5. HQ25 - Spells, tiles, mechanics and misc

[knightkrawler]

That Fimir Hag with the swamp spells could be a recurring character in other subplots, too.
Granny Oneeye Mudcone goes on business with the Capo Bitchlord or some such story.

Or a different character has learned some swamp spells or or or.
These 6 spells could recur here and there independent from NPC spellcaster.

[Schmidt]

[Reveal] Spoiler: swamp spell image

image.jpg

That's perfect!

[Reveal] Spoiler: done on my ipad

image.jpg

I like that little piece of wood in the foreground that looks like a hand coming out of the water.

[MrBigB]

Best I could do on my phone from work. (Why are we hiding these?)

[Reveal] Spoiler:

[Schmidt]

Or we could ask this guy to do our artwork
http://youtu.be/0eNP-tNOFAM
(Don't get too hungry if you watch his m&m's drawing)

[Gold Bearer]

Acid Spray
Green vapours fly from the casters finger tips to envelope a target in sight with a corrosive acidic slush. The target rolls a combat dice, on a skull they take one body point of damage and on a black shield they take one body point of damage and any non magical armour they may be wearing (not a shield or helmet) is discarded.

Bog Plague
This spell may be cast on any one Hero, causing him to immediately begin oozing pus and slime from his eyes, nose, and mouth, making the Hero unable to attack or defend himself. The spell can be broken by the Hero on a future turn by rolling one red die for each of his Mind Points. If a 6 is rolled, the spell is broken.

Cloud Of Flies
The room or corridor occupied by the caster fills with thousands of tiny biting flies until the beginning of the casters next turn causing any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based occupants to attack and defend with one less dice than normal. The effects of Cloud Of Flies, Pestilence and Nurgles Rot are not cumulative.

Creeping Snare
Can be cast on any square in casters line of sight causing deadly vines to ensnare any character to occupy that square. An ensnared target cannot move and attacks and defends with one combat dice until freed. The vines have 4 body points but don't defend. An ensnared target or any directly adjacent allies can attack the vines. Once cast, the spell remains in play until the vines are destroyed and will ensnare any creature other than undead or fimir who end their turn on that square.

Disease
A non undead/Nurgle/swamp based target in sight is infected with putrid swamp diseases and rolls a combat dice immediately and at the start of each of their turns. On a black shield the target suffers one body point of damage and on a white shield the spell wears off. Any character killed by Swamp Disease becomes a swamp zombie and can't be resurrected by an elixir of life. Swamp Disease can be cured by drinking holy water, which is then discarded.

Fever
This spell will inflict a terrible fever upon a player. He rolls one less defense die against all attacks. The victim may try to recover by rolling a defense die at the start of each of his turns. If he rolls a shield he returns to normal.

Insect Swarm
A swarm of flesh eating insects attack a non undead/Nurgle/swamp based target in sight with three combat dice. The target ignores any defence improvements for armour (a monster rolls one less defence dice than normal).

Noxious Spores
This spell causes wild hallucinations upon the victim. Unable to distinguish between reality and the effects of the spores the victim is forced to re-roll any successful combat dice within that room or passageway.

Pestilence
Can be cast on any target (friend or foe) in sight surrounding them with foul pestilent fumes and causing any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to them to attack and defend with one less combat dice than normal. The target rolls a standard dice at the start of each of their turns and if they roll under their current mind points the spell wears off. The effects of Cloud Of Flies, Pestilence and Nurgles Rot are not cumulative.

Putrifaction
Causes a foul rotting of the flesh, inflicting D3 (roll a standard dice and halve the number shown rounding up) skulls worth of possible damage on a directly adjacent non undead/Nurgle/swamp based target. The target defends with the same number of combat dice as their current mind points.

Slough
This spell may be cast on any one hero. The square that hero is currently occupying suddenly turns into a slough slowly pulling the hero under. He must try to climb out of the slough according to the Slough trap rules.

Summon Fogwalkers
The caster summons the foul semi-preserved corpses of those who have fallen in the bogs of his homeland. Place three fogwalkers anywhere within sight of the caster. Fogwalkers are putrid undead swamp zombies that carry deadly diseases. Any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based character wounded by a fogwalker rolls one combat dice (regardless of how many wounds they suffer). On the roll of a skull they suffer an additional body point of damage. On the roll of a black shield they suffer an additional body point of damage and are infected with a cocktail of foul diseases and roll a combat dice at the start of each of their turns. On a black shield they suffer one body point of damage and on a white shield the diseases are fought off. Any character killed by Swamp Disease becomes a fogwalker and can't be resurrected by an elixir of life. Swamp Disease can be cured by drinking holy water, which is then discarded. They act as ordinary monsters under the control of the caster starting from this turn and have the following stats.
Movement: 4. Attack: 2. Defend: 3. Body Points: 3. Mind Points: 0.

Summon Marsh Skeletons
The caster summons the remains of the unfortunate victims of Swamp Disease from the distant past. Place five marsh skeletons anywhere within sight of the caster. Marsh skeletons are the long dead remains of fogwalkers whose soggy puss filled infections have finally striped their bodies of any remaining flesh. Their bones drip with weed and slime but they are no longer carriers of the foul and hideous diseases that plague their more recently deceased undead brethren, but they can still be dangerous in large numbers. Marsh skeletons can attack diagonally. They act as ordinary monsters under the control of the caster starting from this turn and have the following stats.
Movement: 4. Attack: 2. Defend: 2. Body Points: 2. Mind Points: 0.

Toxic Cloud
The caster conjures a stinking cloud of toxic gasses. Place the toxic cloud tile so that at least one square of it is in the casters line of sight. Any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based character that starts their turn in a toxic cloud rolls a combat dice. On a skull they miss their turn due to coughing and choking on the foul vapours and on a black shield they miss their turn and suffer one body point of damage. The cloud lasts for as long as the caster is alive.

Will-'O-Whisp
Gaseous balls of energy float around, sparking maliciously. The caster may use this spell on themselves or another friendly player. Whilst in play the effects allow the player 1 extra defence dice and to re-roll 1 failed defence dice once per turn. As soon as a wound is taken by that player the spell is broken.


I suggest we change fever from this:

Fever
This spell will inflict a terrible fever upon a player. He rolls one less defense die against all attacks. The victim may try to recover by rolling a defense die at the start of each of his turns. If he rolls a shield he returns to normal.

To this:

Fever
This spell will inflict a terrible fever upon a target in sight. They roll one less defence dice, one less attack dice and move at half their standard rate or rolled score (rounding up). Any any non undead/Nurgle/swamp based characters who start their turn adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) to character with the fever rolls a combat dice. On a skull they are affected by the symptoms of the fever for the duration of this turn and on a black shield they are fully infected with it. A character with the fever rolls a combat dice at the start of their turn. If they roll a white shield the fever is fought off and if they roll a black shield they suffer one mind point of damage. The effects of Cloud Of Flies, Pestilence and Nurgles Rot are not cumulative with each other but are cumulative with Fever.

For a start it's not okay to make the players ill. Any spell effects should be restricted to only targeting the heroes and their followers, not the players themselves in my opinion. I also like the idea of it spreading. It means the target can actually make use of it.

That's a nice spell set. Now please let's not ruin it by pulling it apart. I think we should also select fifteen chaos spells we want to use. They're going to have to be listed as well anyway because they're US only.

[gootchute]

Five Quests of the planned 25 Quests is allotted to spells featuring Swamp Spells. It would be unprecedented and in my opinion crowded for all of these Quests to contain a spellcaster. WoM, the EQP, and the BQP are all limited to a total of six spells in a single set.

For the same reason, I would also suggest abandoning the Swamp Spell card back in favor of simply using the Chaos Spell card back.

I agree 100%, and said as much in my previous post. As I said, I will use whatever spells are chosen for the the pack for any quests I make.

[Gold Bearer]

Or we could ask this guy to do our artwork
http://youtu.be/0eNP-tNOFAM
(Don't get too hungry if you watch his m&m's drawing)

Did you ask him? If not I'll might send him a message.

Five Quests of the planned 25 Quests is allotted to spells featuring Swamp Spells. It would be unprecedented and in my opinion crowded for all of these Quests to contain a spellcaster. WoM, the EQP, and the BQP are all limited to a total of six spells in a single set.

For the same reason, I would also suggest abandoning the Swamp Spell card back in favor of simply using the Chaos Spell card back.

I agree 100%, and said as much in my previous post. As I said, I will use whatever spells are chosen for the the pack for any quests I make.

Okay if you want to use WoM as a precedent then we're going to need six unique spells for every magician we include.

Why would every quest will need a magician? The four chaos arc quests will because a wizard based chapter but the others don't need to. Fimirs don't only have to be in the swamp chapter, there can be some with greenskins and nurgle chaos sorcerers can go pretty much anywhere.

Traps

Slough
This trap is a concealed natural occurrence and can be found by searching for traps, but can never be disarmed. A slough trap may be jumped like a pit trap. If a Hero steps onto a square containing a slough trap before it is found, he triggers it and ends his move immediately. A Hero occupying the same square as a slough trap, has to try to climb out of the slough. At every turn, he rolls a number of combat dice equal to his current Body points, but no less than two. If at least one white shield is rolled, he successfully climbs out of the slough onto an unoccupied adjacent square and may move and take an action again during his next turn. If at least one black shield is rolled, he loses 1 Body point. After the roll, the Hero's turn is immediately ended. A hero may also immediately climb out of the slough by discarding any one earth or water spell.

Acid Spray
When an Acid Spray trap is triggered the victim is sprayed with a strong corrosive green goo. The player rolls a combat dice, on a skull they take one body point of damage and on a black shield they take one body point of damage and any non magical armour they may be wearing (not a shield or helmet) is discarded.

Creeping Snare
When a Creeping Snare trap is triggered the victim is ensnared with deadly vines. An ensnared character cannot move and attacks and defends with one combat dice until freed. The vines have 4 body points but don't defend. An ensnared target or any directly adjacent allies can attack the vines.

Noxious Spores
When a Noxious Spores trap is triggered the victim is unable to distinguish between reality and the effects of the spores and is forced to re-roll any successful combat dice within that room or passageway.

And Cloud Of Flies and Insect Swarm could be used as parts of the environment in certain places.


Edit: Also the WoM spells were four seperate decks of six, not one of twentyfour. There's no reason to merge the fully themed swamp spells into the chaos spells, especially now that we have a very cool image to use for the card backs.

[Schmidt]

I haven't asked him. It looks like he can draw anything he sees to an almost photorealistic standard, but I don't know how creative he is if he had to make something up.

[MrBigB]

For an outdoor swamp quest a tile like this could help "set the mood":

Muck (1x6)
Putrid muck that slows progress. Upon entering the muck any remaining movement is reduced by half (rounded down) for Hero's and monsters alike. Hero's beginning their turn in muck roll 1 movement die. Monsters beginning their turn in the muck get half their allotted movement (rounded down). Kobolds & Goblins are immune.

[gootchute]

Okay if you want to use WoM as a precedent then we're going to need six unique spells for every magician we include.

Why would every quest will need a magician? The four chaos arc quests will because a wizard based chapter but the others don't need to. Fimirs don't only have to be in the swamp chapter, there can be some with greenskins and nurgle chaos sorcerers can go pretty much anywhere.

OK I concede. WoM is a special case b/c the whole story IS the wizards, I should not have quoted that part.

I think writing the spells before the quests is putting the cart in front of the horse. We don't yet know how many spell casting monsters there will be, and how strong the spells should be due to quest difficulty. Since this is a quest system replacement the heroes will not be all that powerful so dumping 12 deadly spells on them might be overkill, or it might not. This depends on how much treasure and artifacts we allow them.

For this reason, I will focus on quest design, and come back here to pluck my favorite spells of the suggested ones as needed.

That ends my main point of this comment, the following is a bit ranting and charged with personal opinion. Don't take offense.

With 12 swamp spells I don't see them all being used in the Fimir Chapter of 4-5 quests, especially if the quests are so early in the pack, the difficulty would be insane, although as you say we can use them elsewhere. Hence my insistence on using the standard Chaos Spell card back, more versatility. What if other chapter authors don't want Swamp themed monsters? WoM is different BC they are 4 unique wizards with their own spell set, these are spells any chaos wizard could use in this quest pack, or future homebrews. Whether we make 6, 9, 12 or 24 they should not have different backs. As with all things I type here, this is all my personal opinions though.

(Pauses to read story thread)

After looking at the possibility of a Cultist themed chapter in the story thread, I could see us getting carried away and making 6 swamp spells (which double as nurgle spells), 6 tzeentch spells, 6 slaneesh spells, and 6 chaos dwarf spells! (khorne hates spells) Whether they have different backs or not, is another discussion. Overkill I say. The Chaos Wizards and Chaos Dwarves can use existing spells and swamp spells.