The Book of Viper

[Viegon]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

an uncanny luck which has allowed her to cheat death in situations where lesser people would have died. Viper may or may not have supernaturally augmented longevity.

Unless anyone can testify to this being a consistent thing in the comics, I wouldn't give it any weight. Most characters have cheated death at least a handful of times, often to ambiguous implications about it possibly being an ability of theirs or something magical, but is then never used again.

I'd suggest dropping her life to 4 and bumping her defense to 5. You could also allow the boost from Tactical Mind to affect her, giving her 6 defense when you win initiative.

[TrollBrute]

Yeah, Life to 4 and Defense up seems like a good idea. Also agreed that Tactical Mind needs a cap. I wouldn't mind keeping it low either, or adding an OM requirement. I don't want to see too many unrestricted Init boosts hanging around. It's not always too strong, but Joker, Mad Thinker, and a couple other make it an usable boost.

Army building could be a challenge with so many different boosts that don't cross over well. Kind of a fun challenge I think. I do worry that she'll either come off as too hard to make work well, or that one or two builds will stand out as much better than the rest and she'll need costed around those. As long as you're okay with that though, I can get on board.

Interestingly, there are a few squads that would love the defense boost, but that makes it harder to get the Init boost and really make the power shine. I'm looking forward to trying her in a Star-Lord build, with a non-Human Assassin or Mercenary.

[Yodaking]

Gamora & Deadpool come to mind, which could certainly be a fun/powerful combo.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Gamora & Deadpool come to mind, which could certainly be a fun/powerful combo.

I had Deadpool on the brain since I first read the power.

[Yodaking]

Was thinking about how Deadpool (Merc) & Marrow (Terrorist) would combo well with her since they both have the X Healing Factor power but then I realized that would mean she would lose out on her X OM required poison auto wound. Seems like a good trade off, use the X to heal or use the X to deal 1W but you can't do both.

Anyway after hearing all the feedback thus far, this is what I'm currently thinking.

NAME = VIPER
SECRET IDENTITY = OPHELIA SARKISSIAN

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = TERRORIST
PERSONALITY = RUTHLESS

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 7
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 170?

TACTICAL MIND
When rolling for initiative, add 1 to your roll for each Unique Hero you control up to a maximum of +5. If you win initiative, Viper and all Terrorist and Criminal figures you control within 3 clear sight spaces of Viper add 1 to their defense dice for the remainder of the round.

UNDERWORLD CONTRACT
At the start of the game, you many choose any one Mercenary or Assassin unique hero you control. After revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Viper, you may immediately take a turn with the chosen figure. If you do, do not take any other turns with figures you control.

POISONED STRIKE
After Viper attacks an adjacent figure with her normal attack, if she rolled one or more skulls on that attack, you may reveal an "X" Order Marker on this card and deal one wound to that figure. Androids, Constructs, Undead, and Destructible Objects are not affected by Poisoned Strike.

[Viegon]

I'd like to see Tactical Mind require an OM on her card, to limit abuse with Joker and Mad Thinker.

[Yodaking]

Can do.

TACTICAL MIND
When rolling for initiative, if there is at least 1 Order Marker on this card, add 1 to your roll for each Unique Hero you control up to a maximum of +5. If you win initiative, Viper and all Terrorist and Criminal figures you control within 3 clear sight spaces of Viper add 1 to their defense dice for the remainder of the round.

[japes]

The one Mercenary or Assassin is starting to bother me in the Serpent groups builds. A few of them (more than one of the current drafted ones anyway) will be a Mercenary or Assassin which would mean no Serpent Society/Squad with more than one of them. Also the two figures you mentioned above aren't even thematic. I can't think of a way to adjust anything and keep her thematic ties viable. As is I see her being priced out much higher with non thematic armies.

[Yodaking]

POISONED STRIKE
After Viper attacks an adjacent Unique Hero with her normal attack, if she rolled one or more skulls on that attack, you may reveal an "X" Order Marker on this card and deal one wound to that figure. Androids, Constructs, and Undead are not affected by Poisoned Strike.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by japes

The one Mercenary or Assassin is starting to bother me in the Serpent groups builds. A few of them (more than one of the current drafted ones anyway) will be a Mercenary or Assassin which would mean no Serpent Society/Squad with more than one of them. Also the two figures you mentioned above aren't even thematic. I can't think of a way to adjust anything and keep her thematic ties viable. As is I see her being priced out much higher with non thematic armies.

Silver Samurai is one of her key enforcers on multiple comic runs so mercenary bonding is going to be part of the design even if Deadpool is a mercenary. You can't force people to play only thematic builds. If you want to expand on her Serpent Squad/Society leadership roles we can include Mercenaries (assuming most of them would be mercenaries) in the first power, giving Silver Samurai and his counter strike power and extra defense die would certainly make him a more attractive partner. But then you also give Wade Wilson an extra defense die too and his Wisecracks will be used to direct attacks his way. As it stands now simply drafting her with 3-4 other members of the Serpent Society will get you a +4-5 initiative boost (since it counts all unique heroes you control) while giving her bonding with one of them (assuming at least one is a merc or assassin).

[japes]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Silver Samurai is one of her key enforcers on multiple comic runs so mercenary bonding is going to be part of the design even if Deadpool is a mercenary. You can't force people to play only thematic builds. If you want to expand on her Serpent Squad/Society leadership roles we can include Mercenaries (assuming most of them would be mercenaries) in the first power, giving Silver Samurai and his counter strike power and extra defense die would certainly make him a more attractive partner. But then you also give Wade Wilson an extra defense die too and his Wisecracks will be used to direct attacks his way. As it stands now simply drafting her with 3-4 other members of the Serpent Society will get you a +4-5 initiative boost (since it counts all unique heroes you control) while giving her bonding with one of them (assuming at least one is a merc or assassin).

Not trying to force people to play thematic builds but in this age of Heroscape it is a major issue with me when a figure's cost is over dependent on non thematic competitive builds to the point when it's the opposite effect...you can afford to play her in a thematic build because she is over costed in them.

I'd almost say drop the terrorist and put Mercenary there. Terrorist is more the Hydra/AIM side which this version is supposed to represent her post HYDRA. Silver Samurai getting the boost does make him more attractive and the X marker ordeal you mentioned earlier does balance the scales more to Silver Samurai from the others you mentioned.

[Yodaking]

Yes, she left Hydra and became Viper but she then founded her own terrorist organization, committed numerous terrorist acts, and later continued to help and aide Hydra from her new position of power as Leader of Madripoor. Seems to me she should still have terrorist ties/synergy, it's not like their is a whole lot of it in C3G already.

I'm not overly concerned about theoretic costing issues right now. If actual testing shows her to be worth 30-40 points more in a Star Lord build than all other builds we can try to do something about it. Until then, I see lots of different interesting army builds I'd want to try out with her. I will conceded that Gamora is a concern of mine as she is far and away the most dangerous assassin, so perhaps limit the bonding to human or mutant mercs & assassins in an effort to cut that one tie. I'll take a look and see what kind of list that would leave her with.