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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 12:54 AM |
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ICTC VII: Miasma
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Before we begin....
Some important details you should know before jumping in:
I've designed this faction as part of Heroes of Might and Magic VII, which takes place 200 years after the events of Dark Messiah. Since that time, land and sea exploration have both expanded far beyond the continent in Heroes 5. The game now involves lands far to the east, west, and south of the Holy Griffin Empire. The "Miasma" faction is based in the continent of Isse to the west, in a region containing vast stretches of bizarre forests called Gal Marth. In addition to the many new territories of Heroes VII, the known pantheon of deities has likewise expanded beyond the dragon gods.
As far as game mechanics are concerned, I've blended together both Heroes 5 and Heroes 6. If you've played both of these game you shouldn't have much trouble distinguishing the differences and following along. I've noted below the features I used for Heroes 5 and the features for Heroes 6 to make things easier:
- Creature and Hero stats follow the Heroes 5 system, however I am using the arrangement of Core, Elite, and Champion creatures as in Heroes 6. Several of the creatures also have special abilities with cooldown timers, like you would find in Heroes 6.
-The building and resource system is based around Heroes 5.
-The skill system is based around Heroes 5.
-The special racial skills of the Hero operate like in Heroes 6. This means certain actions need to be performed in order to fill up the charger for the Hero to perform their special racial power.
- Also: there are a total of 8 creatures in the line-up. 3 core creatures, 3 elite creatures, and 2 champion creatures, one of them might-based and one of them magic-based. You are able to build ONE of the champion creature dwellings.
I have rated the stats of the creatures in my line-up with 'very low', 'low', 'average', 'high', and 'very high'. Remember that these ratings are based around creatures of the same tier as them. So of course, a champion creature with a 'very low' attack/damage will still be much higher than a core creature with a 'very high' attack/damage rating, etc.
Enjoy and post feedback or random thoughts.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 12:54 AM |
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***
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 12:55 AM |
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Faction: Miasma
Territory: Gal Marth, "The Weird Wilds"
Capital City: Marth'dozu Doon
Society: Alliance of Tribes
Primary Race: Kobold
Worship: The Primordials
Faction Racial Power: Psionics
Color Theme: Magenta, Green, Black
Flag Symbol: The stylized Helix, representative of the many helix-shaped sprigs in Gal Marth. In kobold society, the helix is a symbol of vigor, potential, and both mental and physical quickness.
Miasma Town Music Theme
Miasma Combat Music Theme
A People of Unknown Origins
The lands of Gal Marth on the Isse continent are vast, stretching to the base of the northern coast mountains, westwards to the borders of marshlands, and southward towards the open plains. Gal Marth is primarily humid temperate forests riddled with large rivers, small streams, and the occasional tree-break of open lush meadows. Gal Marth means "The Weird Wilds", and are so-named because of the famed gargantuan magenta-tinted mushrooms that spot the landscape along with the more familiar trees. Many unique plants and animals inhabit Gal Marth, and like with the mushrooms, many flowers and vines take on the same distinct magenta hue, giving the wilderness a distinct bizarreness and beauty to any outsider daring or stupid enough to venture within. The many residents of Gal Marth range from triple-horned elk to skiddish purple-tinted hares; bright green jumping spiders to egotistical white squirrels; fist-sized ladybugs to shimmering black mists that silently devour small animals. Far more powerful creatures than these find their home within The Weird Wilds, but the title of lord, steward, and cultivator belongs to the ancient kobold.
Kobolds are skinny, finely-scaled folk that usually stand at no more than a meter tall. They are believed to be exceedingly the oldest civilized race on Ashan, however the details are murky because of the scarcity of written material by kobolds. Kobolds have remarkable memories and are capable of accurately passing on large volumes of information after having heard it once, and primarily rely on oral storytelling. However, records from thousands of years ago by the oldest elves on Isse account of them traveling to Gal Marth and finding sealed burial mounds of kobolds that were already covered with earth and long mummified. Though scattered small tribes of kobolds may be found far and wide outside of Gal Marth, the Weird Wilds have ever remained their central home, as they clearly have some sort of unique connection to the land. There has never been in all the history of Ashan a successful invasion of Gal Marth; the land is difficult to maneuver with its thick trees and network of rivers, to say nothing of the diseases carried by mosquitoes that the kobolds themselves are highly resistant to. An army can very well find itself diminished, demoralized, and defeated without having crossed blades with a single native.
Yet there is a far darker power in the heart of Gal Marth than mosquitoes. At the exact center of the wilds is the city of Marth'dozu Doon, the ancient seat of power around which all the tribes of the kobolds pay homage to.
Marth'dozu Doon. The Great Fortress of the Solus Magi.
The Central Tower
Marth'dozu Doon is a relic of the fabled " Solus Magi", as they are called by Ashanian historians: a disappeared race of humanoids from the distant past believed to have been in possession of godlike powers. Though very rare artifacts and small structures of the mighty race have been found across Ashan, all of them are overwhelmingly eclipsed by the superfortress of Marth'dozu Doon. Everything about the tower is far beyond the understanding of the greatest architects of the Griffin Empire or archmages of the Silver Cities. The grandest stone towers of Ashan would crumble under their own weight if they were built to even a fraction of the height of Marth'dozu Doon. The building is said to be unaffected by the aging of centuries, despite being covered with perfectly square glass windows, and the fortress lights up on its own at night, glimmering like an angelic beacon. Though the structure itself is capable of comfortably hosting thousands of kobolds, there are also dozens of levels and tunnels below the tower with which the kobolds have taken up residence. The single superstructure is a city unto itself, capable of being seen jutting towards the sky from leagues away. Marvelous though it may appear, this fortress is not a tale of splendor to the outsider, but one of horror.
Only a single expeditionary force has penetrated through Gal Marth to get to the tower: the famous Zarabel Party from 140 years ago. Zarabel was a renowned wizard within the courts of the Silver Cities that had garnered an unhealthy obsession for uncovering the secrets of Marth'dozu Doon. Through her immense prestige, wealth, and political clout, she was able to band together a small but highly elite force of several hundred wizards and djinn. Rumor had it that the superstructure itself was largely unguarded by any true force, and was in fact used as a popular breeding ground for kobold mothers. Her strategy was quality over quantity. Under her mantle were many of the best the entire wizard nation had to offer. If they could use their considerable magical talents to quickly dart through the wilds without even bothering to fight any resistance they might encounter, they could reach the heartland within a week, quickly assault the fortress, scatter the kobolds, and have enough time to scour the fortress for any information before retreating.
Zarabel first realized something was wrong when her elite force came within several kilometers of the colossal structure. The treeline began to thin out and then ended entirely. In the final stretch towards the tower was a flat landscape of barren rock and windswept soil riddled only with rolling patches of dandelions. As she approached the fortress itself, hordes of kobolds fled within its doors. The doors opened on their own to the kobolds, but would not move when Zarabel's force approached. She was forced to break her way in, which was a considerable task in of itself. The glass windows covering the building withstood the blows of hammers and a massive earth elemental needed to be summoned, which was able to pound its way inside eventually. The rumors were correct: the building was loaded with pregnant kobolds, children, and complacent males that fled before their approach. The mysteries within the ancient structure were hers to explore! Though... she felt dizzy and a little disoriented. Perhaps the party ought to pause before breaking off and combing the mighty fortress?
The elation among the elite force did not last long. First came nausea, then came vomiting, then fever, then headache. Some groups of the party began breaking off, wandering around as though in a daze. Fearful of whatever kobold curse she thought was hindering their progress, Zarabel pressed on all the same, realizing that a second attempt to breech the fortress would likely prove far more difficult. Herself and a few of her most trusted advisers went into the tunnels below while most of her party began scouring upward towards the pinnacle of the tower. She needed a moment to think and collect her thoughts. She absently rubbed her sweating forehead and took a deep breath. When she lowered her hand, she found to her terror a massive glob of her finely-shampooed silver hair in the palm of her hand, and could scarcely find the strength to scream.
Though a woman of great intellect and ambition, she had a weakness with her vanity. Throttled with a sickening fear, she called upon the power of her scroll of recall and left the dreaded fortress at once to be whisked away to the safety of her villa in the Silver Cities. She died a few days later, blind, miserable, and in terror, her flesh covered in oozing sores as though it were half melting from her face. No incantation from wizard or priest could save her. None of the members of her expedition were ever heard from again.
Several weeks later, the damage wrecked on the entrance of the superstructure by the earth elemental had repaired itself. The ancient fortress of the Solus Magi once again looked as though it were built yesterday, and kobolds milled about freely, unharmed by whatever mysterious evil had brought an awful end to the wizard's expedition. Historians widely agree that the kobold race must have some sort of ancient connection with the godlike Solus Magi: the two prevailing theories are that the kobolds were underlings to the Solus Magi and still take up residence in their long-gone masters' fortress, or that they are themselves the Sol Magi and yet somehow fell from their glorious status.
Rising Society of Gal Marth
In distant times, before elves began building their earliest civilization, the primitive kobolds of Gal Marth and beyond frequently warred with each other over food, spoils, women, or general distaste for their neighbors. The famed example told among kobolds in oral tradition of the elder days is when one tribe exterminated another tribe because they were stuck living downstream of their neighbors. One of the elder's grandsons, Kumo, of the upstream tribe journeyed to his downhill neighbors to ask if they preferred their morning drinking piss to be sweet or salty. The provocation resulted in every last man, woman, and child of the upstream tribe being skewered to death. To the current day, overly rambunctious kobold children are often labeled "Kumos" as a mark of shame on them until they learn discipline.
War among kobolds gradually dwindled as the younger races in the wider world began building highways, watchtowers, and cities. Kobolds had lived for eons, and these young nincompoops were starting to outdo their superior bloodline? Disease and wild beasts had served as a natural shield from outsiders, but the kobold tribes slowly and painfully began to recognize that the old ways would need to shelved, and new ways brought about in order for Ashan to once again recognize (as though outsiders ever believed it in the first place) that kobolds were the pinnacle of culture on Ashan. Xenophobia, kobold pride, and inter-tribal armies began spreading throughout the teeming forests of Gal Marth. Chants such as "Glory to the ancient ones!", "Spears facing the outside, not the inside!" and "Elves are short! Kobolds are tall!" were commonly heard. The pandemonium of tribal upheaval and calls for unity ultimately reached a crescendo with a bloody civil war, The War of Ascension, where the tribes on the outskirts of Gal Marth warred with the inner tribes closer to Marth Dozu'Doon. The inner tribes were reluctant to a unified kobold society butting into their affairs, whereas the outer tribes demanded all of Gal Marth under an alliance that could better deter encroachment from outsiders into their lands. The outer tribes arose victorious, largely because of their coordinated war effort versus the inner tribes tendency to defend and counterattack independently from one another. The captive elders of the inner tribes were taken to Marth Dozu'doon and thrown off the top. In an unexpected act of mercy, the outer tribes offered tribute and reprieve to the defeated inner tribes by sending hosts of newly-matured daughters to be taken as wives. Other than placating the inner tribes, another under-the-table reason by the elders of the outer tribes was to solidify their position; the more conservative tribes would be interbred with their own, and their progeny would be tutored by the wives, as is custom in Gal Marth.
Military, Economy, Worship
After the elders proclaimed the defeat of the stupid tribes and the victory of the smart ones (at least they proclaimed that message to the outer tribes), Gal Marth quickly rose to a fearsome power, surprising even itself. Psions and peacekeepers went among the tribes to maintain the order and solidarity. Joint armies were formed among all the tribes, as had never been done before, and it became perfectly clear what wasn't as easily recognizable beforehand: there were a lot of kobolds, to say nothing of the other powerful denizens within Gal Marth that were either tamed, controlled, or rallied next to them. Legions of the disgusting Carrion Crawlers were amassed; rivers of the alien and feared Slimes; hunting packs of the awesome Hallucinations. Because of the previously fractured tribal society, there had never before been a census of all of Gal Marth. Kobolds are really strong! Of course kobolds were really strong! Didn't we know that all along? We are strong, smart, and tall!
Kobolds invest in a variety of trades as hunters, fishers, farmers, tailors, woodcutters, potters, metalworkers, stonecutters, healers, storytellers, and dentists. They gather their food from the meat of animals, pumpkins, yams, squash, bugs, and certain leaves. Many of the meadows of Gal Marth have been landscaped into thick rice patties, particular valuable as food to store through the cold winter months. Many of the trees surrounding kobold villages are stalked with wooden baskets blooming edible flowers and vegetables. In caves and darker areas, fungus farmers keep the environment heavily watered and damp to turn in large crops of mushrooms. Kobold metalworking is relatively crude, and most kobolds rely on giant beetle chitins for armor, shields, and roofing, but blacksmiths all the same pound away at their trade for constructing axles, spears, pipes, and other tools. Magicians and engineers build special "Mottus" along the forests: large magic lamps that stay lit for many years to serve as waypoints and markers for travelers going from tribe to tribe. More respected kobolds adorn themselves in a variety of softened hides and antlers, and smell thickly with the scent of perfumes. Life in Gal Marth is dangerous but plentiful.
On the left, a depiction of Gal Marth during the early winter. On the right is a kobold psion and peacekeeper, a highly honored position entrusted with maintaining and strengthening the Alliance of Tribes.
Though kobolds are widely believed to be dull-minded (perhaps a bit ironically, given their feared reputation as psions that can manipulate the minds of others), there are many examples of them possessing a keen intellect that contends with (perhaps even surpasses) the average elf or man. Kobold outcasts, rare though they are, often find their way into academies, libraries, and other advanced institutions. Wizards have often written on the amazing capacity of the kobold memory, calling them "storage banks". The drawback is a frequent impatience and lack of interest that seems so prevalent among their race. Where they excel in mind, they often falter in wisdom.
Thousands of stonecuttings and woodcarvings can be found throughout villages and in the wilds of Gal Marth of the Primordials, the ancients of nature that forged the worlds. Kobolds pray to them for protection from calamity, and for strength, courage, fertility, and to die a good death. Kobolds are fond of performing rituals in different transitional phases of their life. Kobolds that hit puberty dance around a fire for several hours as a sign of their youth and for strength for the future. Newly-wed kobolds honor the primordials of the earth by rubbing large quantities of paprika seeds on their genitals before consummation. The most important ritual of all is the Rite unto Death: Kelhadokhu.
Kobolds live for about a century before the normally charcoal scales around their brow start to turn a jet black. This physical sign is very shortly followed (usually within no more than a few months) by hysteria, aggression, confusion, and overall madness which only becomes increasingly worse over time. Thus, about a month after receiving the black scales, all kobolds are given a merciful death to depart from the world. They say goodbye to their beloved friends, family, and often give a public speech about their major regrets and accomplishments in life. When the ceremony of Kelhadokhu and the tears are done with, the kobold offers their prayer to the primordials of air before being decapitated.
There are rare instances where renegade kobolds are too afraid to die and flee from town into the wilds after receiving the black scales, the ultimate results of which are tales that fill younglings and elders alike with fear. As a kobold continues to age after receiving the black scales, eventually their entire body becomes black as a starless night and their sapience seems to altogether disappear. They are raving, incomprehensible lunatics, inflicting harm on themselves and tearing animals and plants to pieces. They once again start to grow, becoming taller than men and thicker than dwarves. They are killing machines of immense power, hunted down by large posses of kobolds before they can do too much harm. Those that elude the arrows of posses often times eventually commit suicide on their own, but some endure for many years before finally being slain. It is from this condition that comes the legend of the Betrayer of Kelhadokhu, a kobold that has supposedly been alive for thousands of years and has become almost godlike in her powers. It is unknown when a kobold actually dies of old age, if they even die at all.
Depictions of the Primordials. One of the perplexing features of primordial drawings is that they often take on a humanoid face, and it has known to be this way since the eldest days of kobold civilization, before kobolds were known to have any contact with the younger races of Ashan.
Kobold towns are very three dimensional, with a network of large treehouses that can go as high as the canopy or as low to just a few meters above the base of the tree. Likewise, kobolds erect permanent dwellings on the tops of giant mushrooms, and build them around the trunks of the mushrooms. The forest floor itself is littered with buildings, and larger kobold towns often have yet another network of tunnels built below that. Most kobold structures are built out of wood, hide, and beetle carapaces, though they are also capable of burning fires for producing brown brick, or cutting stones for sturdier structure. Kobolds are highly connected to both magic and their natural psionic gifts, and at night their towns light up with various glowing mottus. Graffiti is encouraged within kobold society, but only if you're really good at it, and kobold and mohawk artists often receive charitable donations for their work. Amateur artists are flogged for destruction of property. Kobold towns are riddled with ornate stone and wood carvings, and glamorous pictures that are sometimes enchanted to glow at night.
Mercury is the most important rare resource for the Miasma faction.
Creature Dwellings
Rite of the Warrior: Allows you to train Oathborn
Rite of the Chosen:Allows you to train Predators
Cytoplasmic Whirlpool:Allows you to train Slimes
Cytoplasmic Maelstorm:Allows you to train Psionic Oozes
Garbage Pits: Allows you to train Carrion Crawlers
Carnage Pits: Allows you to train Carrion Monsters
Redwood Tower: Allows you to train Angakkuqs
Tower of Many Lanterns: Allows you to train Great Angakkuqs
Transcendence Orb: Allows you to recruit Anemones
Sphere of the Eight Planes: Allows you to recruit Glowing Anemones
Gargantuan Canopy: Allows you to recruit Mohawks
Cavernous Canopy: Allows you to recruit Tarrasque
Acidic Caves: Allows you to recruit Orms. Building this dwelling will disable you from being able to build the Grove of Blackest Night.
Magenta Caves: Allows you to recruit Qailertetangs
Grove of Blackest Night: Allows you to recruit Hallucinations. Building this dwelling will disable you from being able to build the Acidic Caves.
Grove of Blackest Mind: Allows you to recruit Widowmakers.
Unique Buildings
Catwalk: A series of interconnected wood plank rope bridges connect the many treehouses strewn across the town, making transit easier than ever across the 3 dimensional landscape of the bustling forest town. Kobolds scurry to and fro, carrying packs of goods, bundles of scrolls, and small livestock.
Prerequisites: Tavern, Fortress, Town Hall, Rite of the Warrior, Marketplace
Benefit: The cost of wood and stone for all future buildings constructed in this town is decreased by 1, and the cost of purchasing heroes from the tavern is decreased by 250 gold.
Floating Mottu: A giant, bulbous ever-glowing lantern hangs by huge hemp ropes to a small school of flying jellyfish circling the central mushroom of the town. The massive mottu bathes the forest town in a soft green light
Prerequisites: Tavern, Redwood Tower, Mage Guild level 2, City Hall
Benefit: A hero may make a one-time visit to the wondrous floating mottu to gain a rank in EITHER Light Magic or Enlightenment for the cost of 2500 gold and 3 mercury. Additionally, during a siege, all defending creatures automatically have the 'Regeneration' spell casts on them the first time that they are dealt damage in combat (spellpower 10 at expert mastery).
Prisms of the Mind: Next to the village hall of the city (which sits on the giant mushroom in the center of town) the Prisms of the Mind is a tower carved out of fungus wood with porous spherical rooms jutting from the sides that emit diodes of magenta light. Kobolds gather in these chambers to focus and hone their psionic gifts.
Prerequisites: Tavern, Mage Guild level 2, Cytoplasmic Whirlpool, Citadel
Benefit: Psionic powers are enhanced by +10% within the zone of control of this town. When the hero visits the town, all Slimes, Psionic Oozes, Angakkuqs, and Great Angakkuqs in the hero's army receive +10 mana for a week.
Chitin Workshops: On the carbon-smothered forest floor, next to the hammering and ringing forges of the town's smithy, is a large wooden pavilion lined with an array of tools, leather straps, and long tables where kobolds ply away at the unique trade of chitin crafting. Large beetle shells, horns, and appendages are imported in daily from hunters and trappers to be crafted for tools, shields, and weapons.
Prerequisites: Village Hall, Fortress, Rite of the Warrior, Blacksmith
Benefit: Hero artifact items for the hands, feet, body, head, shield, and weapon may be enhanced with 'chitin reinforcements' at the Chitin Workshops at the cost of 1500 gold for each artifact. Chitin reinforced artifacts can receive one of two chosen abilities: +4% magic resistance or +1 defense. Different artifacts may only be applicable for one or the other enhancement, and a few will be applicable for both to choose from (Robes, for example, can usually only be reinforced with +4% magic resistance). Be aware that chitin reinforcements will remain active if your artifacts are captured by an enemy hero.
Tear of Asha Building: Stairway of the Primordials: The giant mushroom at the center of town expands in size, gains a brighter magenta glow, and is outfitted with a spiraling wooden stairway around the trunk of the mushroom, marked with tiki torches and hieroglyphic symbols.
Prerequisites: The Tear of Asha
Benefits: The town's creature growth is increased by +50% and your kingdom gains an additional 4000 gold per day. Your Psion or Primus heroes start the combat with their racial gauge already full. You may now build both of your champion creature dwellings in this town. When defending this town, your hero will have two Mushroom Patches at their disposal (as with the 'Fungal Bloom' racial perk) in addition to if your hero already has the Fungal Bloom perk.
Many consider kobolds to be inferior warriors because of their small size and weak muscles. Unfortunately, they're absolutely right. Kobold warriors that have served for long periods of time in distant lands are accustomed to being laughed and jeered at by the enemy . Oathborn and their more honored peers, Predators, are not without their merits though, and kobolds never needed to win in a melee with superior quality when they can often rely on their quantity. As the saying goes in many taverns in Gal Marth: "War is won in the bedroom". These armored, spear-wielding warriors proudly come from all stretches of the tribes in great numbers, swelling their ranks enough to maybe give pause to the bigger human, orcish, or elven warriors that they have to contend with. They move in nearly flawless synchronization with another, stabbing with one wave of spears and following up with several more waves until they break their foes' ranks and swarm in from all directions. Better trained Predators charge in with a volley of twirling bolas and quickly follow with a flurry of spears, spikes, and teeth. They are eager, loyal, and train hard with their bodies to make the most of what they have. Most of them bring along small trinkets and pieces of clothe from their wives and younglings to give them courage. They will do whatever it takes to win.
Strategic Overview: Oathborn and Predators are a fast-paced melee unit, good for rushing into battle on the heels of the better-tanking Carrion Crawlers or Mohawks. Their hunting tactics ability make them ideal for concentrating on a specific unit for several turns, and the upgraded Predators can alternatively use their Bola ability to avoid retaliation and delay a critical enemy unit's turn.
Oathborn Abilities:
Small: This creature occupies a 1x1 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic powers.
Hunting Tactics: The second consecutive attack against the same stack deals +15% damage. The third consecutive attack against the same stack deals +30% damage. All additional consecutive attacks against the same stack deal +30% damage.
Additional Predator Abilities:
Bola! Special Ability: As this creature moves to attack a target, it throws bolas at the target's legs before arming its spear to strike. The targeted creature cannot retaliate to the Predator's attack, and at the beginning of the target's next turn, it automatically executes the 'Wait' command in order to stand up. The Predator must move at least 3 tiles when using this ability and must have at least 1/8th the exp value of the targeted stack in order to use this ability. A few certain creatures without discernible legs are immune to this ability. Cooldown timer: 3 turns.
Counting Coup: This creature receives +3 attack and defense if the hero already won a combat previously during the same game turn.
These slobbering beasts scavenge the forests in search of whatever they can kill and eat, including kobolds and, if pickings are poor, plants, mushrooms, rocks, or other carrion crawlers. They have one entrance and one exit; the massive spiked maw at the center of their body with which they can consume substances almost instantly and then spew out the digested wastes shortly afterwards. Nothing actually kills and eats the carrion crawlers themselves, and the kobold tribes have long been the agent to keep these noxious creatures under control. Their teeth and tendril spines are used for a variety of purposes, and the acidic bile of their stomachs plays a key role both for kobold blacksmiths and in the chitin crafting trade. Tamers also round them up and breed them for warfare, often giving them small samples of their prey to interest their appetites as well as going through routines to teach them not to try to eat the rest of the army.
Strategic Overview: Carrion Crawlers are a standard hit-and-be-hit melee unit. Their Metabolic Furnace ability can grant them enhanced killing power and can serve as a strategic detriment in duels against Raise Dead, Resurrection, and similar abilities. The upgrade's Bile Marker ability makes them ideal for hanging out in a specific part of the battlefield, useful either for a turtle defense or for punching into a turtle defense, especially if this creature has the temporary benefits of a breath attack.
Carrion Crawler Abilities:
Small: This creature occupies a 1x1 area on the battlefield
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic abilities
Metabolic Furnace: Special Ability: This creature can move and devour a corpse on the battlefield. It suffers -2 initiative on its next turn. For the next 3 turns after that, it gains +5 attack, +2 speed, and has a plasma-like breathe attack that fires into the line behind the targeted creature. Cooldown timer: 3 turns.
Additional Carrion Monster Abilities:
Bile Marker: Special Ability: This creature spews bile on an adjacent square. Now that it has marked its territory, this creature receives +4 attack, +4 defense, and +2 initiative as long as it stays within 5 squares of its bile. The bile does not count as an obstacle and units can move through it freely, but it cannot be targeted and destroyed. This ability can only be used once per combat.
Fast Food: When this creature strikes the killer blow to a stack, it immediately picks it up with its tendrils and devours it, activating the 'Metabolic Furnace' ability, even if the cooldown timer isn't yet reset.
Nobody quite understands the nature and origin of slimes and oozes. These creatures are never found mating with their kin to produce offspring, nor of eventually dying. They will appear seemingly randomly out of the mists, rivers, ground, and even the trees and mushrooms of the forests of Gal Marth, with a massive concentration of them near the central prehistoric superstructure of Marth Dozu'doon. From the strange jelly of their forms, glimpses of humanoid faces can be seen stretching outward, exhaling shimmering vapors of arcane energy, and sometimes even emitting the vaguest of whispers or humming. Many believe that there are a static number of slimes and oozes in the world since the forests do not eventually become overwhelmed with them, and that when a slime dies its essence crawls its way back to the center of Gal Marth to eventually be reborn. Whatever these unknown aberrations are, the kobolds have drawn them into their fold with relative ease. They are highly receptive to the psionic calling of kobold heroes, like a moth lustily drawn to a mottu, and they display a method and characteristic to their movements that entails intelligence. Slimes and oozes are the only other creatures of Gal Marth besides kobolds that show an inherent gift to wield psionics as a tool and weapon. However because of their total lack of being able to communicate or show any compelling sign of interest in the wider world, that power is rendered untapped and essentially useless. Whenever they aren't bound into the service of kobold heroes, slimes and oozes spend their time aimlessly wandering around the wilds, as though confused or looking for something that isn't there.
Strategic Overview: Slimes have no highly obvious role in the army, instead being just as strategically flexible as their own amorphous physical form. Their abilities can make them useful for freely moving over obstacles or, if in a siege, over castle walls, but they can also serve as caster for the first few turns, either to deal damage, slow a unit, or cast confusion on enemy ranged stack. Their upgrade's ability gives them the ability to slowly replenish mana in combat, but you have to be careful not to lose them if you ever want to make use of it.
Slime Abilities:
Small: This creature occupies a 1x1 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic abilities.
Immunity to Blind: This creature is immune to the 'Blind' spell.
Caster: This creature has mana and can cast the following spells from its spellbook: eldritch arrow, slow.
Adhesive Flow: This creature can freely move over inanimate obstacles and castle walls.
Amorphous: This creature can effortlessly shift from an oozy tower to a rounded blob to a flattened pancake. Friendly walker creatures can freely move through the tile this creature occupies as though it were an open square.
Additional Psionic Ooze Abilities:
Advanced Caster: This creature has mana and can cast the following spells from its spellbook: eldritch arrow, slow, confusion.
Mind Siphon: The damage this creature deals with melee attacks or spells counts as 50% higher for the purpose of filling the Psionics racial gauge.
Arcane Absorption: Each time this creature attacks or is attacked, it gains 1 mana.
Angakkuqs are one of the more popular members in the armies of the Alliance of Tribes because of the many liquids and powders they carry with them as part of their rituals, most infamously, their poppy petals that are highly sought after by more unscrupulous kobolds that like to kick up their leisure an extra notch. Some angakkuqs make it a part-time, secretive trade to buy such ingredients in large supplies and then sell them off to kobolds that become severely anxious and distraught without them. More orthodox angakkuqs are devout disciples of mind and magic, capable of hurling orbs of crackling pink lightning from their staff, summoning swarms of bees to maim and kill their enemies, or of cleansing their allies from whatever harmful curses the enemy might rein down on them. Other kobolds and mohawks often go to angakkuqs to talk to them, get encouragement, and to have them communicate with their wives and friends either for a small fee or for free. Many angakkuqs castrate themselves prior to joining the order, and often stay in the homes of wives as a surrogate husband to help support her litter while her husband is away, or the wives of married angakkuqs take in multiple wives and their litters to work together in a small commune.
Strategic Overview: The Angakkuq is a textbook ranged/caster combo. Use the unique assortment of spells at its disposal, and baring that, pound into the enemy ranks with your ranged attacks. The upgrade's ability makes it far more ideal to synchronize the Angakkqus ranged attacks with your hero's Mind Blast or Mind Control racial abilities.
Angakkuq Abilities:
Small: This creature occupies a 1x1 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic abilities.
25% Magic Resistance: This creature has 25% resistance to all spells.
Caster: This creature has mana and can cast the following spells from its spellbook: wasp swarm, cleansing, fire trap.
Additional Great Angakkuq Abilities:
Advanced Caster: This creature has mana and can cast the following spells from its spellbook: wasp swarm, cleansing, fire trap, magic immunity.
Psionic Extortion: This creature's attack deals +50% damage against enemy stacks affected by Mind Blast or that have been targeted by Mind Control within the past turn.
The planar traveling anemones are commonly found in and around the rivers and lakes of Gal Marth, or just off the coast to the east. These glimmering creatures move in both the material and the otherworldly realms and can cover enormous distances in a small amount of time by phasing from one spot to the next. Their mastery over space is accompanied by their fearsome telekinetic powers that can rip an arm from a socket or crush a person to death in their own chainmail. Anemones have an aloof, disengaged position with most creatures of Ashan, and some believe they were never native to the realm to begin with, but were drawn to the world at some undetermined later point. They have an appearance befitting that of some mysterious creature from the deep, and favor aquatic environments, though they can dwell on land and in the skies with perfect ease. Nighttime hunters often refer to these creatures as fireflies because of how they drift among the canopy of leaves at night and then vanish and reappear in another location.
Strategic Overview: The Anemone possesses the ultimate mobility, with both a reasonably high initiative and the ability to move anywhere on the battlefield during its turn without impediment. Because anemone's overall damage output is greatly reduced because it has no standard attack, and thus can never retaliate, it is important to make the most of this unit by attacking where it hurts the most. The special Telekinetic Lash cannot be prevented in any way as long as you are in range, and can be particularly useful for hitting ranged units pinned in the back, or for safely targeting a melee unit nearby. The Telekinetic Jolt ability can be a gamebreaker in a duel, either for breaking apart a turtle defense or for pushing aside enemy units in order to reform your own turtle.
Anemone Abilities:
Large: This creature occupies a 2x2 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic abilities.
Meager Muscle: This creature has no standard attack, and cannot retaliate when attacked.
Planar Phasing: This creature can teleport to any location on the map for its movement, and is immune to any effects that hinder or stop movement.
Telekinetic Lash: On its turn, this creature may assault a selected creature within 5 tiles with a telekinetic lash that can rend limbs and crush armor. The damage is a special attack that is treated as a physical melee attack, but there is no retaliation even if used on an adjacent unit.
Additional Glowing Anemone Abilities:
Telekinetic Jolt: This ability allows the Anemone to push any creature on the battlefield 3 tiles in a direction of your choice. The Anemone stack must be at least 1/4th the exp value of the targeted stack in order to use this ability. Cooldown timer: 2 turns.
Mohawks and Tarrasque are heavily-muscled and heavily-armored, capable of both dealing and receiving large amounts of punishment. Mohawks live shorter and breed in far, far few numbers than kobolds, but in almost every major town in Gal Marth you will find a small mohawk community in addition to the ever-thriving kobold population. These intelligent, semi-bipedal beasts often work in masonry, construction, lumber, architecture, and other trades that involve moving around a lot of raw materials. Mohawks love to build and mold, but they also love to draw and sculpt, and a great many of the finest stone cuttings, wood carvings and canvass paintings in Gal Marth are compliments to the mohawks. Mohawks often refer to themselves as "big kobolds", and it is a spiritual ordinance within their communities to protect their smaller cousins. Their protective nature in battle has earned them the derogatory name of "Pit Bulls" by outsiders.
Strategic Overview: This unit is your most powerful tanking creature in your army, and it is ideal to try to have friendly units positioned next to this creature to gain the benefits of its luck aura. The upgraded Tarrasque make them ideal to leading up the first attack against a powerful, hard-hitting enemy creature; apart from this creature's already high defense value, the Fistguard ability will vastly reduce the amount of damage you will suffer. You can then safely follow up the attack from several other of your creature's during the combat turn.
Mohawk Abilities:
Large: This creature occupies a 2x2 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is immune to psionic abilities.
Shielded: Ranged attacks deal 50% less damage against this creature.
Big Brother: This creature gains the combat benefits of 'Enraged' [as per Heroes 5] once a friendly kobold stack, either Oathborn or Angakkuqs, are dealt damage in combat.
Additional Tarrasque Abilities:
Fistguard: Creatures retaliating to this creature's attack deal 50% less damage.
Primordials' Iconophile: In times of peace, these creatures are famous for their exquisite religious artwork. Many say the primordials they worship smile a little brighter towards them. This creature is immune to effects that decrease luck, and this creature and adjacent friendly creatures receive +2 luck.
There is nothing hallucinatory about Hallucinations. The black shape emerging from nothingness before the eyes of its victim is Kelhadokhu's Ascended. A creature of real flesh, real blood, and real power. Out of the masses of kobolds that perform the Rite of Kelhadokhu once their time to die has come, an obscure minority of them bear the sign of Kelhadokhu's Ascended. Rather than receiving the black scales on their brow, their body is rapidly covered with the jet black scales over the course of a few days. These rare candidates must depart from the bonds of their old life and undergo their transformation into a being of terrible potential. Unlike other kobolds, madness and mania do not seize them. They transcend the common fears of the flesh, neither fearing death nor seeking it. There are occasional tales of times where one of Kelhadokhu's Ascended still show a glimmer of acknowledging their former life, such as the famed story of one that would yearly visit the home of his grandchild on Midsummer's Day and play with her in silence. He continued to visit even after the grandchild had long grown up and moved to another tribe with her husband. But almost always, the transformation is absolute. They are enigmatic beings of the forest, assuaged into the service of armies by only the mightiest and most ambitious heroes, although those that are not in the armies of the Alliance of Tribes will still protect the forest as well as hunt down the kobold renegades that refused to take the Rite of Kelhadokhu.
Strategic Overview: Hallucinations and their upgrades are capable of introducing themselves with a powerful attack from their state of invisibility and then following up with a major morale killer to the enemy for the next turn. Although it is tempting to try give this creature the benefits of invisibility, be weary in duels. If these are your last standing creatures on the battlefield, you will lose the combat, so it is best to keep them in the thick of battle. The upgrade's Laughing at Death ability is particularly valuable after you only have a few of these creatures left, since the potency of the ability is always the same.
Hallucination Abilties:
Large: This creature occupies a 2x2 area on the battlefield.
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is not affected by any Psionic abilities. .
Starless Night: This creature is always invisible on the battlefield unless it ends its turn adjacent to an enemy stack or if an enemy stack ends its turn adjacent to this creature.
Assassin of Gods: If this creature attacks after being invisible at the start of its turn, the attack cannot be retaliated.
Unbroken: This creature is immune to all effects that decrease morale
Undisciplined: If there are no other friendly creatures on the battlefield besides Hallucinations or Widowmakers, all creatures of this type wander off and you lose the combat.
Additional Widowmaker Abilities:
Laughing at Death: Special Ability: The creature emits a deep, otherworldly laughter tingling with psionic energy. Enemy creatures within 4 squares of this creature suffer -5 morale on their next turn. If this ability is performed while the Widowmaker is invisible, the effect of the laughter is increased to -7 morale and gives all other enemies on the battlefield outside of the radius -1 morale on their next turn. Cooldown of 4 turns.
Orms and the more mature Qailertetang are often depicted in drawings at the sides of the Primordials, serving as their earthly hosts and harbingers. These worm-like behemoths come down from the mountains bordering the northern reach of Gal Marth in the winter months to feed on the toxic giant magenta mushrooms. Though generally unaggressive and uninterested in flesh and blood morsels, the sheer size of these creatures makes them a hazard that scatters wildlife and crushes homesteads against its weight. A famous comedy, "Orm is for Oops", tells the story of many bewildered kobolds whose livelihoods and dreams had literally been wrecked by the passing orm, and they gathered together as a posse to seek vengeance on the creature only to meet their untimely deaths by falling into an orm hole in the wilds. While these surprisingly clever creatures can be befriended into the ranks of the Alliance of Tribes as a powerful ranged vessel of destruction, and are immensely revered, they are also paradoxically on the blunt end of many jokes in the army about them plowing fields, disrupting the migratory patterns of birds, and accidentally rolling over in their sleep and crushing the commander's tent, however such jabs are often hushed around the older qailertetang that seem to be able to catch on. Kobolds can discover the hard way that qailertetang don't have a good-natured sense of humor. Incidents have ranged from more temperamental qailertetang obliterating the joker in a spray of acidic plasma, to more bashful qailertetang abruptly leaving the camp and returning to their home in the mountains. The elders of the Alliance of Tribes now consider such joking to be an act of sedition, punishable with flogging or even exile.
Strategic Overview: Orms and Qailertetang can be extremely fun to use if you are able to avoid being surrounded. Although a slow mover, their Simultaneous Stream ability allows you to both move and attack, allowing you to constantly reposition yourself and thus make the most of the creature's Magic Attack ability that enables you to hit all creature's in its line of attack. Likewise, the lingering damage from the Cloud of Spores ability further enhances this. It is usually best to avoid keeping this creature in the corner so that you can constantly reposition it to hit with the line of attack that you best desire, or, if the enemy does surround this creature, they'll be forced to commit several stacks to the job.
Orm Abilities:
Enormous: This creature occupies a 2x3 area on the battlefield
Child of Gal Marth: This creature is not affected by Psionic abilities
No Range Penalty: This creature suffers no ranged penalty when hitting creatures more than half the distance of the battlefield away from itself.
Spontaneous Stream: This creature may both move and attack in one turn (either move and then attack or attack and then move), however it cannot execute the defend or wait command after attacking (there is an option to simply 'skip' to finish the creature's turn if you wish).
Magic Attack: This creature hits all creatures in the line of attack with its ranged attack, including friendly creatures.
Additional Qailertetang Abilities:
No Melee Penalty: This ranged creature suffers no penalty when making melee attacks.
Trail of Spores: The blast of the Qailertetang's ranged attack leaves a lingering residue of consuming spores that thrive within its massive belly, dangerous to all creatures not native to the lands of Gal Marth. All tiles in the line of fire of the Qailertetang's ranged attack are teeming with the magenta spray of the spores. Non-Miasma creatures are dealt 25% of the damage of the Qailertang's attack when passing through or ending their turn on a spore tile. Once a creature is coated with the spores, it will not incur additional damage moving through other spore tiles on that turn. The Trail of Spores lasts for 1 round before dispersing.
Miasma is a magic-heavy faction, with its magic hero, the Psion, having a stat percentage distribution 70/30 in favor of magic attributes, and the might hero, the Primus, having a 60/40 distribution in favor of magic attributes. The Psion is depicted in flowing black and magenta robes, holding a pole with a lantern at the end that is used to fire rays of energy as the hero's standard attack. He has no mount, but rather levitates overtop a blur of semi-translucent telekinetic tendrils that carry him on the adventure map. The Primus wears brown leather armor with a green sash. She sits in a wooden basket strapped to the armored back of a Mohawk, with a line of glowing-tipped javelins jutting into the air from the back of the basket.
Hero Stat Gain Percentages
Psion:
Attack: 10%
Defense: 20%
Spellpower: 40%
Knowledge: 30%
Primus:
Attack: 15%
Defense: 25%
Spellpower: 30%
Knowledge: 30%
Psion Skill Percentage Distribution: The two high percentile skills of the Psion are Sorcery and Summoning Magic
Psionics Unique Perks: 8%
Light Magic: 8%
Dark Magic: 2%
Destruction Magic: 10%
Summoning Magic: 15%
Sorcery: 15%
Attack: 2%
Defense: 8%
Luck: 2%
Leadership:10%
Logistics:10%
Enlightenment:2%
War Machines:8%
Primus Skill Percentage Distribution: The two high percentile skills of the Primus are Sorcery and Logistics
Psionics Unique Perks: 8%
Light Magic: 2%
Dark Magic: 2%
Destruction Magic: 10%
Summoning Magic: 10%
Sorcery: 15%
Attack: 8%
Defense: 8%
Luck: 2%
Leadership: 10%
Logistics: 15%
Enlightenment: 2%
War Machines: 8%
Racial Power: Psionics
Psions and Primi rapidly gain energy as their armies cut into the enemy ranks; the more severe the damage the better. The gauge for Psionics is filled as friendly creatures or the hero deal damage to the enemy. The gauge is filled by an additional +50% when your army deals damage to creatures that are not able to retaliate.
Psionics I: The hero can execute the Mind Blast power on an enemy stack.
Psionics II: The hero can execute the Mind Blast or Mind Control power on an enemy stack. The value of Mind Blast is improved.
Psionics III: The hero can execute the Mind Blast or Mind Control power on an enemy stack. The value of Mind Blast and Mind Control is improved.
Psionics IV: The hero can execute the Mind Blast or Mind Control power on an enemy stack. The value of Mind Blast and Mind Control is improved.
Once the racial gauge is filled, the hero has the option to execute either the 'Mind Blast' or 'Mind Control' power (Mind Control is not unlocked until Psionics II at level 5.
Mind Blast: The hero blasts the targeted enemy stack with overwhelming psionic energy, delaying their next turn. The ATB of the creature is set back by a value proportional to the size of your hero's army plus the Psionics level of the hero, up to a maximum of 2.0 ATB. Creatures affected by Mind Blast may still retaliate as usual. At Psionics I, no more than 1 enemy stack may be Mind Blasted at any given time. At Psionics III, this is increased to no more than 2 enemy stacks.
Mind Control: The hero calls forth the targeted enemy stack to obey them. The hero gains control of a percentage of the enemy stack by a value proportional to the size of your hero's army plus the Psionics level of the hero, up to a maximum of the entire stack. The new Mind Controlled stack appears in the closest randomly determined adjacent tile. [Of course, the # of the original stack is decreased depending on how many you take control of]. At Psionics II, no more than 1 enemy stack may be Mind Controlled at any given time. At Psionics IV this is increased to no more than 2 enemy stacks.
A powerful psion is trailed by an entourage of mind-controlled elves as they are led to their execution
Psion Special Starter Ability: Union of Mind and Magic
When the hero uses a psionic power, the mana cost of the next spell they cast is reduced by 1 (1st circle spells) / 2 (2nd and 3rd circle spells) / 3 (4th and 5th circle spells).
Primus Special Starter Ability: Audacity
Core creatures in the hero's army deal +15% damage against elite creatures and +20% damage against champion creatures.
Psionics Perks:
Mind of Nether Reaching: The hero's psionic power breeches into both mind and soul. Creatures with Immunity from Mind Effects, including undead, as well as creatures with the Child of Gal Marth ability are now affected by the hero's psionic powers. Constructs, such as golems, remain unaffected.
Telekinetic Shrapnel: Your armies are wreathed in vicious kinetic energy that bludgeons foes as they strike. Enemy creatures are dealt 5% of the damage they deal to your creatures in melee combat.
Fungal Bloom: Your passing leaves a sparse trail of the magenta mushrooms of your homeland. A patch of dark, glowing magenta mushrooms are depicted at the side of your hero in combat. The Mushroom Patch has an initiative of 5 on the ATB bar and can target creatures with a cloud of spores, as per the 'wasp swarm' spell. The damage of the spores is based on the level of the hero. The Mushroom Patch can use this ability a total of 8 times in combat. The Mushroom Patch can also select to 'Wait'. (Note that the Mushroom Patch is, like with Heroes, not directly involved in the combat and cannot be targeted or destroyed).
Ultimate: Compulsion of the Solus Magi
Prerequisites: Psionics IV, Mind of Nether Reaching, Telekinetic Shrapnel, Fungal Bloom, Expert Sorcery, Magic Insight, Arcane Brilliance, Distract, Expert Summoning Magic, Master of Conjuration, Master of Earthblood, Master of Life, Expert Leadership, Diplomacy, Divine Guidance, Empathy
Special Ability: You gain control of the enemy hero in combat for the next 4 turns. You have access to all spells and abilities except for the hero's racial gauge. During this time, the enemy cannot flee or surrender or use their racial power. One use per combat.
Unique Perks:
Clairvoyance:
Skill: Light Magic
Prerequisites: Advanced Light Magic, Master of Blessings, Basic Luck, Resourcefulness, Mind of Nether Reaching
The hero receives +2 knowledge and the unique adventure map spell, "Clairvoyance", is added to the hero's spellbook. The spell costs 10 mana, uses half of the hero's movement, and reveals a selected section of the map (as with the Eye of the Magi building).
Betrayer of Kelhadokhu:
Skill: Attack
Prerequisites: Mind of Nether Reaching, Advanced Attack, Battle Frenzy
The defenseless stand condemned to die. The hunters sing with the joy of an upcoming kill. Your creatures receive +15% damage against creatures that are not able to retaliate.
Evokation Cadence:
Skill: Sorcery
Prerequisites: Telekinetic Shrapnel, Basic Destructive Magic, Advanced Sorcery, Erratic Mana
Whenever your hero kills at least 1 stack with a Destructive Magic spell, the interval between two consecutive spells is decreased by an additional 20%.
Drums of Marth'dozu Doon:
Skill: War Machines:
Prerequisites: Telekinetic Shrapnel, Expert War Machines, First Aid Tent, Tremors
The Ammunition Cart receives double hit points and now includes an entourage of kobold drummers. The hero receives manual control of the Ammunition Cart. Three times per combat, the Drums of Marth'dozu Doon can select a friendly target and force them into action, as per the 'Word of the Chief' Barbarian warcry.
Psychic Paradigm:
Skill: Enlightenment
Prerequisites: Mind of Nether Reaching, Fungal Bloom, Telekinetic Shrapnel, Expert Enlightenment, Intelligence, Dark Revelation
The hero's racial gauge can now be filled up to 150% capacity (so when the player uses their racial power, up to 50% of the gauge could remain filled afterwards).
Master of Bees: (Psion Hero only)
Skill: Summoning Magic
Prerequisites: Fungal Bloom, Basic Defense, Vitality, Basic Summoning Magic
Makes 'Wasp Swarm' and 'Summon Hive' spells more powerful. Effective spellpower is increased by +4 for casting these spells. The hero learns the 'Mass Wasp Swarm' spell (Area of effect is the same as Mass Cleansing or Mass Decay. As with other 'Mass' spells, the mana cost is doubled. The ATB reduction on units is decreased by 50%.
Fury of the Meek: (Primus Hero only)
Skill: Logistics
Prerequisites: Advanced Leadership, Diplomacy, Empathy, Advanced Logistics, Scouting
Core creatures in the hero's army receive +3 speed for their turn whenever they trigger a morale and receive an additional +2 morale for their next turn.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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Vindicator
Supreme Hero
Right Back Extraordinaire
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posted February 19, 2013 01:29 AM |
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...
Goddamit bliz, I thought I at least had a chance of winning this. Seriously though, this is absolutely incredible. Is this faction done or do you have more things for this faction?
All right, so some questions/observations. The lore for this faction is excellent, I'm absolutely loving the Anemones and the Hallucinations.
Quote:
Mind Control: The hero calls forth the targeted enemy stack to obey them. The hero gains control of a percentage of the enemy stack by a value proportional to the size of your hero's army plus the Psionics level of the hero, up to a maximum of the entire stack. The new Mind Controlled stack appears in the closest randomly determined adjacent tile. [Of course, the # of the original stack is decreased depending on how many you take control of]. At Psionics II, no more than 1 enemy stack may be Mind Controlled at any given time. At Psionics IV this is increased to no more than 2 enemy stacks.
This seems pretty OP; mind controlling the Champion and one of the Elite stacks could throw the entire game off balance. Does this last for the entire battle, can the stack be one-shot (i.e. Phantom Forces in H5) or are they just a normal stack? Just that possessing two stacks for the entire game basically spells doom for everything.
Quote:
Laughing at Death: Special Ability: The creature emits a deep, otherworldly laughter tingling with psionic energy. Enemy creatures within 4 squares of this creature suffer -5 morale on their next turn. If this ability is performed while the Widowmaker is invisible, the effect of the laughter is increased to -7 morale and gives all other enemies on the battlefield outside of the radius -1 morale on their next turn. Cooldown of 4 turns.
Five morale seems like a ton to lose; run in with this stack and you can basically cancel the turns of the enemy creatures if they don't have good Leadership, and even then they'll still have negative two morale. And negative seven... Yikes.
Quote:
Telekinetic Jolt: This ability allows the Anemone to push any creature on the battlefield 3 tiles in a direction of your choice. The Anemone stack must be at least 1/4th the exp value of the targeted stack in order to use this ability. Cooldown timer: 2 turns.
What do you mean by 1/4th of the experience value?
Quote:
This creature receives +2 attack and defense if the hero was already in a combat during the game turn.
I just don't understand what this ability means.
Other than that, looking great!
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 02:38 AM |
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I may make some small additions and changes to the faction by April, but yeah, the meat & potatoes of it is all there.
About the mind control ability: I guess I need to elaborate more on it sometime later (I don't feel like touching this faction with a 10 foot pole at the moment), but to specify: you gain control of a portion of the stack for the combat. At the end of the combat, any mind-controlled stacks that still might be around would just die. The psions can't control people indefinitely.
Also, if you were, for example, in a duel with an enemy player and you both had equally sized armies, you'd only be able to mind control a relatively small fraction of a stack when you use your racial. You can't just be like "boom, boom" and within 2 rounds you are in full control of 2 of their 7 creatures. The mind-controlled stacks would basically be tactical bait to absorb retaliations.
I'm not going to try to balance it by adding real mathematical values, but I'll point this out in the description later.
I'm still okay with the Widowmaker's special ability. -5 morale is a lot but you still need to weave into a good position to really effectively use the ability, and remember that with a negative morale you only lose half of your turn. Also, -7 is awesome, but it would be very hard to ever make good use of it on several creatures. The Hallucination/Widowmakers are a large creature that become visible if they end their turn next to an enemy stack or if an enemy stack ends their turn next to them. You would need to somehow be in a spot where you're surrounded by enemy creatures and yet you're touching none of them (ofc, you can't move and use this ability in the same turn. I should probably note that). Also I put a 4 turn cooldown timer on it. Every 5th turn isn't very often. This ability would be at its greatest once you're down to only a couple champions left.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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Vindicator
Supreme Hero
Right Back Extraordinaire
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posted February 19, 2013 03:58 AM |
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All right, the mind control ability is looking a lot more balanced, thanks for clearing that up. -7 would be really hard to pull off (I didn't realize you had to be invisible to do it) but -5 is still pretty ridiculous and if you managed to reach the archers... Is this ability affected by the number of Widowmakers? If you have enough, it seems to me there's no way the enemy will have time to focus them down in order to stop the ability.
Still don't understand the two abilities I mentioned, maybe it's just because I'm tired and sick but I cannot figure out what they mean. Thanks for clearing the other stuff up.
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 07:02 AM |
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+2 attack / defense for the combat if your hero was already in a combat earlier in the turn. So after you kill a neutral stack and move on to the next, the kobolds get an extra +2 attack/defense.
exp value = experience value of the creatures. They have to be at least 1/4th the total value of whoever they're pushing. So you wouldn't be able to use a telekinetic jolt on 100 squires with 2 anemones chilling out. Telekinetic jolt can actually be a game-changing ability in a serious duel (you can completely ruin a turtle defense with it, or push a unit out of the way from a corner you're defending to reform your own turtle defense).
One of the things I still plan on doing is writing a strategic overview of each unit.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted February 19, 2013 05:35 PM |
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Quote:
egotistical white squirrels
I see what you did there.  From a quick go over, the Anemone seems to be a really, really weak creature, and most players would probably make anything else in favor of it. And the Hallucination is very interesting.
The fact that you are using the name of a psionic class from D&D (The Psion, dur. ) as a hero makes me a little happy.
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Adrius
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Stand and fight!
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posted February 19, 2013 05:58 PM |
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Smooth presentation.
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 19, 2013 07:52 PM |
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Ty.
Yeah I'm still iffy about what changes I might make with the anemone. The thing is, she's gotta some hella tactical utility to her. As long as you're within the 5 tile radius you can hit whoever you want without any issues. If you're adjacent to two different stacks, you can still whack the archmages in the corner with zero penalty. Shielded/deflect missile wouldn't apply. Plus with high initiative and full-map movement she's going to be very mobile. Plus it's always no retaliation ofc.
But having no standard attack to retaliate with is a major drawback.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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Jiriki9
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Altar Dweller
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posted February 20, 2013 08:20 AM |
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Interesting. Interesting indeed!
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gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted February 20, 2013 05:41 PM |
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Blizz, you should have waited a few more weeks. Now people just feel demotivated.
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted February 20, 2013 09:33 PM |
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It's suppose to make people feel more motivated 
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted February 20, 2013 09:48 PM |
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Too early in the competition. Right now its sort of intimidating.
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blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted March 09, 2013 07:33 AM |
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Mmkay, I added a town and combat music selection and included a brief strategic overview for each unit.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted June 16, 2013 06:25 AM |
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So let's get you all nice and JUDGED >:U
Gameplay
Balance: This faction's weakest point, it seems (Sorry to start on a negative note there, Blizzy). With its plethora of "**** you" abilities, the Hallucination is a good deal stronger than its Orm competitors, and its much better damage and speed more than cancel out the Orm's numbers advantage. Honestly, the largest problem is that the Hallucination is automatically and permanently invisible unless it is by an enemy stack... which will be dying very, very quickly if a Hallucination stack is beside it. The other creatures seem fine, though I still say the Anemone could use an ability to help it not get massacred... maybe a little psionic shield that increases its durability? (The shield would block X*# Anemones damage before applying attack and defense or something... the number would be very small, though. Just something to make it seem more worth the investment while the Hero is still in the Creeping stage of the game.)
From a Hero balance standpoint, I think that Mind Control is just a little bit... yeah... There should be a turn limit to how long you can control the target creature. Probably 2/3 of your Spellpower stat would work/ be fair. It is a racial ability, and you have to remember that no other racial besides Necromacy/ Gating lasts beyond two turns (most last only one!), and with those two it's only because one is a Resurrection and the other is a Summoning. Other than that, it seems pretty obvious that even your "Might" hero is heavily magic based, and I would have liked to have seen more of a distinction there between their stats and skills (right now magic is the obvious choice, as might basically fills the same role... but poorer).
Over all, I'll give this faction 3/4 balance points. Most of the nitpicks are about in-faction balance, after all. If you compare to other factions, it seems like it would be balanced.
Strategies: Well bugger you, you already decided the point value here by including possible/ general strategies in your bloody faction. Damn you. 3/3
Interest: This faction looks like a rather interesting one. I would classify it under the "I would play the **** out of this faction" category. It seems to be very blasty, which is my favorite play style to be entirely honest, but also has the potential to be a hybrid magic/ physical faction as well (depending on what spells you get and stuff like that). I feel that it is very obviously a magic faction, though, and that you knew where you wanted to go with it. 1/1 interest point.
Originality: Take your 4/4 originality points and be happy I didn't take twenty paragraphs to fangirl over your creatures.
Setting
Theme: ... Holy god, your attention to detail. 4/4 theme points.
Lore: 5/2... er... 2/2 Lore points. Seriously, how much detail did you add just because you wanted to tell the story right? It's just simply amazing, and I wish I could reward you more for it.
Originality: The only place where you might be lacking. After all, if you look past all the awesome it's just another awesome swamp faction of shut up and take your 3/3 originality points.
Bonus points
So you know how I was saying that I want to reward you more for your lore? Well, consider this the reward. The attention to detail, quality and the simple fact that you obviously took your time and cared about the faction's history, beliefs and politics is worthy of special recognition, and I believe that I can justify giving you the 1 point you need to get a perfect score. As well, you went through and made bloody pictures and stat sheets for every creature... Yeah. 1 bonus point (More would not add to your score, otherwise I would give you 3).
Final over-all score!
Gameplay 11/12
Setting 9/9
Bonus points 1
Final score 21/21
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Yeah in the 18th century, two inventions suggested a method of measurement. One won and the other stayed in America.
-Ghost destroying Fred
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