Making a new "custom" character

[Rohml]

What do you think of this custom character I've made?

The basic template comes from the Barbarian build "Ostog" but I tweaked it a bit.

[BARBARIAN]

STRENGTH d12 [] +1 [] +2 [] +3 [] +4
MELEE: STRENGTH +2
DEXTERITY d6 [] +1 [] +2
CONSTITUTION d8 [] +1 [] +2 [] +3 [] +4
FORTITUDE: CONSTITUTION + 3
INTELLIGENCE d4 [] +1
WISDOM d6 [] +1
CHARISMA d6 [] +1 [] +2 [] +3

WEAPON 6
SPELL -
ARMOR -
ITEM 2
ALLY 3
BLESSING 4

Hand Size 4 [] 5
Proficiencies - Weapons

(1) At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
(2) When you are dealt Combat ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3).
(3) You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) to your Strength, Melee or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.

ROLES:
"Wanderer of the North"

(1) At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
(2) When you are dealt Comb9at ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3).
(3) You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) ([] +2) ([] +3) to your Strength, Melee or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.
(4) [] Before your first exploration, you may roll 1d6, if it’s result is ([] 4 or) 5 or 6, you may move to a different location.
(5) [] During your exploration and you encounter a barrier card, you may discard a card, if you do so, separate the top 2 cards of the location deck and shuffle the barrier card to the location deck, put the separated cards on top of the location deck afterwards. Ignore the barrier’s if undefeated effect.
(6) [] You gain “Survival: Constitution + 2 + the number of buried cards under your character.”

"Executioner"
(1) At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
(2) When you are dealt Combat ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3) +1.
(3) You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) ([] +2) ([] +3) to your Strength, Melee or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.
(4) [] You may discard an ally ([] or item) to draw a weapon card from your discard pile.
(5) [] If you fail a combat check by 6 or less, you may discard a card to re-roll your lowest die, take the re-roll’s result.
(6) [] If you have three or more cards buried under your character you may add a 2d8 + 2 to defeat a bane. Use this ability only once per scenario.

What do you think? Are the powers "fair"?

[Duane Robertson 6]

They mostly seem fair to me. I have a couple of suggestions though.

If it were me, I'd want to tie his heal to killing things. Maybe just "When you defeat a monster, you may recharge a card to recharge a random card from your discard pile."

I think his evade power would be clearer as "When you encounter a barrier at a location, you may discard a card to set the top 2 cards of your location deck aside, unexamined; shuffle the barrier into the location deck, then replace the cards you set aside on top of the deck."

Or you could say, "When you encounter a barrier at your location, you may discard a card to set the barrier aside; encounter the next card in the location deck, then shuffle the barrier back into the deck." It's a bit more powerful, but simpler.

You might also consider doing this for his last power, "You may banish all of your buried cards to add 1d8 for each card to your check to defeat a bane." That would make it painful enough that you wouldn't want to use it often.

[jones314]

I like the flavor of this character, especially the first power. The power to recharge to reduce damage seems pretty strong. Combine that with the ability to add a d12 to Strength and Constitution checks and maybe there's a balance issue (since Melee for this character is Strength-based, you could drop that). Maybe playtest it a bit to see.

I don't understand the move ability of the Wanderer of the North. Since the move phase is right before your first exploration, what's the point of another chance to move? The barrier evading thing seems overworked. Maybe just say that you can discard a card to evade a barrier.

The Executioner role seems straightforward, although the last two powers could possibly be toned down.

[Gwyns Firstborn]

I'm not a fan of power #5 for the Wanderer -- it's just a fancy and long-winded evade. There doesn't seem to be much else to it beside that. Duane is on to something in that the power should have a bonus effect in addition to the evade. Remember, barbarians don't like running from conflict!

I also agree with jones that the pre-explore moving is a little redundant. Obviously you can use this before subsequent explores, such that you can move before your 2nd or 3rd explore during a turn, but even then it feels a bit clumsy. You may want to change it to something like:
"When you use an ally or blessing to explore your location, you may first move and explore that location instead."

[Rohml]

Thanks for the reply guys. I appreciate it.

I made some changes to the powers based on the initial comments I've received, and from the suggestion of a buddy of mine I gave each ability code to better identify them. :D

Here are the updates I made to each of the abilities based on what I got from this thread so far.

Basic
{B-1} At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
{B-2} When you are dealt Combat ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3).
{B-3} You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) to your Strength or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.

Wanderer of the North
{W-1} At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
{W-2} When you are dealt Combat ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3).
{W-3} You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) ([] +2) ([] +3) to your Strength, Melee or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.
{W-4} [] You may move to another location at the end of your turn.
{W-5} [] During your exploration and you encounter a card with the obstacle ([] or trap) trait, you may recharge a card to add 1d6 to your roll to defeat it.
{W-6} [] You gain “Survival: Constitution + ([] 2) + the number of buried cards under your character.”

Executioner

{E-1} At the start of your turn, you may recharge 4 (or [] 3) cards from your hand to shuffle one random card from your discard pile into your deck.
{E-2} When you are dealt Comb9at ([] or any) damage, you may recharge a card to reduce the damage by 2 ([] 3)([] 4).
{E-3} You may bury a card to add 1d12 ([] +1) ([] +2) ([] +3) to your Strength or Constitution check; If you fail, you may discard it instead.
{E-4} [] You may discard an ally ([] or item) to draw a weapon card from your discard pile.
{E-5} [] If you fail a combat check by 4 or less, you may discard a card to re-roll one of your lowest die, take the re-roll’s result.
{E-6} [] If you have three or more cards buried under your character add may add 1d8 to your check when using a weapon to defeat a henchman or a villain.

To further expound on the reasoning of each ability and it's flavour I will to explain the powers.

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{B-1}{W-1}{E-1}
The idea here is the Barbarian decides to temporarily ditch "crutches of civilization" and go on "Unburdened". He heals himself through asceticism (making himself pure), but at the same time he loses any form of offence or extra exploration. So only gets to explore once during that turn.

This also allows the Barb to rehash his hand in case he doesn't have good cards.

This power is designed to be useful only during the early turns (2nd to 3rd turn) as late turns would make him useless in the only thing he is good at (fighting).

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{B-2}{W-2}{E-2} {B-3}{W-3}{E-3}
Are copied directly from the Ostog character from the Barbarian Character Deck (I really like the abilities).

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{W-4}
The purpose of this ability is to hand his/her teammate gear (specifically weapons) before journeying to another location. I modified the ability from it's original text since when I reviewed the rules, the original text of the power will not work for my intended purpose so I simplified it.

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{W-5}
The original idea is that the barbarian is a veteran nomad and his travels have provided him with vast experience when dealing with barriers he may encounter (like traps and obstacles). The original idea was he gains a bonus die (1d6)+(number of buried cards) in defeating traps and obstacles, but a buddy of mine pointed out that this maybe too strong as he basically supersedes the Rogue when it comes to opening traps and locked areas. So I relented and made it to only obstacles, which is redundant for him since some obstacles can be beaten by Strength and Constitution, and one of the requirements is to discard a card (painful for Barbs). The third iteration had me thinking maybe he can just "avoid" the obstacles (and I re-added all barrier types), since as a veteran nomad, he would be able to sense that it's a trap/obstacle and find another path instead of taking it head-on. That is the version you see on the first post. This next version now just handles obstacles, and made the payment a re-charge but now the die is just a simple 1d6 and only for obstacles so it wouldn't be too OP for the character.

But now, looking at it, I went back to the first idea. :S
I'm confused on how to deal with this ability, IMHO.

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{W-6}
This power is to just add flavor to the "Veteran Nomad" character by giving him survival bonus that takes both a strong skill for the Barb + the number of buried cards (to add a build mechanic to the character).

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{E-4}
A flavor power just to re-enforce his "killer" persona by ensuring he can retrieve a discarded a weapon by sacrificing other cards.

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{E-5}
The power was added to even re-enforce his "killer" persona by mimicking the power of some of the weapons available (like glaive) and allowing him a re-roll in case he misses the check by 4 or less. This was toned down from the original "6 or less" range. Interestingly, this makes the Barbarian dislike getting help from the Ranger and Fighter since all they add is an additional 1d4. The barb will try to play high dice for attack rolls to maximize this ability.

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{E-6}
When I started designing this Barbarian I often thought of making buried cards matter to the build. I often find myself using that ability only on the latter turns, especially when going for the kill. This {B-3}{E-3} could be so much more if I added a mechanic that would have the player try to bury as many cards as possible for the Barbarian. Hence the design of this power.

Originally it made the player discard the buried cards and had the player add 2d10 to a roll. The Barbarian now needs to rebuild the number of buried stacks to try to reuse them again, but I felt discarding made it too OP since a healer teammate can have the cards reshuffled back to the deck, there's no "finality" with the decision to bury the card. I tried adding a "Use only once per scenario" but I felt it's too much of a cop-out. Banishing the buried card feels as though it has too much "finality", it does require the player to have a better strategy when setting up the stacks, but if so, the bonus should stay at 2d10... but.... 2d10 regardless of the requirement to get there is still too OP. So I made a decision to drop the bonus to 1d8 and have you able to trigger it only when you have three or more stacks plus the fact that it is only for Henchmen and Villains and only when using a weapon, which now I feel made it a (more for me at least) a fairer power and goes with the flavor of the character.

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What do you guys think?