The Book of Shade the Changing Man

[Karat]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Thanks Karat!

Around how many times do you think you tried to use Madness Vest to transfer wounds off of allies? It seems like ze healing is not as rewarding as ze hurting, but may just be the way it is.

3 or 4. They died way too quickly against the Asguardians and never really had a prime moment for it where he wasn't more useful throwing some of his wounds at Thing or something (which never actually worked mind).

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Karat

3 or 4. They died way too quickly against the Asguardians and never really had a prime moment for it where he wasn't more useful throwing some of his wounds at Thing or something (which never actually worked mind).

Hmmm...okay. That seems like a decent enough number.

Honestly my instinct is to add a D20 benefit for choosing friendly figures, but that's just adding 1 more layer of complexity on when I feel like he's already pretty maxed out on variables you have to consider. I think the fact that both of us misplayed him at some point is telling. (I realized it quick enough to fix it, so I didn't include it in the report because I hate admitting I made a mistake. ) So I really don't want to add more to consider onto the design.

How does just raising him to 225 sound? That makes him a solid block with John at 350.

[Karat]

Sounds like a decent, simple enough change. The design is good, quirky, and fun. Just a lot of reading and rereading to make sure you get it right.

[MrNobody]

Cool. SP updated at 225.

I kinda like that a ton of the Vertigo classics (Doom Patrol, Constantine, Swamp Thing, and now Shade) can come in at odd point values. It’s just a fun little thing to show they’re “outside” of the main superhero genre.

[Arch-vile]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Change the Shading Man

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Shade the Changing Man (225), Zatanna II (445) VS Batman I, Robin Tim, Batgirl Babara (450)

Spoiler Alert!

Shade rolls a skull.

Batman & Robin move up. Zatanna puts 2 wounds on Robin. Batgirl wounds Zatanna and Robin is blocked. Zatanna is blocked. Batman is blocked then Robin inflicts a wound. Shade switches with Zatanna via Trap Door Teleportation, then Zatanna wounds Robin.

Shade rolls a 17 and pulls a wound from Zatanna to him, but unfortunately rolls a skull again. His second roll is a 14 and does nothing. Batman wounds Zatanna, then Robin does too. Shade rolls 10 and 12, wasting his turn. Batman & Robin take out Zatanna. Shade kills Robin. Batgirl puts 2 wounds on Shade, then Shade rolls a blank.

Shade rolls 5 and 10 and fails to do anything. (I noticed if I target Batman and miss, I have to target someone else for the second Madness Vest. Kinda frustrating.) Batman wounds Shade and Shade rolls a blank again. Shade transfers a wound to Batman. Batman wounds Shade, then Shade rolls a shield. Shade transfers a wound to Batgirl. Batgirl is blocked.

Shade transfers a wound to Batgirl. Batman wounds Shade, who rolls a shield. Shade fails his rolls. Batman inflicts 3 wounds on Shade to kill him.


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Batman (1 wound) and Batgirl (2 wounds) wins.

Shade starting off with a skull really neutered him early on and I probably should have been taking turns with Zatanna instead. But he proved pretty dangerous in the endgame, healing himself and damaging others with decent reliability as long as he didn’t have a skull on his card.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Shade the Changing Man (225), John Constantine, Deadman (515) VS Green Arrow Ollie, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl (525)

Spoiler Alert!

Shade rolls a skull. Deadman moves up. Hawkgirl moves up. Deadman puts 3 wounds on Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl rolls 8 dice against Shade and is blocked. Shade disengages Hawkgirl and she doesn’t bother rolling for a disengagement strike. Shade’s paltry attack of 4 from height is blocked. Hawkgirl puts 2 wounds on Deadman.

Deadman possesses Hawkgirl (lost OM1), then uses her to kill Green Arrow (lost OM2+3) then Red Arrow. This was a slaughter and Shade contributed nothing, so time to replay.

——————————
Shade rolls a shield. Hawkgirl advances. Deadman is blocked. Hawkgirl puts 3 wounds on Shade, switching him to a skull. Deadman is blocked. Hawkgirl is blocked. Shade fails his Madness Vest rolls.

Deadman tries to possess Hawkgirl but fails, then is blocked. Hawkgirl is blocked. Shade rolls a 5 (which lowers to a 1), wounding Deadman, then targets Deadman and rolls an 18 to pull the wound back, but he rolls a skull again. Deadman & Hawkgirl wound each other.

Hawkgirl kills Deadman (lost OM1+2). Hawkgirl puts 3 wounds on Constantine. Green Arrow wounds Shade, then Shade rolls a blank. Constantine puts 2 wounds on Hawkgirl.

Hawkgirl attacks but Constantine is a con artist. Shade rolls 1, wounding Constantine, then has to select Constantine for his second roll but misses anyway. Green Arrow targets Constantine, who is a con artist, so Green Arrow has to target Shade, and thus kills Shade. Lost OM2+3 on Shade. Constantine con artists his way out of Green Arrow’s next attack.

Constantine is blocked then Hawkgirl kills him.


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Game 1: Deadman (2 wounds), Constantine, Shade VS Hawkgirl (3 wounds). Game called.

Game 2: Hawkgirl (3 wounds), Green Arrow, Red Arrow win.

Shade was pretty worthless both these games.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Honestly I did not have a lot of fun with Shade, because he did nothing so often and the Changing Man power means he’s neutered often. In the end of game 1, there was finally a period where he could use Madness Vest fairly effectively and it was appropriately scary, but the limitations on it prevented too much chaos.

I have no competitive concerns here, so I’d pass him if you’re happy with him. He’s just not my type of design and that’s okay. But I think he’d be less frustrating if he’s able to choose the same figure after a failed roll on Madness Vest, or if the -4 to Madness Vest on a skull was less brutal. My other thought was to reroll the die for Changing Man at the start or end of every round in addition to at the start of the game & when receiving wounds. So I’m cool with whatever basically, as long as the LD’s happy.

It's worth noting I played in small point games too. Against higher point figures, swinging a wound their way is comparatively worth a lot more, meaning he would probably have felt better.

[MrNobody]

Thanks Archie!

I will say I think the current lot of JLD mainstays (Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman) are all kind of tricky support figures that don't really throw a huge amount of offensive firepower, and Shade kinda fits into that camp too. It's something I'm hoping we can further expand with the faction by adding more combat-based characters like Swamp Thing or Black Orchid. But I generally haven't found the Shade/Constantine/Zatanna/Deadman builds to be super-effective, so I'm not surprised you didn't either.

It seems like you had fairly bad luck while Karat had fairly good luck, and you both finished with fairly different impressions of the unit. I get the feelings of frustration, but I also feel a large part of that was mitigated in my games by playing him with turn efficiency units. It helps a lot if your whole turn isn't just Shade.

He's technically lost 5/5 games since he was updated to this version, but he did pretty great in both Karat game, so it's really more like 3/5 losses.

I guess I see 3 ways forward atm;
1) Lower his points back down. I think such a big jump this morning could've been an overreaction.
2) Lower the Madness Vest roll, maybe even as low as 9?
3) Lower the D20 subtraction on the skull option of Changing Man, maybe down to 2?

Any thoughts? I'd be open for any of these options, as well as any combination of them.

[Arch-vile]

I agree with that assessment, and I'd be fine with any of those options. My last game was definitely unlucky with a couple 1s.

[MrNobody]

@Karat any thoughts on which options you prefer?

[Karat]

On option 2 do you mean the wound flinging?

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Karat

On option 2 do you mean the wound flinging?

Yeah, lowering the D20 roll on that aspect.

[MrNobody]

Okay, here's what I'm thinking;

NAME = SHADE THE CHANGING MAN
SECRET IDENTITY = RAC SHADE

SPECIES = METAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = POET
PERSONALITY = MERCURIAL

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

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

POINTS = 215

CHANGING MAN
At the start of the game, roll a combat die and place it on this card. Any time Shade receives one or more wounds, re-roll the die. While the result is:

• a skull, subtract 1 from Shade's attack and defense, and 2 from his roll for the Madness Vest power.
• a shield, all opponent's figures are considered friendly to Shade.
• a blank, the most wounds Shade can take from an attack is one.

MADNESS VEST 13
Instead of attacking with Shade, you may choose a figure within 4 clear sight spaces and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 1 or lower, the nearest friendly figure to Shade receives a wound. If you roll 13 or higher, either inflict a wound on Shade and remove a wound from the other figure's Army Card or remove a wound from Shade's Army Card and inflict a wound on the other figure. After using Madness Vest, you may use it one additional time, choosing a different figure.

[Karat]

That's the move I was gonna suggest. Sorry been a tad distracted this morning.....uh.....today