Ideas for Dark Spells

[qaz_azaran]

I'm honestly kinda flabbergasted that there's not a dark sword with the Vampiric trait.

I'd love to see a trait for Dark Creatures called Consume which gives the creature +1 attack every time it deals the killing blow to another creature.

Idol of Terror - Conjuration - Zone Exclusive (Possibly Unique)  Enemy Creatures have to roll 7+ on a D12 to enter the zone with Idol of Terror.  I suppose this could also work as a zone enchantment of some kind.

Idol of Fury - All friends creatures in Zone gain Bloodthristy +1.  Likewise, this effect could be an enchantment instead of a conjuration.

Vampiric Frenzy - Zone Enchantment - All friendly creatures in zone gain the Vampiric trait.

[qaz_azaran]

Oooh! I got another one.

Circle of Life Stealing - Conjuration/Zone Enchantment - Mage heals 1 die of damage per level of every creature which dies in the zone containing Circle of Life Stealing. 

[echephron]

consume = Kralathor

vampiric is too good to just give away cheap
a vamp sword would be good, but easily too good, so don't expect 4 dice and 2 piercing or anything
ppl have talked about giving area vampiric before, and I've never liked it.

[qaz_azaran]

I get that it can't be cheap, expensive is fine.  I just feel that vampiric needs to be a bit more common ability for Dark mages to access since Holy spells and healing are pretty much off the board.

[qaz_azaran]

Cultist - 5 mana to summon. 0 armor, 6 health, 1 die attack, Bloodthirsty +1 - Special: Self-Flagellation - Dark Cultist attacks itself and you gain mana equal to the damage Dark Cultist takes.

I think this would be pretty useful because you could move them around unlike mana crystals and slap Regrowth on them to potentially keep them alive indefinitely.  Of course, with the Bloodthirsty they may die even with Regrowth; but, I think that just balances out the fact that they could be a much faster source of mana than a crystal. 

As I've got it statted you still gain a little extra mana in the long run even without Regrowth, but I'm not sure if it's really worth it that way.  To make it more worthwhile perhaps expand the special to say that if Cultist kills itself gain 3 mana.

[jupiter999]

What about when Cultist took damage (from valid target, say creature; wall is not valid), Mage gain that much of mana?
Perhaps friendly units can hit them for mana, but of course waste their activations.
So better let loose these mad cultist upon enemy and die for the mage...
Just a thought

[qaz_azaran]

That would make them more valuable and flexible.

It might be a little OP that way compared to mana crystals since you could set them up to guard and then they absorb hits and just give you "free" mana.  Though it might not be a big deal since dying due to enemy attack means losing the extra mana of killing themselves.  Sure it may absorb a hit, but you still only gain 1 mana total overall.

It'd be interesting to playtest it both ways and see which one works best.

[jupiter999]

Maybe Cultist should only have 1 attack die, below 3 mana cost, cannot have armour, 6 Life only, so they are not that fighter-wise...

Say, I'm facing 2 to 3 enemy Cultists (not to mention 6 maximum) that heading towards me, I'll really have to be careful, because if I kill them, I'll give rival Mage free mana (example here is 6 mana per Cultist if killed; of course one can try spread the mana given to rival Mage somehow). If don't kill them, they will be a real nuisance zealots

[echephron]

in regards to the arena-wide vampiric, a reminder that the adramalech warlocks creatures already get a mini-vampiric via demon's reward.

Some mitigation effects you could put on a vampiric sword:
bloodthirsty +1 or +0.
Gain a bleed condition every turn, thus mitigating some of the life gain.

so a proposal:
Bloodthirsty Sword
8  mana 2 dark
Dark Mage only
attack: a simple 4 dice. this attack is vampiric
Bloodthirsty+1

I weighted the price by doing
lev1 4 mana [mwcard=FWE03]Falcon Precision[/mwcard] +1melee to level1 5 mana[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ06]Morning Star[/mwcard]
level2 6 mana[mwcard=MW1E40]Vampirism[/mwcard] +2 melee versus to level2 8 manaVamp Sword

[wtcannonjr]

in regards to the arena-wide vampiric, a reminder that the adramalech warlocks creatures already get a mini-vampiric via demon's reward.

Some mitigation effects you could put on a vampiric sword:
bloodthirsty +1 or +0.
Gain a bleed condition every turn, thus mitigating some of the life gain.

so a proposal:
Bloodthirsty Sword
8  mana 2 dark
Dark Mage only
attack: a simple 4 dice. this attack is vampiric
Bloodthirsty+1

I weighted the price by doing
lev1 4 mana [mwcard=FWE03]Falcon Precision[/mwcard] +1melee to level1 5 mana[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ06]Morning Star[/mwcard]
level2 6 mana[mwcard=MW1E40]Vampirism[/mwcard] +2 melee versus to level2 8 manaVamp Sword

Why not
Attack 1 die, Vampiric
Bloodthirsty +4

[rant]

It'd probably be worth 3 dark.  Still worth it IMO.

[Wildhorn]

in regards to the arena-wide vampiric, a reminder that the adramalech warlocks creatures already get a mini-vampiric via demon's reward.

Some mitigation effects you could put on a vampiric sword:
bloodthirsty +1 or +0.
Gain a bleed condition every turn, thus mitigating some of the life gain.

so a proposal:
Bloodthirsty Sword
8  mana 2 dark
Dark Mage only
attack: a simple 4 dice. this attack is vampiric
Bloodthirsty+1

I weighted the price by doing
lev1 4 mana [mwcard=FWE03]Falcon Precision[/mwcard] +1melee to level1 5 mana[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ06]Morning Star[/mwcard]
level2 6 mana[mwcard=MW1E40]Vampirism[/mwcard] +2 melee versus to level2 8 manaVamp Sword

Except that a weapon can't have Bloodthirsty because it is not the weapon that make the attack but the mage wielding it. So it would need to grant Bloodsthirsty to the mage, which would be the most aweful thing (you no more decide if you move or cast a spell, you MUST attack wounded creatures) or it would require Autonomous, which would no more be wielded by the mage, so can't Vampirism (would require a text effect saying that it heal the attached creature for half of damage done by its attack).

[echephron]

exactly wildhorn. the bloodthirsty is on the mage, which is a big negative.

[qaz_azaran]

Yes, it would be a big negative; but, that may be for the best in order to keep it balanced.

A sword that is vampiric which grants bloodthirsty does make quite a bit of sense.  Heck, I'd even be up for adding a trait which gives a +1 to attack (or maybe even better to Bloodthirsty) every time a creature is killed by the Bloodthirsty Sword.  (I'm not sure how this would/should affect cost.) I kind of like the idea of a powerful, yet highly addictive, dark artifact.

Here's a question: Does Bloodthirsty mean you have to attack your own creatures if there are no wounded enemy creatures in zone?  The wording in the rules is kind of vague on that point. I'd always assumed "no"; but now I'm wondering.

Regardless of what Bloodthirsty does normally, I think that it would be kind of great if the Bloodthirsty Sword made you attack even your own units if they are wounded.  Maybe roll 8+ on a D12 to successfully resist the blood craving and actually attack an unwounded enemy instead of your own wounded creatures. Every additional point of Bloodthirsty would make the roll harder to reflect the degeneration of the mage.

Even if it ends up not being the best thing tactically it tells a pretty great story.  You get to watch as your mage is slowly driven deeper into madness by the dark power of the Bloodthirsty Sword.  Win or lose it would definitely be entertaining and make for a memorable game.

[echephron]

Bloodthirsty's "taunt" only applies to enemy creatures.

I workshopped some other bloodthirst-ier traits a while back, but no one liked them. One was that the taunt applied to visible creatures in adjacent zones as well(so the bloodthirsty would have to move and attack). The other was that bloodthisty "taunt" applies to your creatures as well. No one liked that one because it gave strong incentive to only have non-living creatures. Also a bloodthirsty which doesn't require the creature to be damaged.


Bloodthirsty Sword
11  mana 3 dark
Dark Mage only
Attack: 4 dice
You have the vampiric trait for attacks which use this weapon. You gain bloodthirsty +1 for each blood token on Bloodthirsty Sword. If you kill a living creature with this weapon, add a blood token. If it has more than 4 blood tokens, during your action phase, you must melee attack a (friendly or enemy) living creature in your zone if possible.