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gamjuven
11-17-2011, 02:20 PM
Hi there again. I decided to make another custom faction. This time I went with a closer matter to heart:wolves. I have loved the Underworld series and various other series that deal with wolves and werewolves. I wanted to make a custom faction around these lupine predators. But, like all things I create, I wanted it to be a kind of new take on the world and the creatures.

These Forest Lycans, asI have created, are NOT werewolves. That is a huge change from your typical Lycan/wolf thing. They are giant bipedal wolves like one's favorite werewolves, but they are not former humans. They weren't humans, they never will be humans, they are a species unto themselves. The way I picture these guys are 7-8 ft tall muscular wolves with various colored pelts and vicious fangs.

The theme behind these guys are forest hunters. Like real life wolves they hunt in packs. I tried to get that theme across especially in the event: Hidden among the trees. This event allows you to put some wolves in position, and keep them there when you're ready to strike with a concentrated effort.

In terms of weapons and imagery I pictured them mainly using claws and fangs, and then some of them using primitive weapons such as stone spears or gauntlets. In either case the important thing is that these wolves are one with nature. They worship nature and try to keep it as natural as it can be. They are not evil, but they do not take kindly to the more "progressive" factions that burn down the forests. Saying that they are tree huggers however will just get you eaten.

The wolves' main thing is the moon. I kept that from werewolf lore. Although this time the moon doesn't change them or anything, it's just the deity the wolves worship. In each pack of wolves the females are the druids/ religious leaders, while the males are used for war. The females have the closest relationship to the moon and are thus almost worshipped themselves. For this faction the summoner is the Packmother, Aysun. She is an ancient wolf that sired a great many wolf cubs, and is the oldest and most wise packmother in all the packs in Itharia. Her pelt is silver like the moon she worships and studies, and the wolves of her pack will do anything to protect her. She isn't much of a fighter and so calls upon her general, Blackmane, to lead the pack in war.

I hope this faction feels like a summoner war faction. I think they would fit nicely into the game and I would love to see/play something similar or see them released some day. Some of the abilities are ones that we have seen, others are tweaked, but most are made up by myself. I hope they work. I also hope you enjoyed reading this and like the faction. Let me know what you think and what improvements I could make on them!

Forest Lycans

Summoner

Packmother Aysun
Bow Symbol
Attack: 1
Life: 5
Sacred – Enemy Units cannot attack Packmother Aysun if she is adjacent to a Forest Lycan Unit you control.

Shadowfang – Champion
Bow Symbol
Cost: 6
Attack: 3
Life: 5
Loner – Add 1 to Shadowfang’s attack value if he is not adjacent to any Units.

Vargulf – Champion
Sword Symbol
Cost: 5
Attack: 2
Life: 5
Savage – When attacking, for each die result of 6+, you may roll an additional attack die. There is no limit to the amount of dice that you can roll.

Blackmane – Champion
Sword Symbol
Cost: 7
Attack: 2
Life: 7
Pack Hunter Leadership – All Forest Lycan Units that you control that attack a Unit adjacent to Blackmane roll 1 additional die when attacking. Pack Hunter Leadership does not affect Blackmane.

Predator – Common
Sword Symbol
Cost: 2
Attack: 1
Life: 3
Bloodlust – Add 1 to this Unit’s attack value if it attacks a Unit with at least 1 wound marker on its card.

Hunter – Common
Sword Symbol
Cost: 2
Attack: 2
Life: 2
Swift – When moving this Hunter during you Movement Phase, you may move it up to 1 additional space.

Tracker – Common
Bow Symbol
Cost: 1
Attack: 1
Life: 2
Elusive – Once per turn, when an enemy Unit attacks this Unit, you may force your opponent to reroll all attack dice. You must accept the rerolled dice.

Events

Hidden Among the Trees (2 copies in deck) – Instead of playing this card during your Event Phase, you may play this card at the start of an opponent’s Attack Phase on a Common or Champion Forest Lycan Unit you control. The chosen Unit cannot move, attack, use special abilities, or be attacked while this card is on top of it. At any time, you may discard this card from off the chosen Unit or your opponent may pay 2 magic to discard this card from off the chosen Unit. If the chosen Unit is destroyed, discard this card.

Blessing of the Moon (1 copy in deck) – Until the start of your next turn, whenever a Forest Lycan Unit you control would receive one or more wound markers from an attack, roll a die. On a result of 4+, ignore those wounds.

Howl of the Wolves (1 copy in deck) – Until the start of your next turn, all Forest Lycan Units that you control have the special ability: Fear. Fear- Each time a Common enemy Unit moves adjacent to this Unit, roll a die. On a result of 5 or higher, discard the moved card.

Pounce (3) – Choose a Forest Lycan Unit that you control. Instead of moving normally with the chosen Unit, you may move it up to 4 spaces in a straight line. When pouncing, the chosen Unit must end its move on an unoccupied space.

Blind Fury (2) – Choose a Forest Lycan Unit you control. Until the start of your next turn the chosen Unit must reroll all miss results when attacking. You must accept the results of the reroll.

joepinion
11-17-2011, 02:35 PM
Wow, very cool. Feels like a throwback faction to me. Back in the PE/GD/TO days. I like it.

One thing I would point out is that the Predator seems underpriced. To me that sounds like a 3-coster. Compare Elephants, which are a very similar unit:
http://www.plaidhatgames.com/images/sw/cards/JE_Elephant.gif

Mookinizer
11-17-2011, 03:13 PM
Dude, this faction sounds really cool! Your description of the units abilities, as well as the event cards, sounds very original. If Colby uses your idea, I am totally getting your faction. This is what the JE should have been replaced by, in my opinion.

thenightsshadow
11-17-2011, 04:01 PM
This is definitely a good custom faction.

A few comments.


Vargulf – Champion
Sword Symbol
Cost: 5
Attack: 2
Life: 5
Savage – When attacking, for each die result of 6+, you may roll and additional attack die. There is no limit to the amount of dice that you can roll.

Sweet, you taught me how to fix Power Claw.


Predator – Common
Sword Symbol
Cost: 2
Attack: 2
Life: 3
Bloodlust – Add 1 to this Unit’s attack value if it attacks a Unit with at least 1 wound marker on its card.

Definitely underpriced. If you want it to cost 2, I'd change its Attack Value to 1, but as is, it probably should cost 3.


Packmother Aysun
Bow Symbol
Attack: 1
Life: 5
Sacred – Enemy Units cannot attack Packmother Aysun if she is adjacent to a Forest Lycan Unit you control.

Very nice. Even when abused, it's still easy to get around it. I'd have to do more playtesting on this faction, with your permission, but I don't think it's a broken ability.


Blackmane – Champion
Sword Symbol
Cost: 7
Attack: 2
Life: 7
Pack Hunter Leadership – All Forest Lycan Units that you control that attack a Unit adjacent to Blackmane roll 1 additional die when attacking. Pack Hunter Leadership does not affect Blackmane.

I applaud your sense of balance. The Unit has to be adjacent to Blackmane to get the 1 additional die. Very nice.

gamjuven
11-17-2011, 04:16 PM
Thanks everyone. Yeah you're probably right with the predator. I do want to keep his cost however so I'll just decrease his attack by 1.

Go right ahead and playtest if you'd like. I made this faction so that people could play with different factions without the need to create them themselves. Since I'm a playtester I have a smidgen of an idea of how to make balanced units/factions. But I'd love it if people try out the factions.

I am currently thinking of ways to make a vermin faction, like where Khan Queso is from.

thenightsshadow
11-17-2011, 04:19 PM
Do you mind if you PM me your e-mail? I'll have something for you tomorrow.

gamjuven
11-17-2011, 04:34 PM
Do you mind if you PM me your e-mail? I'll have something for you tomorrow.

Sent.

Most of the time I listen to my mother's warnings from childhood about giving out emails to strange....that's not true, there was no email when I was that young. I guess as long as you don't invite me into your unmarked van everything should be fine.

thenightsshadow
11-17-2011, 05:45 PM
It's just going to be a spreadsheet of every single custom faction that it will be tested against, just for your benefit.

prometheuslkr
11-18-2011, 11:25 AM
Dude, this faction sounds really cool! Your description of the units abilities, as well as the event cards, sounds very original. If Colby uses your idea, I am totally getting your faction. This is what the JE should have been replaced by, in my opinion.

Custom factions will never/once in a blue moon be used as official factions, plus we've already gotten all 16 factions. If you see a custom faction you like, just print it out, or write the units on index cards or something.

thenightsshadow
11-19-2011, 12:41 AM
Forest Lycan vs. Wild Krackits

I figured letting them have a turn since they didn't exactly get a lot of playtesting before my move.

Thoughts on the game:
- Blind Fury doesn't do what you think it does. It's basically Spirit of the Phoenix. After one use of it, I changed it to:
Choose a Forest Lycan Unit you control. Until the start of your next turn the chosen Unit must reroll all miss results when attacking. You must accept the rerolled dice.

That last sentence is necessary to prevent the infinite combo.

- Packmother Aysun flanking Shadowfang makes it interesting when facing a faction that can't manipulate your movement. Sure, he doesn't get the boost, but if you need it, you can double-team.

- Trackers are what I expected, Hunters are annoying, and Predators didn't get a chance to shine. Well, that is what happens when you face a faction where their highest LP value is 2.

- If it wasn't for the Wild Krackits' Summoner ability, they would have lost a lot faster. Survivalist made him a lot more dense to attack than not.

- Hidden amongst the Trees is really good and powerful, but not broken. The only thing I'd have to say is that it needs a shorter name. I don't think it'd fit on a card. On the same vein, I wanted to badly to change Blackmane's ability name to Packleader, as that is a lot shorter and still fits...sorta.

- Leap is a devastating card if you don't play around it, and if you do, it's free magic. Still, I need at least for it to face a non-gimmick faction to tell if it's really as broken as what was experienced.

- Vargulf was easily beating stuff left and right, but one Giant Bee sting and he died to poison. Same thing with Blackmane, except he was killed by friendly fire before succumbing to the poison. I'm starting to think Giant Bee is too good. Probably should only work on commons. Yeah.

- Overall, great job with the faction, I got to try out most everything once in the two-game thumping of the Wild Krackits. Their next opponent: Vagabonds, probably.

Clarissimus
11-21-2011, 10:05 PM
Blind Fury doesn't do what you think it does. It's basically Spirit of the Phoenix.

For most units, yes. But don't forget the whole "miss result vs. cause wounds" thing for certain abilities like Tough/Stone Melding and cards like Goblin Invincibility.

thenightsshadow
11-22-2011, 04:50 AM
That's not the point. Blind Fury gives an effective SotP to ALL of his Units. Do you realize how ridiculous that is?

gamjuven
11-22-2011, 03:13 PM
That's not the point. Blind Fury gives an effective SotP to ALL of his Units. Do you realize how ridiculous that is?

Ah, I see the problem. Right. Try this:

Blind Fury (2) – Choose a Forest Lycan Unit you control. Until the start of your next turn the chosen Unit must reroll all miss results when attacking. You must accept the results of the reroll.

thenightsshadow
11-22-2011, 04:07 PM
Okay, done. Updated on the spreadsheet.

I'll be doing the set of 3 games vs. the Vagabonds (check the spreadsheet) on Friday.

thenightsshadow
11-25-2011, 03:12 PM
Vagabonds vs. Forest Lycan

I chose this matchup based on the fact that both factions have an event that gives Fear to every Unit they control. However, while the Forest Lycan have a faction similar to the Mountain Vargath, and the Vagabonds have a faction similar to the Cloaks, their playstyles are very different.

(As a sidenote, Vagabonds won the matchup, 2-1.)

The Forest Lycan's Leap doesn't do much against a row of Fear, which means their explosive offense is hard to use when Fear is active. The Packmother had a lot of use, being beside a Hidden Blackmane, which in turn was placed in a location that summoning a Unit put them right next to Blackmane. This happened twice, though the second time the weakness was taken advantage of.

That's not to say that the matchup wasn't even. Hannah's Explosives made bunching up together a bad thing, Keith forced the Lycans to group together, and in one explosive turn, Legion was used to discard Keith and bring back three Units, one of which was moved normally, two of which was moved with Infiltrate, then Gerald had them attack while Hannah killed off two of the commons and Blackmane.

On both sides, there were cards that were less than optimal. For the Lycans, Leap was restricted, and thanks to the other side's efficient magic, Hidden Amongst the Trees wasn't as strong as it could have been. On the other hand, Vandals were pretty much fodder due to their ability being a weaker Ranger's, with the same stat line, and while Cooperation is usually helpful, the Summoner and the Event Teamwork weren't that useful against this faction.

All in all, after the few problematic things were fixed, this was a good match. I still think Keith's Presence is pretty powerful and hard to defeat, but if there's a faction that can do it without nullifying it, it's the Forest Lycans.

(Before the battle began, I got a tip from an anonymous source that basically said to restrict Adrenaline to commons. Good thing, too. It would have been hell if that was allowed to Summoners (originally), or Summoners and Champions.)

Next battle:

Friday, December 2, 2011

Forest Lycans vs. The Slime Family.

I'll be putting up The Slime Family faction soon. I love slimes~