The Book of Nightcrawler (Kurt Darkhölme)

[Arkham]

The Book of Nightcrawler (Kurt Darkhölme)

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Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Wolverine and the X-men set.
Its model number and name are #102 / Nightcrawler.

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Character Bio - Kurt Darkholme lived a lonely childhood in the German countryside. He was never allowed to interact with human children, and was never told his demon-like appearance might be jarring to others. With his mother Mystique often gone on secret missions for Magneto, Kurt was left to fend for himself.

Moments before Kurt would have been sacrificed in a bizarre religious ritual to send all mutant demons back to Hell, Mystique, along with Magneto and Quicksilver, stormed the church. Mystique gunned down the humans who kidnapped her son before Magneto could stop her. Kurt was unable to deal with the sight of his mother's ferocity and teleported away.

When Kurt finally returned to his home, Quicksilver informed him that his mother had asked Magneto to look after him. Kurt became a part of the X-Men family that day and spent the next few years becoming a member of the team. Ironically, after seeing the world and the terror it had become in the hands of Apocalypse, Nightcrawler became one of Magneto's most deadly agents. - Marvel Wikia
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Mutant, Nightcrawler has these Mutant Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a Mutant, Nightcrawler interacts differently with these special powers.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: (Arkham)
• Second playtest: (Ronin)
• Third playtest: (Lazy Orang)
• Fourth Playtest: (laughing matter)
• Art: Figure, Background, Comic
• Art by Arkham

[Arkham]

NAME = NIGHTCRAWLER
SECRET IDENTITY = KURT DARKHÖLME

SPECIES = MUTANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = REBEL
PERSONALITY = RELENTLESS

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 230

BAMF! TELEPORT
Instead of his normal move, Nightcrawler may use BAMF! Teleport. To teleport, place Nightcrawler on an empty space within 3 spaces of his current placement. When Nightcrawler teleports on his turn, you may either add 7 spaces to his teleport movement or, after teleporting, Nightcrawler may teleport two additional times. When using BAMF! Teleport, Nightcrawler will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

RUTHLESS TELEPORTATION
Each time before Nightcrawler moves with his BAMF! Teleport special power, you may choose a figure adjacent to Nightcrawler. After placing Nightcrawler with BAMF! Teleport, roll one unblockable attack die against the chosen figure. After inflicting a wound with this special power, if that chosen figure has only one Life remaining, you may roll one additional unblockable attack die against that figure. A figure may not be chosen for Ruthless Teleportation more than once per turn. If Nightcrawler uses his Ruthless Teleportation, he cannot attack this turn.

BAMF! EVASION
If Nightcrawler defends against an attack and you roll at least one blank, Nightcrawler takes no damage and may immediately use his BAMF! Teleport special power.

[Arkham]

Figure:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:


Comic Art:

Spoiler Alert!

[Tornado]

Nay.

[Viegon]

I really like where this design ended up. Thematic and cool.

I would tweak some of his numbers down a little though:
1) A base move of 7 seems high. Normally we only give that much move to someone with well above human speed. 6 feels more thematically appropriate.
2) I'd drop the base Bamf! Teleport move to 3, then bump the single jump bonus to +7. Otherwise, as-is, there's almost never a reason to use the single jump of 10 spaces when you can do three jumps of 4 getting you to 12 spaces (and also allowing you to use Ruthless Teleportation 2 more times).
3) Comparing him to Archangel (a similar mutant with high-speed and the ability to auto-wound up to 3 targets while moving, who is 260 points), a D20 roll of 15+ feels low. We can wait and see how things go in testing, but I feel he should stay in the low 200s, in which case I expect his D20 roll will need to come up towards 17+.

Other than those points, I think this design is really solid as-is.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Viegon

I really like where this design ended up. Thematic and cool.

I would tweak some of his numbers down a little though:
1) A base move of 7 seems high. Normally we only give that much move to someone with well above human speed. 6 feels more thematically appropriate.
2) I'd drop the base Bamf! Teleport move to 3, then bump the single jump bonus to +7. Otherwise, as-is, there's almost never a reason to use the single jump of 10 spaces when you can do three jumps of 4 getting you to 12 spaces (and also allowing you to use Ruthless Teleportation 2 more times).
3) Comparing him to Archangel (a similar mutant with high-speed and the ability to auto-wound up to 3 targets while moving, who is 260 points), a D20 roll of 15+ feels low. We can wait and see how things go in testing, but I feel he should stay in the low 200s, in which case I expect his D20 roll will need to come up towards 17+.

Other than those points, I think this design is really solid as-is.

Honestly, though, I've always seen Archangel underperform. Granted, I haven't tried him in a Destiny/Magneto build, but that's a lot of points and a very specific build to get his power working.

[Yodaking]

Agreed on the 7 move, concur on 6 being a better fit.

[Arkham]

Reasonable suggestions.

1) I have no issue with 6 movement instead of 7.

2) I'd prefer moves of 4. I feel the big jump makes more sense to net you less coverage, as the longer the distance = the more tired Nightcrawler gets. I feel it'll be used to make it over lava, gaps in the map, or specials that activate when entering a certain number of spaces within a figure etc. So it's supposed to be option B, in which you forgo the larger movement and additional uses of Ruthless Teleportation, to avoid a spacing obstacle. However, I'm not entirely against 3 moves of 3 with a bump to 10 as option B.

3) I'm fine with a bump to 16-17. I was actually just thinking about this earlier, and wouldn't be surprised to see it end there. So changing it before testing is fair. The key being that he can do it 3 times on the same figure as-is, potentially killing them if they are 1 wound away, and can still attack. So upping the roll is logical.

[dok]

Protector, pretty please?

[Arkham]

Originally Posted by dok

Protector, pretty please?

This isn't the Nightcrawler that has ties with Excalibur though. If I'm not mistaken, there's still room for a Nightcrawler II, with the ability to Teleport teammates, and playing up his stealth elements, that should have the Protector class. If there's no room or desire to LD that design from Yoda, I'll do it after this one.

[Viegon]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Honestly, though, I've always seen Archangel underperform. Granted, I haven't tried him in a Destiny/Magneto build, but that's a lot of points and a very specific build to get his power working.

Well, any D20-based Mutant has to be balanced around Magneto/Destiny, there's just no way around it.

Personally, I've had pretty much the opposite experience with Archangel. He's never felt broken to me, but I can't remember him ever feeling overcosted either.

Originally Posted by Arkham

2) I'd prefer moves of 4. I feel the big jump makes more sense to net you less coverage, as the longer the distance = the more tired Nightcrawler gets. I feel it'll be used to make it over lava, gaps in the map, or specials that activate when entering a certain number of spaces within a figure etc. So it's supposed to be option B, in which you forgo the larger movement and additional uses of Ruthless Teleportation, to avoid a spacing obstacle. However, I'm not entirely against 3 moves of 3 with a bump to 10 as option B.

I get your thematic reasoning, but I just don't think it translates right to gameplay. Very few maps are designed in such a way that the triple-jump can't maneuver effectively, and it will be pretty rare that he goes up against an opponent where the large-jump is needed to avoid a special power.

It just seems like a lot of text for a back-up option that comes up only 5-10% of the time.

Originally Posted by dok

Protector, pretty please?

This is Kurt Darkholme, the version of Nightcrawler from the Age of Apocalypse timeline. He's very aggressive/ruthless, definitely doesn't fit in with Excalibur.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I'd like to see that roll come up as well.

I'd really rather see him come in at 200-210. Stacking up against other X-Men (Storm, Havok, Jean, Phoenix spring to mind), I feel like that's the ceiling for a high-end Nightcrawler. I know this isn't "our" Nightcrawler, but I'd like Nightcrawler (AoA) and Nightcrawler (II) to wind up at about the same cost. It'd be weird to me if the AoA version was significantly stronger/higher-costed. Nightcrawler (II) will presumably have Excalibur synergy and support powers in place of the ruthlessness of this version.

That aside, I like where this ended up, though.