Swarm of Wasps

[Erebus]

Here's a concept for a swarm card I've thought up. Doubt it'd be that useful given that it's mostly only good against swarms of minor creatures, but the base idea of a swarm that can split is kind of interesting. The bees can't penetrate any armor, but they can still inflict conditions like Daze and Cripple by attacking creature's eyes/exposed areas.

[bigfatchef]

I like that concept of splitting very much.

But I think thematically they should get regenerate1 for the swarm is growing all the time. It is a bit fast forward for reproduction, though. Thinking like that a growth maker would also be an option. Every round at the end of their action, if they have full health they earn one up to 3.

What I don't see is that defense. Well it is maybe hard to catch them... It is more a kind of etherial but also not really.

I also would definitely add rage+1.

With the splitting option and all those traits I think 11 is worth it even without hitting armored enemies. (Target can not be a confirmation I guess)

[Erebus]

Oh yeah! Rage is a must have for this card. Still not sure what the best representation of how hard it is to hit them is. I feel like it makes sense for them to get hit by a Flameblast but possibly avoid damage from a sword.

I agree that Growth or some similar effect has some place in this, which could represent the dispersed bees collecting together or reproducing. I've also considered allowing swarms to recombine too. It's a lot to try and fit on one card! I suppose you could create a "Swarm" trait to represent some of these effects while clearing up some card space.

[JasonBourneZombie]

Some of the wording will need clarified. The last sentence should read something along the lines of, The copy comes into play with damage equal to the amount of damage on Swarm of Wasps. Otherwise a 4 health swarm splits and you end up with a 2 health swarm and an 8 health swarm.

I'm not sure if I like the balancing of the card after that, either. 4 dice zone attacks that only hit unarmored targets will still kill off level 1 beast master cards in droves along with most imps, huginn, sosruko, fellela, thoughtspores, invisible stalker, and most skeletons. Bee stings will still hurt oozes, zombies, and earth elementals, which seems thematically strange.

It is also worth noting the attack will hit the bees since it is a zone attack, but with self replication built in, i'm not sure that's a strong enough penalty. One could put regen on a swarm and have it divide into mobile hails of stones indefinitely.

Maybe try lowering the number of dice rolled in favor of piercing. I know piercing wasps don't make sense, but the mechanic of bees flying into joints in armor, eyes of monsters, etc helps with the swarm feel and balances the card against unarmored targets a fair bit.

[Erebus]

Ah, these are all valid points. I tried a couple different ways of wording the sentence about replication, but had a hard time finding anything that was accurate and concise. I'm also unsure about them replicating through wall of flame or steel. I suppose I could add a LOS necessary clause.

I think a good solution is to create a "Swarm" keyword, though your suggestion is pretty concise. I'm not sure I like the idea of bees hitting each other, so you're right that I need to specify their immunity. I could add immunity for resilient creatures too. I think lowering their amount of dice to hit would be a good idea. A 1 die attack with Triple or Double Strike would be really thematically cool.

Do you suggest removing the armor/resilient immunity for a piercing +1 or even forgoing multiple strikes for an attack with greater piercing?

As a side note, I just realized how funny mind controlling a Bee Swarm would be. You could force it to split and then drop the enchantment for a permanent ally. The bees in general would be really resistant to both curses and positive bonuses if you split.

[ringkichard]

Utterly broken as worded due to combos. Wanna guess how?

This is a really interesting example of how easy it is to accidentally break the game.

[Erebus]

It doesn't specify current health over just health? Is that why? Or because a copy implies the same damage and enchantments attached?

[ringkichard]

Think Etherian Life Tree.

[Erebus]

Ohhhhh xD lol cool. Guess it doesn't really work out then. Wow, balance is hard when you have a neat idea.

[JasonBourneZombie]

Actually, replication LoS isn't much of an issue. The card suggested has flying, and flyers ignore walls in general already. The swarm that split off just flies above the flames or steel. Since the original swarm could do that already and the copy swarm, i'm assuming, comes into play inactive, it should be fine.

I thought the wasps hitting themselves was indicative of them being swatted when they flew in close to a target, but didn't realize they'd knock out other swarms too. I neglected that particular angle.

Just throwing this out there since I haven't had too much time to think it over, but how about an attack like:
zone   3 dice   7-10 daze,11+cripple/daze   1 piercing, non-critical, unavoidable

That way when they divide they don't become too horrifying. 3 dice attacks because 2 turns of dividing gives you 4 swarms, and 12 dice of flying unavoidable seems fairer than 16. Lord help us all if there's a tree of life or unicorn involved. That's a mean combo. Probably gonna need finite life on these guys. The dodge rating may be a tad too good as well, but that could be tested.

Piercing helps even the field since nothing is perfectly armored, but making all damage non-critical makes resilient creatures immune.

Let me know what you think.