As it happens, Im a bit of a Rocky nerd, and I havnt taken a swing at a "theme build" in a while.
Now, conventional wisdom would be to soak up as much as possible.. but thats not really what the Itallian Stallion is. He doesnt look good at the end of his fights. Rocky is about fighting spirit and rising above an opponent toe to toe more so than raw toughness. Its not that Rocky tanks blow after blow, its that he keeps getting back up every time hes put down, hes not an unbreakable drill bit, its that he keeps hitting back. Its about forcing the opponent to have to keep re-engaging and making him pay in the exchange. Rocky, as well as dramatized sport events, are about ebb and flow of the fight. Rocky isnt about tanking, hes about "The Eye of the Tiger"
So, Rocky's highly inspirational training montages create a fighter that is:
A) Pretty durable
B) Wins the match in trading blows.
C) Delivers debilitating, bone crushing punches
So, as weird as its going to sound.. Araxian Warlock is the starting point in my mind.
The Warlock starts at 38 Health, which is the highest of any mage. And he is trained in Dark, which as backwards as it sounds, has the best passive healing in the game. The "Rocky strategy" Im going with could work with any Dark mage, but actually being trained in Dark is key to some of the cards.
Rax' Warlock also has Melee+1
So, what is the basic "Rocky" fighting style, and ways to bring these aspects to a book?
Baseline durability:
As mentioned, the Warlock stands tall at 38 health. Suppliment it with a Sunfire Amulet, its a little pricey spellbook wise, but its slowly adding to your health. This is going to force the opponent not to let you recover too much between rounds.
Other tools for passive durability:
Death Link- Every turn, you can pass 2 damage off from yourself to either a friendly creature or an enemy.
Regrowth- Nothing wrong with Regenerate, but optional.
Armor- Cheap Leathers, Veterans Belt, and so on.
Eye of the Tiger:
Rocky doesnt stand there and let the opponent batter him.. he trades blows. He hits back, but rather than worrying about melee stacking in a traditional sense, the theme is how you see combat in Rocky. When he is tired and worn down, his surges and second winds come from reaching deep down inside himself and throwing himself back at the opponent... not from hiding and healing or from tanking.
So, the most important engine of fighting like Rocky is: Make your opponent suffer for trading blows with you. Rocky isnt about drinking up damage, its trading blows *despite* damage. This is going to come in a few forms.
Vampirism: The singlemost "Rocky-esque" card in the game. You dont hit harder, but the more you hit the more you stay in the game. Combined with the aforementioned Sunfire Amulet to give you a high "top end" of health, a few rounds of un-answered attacks will put you right back in shape. This makes you more durable for fighting which is the core of the Rocky concept... this card could be called "eye of the tiger"
Demonhide Armor: Another Dark mage only card. This has a double effect, it gives you armor (derr), and a damage barrier. Damage barriers go back to the idea that the opponent suffers if he boxes with you, hitting you gets them hit back. Alternativly you can use Circle of Fire (or lightning). The point is that hitting you is dangerous, but not hitting you is going to cost them the fight.
Retaliate:Similar philosophy as damage barriers.. make them pay for attacking you. This is also nasty as it is a whole new attack, not a separate strike... so any melee bonuses you have re-apply. Its also cheap AND you choose when to fire it off.
Drain Life/Soul: The Drain cards are ace in the hole swing cards when timed right. A round that starts with a Vampiric punch in the face and ends with a quickcast Drain Life can be a major health swing. Its also a ranged attack that totally bypasses most defenses. Drain Soul adds another 6 max health per use too. These can be expensive to drop, but spending enough time in melee will help shore up mana. If you want to bait an opponents dissolve, put Drain Life on a wand.
Optional: Helm of Fear. Dark mage only again, but can make the opponent outright miss for attacking you..and its not a defense so it even catches unavoiable attacks. The trouble is it wont trigger damage barriers because the attack is cancelled.
Optional: Reverse Attack. Same philosophy... the opponent suffers for attacking you.
So, having covered the cards that run the Rocky "excels in trading blows" fighting style theres one other corner to cover:
Debilitating the opponent with crushing blows.
Rocky isnt a sandbag that drinks punchs..Mighty Mick made him into, to use his own words, "A wreckin' machine". He spends a good deal of his training montages punching frozen meat, punching speedbags, chopping wood, punching sandbags, lifting heavy weights, building hand speed, honing accuracy, and generally making his fists into wrecking balls. When Rocky punches, its not just a punch... its an attempt to knock out, knock the wind out of, stun, or otherwise break down an opponent.
So, some tools that are happily accessible to the Warlock's arsenal:
Sectarus: Im such a big fan of this card that my Warlock books usually pack 2 AND a Steal Equipment, just in case an opponent plays it first in a mirror match. But for this particular theme, it works well because it gives your melee attacks an extra edge. Curses are how your mage will swell up the opponents eyes, knock the wind out of them, and set up your knock blows. Its also got +1 pierce, which is handy since you are going to be utilizing Vamirism. Every point of bypassed armor increases the chances of at least getting 1-2 health back on yoru attacks.
Sectarus also makes some hard choices, a lot of mages only have so many Dissolves.. if they pound on your Sunfire Amulet, Demonhide Armor and more obvious upfront bait-equips, they might find themselves out when you break out the sword.
Curses-
A good fighter needs a variety of punches, and thats what these are for. Ideally Sectarus will help you lay them, and Curseweaving will occasionally recycle them.
Marked for Death- You hit harder, which is handy since Vampirism heals you based on your damage.
Agony- You get hit less hard.
Enfeeble- Think of it as superior footwork
Ghoul Rot- Puts the game on a clock, and creates an expensive "must dispel"
Poison Blood- Sometimes not needed, if your own passive healing is keeping you ahead of the opponent.
Magebane- Another slow bleed type of damage, but the opponent takes damage for casting
Honestly I could list all the curses.. Rust, Chains of Agony.. they are all good and run cheap for a Warlock.
Jinx- This sucker punch isnt a curse, but it really should be. When timed right, Jinx is a coffin nail.. and when just cast casually its still incredibly disruptive. In the "eye of the tiger" style engine, where you are generating passive effects while trading blows it can be a huge step ahead of the game to make the opponent waste half their turn on a botched dispel.
Now, thats by no means a full spellbook and most of the individual parts are optional or adjustable. I just waned to detail the overall fighting style that came to me on a "rocky" flavored character book. I left out things like creatures, which is purely up to the individual person. Theres plenty of ways to make it your own, and lots of aspects left to fill in (fundamentals like dissolves, possibility of battle forge, buffs/commands, taking advantage of fire attack spells etc). Not to mention that a detailed flow of how to run it would need to be paced out; which aspects to start with, when to start turning on certain defenses, etc. So theres a lot of room to grow from... thats just where my brainspace went when making a fighter who feels like Rocky.
