I was a bit bored at work today, and I ran across a comment in another thread about Shark Paladin playable character and thought it sounded intriguing. So, the creative juices (mainly caffeinated beverages) started flowing, and this is what I came up with.
So first off: yes, this character breaks a rule or two. Most notably: you start with your role card. The reason for this is that I wanted to simulate the shape change by having 1 character behave as 2 different but similar characters. Secondly, those who count boxes will notice there's 13 power feats on each side of the role card where there should be 12; this is because I've essentially replaced the role card with a standard power feat (also it's unlucky). Otherwise, I think I've kept it within spec.
SKILLS
STRENGTH d10 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3 ☐+4
DEXTERITY d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
CONSTITUTION d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
INTELLIGENCE d4 ☐+1
WISDOM d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
CHARISMA d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
Melee: Strength +2
Fortitude: Constitution +2
Divine: Wisdom +1POWERS
HAND SIZE (See Role Card)
PROFICIENT WITH (See Role Card)Your role card is always available; display either side at the beginning of each scenario; if you would gain a Role, gain a Power feat of your choice instead.
Whenever you gain a Power feat, you gain one for both sides of your Role card.
CARDS
WEAPON 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
SPELL 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4
ARMOR 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5
ITEM 1 ☐ 2
ALLY 3 ☐ 4
BLESSING 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
Favored Card Type: Armor
POWERS
HAND SIZE 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
PROFICIENT WITH Light Armors, Heavy Armors, WeaponsAt the start of your turn, examine the top card of the Blessings Deck; if it is Blessing of the Gods, flip this card its Bestial side (☐or banish a blessing).
Add 1 to your (☐Intelligence or) Wisdom (☐or Charisma) check.
You may discard the top card of your deck to add 1d6(☐+1)(☐+2) to your check; if that card was a blessing (☐or spell), recharge it instead of discarding it.
☐Add 1d6 (☐+1) and the Magic trait to your check to defeat a monster that has the Undead trait.
☐When another character at your location is dealt Combat damage, reduce that damage by 1.
☐When you discard down to your hand size, you may recharge up to 1(☐2) cards instead of discarding it.
POWERS
HAND SIZE 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7
PROFICIENT WITH Light Armors, Heavy Armors, WeaponsAt the start of your turn, examine the top card of the Blessings Deck; if it is anything other than Blessing of the Gods, flip this card to its Shape-changed side (☐or banish a Blessing).
Add 1 to your (☐Strength or) Constitution (☐or Dexterity) check.
For your combat check, you may recharge a card from your hand to use your Melee skill + 1d6 (☐+1)(☐+2)(☐+3); this counts as playing a weapon with the Piercing trait.
☐Add 1(☐2) to your check against a card that has the Animal or Undead trait.
☐When you would discard cards as combat damage, you may recharge the second card instead of discarding it.
☐If you fail to defeat a non-villain, non-henchman monster with the Aquatic trait, you may place it on top of your location.
Nice.
as you say, technically breaks some rules, but it's a fun approach- also like the interaction with the Blessings deck - although this will skew over time, as you banish Blessings of the gods.
Have you had a chance to play-test it at all?
Is there much were-shark art out there?
i'd like to send this character and Ranzak on an adventure together...
Remember that banishing Blessings (boons) is optional, so you control how/whether this skews.
No, I have not yet play tested it. Normally, I would hold off until I have had a change to do so, but I'm busy with another play test ATM and wanted to get the idea out there.
There is some were-shark art out there, but none that really impressed me or struck me as a paladin.
A Goblin Pirate and a Wereshark Paladin... that sounds like an odd couple. That's not a bad thing; as someone who runs a Kobold Bard in the RPG, I wholeheartedly approve. :)
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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I like the concept, but I think you'd be better served having the shape-changing be a set of powers instead of an early role card.. because as of now once you choose to either be "bestial" or "shapechanged", you're seemingly stuck that way, which isn't really how it works in the RPG. I'll think on it and give you some suggested changes later today, after I go eat some lunch. :)
Edit: After reading the suggested cards more closely, I totally see what you're going for now. Let's see if I can't come up with something to make it even BETTER!? :-D
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Ok here's my shot at it, without role cards yet:
Wereshark-kin Paladin
SKILLS
STRENGTH d10 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3 ☐+4
Melee: Strength +2
DEXTERITY d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
CONSTITUTION d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
Fortitude: Constitution +2
INTELLIGENCE d4 ☐+1
WISDOM d8 ☐+1 ☐+2 ☐+3
Divine: Wisdom +1
CHARISMA d6 ☐+1 ☐+2
POWERS
HAND SIZE 4 ☐ 5
PROFICIENT WITH Light Armors, Heavy Armors, Weapons
At the start of the game, display the Touch of the Moon support card next to your character card. It persists until the end of the game. When you gain a power feat, you may instead check one power feat on each side of Touch of the Moon.
When you play a Blessing of the Gods, you may choose to substitute d8s for any dice that it adds to a check.
You may discard an armor (☐ or any card) from your hand to flip Touch of the Moon.
Add 1d6 and the Magic trait to your check to defeat a monster with the Undead trait.
CARDS
WEAPON 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
SPELL 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4
ARMOR 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5
ITEM 1 ☐ 2
ALLY 3 ☐ 4
BLESSING 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
Favored Card Type: Armor
Touch of the Moon (Humanoid)
Support
Add 1 to your Wisdom (☐ or Charisma) check.
When you take damage from a bane, roll 1d6 (☐ 1d12). On a 1 or 2, you must flip this card and discard a card from your hand; if you have no cards in your hand, discard the top card of your deck.
Touch of the Moon (Bestial)
Support
Add 1 to your Strength (☐ or Constitution) check.
You may recharge a card to add 1d6 to your combat check without (☐ or with) a weapon.
Before resetting your hand at the end of your turn, you must recharge a card from your hand; if you have no cards in your hand, discard one card from the top of your deck.
My rationale for the powers:
I feel like forcing you to flip to the bestial side when you take damage fits the theme of "get angry, get beast-y" and while you're in bestial mode you have to recharge a card each turn to represent your fatigue... if you have no cards to recharge, then you take some damage.
I'm pretty sure there are supposed to be 4 power feats on a regular character card, so that's how many I put there.
What do you think, Flat? Does this still give you a similar feeling to what you were going for, but still allowsing for specific roles later? (I'm thinking one of them would be something like "Knight of the Sea" and be a bit pirate-themed, and the other can focus on boosting the Touch of the Moon powers, perhaps?)
Geez... way to bring it back inside the box. j/k ;)
The only issue I can see with yours is the amount of space 4 powers would require on the Character card; it's cosmetic, but it was one of the early guiding factors in the direction I took.
I will admit that yours probably fits the concept of a "skinwalker" (lycanthrope heritage; controlled change) better than mine, whereas mine is probably more representative of a full-on "lycanthrope" (forced to change).
Side note for any who may not have made the connection: the idea of examining the blessing deck for BotG to trigger the change was inspired from the monster Werewolf.
i'd like to send this character and Ranzak on an adventure together...
Seems to me, only one of them would walk away.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Yeah, I think if you wanted a true were-shark paladin, (like the one on the front of the Razor Coast book) yours would be closer. I'm sure we can take the two concepts, merge them into something awesome, and then convince Mike to make it happen.
Right? Mike? Anyone? Oh that's right... THEY'RE ALL AT GENCON AND I DON'T GET TO GO THIS YEAR!!! *CRIES*
i'd like to send this character and Ranzak on an adventure together...Seems to me, only one of them would walk away.
Yes. Ranzak. With a shark-tooth necklace :)
Yeah, I think if you wanted a true were-shark paladin, (like the one on the front of the Razor Coast book) yours would be closer. I'm sure we can take the two concepts, merge them into something awesome, and then convince Mike to make it happen.
Right? Mike? Anyone? Oh that's right... THEY'RE ALL AT GENCON AND I DON'T GET TO GO THIS YEAR!!! *CRIES*
We already have a couple of good minis for them:
Captain Riptooth and Wereshark Pirate
I did a quick solo run-through of Brigandoom! using this character (the full-lycanthrope version), and it wasn't bad.
The most embarrassing moment was 5 turns in when I realized I had the Bestial/Shape-changed triggers reversed, which absolutely would have affected the outcomes of 2 battles. *facepalm*
The first change that needs to be made is to make the starting character deck legal (15 cards):
WEAPON 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5
SPELL 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4
ARMOR 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5
ITEM 1 ☐ 2
ALLY 2 ☐ 3
BLESSING 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6
Favored Card Type: Armor
Overall, I liked how the character was balanced. It only took me 17 turns, 9 of which were (or should have been) spent in Bestial form, and 8 in Shape-changed form (so it was fairly even). Combat wasn't a sure-thing and I ended up discarding my weapons for the extra die more often than usual; I managed to take on the villain in the first turn, thanks entirely to a lucky starting hand. Non-combat situations were similarly hit-of-miss, which was apparent in boon acquisition. All of the (initial) powers were were relevant, but didn't seem overly powerful.
The biggest issue that I had was sifting through the powers. Characters normally start with a manageable few, then increase and expand later after you become familiar with the core powers. This character requires you to know 2 very different characters front to back (quite literally), which can be overwhelming.
I finished out the 2 remaining scenarios in Perils last night, with much the same results: he struggled at times (especially recharging spells), and shone at others (maybe "held on" would be a better word for it). He almost died (0 cards left in deck, but luckily drew Cure and rolled a 4 when playing it, and then actually managed to recharge it). The play of the night was getting hand-wiped by Black Fang's pre-encounter acid damage, then punching him in the face to win it (lucky 10 roll for Melee).
Touch of the Moon (Humanoid)
SupportAdd 1 to your Wisdom (☐ or Charisma) check.
When you take damage from a bane, roll 1d6 (☐ 1d12). On a 1 or 2, you must flip this card and discard a card from your hand; if you have no cards in your hand, discard the top card of your deck.
Touch of the Moon (Bestial)
SupportAdd 1 to your Strength (☐ or Constitution) check.
You may recharge a card to add 1d6 to your combat check without (☐ or with) a weapon.
Before resetting your hand at the end of your turn, you must recharge a card from your hand; if you have no cards in your hand, discard one card from the top of your deck.
I've been mulling on this concept for the past couple days, and I thought of another concept using yours as a template, but simplifying it a bit more by removing the "humanoid" aspect (that would just be your character).
You may recharge a card from your hand add 2 to your check that has the Wisdom or Constitution trait.
You may discard the top card of your deck to succeed at your Perception check.
You may bury the top card of your deck to reroll your combat Melee check against a monster that has the Aquatic trait.
I've kept the "support" card concept (although I think something like "affliction" or "curse" would work better instead). I tried to keep it modular, but added a cost to play each power on this card so that everything has some cost, and also provide a range of powers.
As I started typing this out, I started to think this seems more like a bunch of new powers with no downside, so I revised it a bit.
Subtract 2 from your check that has the Intelligence trait.
Add 2 to your check that has the Constitution trait.
You may discard the top card of your deck to succeed at your Perception check.
This concept is similar to the above, but in the format of drawback-benefit-power. The drawback and benefit are designed to be equal and opposite (1 trait plus, 1 trait minus).
One of the things I think would be cool would be the ability to attach these to existing characters (for example, an iconic afflicted with lycanthropy), possibly even during play.