BUILDING THE ULTIMATE WARRIORS
The goal that I want to accomplish with equipping different gear is to feel like the possibilities are greatly varied and there is no rule or bonuses that would pidgeon hole you into bring specific things and there are two ways I plan on accomplishing this. First is to not give special bonusesby equipping amror pieces like a “set”. Many video games I would play give bonuses based off of how many piece of a set you have equipped and I am coming at that design in a different way, ill explain that below. The second variation I’ve proposed is a drafting system for artifacts. Instead of simply crafting these, which you can still do btw, following a battle you will draw one card of each artifact family, Aura, Blood, and Memories. You then as a group choose one and discard the others. this will force players to think outside of their comfort zones as they need to build around the gear they already possess!
WARRIOR BUILD
In order to a dps powerhouse you will have to set aside the wieght of your gear and basically ignore it altogether. The goal here is grab a large hammer and smash things with it so we will need some nice gear pieces and artifacts to compliment this starting in the top left corner of the player board.
You will need to preserve as much AP as possible so you can reach nearby enemies every turn and smash them, so Wood Loop will give you a little help with this. Since your weight is so high its very likely you will be losing damage from every attack so might as well get some free movement out of it. The same idea goes for Hook Shot which will pull an enemy to you. Red Pill will allow your hammer to target all adjacent players which could be easily pulled off with Hook Shot and good positioning. Cephaloshield has a keyword that give your weapon the ability to gain 1 shield every time you attack, which will help prevent damage as you go headfirst with multiple enemies. Dimensionalscope allows you to be a little more selective when drawing minions for the battle. Choose an enemy that is weak to hammers or close range attacks and you can focus on them first during battle. Globmnir does a potential of 5 damage, 4 from it's regular attack and one from the smash keyword. Smash X - if all your attack dice hit, the enemy suffers X damage. If you are standing in a bosses weakspot you could add on another damage plus maybe a stat boost that was given to you from another player. For a level 1 weapon this could still one shot a minion if the stars align, and that would feel so good in battle! If you find yourself slightly out of reach of the enemy, Perfect Hand can give you that extra distance you are looking for. Stone boots have the Immovable keyword which resists the push keyword by X amount. Zarn’s Helmet Give you a small HP boost and the Lucky keyword which let’s you reroll an attack dice, which in turn will help you activate the Smash keyword. And to top it all off you have the Bubble Shield which with the extra AP you have been saving can resist some incoming damage form any attacks that come your way that round.
WIZARD BUILD
This wizard build leans toward long distance attacks and giving some control over battle stats at hand. Assuming you put some extra stats into your MP instead oh HP, staying keep away its probably for the best. We start with Reflectorb, which last for two oncoming attacks. Encase an enemy does happen to clobber you, you can push some of that damage back on them as well. Buff Switch is a long range healing stick that use super cheap to use. Fireball does decent damage and if a skill check is passed it does even more and scaled with the level mutants you battle! As long as you have MP this is the main way you will deal damage with this character, especially against enemies weak to fire. Horrific Pendant is an excellent way to set your DPS player with great positioning. Just choose the weak spot that matches their color on the side of the boss they are currently located and let them get in there and start smashin’. When a character spends to much AP they will gain Fatigue. If your fatigue maxes out then you will have to skip your turn. Patchwork Pop will reduce Fatigue and keep you or an adjacent player in battle longer. If you find yourself surrounded by enemies and low on HP, you can use Ferazel Wand to whck enemies and steal some HP. Its not a strong weapon but it will help keep you alive, plus it has a lot of slots! Powder Boots have average movement but it’s the slots you are after so as to equip more artifacts. Derelict Hat Give you a MP bonus as well as a power, yet expensive to use ability. You can re-roll any dice, meaning it could be your attack, skill check, block, dodge, or anything that you would have rolled. Heart Satchel gives out more MP bonuses and some HP as well, a nice accessory! Finally you have the Mysterious Cloak, which allows the player to Dodge attacks. Since none of your gear is terirbly heavy you should be dodge quite a few attacks from time to time.
ASSASSIN BUILD
The assasin build I’ve created here focuses heavily on movement and dodging every attack that comes your way. Serpentine is a little bonnus damage encase you take no damage from an attack. Goggley Eyes is very powerful as you can force a minion to skip it’s turn entirely. Shadowy figure not only llows you to move through a minion but also do it for free! Diamond Attachment gives your weapon Pierce 1, which will ignore armor if an enemy has one, and they often times do! The Scout Tent item does really help your assassin in particular but it is a fantastic item. The Campaign sends you on an onslaught of battles with no rest in-between. The tent is your saving grace form this and can increase the chances of success in the next battle. Dew Claw is a very lightweight dagger with the Backstab keyword. Back stab lets you roll 1 additional attack dice if you are behind the enemy. Wormy Anklet weights 0 but offers no slots. This will make it very easy to dodge attack and also get to the back position of enemies. Gadetry Loop give you Advantage which let syou roll 2 dice on a skill check and choose one result. This works well with the serpentine artifact or any events that might befall you. Zarn’s Cape is similar to the Mysterious Cloak but you roll 2 dodge dice instead of 1. And finally the Bandana lets you reroll an attack dice as well as giving you a +1 boost to your max fatigue. This set is super lightweight and you will find yourself blocking virtually every attack that comes your way!
BLOCKING ATTACKS
Being able to block attacks can be a big deal as you move up enemy levels and more dice are thrown at you. Ear Clacking has a very fast timing of 6. So the warrior build I showed will definitely neever be able to block this and the wizard just barely scrapes by. This game isa roguelike experience as you must press on until you either die or are victorious. So using every way you can to not get hit is crucial to survival.
Weapons will get increasinly stronger in attacks, have more slots or even introduce interesting new mechanics. I’ve designed only 20ish weapons so far but they keep getting more creative as I am coming up with new mechanics for the game. Mr. Chop Chop has 2 seperate attacks allowing you to make a second attack if you want to pay the cost. Architeuthisword is a really fun sword. It has Trasform 8 so when an 8 is rolled you flip the card. The backside has a stronger attack and the weight drops to zero, fun stuff!
Everything i’ve shown off today is still in pretty early development so anything is still subject to change, be expanded on or just deleted all together.