Pretender concept: Messianic Figurehead

[llamabeast]

Are woodsman archers small?

[JimMorrison]

I'm kind of concerned that size (2), 14 HP, and starting dominion of 1 will render him absolutely untouchable. For some reason I had been imagining something..... A little more heroic.

Would be hilarious if he summoned Flagellents, to go with his inability to provide a bless.

[Poopsi]

I was thinking on defaulting him with Awe and supplies, but left that for after the test run.

So... more HP would be in order? I sort of wanted to keep him out of the absolute SC (as in, by themselves, and straight out of the box, like the Wyrm)group...

Maybe a drastic increase in marksmanship would be in order too. After all, this is supposed to be some kind of champion...

[JimMorrison]

With 14 HP no one would ever want to commit him to melee (maybe a recruited thug, but not your pretender!).

With 120 path cost, no one would ever use him as a caster.

Taking a pretender whose only benefit would ever be hanging out in the back of the army, providing a Morale boost for the archers - is never going to happen.


It just seems to me, that as the type of hero you are describing, and being that he lacks the ability to provide a good bless or any magical diversity - he HAS to be an amazing combatant, in some way. So he's going to need at least 30 HP base, and Awe would be an excellent choice as well. Recuperation could help, as well as a small regen, so he can really wade in, and as long as he survives, he will ultimately be fine.

You can easily engineer him in a way that lowly troops are no match for him, but that it isn't too easy to make him a solo army destroyer.

[Poopsi]

hm, true. Besides, he sorely needs some sort of reinvirgoration to cope with the huge encumbrance of the armor...
Code:

---

 

#newmonster 2906

#name "Prophesied Warrior"

#copyspr 65

#descr "The Prophesied Warrior has been heralded as the one foretold to save the nation from certain destruction. He is a mighty warrior, profficient at ranging undetected through enemy territory, knows the healing herbs of the land, and a charismatic battle commander. When he rises his banner, the small people of the realm will flock to him. However, his magical abilities are rather limited, relying on his companions to do his spellcasting"

#mapmove 2

#ap 14

#hp 30

#size 2

#prot 0

#str 15

#enc 2

#att 14

#def 14

#prec 15

#mr 18

#gcost 0

#rcost 1

#pathcost 120

#startdom 1

#weapon 266

#weapon 258

#armor "Full Plate Mail"

#armor "Full Helmet"

#forestsurvival

#mountainsurvival

#wastesurvival

#stealthy 10

#startage 22

#maxage 200

#older 6

#healer 5

#awe 2

#reinvirgoration 8

#standard 20

#makemonster5 126

#superiorleader

#itemslots 64646

#nametype 100

#eyes 2

#end

 

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[SlipperyJim]

Using #summon or #domsummon instead of #makemonsters would cause the troops to flock to him automatically. I don't think I'd spend a turn of "Pretender Time" to summon five puny Woodsmen unless I was really desperate....

[Poopsi]

hm, thing is, I hate domsummons. What if I changed it from poxy archers to some sort of heavy cavalry? (as in his household knights)

[JimMorrison]

I'd think it would be pretty cool if it were freespawning light infantry of some kind. You know, random guys with not much going on, who throw themselves at his feet - they're not the best soldiers, but he can't get away from it once it started.

But, if you want it to be something deliberate, I would agree that some nice heavy cav or knights would pretty sweet. Or perhaps some really heavy men-at-arms. Something he could at least make use of in the start of the game by doing Summon Allies for a few turns, and then having a nice little force to clear indies with.

He just needs a draw somewhere - he has to either be good enough at combat, or good enough at magic to justify his existence. Otherwise the only niche he has at all, is as an imprisoned scales god. Giving him a healthy bit of Awe helps, it justifies going Dom10 to get a really high Awe score - but I think if you want him to be taken awake, and not to be very magical, you need to bump the starting dominion to 3 probably. I mean, he is a legend to his own people - he's their Maximus Aurelius, they absolutely love the guy. And with starting dom of 1, it costs wayyyyy too much to get to Dom10, so no one will bother.

[Poopsi]

Hm, you have a point there. In fact, in my play attempts I ended up having to take bad scales to manage a decent dominion (which was not the point)

Besides, it fits ICly. This is no mere upstart lich befuddling the masses, this is the messiah. He ought to get some status due to that

I´m going to try him out with dominion 4, summon knights (aka, monster 21), 2 awe, and 8 reinvirgoration(actually, scratch that, I´m removing reinvirgoration and reducing encumbrance to 0. Which in theory should work the same and scratch armor penalties).

[Poopsi]

k, I revamped him. Now he´s a knight as well, and not stealthy. He can summon five heavy cavalry by turn, and can heal afflictions (thus avoiding moving around an army of cripples). He has also high hp, good combat stats, and a nice awe aura. I expect him to perform well in the early game. I hope he´s not too overpowered. (Then again, despite the early normal troops advantage, the magic handicap will likely mean that everyone will have the good summons before you do...)
Trying it now..

Code:

---

#newmonster 2906

#name "Warrior of Prophecy"

#copyspr 377

#descr "The Prophesied Warrior has been heralded as the one foretold to save the nation from certain destruction. He is a 



mighty warrior, versed in the arts of healing, and has proven to be a charismatic battle commander. Knights will flock to him 



when he raises his banner. However, his magical abilities are rather limited, relying on his companions to do his 



spellcasting"

#mapmove 3

#ap 20

#hp 40

#size 3

#prot 0

#str 18

#enc 0

#att 18

#def 18

#prec 14

#mr 16

#gcost 0

#rcost 1

#pathcost 120

#startdom 4

#ambidextrous 3

#mounted

#weapon 4

#weapon 56

#weapon 8

#armor "Full Plate Mail"

#armor "Full Helmet"

#armor "Kite Shield"

#forestsurvival

#mountainsurvival

#wastesurvival

#startage 22

#maxage 200

#older 6

#healer 5

#heal

#awe 2

#standard 20

#makemonster5 21

#superiorleader

#itemslots 64646

#nametype 100

#eyes 2

#end  

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