3. HQ25 - Choose your monsters + stats

[Gold Bearer]

Gold Bearer and I have been hashing out ideas for the cultists' chapter in its own thread (to save space in the big thread), which you can find here.
Currently we are operating under the assumption that Cultists need to be in a group of three or more in the same room or corridor to cast their chaos magic, the specifics of which varies by Quest and is described in sufficient detail in the Quest Notes.
The two of us have many other ideas which are slowly coalescing into playable Quests. Once those are posted, I will be deferring to Sjeng (or whoever has the Mandate of Heaven if it's not him) as far as which concepts stay and which ones go.

Just to add to that:

Tzeench cultists have up to three chaos spells, nurgle cultists have up to three swamp spells, khorne cultists can summon a lesser demon and slannesh cultists raise the stats and heal other slannesh followers and can prevent hero spell casting. They're better and what they do the more of them there are, up to six, and they need at least three in the same room or corridor to do any of it.

This is just for the chaos cultist chapter. In the same way the chaos warrior special rules for each god don't apply to generic chaos warriors outside of the chaos chapter, there could also be generic chaos cultist with the rules you just described. Of course this doesn't prevent people from using the god ruls in their quests if the want to.

Anyone mind if I up the cultists movement to eight? Six seems too slow for completely unarmoured human, and it will be good for the cultists running around the citadel corridors to join up with others so there's enough of them to cast.

viewtopic.php?p=34950#p34950

Cultists have 8 movement, 1 DD, 2 AD, 3 MP, 1BP. and chaos spells. That's what we agreed on.

Oh yea. I missed that. I was using an earlier one.

[Goblin-King]

Reading back I realize we only in part finalized the monsters' stats and abilities.
I'll throw in my take on a final set.
The overall theme I want to put emphasis on is positioning of heroes and monsters.
CD, beastmen, minotaurs and kobolds all benefit from a bit of strategic planning

Chaos Dwarf
M6, A2, D4, BP2, MP3
If two chaos dwarfs stand adjacent to each other they both roll 1 additional defense die.

Beastman
M7, A3, D2, BP2, MP2
If a beastman doesn't move during his turn he may attack the same target twice.

Minotaur
M6, A5, D5, BP3, MP2
If there are no heroes within 3 squares at the beginning of the minotaur's turn he rolls 2 extra combat dice in an attack.

Chaos Cultist
M8, A1, D1, BP1, MP3
At the beginning of each of Morcar's turn, if at least one Chaos Cultist is on the board, draw a single random chaos spell card.
A single Chaos Cultist may cast that spell instead of attacking during that turn.

Kobold
M10, A1, D2, BP1, MP1
A kobold may add 1 additional attack die to it's attack for each kobold adjacent to the model it is attacking.
Slings and spears goes in the quest notes!

Basilisk
M8, A4, D4, BP3, MP2
Instead of attacking normally the Basilisk may make a ranged attack against a model it can "see".
The Basilisk rolls a combat die for each MP. The defending model rolls an amount of defense dice equal to his current MP.
Each undefended skull results in the loss of 1 MP. If a model is reduced to 0 MP by the Basilisk he is turned into stone and considered dead.

(A Potion of Stone may turn him back - IF we include a potion shop with new potions...)


A nice artifact could be the "Shimmering Shield".
Adds +1 defense and +2 MP.
I think it's pretty clever. You want to put it on the barbarian to grant him some protection against magic, but you also want him to carry the battle axe.
decisions, decisions... .

[Gold Bearer]

Yet another option for the basilisk. I don't think they should be able to drain MP though, that's another skill. I'm still happiest with this:

The basilisk may use its Petrifying Gaze against any target it can "see" instead of either moving or instead of attacking. The basilisk and the target roll the same number of combat dice equal as their current mind points. The target defends on black shields and any undefended skulls result in the target becoming petrified and unable to perform any action. A petrified target cannot be harmed and can attempt to free themselves once per turn by rolling under their full mind point value on a red dice. A petrified target blocks Line of Sight but doesn't block movement.

A nice artifact could be the "Shimmering Shield".
Adds +1 defense and +2 MP.
I think it's pretty clever. You want to put it on the barbarian to grant him some protection against magic, but you also want him to carry the battle axe.
decisions, decisions...

The dwarf would proably get it. Another artefact idea would be an enchanted mirror. See how you like it! It would need a rule for basilisks that they have to try to petrify the closest target. They're proper 'monsters' so that should be okay..

[Daedalus]

viewtopic.php?p=34950#p34950

Cultists have 8 movement, 1 DD, 2 AD, 3 MP, 1BP. and chaos spells. That's what we agreed on.

What are they to be armed with? I always pictured cultists as magic wanna-bes with daggers or maybe staves, restricted like a Wizard. Problem is, using NA rules, that is only good for 1 AD. Shortswords, hand axes, and spears feel too martial. Going with an EU staff could work, but that overshadows the Wizard's Staff as a useful NA artifact.

Is the solution to say Cultists simply attack with 2 AD, and damn the appearances? I don't prefer it, but the rules cover that much and it can work. What I would prefer is to boost their spellcasting to compensate, and stick them with just 1 AD and maybe 2 DD (a Cultist is bigger than a Goblin, so it takes a bit more to take one down). Their thematic purpose is magic offense in numbers--why not play that up and have them biased to strike with their dark gods' power?

So how do we deal with chaos spells for cultists?
It's just like the basilisk, they kinda need to have a specific rule that always applies to them.
Top of my head:

At the beginning of each of Morcar's turn, if at least one Chaos Cultist is on the board, draw a single random chaos spell card.
A single Chaos Cultist may cast that spell instead of attacking during that turn.

Some brainstorms:

• Cast Mind Lock, Dominate, and Mind Blast like AtOH. Mind Points used for attack are a single Cultist's 3 MP plus 1 for each additional Cultist not attacking in the room or corridor. Tokens are 1 per Cultist, used as a pool. Maybe allow a group to split into smaller groups (up to a single Cultist) for purposes of using these abilities. I've never played AtOH, so I'm not sure how smooth these powers work out. This could be too much for the Barbarian, as even a single Cultist could mess with him. Then again, wimps that are dangerous for brutes is cool--revenge of the nerds!
• I like GK's random casting idea--very thematic. Optionally modify the draw by restricting certain spells in the Notes section. This could keep the results of a combat restrained, so as to not overly upset certain Quests.
• I wouldn't want all Cultists on the board to determine casting. Rather, I'd go with line of sight which directly pertains to spellcasting.
• Use GK's random casting, but allow more than one Cultist to cast in a room or corridor in one turn. Any Cultist may attempt to cast rather than attack. To do so, he rolls 3 combat dice (equal to his Mind Point score). If he rolls a black shield, he may draw a random Chaos Spell Card and cast the spell immediately. With GK's rule and 4 Cultists, you'd get 1 spell cast and 3 attacks. With this method you'd likely get 2 spells cast with no attacks, possibly get GK's same result, or get some other combination chosen and rolled by the Morcar/Zargon player.

.

[knightkrawler]

I say "YAY!" to all these stats as compiled by Goblin-king with the exception that cultists should have 2 DD.

[Goblin-King]

I say "YAY!" to all these stats as compiled by Goblin-king with the exception that cultists should have 2 DD.

I could go for that. Makes sense for their mechanic. They are basically living spells to be extinguished before they get to cast. So having a little better defense plays well into their theme.

They are not meant to do any real physical damage. Besides worshiping Chaos they are just normal humans.
I could go for giving them daggers/1 attack die as well.
They are not meant to be fighters. Rather, they run away and pop back in to cast their spell.

I like GK's random casting idea--very thematic. Optionally modify the draw by restricting certain spells in the Notes section. This could keep the results of a combat restrained, so as to not overly upset certain Quests.

That is certainly a possibility- though if I played against cultists, I'd be damn sure to make them a high priority target.

I wouldn't want all Cultists on the board to determine casting. Rather, I'd go with line of sight which directly pertains to spellcasting.

I'm not sure if I follow you here. Either there are one close enough to actually cast a spell, or they are all too far away and it doesn't matter.
They are not getting more or stronger spells because there are a lot on the table. No matter the amount they get ONE spell for ONE of them to cast..

[Gold Bearer]

Oh you two are really having a freakin' laugh now! Is this a joke? It freakin' better be!

[Goblin-King]

No, not really?

* I realized the monsters weren't finalized - as in, we discussed some stats and abilities, but never really agreed on anything final.
* I post a possible list using mostly Sjeng's stats - which if I recall correctly he just picked from the ones posted most.
* knightkrawler, Daedalus and yourself comment on the list.
* knightkrawler, Daedalus make some compelling arguments for stat changes.

What are they to be armed with? I always pictured cultists as magic wanna-bes with daggers

and maybe 2 DD (a Cultist is bigger than a Goblin, so it takes a bit more to take one down)

* I agree with the changes and even suggest how the monsters could be used in a game.
* We wait and see how everybody else feels about this list.

Everything seems to be in order here.

[knightkrawler]

Oh you two are really having a freakin' laugh now! Is this a joke? It freakin' better be!

And here I sit having promised to fraggle off. Now it's a joke.
by the way, Goblin-king and me:

[Gold Bearer]

No, not really?

* I realized the monsters weren't finalized - as in, we discussed some stats and abilities, but never really agreed on anything final.
* I post a possible list using mostly Sjeng's stats - which if I recall correctly he just picked from the ones posted most.
* knightkrawler, Daedalus and yourself comment on the list.
* knightkrawler, Daedalus make some compelling arguments for stat changes.

What are they to be armed with? I always pictured cultists as magic wanna-bes with daggers

and maybe 2 DD (a Cultist is bigger than a Goblin, so it takes a bit more to take one down)

* I agree with the changes and even suggest how the monsters could be used in a game.
* We wait and see how everybody else feels about this list.

Everything seems to be in order here.

How thick do you think I am? I can see exactly what you're doing. That's very sneaky and underhanded. It suits you. Do you even know how be anything else?