Undead Diviner

[Soshi]

Character Sheet

While this is a full character that I hope is interesting to play (and was enjoyable in the few scenarios I've gotten to test him), I'm especially interested in feedback on how I've handled the "undead" gimmick (as well as the attempt to make him a strongly noncombat character).
I am aware there are a number of unusual things on the character card; I'd welcome feedback on those as well, but don't assume I don't know that they're unusual.

Explanation of the cohort: I had him with 1 blessing slot, but decided it better fit the fantasy of the character to have him draw power from him own will instead of a god's, and gave him a unique super-blessing cohort to fit this.

Also, I'd appreciate people's opinions on which role card they'd likely take.

[Doppelschwert]

I'm not sure what you expect here. Without spending a single feat, the character has

- superior starting handsize of 7
- passive regeneration
- the alchemist signature ability to recharge alchemical items
- a means to evade, move and explore again
- free massive bonus against summoned monsters
- skill advancement in constitution tied to charisma
- skill dice that add up to 44 instead of 42

For spending a single feat you can get

- scouting
- deck manipulation

On top, you have a cohort that lets you once either
- explore indefinitely until you screw up
- auto succeed at everything but the villain

The only downsides are
- no healing
- cards for combat checks are single use

This looks very powergamey to me.

- Even if you discount the disadvantageous powers, you still have much more starting powers than any other character in the game, many which are reserved for roles or need additional feats invested.

- The skills are higher than usual, con being tied to charisma making every skill feat count twice.

- The cohort itself is way too broken and stronger than many of the cards from AD6, both the exploration as well as the auto success. In case you are not aware, you can freely give the cohort to someone else to use it, so anyone can rip through any location deck.

All in all, the character is much stronger than most of the support characters, which are not supposed to fight against alot of monsters either. If you like powering through the game, thats totally fine, but I am afraid this is a far cry from being balanced. What is your intention here?

[cartmanbeck]

I'll just echo Doppleschwert that this is extremely overpowered. I get that you were trying to balance it with some required negative powers, but you definitely don't go far enough.

Burying every boon used in combat seems like a completely devastating requirement, but you have the option of using Alchemical items, evading, and examining cards with essentially no drawbacks. If you're careful and let your allies do all your "dirty work", you could get through an entire scenario never using a combat check and just acquiring everything, healing up every turn, and buffing your allies.

On top of all that, there's no chance these would ever fit on a character card, which I think we should all strive for.

There is one thing that I disagree with Doppleschwert about... I actually like the Con: Cha +0. BUT I think you should reduce the number of checkboxes accordingly. Normally you'd have 15, I would say a max of 13 checkboxes for an undead character using Cha for Con (and max of 2 boxes on Cha unless he's a Cha-based caster, probably).

I'd go back to the drawing board, if I were you.

[Soshi]

A few clarifications, before I start talking about actually making changes:
1) Alchemical cards used for combat checks are intended to get buried too (banish -> recharge -> bury; you can't go banish -> bury -> recharge because you're no longer replacing a banish); if that's not how the rule works, I can change the templating (though it's possible that the alchemy power is unnecessary overall; I remember having a good reason for it at the time I first made the character but can't remember what that was.)
2) I thought it was normal for cohorts to be far stronger than normal cards - to take Leryn as an example, would a deck 6 card with "Reveal this card and recharge a card to examine the top card of your location deck" be fair (let alone the version with a feat)?

Actual comments on feedback:
I definitely agree that I should most likely remove 2 Cha skill feats to make the effective number 13 instead of 15 and plan to make that change.
Do you think the lack of healing is just irrelevant? I'm very used to a playstyle involving extreme amounts of healing to allow liberal use of blessings, neither of which this character can take advantage of; so for me the drawback is very real. Is there an alternate playstyle I'm failing to notice that makes the drawback irrelevant?
I hadn't considered trading the cohort; that seems very exploitable and I'm thinking about just removing the card at that point since the obvious fixes make it not remotely worth the complexity.

Since you can't shuffle your deck, there is also intended to be a drawback where you just can't hold enough spells to keep evading (because they'll all end up in a recharged pile on the bottom of your deck); is there a reason that's not a concern?
Alternately, is the issue just the ([] or bottom) power feat? I was only able to playtest without feats, so thinking about it now it might need to go.

[Donny Schuijers]

Having 7 Base Powers is too much.

[cartmanbeck]

I agree with Donny, 7 base powers (even if two of them are meant to be negative) is too complicated a character to begin with, and will be impossible to balance against the rest. I suggest dropping the Alchemical power (this is a Wizard, not an Alchemist) and scaling back the overall number of powers. I would also recommend making the cohort something that he can use to heal every so often.

Let me see if I can get you started on simplifying the character a bit:
Male * Necropolitan * Wizard * Undead
Hand Size: 7 ☐8
Proficient with: Light Armor
-After playing a boon for your combat check, bury the boon. You are immune to the Healing trait. Ignore all cards and powers used by another character which would shuffle cards into your deck.
-For your combat check against a summoned monster, you may use your Arcane skill plus (☐ twice) the scenario's adventure deck number.
-Instead of your first exploration on your turn, you may examine the second card from the top of your location deck, then you may encounter that card; (☐ then you may explore your location).
-☐ At the end of your turn, you may recharge a spell from your discard pile or an item from your hand.

Focused Will [Cohort]
C-1) Bury this card to use your Knowledge skill for any check. If the check is a combat check, add 2d12.
C-2) At the end of your turn, you may put this card from your hand anywhere in your deck.

Deck composition:
Favoured type: Spell.
Weapon -
Armor 1 (☐ 2)
Spell 8 (☐ 9 ☐ 10 ☐ 11)
Item 5 (☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8)
Ally 1 (☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4)
Blessing -
Cohort: Focused Will

Stats:
STR d4
DEX d6 ☐ ☐ ☐
CON : CHA + 0
INT d12 ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Arcane: INT + 2
Knowledge: INT + 2
WIS d6 ☐ ☐ ☐
CHA d8 ☐ ☐
Diplomacy: CHA + 2

What this all does is give the character some more explorations per turn (since he has no blessings) without making him a god-in-vampires' clothing.

[Doppelschwert]

I agree with cartmanbeck. As always, he made a very good suggestion for a new starting point.

@cartmanbeck
You suggested giving the cohort the power to heal occasionally, yet I don't see you granting that. Is that on purpose?

Regardless of whether constitution should depend on charisma or not, the skills still sum up to 44 instead of the expected 42. Imho, one dice besides charisma should be knocked down by 2.

[cartmanbeck]

I kinda suggested it and forgot by the time I got that far. Lol

[Soshi]

cartmanbeck wrote:

Let me see if I can get you started on simplifying the character a bit:
[...]

Thank you - a few notes on why things were different and/or questions:

1) "After playing a boon for your combat check, bury the boon.": This said 'card' because I was worried about a cohort weapon or equivalent thing being handed over and used. I think this is necessary?
2) "Ignore all cards and powers used by another character which would shuffle cards into your deck." I specifically said "character cards" to prevent things like base Kyra's cure (which doesn't have the Healing trait) - I didn't want it to be "characters' cards". Do you think it should prevent all healing?
3) I really like the new version that combines a sort of super-evasion with scrying in a clean power, but I'm not sure how I feel about a diviner having no deck manipulation at all on his character card. Is there room for something?
4) You changed the regeneration power to "☐ At the end of your turn, you may recharge a spell from your discard pile or an item from your hand." from "At the end of your turn, you may recharge a spell from your discard pile or (☐ and) an item from your hand." I take it you thought the original version was too strong? (If so, do you think just making it "☐ At the end of your turn, you may recharge a spell from your discard pile and/or an item from your hand." is too strong?)
5) Do you think the cohort as you have it is worth it at all? I might rather scrap it and spend the complexity (and power) points elsewhere...

Thanks for the suggestions, either way - this version definitely looks a lot cleaner.

[Donny Schuijers]

"A new challenger appears!"

1) A cohort weapon does not exist to this point, if I am correct. Problem with the wording of card is that it does indeed not only include boons, but also every support card and banes. This means Ships, Curses and some Monsters for summoners or even barriers for alchemists. Confining it to just boons is a factor on it's own enough.
2) "Ignore all (Cards and) powers" is what you mean, though. A "character card" doesn't imply Healing, but a power (like Kyra's healing power) does imply healing. The wording is different from your, but the meaning and purpose is the same, it's just with the correct wording.
3) A Wizard is NOT a Diviner. You're making a very squishy character who buries his attack possibilies. Giving him a healing power would seem strange. Again: A Wizard is not a diviner. The Recharge option from a discard pile should be enough to be a 'heal'.
4) Changing it to "and/or" is the same thing as "or ([] and)"...
Getting two free recharges with a simple non-role power is kind of strong, yes.
5) Why would you want to scrap it to include complexity somewhere else? A good character is not complex by defintion, but playable. Having a cohort instead of 3 extra base powers is making this Wizard more playable.

Sorry, cartmanbeck, if I assumed anything wrong in my answers.

But, for real, starting with 7 Cards as a Hand Size and also losing every card you play is killing this character. Imagine encountering a Construct. This character wouldn't live to tell the tale. He actually starts with almost half his deck in his starting hand and only loses cards there on out.

I get this is not a combat character, but it should be able to atleast survive two combats..