Re: [Pod 0] Honored Soul-Guides (Lantern Geists) - Design
Firstly, I apologize if this post seems a bit scattered: it's late where I am and I wanted to post these notes before shutting down my computer. Going through by points:
- I still don't think that the guiding part of the design is the core conceit that will appeal to players. It's fine for some designs to be passive, and I think that this is a case where it's justifiable to keep the focus on the hero, who will most likely be the reason they were drafted in the first place.
- In my eyes, the once-per-game limit is going to be a thing either way. This card should not need to negate anything.
- Restricting it to Unique Humans feels like it turns them into a Sgt. Drake machine to me. Sir Dupuis is "bad" not because he can't come back but because he lacks bonding or movement synergy with any knights, making him a niche draft. Given that he's the only large Unique Human hero, I don't see much appeal in adding him to the mix, given that the most noteworthy Human heroes were Sgt. Drake, Sir Gilbert, and perhaps Spartacus or other completely immobile figures. I think that people will be more excited if these figures can cast a wider net than that (which also works well with a limited collection!), especially in a box with lots of varied Unique Heroes that could otherwise be great fits beyond just Cyprien and Sonlen.
I think that this unit is more or less like the Greenscales. What's cool and appealing about them is that they choose any dragon to bond with, even the less-competitive ones that players have nostalgia for. I'd like to hit a similar note here if possible, and just Human Heroes isn't very congruous with that approach (plus, most of my concerns would still be with Sir Gilbert, who gets much better in this case since he can move the HSGs while bonding anyway).
- I like calling the figure the Revenant well enough. My understanding of the term is that it's more of a negative connotation, though (mostly from myriad folklore). I do think that Scytale had a good point about these guys not feeling great as Jandar for an introductory set, and the more skeletal or monstrous that the revival becomes, the more I think that rings true.
- Like the once-per-game restriction, I want removing all wounds to be on the table in any case. The only thing that it really hurts is the MacDirks, which while unfortunate, isn't something that's critical to the design. Several people commented that the 1 life made the revived heroes a bit too risky, and we can certainly shore that up without a heavy redesign (in fact, automatically destroying the figure at the end of the round means that attacking the revived hero will be less common since the damage is "wasted," so it's more likely that they'll survive the full round).
I think this is a very good change that addresses a lot of the feedback we've received.
- I also like not sacrificing a Soul-Guide while the power is once-per-game.
- If we're making two powers, then I'm definitely fine with the powers being separated akin to the Greenscales.
It's worth noting that as written, I could also see a strong argument that Guiding Lights should also be two powers (or restructured to be a part of Last Will?). There's precedent with combining these sorts of things, but I see the bonding being an easy thing for a newer player to be surprised by.
- In theory I like the "guiding" aspect of the power where the figure will automatically be destroyed if both Soul-Guides are dead, but I don't see it panning out very well on the battlefield. Removing the time limit enables a lot of less satisfying experiences, I think, especially when the Soul-Guides can be protected from melee figures. Immobile figures are perfectly happy to get a second life, and the Soul-Guides can be spread out enough that it doesn't really matter even if one dies. Sir Gilbert is the prime problem-maker here, but I'm not confident that others don't exist. More critically, this would also cast a huge net over all future Human Heroes--the more limited the revival is, the easier it is to keep it constrained and reasonably balanced while still hitting those exhilarating notes.
- I don't like Levitation at all thematically. Stealth Flying is a well-established trope for HeroScape ghosts, and outside of the Specters of Aldorn (which I also dislike having Levitation, but it's at least justified there for the gameplay of Deathly Touch), I'm not aware of it being dropped very often. I get the gameplay necessity to avoid Sgt. Drake or someone swinging around with their two untouchable companions, but it feels very off thematically when contrasted with any of the other ghosts.
Velkhor also having Stealth Flying doesn't make much sense to me as a reason for dropping the power improving this card. Ultimately, it feels like Stealth Flying is dropped for Levitation because it's a shorter power. That's certainly true, but that doesn't mean it's the right power for this design, especially since it comes at the cost of them feeling like ghosts rather than another experiment like the Velnesh.
What goal is this draft trying to address other than making them actually guide the hero? I'm content with leaving that aspect of them to the theme conveyed by the card and bringing the hero back to the board, and I don't think that it's critical that they have a more active presence on the board itself. If anything, I think that it even muddles the simple appeal of the design, and there are other ways to make an interesting decision space for the opponent, as I alluded to in the points above.
A lot of the feedback has been that the card is cool but difficult to make full use of because it's so risky to place OMs on a 1-life Unique Hero, which naturally pushes them more towards bonding and weird edge cases. Making the hero revive at full life fully addresses that from my perspective, and the guaranteed destruction at the end of the round makes me suspect that the price bump won't be
too bad even with the better compatibility with typical armies. I think that change, combined with the once-per-game revival, is a refined version of the card's existing vision that Pod 0 designed (note that I especially don't agree with every choice that was made, but we also don't want to reinvent the wheel that previous members made unless it's necessary--wanting the Guides to be more active doesn't hit the notes for me from what we've seen).
As an alternative suggestion that would still allow for the Guides to take a more active presence on the board throughout the game, we could let them choose the "Revenant" at the start of the game and still let them use the revival during
one round later in the game. Then, to start advancing them throughout the entire game:
GUIDING LIGHTS
After revealing an Order Marker on the Honored Soul-Guides' card and instead of taking a turn with them, you may move each Soul-Guide up to 2 spaces and then take a turn with their Revenant.
This would reward standalone Unique armies and the revival being placed adjacent to a Soul-Guide encourages moving them forward to maximize the time of the revived hero (but simultaneously placing them in danger from the enemy). It also gives them blocking utility during the actual revival round, especially with Stealth Flying. I don't actually like this change (mostly because I think that it's superfluous to the design's core), but it would give them a more active role while still placing the focus on one burst of a revival with the chosen hero.
bringing this figure back for a bit of a redesign. I think the current iteration is a bit too complicated and unintuitive for its own good.
