So I've got the start for an Icecrown Citadel adventure. I was getting a bit of help with it from @Teknician, but he went inactive a few weeks ago... so I figured I'd ask for some help from HearthPwn as a whole :)
The adventure will possibly introduce a new mechanic of mine; I might also save it for a full expansion. Depends on whether it feels necessary to add it now. Here's the mechanic, Call to Action.
I kinda ran out of space to really explain it there, so I'll go into a little more detail: on your opponent's turn, something can trigger a Call to Action from your hand (not from the board). If you have X unspent Mana Crystals, then it removes X of your unspent Mana Crystals and does something which will be described on the card.
Think of it as Secrets, but (a) you pay for them when they trigger and (b) your opponent doesn't see them coming.
It's a very powerful mechanic and I'd be using it carefully. There would not be a lot of powerful Call to Action cards, they'd primarily have minor effects.
Now, here are my class cards. I'm open to changing or completely scrapping any of them; tell me what you think, please!
I'm still thinking about the bosses, and that'll probably be a separate post. I want to make the player cards before the bosses :)
the class cards should have a relation to the adventure, and I'm not a world of Warcraft lore expert, so I don't know about this icecrown citadel, but I hope that the wings or bosses should be correlated towards the card rewards. And does power word fortitude act similar to maximum health increasing effects such as Power Word Shield and Temple Enforcer? And I think Prayer is slightly broken.
The mechanic could be explained better. As it is now I barely understand how it works. If you could add cards that use the mechanic as examples that could help a lot, which none of your class cards do by the way. If you wanted to promote a new mechanic, make it available to the classes. Maybe not all of them but at least some of them. I would also suggest posting the cards you made into this thread instead of linking to an imgur album. It makes the post look more appealing.
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CDC #34, #3.07, #3.08 and Mini Competition #1 Finalist --- Click on the images below to check out my different custom card threads!
Power Word: Fortitude works like other maximum Health buffs, although it can only target your hero.
Prayer isn't broken IMO, since (a) "friendly character" prevents Auchenai combo and (b) if you look at Holy Light and Healing Touch 5 mana should be a pretty huge heal; and Priest is supposedly the most healing-oriented class.
TBH I probably won't use Call to Action in this adventure. It's a mechanic that would probably be best introduced in a full expansion.
I wanted to post the cards into the thread, but I didn't have a ton of time when I was writing that post so I didn't. Now, though, I have plenty of time :)
I also have a message thread with @Teknician in which I talked a ton about every single one of the cards. So I'll just copy-paste that :D
Here are the class cards and my thoughts on them:
Druidic Insight: A new side to Druid I thought it might be nice to add. This is effectively the Scry effect from MtG, although a bit different. It could be nice for either seeing what's coming next or hoping for a better selection of cards. I'm not sure about the mana cost.
Druid of the Talon: A solid 4-mana 3/6 with Spell Damage, and also an added effect that can help either to deal damage or protect the Druid (see alternate form below.
Storm Crow: Not a collectible card. It can only appear if the Druid of the Talon morphs. It's basically a 1-mana higher Thrallmar Farseer with +1 Attack andStealth. The main point of the Storm Crow form is to protect the Druid; you morph into Storm Crow at the end of your turn, then next turn you hit for 6 and morph back to spell damage mode.
Ashen Defender: An improvement to the somewhat lacking Taunt Warrior build. Not only is it a solid 2/6 taunt for 4 mana, it also synergizes very well with other Taunts. I'm basically giving Taunt Warrior a really good card because it needs one.
Frigid War Axe: The brother to Fiery War Axe! Warrior undeniably has the best weapons of any class, so I felt like I could safely make a better version of Stormforged Axe. Not only is it a 2/3 weapon for 2 mana, which is incredible, but it also has the Freeze-on-attack effect! This would probably replace at least one Fiery War Axe in warrior decks.
Rapid Fire: You might be sensing a pattern, which is that I'm making cards to enhance existing play styles that are fun and have potential but lack the cards to be competitive. This one is a buff to both Lock and Load Hunter and Control Hunter. I felt fairly safe making this card for Hunter, because unlike some classes like Mage, Druid and Rogue, hunter has very few high-cost spells. The most value you could really get from this is double Explosive Shot, which is fine in my opinion.
Frostfang Beast: I'm less than thrilled with this name. It used to be Frostfang Wolf, but then there weren't any white wolves in the art folder... anyway. This is a pretty crazy minion, it's effectively 4/4 for 3, but it's extremely vulnerable to any sort of AOE and it's fairly easy to clean up. Hunter kind of lacks a 3-mana Beast for the most part (unless you count things like Silverback Patriarch,Ironfur Grizzly and Jungle Panther), so I gave it a solid 3-drop. Beastmaster Hunter could be a thing!
Frostfang Pup: It's basically just a Wisp that's also a Beast. Note that like all summoned minions this can only be acquired through Frostfang Beast.
Mark for Death: Blizzard clearly wants Control Rogue to be a thing, but they clearly also don't understand in any way how Rogue works. Mark for Death is crazy good, possibly bordering on OP. I compared it to Hunter's Mark while I was making it, since I think they serve similar purposes. The difference is that Rogue has a ton of great removal spells like Backstab and Eviscerate while Hunter's removal isn't quite as powerful.
Slice and Dice: Adventure cards have to significantly affect the meta. I'm fairly certain this would. It might be enough to make the heavily-nerfed Miracle Rogue viable again, because so many rogue spells cost only 1 or 2 mana. It's not good to play on curve, of course, much like Lock and Load. It's a finisher.
Power Word: Fortitude: Oh, Priest. I gave Priest some pretty great cards in Icecrown, both of which I'm sure would work tremendously well in Control Priest. This is the first. The problem with the Priest hero power is that it's like the Warrior's but when nothing is damaged it's useless. Power Word: Fortitude doesn't change that, but it gives Priest an equivalent to Armor Up. Having 40 health is a pretty significant advantage.
Prayer: Priest is a healing class, at heart, but it has shockingly few heal spells. The main reason for that is our friend Auchenai Soulpriest. But Prayer easily gets around that by limiting targets to friendly characters. This card is, hands-down, the single most powerful healing card in the game. It's better than Tree of Life, because it doesn't heal your opponent; it's better than Flash Heal, because while it's less value it's three times more healing.
Argent Warleader: This one was tough to balance. I ultimately decided to give it decent stats, because I generally dislike cards with strong Battlecries and low stats. To be honest it's part of why I didn't entirely love your Auchindoun Vindicator. (That was related to @Teknician's Trials of Auchindoun Solo Adventure, which by the way I encourage you to check out). Anyway, this card is great - it gives you a free round of trading without worrying about losing your minions, and it's got decent stats as well.
Hand of Sacrifice: This was the most obvious card to add in the entire adventure. Firstly, it fits the theme of Icecrown Citadel perfectly. Secondly, it's a part of Paladin we haven't seen yet in Hearthstone. Hand of Sacrifice allows you to trade your giant into your opponent's giant without losing your giant; but at the cost of 8 health. It's a great card, but it can hurt you a lot. I'm considering making it until the start of your turn rather than the end, so if you cast it on a minion your opponent can abuse that and Shield Slam you to death.
Dalaran Spellmaster: It's like Ancient Mage but better! I'm really not sure how good this minion is, but if you have 3 minions and you play this then you've got a 9-damage Fireball so I think it's pretty decent.
Frost Armor: Mage's version of Explosive Trap, sort of. It's a Frost Nova waiting to trigger, so in exchange for lacking control of when it occurs you also deal 1 damage to your enemies. Note: the Freeze effect WILL stop the enemy who attacked from dealing damage.
Lightning Whirl: Because Shaman needed more RNG and overload! I'm not really sure about this card, but I thought up the idea and it was too good not to put on a card. It's good when you're behind, I guess?
Unstable Totem: This little guy is interesting. He could be a 0-3 or a 3-3, it's all dependent on luck. The average here is 1.5, and a 1.5-3 minion is pretty good, so I think it's a decent card.
Vicious Darkfiend: Fist of Jaraxxus has a nice concept, but in practice it's not very good. This card takes that idea and puts it on a decent body. 6/3 stats aren't very great, but when you're getting it for free and simultaneously canceling what's supposed to be a downside to a spell, it's quite nice.
Dark Offering: For when you have a bad hand and you want to get something better. It's a pretty nice card, but of course it wouldn't be useful unless you had a bad hand.
What do you think of the cards?
Edit: For my response to "Frostfang Beast", I just realized Animal Companion is a 3-mana Beast in a sense. But still, it's basically a Living Roots and a 2/2 for 3, which is good.
Well, when I said to add the cards to the thread, I meant the original post, but okay.
I really feel like the Frigid War Axe is infringing on Mage territory with the freezing ability. What do Warriors want with freeze anyway, when they already have so many options for controlling the board.
I also feel that Power Word: Fortitude is just generally broken. Increasing your hero's health by 10 permanently for only 3 mana, when Healing Touch only restores 8? Even compared to Shield Block that's a bit much.
About Frigid War Axe - I see your point. I meant the Freeze effect to only be part of a generally very solid weapon that could either replace or go with Fiery War Axe in a lot of decks. I'd want to keep the 2-mana 2/3 weapon part, but I'd probably have to change the name...
And for Power Word: Fortitude, yeah, that's fair. Maybe I can (a) change it to "Set your hero's maximum Health to 45" so it can't stack and (b) make it cost 5 or 6?
I think Power Word: Fortitude could be 3 mana, but maybe it could set the maximum health to 45 without restoring any health, as the wording is different from minion health buffs (giving a character +X health as opposed setting it's maximum health to X). Also, Frigid War Axe seems way too good, as 2/3 is a better Attack/Durability distribution than 3/2 in general (which is why Stormforged Axe has Overload), and it has a plus side (no matter how much Warrior needs some good Arena commons).
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So I've got the start for an Icecrown Citadel adventure. I was getting a bit of help with it from @Teknician, but he went inactive a few weeks ago... so I figured I'd ask for some help from HearthPwn as a whole :)
The adventure will possibly introduce a new mechanic of mine; I might also save it for a full expansion. Depends on whether it feels necessary to add it now. Here's the mechanic, Call to Action.
I kinda ran out of space to really explain it there, so I'll go into a little more detail: on your opponent's turn, something can trigger a Call to Action from your hand (not from the board). If you have X unspent Mana Crystals, then it removes X of your unspent Mana Crystals and does something which will be described on the card.
Think of it as Secrets, but (a) you pay for them when they trigger and (b) your opponent doesn't see them coming.
It's a very powerful mechanic and I'd be using it carefully. There would not be a lot of powerful Call to Action cards, they'd primarily have minor effects.
Now, here are my class cards. I'm open to changing or completely scrapping any of them; tell me what you think, please!
I'm still thinking about the bosses, and that'll probably be a separate post. I want to make the player cards before the bosses :)
So. Thoughts?
Working on my Icecrown Citadel custom adventure! Advice is always appreciated :)
WIP Classes: Demon Hunter, Death Knight
Check out my Workbench to see some of my cards!
the class cards should have a relation to the adventure, and I'm not a world of Warcraft lore expert, so I don't know about this icecrown citadel, but I hope that the wings or bosses should be correlated towards the card rewards. And does power word fortitude act similar to maximum health increasing effects such as Power Word Shield and Temple Enforcer? And I think Prayer is slightly broken.
I bring life and BLAHHHHHH
The mechanic could be explained better. As it is now I barely understand how it works. If you could add cards that use the mechanic as examples that could help a lot, which none of your class cards do by the way. If you wanted to promote a new mechanic, make it available to the classes. Maybe not all of them but at least some of them. I would also suggest posting the cards you made into this thread instead of linking to an imgur album. It makes the post look more appealing.
CDC #34, #3.07, #3.08 and Mini Competition #1 Finalist ---
Click on the images below to check out my different custom card threads!
I have several questions about the trigger and priorities... But I'll wait until I see some cards.
Okay, so --
Power Word: Fortitude works like other maximum Health buffs, although it can only target your hero.
Prayer isn't broken IMO, since (a) "friendly character" prevents Auchenai combo and (b) if you look at Holy Light and Healing Touch 5 mana should be a pretty huge heal; and Priest is supposedly the most healing-oriented class.
TBH I probably won't use Call to Action in this adventure. It's a mechanic that would probably be best introduced in a full expansion.
I wanted to post the cards into the thread, but I didn't have a ton of time when I was writing that post so I didn't. Now, though, I have plenty of time :)
I also have a message thread with @Teknician in which I talked a ton about every single one of the cards. So I'll just copy-paste that :D
Here are the class cards and my thoughts on them:
Druidic Insight: A new side to Druid I thought it might be nice to add. This is effectively the Scry effect from MtG, although a bit different. It could be nice for either seeing what's coming next or hoping for a better selection of cards. I'm not sure about the mana cost.
Druid of the Talon: A solid 4-mana 3/6 with Spell Damage, and also an added effect that can help either to deal damage or protect the Druid (see alternate form below.
Storm Crow: Not a collectible card. It can only appear if the Druid of the Talon morphs. It's basically a 1-mana higher Thrallmar Farseer with +1 Attack andStealth. The main point of the Storm Crow form is to protect the Druid; you morph into Storm Crow at the end of your turn, then next turn you hit for 6 and morph back to spell damage mode.
Ashen Defender: An improvement to the somewhat lacking Taunt Warrior build. Not only is it a solid 2/6 taunt for 4 mana, it also synergizes very well with other Taunts. I'm basically giving Taunt Warrior a really good card because it needs one.
Frigid War Axe: The brother to Fiery War Axe! Warrior undeniably has the best weapons of any class, so I felt like I could safely make a better version of Stormforged Axe. Not only is it a 2/3 weapon for 2 mana, which is incredible, but it also has the Freeze-on-attack effect! This would probably replace at least one Fiery War Axe in warrior decks.
Rapid Fire: You might be sensing a pattern, which is that I'm making cards to enhance existing play styles that are fun and have potential but lack the cards to be competitive. This one is a buff to both Lock and Load Hunter and Control Hunter. I felt fairly safe making this card for Hunter, because unlike some classes like Mage, Druid and Rogue, hunter has very few high-cost spells. The most value you could really get from this is double Explosive Shot, which is fine in my opinion.
Frostfang Beast: I'm less than thrilled with this name. It used to be Frostfang Wolf, but then there weren't any white wolves in the art folder... anyway. This is a pretty crazy minion, it's effectively 4/4 for 3, but it's extremely vulnerable to any sort of AOE and it's fairly easy to clean up. Hunter kind of lacks a 3-mana Beast for the most part (unless you count things like Silverback Patriarch,Ironfur Grizzly and Jungle Panther), so I gave it a solid 3-drop. Beastmaster Hunter could be a thing!
Frostfang Pup: It's basically just a Wisp that's also a Beast. Note that like all summoned minions this can only be acquired through Frostfang Beast.
Mark for Death: Blizzard clearly wants Control Rogue to be a thing, but they clearly also don't understand in any way how Rogue works. Mark for Death is crazy good, possibly bordering on OP. I compared it to Hunter's Mark while I was making it, since I think they serve similar purposes. The difference is that Rogue has a ton of great removal spells like Backstab and Eviscerate while Hunter's removal isn't quite as powerful.
Slice and Dice: Adventure cards have to significantly affect the meta. I'm fairly certain this would. It might be enough to make the heavily-nerfed Miracle Rogue viable again, because so many rogue spells cost only 1 or 2 mana. It's not good to play on curve, of course, much like Lock and Load. It's a finisher.
Power Word: Fortitude: Oh, Priest. I gave Priest some pretty great cards in Icecrown, both of which I'm sure would work tremendously well in Control Priest. This is the first. The problem with the Priest hero power is that it's like the Warrior's but when nothing is damaged it's useless. Power Word: Fortitude doesn't change that, but it gives Priest an equivalent to Armor Up. Having 40 health is a pretty significant advantage.
Prayer: Priest is a healing class, at heart, but it has shockingly few heal spells. The main reason for that is our friend Auchenai Soulpriest. But Prayer easily gets around that by limiting targets to friendly characters. This card is, hands-down, the single most powerful healing card in the game. It's better than Tree of Life, because it doesn't heal your opponent; it's better than Flash Heal, because while it's less value it's three times more healing.
Argent Warleader: This one was tough to balance. I ultimately decided to give it decent stats, because I generally dislike cards with strong Battlecries and low stats.
To be honest it's part of why I didn't entirely love your Auchindoun Vindicator.(That was related to @Teknician's Trials of Auchindoun Solo Adventure, which by the way I encourage you to check out). Anyway, this card is great - it gives you a free round of trading without worrying about losing your minions, and it's got decent stats as well.Hand of Sacrifice: This was the most obvious card to add in the entire adventure. Firstly, it fits the theme of Icecrown Citadel perfectly. Secondly, it's a part of Paladin we haven't seen yet in Hearthstone. Hand of Sacrifice allows you to trade your giant into your opponent's giant without losing your giant; but at the cost of 8 health. It's a great card, but it can hurt you a lot. I'm considering making it until the start of your turn rather than the end, so if you cast it on a minion your opponent can abuse that and Shield Slam you to death.
Dalaran Spellmaster: It's like Ancient Mage but better! I'm really not sure how good this minion is, but if you have 3 minions and you play this then you've got a 9-damage Fireball so I think it's pretty decent.
Frost Armor: Mage's version of Explosive Trap, sort of. It's a Frost Nova waiting to trigger, so in exchange for lacking control of when it occurs you also deal 1 damage to your enemies. Note: the Freeze effect WILL stop the enemy who attacked from dealing damage.
Lightning Whirl: Because Shaman needed more RNG and overload! I'm not really sure about this card, but I thought up the idea and it was too good not to put on a card. It's good when you're behind, I guess?
Unstable Totem: This little guy is interesting. He could be a 0-3 or a 3-3, it's all dependent on luck. The average here is 1.5, and a 1.5-3 minion is pretty good, so I think it's a decent card.
Vicious Darkfiend: Fist of Jaraxxus has a nice concept, but in practice it's not very good. This card takes that idea and puts it on a decent body. 6/3 stats aren't very great, but when you're getting it for free and simultaneously canceling what's supposed to be a downside to a spell, it's quite nice.
Dark Offering: For when you have a bad hand and you want to get something better. It's a pretty nice card, but of course it wouldn't be useful unless you had a bad hand.
What do you think of the cards?
Edit: For my response to "Frostfang Beast", I just realized Animal Companion is a 3-mana Beast in a sense. But still, it's basically a Living Roots and a 2/2 for 3, which is good.
Working on my Icecrown Citadel custom adventure! Advice is always appreciated :)
WIP Classes: Demon Hunter, Death Knight
Check out my Workbench to see some of my cards!
Well, when I said to add the cards to the thread, I meant the original post, but okay.
I really feel like the Frigid War Axe is infringing on Mage territory with the freezing ability. What do Warriors want with freeze anyway, when they already have so many options for controlling the board.
I also feel that Power Word: Fortitude is just generally broken. Increasing your hero's health by 10 permanently for only 3 mana, when Healing Touch only restores 8? Even compared to Shield Block that's a bit much.
CDC #34, #3.07, #3.08 and Mini Competition #1 Finalist ---
Click on the images below to check out my different custom card threads!
About Frigid War Axe - I see your point. I meant the Freeze effect to only be part of a generally very solid weapon that could either replace or go with Fiery War Axe in a lot of decks. I'd want to keep the 2-mana 2/3 weapon part, but I'd probably have to change the name...
And for Power Word: Fortitude, yeah, that's fair. Maybe I can (a) change it to "Set your hero's maximum Health to 45" so it can't stack and (b) make it cost 5 or 6?
Thank you for the response :)
Working on my Icecrown Citadel custom adventure! Advice is always appreciated :)
WIP Classes: Demon Hunter, Death Knight
Check out my Workbench to see some of my cards!
I think Power Word: Fortitude could be 3 mana, but maybe it could set the maximum health to 45 without restoring any health, as the wording is different from minion health buffs (giving a character +X health as opposed setting it's maximum health to X). Also, Frigid War Axe seems way too good, as 2/3 is a better Attack/Durability distribution than 3/2 in general (which is why Stormforged Axe has Overload), and it has a plus side (no matter how much Warrior needs some good Arena commons).