New Artifact - Powder of Sympathy

[GimmeYerGold]

I know a few people here share my opinion that the Dust of Disappearance is a duplicate/semi-useless item, so I wanted to repurpose the art for another Artifact magic powder.

I looked up "magic powder" on wikipedia and found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_of_sympathy

The artifact works like the potion of alchemy, but for permanently turning a weapon into a variable-strength one time use healing item.

I imagine it being used in a last-ditch effort to save yourself, at the cost of a weapon. Since it's an artifact, it's limited use, so more likely to be saved for an emergency with a more valuable higher strength weapon, (not on a dagger for a single Body Point of healing) and the powder helps curb power creep by also exhausting a weapon.

[Count Mohawk]

Hey, that's a novel concept! A touch more contrived than the described effect of the stuff as per Wikipedia, but still well within the bounds of suspension of disbelief. I had never heard of powder of sympathy before, of course, bu new alchemical recipes are always welcome at the Inn. this is because i am always looking for new ways to make an "alchemist" hero differ from a "wizard" hero

I suspect the powder's usefulness will be a function of how expensive weapons are in the system you use. If the weapons are cheap while potions are expensive, finding this powder is a real boon. Whereas if potions are cheap but weaponry is expensive, the powder is much less efficient. Of course, it's hard to turn down free stuff in a game like Hero Quest, but I'd make sure that it cannot itself be sold, just in case, lest the Hero known as the Free Market Capitalist take advantage of your generosity to generate a more potent remedy for an equivalent amount of gold.

[Anderas]

Downloaded and saved for later use! Great stuff, thanks a lot!

[Showdown35]

Cool idea! Trading a weapon for some emergency healing... I like it!

I really like the self-scaling effect. The more advanced the Heroes are, the better weapons they have, the more likely they are to need bigger emergency bursts of HP. Since it is self-scaling like that, and it helps give Heroes an outlet to spend excess gold, I'd think you would want to encourage it's use. I'd say it should be a pretty frequent drop (well, frequent for an artifact), kind of like magical throwing dagger frequency?

[GimmeYerGold]

Cool idea! Trading a weapon for some emergency healing... I like it!

I really like the self-scaling effect. The more advanced the Heroes are, the better weapons they have, the more likely they are to need bigger emergency bursts of HP. Since it is self-scaling like that, and it helps give Heroes an outlet to spend excess gold, I'd think you would want to encourage it's use. I'd say it should be a pretty frequent drop (well, frequent for an artifact), kind of like magical throwing dagger frequency?

Thanks Showdown35! I have added one magical throwing dagger to the treasure deck (a deck of 42 - 50 cards) Also included is a potion of alchemy that makes any equipment useless, but worth 100 gold coins. My only hesitation to add the powder would be to see my heroes exploit it in the same way they use the potion of alchemy--instead of it being used on a higher-tier item, they purchase a dagger, use the potion on it, and get a net gain of 75 gold coins! Pretty smart I suppose!

If they used the powder in a similar fashion, they'd get a chance to snag a 25 gold coin 1 Body Point healing item, albeit, it would require them waiting until between quests to exploit its use in that fashion if they didn't have a dagger on hand, and they'd only net 1 Body Point healing--the "going rate" for 1 Body Point of recovery is about 100 gold coins--I have a potion that recovers one point Body/Mind for sale for 100 gold coins, so after the 25 gold coin/1 Body Point dagger exploit, the powder is about on scale with that going rate: 2 Body Points = 175-200 gold coins, 2 attack dice axe or shortsword; 3 Body Points = 300 gold coins, 3 attack dice Broadsword; 4 Body Points = 475 gold coins, 4 attack dice battle axe.

All in all, it might not be too terrible to toss into the treasure deck. I've come to enjoy seeing how my heroes find clever solutions to problems, and a 1 one in 42 or 50 chance of finding the powder still keeps it pretty rare!

[Anderas]

Definitely it is not overpowered for example compared to finding a potion of healing in the treasure deck.

I like it especially because it adds a new mechanic to the game that wasn't there before.

[GimmeYerGold]

Definitely it is not overpowered for example compared to finding a potion of healing in the treasure deck.

I like it especially because it adds a new mechanic to the game that wasn't there before.

Cool! Thanks for the second opinion Anderas.

I added a portion in the card to allow for it to be used on armor as well, for the sake of versatility, and heroes always like to have choices. Still equals to about the same gold coin/Body Point "conversion rate" of using it on a weapon:

[Showdown35]

Putting it in the Treasure Deck is a fantastic idea! It is well suited there I think.

[mitchiemasha]

What about shields and helmets... they're +1. Would these only count as 1BP?

[GimmeYerGold]

What about shields and helmets... they're +1. Would these only count as 1BP?

Yes. It would be more cost effective to use a dagger or shorts word but the option is there for armor if you're in a desperate pinch! Especially if Some heroes would rather sacrifice defend die instead of attack dice.