This is my first homebrew character and I wanted to make something safe and strong, but a little bit different. I know it's a bit weird to have a Paladin with no spells or divine skill, but I thought Paladin was the closest fit thematically to character I had envisioned. Let me know what you guys think!
Graynor
Male
Half-Elf
Paladin of Shelyn
STR d10 □ +1 □ +2 □ +3 □ +4
-MELEE: STR +2
DEX: d6 □ +1 □ +2
CON: d6 □ +1 □ +2
INT: d4 □ +1
WIS: d8 □ +1 □ +2 □ +3
-PERCEPTION: WIS +2
CHA: d8 □ +1 □ +2
-DIPLOMACY: CHA +1
Cards List:
WEAPON: 3 □ 4 □ 5
SPELL: --
ARMOR: 2 □ 3
ITEM: 3 □ 4
ALLY: 3 □ 4 □ 5 □ 6
BLESSING: 4 □ 5 □ 6 □ 7
FAVORED CARD TYPE: Weapon or Blessing
POWERS:
Hand Size: 5 □ 6
Proficincies: - Light Armor - □ Heavy Armor - Weapons
- If another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2) and take the damage instead
- You may discard a card to use your perception skill in place of any check to close your location.
- If another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die.
--ROLE CARD--
Master Tactician
Hand Size: 5 □ 6 □ 7 □ 8
- If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2)( □ 3) and take the damage instead
- You may discard ( □ recharge) a card to use your Perception skill ( □ +1)( □ +2) in place of any check to close your location.
- If another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die.
- □ When a character encounters a Villain/Henchman, you may bury ( □ discard) a card to immediately move a willing character to any location.
- □ When you play a Blessing of Shelyn on a non-combat ( □ or any) check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it
--ROLE CARD--
Paragon
Hand Size: 5 □ 6 □ 7 □ 8
- If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2) and take the damage instead
- You may discard a card to use your Perception skill ( □ +1) in place of any check to close your location ( □ or acquire an ally).
- If ( □ you or) another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die ( □ and add 1d4)( □ +1).
- □ Instead of your first exploration on a turn, you may reveal an ally to choose a character at your location. Shuffle 1d4+1 ( □ +2) random cards from their discard pile into their deck, then bury the card you revealed.
- □ When you play a blessing of Shelyn on a non-combat ( □ or any) check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. If an ally is also played on this check, you may recharge the ally if it would instead be discarded.
It's a nice design. I think you've got it pretty close on your first try. I do have a few thoughts below:
1. You only have 14 skill feats, I believe the general standard is 15.
2. Two of your powers are ones we have only seen on role cards (Perception to Close and Bury to Reroll). I think they're still a decent power level to work on the base card, but you should be sure to keep an eye on them.
3. The ability on role cards to add yourself to the damage reduction doesn't seem to do anything, since the damage gets transferred to you anyway. I'm not sure what you want it to do, but right now it's not doing it.
4. I am a bit concerned about the tactician leader-move ability. That is the most comprehensive ally-moving ability I've ever seen, and I'm wondering if it could cause something bad to happen. That being said, bury/discard is a pretty heavy payment, so you can't just spam it. You're probably fine, but be sure to put it though its paces just to be safe.
5. Your blessing recharge ability is very weak in comparison to other similar powers. If I were you, I think I'd just remove the 'on a check' limits, and just have it be always-on. You can have a power feat used to add that ally effect as well, potentially.
Hope that helps!
Your character looks great! I would classify him more as a fighter than a Paladin, except maybe when he gets the power to heal. Also, both of your role cards should have 12 power feats total, so maybe just remove a few feats or remove one or two add ons to existing feats. Other than that, you have yourself one well thought out character!
I swear I counted those power feats 15 times. Lol.
It's a nice design. I think you've got it pretty close on your first try. I do have a few thoughts below:
1. You only have 14 skill feats, I believe the general standard is 15. Fixed!
2. Two of your powers are ones we have only seen on role cards (Perception to Close and Bury to Reroll). I think they're still a decent power level to work on the base card, but you should be sure to keep an eye on them. Yeah, I worried a bit about that, too, which is why I made them costly. We'll see how strong it is.
3. The ability on role cards to add yourself to the damage reduction doesn't seem to do anything, since the damage gets transferred to you anyway. I'm not sure what you want it to do, but right now it's not doing it. It would allow you to reduce damage to yourself as well. It may be too strong with the scaling reduction though.
4. I am a bit concerned about the tactician leader-move ability. That is the most comprehensive ally-moving ability I've ever seen, and I'm wondering if it could cause something bad to happen. That being said, bury/discard is a pretty heavy payment, so you can't just spam it. You're probably fine, but be sure to put it though its paces just to be safe. My thoughts here is that a Master Tactician would be more able to set up fights that favor the group. Moving someone in to help on a second check, or out to avoid a tough check. Could also move someone to an open location to temp close. This would be after the "before the encounter" powers, so you couldn't avoid everything. I did change it to "Another willing character" so you couldn't move the character that started the encounter. Maybe should take the discard upgrade out, to keep it a heavy choice.
5. Your blessing recharge ability is very weak in comparison to other similar powers. If I were you, I think I'd just remove the 'on a check' limits, and just have it be always-on. You can have a power feat used to add that ally effect as well, potentially. Took out the addition of any on there to get the upgrade numbers down to 12
Hope that helps!
Thanks for your input! I'm excited to give him a run!
Updated with some corrections and suggested changes.
Graynor
Male
Half-Elf
Paladin of Shelyn
STR d10 □ +1 □ +2 □ +3 □ +4
-MELEE: STR +2
DEX: d6 □ +1 □ +2
CON: d6 □ +1 □ +2
INT: d4 □ +1
WIS: d8 □ +1 □ +2 □ +3
-PERCEPTION: WIS +2
CHA: d8 □ +1 □ +2 □ +3
-DIPLOMACY: CHA +1
Cards List:
WEAPON: 3 □ 4 □ 5
SPELL: --
ARMOR: 2 □ 3
ITEM: 3 □ 4
ALLY: 3 □ 4 □ 5 □ 6
BLESSING: 4 □ 5 □ 6 □ 7
FAVORED CARD TYPE: Weapon or Blessing
POWERS:
Hand Size: 5 □ 6
Proficincies: - Light Armor - □ Heavy Armor - Weapons
- If another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2) and take the damage instead
- You may discard a card to use your perception skill in place of any check to close your location.
- If another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die.
--ROLE CARD--
Master Tactician
Hand Size: 5 □ 6 □ 7
- If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2)( □ 3) and take the damage instead
- You may discard ( □ recharge) a card to use your Perception skill ( □ +1)( □ +2) in place of any check to close your location.
- If another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die.
- □ When a character encounters a Villain/Henchman, you may bury ( □ discard) a card to immediately move another willing character to any location.
- □ When you play a Blessing of Shelyn on any check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it
--ROLE CARD--
Paragon
Hand Size: 5 □ 6 □ 7
- If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may reduce it by 1 ( □ 2) and take the damage instead
- You may discard a card to use your Perception skill ( □ +1) in place of any check to close your location ( □ or acquire an ally).
- If ( □ you or) another character would fail any check by 1 ( □ 2) you may bury a card to allow them to reroll one die ( □ and add 1d4)( □ +1).
- □ Instead of your first exploration on a turn, you may reveal an ally to choose a character at your location. Shuffle 1d4+1 ( □ +2) random cards from their discard pile into their deck, then bury the card you revealed.
- □ When you play a blessing of Shelyn on a any check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. If an ally is also played on this check, you may recharge the ally if it would instead be discarded.
Just a little unclear on how these damage reduction powers work.
No power feats. Another character at my location fails a combat check by 3.
The way I read the power, I can take 1 of the damage, and he takes 2.
The way you talk about it above, it suggests that I take 2 and he takes none- is that the intention?
Yes, the intent is for you to "block" the damage, reducing it, but taking it yourself.
Maybe it would read more clearly like this:
If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may take that damage instead, and reduce it by 1 ( □ 2).
Yes, the intent is for you to "block" the damage, reducing it, but taking it yourself.
Maybe it would read more clearly like this:
If ( □ You or) another character at your location would take damage, you may take that damage instead, and reduce it by 1 ( □ 2).
Yes, that is much better. I had no idea what it meant, and that does make it much more clear.
Knowing that, I'm actually much more concerned about the power level. It essentially means, especially once your hand is empty, no one at your location needs to fear damage, since you can just take all of it, and a single cure probably negates an entire round of damage to the party. I'd suggest one revision: Require you to reveal a card from your hand to activate it. That eliminates the 'no penalty for me to take it' aspect of an empty hand without any penalty for normal here-and-there usage which I'm sure it's intended for.
I'm still a bit worried, since it completely nullifies some powerful cards like the Enchanter, but it at least removes the most scary potential exploit.
I agree with the reveal. Maybe even a recharge for a cost.
Maybe it should just be for combat damage? Or maybe just no scaling on the reduction?