces of Anupet, a figure from that Army Card may receive a wound to add 1 to your 20-sided Die roll.

[BekerChief]

Hi Guys,

Played heroscape with my brother when I was a kid, sold it, cried me a river after price inflation, and recently picked up a master set and rise of the planeswalker set again.

I have an idea for the eldrazi scions. Maybe it can be applied to other units, but the scions seemed the most fitting:

Essence of [UNIT NAME]
When a [UNIT NAME] dies it leaves behind an egg. Cracking the egg and drinking the mystic [UNIT NAME] juice gives the hero/unique squad a temporary bonus (say +1 attack) for the rest of the round. A unit must be adjacent to gain the benifits from drinking the juice. A ranged attack can still destroy the egg.

Stats for the egg could be 1 life, 0 movement, 0 attack, 1 defence.

It gives the scions essentially 2 life. Not killing them leaves it open for the opponent to kill his own scions for a bonus attack.

Could also open up other synergies, where units gain other benifits by cracking eggs.

Might be posting some other ideas in the near future. Really like this thread!

Final disclaimer: I haven't read all the posts so it might be that a direction is already chosen. Either way, I liked to share my ideas :P

[Captain Stupendous]

Originally Posted by BekerChief

Hi Guys,

Played heroscape with my brother when I was a kid, sold it, cried me a river after price inflation, and recently picked up a master set and rise of the planeswalker set again.

I have an idea for the eldrazi scions. Maybe it can be applied to other units, but the scions seemed the most fitting:

Essence of [UNIT NAME]
When a [UNIT NAME] dies it leaves behind an egg. Cracking the egg and drinking the mystic [UNIT NAME] juice gives the hero/unique squad a temporary bonus (say +1 attack) for the rest of the round. A unit must be adjacent to gain the benifits from drinking the juice. A ranged attack can still destroy the egg.

Stats for the egg could be 1 life, 0 movement, 0 attack, 1 defence.

It gives the scions essentially 2 life. Not killing them leaves it open for the opponent to kill his own scions for a bonus attack.

Could also open up other synergies, where units gain other benifits by cracking eggs.

Might be posting some other ideas in the near future. Really like this thread!

Final disclaimer: I haven't read all the posts so it might be that a direction is already chosen. Either way, I liked to share my ideas :P

Hi BekerChief! First off I wanted to say welcome to the forums! Your experience is exactly the reason that many of us feel like the Arena of the Planeswalkers project is so important, and we’re happy to have you around Even if you haven’t read all the threads (and there’s a lot of them!) you might find this thread to be a helpful place to start as it provides some more information about the project as a whole and our plans moving forward.

Overall I really like your idea for the Scions. There have already been some ideas suggested, (including my own here

Spoiler Alert!

Voidspawn Mindbreakers (Eldrazi Scions)

1 Life / 5 Move / 1 Range / 2 Attack / 6 Defense

Psychic Barrage Special Attack
Range 3. Attack 2
A Voidspawn Mindbreaker that moved but did not attack normally may use Psychic Barrage Special Attack. A Voidspawn Mindbreaker does not need clear line of sight to attack with Psionic Blast Special Attack, and it may target and attack non-adjacent figures while engaged. The defending figure rolls one less defense die for each other time it has been attacked by Psychic Barrage Special Attack this turn.

) but I like the originality of your idea. I think there may be a couple challenges with the implementation (namely, it might have problems interacting with the Badru Wolves’ Pounce Special Attack, and designing unrestricted synergy is very tricky), but I found the egg idea pretty compelling. It inspired me to spin my own reinterpretation of the design:

Voidspawn Hatchling

Valkrill
Voidspawn / Uncommon Hero / ? / ?

2 Life / 5 Move / 3 Range / 3 Attack / 2 Defense

CARAPACE
When rolling defense dice, the most wounds a Voidspawn Hatchling may take for any attack is one.

EGG FORM
If there is at least one wound on this card, this Voidspawn Hatchling may not move or attack, and rolls five extra defense dice. At the end of each round, remove one wound marker from this card.

As an uncommon hero, I could potentially see these guys working as cheap filler units, being useful at tying down adjacent enemies and also fulfilling a role in cleanup.

Anyway, thanks again for dropping in, and if you have any questions about the project or feedback on units currently in design (especially once they reach the public feedback phase) we’d love to hear it!

[BekerChief]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I have read the introduction thread and am following some of the pods, mostly Arena, and Battle for Zendikar figures (the sets I own, last masterset is quite expensive in the Netherlands...)

I like your interpretation of the egg-form. The way you have written it, it makes more sense as a form of animal instinct for me, to curl up into a protective ball. Combined with naturally regenerative abilities of the voidspawn (making this up), they can quickly heal damage in their defensive stance. Naming the EGG FORM ability something like VOIDSPAWN RECOVERY?

Voidspawn Hatchling

Valkrill
Voidspawn / Uncommon Hero / ? / ?

2 Life / 5 Move / 3 Range / 3 Attack / 2 Defense

CARAPACE
When rolling defense dice, the most wounds a Voidspawn Hatchling may take for any attack is one.

EGG FORM
If there is at least one wound on this card, this Voidspawn Hatchling may not move or attack, and rolls five extra defense dice. At the end of each round, remove one wound marker from this card.

As another idea, aimed for Chandra's Phoenixes (fire birds), a take on Krug in squad-form:

MOLTENCLAW SCOUTS
Life 1
Move 6
Range 2
Attack 1
Defense 2

DOUBLE ATTACK

FEED THE FIRE
Each Moltenclaw scout gains +1 attack for each other Moltenclaw scout that died.

FLYING


Another take is to embrace a phoenix theme.

MOLTENCLAW SCOUTS
50 points? (cheap, high-risk-high-reward)
Life 1
Move 6
Range 2
Attack 3
Defense 2

UNRULY FLAMES
Before attacking, each Moltenclaw scout can choose to become ENFLAMED. When ENFLAMED, you may reroll any dice once. For each blank roll, choose an adjacent Moltenclaw scout (including itself). Then deal 1 damage to all chosen figures. ENFLAMED lasts until the end of the turn.

RISE FROM THE ASHES
When a Moltenclaw scout dies when ENFLAMED roll a d20. On a 10 or higher it rises from the ashes. Place it back on the board, on the tile where it died.

FLYING


Cheers, Kevin

[NecroBlade]

Welcome, @BekerChief , happy to see you're interested in the project!

For what it's worth, I'm personally not interested in doing non-Unique (including Uncommon) figures in this set. I don't want anyone to have to buy another whole set if they want to play more than the two (or three) of any figure we made Un/Common. And the fewer people who buy multiple sets, the more people who can get into Heroscape via AotV. That said, outside-the-box thinking is just what wee need for the space shrimp.

I very much like the idea of low-stat, short range Phoenixes, and hope we end up with that at least. I'm also curious if we can find a way to tie them in with Archmages, like we have been thinking of for Jace's Illusions, but that's for future designs. Feel free to help out in any way you like with the project, and maybe eventually join a Pod!

[flameslayer93]

Looking at the ruin walls, I thought this would be a neat, if impractical, idea.

Bad ideas part 7+
Give human Arlinn magic from being next to ruin walls, along the lines of summoner wars.

Arlinn
Ullar
Human
Explorer
Disciplined

4 Life
6 move
1 Range
1 Attack
2 Defense

Runic Strength: While adjacent to a ruin wall, +2 attack and +1 defense.

Runic Summoning: Instead of attacking, if adjacent to a ruin wall, roll d20. On an 11 or higher, summon 1 figure you control. Place it adjacent to Arlinn and the Ruin Wall.

[Astroking112]

Hmm. I'm not familiar with Summoner Wars, but this power seems like it would make for a design that often feels flat unless we bake in some new terminology (such as defining "obstacles such as ruins" to be any Ruin Wall, Evergreen Tree, Castle Pillar, etc.). Relying on just the included cardboard walls doesn't feel great to me, and defining something broader than that is going to get messy.

I think that the concept would be more interesting if it was limited to just one power, and the design did something else interesting besides it. Something like getting a small stat boost when adjacent to a certain type of terrain, for example, but the unit herself still having enough utility to be interesting without that bonus.

[flameslayer93]

The power text could be modified, but basically it'd be easy to just call the cardboard ruins "ruins" in the same way we call the RotV ruins "ruins". No new terminology required.

*From the rulebook, call em ruins

[Blue Trails]

I recently read an interesting article about a new idea that dark matter could be capable of converting ordinary matter into more dark matter. This could be a cool angle for either of the Black squads: it adds more sci-fi themes to a fantasy-heavy set, mirrors Ozuul's "astrophysical phenomenon monster" design direction, and gives a nod to the Zombie species said squads' figures had in the proper AotP game. Just say add an invisibility power to hint that the unit is black (or dark) because light doesn't properly interact with it, and you're set.

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Originally Posted by Blue Trails

I recently read an interesting article about a new idea that dark matter could be capable of converting ordinary matter into more dark matter. This could be a cool angle for either of the Black squads: it adds more sci-fi themes to a fantasy-heavy set, mirrors Ozuul's "astrophysical phenomenon monster" design direction, and gives a nod to the Zombie species said squads' figures had in the proper AotP game. Just say add an invisibility power to hint that the unit is black (or dark) because light doesn't properly interact with it, and you're set.

I like this! Maybe something like figures targetting them must subtract one from their range?